The breakfast that followed was a lively affair, with Rossi teasing Paige about landing her 'triple quadruple bazooka bomb jump', while Hotch told stories of Jack's exploits both in school and on the soccer field.
They were dropping Paige off at her school when Rossi turned to Laurel. "Can we talk to you for a moment?" he asked seriously.
"Of course," she immediately replied. She wasn't sure what he wanted to discuss but it sounded important.
"Let me pull the car into that parking lot over there," Hotch suggested. "And then I – we actually – have a question for you."
"What is going on?" Laurel worried once the car was parked.
"We were just curious about what happened with your settlements from the City of Houston and the charity and the police officers," Rossi asked carefully. "Did you ever see any of that money?"
"Oh, Dave, it never was about the money - You know that," Laurel replied. "It was about stopping those horrible people and making sure they never had the opportunity to hurt anyone ever again."
"We realize that," Rossi replied. "But, that was quite a lot of money that was awarded to you and Paige. Did you ever get any of it?"
"Well, no," Laurel said. "I just figured most of it had gone to taxes. I assumed I would owe a lot of taxes on it."
"You would owe taxes," Hotch agreed with her. "But there would have been a sizeable sum left over."
"We had Garcia check," he hurried on. "And, it appears that the monies from the two former police officers were paid to you. The insurance they had through their union handled that. But, apparently, you never got it?" He looked at her curiously.
"You and Paige are living hand-to-mouth, while you work three jobs," Rossi pointed out. "You deserve better – Paige deserves better."
"The only person I can think of who would possibly have had access to the settlement money," Laurel was speaking slowly as she thought. "Was the lawyer who represented us in the lawsuits. Her name was - Aretha – Jackson?"
"That's what we thought," Hoch told her. "So, we had Garcia check further – "