Escaping to the Genius

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Elli stiffened and looked at Celeste, who walked over and sat down beside her.

"Hi, Elli," Spencer said. He stood a ways away, not even coming close. Celeste wondered if he did that because he'd seen how she acted around men.

"This is Dr. Reid?" she asked.

"Yep. My uncle." Celeste smiled.

Spencer smiled. "You can call me Spencer."

She nodded. "You can sit down, if you want." She glanced once at Celeste, who smiled. "If she trusts you after all she's been through, I know I can."

Careful not to move to quickly, Spencer pulled the chair out and sat. "Celeste said you wanted to see me."

She nodded. "I don't remember much from the attack." A frown settled on her face.

"I can walk you through a memory exercise to help, but you'd have to close your eyes."

Elli gaped and sat back. "I-I don't think-"

"Here." Celeste held out her hand. "If it's too much, just squeeze my hand. We can stop. We won't force you to do anything, Elli."

Firmly Elli grabbed Celeste's hand and took a deep breath. "Okay. I'm ready." She closed her eyes and Spencer gave Celeste a mixed look. She couldn't quite tell if he was proud of her, concerned about her, or if it had something to do with Elli. Maybe all three.

As he walked her through that night, Celeste felt Elli's hand twitch multiple times, but she didn't squeeze, and she didn't protest. It made Celeste feel small and weak. Here Elli was, two days after the experience, and she was reliving it in the presence of a stranger, and she couldn't even look at another man.

"Thanks, Elli. You did great." Spencer stood up.

"I'd like to see Andy now," she whispered. Her eyes flashed to Celeste. "Alone."

Celeste smiled and nodded. "I can go get him."

Spencer left, Celeste following close behind. Andy, her fiancé, was waiting out in the center, talking to a deputy. "Andy," Celeste called, and he looked up immediately. "Elli wants to see you."

~

Morgan and Spencer were sitting in the conference room their team had dominated, looking through boxes of files.

Suddenly Spencer threw down his file and sighed, rubbing his eyes. Morgan looked up. "What's up, kid? You usually love this stuff."

"Usually I don't have a thousand thoughts running through my head, pulsing in my mind, giving me a headache!" His voice rose as he talked until he was almost screaming, and he put his head in his hands and set his elbows on the table.

"Hey, calm down." Morgan set down his file and leaned forward. "Tell me what's going on."

"I can't. That's the problem. Usually I can rant and think calmly through everything, but I can't do that this time, and I can't tell you." He pressed his palms against his eye sockets. "Gah! I don't know what to do! I can't do it, Morgan."

"Do what? Look, you need to relax. Tell me what you can."

Spencer sighed and put his hands down. "I'm not cut out for this. It's only been a few days, but Celeste has told me so much about Brent, about what-I just can't do this. I know these things happen to people, I deal with it all the time, but it's personal this time and I don't know how to help her! Since she told me about him cutting her, I've read every book I can get my hands on about parenting and helping abused adolescents, and when I talk to her I forget every word."

Not knowing the seriousness of the situation, Morgan chuckled a bit. Then he saw the distress in his friend's eyes and in his expression and the smile fell. "Kid, no one asked you to do this. If you can't handle it, we can get someone to help."

"She doesn't trust anyone but me though. I didn't know what he was doing. It was easy to help her when I thought it was a slap on the hand or a night on the porch."

Morgan picked back up the file. "It's tough, but we've gotta get going on this. I'll do what I can to help you later, Reid, but for now, we need to stop this from happening to anyone else."

He nodded, rubbed his eyes, and picked back up the file.

~

Celeste looked around. The team was gone, all either at crime scenes or talking to the families of the victims/victims. She wouldn't be in anyone's way.

Walking around to the front of the whiteboard, her eyes raked across it at lightning fast speed.

White male
Mid-20's, early 30's
Lives alone
No connections between victims
Body drop; brave and mocking police

There she paused, and created a mental whiteboard, erasing the body drop line and replacing it.

Body drop; opportunistic

Reading the profile, she couldn't imagine the man mocking the police. In some circles rape wasn't considered illegal.

"Sir?" she called over to the chief. "Does this town have a law against rape?"

He looked up and blinked at her. She saw arrogance behind his eyes and knew that if she wasn't so connected to the FBI, he wouldn't have answered her plainly. "Not directly. Sexual harassment is fined."

She nodded and called her uncle. "Hey, sweetheart."

"Until the murder five days ago, he hadn't done anything against the law. Attempted kidnapping isn't illegal here, and neither is rape. The MO isn't consistent with the body drop. He didn't drop the body to mock the police; he did it out of convenience. She probably just recognized him, and he couldn't risk getting caught."

"And no one can connect a road to any one person," he said. "So he's smart, but not arrogant."

"And he won't stop until he's caught."

Spencer nodded. "That changes the profile. Morgan and I are busy right now, uh, could you call Garcia? Get her looking with the new profile?"

Not having been in the room when the team delivered the profile, Celeste knew very little about it besides what she was seeing on the board.

"I'll give it a shot. Garcia knows enough to tell me when I'm doing something wrong, right?"

"You're smart. You'll be fine." He hung up and she dialed Garcia.

"Mother of all digital knowledge, how can I be of service, my lovely mini-Reid?"

Celeste chuckled, feeling very warm at finally getting a traditional Garcia greeting. "I have an updated profile. You ready?"

"I was born ready, sweetie. Give it to me."

"Okay. He's a young adult, between twenty-four and thirty-five, white, lives alone near to Sarah Palin." Sarah was the first victim. "He drives a black 2005 Ford F-250, has a background either avoiding or being terrorized by police, knew Tracy Wess-"

"Joshua Cane. Twenty-seven, two blocks from Sarah, black Ford F-250, went to school with Tracy, and his dad was a policeman. He died last month, which is why he's home now."

"Right before this started. Do you have the family's address?"

"One step ahead."

"Thanks, Garcia."

"No problem, sweetie."

She hung up and Celeste hesitated. Finally she called JJ. "Agent Jareau."

"JJ, I got a name from Garcia. Joshua Wess."

She expected her to question her; she wasn't an agent, how did she know for sure? But all she said was, "What's the address?"