Serendipity

chapter 15

Isabella had only been slightly peeved at the 5am phone call, but the look on Emily and JJ’s faces when she said the name James Walsh was well worth the interruption to her sleep. She knew it was a shock to them, she had worked very hard to keep the information private. The last thing she wanted was for her colleagues to feel that she had gotten her spot on the team due to nepotism. She had never asked James for anything work related, even though he had told her to call him if she needed anything. She got to where she was all on her own. Uncle James and his wife Lorainne had no biological children, and they were her second family; she had spent weekends with them when they were in the States, and holidays when they were in the UK. Since she had been back in the US, she had dinner with them at least once a week, and she had an inkling that her uncle would be more than happy to give a little jank on Erin Strauss’ leash. He wasn’t her biggest fan either, but she wasn’t a bad agent, and there wasn’t anything majorly wrong with her work, she just wasn’t an extremely likeable person.

Garcia‘s programme had gotten them matches for all of their victims during the night. After talking with the friends and family, they had confirmation that all 6 of their victims had some connection with the Lightbringers. It was enough for a warrant to search the property, and the look on Angelo Cortini’s face when they had pulled up with K-9 units was priceless. He hadn’t even waited for them to actually find something before he bolted. Isabella and Rossi saw him hightailing it in the opposite direction from where the search was; Isabella decided it was a good day for a run, and before Rossi had finished calling for backup, her feet were pounding the forest floor. Angelo managed to keep just out of her reach; she could keep up, but she was getting slightly pissed at how close she was getting. About 10 minutes into the chase, her prey stumbled slightly over the rough terrain. The fraction of a second it took for him to gain his momentum back was enough for her to catch up; she launched herself into the air, and tackled him to the ground. She landed on top of him with a thud and he trashed around wildly to get out of her grasp. She pushed herself up slightly in order to get her knees up, which she then used to pin him down, one knee in the middle of his lower back, the other between his shoulder blades. She might not be big, but she was strong. “Not so much fun when they’re not hogtied, is it?”. Cortini kicked his legs in an attempt to dislodge her, but he only succeeded in skinning his own knees. “Get off me, you bitch!” he screamed. “That is incredibly rude. Do you not teach manners in your little club?” she tutted at him, wrangling his arms behind his back, and cuffing them there; if they were a little too tight, she’d blame it on his insistence to keep wiggling. She remained seated though, not wanting to risk him trying to run again. Rossi showed up only a minute later, with Morgan, Hotch, and two k-9 officers in tow. “You okay?” Hotch asked as he helped her up from her knees. “Yeah. We had a little race; I won.”  She thought she almost saw the signs of a smile on Hotch’s face.

They emerged from the forest back at the camp, there were police officers talking to various tunic-clad groups, others were emptying huts. People were crying, some were screaming. Isabella heard Emily’s voice amongst the din, “Guys, come look at this.” Isabella and Hotch followed Emily around the main building and away from the noise where they found a large dilapidated shed with a pen formed with barbed wire. “Is that a pig pen?” Hotch asked, “Jup.” Isabella felt sick to her stomach. “But no pigs?” he added. A uniformed officer emerged from the shed with a large dog. “We had a PED outbreak a couple weeks ago, everyone around here lost most of their pigs.” “PED?” Isabella didn’t much care what it was, but if Cortini had been using the pigs to dispose of his victims, the sudden loss of his herd could be why they are finding bodies in the river. “Porcine Epidemic Diarrhoea, a highly contagious virus infection, just as deadly.” the officer answered, “It was bad.” he led his k-9 back toward the rest of the teams. “We already have CSU on route, and I asked Garcia to check any and all missing persons cases nationwide, with any mention of this place.”