Chapter 3: Becca's Daughter

A few hours later, when they finally landed in Las Vegas and got to their hotel, the first thing they did was call Garcia from Reid's room.

"Hey Pen, you're on speaker. Did you find anything that might give us a clue about what happened to Rebecca Thompson?" JJ asked.

"Unfortunately, my pretties, what I found leads us to few answers and more questions. First of all, she did, in fact, teach part-time at the same Fine Arts school she attended in the early 2000s, but here's where things get weird. Eight months ago she moved to a different apartment, in a different building, in another part of the city. Her most recent address was much further away from both the university and her parents' restaurant. Then all of a sudden about six months ago she left the university, stopped working at the restaurant, and started living off her savings. It looks like she basically became a hermit, but she did some paintings which she sold via an online gallery she created but she put all of that money in a savings account that seems to have been set up for that express purpose. Once the payments were deposited she never touched them."

"Why would she move away and quit the job she loved?" Reid asked.

"I have no idea, unfortunately after that six-month mark, she doesn't exactly leave a much of a paper trail. She made regular cash withdrawals roughly once a week, all from different ATMs. Most of those were two-hundred and fifty dollars each time but there were a few that were closer to three or four hundred. If you ask me, she started using cash to intentionally hide her tracks."

"Well, Spence and I don't think she wanted anyone to know who the biological father of her child was, maybe she was afraid of him and went into hiding to protect herself just like…" JJ caught herself before she finished that sentence.

"Ok, something tells me that JJ might be on the right track, so I'm gonna go ahead and see if Rebecca filed a restraining order against anyone in the past year," Garcia asked.

"Please do," Reid asked.

"Thanks, Penn."

"But of course, my loves," Garcia replied before hanging up.

JJ watched as Reid paced around the room. "Spence…we will find out what happened to her. We'll go to social services first and see what you have to do to take custody of Rebecca's daughter, then we'll see if the ME has finished the autopsy yet and if not we can go talk to her co-workers at the university. I promise you, we'll dig as much as we have to, as deep as you want to take this. It won't bring her back but it's better than not knowing."

"I know. JJ, I meant what I said on the plane. If you weren't here I don't know what I'd do right now. I've known Becca since we were little kids and even when I left Las Vegas we never lost contact, not even after all these years. I used to visit her every time I came home to see my mom. Becca was the type of person who always had a plan. Sometimes what she did only made sense to her but she never did anything randomly; it was like she had everything planned out and you were a step behind her trying to figure out what was going on in her head as you went along."

"Sounds like that could get pretty frustrating."

"It could be, but I learned a long time ago to just trust that she knew what she was doing. The difference here is this time she's not around to fill me in, about her death, about the baby, about any of this."

"Well, then let's start with the breadcrumbs she left behind. We won't learn anything pacing around a hotel room will we?"

At Social Services Ms. Frankfort was there waiting for them. As soon as she saw them arrive, she took Reid and JJ into her office. She sat down at her desk, Reid and JJ took their seats in the two chairs opposite her.

"This is my friend JJ."

"It's nice to meet you," JJ added.

"Likewise."

"So what's my next move?" Reid asked impatiently.

"Ok, while I was waiting for you I did some research since the crossing of state lines means we have to account for the laws governing this process in two different states. Now, as I understand it, your ultimate goal is to formally adopt her, is that correct?" She asked.

"Yes," Reid answered. "As soon as possible, I don't want her to be in foster care any longer than necessary."

"Well, in order to bring her home as quickly as possible, your best bet is to wait on formal adoption and instead focus on becoming her legal guardian right now. That's a usually a quicker and less complicated process. Plus, it would give us a reason to transfer her case to CPS in DC, which would smooth the road to formal adoption quite a bit because the inter-state business and differing sets of laws would no longer be an issue."

"And how long does that usually take?" Reid asked.

"Once the hearing actually takes place, not long at all, but there's usually a two to three month waiting period between the initial filing of a petition for guardianship and that hearing taking place."

"Three months?" He asked.

"However," She continued, "there might be a way to expedite that."

"How?"

"If it were an open and shut case, the judge might be persuaded to have the hearing sooner out of the best interests of the child. The letter that Miss Thompson left with her daughter goes a long way in that direction but it's not the same thing as a legal document. The letter says that she was aware that she dying. If she knew she didn't have a lot of time left, she might have made those arrangements in a more binding form."

"You mean like a will?" Reid asked.

"That's exactly what I mean. If she had one and it says the same thing that letter does, then the hearing becomes all but a formality as long as you pass the background check and the homestudy. The background check would happen first, which considering the FBI has higher standards for that than we do, there shouldn't be any doubt about that going smoothly. After that, social services in DC would conduct a home study, they'd send us the report and then we'd be able to move forward with the hearing. Once you become her guardian, at that point you would be allowed to bring her home."

"What's her name?"

"She doesn't have one yet. For babies who are found under circumstances like these, we file what's called a foundling certificate. It's like a birth certificate except the baby isn't given a name. Then we go back once a legal guardian is established, we go back and amend their certificate with the name their adoptive guardians give them. That might be something to start thinking about. In the meantime, would you like to meet her?"

"C-can I?" He asked. "Is she here?"

Ms. Frankfort nodded. "Excuse me, I'll just be a moment." She replied before leaving the room.

Reid knew she couldn't have been gone for long but to him, it felt like hours.

"This is it, Spence, you ready?" JJ asked.

He nodded.

When Ms. Frankfort came back in, she was cradling an infant wrapped in a pink, black, and white plaid fleece blanket. "Here she is." She said, bringing her over to Reid and placing her gently in his arms.

He looked down at her and noticed that she already had a mop of thick, silky, black hair, then, after a few seconds, as though she was aware of his gaze, she opened her eyes and looked up at him. Her eyes were a bluish gray, more muted in color than her mother's had been, but they were bright and alert. She smiled, and after freeing her arm, reached up. Reid met her halfway and gave her a finger to hang on to. "Hi, little one… my name's Spencer, I was friends with your mommy. You're safe now, I'm gonna take good care of you."

"She's a sweetheart," Ms. Frankfort commented, "Since it was pretty obvious in her case who her guardian was going to be, I've been taking care of her, my own daughter was holding her just now. We estimate she's about eight or nine days old, that blanket is the same one she was wrapped in when she was found. I tried to get her a new one, but she just cried non-stop."

"But wouldn't she be too little to recognize that specific blanket?" JJ asked.

"I don't think it is the blanket itself, if this is the blanket Becca wrapped her in, then it might still have Becca's scent on it as well as her own," Reid explained. "That familiarity would make her feel secure."

When he looked back down at the little girl, she was fast asleep.

"Awe" JJ exclaimed in a whisper.

"I've never seen her fall asleep like that in the arms of someone she just met, even as little as she is, it's never happened. Looks like Miss Thompson made the right choice."