Soulmates

Chapter 28-Rescue and drinking night

Continuation of 4x06 "The Instincts"

Trigger warning: Talks of a child being separated from mother.

They were in the homes of the Bridges listening to a call that the unsub made to the Bridges home phone. "You were trying to trick me." The unsub said in a voice scrambler. "No one was trying to trick you." Hotch said on the call. "You were trying to lock me down, but you arrested the wrong person." The unsub stated.  Ryan and the others saw The Bridges come back into the room. 

Hotch tapped JJ's shoulder to get her to stop the recording. He then turned to them, "Would it be possible for us to work in private for a while?" Hotch asked them both. "He was at the funeral. I told you." Mrs. Bridges responded. "He was at the funeral, and you arrested the wrong man." Mr. Bridges added. 

Reid, who was looking at a file, spoke up. "I don't think it is a man." He said. They all turned to him. "Did you hear the way she described the clothing? She said the blue shoes. Lime green oxford. A male wouldn't reference specific details like that." Reid pointed. 

Ryan nodded, "I agree with Reid." He said. "Did you hear the way she kept referring to what Micheal wanted. How he slept. How she took car of him. She said, "I loved him." Everybody thought, and it made sense. "A male unsub would have emphasized the competition, not the caregiving." Reid explained. "He would have talked about how he was smarter than the FBI bragged about not being caught." He added. 

"And this unsub doesn't do that she keeps going back to the child." Ryan stated. Reid pointed at Ryan in agreement. "We could have been looking at both men and women -" Mrs. Bridges started but was cut off by Rossi. "The statistics are overwhelming. Women abduct newborns. Men take children." He explained. 

Hotch dialed his phone, "Garcia." Hotch said into the phone. "I'm right here, sir." Garcia said. "Will you run the license plate the police gave you and find any that might be registered to a woman." Hotch instructed. Typing was heard on the other end. "That would be...zero." 

"How's that possible?" Mrs. Bridges asked. "Transcripts almost read like she's been institutionalized." Reid said. "You mean she's crazy." Mr. Bridges said. "She describes herself as being "locked down" not "arrested" or "Put away. " Plus, most mental facilities are very rigid about the amount of phone time they allow per day. I think her talking about only having 3 minutes isn't her rule to us. It's what she's been institutionalized to think of as normal." Reid explained. 

"Garcia, can you get records of women released from mental institutions this past month?" Rossi asked. "You'll want to look for someone who has some sort of tragedy in her file...most likely the death of a child." Ryan added. 

"I'm sorry. Even I can't do that. To protect patient privilege, there's no central database. I could hack each hospital individually, but even then, most diagnoses are kept separately by different doctors." Garcia explained. 

"I think I might have a way." Reid said. 

-

Ryan, Morgan, and Prentiss were outside getting some air. Reid had gone somewhere to try and get some more information. He didn't say where, but the team guessed it was the facility where his mother was at. "All this time, we were looking for a woman." Ryan remarked. Emily shrugged, "It's like Rossi said. The statistics told us it was a male." She said. "Maybe. But Reid had it right that from the beginning, that the unsub had a motherly attitude." Morgan said. 

"Well, at least we know now." Ryan said. He walked a little bit and looked out at the neighborhood. "You know, we're in Vegas, and it's almost a waste not to take the opportunity once this case is over." Morgan said out of the blue.