To Solve

Chapter 30: Legacy

"- And Mrs. Rogers had to rub it in my mother's face that her son is engaged now," Parker complained.

The young adult was currently going through some files with JJ.

"How did your mom react?" JJ asked.

The young woman put another file on the 'done' pile.

"She said 'at least my child has a real job'."

The blonde agent chuckled and suddenly there was a knock on the door.

"Agent Jareau?"

"It's open," said JJ.

A young man entered the office.

"Detective McGee, Kansas City P.D." he introduced himself.

"Was the rhyme intentional?" Parker asked.

Detective McGee looked at the young agent before they realized their mistake.

"Oh, um, Agent Gallagher. Nice to meet you."

"Same," the detective replied before turning back to JJ. "I called last week? About some missing people in downtown Kansas City?"

"Oh, right, right. I'm sorry, didn't I ask you to send me your files first?"

"Yeah. About that. I don't have any files," the young man stuttered. "No... No one's actually been reported missing yet. It's more like a theory."

"Theory."

"Yeah. I brought you the most relevant ones. I have, like, 40 more of them."

Detective McGee placed three stacks of small notebooks on the table.

"I catalog everybody I come in contact with on the street. Names, descriptions, what they're wearing, identifying marks. Anyways, my department assigned me to keep an eye on downtown. Skid row, dopers, a hooker stroll, whatnot. "Typical stuff. And everything was going good until I started noticing there was less and less every week," he explained.

"Less of-," Parker asked.

"Of... Of them. Less vagrants. Less prostitutes. Less junkies strung out on the corners."

"Well, it sounds to me like you're doing a good job," said JJ.

"Yeah, that's what my bosses think. I actually got an award last week from the mayor's office."

Detective McGee handed the agents a newspaper article about the award presentation.

"So-"

"So I'm not doing it. Crime went down because the people committing the crimes have disappeared. And then, over the last several weeks, people seem to be disappearing at a couple a day."

"Isn't that the nature of these particular groups is that they're transient?" JJ said to the detective.

"No. No. Not this many, this fast. I'm telling you I can... I can talk to somebody at lunch and by dinner time they're wiped off the face of the earth."

He seemed very confident about it. That caught Parkers attention. No detective would go to Quantico if they weren't sure.

"Okay. How many is it?" JJ wanted to know.

"Sixty-three," Detective McGee replied.

"Sixty-three people?" Parker asked, surprised.

"At least 63. Sixty-three people that I regularly used to see are just not there anymore. And then last week I got this in the mail at the station house-"

JJ took the piece of paper in the evidence bag and read it out loud.

"There are two types of people in the world. Those who do the work and those who take the credit. You should be ashamed."