Reckless

Chapter 29

Penelope's cell phone trace led the team to a part of the city where dozens of homes sat unoccupied. With most of the street numbers long since worn off, it took them longer than Toni would have liked to figure out exactly which house her brother's cell phone signal had come from. Hotch pushed open the gate on the rust covered chain link fence. Toni followed him into the overgrown yard, noting a sign that said the city had condemned the property and slated it for demolition over four years ago. The brick siding was slowly crumbling away. What glass was left in the lower floor windows hung from the frames in dingy jagged shards.

Hotch and Luke circled around the back, leaving Toni, JJ, and Spencer to attempt entry through the front door.

"Are we sure this is the right place?," JJ asked. She furrowed her brows together, testing the rotted wooden stair steps carefully before she put her full weight on them.

As if on cue, a muffled scream rang out from somewhere deep inside the dilapidated home. Like she did on the phone, Toni recognized her brother's voice. Benny was calling her name, and Luke's. She pushed forward, preparing to force the door open. But Toni only made it a few steps before Spencer stopped her with his hand on her arm.

"Listen," he urged, keeping his voice barely above a whisper. Spencer held one finger up, cocking his head to the side as he concentrated on the screams coming from inside the house. Toni's body tensed. The urge to rush inside and help her brother was strong. But she did as Spencer asked and listened. It took her a moment to pick up on what he heard in the first few seconds. Her brother's scream and his desperate cry for help was playing on repeat.

"I don't think he's in there," Spencer whispered. He placed his hand on her arm again, but this time it was meant to comfort her.

"You're right," Toni agreed. The whole situation, including the taunting phone call, was all starting to feel more and more like a trap.

JJ picked her way further down the rotting porch until she found a window that was missing most of its glass. After knocking the last few shards loose, she lifted her leg and carefully climbed through. Spencer and Toni followed her, looking where her attention was focused. There was an odd looking and recently installed contraption that was set up just inside the front door. Spencer moved with caution as he crept closer to the device.

"It's rigged to the door. If we came in that way, we would have all been sprayed with whatever is inside that tank," he said, gesturing to a canister that was attached to the rear of the device.

"It's probably scopolamine," JJ said. Toni nodded her agreement as she gestured for Spencer to move away from the device. Dosing people with that particular drug was Peter Lewis's signature. It was one of the stranger and more specific behaviors Toni had ever seen.

They paused briefly as JJ radioed to the other members of their team that were still outside, letting them know that the house was rigged with traps. At Spencer's suggestion, the three of them spread out as they moved through the run down house. That way if they were sprayed with another dose of hallucinogenic drugs, it wouldn't get all of them.

A small black squirrel jumped down from an exposed ceiling beam, startling them before he scurried across the room and excited the house through one of the broken windows. There was no need to check behind any of the doors inside the house, as none of them were still on the hinges. Off what used to be the kitchen, there was one door left standing. JJ stepped forward. When she opened it, the sound of Benny screaming could be heard much more clearly.

"Wait," Toni hissed, stopping Spencer and JJ before either of them could start down the steps. She poked around in the kitchen, locating an old rusted bread box. Toni moved forward and tossed the heavy box down the steps. It slapped and banged against the wooden slats of the steps. When it bounced off the bottom step and into the wall, a cloud of mist engulfed the bottom stairwell.

"Good call," JJ said, smiling when Toni thanked her for the compliment.

Once the mist of scopolamine had settled, they headed down the steps one at a time. When JJ and Spencer reached the basement, Toni was already inside the room where her brother's screams were coming from. Like Spencer thought, Benny was not present in the room. A laptop was sitting in the middle of the room, playing a video of him on a loop. Toni couldn't see much more than her brother and the strange looking chair he was sitting in. Peter Lewis knew better than to show them the background of the room he was in.

From the position of Benny's arms, it was obvious that he was being restrained. He screamed for Toni. Then he yelled Luke's name a few times before Scratch pulled a mask down over his face. Behind the clear shield of the mask, the space filled with a foggy cloud of scopolamine. Benny's muffled cries could still be heard through the barrier. After that, the video cut off and started from the beginning again. They normally wouldn't touch anything in the room before the crime scene investigators came in. But Toni leaned down and pressed the mute button on the laptop anyway, silencing her brother's terrified screams.

With the video loop now playing on mute, Toni looked around the room. Her eyes widened as she took in the photographs that covered the walls of the room. There were pictures of not just the entire team, but their families as well. Aside from Luke, who just joined the BAU during their last case, Peter Lewis had been survelling all of them for months. He took pictures of their homes and vehicles. There was a picture of Toni and Hotch that she could tell was from the first time he came out to assist her with the manhunt. Toni guessed that's when Lewis started stalking her. Lewis either guessed that she was going to end up joining the team, or she pissed him off by catching all the killers he broke out of prison before they had a chance to cause more chaos. Since he kidnapped her brother, Toni was willing to bet that it was the latter. Lewis clearly had a personal vendetta against her.

"Oh my god," JJ gasped. She moved forward towards a photo of her son playing on the playground at his school. The angle on the photo made it clear that it had not been taken from a distance. Lewis was close enough to Henry that he could have touched him, or maybe even taken him if he'd been so inclined. There were similar pictures of both Jack and Romeo, though the ones of Jack had not been taken at his school but rather at one of his soccer games.

"That's it," Toni grumbled, shaking her head at a photo of Romeo reading in the library at his school. "I'm putting him in private school."

Toni glanced at Spencer. If he was upset about the pictures of him visiting his mother at her care home, he wasn't showing it. Instead, he was moving around the room, his eyes scanning the disturbing collection of pictures that covered the walls of the room. He paused, gesturing towards a few pictures that were lying on the floor in front of the laptop where the video of Benny being forcefully drugged was still playing on a loop.

"Is this you?," Spencer asked. Toni stepped towards him, cocking her head slightly to the side as she stared down at the photos he was referring to. The last one in the row was a recent picture of her brother Benny when she visited him in Texas about a month ago. It served as proof that Scratch was stalking her brother. But since Benny was kidnapped, that wasn't new information. They already knew that was happening. Unlike the rest of the collection, the other two photos were much older. Lewis must have pulled them off Benny's social media. They certainly weren't from hers, Toni didn't have much social media presence.

"It's me and Benny," Toni confirmed. The first one was from their freshman year in high school. She recognized their matching basketball uniforms. The second picture was older. It was of them in sixth grade. That was the year she got that tragically short haircut. Her mother made her cut it short after they all caught head lice. Toni relayed this information to Spencer, leaving out the part about the head lice. He didn't comment on it. Not yet at least. But Toni could tell he was working something out in his mind.

Spencer was quiet on the ride back to headquarters. Toni didn't mind. She didn't have much to say either. She leaned her head back against the seat and listened to Hotch call Derek Morgan and a few other former BAU agents to let them know there was a chance Lewis might be stalking them as well. When they arrived back at the station, Toni checked on her son before she retreated to her desk. Spencer and Penelope were in her office with the door shut, watching the video loop of her brother being drugged. Toni knew there was a good chance they would find something useful in the footage, but she couldn't stomach watching it again. She was grateful to her team, and Spencer in particular, for doing it for her.

Toni took a deep breath, scrubbing her face with her hands before she picked up her phone and called Miguel, her oldest brother. It wasn't a call she was looking forward to making, but Toni knew she had to tell her other brothers that Benny was missing. The call went how she expected that it would. Despite her assurances that her team was doing everything they could to find Benny, Miguel sent her other two brothers to the airport. They were going to fly in from Texas on the next available flight. Toni prayed that her team would find Benny before they arrived. Her brothers were good at finding people that didn't want to be found. But having them insert themselves into the BAU's investigation was going to turn into a mess the moment their plane arrived. With everything that she had going on, the last thing she needed to add to it was the responsibility of wrangling her brothers.

"I can't drink any more coffee," Toni sighed.

"It's tea," Rossi said, giving her a sympathetic smile as he pulled up a chair next to her desk. Toni nodded. She wasn't in the mood for tea either, but she thanked him anyway. He was late to the party, the only member of the team that slept his Sunday morning away and didn't get Penelope's urgent calls. Toni pulled a bottle of over the counter painkillers from her desk drawer, washing them down with mint tea and wishing it was tequila as Rossi pulled up everything Penelope was able to find on the man they still had in holding downstairs.

Daniel Reyes' childhood was pretty much what Toni would expect from someone that ended up with Dissociative Identity Disorder. He suffered through a lot of trauma and abuse, even before his mother died. He was alone with his abuser after that. Toni guessed that a lot of information was missing from the reports. At some point, it was discovered that his stepfather was making him play russian roulette with a loaded gun. Daniel was removed from the home and placed in foster care after that. As irritated as she was with him, for whatever part he had in her brother's abduction, even Toni was having a hard time not feeling sympathy for the man.

"If we show him all this, do you think we can snap him out of whatever trance Lewis put him in?," Toni asked.

"He suffered a psychotic break less than six months ago, Rossi added. "If we push him too hard, he might break again and then everything he knows about your brother is gone." Toni nodded, rising from her seat when she noticed that Spencer and Penelope were out of the office and heading in her direction with the rest of the team close behind them.

"Did you find something?," Toni asked, her voice hopeful even though she was mentally preparing herself for the worst.

"We found out where Scratch bought the bondage chair he had your brother strapped into," Spencer announced. Toni sighed. From his tone alone, she had a pretty good idea who sold Peter Lewis whatever horrible torture device he was using this time.

"Galina?, Toni asked, rolling her eyes when Spencer nodded his head and confirmed her suspicions. Her brother's sex shop ex had already been warned twice. This time, Toni was going to arrest her as an accessory. The charge probably wouldn't stick. But maybe a few nights behind bars would make her think twice before she sold another one of her torture devices to a known criminal.

"We called the shop, trying to figure out if there was a record of where she had the chair shipped," Spencer explained. "But she doesn't seem to have any interest in being forthcoming with that information. The local police have been informed. They're going to bring her in for questioning, but…" His voice trailed off. But the concerned expression on his face was saying what his words didn't.

"...But by the time they get anything out of her, it'll be too late," Toni finished.

"We still have Daniel Reyes downstairs," Rossi offered. "... and I think I know a way we can get through to him."

Toni flexed her hand, relaxing her clenched fist. She glanced around them, checking to make sure no one was looking before she extended her arm slightly to her right and clasped Spencer's hand in hers. He squeezed back, offering her a reassuring smile and a whispered promise. "I'll be right there with you." Toni nodded as she snatched her hand back, tugging at the hem of her faded college t-shirt before they exited the elevator together.

She fell into step next to Spencer, letting Rossi and Hotch lead the way to the holding room where Benny's imposter was impatiently waiting. Toni took a deep breath, reminding herself of Rossi's suggestions on what she ought to say. She would never admit it out loud, but she felt immeasurably better knowing that Spencer was joining her in the holding room. She'd always been so independent, how quickly he'd become her safe space surprised her a little.

Just before they were about to enter the room, Spencer stopped her by placing his hand on her shoulder. "Did your brother know Luke was cleared for active duty?," he asked. Toni shook her head. She didn't say anything to Benny about it, mainly because she hadn't talked to him since it happened. Spencer followed his first question up with a second one. "Did he know Luke joined the BAU?" Toni shook her head at that as well. There was no way Benny knew that, because she didn't even know until they were leaving for Washington. Not even Peter Lewis was privy to that information, as he'd been busy kidnapping Toni's brother and programming Daniel Reyes to believe he was him while they were hunting down Kevin Decker.

"You think that means something?," Toni asked. She watched the minute changes in Spencer's facial expressions. She could tell he was working something out in his mind.

"I'm not sure yet," Spencer admitted. "But I think it's strange that Benny was yelling for Luke if he thought Luke was home on disability leave." Toni considered that as she entered the holding room.

Pretending she believed that Daniel Reyes was her brother was easier than Toni expected. She forced a few smiles as she spoke with him. Once he seemed comfortable, she slowly eased in some details about Daniel's real life.

"I've missed you," Toni lied. She didn't miss him. She didn't even know him. "I was worried about you too. I know you took it hard when mom died." That was another lie. Carlos was the one that took it hard when their mother died. All these years later, he was still searching for her replacement in all the porn stars and call girls he spent his time chasing around. When they found out their mother died, she and Benny hashed out their mixed feelings about the woman that birthed them over a pitcher of beer. There were no tears involved.

Daniel Reyes reached across the table. Toni allowed him to take her hand in his, though she would rather have avoided physical contact. "That was the worst time in my life," he agreed. "I'm glad we could be there for each other."

Toni held Daniel's hand. She took a deep breath, silently praying that what she was about to say would help snap him out of the weird trance he was in. "I'm glad too. But I wasn't there. After mom died, it was just you and him, alone in the house with that gun…"

There was a long pause as what she said slowly sunk in. Daniel gripped her hand painfully tight. Toni winced. But it only hurt for a moment. Spencer was up from his seat, gently prying the man's fingers off her hand so she could pull it back. She expected Spencer to sit back down. But instead he remained standing, placing both his palms flat against the table as he leaned forward over it and spoke.
"You are always with me, and everything I have is yours, but we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.'"

Toni glanced at Spencer, confused as to why he was suddenly quoting scripture. If she knew more about the bible, she might have recognized the passage from the book of Luke. More specifically Luke 15, from the verses eleven through thirty two. It was the exact ages of her brother in the photos that were lying out in front of Peter Lewis' laptop. How Spencer put that all together, she had no idea. If the situation wasn't so intense, his computer level recall skills would have made her laugh.

Toni watched the man across from her as Spencer lowered himself back down into his seat. His eyes went glassy for a moment. Then suddenly, he was looking around the room like he had no idea how he got there. Toni made sure to question him gently, though what she really wanted to do was shake the truth from him like a candy bar stuck in a vending machine. Her mention of Daniel's own traumatic life event, along with the bible verse release phrase that Spencer quoted, allowed him to shed his false persona like the skin on a snake. Once they were able to talk to the real Daniel Reyes, it didn't take long before he gave them the address of the building where Peter Lewis was holding Toni's brother.