𝓶𝓪𝓻𝓪 𝓳𝓪𝓷𝓮 ➢ 𝓼. 𝓻𝓮𝓲𝓭

𝓉𝓌𝑒𝓃𝓉𝓎-𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑒

During the night, they'd came to a consensus that Syd was the dominant and James was the submissive. James was the poor one and Syd was the rich one, he had some kind of money privilege over each other.

While they were waiting for the polygraph test to come back, Reid and Mara started the interrogation with James Barrett while Rossi and Morgan had their attention to Syd.

"Barrett, it says here you were half an hour late to work on Saturday morning." Mara said, intertwining her fingers on the table.

"I was hung over." He replied.

"Got it," Mara said, rolling his eyes. "Hung over, slept in."

"What about Friday night?" Reid interjected. "Friday after the bar?"

"We drove to the inlet."

Reid possessed the same energy as Mara, careless. Tired, ready for these assholes to confess. "Drove to the inlet. Approximately, what time would you say that you drove to the inlet?"

"Two or two-thirty a.m.."

"Why would you go to the inlet at two or two-thirty in the morning?" Mara asked him.

"The boats start coming in."

"In the middle of the night the boats start coming in?" Mara asked him, furrowing her eyebrows as she trying to meet his eyes.

"Yeah," Barrett shrugged. "They fish all night, then they bring in the catch. Then they sell it on the docks to the restaurants and all that. Syd wanted to show her, then he drove her back, dropped her off at the hotel, and the next thing I know, it's morning."

"And you just slept in?" Reid raised an eyebrow.

"My alarm clock's broken."

"Your alarm clock's...broken?"

The camera continued beeping beside the two agents, Barrett's knee starting to bounce as he became anxious, the same tick Mara had.

"Did it make you upset?"

Barrett's eyes fell to the camera and his hands balled into fists. He suddenly stood up and burst with anger, "can you fix the damn camera, please?"

"Sit down." Reid ordered, the hair on her arms standing up at his demanding voice.

It wasn't until later that they found out the two assholes had passed the polygraph tests. After Mara and Reid were finished with their interview, they stepped outside and Hotch's eyes fell on them, needing their opinion.

"I don't know," Mara furrowed her eyebrows. "The kid's got no shame. No guilt."

"He did horrible things to Kate, but I don't think he killed her." Reid finished.

They went through Syd's phone, the last picture was a selfie of Syd and James and in the backseat, they could see Kate's phone.

Mara turned around, starting to ramble. "He's fidgety, looks like he's submissive, but he's not entirely weak. He doesn't have the looks or confidence to pull this off, so he calls Syd to seal the deal. Kate rejected Barrett."

"What are you getting at, Mar?"

She was so focused on the case she didn't even notice the nickname. Reid watched her eyes dart across the board, connecting dot after dot.

"They did drop Kate off at the hotel. Pearson took Barrett home, just like they said. But then, because Barrett was rejected, he circled back to punish Kate," Mara said quickly, the team struggling to keep up. "He had her phone, she let him in. He got her outside, maybe drugged her, took her to his boat."

"He was obsessed with the inlet," Reid said. "He knew the traffic patterns there, where the fishermen were coming in and tourist charters were going out."

Mara stepped forward, her eyes meeting Reid's. "The blood from the catch attracts hundreds of sharks. It's a feeding frenzy out there that time of night."

Morgan stepped forward. "We asked him if he killed her, he didn't."

"We asked where her body is, he doesn't know," Rossi said. "Technically, those aren't lies."

They sent the coastguard out to find her, hopeful that she could still be alive. Her parents were convinced that, being an amazing swimmer, there was still a chance.

JJ, Reid, and Mara all paced the inlet, waiting for the news of whether she was dead or alive.

Reid's hand found Mara's and she smiled and squeezed it before dropping it, before anyone else caught it.

JJ turned around, shoving her phone in her pocket. "They found her. She's alive."

Mara grinned as she threw her arms around Reid and hugged him tightly. JJ went to tell her family while Mara and Reid celebrated their successful case.