Killer Queen

Chapter 22

     "So, I did what you asked and looked way back into anything even remotely connected to Aaron Gardener," explained Garcia. "I saw something that I looked into. It was a series of properties that were bought right after each other, under the name Aaron Gardener, about a month ago."

"Then I found something while I analyzed the video," Emily added. "Logan wasn't just screaming. She was tapping something on her chair. I think it was morse code."

"How does Logan know morse code?" wondered Hotch.

Spencer lifted his hand up. "I did. We had nothing to do and it was fun."

"Well, it certainly paid off."

Emily set the laptop down and zoomed in on Logan's fingers that were just barely visible to the camera. Spencer leaned in, his eyes darting from the laptop to a notebook that he had in his hands. The video finished and he held it up to read.

"Basement?"

"So she's in a basement somewhere," JJ deduced. "Garcia, how many of those properties have a basement?"

Garcia typed on her computer for a few seconds. "Um, five of them. Two are in Virginia."

Sighing, Hotch sat down. "We can't risk going in. If he finds out that we went into one of the houses, that could trigger an alarm for him to kill Logan and run."

"Those things in the background, they look almost like gardening tools," pointed out David Rossi, who hadn't been very involved in the investigation until now. "Or maybe farming tools."

Garcia gasped. "One of the houses, the property is on a farm!"

"The perfect place to torture and kill a person," sighed Hotch. "Alright, let's go."

~~~

The only thing Logan could hear was the sound of gentle blues music drowned out by her pleading. It was as if he was mocking her, now. She was going to die alone, but not if the BAU team got her message.

To be fair, she didn't even know if she was in a basement. For all she knew, she could be in some garage or a shed somewhere far away from all life.

Aaron Gardener hummed softly to the music as he worked, ignoring Logan's begging. Logan couldn't remember the last time she wasn't bleeding from someplace over her body, she had lost sense of all time since she woke up the first time.

"Do you want to know something, Logan?" The teenager whimpered, and her father continued. "Your mother was the loveliest woman I had ever met when I proposed. We were so in love, and then she got pregnant.

"It was both a miracle and a calamity," Aaron chuckled, only glancing up at Logan once. "However, at the time, I didn't know that your birth would lead to her death." His tone was sharp and the cut he was making went a little deeper than he wanted it to. Logan gasped sharply through her gag. "It was all your fault, you know. Your aunt took you inside to clean you up, and that's when she was abducted."

Logan tried to say something, but she couldn't. In a fit of anger, Aaron reached up and ripped the gag out of her mouth. "Go ahead, say something! You know there is no going back from here!"

"I'm sorry, okay! I'm sorry," she cried. "You don't have to do this! Please, don't do this." The last sentence was barely a whisper.

"No!" Aaron shouted. "I'm doing exactly what happened to my fiance to you, because you deserve it! You brought this upon yourself!"

A tear ran down Logan's face. She didn't know that she had any left in her. "Look, I get it. I'm a generally sucky person, and for that I am sorry. If I could bring her back, I would. It would have saved me from so much pain in my childhood if I had actually had her there. Trust me, I understand-"

Logan was cut off with the stinging feeling from Aaron's slap against her face. She gasped, staring back up at him. "Are you dumb? What is wrong with you? I'm trying to help you, but nooooooooo! You'd just love to kill your only daughter, don't you?" He opened up his mouth to talk, but Logan silenced him with a glare. "You know, I wish I could have this kind of courage when I first got here, but now I do and you have to deal with it. At this point, I could care less if you kill me!"

Movement behind her father caught Logan's attention, but before Aaron could look behind him, she continued ranting. "You're so pathetic that you thought that killing me would bring mom back, didn't you? Yeah, well, not gonna happen. If you didn't already know, that's not how the world works."

"F.B.I., put your hands up!" a familiar voice shouted from behind Logan's father. Derek Morgan stepped into the light, his gun pointed at the back of Aaron's head. Slowly, his hands came up and Morgan grabbed them, cuffing him up.

Logan smiled when she saw Hotchner come out from behind Derek, going straight to her. He untied the teenager quickly, cupping her face to keep her from closing her eyes. "Hey, stay with me, okay? Stay with me, here. I need a medic!"

As she was carried out of the basement, Hotch held her hand through the entire trip, getting her to keep her eyes on him. He wasn't allowed in the ambulance, though. Before Logan was wheeled into the emergency vehicle, he kissed her on her forehead.

"You're going to be alright, Logan. I promise," his voice was barely a whisper, and only Logan could have heard it. She gave him a forced smile, before she was taken away from him. The teenager tried as hard as she could to keep her eyes open, but someone inside the ambulance told her that it would be okay to go to sleep. And Logan was too tired to do anything else but close her eyes and let the darkness overcome her.