No-one had seen Annabel Bradey in a decade, that was until she resurfaced in SSA Aaron Hotchner's office in Quantico. She was carrying scars both physical and mental, but wouldn't share her story. Or at least not until everyone she loved was in dang...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Emily Prentiss knocked on the window of Aaron's offive, her face filled with an urgency that made the unit chief leave his position immediately, mutting something to Annabel as he crossed the room. Having worked with the man for almost five years, Emily was aware that, despite what had occurred in his personal life, he would always fulfil his duty without hesitation. So, even as Annabel sat, her mind occupied by a book she had taken from Aaron's office, the man reacted with the exact same levels of professionalism as he would had it have been any other day.
As he opened the door, standing opposite Emily, Aaron knew what was coming. The agent nodded her head in response to the unit chief's silent question, explaining, "Eight-year-old Aimee Lynch was abducted from the winter festival in Ashburn barely an hour ago."
The two agents crossed the floor to the conference room, Aaron's steps holding even more urgency as he asked, "Do we have any leads yet?"
"The family have already been cleared, both mother and father being present at the abduction." Emily explained to her supervisor as they joined the rest of the team. "It's odd, Aimee was taken from a busy place, but there are no witnesses."
"JJ and Emily, can you set up base here?" Jennifer nodded to the man, who became momentarily distracted by his phone. "Aimee's mother is still at the abduction site, so Dave and I will go and speak to her. Morgan, once JJ's filled you in, can you and Reid go to the family home and speak to the father, if they were both present, they may know more than they are letting on."
Each member of the group nodded as they were given their task, but Emily handed her supervisor a file before he could leave. She understood why he wasn't staying for the briefing, they had 23 hours to find the little girl, but even under those circumstances the leader needed to be fully aware of every known aspect of the case before he begun his evaluation and profile. At least if they had the file, the duo could fill the gaps in their knowledge before meeting the mother.
"Stay safe," Jennifer called after them, her words, while comforting, caused Emily to become confused by what had triggered that reaction. Before her behaviour could be questioned, the blonde had begun to address the team, "We need to handle this case as delicately as possible. Had the media have not already run the story I would be saying no conversing with the media, but now I want everyone to be careful what information is shared. We don't want to spook whoever took his girl."
"They took her from a crowded area," Derek explained, leaning against the circular table as he looked between the other members of his team. "Something tells me this isn't the first time this person's done this."
Jennifer nodded in agreement, "Emily, get Garcia to look into abductions and attempted abductions over the last five years, maybe we'll get lucky. We're done here, any information you need is in the file, so Morgan and Reid can you two go and speak to the father."
"JJ, what are we doing about the woman in Hotch's office?" Derek asked, catching each of the remaining agent's attention. "She can't stay there, not if we are heading the investigation from here. She doesn't have clearance."
Emily looked towards Aaron's office, her head shaking as she saw the woman staring at what looked like a small scrap of paper. She seemed to be sobbing, shaking slightly as she stared at it, her lips moving in the same pattern continuously. There was no way that they could send her away, the only place she could go was Aaron's apartment and in that state it didn't seem best for her to be with Jack. However, Derek was right, Annabel didn't have clearance, she couldn't remain in the office while they asked the family questions and discussed the profile. It was a crossroads and the person they needed to light the way had just left.
Letting out a sigh, Emily offered, "For now, I say, we act as though she isn't here. There's a little girl who may have less than 23 hours to live, she is our priority. Once Hotch gets back he can make any decisions surrounding Annabel Bradey."
Each other member nodded in agreement, Derek and Spencer placing their hand on Emily's shoulder supportively as they left. The action was a silent reminder that they were a team, through and through. Once they had left, Jennifer and Emily both moved to the circular table, the former dialling Penelope before even a second had passed.
"You will never guess what I found," Penelope declared, almost immediately after the phone had stopped ringing. Her statement had caught Emily off guard, but from the wide-eyed fear etched onto Jennifer's features she guessed that the woman had been tasked before they had received the case. "Gabriel Martyr was a-"
"Garcia ,we have a case," Jennifer announced, cutting her off before she could make information public that was probably preferred to be between limited numbers of people. "Can you look at the history of the Winter Festival in Ashburn and see if there have been any past abductions, or attempted abductions?"
"Who do you think you're talking to?" Penelope asked, her familiar bubbly nature causing a small smile to fill each of the women in the conference room. "None that I can find."
Emily let out a sigh before saying, "Okay, thanks Garcia."
"Do you not want to hear my other information?" Penelope asked, both women remained silent. Each wanted to decline, but were too curious to risk losing the chance to understand the situation their superior was currently trapped in. "I'm going to take that silence as a yes. Gabriel Martyr has only existed for the last 15 years, but boy has he been busy. He is the head of the Church of Archangel Rafael in Iowa."
Jennifer let her confusion become visible on her face before she stated, "That makes no sense, if she simply left to join the church then she would have called and a missing person's report would not have been filed."
"That is very true, which is why I did some more digging into this church." Penelope explained, her pace quickening. "I don't think it was a church at all. Gabriel himself is often questioned surrounding the disappearances of vulnerable young adults, but the missing people have always given statements claiming they joined the group willingly."
"Was he questioned about the Bradey disappearance?" Emily queried, listening to the sound of Penelope typing as she tried to answer the question.
There was a slight hum from the phone before she muttered, "Negative. Annabel had no connections to the church, nor to Gabriel himself so there was no prompt to look." There was a pause before the woman on the other end of the phone gasped, "Oh my."
"What is it Garcia?"
"There's a picture here of Martyr and his wife, Mary, and two daughters." She muttered. "Only the wife's name isn't Mary. It's Annabel Bradey."
