Reckless

Chapter 7

…Going undercover in order to lure a suspect in was extremely risky. But five social workers were dead. Another three were scared for life. And the Crimson King's latest victim was in the hospital on life support. They tried everything to catch him, including calling in a consult with the FBI's behavioral analysis unit. But nothing was working. They were desperate.

Despite the obvious risk, the plan wasn't horrible as far as last ditch efforts go. Toni's partner went undercover as a child protective services investigator. They had the CPS unit supervisor write up a few fake logged complaints about him, making sure to include the types of things they knew their suspect wouldn't be able to resist. The complaint was for abuse of position and power, removing a child from a home without just cause, and a few other choice tidbits. And then waited. That's where everything went wrong.

Years later, neither Toni nor Alvez was able to figure out how Daniel Cullen got into the house. Toni told herself it didn't matter anymore, even though it still bothered her. All she knew was that she was across town, picking up takeout from a local Thai restaurant that offered hand pounded curry and arguing with Luke about who the best college basketball player of all time was when suddenly his end of the line went silent. She was picking up dinner because Luke beat her at rock paper scissors.

Toni repeated his name a few times, her volume rising with her anxiety. "Alvez! Hey Alvez, you okay? LUKE!"

She heard Luke scream. The sound was probably the most horrifying thing Toni ever heard in her life. Her phone was connected to the bluetooth system in the car, making it sound like his wail of pain was coming from all around her. Sometimes, Toni still heard it in her nightmares. The tires of her car squealed against the pavement. Other drivers were honking and slamming on their brakes as she did a full U-turn in the middle of a five lane road. She dialed her unit chief as she pressed the gas pedal to the floor of her government issue rental car. It would have been more efficient to call the local precinct directly. But Toni was in a total panic.

"Wait for backup," her supervisor ordered. Toni could hear his voice coming in through the bluetooth of the car. "Ramirez! Don't you go running in there half fucking cocked! That's a fucking order!"

Toni didn't remember doing it. But later, her unit chief told her that she screamed back at him, telling him to get fucked. She drove her car right over the and across the front lawn of the house, stopping once her front bumper was buried in the hedges that lined the front porch. Toni drew her gun. Somewhere in the distance, she could hear sirens. But they were already too late. Because when she kicked the door open, the entire house was filled with the tangy smell of blood.

Luke was half naked, kneeling with his arms stretched out and strapped to that god awful leather spreader. There was a leather collar around his neck, tight enough to choke him if he tried to escape. His chest was covered in blood. More of it was pooled up on the floor under him. She couldn't shoot his attacker, not without hitting Luke.

"Try not to flinch."

That was the last thing Toni heard before she saw the man drag his knife down across Luke's forehead. She darted across the room. But it was too late. The Crimson King sliced Luke's eye right out of the socket. Toni didn't remember how she got her hands on Daniel Cullen. But she remembered the sound his arm made when she twisted it back and snapped it. She brought her gun down against his head next, knocking him unconscious before she dropped to her knees in the puddle of her partner's blood. Toni could hear someone screaming in pain as she tried to pry the locking mechanism off the spreader bar. It wasn't until the local police rushed onto the scene that she realized it was her…

On her way back to the station, Toni shook off the memories that this investigation was dredging up for her. She thought she was coming back from the hospital with some big revelation. But by the time she arrived, the rest of the team had already come to the same conclusion she did. Daniel Cullen was not responsible for the attack on the young man she and JJ just visited in the hospital. And not only that, they believed they knew who was responsible. They were looking for Peter Lewis, the man responsible for the prison break. Toni was frustrated. But she told herself that there was a chance this investigation would still get her closer to finding the real Crimson King. And even if it didn't, Peter Lewis still needed to be caught.

"I'm sorry you're not getting the chance to hunt the man you're really after," Hotch commiserated. "But you can still help us catch this one." With that he plunked down a small stack of file folders on the table in front of her. It was everything they had on Peter Lewis aka Mr. Scratch. "We're close to this case," Hotch explained. "...Maybe too close. I'd like a fresh pair of eyes. See if you can piece together something we've missed."

Toni didn't think she'd find anything the BAU missed. But she nodded anyway, plugging in her laptop so it could boot up as she flipped open the first file folder. She had a particular method to how she read through a case. She liked to double check everything in the file through the electronic backups in the FBI database. Sometimes she found discrepancies, or little things that didn't add up. Sometimes those things led her to bigger things and then eventually to the capture of whoever she was hunting. As Toni scanned through the pages and double checked the information on her laptop, she listened quietly to the theories the other agents were tossing around.

Their next break came not as some revelation by one of the BAU profilers, but by a sketchy 911 call. The caller stated she was Jennifer Jareau, which she clearly wasn't, because JJ was sitting in the police station with them. The call was traced back to a local residence. The whole situation reeked of a trap. Toni was only about halfway through the file, but even she knew Peter Lewis wasn't stupid enough to make a phony 911 call and then sit around in the house he made it from and wait to be captured.

In an unsurprising turn of event, when they arrived at the house, Peter Lewis was nowhere to be found. Toni was in the kitchen when she heard Hotch calling to her from the back of the house. She hurried down the hall, resting her hand on her gun as she moved. There was a woman strapped to a rocking chair. The sight of her face made Toni cringe. And Toni was sure it was even worse for Hotch, since it was his name carved into the woman's forehead. Hotch motioned Toni forward, pointing to an enlarged photograph that was pinned to the front of the woman's dress.

"The fuck?," Toni cursed. She glanced sideways, hoping her foul language didn't offend the BAU unit chief. When she was sure she wasn't in trouble for cussing, Toni knelt down to get a better look at the picture as the EMT's hurried into the room to give the poor woman the medical care she needed. It was a photo of her and Aaron Hotchner, which meant it was taken recently. From the limited background, Toni guessed it was during the manhunt for Geoff Turner. Hotch came out under the guise of assisting the task force. But Toni knew he was mostly just trying to feel her out, see if she was still interested in being reassigned to the BAU.

Toni used a gloved hand to flip the picture over. Welcome to the team was written across the back, in what appeared to be blood. Toni cringed and released her grip on the photo. Sometimes, her paranoia got the better of her. But it seemed she wasn't wrong this time. This was a personal attack on her.

"Cute picture," she huffed. "Real cute. This creep has a boner for me now? What the hell did I do to him?" She wasn't even officially reassigned yet. This was one hell of a welcome to the team.

Spencer stepped further into the room, making space for the EMT's to haul their latest victim away on a stretcher. "You did track down eight of the serial killers he broke out of jail," Spencer said. Toni smiled at him before she could stop herself. She'd been trying not to look at Spencer, for fear that his other colleagues would catch her looking at him. She raked her eyes over him, wondering how he looked so crisp and put together after a night of no sleep when she felt like something the cat drug in.

"I guess I did do that," Toni agreed with a soft chuckle. She took a small step closer, feeling like she was flirting with danger as she blinked up at him. Toni lowered her voice like she was telling a secret. "There's something important that Peter Lewis didn't consider when he decided to involve me in his plan."

"What's that?," Spencer asked, tilting his head slightly to the side as he considered what might be the fallacy in their suspect's plan.

"He doesn't know who he's fucking with," Toni remarked. She glanced at Hotch again. "I mean who he's messing with," she corrected. Spencer didn't release any audible laughter. But his chest was shaking and his lips were pressed tightly together. So much for watching my language, Toni thought.

When they got back to the station, Toni worked her way through the remainder of the file on Peter Lewis while the rest of the team tried to figure out how and why the two victims were chosen. When they discovered that both of them were being treated for Dissociative Identity Disorder, JJ went back to the hospital to see if she could get any more information from their first victim.

Toni was pawing through what little physical evidence they had as she let everything she just read fall together in her mind. She picked up the leather arm spreader that Brian Phillips was strapped into before he was released into the desert only a mile or two from a major highway. The leather was smooth under her fingers. Toni shut her eyes. Suddenly, the night of Luke's attack came flooding back. She remembered cutting him out of the arm stretcher Daniel Cullen strapped him into. One of the EMT's gave her a scalpel. The spreader in her hands wasn't just a similar model, it was an exact replica, down to the color of the stitching in the leather and the locking mechanism.

"You see something?"

Toni's body jerked as her startle reflex kicked in. She was so deep in thought that she didn't realize anyone was standing so close to her, let alone Spencer Reid. If she was paying attention, she would have smelled his aftershave. He must be a creature of habit, she thought. Because he smelled exactly the same as she remembered, minus the tequila and limes. Get it together Toni, she told herself.

"This isn't just any arm spreader," Toni said, handing Spencer the device so he could look for himself. "It's an exact replica of the one that Daniel Cullen used. We never released any of those details. So either someone hacked the FBI database, or maybe Cullen himself is involved somehow."

"If we can figure out who made it," Spencer suggested. "Maybe they can tell us. I'll get Garcia on the phone and have her check…"

"Don't bother," Toni said, stopping Spencer as he was pulling his phone out to call their technical analyst. "I already know who made it." He gave her a questioning look, asking if she remembered who it was from the original case. "No," Toni replied. The woman was questioned as part of the original case. But that's not why Toni remembered her. "She used to be married to my brother."