❛𝐠𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐮𝐬❜ - 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐢𝐝

ACT SIX

"Hey," Vivienne greeted with a sigh as she walked in. Reid looked at her as he just finished giving Garcia some more search parameters, and she glanced at the room where Jack and Rossi were talking. "Any luck?"

"I asked Garcia to go back ten years and look at any boys who were either kicked out or flunked out," he told her, and Vivienne tilted her head in question.

"Why ten years?"

Reid turned to face her more directly, hands gesturing in front of him with the phone still flipped open. "Studies show that offenders, particularly those involved in violent crimes, tend to have a history of disruptive behavior dating back to their early adolescence. If we consider that Katie knew her attacker, it's possible for us to assume that it's someone she met at school who either dropped out or had to be expelled," he explained, and Vivienne's brows lifted in realization. "There could've been an event that marked this unsub's turning point — it's especially true for boys around 10 to 14 years old. That's typically the age where behavioral issues tend to manifest."

"But that's a significant age gap with Katie and Lindsey," she pointed out. "They likely wouldn't have met in high school, especially if the unsub was kicked out."

"Yes, but here's my theory," Reid continued. "Unsubs who exhibit destructive behavior can't help but fall back into the same patterns, which means that even if he was kicked out or dropped out, he may have stayed within the same community, which led to him befriending Doug, and he'd be on school property more often than not," he rattled off, gesturing to the map behind him with the encircled points he'd done. "He could've crossed paths with Katie outside of an academic setting — this is probably not the first time he spent time with Katie, otherwise he wouldn't have gone through the trouble of obliterating her ID."

Vivienne stared at Reid for a few seconds and he watched as the furrow between her brows grew deeper. She may have been looking at him, but he could see her mind work to connect the pieces, and his eyes flickered to her lips as they parted slightly just before she turned to the phone he held between them.

"Garcia, still there?"

"Just listening to your brains work," she quipped cheerfully. "By the way, turns out there are way too many kids who got in trouble at school and were kicked out. Ugh, in the bathroom? Really?"

Vivienne allowed a small smile to grace her face, oblivious of how the simple action made Reid purse his lips as he continued to stare at her. She had stepped out to check on JJ and Morgan, who were asking the Owens more questions, and in the time she'd been gone, her hair, previously in a half-do — as Penelope said it was called —, was now tied back in a ponytail that allowed him to notice a beauty mark just under her cheekbone.

"How many you got on the list so far?" she asked, breaking him out of his thoughts as he darted his eyes across her face in shock before furrowing his brows and focusing on the phone.

"A whopping five-o," Penelope answered.

Vivienne's eyes narrowed again and she nodded lightly, sighing through her nose. "Can you find any phones that are registered to Doug Silverman? It could be under his parents."

Reid's gaze shifted back to her curiously as Penelope answered, "I have a number here. What do you want me to cross-check?"

"From the list of kids who dropped out or were kicked out, try to see if you can match any of their names across texts that would've been made in the past three years," Vivienne suggested, her mind racing to figure out a logical path that would lead them to the primary unsub the fastest.

"Okay, that's going to take a while because there are a lot of common names here," Penelope muttered. "I need to work my magic. I'll call you as soon as I have something."