Caution to the Wind

Chapter 9

Chapter Summary: Reid is arrested in Mexico, and it leads the team to fight to save him, and Emily to reconnect with someone from her past. Follows S12E13, "Spencer," and S12E14, "Collision Course."

The call came in from Section Chief Cruz: Spencer had been arrested in Mexico. He was being held for drug possession with intent to distribute after leading the Mexican authorities on a high-speed chase through the desert. When the police finally caught up with him, he was clearly high, and had a duffel bag full of cocaine and heroin in his car. None of that sounded even remotely like Reid. He hadn't even mentioned going to Mexico. He'd told Emily he was flying to Houston, and as far as anyone knew, that's where he was.

"This has got to be Scratch," Tara said, "He was laying low; now we know why."

"Crossing the border as a fugitive is a huge risk," Luke pointed out.

"The reward is greater," Emily replied, "He's been punishing the team; now his target is Reid."

"Peter Lewis dropped off the map after attacking Tara's family. Maybe he's been hiding in Mexico this whole time," Stephen said.

"We also have to consider this isn't related to him," Emily said.

"Who else would it be?" Rossi replied.

"Drug cartels?" Luke suggested, "Could have threatened Reid and used him as a mule."

"Agreed, this could simply be a case of bad luck," Rossi said, "Reid was in the wrong place at the wrong time..."

"The question is why was he even in Mexico?" Tara said.

"And why did he have narcotics?" Stephen added.

"Yeah, exactly," Garcia said, "That-that—he wouldn't do that. I'm not gonna share any secrets I'm not supposed to, but those drugs were planted on him."

"Absolutely, but there's something bigger in play," Stephen replied.

Emily, Rossi, and Luke boarded the jet and flew to Mexico, while the rest of the team stayed behind to work the case from the office. Normally, they had a moratorium on inter-team profiling, but this time, Spencer's life depended on them searching through his desk and his digital footprint. They knew his reason for going to Mexico must have something to do with his mother, and he had to have a contact down there who was helping him. Based on the amount of literature in his desk on experimental medicine, they figured his contact was likely an alternative practitioner treating Spencer's mother with methods not approved by the FDA.

In Matamoros, Mexico, Spencer was sitting inside a jail cell. He was dusty, disheveled, and completely disoriented. His eyes were glassy and his movements unsteady, and he had a bandaged cut on his right hand. He barely recognized his friends when they came up to the bars of the cell to greet him.

"We're gonna get you out of here, kid," Rossi assured him.

"We need to work out some details with the locals, okay?" Emily said.

"Who was your contact down here?" Luke asked.

"Rosa..." Spencer mumbled. He rolled up his sleeve to reveal her name written on his forearm. "Rosa Medina. I think she's a doctor."

Rosa Medina was an alias, and her real name was Nadie Ramos. She was a doctor who practiced alternative medicine, specializing in experimental drugs that reversed brain degeneration. The night before Spencer's arrest, she'd been staying at a motel just outside of town, but when the team and the Mexican police went to check it out, the manager said he hadn't seen her all day. When they opened the door to her motel room, they found her dead. She had at least 25 stab wounds, but there was no sign of a murder weapon anywhere. What they did find in the room, however, were some of Spencer's belongings. It really wasn't looking good for him, but the team knew that Scratch was behind this; they just had to find some way to prove it.