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CHAPTER FIFTEEN: FLY ON THE WALL ( original )
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"THE PERSON RESPONSIBLE for the kidnapping of Jimmy Fitzgerald is a male between the ages of thirty and forty who calls himself The Watcher," Hotch began. "We have a witness that places them together on two occasions outside Camden Elementary and at the bus stop near 32 Belcourt Avenue. They describe him as white with dark hair and a beard of an average height and build."
"He's weak," Morgan stated, plain-and-simple. "Not necessarily in a physical sense, but he is weak emotionally. He's been sending letters to the Fitzgeralds ever since they moved in about a month ago."
"The unsub has a strong opinion of the house, 32 Belcourt Avenue, in these letters," said Reid, holding up one for emphasis. "He uses several old-fashioned tics that point us to an older writer and the words have double spaces between them. There's a certain literary panache that suggests a 'voracious reader' but there's a surprising lack of profanity given the level of anger that drives him to send these letters in the first place."
"He's making himself heard," Morgan continued. "But until he abducted Jimmy, he's made no effort to approach the family in person."
"Really, it's not about the family themselves, but the house," said Dallis. "Everything he writes comes back to the house. He professes anger at the family, yes, but its root is what's being done to 32 Belcourt. He treats it like a living entity, one that the Fitzgeralds are destroying from its former glory. This could mean that he's a neighbour or someone else connected to the property, but it might also be someone else who has seen it in passing."
"Which is why the abduction of Jimmy is so out of the ordinary," Rossi declared from where he stood beside Hotch with his hands in his pockets. "He's doing this specifically for attention and to prove that he isn't all talk."
"'I promised you that I would learn your children's names and draw them to me... Why did you underestimate me?'" Reid quoted from memory.
"Don't be surprised if he surrenders Jimmy almost immediately upon confrontation," Dallis concluded. "Jimmy isn't his target. It's 32 Belcourt."
But why? The question prodded at Dallis' brain. Why did he care so much about the house if he wasn't connected to it somehow?
"Even if he does surrender him straight away, it's important that we act on this with urgency," Hotch affirmed before the officers could disperse. "We know the statistics for child abduction rates. It's important we reunite Jimmy Fitzgerald with his family as soon as possible, before the unsub has the chance to devolve."
Which may come sooner than expected.
JJ poked her head through the door, one hand holding her phone to her ear and the other waving around a piece of paper. She called Hotch's name, gesturing for him to join her in the hallway. A moment later, he returned with a new letter that he passed around the team.
