Bright, Shining Light

Chapter 32

Nora sat listlessly, unbound, near a desk on the floor. She wondered if Spencer was looking for her, but she couldn't know for sure. It felt like it had been months since she'd seen him. It was better for him and the team full of people she loved to just forget that she existed. Not knowing what drugs had been forced through her body, she couldn't distinguish between her own thoughts and those that were fabricated from her own torturous subconscious. Sometimes she recognized that she was in an altered state of reality, but most of the time she felt herself lost to the substance that was tearing through her system. Most of the time, the past and the present existed to her simultaneously, warped into a new and terrifying reality.
Ashley knew at this point that she was not a threat, as long as he kept feeding her the drugs and the dialogue that she was protecting Spencer. That she was the reason for her loved one's deaths. He had asked for no ransom. Money was not his goal here.
"He fell in love with Samantha. He wasn't supposed to." Darnel was explaining to her, his voice gentle and soothing.
"So what? Why did that matter to you?" She asked thickly, forcing her lips to form words.
"Because, stupid girl, that wasn't part of our plan. Our plan was just for him and I... you never should have been there that night. You fucked everything up."
"You... you loved him." She observed, opening her eyes for the first time in a long while to meet his gaze.
"Shut up!" He screamed, rising to his feet. "Shut the fuck up!"
"No. No, I get it now. He was the one who wanted to commit the perfect murder."
"Shut your fucking mouth!"
"You did it because you were in love with him."
A sharp blow to her face barely registered on her pain scale, the drugs in her body numbing her. So she continued, her voice sounding heavy and far away.
"We looked into you, Ashley. I know your family would have turned their backs on you if they found out. But they turned their backs on you anyways, right?"
The slap to her face may as well have been a caress for all she knew, and she laughed, spitting the blood from her lips.
"You don't know anything about me you stupid bitch!"
"I knew there was something strange that time you tried to feel me up. That was the first time you'd ever touched a woman that way, wasn't it? You couldn't handle the thought of him loving someone else, so you killed my mom!"
There was silence, silence that rang so loud it hurt her ears, so she pressed on.
"You're gay. We all know it. Why fight it? Your family is already a thing of the past... why not just accept who you are and move on?"
The baseball bat met her ribs again with a sickening crack, and the chair toppled over. The last thing she remembered was Mike's angry face glaring down at her as his chest heaved with uneven breaths.

***

  Spencer sat in an empty conference room, books and papers scattered all over the large table in front if him. His hands rubbed his temples, head pounding. He had been over everything. Both known victims besides Nora had been reported missing less than forty-eight hours before their bodies turned up full of PCP. The letters and flowers that had been sent could not be traced. The call he got while at Nora's abduction crime scene was traced to a burner phone they had then found in a trash can near their apartment. That had to mean that Ashley was near them while they were investigating the scene. There were no prints. Penelope had dug up old photographs of Ashley, but Nora and himself were the only ones who knew what he looked like now.
   He heard the door open, but didn't look up. Slow footsteps approached him, and Morgan sat himself in the seat beside him.
"Hey." He said.
  Spencer didn't respond.
"Talk to me. Don't isolate yourself, man. What's going through your head?"
"Eleven thousand, three hundred and twenty-eight hours. That's how long it's been since I found her in that room in Idaho. Four hundred and seventy-two days."
"That's a lot of days."
"What if that's all I get?"
"It won't be."
"You can't say that. It's been over twenty four hours, Morgan."
"Yeah I can. We'll find her alive, and when we do... what is the first thing you're gonna say to her?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing? Really?"
"I just want to hold her. That's all I want. She makes all the noise go away."
  Morgan offered a weak smile, his heart hurting for his young friend. If there was anyone that did not deserve this, it was Spencer Reid and Lenora Stewart.
"You got anything here?" Morgan asked.
"Nothing. Nothing we haven't gone over."
"Okay. Well he's got to slip up somewhere. Let's start with what we know for sure."
  Morgan knew the details of the case well. Spencer was the little brother he never had, and Nora was a good woman. However, he knew that Spencer knew it even better. It was just a matter of getting his brain back on track.