1 out of 150//Spencer Reid

44. Past feelings

Y/N and Spencer sat in the conference room. They were sitting right next to each other, looking through each of the victims' files. JJ and Derek were standing nearby, looking at the board and the information they had. Emily, Rossi and Hotch were with Detective Murad.

"So Charlie Sturgill's here, and we caught a break. Turns out he was involved in a case that Andrea tried years ago." Detective Murad explained as he pointed to the man in Detective Murad's office.

Hotch and Rossi walked toward the room while Emily walked back to the conference room.

"So, Charlie, you were a witness." Hotch asked as he and Rossi sat opposite Charlie.

"Yeah." He nodded, his hands clasped together.

"And this woman, Andrea, was the lawyer. Her client - the defendant - was nuts. He threatened to kill everyone after the verdict was delivered." He explained, looking between the two Agents.

"What do you remember about the case?" Hotch asked.

"It was a hit and run. The defendant was involved in a head-on collision in front of the bar where I worked. People were killed." Charlie recounted the case he was apart of.

"Had he been drinking?" Rossi raised one of his eyebrows.

"Um, I remember serving him earlier that night. His defence was that it was an accident." Charlie explained, clearly trying to remember everything he could about the case and the encounter itself.

"But it wasn't?" Hotch asked, confused.

"No. He was playing chicken with oncoming traffic. He claimed to only have gotten behind the wheel on a dare, that him and some guy were playing truth or dare to impress some woman." Charlie scoffed.

"Who was the other guy?" Rossi asked.

"They didn't say, but it was a BS excuse. Everyone knew it. I saw the whole thing. He didn't lose control. He never even slowed down. There was a car coming right at him, but he just...floored it." Charlie exhaled.

While Hotch and Rossi interviewed Charlie, JJ had called Penelope, who was now on speaker phone in the conference room with the rest of the team.

"Found the case in question. Our unsub's name is Casey Allen Pinkner, and he's a piece of work. He spent the majority of his misspent youth in and out of the system. He tried to go the straight and narrow in his early 20s, took some odd jobs, but Casey has a problem with the drink, as we all saw, and it finally caught up with him." Penelope explained.

"Garcia, where is he now?" Derek asked.

"I can tell you he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He served 8. He was released 4 weeks ago. And I'll try to find his last knowns." Penelope spoke, determined. Everyone could hear her typing away.

"Now, Casey's defence was that this whole thing was the result of a game of truth or dare gone wrong, and that this mystery man in the bar was really at fault. Now, we think that man was Mark Zabel." Hotch explained as he and Rossi entered the conference room.

"Oh, and I can tell you via credit card receipt that that bar in question Mark frequented." Penelope explained.

"At the time of Casey's trial, Mark never came forward, so the cops never pursued him as a lead." Rossi continued.

"Casey's been planning this for a while." Y/N rolled her eyes.

"When we questioned him, Charlie recognized Paul Burke as the jury foreman, so maybe that's why Andrea called Paul, to warn him that Casey was out." Rossi looked at the team.

"Jury rosters in Los Angeles county are sealed. That's why we couldn't find the connection between Paul and Andrea. So Andrea was his lawyer, Paul the jury foreman, Charlie the eyewitness. Casey's going after everyone involved, everyone that helped put him away." You shook your head before realising what exactly Casey's plan was.