Smart Girl(A Criminal Minds/Spencer Reid Fan-fiction) BOOK TWO

Chapter Twenty-One: Fires and Revealed Secrets

"Ma-ma!"

"Good! Oh, your doing so good! Can you say Riley?"

"Ril-ey." She said happily, putting her foot in her mouth. I took it out of her mouth. Riley was eleven months old and she was talking.

"Good! Ok, come on! Time for Day Care. Spence, you ready to go?"I called.

'Yeah, coming!" He came out and slipped his messenger bag over his shoulder.

~~~

"Two D.C. homes, torched two families on same night. Last night." Garcia briefed us.

'I'm surprised it still hasn't hit the news. It's already mid-day."

'Yeah, all anyone's talking about is this storm that may or may not hit. But, I managed to find an online article about the fires written by this guy, Jeff Hastings, but no one's running with it."

"How strange, they usually thrive on tragedy." Rossi said dryly.

"Yeah, and it gets weirder."

"Ron and Lauren Cosenza, and their ten-year-old son were found in the master bedroom of their home, each shot through the forehead. The gun belonged to the father."

"Murder-suicide?" Seaver assumed.

"Well it looks like Metro P.D.'s investigation is going that way, but it's still the first Forty-eight. They want our help."

"Kerry and Frank Fagen were found in their master bedroom, from a suspected gas leak."

"It had to be huge to cause this much damage. How do people miss this?" I asked.

"Any connection between the families?"

"Just one. A continent. Kerry Fagen was born in Germany, Ron Cosenza was from Italy."

"So two of the five victims were from Europe. How does that help?"

"It doesn't. I'm just stating the facts and the facts happen to be-"

"I'm sorry I'm late." Emily said, rushing in.

'You ok?" Hotch asked.

"Yeah. It's just one of those weeks I guess. What did I miss? Arsonist?"

"One appears to be murder suicide,the other a freak accident."

"Why are we looking at it?"

"House fires are rare. Add to that a few miles apart, within the same hour, kind of tips the scales of coincidence."

'Yeah, if somebody did this, They're highly motivated and organized." Spencer added.

" And if he wants to strike again, he's got seventy-two hours before the storm shuts the city down."

~~~

I headed to the "Gas Leak" house with Rossi and Prentiss.

"Ok, thanks." Emily hung up."That's weird, they're not coming. There was some mix-up with metro PD. We're on our own. What do you got?"

"Well, from what I can tell, the fire didn't spread. It couldn't have due to the smoke detectors and sprinkler system." I said.

"What's with the security system? Why the steel door? What did he do for a living?"

"Um, computer networking, and the Fagans were Financial advisers."

"These neighborhoods don't require anything more than an average dead-bolt. Certainly nothing on the bedroom doors. It's like a panic room."

"Yeah, but there's nothing in this room that's high tech. There's no surveillance cameras, average alarm system."

"In an average area."

'But, he had a forty caliber and like twenty locks." I added. "What was he afraid of?"

"Or who."

"Maybe himself. If he actually killed his family, then he's been hiding something."

~~~

"Garcia hasn't found any connections between the victims." Rossi said as we waited in the elevator.

"There has to be one."

"On paper, everything is clean. They're perfect, but what happened to them last night was no where even close." I added. Prentiss's phone beeped. She looked at it, sighed, then put it back."Emily, are you ok?"

"People text like it's not as intrusive as a phone call."

"You know, you haven't had a vacation in a while. Weren't you talking about Italy?" Rossi asked.

"My mother extended her trip there. It wouldn't be much of a vacation."

"It's a big country."

"Not big enough."

"Think about it." I told her.

"I will." The doors opened.

'And, pick a place where that thing won't work."

'Yeah." I walked over to my desk, which was next to Prentiss and Spencer. Prentiss put her purse down and he jumped. "Sorry."

"I thought you were in there."

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm-I'm sure these victims overlap somehow. Garcia pulled their phone numbers, but so far, I can't find anything."

"You just jumped." Emily told him.

"I've been having these really intense headaches recently."

"Have you seen a Doctor?"

'Yeah, a few. None of them have been able to figure it out." He said.

'Oh, I'm...sorry. Does anyone know?"

"Just you and Marianne."

"I wont tell anyone."

"I know. They'd just worry. You know, not that you're not gonna worry, or that Marianne's not already worrying, But they'll just make me feel like a baby. You know?"

"I do." She said. She looked at me and I nodded.

"How about you?"

"I'm good."

'You've been picking your fingernails again."We said in unison.

"Yeah."

'You only do that when your stressed."

'It's just a bad habit." He looked down at his paper work, and I saw how she looked at him. She was lying.

'Aha. You coming?"

'Yeah, in a minute." I walked around the desk, grabbing her arm and dragging her to the bathroom. "Marianne?"

'Is this about Ian Doyle?" I asked. She stopped.

"How do you know about that?" She pinned me up against the wall. "How?"

"I did some work for Interpol a few years ago."