Chapter Four - The Investigation Begins

Reid and Rossi had gone to JJ's to look for anything there that would help them learn what had happened with Will and where he might be now.

"They still have one of the cleanest houses I've ever seen," said Rossi. "Let's hope Will left something for us to work with."

"There's always something, just got to know where to look," Reid said.

"Alright I'll check upstairs, you good down here?" said Rossi.

"Yeah," replied Reid, as he looked down at the ground where the dead woman would have been. Even that was clean. He got to his knees, inspecting the threads of the carpet, shining an ultraviolet flashlight on it. There was barely anything there… apart from an area that had been cleaned recently. Will certainly knew how to hide evidence.

Upstairs, Rossi spent all of five minutes perusing the hundreds of books they had gathered there, each time coming up short for useful information. There had to be something, it was just the problem of finding it. That's when he came across a box in the wardrobe, and pulled it out.

"Reid, up here," he yelled downstairs, as he opened it. "Maybe this will help."

He heard Reid's footsteps coming up the stairs. By the time he'd come through the door, Rossi was already looking through the contents of the box.

"Look at all of these." Rossi said, showing Reid the photo albums he'd found. "Family photos. Some of them go way back."

Reid picked up one of the albums, flicking through the pages. JJ as a baby, Will in Scouts, at the police academy. He looked over at the one Rossi was looking at, JJ and Will with their children, all smiling. "Happier times," he said wistfully.

"Let's take them back to the BAU," Rossi said, closing the album. "Might give us an idea where Will's headed."

"Jennifer. Do you remember anything significant at all about this woman?" asked Derek. "So we could have a sketch artist put together a picture for us. It might help, if there's anyone that recognises her."

JJ nodded. She'd been trying all night to forget what she'd seen, but she knew this was necessary. "Well I can't say I got all that close. But from where I was stood I could see that she was a brunette, with glasses."

"I'll see where the sketch artist is at. You think some more," said Derek, leaving the office.

The last thing she wanted to do was think, but she knew she had to. She was glad Derek was out of the room. She could see the judgmental way he looked at her, even without meaning to, and she couldn't blame him. Even now her brain was telling her everything she should have done, all the questions she could have asked last night. She was used to acting under pressure… but this was Will, her soulmate, or so she thought. Even now she was worried where he'd gone, that's assuming he hadn't been taken.

The return of Derek, with the sketch artist, brought her out of her contemplation, and so she set to work describing the woman, her clothes, her glasses and anything in between that may be of use. She remembered the woman's open and cold dead eyes, as she struggled to recall the color of them. Finally, to her relief, she'd finished, and they had a sketch to show for it. One that she could hardly bring herself to look at.

"JJ, you good?" asked Derek, as they travelled to the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department. "Maybe we can get some answers from Will's colleagues."

"Hope so," said JJ. She turned up the car radio and once again her thoughts drifted back to Will, wondering just how many of those memories she could trust.

They arrived and JJ marched in. Will and she tended to keep work and homelife separate where possible, but she'd met most of his partners. Armed with a mouthful of questions and a sketch of the mysterious dead lady, they'd found themselves talking to his latest partner, Bob 'Bobo' Borello, in a free interrogation room.

"So where's Will?," Bobo asked. "Or is it above my paygrade?"

"You know we can't say," said Derek, before JJ could answer. "We just need some answers to some questions."

JJ pushed the sketch in front of Bobo. She could tell from his reaction that he didn't recognize the woman, but she had to ask anyway. "Have you ever seen this woman before?"

He took the sketch from her hands and began to look at it closely. "Never seen her."

"Thanks, Bobo," JJ said. "Do you have any idea where Will might be now?"

"No idea. Leaving his partner in the lurch to go for a long lunch?" he joked. "I didn't even realize he was missing if I'm honest. And if he is, I figure you'd have a better idea of where he's gone than me."

"You're right," she said, fighting the tears. "Thought I knew him, but now I don't know anymore."

"Have you checked his locker?" Bobo asked.

"Yo, Bobo bro, that's our next stop," Derek said, leading JJ out. A short walk later and they were using a master key to open Will's locker. Stuck to the inner door were pictures of JJ and their children. She looked further in, found an empty sandwich box, some more old photos, and a folded-up letter.

She reached in for the letter, read it and then pulled an evidence bag out of her jacket. "Need to get this back. Fast."

"What is it?" asked Derek.

"Looks like some kind of blackmail note. Someone knows what Will did, says they'll make him…" she wiped away a tear, "and his family pay."

JJ was approaching to discuss the next port of call for the case, when she overheard Emily and Derek.

"Hey, um, Prentiss, I'm not sure JJ is in the right frame of mind to be dealing with this case. Understandably, she's emotional about it, of course. But she's way too close. Back at the station she was all over the place. I mean you can tell she is itching to move through this case quicker than humanly possible."

"I see where you're coming from, I really do. But it's Will, I can't ask her to sit on her hands on this one."

"Yeah, truth. I'd be the same to be fair. I'm just a little concerned that she's not thinking straight and we both know how that can go."

"Okay maybe I wi-"

The creaking of the door interrupted their conversation.

"What's going on?" asked JJ.