The State Verses Derek Morgan-Ch 41

The prosecution called two more witnesses on the first day of the trial, they called their own forensic specialist who told about the different classifications of drugs that Derek had been injected with and how each could affect the body. Hotch, during cross examination asked if either class of drug that Derek had been injected with would cause vivid hallucinations?", the witness answered, "yes, in most cases the person injected with the drug has no idea what is real and what is hallucination", Hotch said, "no further questions" and sat back down beside Mia.

As their final witness of the day they called a fingerprint expert, once sworn in the expert told about how fingerprints of the defendant had been found all over the room and on the victim. Upon cross examination Mia asked the expert if he marks around Penelope's neck had been compared to Derek's hands to which the expert said, "no" and when asked why he couldn't give an answer so Mia said, "you're suppose to be an expert and you can't answer that question?" to which the prosecution accused her of badgering the witness.

The judge said, "I find no merit to your point, objection sustained", Mia said, "thank you your honor", she then looked at the expert witness and said, "I have no further questions at this time". It was now almost 4:00 so Cindy said, "we'll stop here for the day, court will reconvene at 9:00 in the morning", to which the bailiff said, "all rise", everybody stood up and watched as the judge stepped down and exited the courtroom to head back to her chambers.

Hotch had noticed that his cell had vibrated a few minutes earlier but hadn't checked to see what it was, he looked at his phone and said, "I have a message from Reid", Derek said, "from pretty boy, what's up?", Hotch said, "I'm not sure, I'll go call him and update you later", Derek nodded his head and was then cuffed and escorted from the room.

Mia gathered her things and sat there waiting on Hotch to come back, while she was sitting at the table JJ and Emily walked up to her and Emily said, "nice job Mia", she grinned and said, "thank you". JJ said, "so how do you think things went today?", Mia said, "so far so good, between Aaron and myself we were able to stop the prosecution from proving anything", the girls nodded their heads yes and then Em said, "where did Aaron go?", Mia said, "he had a message from Reid so he went to call to see if anything was wrong".

Out in the hall Hotch pulled up Reids number and waited for him to answer, when Reid said, "Hotch, I'm so glad that you called me back", Hotch said, "the trial is over for the day, what's wrong, you wanted me to call you ASAP?", Reid put his cell on speaker and said, "Shane, tell Hotch what you told me" to which Hotch stood listening to the story about the fight with the woman and how Penelope had to have stitches which left a scar behind her left ear".

Hotch said, "and what did Tasha say about the scar?", Reid said, "there wasn't one on the body she examined", Hotch said, "we need to get that body exhumed and make sure that it is indeed Penelope". Reid said, "what do you want us to do?", Hotch said, "I'll call the director and see if there is anything he can do to get her body exhumed", Reid said, "Shane is also looking up information on the cousin Chris's wife Olivia, before we didn't know anything about her, or even that he was married".

Hotch said, "the two of you keep up the good work, I'll call the director and see what he can do", Reid said ."what are you going to tell Derek?", Hotch said, "nothing for now, we can't afford to get his hopes up, not yet anyway". Reid said, "good point" and before the call ended Hotch said, "I'll let you know what the director says", Reid and Shane looked at each other and smiled, they had done their part, now everything was in Hotch's hands.

A few minutes later Hotch was still talking to the director, it took a little convincing before he'd agree to pull some strings to get the body exhumed, especially since she was only buried yesterday. However, he found the possibility of the body not being Penelope's to be too great to ignore so he'd made a few calls and got the exhumation approved.

Hotch said, "thank you sir, I'll have Spencer head to the cemetary", the director said, "I hope this pans out for you Aaron", Hotch said, "thank you sir, so do I, so do I", so after the call with the director ended he quickly called Reid back. Reid said, "please give me some good news Hotch" to which he grinned and said, "the exhumation was approved, so I need you and Shane to head to the cemetary, I need you to stick with the body until a proper identification can be made".

Reid said, "we're on it", after the call ended Reid looked at Shane and said, "let's go, we've been given orders to go to the cemetary and stay with the body until proper identification can be made in regards to the scar behind her left ear". Shane stood up and smiled, he said, "if there is no scar there is no way that body can be hers, you know that, right?", he smiled and said, "that I do Shane, that I do" as the two headed out of the room and down the stairs.