The next morning, the BAU gathered again at the DC Metro station but this time they had some guests join them.
JJ had reached out to Sam the night before, asking her to come in with Matilda the next day. At this point, Matilda was the only girl at the group home who not only knew Amelia but was also clearly hiding something.
The day prior, Emily and JJ had also spoken to the other girl that had lived with Amelia in the group home but she had only lived there for a few days before Amelia went missing. She couldn't give any more information than Matilda even if she wanted to.
If Sam was beginning to question why the FBI was so interested in Matilda, she sure didn't show it. At 10 AM sharp, Sam waltzed into the station, a glowering Matilda at her side.
With the summer heat, Matilda was wearing track shorts that showed off her bruised and scarred legs. A band-aid had been slapped over one of her knees and her forearms were adorned with a multitude of braided and beaded bracelets, all clearly homemade. One lime green bracelet caught Emily's eye in particular, specifically the black-lettered beads that spelled out "Millie".
Everything about Matilda exuded a tough exterior, even the arguably childish bracelets. Emily knew that most children in the system had seen hell but Matilda's haunted yet guarded eyes piqued the agent's instincts and she knew the girl had a shell that would be hard to crack.
"Thank you for coming in," Hotch said and then introduced himself and the rest of the team who hadn't met Sam and Matilda the day before.
While JJ took Sam to get some awful police station coffee, Derek and Hotch led Matilda into a quiet room typically reserved for waiting families. It was secluded from the bustling activity of officers and had a table with a couple of cushioned chairs. A scroungy-looking couch was even shoved into the corner.
It was decided that it would be best if Derek and Hotch spoke to Matilda the second time around, seeing as JJ and Emily weren't able to get through to the teenager the day before. Emily watched Matilda slump into one of the chairs across from Derek and Hotch but with the blinds still open, she knew her presence would cause an uneasiness.
All it took would be one glance up from Matilda and the girl would see a dark-haired FBI agent staring back at her. That wasn't exactly what Emily wanted to happen.
Instead, Emily found herself at JJ's side, asking Sam questions about the mysterious Matilda over cups of crappy coffee.
"How long has Matilda lived at the group home?" JJ inquired and watched Sam take a sip of her coffee before pursing her lips.
Sam hummed, "About two years now, coming up on three."
"Have there been any incidents?" JJ continued. "Like has she ever tried to run away?"
"No, no, no," Sam shook her head. "Matilda's not much of a runner like Amelia was. Her only issue is that temper of hers."
Emily raised her eyebrows, "Her temper?
"It's caused a lot of issues that anger," Sam sighed. "That's the only reason she ended up with us at the group home. Every foster family she was placed into would keep her until she blew up and then she'd get passed along until one day nobody would take her."
Emily felt her heart break at Sam's words. Nobody would take her. She couldn't imagine how hurt Matilda must have felt. The world seemed to be tugging the girl along without her having a say in anything.
"What about Matilda's parents?" Emily asked. "Is there anything you can tell us about them?"
Sam shrugged, "I don't know much myself to be honest. Her father was never listed on the birth certificate. All I know is that one day, her mother relinquished her parental rights and Matilda was put into the system."
"There's no family?" Emily could feel her heart breaking even more with each new piece of information.
"She has an uncle in Spain but he didn't reach out and Matilda didn't seem to know him too well either," Sam said. "It was better for the both of them that Matilda be put into foster care."
Emily had to admit, the odds weren't in Matilda's favour right now. Between her history of violence and parental abandonment, her life events were a recipe for disaster. However, Emily Prentiss was not one to judge a teenager based on her past. She just hoped that was the right decision.
The three women spoke some more Matilda, listening to some of the stories Sam shared with them. JJ and Emily exchanged glances as Sam told them about the time Matilda beat up some boy in the grade above her, knocking out a couple of his teeth during the process.
Just as Emily was about to ask more about the details surrounding the incident, there was suddenly a commotion coming from the room that Morgan and Hotch were in with Matilda. JJ and Emily excused themselves quickly before hurrying over to see what was going on.
They were met with a tense scene as Matilda stood across from the male agents, her fists clenched tightly by her side, and her chair toppled over. The girl's eyes were fiery and her glare pierced through Emily's heart.
"Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Matilda hurled the words at Hotch and Morgan.
"Matilda, take a deep breath," Hotch told her but Matilda continued to glower, her breathing quick and angry. If anything, his comment only seemed to fuel her fury.
"Don't tell me what to do," Matilda snarled and Emily could see the teenager begin to tremble. "You don't know what you're talking about! You don't know anything!"
Before anyone else could say or do anything to defuse the situation though, Sam Jones pushed her way into the room. The woman walked up to Matilda and scolded her with a bouncing pointer finger.
"That is not how you speak to people Matilda," Sam's eyebrows were furrowed. "Apologize to these agents right now."
Emily watched as Matilda stared down Sam, the girl's eyes burning with frustration. She noticed how Matilda flexed her hands and took a seething breath before turning to face Hotch and Morgan. It was obvious she didn't want to speak to them.
"I'm sorry," Matilda said shortly and with a hard nudge from Sam she continued, "that was not an appropriate way for me to act."
"We should probably get going," Sam immediately started speaking once Matilda stopped. "Matilda has a therapy appointment at eleven and we wouldn't want to be late now would we Matilda?"
The teenager's fists finally unclenched and she mumbled a quick "No ma'am". Sam looped her arm around Matilda's and started pulling her towards the exit.
"Well, you have our number," JJ said, following them. "Call us if anything comes up alright?"
"Of course, of course," Sam sweetly responded before tilting her head towards Matilda. "Sorry about this one, she's definitely a rowdy one."
As quickly as they had come, Sam and Matilda were out the door and out of the police station, leaving behind a group of confused agents. Something about everything that had just occurred seemed odd. If they weren't suspicious of Matilda hiding something before they sure were now. Sam's behaviour also raised flags with the profilers.
"What did you say to Matilda to get her to react like that?" Emily asked, turning to face Hotch and Morgan.
"Just that if she was scared of someone, we could protect her," Morgan replied. "Then she leaped out of her seat like someone set her chair on fire."
JJ pursed her lips, "Something is definitely going on there."
Everyone murmured their agreement. It didn't take a profiler to see that something was amiss with Matilda and Sam.
"Did she give you anything though?" Rossi inquired but Morgan and Hotch both shook their heads. They didn't have any more luck with Matilda than JJ and Emily.
"I think the best place to start now would be the group home," Hotch said and began dialling Garcia. "We need to know everything about that place and go through every girl that has been placed there. Reach out to their current guardians and see if anyone can come in to talk."
The team dispersed and began looking through names that Garcia had sent over within minutes of being asked. As they started digging deeper, an unsettling pattern began to arise.
"Garcia, are you sure these are legit files?" Emily asked. "I'm not getting through with these numbers and the one time someone did pick up they had no idea who I was talking about."
"You too?" JJ perked up when she heard Emily's comment. "I think I've got fake numbers too."
Garcia did a quick double-check before confirming that they were indeed legitimate files. Files that were in the system. Files that were approved by someone with authority.
"That doesn't make any sense though," Rossi shook his head. "None of these numbers are real. I mean, do these new placements even exist?"
While Garcia worked her magic on the computer, running through the dozens of potentially fake names on real files, the team began to formulate the possibilities.
"What if we're looking at human trafficking?" Reid suggested. "Especially in a group home, the children they house aren't likely to have much family or relationships with outside people."
"It would be easy to take a girl without anyone asking questions about her disappearance," Morgan added and flipped through his files. "I mean, just looking at the girls here...we've got those with a history of running away, addicts...no one would bat an eye."
Rossi nodded, "Especially if people are covering your tracks inside the system."
"Garcia, have you looked into the people the girls were placed with after leaving the group home?" Hotch asked.
Penelope Garcia's sombre tone was enough to tell the team what they needed to know.
"I can't find any sign that these people actually exist," Garcia reported. "The names and addresses and phones just don't add up and there's no trail whatsoever attached."
"We need to get to the group home," Emily said, looking at Hotch. "There are still girls living there."
Hotch quickly agreed and turned his attention back to Garcia, "Garcia, I need you to look into who in the foster care system works with Sam and her group home. JJ, let Detective Andrews know what's going on. We need to remove the girls from the home immediately."
The BAU arrived at Unity Group Home for Girls with Detective Andrews and his officers. The home looked so normal, charming even; no one would have ever suspected there was criminal activity going on in it by the way it looked.
"Samantha Jones! FBI! We have a warrant!" Rossi shouted as he pounded on the mahogany door.
Emily could hear shuffling and she peeked through the window to briefly see Sam scrambling towards the door. As the door swung open, law enforcement immediately pushed past the woman and into the house.
"What in the world is going on?" Sam asked as she was beckoned onto the porch.
"We have a warrant to search the property and remove the girls from the home," Hotch told her simply but firmly. He then handed the woman the warrant and told an officer to stay with her.
Meanwhile, the rest of the team had already gathered the girls in the common area and were trying to keep them calm. It didn't take a headcount of them to realize they were down one girl.
"Where's Matilda?" Emily asked the other girls who looked around at all the agents and officers with wide but suspicious eyes.
"She left with Sam this morning," one girl told her after a moment of silence. "She hasn't come back since."
The BAU exchanged hesitant expressions and JJ thanked the girl before reassuring all of them that they were going to be okay. They made sure that one of Detective Andrew's officers was with them before making their way to the porch.
"Where's Matilda?" Emily demanded this time, her eyes icy as she stared down Sam.
"What?"
"You heard her," Morgan said. "Where's Matilda?"
Sam looked confused, "She's at her therapy appointment. Why? Are you looking for her? God, I always knew that girl was trouble. Do you think she had something to do with Amelia because I swear-"
"No, we're not looking for her because she's in trouble," JJ curtly interrupted Sam's rambling. "You're the one in trouble here. We looked deeper into the files of the girls who have left your home in the past year and none of them were placed with people who actually exist."
Emily watched as Sam paled slightly. Everyone else noticed too, solidifying their suspicions about Sam and the group home.
"We're going to need the phone number of this therapist," Morgan told Sam as he began to pull her off the porch and towards one of the police cars. "And you better hope that Matilda is there."
A quick phone call confirmed that while Matilda's therapist was a real person, Matilda was not there. Matilda didn't even have an appointment scheduled for the day.
Immediately, Sam was cuffed and shoved into the back of a police car before being driven away to the police station. Emily nearly gagged when she saw that Sam was crying as the car pulled out of the driveway.
"Dave, JJ, I want you two to head back to the station and see if you can get any information out of Sam. We need to know where these girls actually end up," Hotch instructed. "The rest of you, search the house. Until Matilda is found, this is an active missing child case."
"Well, she certainly kept what little belongings she had organized," Morgan commented as he and Emily rummaged through the bedroom Matilda shared with another girl.
Primarily focused on Matilda's side of the room, they poked the limited furniture. Derek was certainly right about the few belongings. There were only a few pieces of well-worn clothing and a couple of toiletries tucked in a little wooden cube shelf. When Emily pulled open the drawer of the bedside table, she also found a couple of paperback books.
"We've got...Margaret Atwood Selected Poems II, Poems Selected & New," Emily glanced at the titles, "and The Handmaid's Tale."
"She didn't exactly peg me as a Margaret Atwood fan," Morgan admitted, thinking about how ready the teenager was to smack him silly earlier in the morning.
Emily scanned through the books and noticed that the poems had been thoroughly read by Matilda who had highlighted and underlined certain lines in all the poems. It was apparent that the two books meant a great deal to Matilda who seemed to have spent countless hours annotating them. Emily couldn't help but be drawn to some of them as she skimmed through the poetry.
"Despite these liquid petals against smoked rock, after a burn your hands are never the same," Emily read aloud from one poem before turning to another highlighted line. "The moon seen from the moon is a different thing."
"I didn't peg you as a Margaret Atwood fan either," Morgan teased, earning an eye roll from Emily.
As Emily moved onto the bottom drawer of the bedside table, she found a couple of neatly folded sweaters and assumed they were put away for the colder weather. However, as she tugged the clothing out, a small leather journal came tumbling onto the floor.
"Hey, Morgan...look at this," Emily waved over his attention and began to flip through the journal.
The pages were filled to the brim with small handwriting scribbled in pen. It didn't take long for Emily to realize that the journal was how Matilda spoke. The painfully written details of agony tore into Emily's heart and she was tempted to close the pages. It felt like she was seeing directly into Matilda's soul without the girl's consent.
But something told Emily to keep going and she began to flip the pages faster when suddenly, the cramped writing stopped. The writing was clearer and spaced further apart. It wasn't just a teenager writing to cope anymore, there was a logical organization to it.
"Is that..." Morgan trailed off as he and Emily processed what they were looking at.
It seemed to almost be a record of some kind. The dates and times were all neatly documented alongside names that headlined jot notes. As Emily read through Matilda's writing, a familiar name caught her eye and she realized what Matilda was trying to do.
"Molly," Emily's finger landed on the name and she briefly closed her eyes to take a deep breath. "Derek, she knew."
Under the names were the jot notes that detailed the dates each girl went missing and the excuse given for their absence. Matilda had even begun to keep track of any new people that came to visit the group home and kept descriptions of them. In one of the newer records, Matilda had gone out of her way to circle something.
A license plate.
"I'll get Garcia to run those right now," Morgan said and pulled out his phone and then huffed in annoyance. "I can't believe she didn't tell us about this. She had all this information and she kept it to herself."
Emily immediately felt obligated to defend the girl, "She was scared Morgan. She doesn't trust us and why should she?"
"Because we're the police?" Morgan raised an eyebrow. "It's our job to protect people."
"Yeah?" Emily's voice began to raise involuntarily and she angrily gestured towards the names in Matilda's journal. "And who's been protecting these girls?"
Silence.
"I'm sorry," Emily let out a slow breath. "You're right, Matilda should have told us, but she was also right not to trust us. Look at how Amelia's case was treated."
Morgan nodded, "I know, we let down Amelia."
"Yes we sure did," Emily said, "and I am not about to let us do the same to Matilda."