Gray (Jemily)

6

"I didn't think you guys would actually come down," sergeant Zaleska said shaking the two agents' hands. He was a man in his late 40's with a beer belly that pushed his uniform out so far, any more farther and the buttons would pop.

"We call you about one of your detective's whereabouts to which you refuse to go into detail about and you don't think we'd come down here?" Reid asked quickly. "A federal agent is currently missing and being tortured by two men, one being Will LaMontagne Jr. and you don't think we'd come down?"

"Reid," Morgan said looking at the younger agent and gently shook his head.

"Oh geez, I'm sorry," the sergeant added. "I didn't realize-"

"No of course you didn't," Reid continued. He was on edge. "Did it ever occur to you that there was a reason the FBI was calling you about information on one of your detectives? Especially given his out of character behavior that you said he was exhibiting the past few months. Do you think the FBI has time for a catch up call on a random do-gooder?"

"Okay, step outside, Reid. Go get some air," Morgan said and Spencer listened, deciding to go talk to another detective instead.

"I'm sorry about him," Derek apologized. "The agent that's missing, she's a team member and a really really close friend. Like family."

"I understand," the detective said. "Again, I'm really sorry about all the trouble."

"All that matters now is that you tell us everything you know. Starting from when Will first started acting different."

Sergeant Zaleska let out a breath as he sat down in his chair, motioning for Derek to do the same. "This will take a while.

And it did. Apparently it went back a lot further than what they originally thought. Turns out Will had been acting strange for the good of a year.

"At first it just started off at him being snappy which isn't a red flag because we just figured he was going through something like a breakup. He was still showing up to work and doing what he was supposed to so we paid it no attention," the man informed. "But it never stopped. Months went by and he became more and more agitated. He even threw his coffee cup across the room but immediately apologized and said he lost someone very special to him."

"Did he say who?" Morgan asked although he knew it was JJ.

He shook his head. "No, just said she was really good for him and that they'd see each other someday. That what happened to her was a tragedy. So as morbid as it sounds, we all just thought he had someone pass away and he was referring to death. Which honestly, if you heard the way he was talking about it, you'd think the same thing too."

"So what happened? You let him off with a warning?"

Sergeant Zaleska nodded his head once as he leaned back in his chair. "Yeah. We did but we let him take a few days to get situated and take care of whatever he needed to. When he came back, he seemed to be doing a whole lot better. Much like he used to be."

But then?" Morgan pressed knowing there was more.

"He got even worse. It wasn't for another month but it was like Jekyll and Hyde. One minute he would be super sweet and going out of his way to help anyone and everyone and the next he would pushing coworkers or suspects up against the wall and yelling in their face." He paused before continuing. "Now, I don't know how ya'll do things up there, but down here we don't treat people like that. And it definitely wasn't like LaMontagne to act like that. So we put him on leave for two months. Had him do mandatory counseling with our psychologist."

"Did he attend the meetings at all?" Derek questioned.

"There at first, yeah," Sergeant Zaleska replied. "She said he was doing really well and she'd need a few more sessions but she was on the verge or clearing him for active duty."