UNDER REVISION Silence in the Scars (A Criminal Minds Story)

Chapter 10: Good News and Bad News

UPDATED: 12/14/16

Penelope Garcia glared at her computer screens. On any other day she would have been showering them with affection, but right now Garcia wanted nothing better than to smash the screens. She was tired and worried sick about her junior G-man. Not to mention she felt almost entirely useless sitting in her safe little office while the rest of the team was out looking for Reid. Garcia tapped one of her fuzzy pink pencils against her wooden desk as she waited with a rapidly decreasing amount of patience for her computer to finish searching. She kept replaying the conversation she had with Morgan over the phone. Garcia had been all prepared to fly down to Minnesota, but Morgan had insisted that she would be more useful at Quantico searching for Reid on her computers then with them.

Shaking her head, Garcia glanced at the computer screens again only to find that it was still searching. She had run the prints lifted from the locket through every database she could think of. The prints hadn't been found in any system. Garcia was currently running the photo from the locket through her facial recognition program. It was taking a frustratingly long time. She drummed her fingers against the desk, nearly missing the little beeping noise that emitted from her computer.

Garcia rolled her chair over to the computer screen that was beeping. Her facial recognition program had found a match to the locket photo. The license and mug shot of Jack Mullery was plastered across her screen, complete with his rap sheet.

"Gotcha!" Garcia shouted. She grabbed her phone and hastily dialed Morgan's number.

"Hey baby girl," Morgan said. "Did you find anything?"

"As a matter of fact I did," Garcia replied. She couldn't help, but smile when she could practically hear him sit up straighter.

"What did you find?" Morgan asked. "Hang on a second, let me put you on speaker phone."

"The picture in the locket," Garcia replied. "Matches one Jack Mullery, local drop-out and he has a record."

"Garcia, what was he arrested for?" Hotch asked.

"Three charges of drunk and disorderly and yikes," Garcia read from her screen.

"Yikes?" Prentiss asked.

"He was arrested for assaulting his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend with a tire iron," Garcia said. "And guess who the ex-girlfriend was."

"Who?" Rossi asked.

"Sydney Crawford," Garcia replied. "All the information is on the way to your tablets."

"Sydney Crawford?" Morgan said. "The first victim? That's too much of a coincidence."

"Garcia, can you find out where Jack Mullery lives?" Hotch asked.

"There's no current address on file - Hang on," Garcia said. She typed furiously. There was no way she was gonna let this lead slip through her hacker fingers. "He just made a purchase at the Hill Lake Liquor Store."

"That's just down the street from here," Riley said.

"Thanks, Garcia," Morgan said. "You're the best."

Garcia smiled. "You're only saying that cause it's true." She disconnected the call and set to work digging into every aspect of Jack Mullery's life.

~

Reid pulled at the the handcuffs again. Logically, he knew that they were not going to loosen simply because he kept pulling at them. The only thing he was succeeding in doing was rubbing the skin on his wrists raw. However, the only alternative was to sit there and do nothing. At least Reid felt like he was doing something. Even if that something was going to make his wrists start bleeding.

Zoe pulled a chair that Reid had not noticed across the room and set it in front of him. She dropped into it and smiled at Reid. She braced her foot against Reid's chair, right between his legs and pushed until her chair was leaning on the back two legs. Reid was profiling everything he knew about her in his head before she started talking.

Reid could tell that, out of the three, she was the dominant personality. The way she talked to the other two and the fact that she was the one with the gun showed that. He would also hazard a guess that there was some psychopathic tendencies, with almost certain narcissistic traits. Zoe was prone to almost violent mood swings, going from calm to enraged with the flip of a coin. Reid could tell that she like to control the situation and would become violent when things didn't happen how she wanted them.

Out of the other two, Reid knew his chance of escape lay with Tyler. Both Jack and Tyler were not the dominant personalities. From the brief interactions Reid had seen, he guessed that Jack was being manipulated by Zoe because of his feelings for her. Tyler seemed to have the greatest reservations and anger towards Zoe. If Reid could get a chance to talk to Tyler alone, then maybe he could convince Tyler to call the police.

Zoe clicked back the hammer on Reid's revolver and pointed it at his unprotected chest. This action brought Reid's thoughts to a stuttering halt.

"You're Agent Reid," Zoe said.

"Doctor," Reid replied. He felt uneasy at the sense of deja vu. If she was planning on killing him Reid at least wanted her to address him correctly.

"Aren't you a little young to be a doctor?" Zoe asked. She rocked back and forth on the two legs of her chair.

"I have three PhD's," Reid replied.

Zoe cocked an eyebrow, looking impressed. "How'd you manage that?"

Reid shrugged, as best he could with his hands handcuffed behind his back. "How'd you manage to kill all those girls and not get caught?"

"Flattery?" Zoe said. "That's sweet, but we were talking about you."

"There's not much to talk about," Reid replied.

"Not much to talk about?" Zoe asked. "How about the fact that you were one of the youngest people to ever join the BAU?"

Reid blinked, unable to keep the look of surprise off his face. Zoe smiled, looking rather like a cat with a canary.

"See, I knew you had to be smart, but three PhD's? That's impressive," Zoe said. "I did my research like a good girl when I heard the FBI was coming, I knew I'd need to get rid of them eventually. You are by far the most interesting member of your little team."

Reid wished he knew why all the psychopaths and sociopathic serial killers were fascinated with him. He was rather tired of their morbid curiosity.

"The FBI isn't going to leave because you're threatening to kill me," Reid replied.

"They might change their tune once they see your body," Zoe said. "Let's be real, out of everyone on your team, you were the easiest target."

Reid's blood ran cold. He couldn't believe he had gotten himself into this situation. It was true he wasn't the best marksmen and he would always lose to Morgan in a physical fight. That didn't mean he was the weakest person on the team. Reid hated being thought of as the weakest link just because he would rather use his intellect over physical strength. He hated not knowing where he was, but mostly Reid hated himself for getting himself stuck in this situation.

"Even if you kill me," Reid said. "My team is still going to find you."

"If?" Zoe said. "There is no if about this, Dr. Reid. I will kill you in two days, give or take a few hours." She let all four legs of her chair hit the ground with a thud. Zoe stood up, tucked the gun once more into the waistband of her jeans, and left the shack. There was a sharp click as the door was locked, leaving Reid alone in silence.