Penelope had never worked so fast and furiously before in her life. She needed to figure out what Dr. Malcolm was driving, and quickly. She knew it was the team's best lead at the moment, and she was determined to have something they could use by the time they got back.
As the four agents entered the conference room in Quantico, they were immediately asked to take their seats by Hotch.
"Garcia, what have you been able to find on the SUV Malcolm was spotted in?" Hotch asked, getting straight to the point.
"Well Dr. Arthur Malcolm only has one vehicle registered to his name, but it's a white Honda."
"Ya, we found it at one of his friends' houses while we were checking addresses. It looks like he abandoned it when he moved out. It was in pretty rough shape." Morgan doubted that the old car even worked.
Garcia continued sharing her recently discovered information. "Well when his practice went under, Malcolm had to declare bankruptcy and lost his nice car and house. So that car was probably all he could afford."
"Garcia, can you see if any vehicles of that description have been recently stolen? Also look into vehicle registries for anyone connected with Malcolm. He has to have gotten the vehicle somewhere. If we can find who it's registered to, maybe we'll get an address," JJ hypothesized.
Garcia nodded. "I am on it. I also have Kevin working on this from my office. Now that we have a vehicle description, he's going back over the traffic cameras to see if he can find anything."
Just then, Hotch's phone buzzed. He looked at his watch, and then at his team with a knowing look. The unsub was right on time in sending the newest photograph. He handed his phone over to Garcia, not seeing the need to show his team another heartbreaking image of their missing friend. "Garcia, I want Kevin to join us in here and pick up what you were doing with tracing the photos and videos. Set the rest of us up with laptops and we can go through the traffic images. There's not much more we can do until we find the SUV anyway," Hotch concluded. As much as it pained him to admit it, the profile only got them so far in this case.
A couple of hours later, and the entire team sat silently on laptops in the conference room. Pizza boxes were sitting half open in the middle of the table. Strauss, in an uncharacteristically thoughtful gesture, had noticed that the team hadn't taken any food breaks and took it upon herself to order them. Each team member had a paper plate with a slice in front of them, but most of the slices barely had a bite taken out of them. They were too focused on finding the vehicle that could lead them to Reid to think about eating.
Garcia had long since given up on trying to find a black SUV connected with Dr. Malcolm. There was nothing recently stolen in the area that matched that description either. She now joined Kevin, hoping they could put their heads together to figure out how Malcolm was blocking the signal from the videos.
The rest of the team continued to go through traffic photos. There was an incredible amount to go through, and the quality of some of the images was so bad that it was difficult to be certain of what they were seeing in many of them.
Hotch looked at his watch. It read 2:13p.m. He turned back to his computer screen before his heart sunk with a realization. "You guys. We should have gotten another photo 13 minutes ago. Garcia, check my phone." He hoped that they just hadn't heard it chime. As awful as it was to receive the photos, it was much worse to not receive one. It left them with no idea as to the condition of Reid.
Garcia glanced at the phone that sat beside her computer. "I'm sorry sir, but you haven't received anything since the last photo at noon. And your phone is getting a full signal. What does that mean?" Garcia looked to her friends, hoping that their profiling abilities could offer a scenario where the messages stopping didn't mean something horrible.
"That's… not good," was all Rossi said.
Emily elaborated. "It likely means that Malcolm is too busy to continue to send the photos. It's possible that something unexpected has happened, like Reid making an escape attempt, but that's unlikely given the state we know he is keeping Reid in. It's more likely that he's decided to move on to the next step in his plan."
Morgan thought of another possibility. "Or, he's trying to distress us further by taking away our assurance that Reid is still alive."
JJ concluded the analysis. "The good news, if there is any, is that Dr. Malcolm is intent on making sure we watch Reid suffer. So it's unlikely he will hurt or kill Reid unless he's sent us a video feed for us to watch him do it." That didn't really qualify as 'good news' in JJ's books, but she was trying to reassure Penelope, and also herself. As long as they didn't see otherwise, she had to believe that Spence was still okay.
Silence fell over the room once more, the only sound to be heard was the clicking of keyboards and computer mice.
"I think I found something," Rossi exclaimed. He turned his laptop around to show the rest of the room the photo he had on his display. It was a black SUV driving through an intersection.
"That's only a few blocks from Reid's place, and it's timestamped right after Reid's abduction. Good catch, Rossi. Garcia, can you sharpen the image enough to get a plate number?" Hotch barely needed to ask, as the tech analyst was already working away on it.
The energy in the room had shifted. Excitement could be felt as the team hoped this new lead would direct them somewhere, unlike all their others.
"I think so. Just give me a second…." Garcia manipulated the photo in an effort to extract the information they all needed. "Here, I've got a clean read of the plate. And…. Wait a minute. These aren't even Virginia plates. They're from New Jersey."
"Who are they registered to, Garcia?" Hotch asked.
"They are registered to… Samantha Malcolm." As Garcia said this, the entire room felt like it had deflated. "These are the plates from her old service van. The vehicle is long sold, but Dr. Malcolm must have held on to the plates. Great, another dead end." Penelope let out a frustrated huff.
Hotch knew he had to hold the team together, now more than ever. They couldn't give up. "Not necessarily Garcia. Put out an APB on Malcolm's vehicle. And let law enforcement know to start patrolling the area we've narrowed the search to. If he tries to go anywhere, we will have him. Maybe we'll get lucky and they will find the vehicle in a driveway." Except luck doesn't seem to go Reid's way, not when it comes to situations like this, Hotch thought.
Rossi spoke up. "In the meantime, you should all narrow your focus to the cameras near the one I found. We should be able to trace its journey at least long enough to get a general direction and narrow down our search area. Hotch, you and I should keep working on this geographic profile."
The team all nodded and got back to work. Hope and desperation hung thick in the air as they prayed that another lead would come that would help this time.
Reid had no idea how much time had passed. He had lost count of the number of visits Dr. Malcolm had made to the basement where he was being held. This concerned Reid slightly – he had never lost count of anything before in his life. He hypothesized that the immense amount of stress his mind was under was affecting his ability to process information properly. He hoped that, if his team found him in time, that this wouldn't be a permanent side effect of the torture he had endured. He didn't know what he would do if he was no longer the genius he had been his whole life.
The time that passed between Malcolm's visits seemed endless. Just when Reid started to think that too much time had passed – that Dr. Malcolm must have just left him here to die – the man returned and wordlessly followed the IV and photo routine he had established. The last time had been different though. The IV was changed as normal, but no photo was taken.
Reid wondered why this could be. There were two possibilities, in his opinion. The first was that Dr. Malcolm was getting bored, and was preparing for a new video to stream to the BAU. The second option was that Dr. Malcolm was trying to increase the team's mental anguish by ceasing to send them affirmation that Reid was okay. As much as Reid hated for his team to be left in the dark, he hoped for the latter. Reid's hope of staying alive only lasted until Dr. Malcolm got bored enough with this game to switch it up. Reid was fairly certain that the next time the webcam turned on, he would not be alive when it turned off. Reid was surprised that Dr. Malcolm had the patience to wait this long, but then again he had already waited years for his revenge. What was another few hours? Besides, Reid knew that as a psychiatrist, Dr. Malcolm could surmise just how much torture he was inflicting on Reid just by keeping him immobile and blinded. As long as he continued to get satisfaction from that, Reid had a chance.
Reid heard the telltale footsteps on the stairs that let him know Dr. Malcolm was entering the room. Every time this happened, Reid began to panic. He felt so vulnerable in this state. All he could do was hope that Malcolm wouldn't deviate from the established pattern.
Malcolm changed Reid's IV fluid, and went back up the stairs. Reid breathed normally again. He had made it through another interval, and Dr. Malcolm seemed to be staying the course for now.
But in his heart, Reid knew that he wouldn't be able to keep this up forever. It took everything in him to stay awake and alert, and not just give up. He felt like he would be letting his team down otherwise. I'm staying strong for you guys. But please find me soon. I don't know how much longer I can hold out before I break.