Paranoia - s.reid

Stay Outside

Morning had come and the BAU were back at it again but Elle Greenaway was no where to be seen. Liz had just woken up, curled up on the couch, listening as the three men before her conversed.

"Reid, how many books do you think are published in a year?"

"In the whole world? Thousands." He replied, briefly smiling when he saw Liz awake.

"Great, and all we gotta do is find one. You know, I can see this unsub getting our phone numbers and addresses from the bureau personnel files, but come on, man, it really says in there that Gideon digs Nellie Fox? Or that JJ collects butterflies, or that Liz and her dad read books together and visited castles. I didn't even know these things about us." Morgan huffed, sipping his coffee.

"'Ever would it be night, but always clear day to any man's sight.'" Spencer read. Liz groaned, "Honey, not again with the poem from the music box, please."

"There's something familiar about it. I think I've heard it somewhere before."

"Yeah, baby, I studied it for my poetry class in highschool." Liz responded, sipping a cup of tea. She needed caffeine. "You took a poetry class?" Morgan narrowed his eyes at the woman, almost laughing. "Shut up, Morgan. It was an easy A."

"Anyways, this leaves us nothing." 

"Not necessarily. How would we proceed if we didn't have all these clues?" Gideon spoke, leaning against the doorframe. "What's the first thing we'd look at?"

"Victimology." Hotch answered. "Why this particular victim, in this particular place, at this particular time."

"We have a victim, don't we?"

"Rebecca Bryant." Liz voiced, earning a nod from Gideon.

"You can get there in a few hours if you hurry. Take JJ. Find out everything there is to know about this girl. We've been letting him lead us around like he's something more than he is. He's just another unsub. Lets' start putting together a profile. Liz, Reid, you keep working on this."

-----

Hours had past and the only thing written on the whiteboard was 'Possible book titles', written by Liz. "Okay, Penny. Let's think. Possible book titles."

"Thousands of books published every year. This is impossible." Liz shook her head as Spencer spoke, her eyes widening as a realization dawned on her. "Every year." She muttered, reaching for the card Gideon received. "1963." Spencer's eyes met hers, the same idea ran through both minds.

The couple speed walked, pregnancy safety, to Gideon's office, bursting in. "The book has to be the right volume and the right publication date, or the code won't work, right?"

"Okay."

"When you talk about Nellie Fox, it's in regards to the 1959 White Sox. That's the year that's important to you, but for some reason, this is a 1963 card." Liz explained, her shoulders slumped at the unbothered look on Gideon's face. 

"Well maybe he couldn't find a '59 card."

"This is a determined unsub, Gideon. I don't think a pale clouded yellow butterfly or polaroids of my father and I were easy to find." The older man smiled at Liz.

"So a book published in 1963?"

"It has to be." Spencer nodded, the trio's eyes landed on Hotch who stood near the door, a scowl on his face. "The guy who delivered the puzzle to my house just turned himself in."

-----

Liz stood, peering over Garcia's shoulders as she watched the blonde type ferociously. "This guy is infuriatingly good. He routed his IP through major corporations, crisscrossed it through countries."