CHAPTER 65
UNSTABLE PRENTISS, WHERE?
"Standard medical check…on an eye witness?" Tara questioned Emily's tactics.
"You heard the man – he only just woke up and it has been God knows how long since the kidnapping." Emily replied.
"Forty-three minutes and thirty-seven seconds." Reid stated. "Thirty-eight…"
"Reid!" Luke shut him up by just pronouncing his name.
"The man had been knocked out cold. And he was a big man, so this is our first clue on our UnSub – he is someone who was not afraid to blitz attack the dad, after grabbing both JJ and the kid. Supposedly." Emily shrugged, not even knowing how great she was doing so far.
"Unstable Prentiss, where?" Rossi smirked, rubbing Reid's previous words in his face. It felt good to prove a genius wrong.
"Also, that whole minute in which JJ was gone…" Emily spoke slowly, allowing Reid to interrupt her.
"Yeah, about that. It's why I called you back here. You see, he mentioned that JJ announced she would only be replying to one more question…but then she rushed through it…" Reid announced.
"Yes, it's what JJ has always done as a liaison. Nothing new." Rossi commented.
"No, but this time it was different. Luke, can you get me that first video they sent us?" Reid asked.
Luke just pushed the computer in front of Reid, forcing him to search for it himself.
"I hate electronics…" Reid muttered to himself, now fighting with all the e-mails that the BAU had in their inbox.
"Here!" Reid skipped through everything and went straight to the end, where the camera was zooming in on JJ's face, right after she announced she only had time for one more question.
"Her eyes…" Emily couldn't believe she hadn't been able to catch that herself.
"Not liaison eyes." Rossi agreed.
JJ had a certain stare that she used, a poker face, that only came out during press conferences and especially when she was avoiding questions from the public. The screenshot they had currently paused the video on, was not that stare.
"Not FBI Agent eyes…" Luke commented after studying the image for a few seconds.
"Motherly eyes." Emily said, crushing it.
"But she never thinks about Henry and Michael during work. Ever! It's what keeps her grounded and focused – completely differentiating her two worlds." Reid was the only one to disagree with Emily.
"Reid, when a woman looks at a child with those eyes, it does not matter if the child came out of her own womb or someone else's." Emily schooled him quickly.
"A child is a child and a mother instinct does not require a mother to be a…mother…" Emily trailed off. Her words made no sense to anyone…but her.
And Rossi.
He gave Emily a strange look, analyzing a few pieces of information in his head. He then said nothing at all.
"So, are you saying there is a possibility that JJ was with the child for a part of, if not the whole minute that she was off air?" Reid asked, wanting her to clear it all up.
"Yes, exactly. I think JJ got distracted by the suffering child – she saw him tugging on his father's hand, then the father shooed him away rudely and something just clicked inside of her and she let that motherly instinct kick in." Emily added to what Reid had already figured out.
"In the middle of a job assignment?" Rossi said skeptically. "JJ has never done that before."
"Exactly! That's why this hit her so hard now, it being the first time she ever let herself to think and act like a mother, during work. She didn't know how to recover from that, UnSub saw her vulnerable and attacked her." Emily's suggestion was somewhat weak. It was a good one, but missing out more details.
"The way I see this, the UnSub planned his attack. He must have been at home when the conference started and something JJ said at the beginning made him tick. He then decided to grab her, and he is bold to have even tried to do that at a place, full of cameras, policemen and FBI Agents." Tara suggested.
"That would only mean that the UnSub lives in immediate vicinity to the police station, as JJ's appearance took only about five minutes." Luke spoke up again.
"And that he is mobile, he has a car, big enough to put two kidnapped people in, yet small enough to not attract too much attention." Rossi pointed out.
All of this would help Garcia narrow her search as soon as they would call her.
"Wait, no…something is off." Emily stopped for a moment, re-gaining her perfect posture as she stood up and paced around for a bit.
"You mean, why would JJ cut a conference short, for a boy who seems to be treated badly by his father?" Rossi asked her, but her mind was elsewhere, and she did not even register that question as such.
Emily then sat back on the computer that she had been using and she re-played just the audio, not looking at the video footage from the end of the conference.
"He's one of the reporters and he was already here, in one of those large TV vans. That's where JJ and the kid disappeared off to and that's why nobody can recall seeing them after she stopped talking. Our brains tend to remember only instances that differ from the ordinary and JJ talking to a reporter, after a press conference, would not have raised any suspicion in the people around them, hence why nobody, not even the police officers, recall even seeing a thing. That's how she disappeared – she never did disappear. She was always right there, in front of everyone's eyes. Until she wasn't…" Emily spoke quickly, as if she was trying to race against time.
"It's called inattentional blindness – that's the failure to notice a fully-visible, but unexpected object because attention was engaged on another task, event, or object." Emily then continued.
"Okay, Dr. Reid…" Tara put her hand on Emily's back, trying to make her slow down. She was not acting like herself.
"Let her be." Rossi whispered to Tara and she quickly moved away from Emily, letting her release her full potential.
"Garcia?" Emily said as soon as Garcia picked up the phone.
"I need you to run a search for me…" She then continued pouring all the specific information that she had already profiled about the UnSub.
Garcia could be heard, typing and panting, on the other side of the line.
"Are you now going to tell me his name and social security number too, or do you want me to do that?" Garcia asked.
She hadn't even had the time to ask about the recent kidnapping, before Emily had poured everything on her.
"Okay, small city, not too many reporters. Add football practice for anyone who has kids on the field right now, and we're down the men who are daddies. Oh, yeah I see here that the kids football team practices on Tuesday after school, so…" Garcia explained her ideas a bit further.
"Now, out of all TV stations, only one had no representative on the scene. Two had women covering the event…" She kept speaking, but Emily interrupted her.
"Garcia, stop wasting time! We're looking for a male!" Emily snapped at her.
"Jeesh, relax. You sound like someone from our team has been kidnapped, Mama Bear." Garcia chuckled, but when she heard the stone-cold silence on the other side of the line, she felt like she was about to pass out.
The team had intentionally left out a 'small' detail about the case. Truthfully, most of them hadn't even thought about calling Garcia, while they were busy analyzing the videos they had received.
"Oh my God, what have you guys gotten yourselves into?" Garcia was now freaking out and that was rarely a good sign.
"He has JJ." Everyone's eyes turned to Emily when she just came out and said that.
"JJ? No!" Garcia instantly removed the first tear from her cheek. "I am going to give you a name faster than-…"
She then shut up and typed away.
"Two names. James Rollins, 25, fresh out of college, works for Star News Channel since May." Garcia suggested.
"No!" Emily said, sure of herself. "Next?"
"Uh, okay. Carlton Webber, 46, been with Channel Fresh Daily for 19 years now. This is…oh…" Garcia kept on reading his file.
"What?" Emily spit out her question, unsure of what she would do to Garcia if she put any more suspense over Emily's shoulders…or any more time between Emily and her reunion with her best friend and colleague.
"Check this out. He was about to receive some sort of an award, for his 20 years at the channel. But something happened and he…" Garcia had the damned habit of trailing off and reading the information to herself first, before she would break it to the team.
"Speak!" Emily was not sure if she even had a heartbeat anymore, inside of that body of hers, but on the outside, she was a coyote. Oh, she was a hyena. Or whatever other wild animal that had poise and that oozed confidence. A gazelle – beautiful, lean, skin like silk, yet fierce like the predator that she really was.
A chameleon – changing its color, but never its heart.
"There's something about a party. Okay, so his channel had a party for the end of Summer and apparently each group of people had to come up with a funny sketch. Uh, guys, check out the file I'm sending to you right now…" Garcia announced, just wanting a moment to herself, where she didn't need to talk. A moment when she could process the information that JJ had been kidnapped.
Luke played the video that had been uploaded to a popular video sharing channel and had quite an impressive view count already.
In the video, three people were playing a sketch. One of the characters was a billionaire, another one was his secretary and the third one was a homeless man – scruffy, dirty, a bit weird.
"What are we looking at?" Emily asked, considering this to be a waste of time.
The video went on with the homeless man asking money from the millionaire and begging him for mercy. The man then said to him that he could walk out of his office with as much money as he could count.
The video cut to the scene where the homeless man started to struggle with numbers.
"Sixteen…" He said, grabbing one more dollar form the table, while the billionaire and his secretary laughed at his inability to count.
"Uh, seventeen…" The man urged himself to keep going, because he needed as much as he could get.
"Eighteen…" He then took one more dollar.
"Eighteen." He repeated, unable to recount the number that came after that.
That's when the billionaire made a scene, telling him that eighteen dollars was as much as he would get out of life.
The homeless man was then kicked out of the office and the video cut off.
The team of three reporters then came out in plain clothes, explaining the importance of bullying on society, not just on kids. The point of the video had been to shock people, initially, about the rudeness of the rich man, only to then teach them a lesson with the last clip that revealed the moral of it all.
"Heartwarming." Emily said coldly. "Why is this relevant?"
"I present to you Mr. Carlton Webber…" Garcia said while hitting the Send button to a photo.
"Holy crap!" Emily exclaimed.
The man was the inspiration behind the character of the homeless man. Mr. Webber was scruffy, he looked older than his age and he looked like he had a problem with drinking, judged by the expression in his eyes.
"Guys, the numbers…" Reid pointed out.
"Oh, yeah. Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen and then eighteen again. That's our link in victimology! That's how the UnSub chose his victims. He didn't care about anything else, as long as they were of that age. He probably didn't even know any of those girls previously." Emily pointed out.
Tara was about to open her mouth and add one more observation, but then Rossi shushed her for the second time that day. Everyone had already caught up to what was happening, but it was Emily who needed to run the game now.
"How does JJ fit in? Well, she rubbed him the wrong way. This video from over a month ago must have been our UnSub's trigger. The first kidnapping happened two days after this was uploaded. And judging by the comments, everyone figured out who the inspiration behind this character was, so I bet this kind of humiliation rubbed him the wrong way. If I'm right and he has a drinking problem, he must be messed up enough to continue his killing spree even after eighteen. Because, wasn't there only four numbers on the video? He already killed his eighteen. Why continue? Something must have given him the satisfaction that his job was not giving him…" Emily was now rambling out loud, mostly speaking to herself, ignoring everyone else's existence.
"Yeah, one more thing. He started attacking people on that same video website, in the comments section, which lead to his boss suspending that big reward for his 20 years of service. He was supposed to receive the award next month. I guess that sketch really did him a trick…" Garcia added shyly.
"Makes sense. People make fun of me, I go online and go after them, maybe I've had a few drinks, it makes me feel good. Then my boss takes away the one thing I've worked so hard for and I snap. Drinking just doesn't do it for me anymore and I am now afraid to lose my job if I keep going after people online. Plus, it doesn't satisfy me anymore. So, I go after them in real life. I create a story in my head, where I get my revenge by killing those girls, each one representing the coins that a character, based on me, had to beg for, in front of a man of authority, such as the billionaire, or in my case - my boss." Emily had now dived deeply into thoughts.
"Ok, call me when she's not cuckoo anymore." Garcia hung up quickly.
"We have a name and an address. Why are you not gearing up?" Emily asked, seeing none of her teammates get ready.
"Perhaps we should tone it down a notch." Rossi suggested.
"Want to say that to JJ?" Emily said, sarcastically.
"It's just too easy to be true." Reid had to agree with Rossi's plea to hold up on the arrest.
"No, I know what I know and right now I know JJ's in the hands of this lunatic and I know I'm going to get her, whether you want to join me or not. I have enough probably cause, to go search that house." Emily spoke while keeping her right hand firmly pressed against her gun, hanging at the side of her pants.
"But-…" Luke tried to knock some sense into her, but there was no budging on her side.
"No. Don't you dare question my judgment. I am the Unit Chief and I am responsible for JJ's life. I'm also damn confident in my final decision and since JJ is not here to overthrow my orders, then I order you all to gear up and get in that car outside, so we can go get JJ and this little boy back!" She stated firmly, leaving no more open doors for discussion.
Emily drove one of the cars, with Rossi in the passenger's seat and Tara in the back. Luke drove the other car, with Matt to keep him company. Emily knew that as soon as she got her hands on JJ, Tara would be kicked out to Luke and Matt's car very quickly, so that JJ could rest in the back seat, with the kidnapped child.
"What if you are wrong?" Rossi tried to speak up in the car, but it would go nowhere.
"I am not!" Emily kept her eyes on the road, praying that they would get there in time.
"If my theory is correct, the UnSub already had his significant kills. He completed his four numbers and he does not care what happens to him from now on. If we hadn't showed up, maybe he would have even stopped killing. But then we let JJ face them…face him, all alone. And we gave him the perfect opportunity to strike and that is just…" Emily trailed off, as she was getting too worked up to formulate an actual phrase, with JJ's name in it.
"If you are correct, that would mean that the UnSub got aggravated by JJ when she completely diminished his accomplishments in the media. Maybe his end-game was to be famous for something other than a comedy skit? What if he wanted to go down as one of the chilling serial killers, the ones people like me write books about? He is a reporter, he is used to being in the public eye. Right before going into pension, why wouldn't he want to be recognized for something big, even if it is gruesome? What does he have to lose? If you are right and he is an alcoholic with a bruised ego, there is no pretty end to this game, for him. Also, if you are right, JJ and the kid never made it out of that car alive." Rossi made some really good points, making Emily feel goosebumps all over her body.
"So, pardon me when I meet your idea with skepticism, but I just really don't want you to be right, Prentiss!" He then added, allowing her to see his point of view.
And he was right. If Emily's profile was right, that was very bad news for JJ and the child.
Emily pulled up in front of the house first, followed by Luke's car.
"Emily, the profile says-…" Reid called out after her when he saw her sprint out of the car.
"I don't give a damn about the profile!" If she had a mirror in front of her, she'd see her eyes sparkle when she spat out those words.
Not breaking protocol, she arrived at the fence first, but then waited for the rest of her team to back her up before she made her move.
"What are you even doing?" Bryan eyed Angie who was stretching while reading something.
"Multitasking." She answered quickly.
"It's literally the only gap between training and classes this week and all you do is train and read some more? Come on. You need to let loose a bit, go out, have fun, do something silly." He urged her.
The Trainees were not yet allowed to have days off, or weekends off to go see their families. They were all required to stay on Campus, even when they were not training, which was a rare thing to even happen.
So far, everyone had figured out their outlet – some liked to sleep, some had formed teams for different outdoors sports, some enjoyed those art therapy coloring books for adults, some liked to lay out and get some fresh air, maybe have a nap and soak in some sun while they still could.
Angie, however, liked to train. Her only way of relaxing was when she stretched, before and after training, and even then she'd do that with a book in hand. She was curious. About everything. She was like a five year old with a sugar rush, she just had so many questions about everything. This was all she had ever known in life – working on perfecting herself.
She sure had hobbies, but she couldn't do any of them on Campus, and she didn't want to go searching for new hobbies either.
She was well aware of her weak points. There were way too many things she was terrible at, so she avoided them at all costs. She wouldn't do or discuss something that she was not good at, and it wasn't so that she could look more intelligent when she would inevitably speak about something she was familiar with. She just felt self-conscious when she lacked skills or information.
For instance, she could hold a gun and make a pretty good shot from a distance and yet, she was terrible with her hands, in other skills. She had never been able to wrap a present properly. She had always struggled in art class at school, her drawing skills were worse than the ones of a newborn child. She could not draw a damn straight line, even using a ruler. And yet, she was precise, when it came to doing things on the field. She was kind of good at calculating distance between objects, she was very resourceful and if she was stranded on an island with someone, they wouldn't need to worry, because she'd be the first one to figure out a way to build a boat and get them out of there. But then again, if given clay and asked to give pottery a try, she'd fail more than miserably.
Having had to take care of herself for so many years, she had learned how to point out her strong assets, while hiding the weak ones. It might have been a subconscious way for her to keep herself safe – don't show your enemies your weakness. Or it might have been a question of pride. But that was how it was and it was working for her.
If someone spoke about subjects she had read about and if she felt confident that she remembered enough information, she'd speak up. She would often be the youngest person in the room, but she would make herself look smart. And yet, when the topic was something she lacked information on, she'd smile politely and stay quiet. Or she'd change the subject altogether. She wouldn't show them that she was not in the know.
She had been doing the same thing at the Academy – volunteering to answer the things she was confident about and also volunteering when it came to things that she knew she could work on. She had received bad feedback about her upper body strength and she knew this could be improved, so she had asked Bryan to guide her with pull ups until she started to see the results. And yet, she knew she sucked at tactical driving. She had tried to volunteer, but it just wasn't working for her, so she kept quiet and did her best to learn, but other than that, she just tried to survive those classes and go on to the next type of training.
Angie was extremely good with her communication skills. She could inspire and get to someone in ways that other people might not be able to. And yet, she was really bad with connecting to people, on a personal level. She'd ask questions about others and she'd genuinely want to know more about them, but the moment tables were turned, she'd close herself off and she'd lose her confidence. She wanted to make friends, but she didn't want to open up. She wanted to hear out people's problems and she wanted to help them, but she was absolutely terrified of the idea that someone might want to hear her story, and try to help her out.
She had loved acting, since she was a child. It had allowed her to act like different characters, to switch between moods, but most importantly – to conceal her true feelings. She'd act calm, even when a volcano was erupting inside of her. She'd smile through pain and she'd laugh so that tears wouldn't come out to embarrass her. She'd keep her chin up, always, she'd have her poker face on and she would deal with the emotional damage later, on her own, possibly on the bathroom floor, eating chocolate. But she would never let anyone see her like that.
In a way, her outlet in the Academy was jogging. She had started to wake up about half an hour early sometimes and she'd go out for a quick run before PFT. It was good both for her mental strength and for her muscles, before training. It gave her time to be all alone, to go as quickly or as slowly as she pleased, to feel the wind against her face, to feel in control.
"Bry-Bry, I'm not here to do silly, fun things. I'm here to learn how to save people's lives. I'm here because I chose to be here. And in a weird way, I find the studying process fun. I don't care if people would call me a nerd, but I like learning new things. I like training and I like the challenge. So, please stop looking at me like I'm wasting my precious free time by doing useless stuff. Okay? I chose this life for myself. I want this. And I don't regret anything I've ever done in life, so I could get here." Angie replied to him after a long moment of self-reflection.
"You know, I really admire your mental strength through all of this. If anyone deserves this job, it's you." He offered a tiny smile before he let her do her thing.
He had planned on spending his free time playing soccer with the other guys, but after hearing her words, he went to the training field instead. A little extra muscle work-out wouldn't hurt him. Much like Angela, he knew exactly what he wanted from the Academy and he knew he needed to improve constantly.
If they ever became Agents, they would be risking their lives on a daily basis, throwing themselves in the line of fire, just to save others. And this wasn't a fun thing, like in the movies where everyone was a hero. Nope. In their story, they had to be prepared, both mentally and physically. They had to back each other up, to inspire each other and to protect each other. And they would only be able to do so after months of hardcore training and constant devotion to the learning process.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
"Ducksdragonfly" Bryan, the Playboy...married? Hmm, that could be a twist! Oh Richard as a Secret Services Agent!? I might be jealous now, lucky Emily if that would be the case. Damn! :P And no, Emily's heart does NOT deserve a heartbreak. It deserves something real and pure, that would last forever... (Unrelated: Doyle was kinda hot, color me weird, but I kinda liked the whole 'forbidden love' going on between Lauren and Ian. Also, Lauren was SAVAGE when with Ian and I like me a worked up fired out Emily/Lauren). Hmm, I don't think DeMo's identity would be shocking to Angie, I think this secret might hit other people harder, the longer it stays hidden. And thank you, I appreciate your kind words :)!
"rmpcmfan" Thank you :)! I love this two-way feedback thing, I really enjoy talking to my reviewers. Angie is about to get a whole lot more interested in SWAT soon. (NO, NOT hinting on ANY 'romantic' relationship between her and Morgan!) SWAT gives her the field to run, kick doors, yell at the top of her lungs, be wild and point a gun left and right. Ain't that what she needs, to blow off some steam? LOL! Oh, Angie SUCKS at many things, but like I've said before - she avoids them at all costs. You will see some, in the future. She concentrates on what she can do well and what she knows she can improve in (such as the pull ups, once Bryan trained her on the side). So far, tactical driving is her worst nightmare in the Academy, but it won't be her only weak point. OMG Consuelo, speak about a brave, strong Latina woman! Richard as a French SPY? That's like, better than chocolate cake :P I can only say that his job is 'hard to explain' and it won't be any easier, explaining it to Emily, one day...if she ever gives him the chance to.
"Nichole" Angie went out to a bar only 2 times: First night of Academy, which in no way compromised her studies and literally everyone was celebrating, as per tradition. And then after the BAU Hearing, when they all got invited by Emily. She goes to dinner to eat, not to have fun and waste time. The Amanda Project was done FOR educational purposes, integrating everything she had recently studied, so it was hardly any distraction. It also was her case project for the presentation. She lives, breathes and dreams of this, going to bed and waking up to a book. As for figuring her out - NOBODY can successfully do so yet. I'm not yet giving ANY major clues about her, so it's impossible to know who she is just yet. It is also unclear WHO Angie has a connection to, IF ANY. :) Maybe the connection is yet to be formed? And the most important part: There is a MAJOR reason why Angie is so good. I keep saying it, but I CANNOT say more. I don't want to spoil anything. If you keep reading until the revelation happens, the Academy days will make much more sense and so will her behavior and confidence.
