A/N: Sorry this update took so long. My muse is still gone so I'm winging it. But I promise to try my best to keep this story moving along. So please enjoy.
Chapter 15
Wheaton's last words stunned the agents. They believed their Unsub would be crazy to try to gain access to a hospitalized federal agent with armed agents guarding him. After exchanging looks with each other, Rossi leaned back in his chair, and folded his arms across his chest.
"Tell us, Darryl, how did you meet this man?" he asked.
"I didn't," Wheaton replied. "He sought me out."
"How did he do that?"
Wheaton sighed and fell back in his chair, hands in his lap. "Jobs were hard to come by despite having a law degree. My wife had died. I was a single parent. Also, there was no family to turn to for help. I had a little money saved to live off of for a while, so I left Alana with her baby sitter, and set out to hopefully find a job. I was willing at that time to accept anything. After an entire day of searching without any luck, I stopped at a fast food place to get something to eat before I went home."
"What happened then?" asked Morgan.
"As I was leaving, I saw a notice on a bulletin board outside about a part-time job as a paralegal. I wrote down the information and called from my cell. The man who answered asked if I could come by his hotel room instead of coming to his office in the morning."
Morgan huffed. "And you didn't find that suspicious?"
Wheaton shrugged. "A little. But when you're desperate you don't think about that."
"So you went," Rossi remarked. "And let me guess. When you got there you realized something was wrong."
"I knocked, and a man's voice told me to come in as the door was open. So I did as I was told. He was in another room and didn't come greet me. He told me to sit down and he'd be right out. So I sat down on the couch and waited."
Morgan shifted his feet and shook his head. "Did this man eventually show himself?"
"Yeah, only he was wearing a rubber mask so I couldn't see his face," Wheaton continued. "I faced him and told him I didn't find his little joke funny. I was royally pissed, figuring this guy was jerking me around and there was no job. I opened the door and started to leave. Then he told me to sit back down and listen to what he had to say. That Alana's life depended on it."
Morgan and Rossi exchanged looks. Their eyes returned to their prisoner.
"And did you?" asked Rossi.
"I love Alana more than life itself. She's my only child. So I sat back down like he told me. He then asked me was I still friends with Aaron. I lied and told him I wasn't. But he knew I was lying, and unless I wanted Alana to pay for my lies, I'd better not do it again."
"So you admitted your friendship with Agent Hotchner?" asked Rossi. Wheaton nodded as he lowered his head.
"What else did he tell you?"
"He told me he had been watching Aaron while your team was in Milwaukee, and he was interested in Aaron. When I asked him what he meant by interested, he only smirked. Said he wanted me to help him kidnap Aaron. I told him to go to hell and refused." A single tear rolled down his cheek from the corner of one eye. "He then handed me a photo."
"What did the photo show?" asked Morgan sitting on the edge of the table.
"It was a photo of my daughter and her babysitter locked in a room. Both wore collars around their necks with chains attached. The other end of both chains was secured to a wall. He told me he took them from my home, and he would not harm them as long as I obeyed."
"Are you certain it was your daughter and her babysitter?"
"I'd recognize Alana anywhere, as well as my sixteen year-old babysitter Deidre."
Morgan folded his arms, but maintained eye contact. "You said he asked you to come to his hotel room. But yet he posted a notice about a job on a bulletin board for anybody to see. You also said he sought you out. How could he do that? He had no way of knowing if you would call about the job or even see the notice he posted."
Wheaton looked at the black agent, eyes showing confusion. "I don't understand."
"He probably rejected whoever else called about that job waiting for you to call," Morgan began. "My guess is he was stalking you, and knew you were in need of a job. This gave him the perfect means with which to lure you into his trap. He already knew you were a friend of Agent Hotchner's and laid out the prefect bait. A job for somebody in need of one."
"Just like a spider laying in wait for the fly to land on his web," Rossi added. "Let's get back to the photo, Darryl. What happened when you saw the photo?"
"I begged him to let them go, but he only laughed and said after I did what he wanted."
Rossi straightened up in his chair and folded his hands on top of the table. His eyebrows knitted together and his eyes narrowed. "And what did he want?"
"He wanted me to drug Aaron with Rohypnol. After he was under its effects, I was to bring him to him. It sickened me to watch him rape and sodomize Aaron, but what he wanted next sickened me even more."
"He wanted you to rape and sodomize Agent Hotchner as well."
Wheaton hung his head. "Yeah," he replied softly. "He never told me why though. But I did it because he threatened to rape and kill Alana if I refused."
Morgan shook his head. "He wanted to make sure you kept your mouth shut." Wheaton looked up at him. "It's called mutually assured destruction. It was a guarantee you wouldn't betray him. If he went down for rape, sodomy, and the murder of a federal agent, he'd make sure you did as well."
"Oh my god," Wheaton groaned burying his head in both hands.
"Why didn't you tell the police or someone what was happening?" asked Morgan.
"I wanted to tell someone. I really did. But I was hesitant to go to the cops 'cause I had no proof. Then I remembered what Aaron did for a living, and decided maybe he could help me. I called him and asked him to meet me at the Serendipity that same night. He said he would."
"What happened once Agent Hotchner agreed to meet with you?"
"I believed he'd help me save Alana and Deidre. But then the man contacted me by phone, and ordered me to his hotel room. Once there, he told me he knew I had contacted Aaron. I have no idea how he found out, and if I had any thoughts of betraying him, he would use Alana to satisfy his needs. He gave me a vial, and again ordered me to make sure Aaron was drugged, and bring him to him. That he would be outside the club waiting. So I did what he ordered."
"Darryl, what hotel did he have you come to when he summoned you?"
"The Columbus. Room 631."
Morgan nodded and slid off the table.
Rossi had sympathy for the man across from him. But regardless, a heinous crime against a federal agent had taken place. "Tell us something, Darryl. This is the first time you told us about your daughter and her babysitter both missing. But earlier you only mentioned only your daughter. What happened to the babysitter?"
"I have no idea," Wheaton replied looking directly at the two agents. "He never told me. One day she was just…gone. I'm afraid he might have killed her." He wiped away a tear before it fell from his eye.
"What makes you say that?" asked Morgan. "During our case in Milwaukee, we never found a teen, much less one who was female."
Wheaton shrugged his shoulders listlessly. "I don't know. It's just that…whenever he threatens me, he only mentions Alana. He never mentions Deidre at all."
"What's Deidre's last name?" asked Morgan pulling out his cell phone.
"Stimson," Wheaton replied. "Deidre Stimson. Why?"
Morgan glanced at Wheaton and then at Rossi. "I'm gonna have Garcia run a check and see if a missing person's report has been filed." Rossi nodded his agreement as Morgan left the interrogation room. The older agent turned his attention back to the man seated across from him.
"So what happens now?" asked Wheaton.
Rossi sighed. "We'll look into your story. If it's true, we will do all we can to rescue Alana and your babysitter. Their kidnapper just might be the Rohypnol rapist. As for you, you'll be going to jail, that's a foregone conclusion. You helped kidnap and assaulted a federal agent. But since you're cooperating with us, I can talk to the district attorney on your behalf."
"I can live with that," Wheaton replied. "I'll accept whatever punishment the courts consider necessary. My only concern is this guy expects me to still help him or he'll rape and kill Alana. I can't let that happen. She's only ten."
"And we won't," Rossi assured him.
Reid and JJ, who had been listening outside the interrogation room, watched as Morgan walked into the hall with his cell phone pressed against his ear.
"You have reached the office of the mighty and powerful, all-knowing Oracle of technological wonder, Penelope Garcia. Speak and be amazed, mere mortal."
Morgan chuckled. "Hey, Pretty Mama, it's Morgan."
Garcia was glad Morgan couldn't see the expression on her face at hearing his smooth, silky, seductive voice. "Yes, my Chocolate Love God with the six-pack abs."
"Hey, hey. Keep your little twisted mind out of the gutter."
"Where you're concerned, Mon ami, never," she said in a sexy voice.
"Garciaaaaa. Stop before I put you over my knee."
Garcia smirked. "You wish. Now, what can I do you for, my Chocolate God of Thunder?"
"I need you to check and see if a missing person's report has ever been filed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on a Deidre Stimson."
"Your wish is my command. How far back?"
"About three months. Start there." Morgan heard furious typing over his cell and patiently waited. He knew his Baby Girl was working as fast as she could. He sighed wearily.
"Bingo," Garcia said.
"Tell me that means you found something?"
"Oh did I, my luscious dreamboat."
"Okay, hold on a minute." Morgan walked back toward JJ and Reid, and pushed a button. "Go ahead, Baby Girl. You're on speaker."
"Okay, as I was about to say, a missing person's report was filed by Karen and Kenneth Stimson while you guys were in Milwaukee. Both parents reported their sixteen-year-old daughter, Deidre, never returned home from babysitting for the ten-year-old daughter of one Darryl Wheaton. They filed the report the following morning when they discovered she hadn't returned home."
JJ crossed her arms over her chest. "Garcia, before the Stimsons filed the report, did they speak with Wheaton first?"
"Yes, my golden haired gumdrop. Wheaton told them he had come home a little before nine p.m., paid Deidre for babysitting, and she left to walk home as she only lived three blocks away from Wheaton. They had no reason not to believe him."
"Garcia, has there been any trace of the girl since the report was filed?" asked Reid brushing a loose strand of hair from his eyes.
"None whatsoever, my junior G-man. Apparently the police considered her a runaway as the year before she ran away twice after arguments with her parents over a boy she was seeing."
"Did they interview the boy?"
"They did. According to the locals, the boy, Michael Dunning, also a student at the same school as Deidre, had an airtight alibi. He was at dinner with his parents and another couple the same night Deidre disappeared."
"Thanks, Baby Girl."
"You're welcome, my Chocolate Love Hunk," Garcia replied before disconnecting the call.
Morgan chuckled and put away his phone. He turned and faced the one-way mirror with the others. He rapped on the window to get Rossi's attention. They all watched the older agent get up from the table and leave the room to join them.
"What did our kitten find out?" Rossi asked Morgan. Morgan repeated what their tech analyst had told them. When Morgan was done, Rossi stuffed his hands in his back jeans pockets and appeared lost in thought.
"What's on your mind, Rossi?" asked Morgan.
"I'm thinking we need to check out that hotel room Wheaton went to when he was ordered by our Unsub," Rossi said. "We might get lucky and find our Unsub there even though I doubt he's still there."
"And if we don't…" Morgan added. "We might have to make a decision whether to use Wheaton to help us catch the Rohypnol rapist before he can get to Hotch again."