BULLETS | JEMILY

a piece of the puzzle

~~~

You pierce my soul. I am half agony. Half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever.

Jane Austin - Persuasion

~~~

{EMILY}

Well, it didn't do me any good to knee him where it hurt, because now I'm sitting on a wooden chair in the middle of the room with my arms tied tightly behind the back. It's extremely uncomfortable, but not overly painful. I think my right cheek is still red because it's definitely burning from the slaps. He's got one hell of a strong left hand. He left a while ago and I spent my time coming up with more ways to antagonise him. At this point, I don't really care any more I just hate this guy and don't want to give him any satisfaction.

The restraints aren't loosening and I can finally hear him walking back up the stairs. I wait patiently for him to go through the whole ritual of unlocking the door, it's four bolts I think, and smile as he enters. "Hello again, long time no see." I tease. Seems like I caught him in a bad mood because he is definitely not impressed. "Shut up. Just shut up." He shouts, running his hands through his hair. Something's wrong, I can tell. "What is it? Has something happened?" I ask nervously. He doesn't say anything. "Is it JJ? Has something happened to her? Will?" "This is all your fault. Nobody was supposed to be hurt." Now I'm starting to freak out. "Who? Will, what's going on? What have you done?" I keep asking him but he won't tell me anything. He shuts off and just paces across the room in front of me. It's infuriating. 

"Look, whatever you want to do to me, just do it, but leave everyone else out of it, okay?" At this point, he's completely lost it. He storms over to the closet in the corner, which is empty, and kicks the door hard. At least he isn't hitting me, I guess. He doesn't say another word as he stomps out of the room and slams the door behind him. I close my eyes and pray silently that JJ is alright. 

{THIRD PERSON}

Dave and Reid return to the BAU to meet with the others. "We spoke to the manager of Giovanni's, or whoever the hell he was. He said that they never received an order from Emily or JJ." Dave says. "So what they think must have happened was that the unsub was able to clone their phone and intercept the order that JJ made." Reid continues. "The guy has some tech skills then. Garcia, how easy is it to clone a phone like that?" Hotch asks her over the phone. "Uh, you'd need a decent understanding of technology. It's not like rocket science but it's still pretty complex." "Right, so narrow your search to Dans and Daniels that have any sort of computer or mobile related jobs or degrees and stay within Virginia." "Narrowing as we speak, sir." "Any luck?" Morgan asks. "Uh, well there's this guy, Daniel James who worked at a tech support company, and he has a record, but wait, he's back in prison after joyriding and crashing a car into a street light last week." "Widen the search, he might not be from Virginia." Hotch says. "Alright, this guy looks pretty good for it." "Give us the short version." Rossi says. "Dan Brandon is somewhat of a technology wizard and he lived in New Orleans, Louisiana, up until three months ago when he moved to Arlington, Virginia, to start a new job. He's been arrested for stalking and some minor sexual offences, but was never charged." "Any connection to Emily or JJ?" "Not that I can tell, but he just deposited a large amount of cash yesterday at the bank of ten thousand dollars. I'm sending you his address now." 

Hotch looks at the others and they agree that he's the prime suspect. "He could just be a piece of the puzzle, but it's a good guess that he's involved at the very least." "We need to subdue him alive if we want answers from him." Rossi says. It's a difficult ask, but they all know that finding Emily is their biggest priority. "Let's go." 

It's a reasonably short drive to his house. Hotch and Rossi take the front of the house, whilst Morgan and Reid sneak around the back. It's a quiet area and already, Hotch is pretty sure that Emily isn't going to be there. It's not secluded enough, and Emily's bound to be making a lot of noise. 

"FBI, open up." He bangs on the door. There's no response, but there's a truck parked out front so he's definitely home. After counting to three, both Hotch and Morgan kick the doors in and storm into the house. "Clear" echoes through the house until the team gather outside a locked door leading to the basement. "Ready?" Morgan goes first, sending the door flying down the stairs. One by one, they rush down with their torches on, only to be greeted by the dead body of Dan Brandon. "Damn." Morgan says, kicking the box closest to him on the floor.

"Someone really did a number on this guy, huh." Rossi says as he starts looking around. "Double crossed by a partner?" Hotch suggests. "Maybe he was just a loose end. The unsub used him to get Emily and then disposed of him. We need to look at his phone and email records. See who he knew and who he talked to." Reid says and calls Garcia.

"Hey, have you found her yet? Please tell me you have good news." She answers straight away. "Uh, well, Dan Brandon is dead. But we need to know if he talked to anyone recently." "Oh, well I was looking in to his phone activity and there's one number that sticks out. It comes from New Orleans. It's from a burner phone but I did cross reference and it turns out that it is also saved on JJ's phone at some point. Coincidence? I think not." "We need a name, or at least a location." "I'm working on it. Last activity was two days ago...." She goes silent and the team all start to worry. "Garcia?" "Sir, I.. surely this is wrong." "What is it?" Hotch asks. "I-the last known location is an old house that is listen under the name W. LaMontagne." "Will?" That's the last name that the team expected to hear.

~~~

Well they were surprised too. :)