Chapter 8
Entering the house after her partner, Emily noticed the high-end alarm panel, nothing less than you would expect working for the FBI.
"Was the Alarm set?" She asked generally
"Yes, ma'am, her neighbour had to give us the code to turn it off," the metro officer answered.
She smiled her thanks and proceeded to the bedroom to find her team.
"Our UnSub managed to bypass the alarm system; it was on when police officers forced entry and had to get the code from a neighbour," Emily mentioned as she walked into the bedroom.
The FBI medical examiner walked across, " Death was by Exsanguination. It was very skillfully done, and not one drop or trace of blood has been found by the crime scene technicians. I found a partial print on her right eyeball. I will know more when I open her up at Quantico. Nothing else of note was found during my initial examination." She explained
"Thank you," smiled Rossi
"Reid, go and interview the neighbour and see if she noticed anyone. Try walking her through a cognitive about last night. She might have heard or noticed something. Take a uniformed officer with you," Hotch tasked
"Prentiss, Morgan crime scene compared to the others. See if you can find anything. Dave, you go through the house to see if anything looks out of place. I have to brief the director and Strauss," he told the team. "We need to confirm if this is our Manchester UnSub."
"She is posed the same as the others; no trace evidence left behind, no hairs or fibres found. The crime scene lot tested all the sinks and waste pipes, and there was not a single drop of blood. No copycat could be this good at replicating the Manchester crime scenes; this is our UnSub." Announced Derek
"Agreed," Emily nodded
"What the hell?" Gasped Emily, reaching for her weapon
Derek burst out laughing; Emily had her weapon pointed at the cat and was now hissing at her.
"Woah, their cowgirl, don't ice the cat. The poor puddy-tat didn't mean to scare you," howled the amused agent
Her heart finally slowed after her scare, and she glared unimpressed at him.
"Front left paw, is that blood?" Morgan asked, trying very hard to control his laughter.
"Could be; Officer close the bedroom door. Don't let the cat escape; see if you can find a pet carrier we can keep… Tiger in," she asked, still keeping her eye on the tiger. It was a very apt name, she told herself as she read the name embroidered on the collar.
An officer found a white cat transporter, handed it to Derek, and walked out of the room smiling after witnessing the not-very-cool FBI agent pull her weapon on a defenceless tiger.
Being in nerd nirvana, he handed Emily the cat transporter, "All yours, Prentiss; you and Tiger seem to be getting along just fine. I will guard the door. Are you not afraid of a little Puddy-tat?" He taunted his partner, knowing she wouldn't back down.
"Fine, give me that," Growled Emily as she snatched the crate from him
She placed the crate down and opened the door, "how hard can it be?" She asked herself.
Approaching the cat, now snuggled against the side of her owner. She slowly reached for the Tiger, trying to be as non-threatening as possible. Living up to her name, she waited until Emily's hands came into range and struck out with her claws. The lightning strike caught her FBI raid jacket.
"Ow, god damn it, bloody cat," groaned Emily
Derek couldn't help himself. He was hysterical. "Damn, fine cat whispering there, Prentiss," he managed to get out between laughs.
Not about to be outsmarted by a cat, Emily took off her FBI jacket, tossed it over the hissing cat, and quickly grabbed her. Tiger tried her hardest to catch Emily; she dumped her jacket and cat into the cat carrier and closed the door, ensuring she locked the latch.
"Gotcha," smirked Emily
"She got you too, partner, your arms bleeding," pointing to her hand.
"Crap," she sighed.
The cat's claws had reopened some of her scrapes from the night before in the bat cave with Jennifer, and she was never telling Derek Morgan about that aspect of her life with Jennifer.
"Only a minor scratch. I am a big bad FBI agent. I will survive." She smiled
Two crime scene technicians carefully scraped Tiger's claws. They were collecting the skin from under her claws. The cat had gotten what they hoped was their unsub and not from Stacey Gibson.
"How long for the results?" Emily asked
"1-2 Hrs for initial profile," she answered, "That is as fast as the machine can do it; we know how important it is, SSA Prentiss. Now, if you will excuse me?" She smiled as she walked off
"We hopefully get a hit in CODIS, and it will be from our UnSub." Smiled Emily.
"Let's get back to Quantico and compare notes; we can't do anything else here," Derek told Emily; he knew he shouldn't, but it would be worth it. "Don't forget Tiger; after all, she is a material witness; perhaps you could take her home and put her in protective custody?"
"I know how to hurt you badly, buddy. Just keep it up and not a word to Jennifer about my nearly shooting the damn cat," Emily warned him, knowing full well he hadn't finished.
Derek stopped suddenly and pointed, " Look, Emily, I Twat I Taw a Puddy-Tat," That earnt him the patented Prentiss look of death,
"Remember, Derek Morgan, I am armed and know how to use it." She told him straight-faced, using her best daffy duck voice, "Youuu're dethtpicable!" She laughed
EJ
Waiting for the DNA results, they returned to Quantico and perused all the evidence from the Manchester case again to see if anything jumped out.
"Round table room, Guys," announced Hotch as he walked out of his office, pocketing his phone.
He watched his team take their regular seats and waited for him to start speaking.
"We have the DNA profile back and a hit in CODIS." He paused and took a breath, "Supervisory Special Agent Prentiss, stand up, please," he ordered. "All yours, Sir,"
" Supervisory Special Agent Prentiss, I am Assistant Special Agent in charge Alan Pink of the CIB. You are under arrest for the murder of Stacey Gibson, and you are a person of interest in the murders of Detective Tracy Madison, Tina Clare, Emma Pond, Samantha Bright, Maude Bishop, Elias Unger, and Rachael Robins." He informed Emily
Two agents had grabbed her arms, preventing her from turning around. She was cuffed and read her rights. The ASAC turned her around to face him, his face a total blank; he showed no emotion. "SSA Mickelson, take Prentiss and get her processed. Then on to interrogation,"
"Sir,"
The agents led Emily out,
"What the hell?" Asked Derek more forcefully than he intended; he was still slightly shocked. He couldn't comprehend what had just occurred; Emily was no murderer.
"That's enough, SSA Morgan, and you will show ASAC Pink the respect his rank requires," Erin Strauss warned from the door. "SSA Hotchner, your team is off the Manchester case; brief SSA Rogers on the case his team will take over. Agents from the Criminal Investigative Division will be in shortly to interview you all. With immediate effect, you are off rotation. You can catch up on paperwork. You will not interfere with this investigation out of some form of misguided friendship. Do I make myself clear?" Ordered Strauss
"Ma'am"
EJ
After her processing by the FBI crime scene staff, Emily was dressed in a white paper jumpsuit.
"This can easily be explained," Emily told ASAC as he walked in and took a set.
"This is SSA Gabby Mickelson. Can you confirm for the record you have been read your rights?" He asked
Emily just wanted to clear up this little error. She had asked them to write down that her DNA would be present after her cat wrangling earlier so she could be ruled out. Obviously, she had forgotten. Knowing the script well, she knew she had to be patient. He was only doing his job by the book as he should.
"Yes, I can confirm I have been informed of my rights, and I understand them, and no, I don't want a lawyer present," she answered politely.
Gabby placed a photograph of 'Tiger' Stacey Gibson's cat onto the table. "We read on the report you had reported being scratched by 'Tiger' while you tried wrangling her at the crime scene. Show me where she caught you, please, Agent Prentiss," SSA Mickelson asked.
Emily lifted the dressing from her right hand and showed her.
"Thank you. Is that the only place she got you with her front….left claw?" She asked to clarify.
"Yes, after that, I used my raid jacket for protection, so that's why my DNA was present as a secondary sample; this has just been a mistake. Can I get back to work?" She replied, glad to have cleared that up, "Have you found the identity of the other sample?" Unable to turn her FBI agent side off.
"Thank you for clarifying that for us, Agent Prentiss; we have identified the DNA we found on Tiger's other claws," she smiled. "You can go; anything from you, boss?" She asked
"Thanks for being understanding, Agent Prentiss. I'm sorry about arresting you in front of your team; that must have been embarrassing. You can go…once you explain how your DNA was found under Tiger's other claws. You see, Agent Prentiss, we only discovered your DNA, no one else. As you know, it is a 99.99% match that is rock solid." ASAC Pink
"DNA; it's all in the double helix. The chance of you sharing the same DNA with another human being on this planet is 1 in 754 million as a caucasian white female. I am not as bright as Spencer Reid, but that seems unlikely." SSA Mickelson voiced
Her head was swimming, and she couldn't understand how this was possible; something hit her. "Why am I a person of interest in the murders of Detective Tracy Madison, Tina Clare, Emma Pond, Samantha Bright, Maude Bishop, Elias Unger, and Rachael Robins? The only sample recovered gave us our UnSub, which was female." She asked
"We asked them to check your prints on file against the computer. Approximations on the partials: we have matches on all; only a few points, not enough to categorically say they are yours, sufficient to make you a person of interest; Manchester is sending detectives to question you. Get comfortable, Agent Prentiss. We will be a while; want to change your mind about legal representation?" He asked