Spencer Finally Catches a Break

Chapter 7

                                                 ***Talk of anxiety and panic attacks

       Adelaide was led to a room with JJ in it, by Spencer. The room was dimly lit, with a single mahogany colored desk in the corner with a lamp on it, which seemed to be the only source of light. The chair from the desk was rolled to the middle of the room, with two other chairs in front of it. It would have looked frightening if not for the sympathetic look on JJ's face, and the faded humored look on Reid's.

      Ada sat in the lone chair across from where JJ and Reid were sitting, Dante following behind and laying his head down on her foot. Ada smiled and rubbed his head. JJ let a small smile out at the sight of it.

       "Who's this?" JJ asks while allowing Dante to smell her hand, her other being used to push golden blonde strands out from her face. Dante smelled around her hand, licking her knuckles.

       "This is Dante. We found him on the side of the road when we were driving," Ada replied. JJ nodded.

       "Is there anything I can do to help? I saw the-" Ada stopped, not able to finish her thought.

       "You weren't meant to see those pictures, I'm sorry that you did. We wanted to talk to you about what you're parents have done, what some of their habits were, and we wanted to do a cognitive interview, and see if it was possible that you saw anything," JJ explained. Ada nodded, trying to seem confident but she saw the worried looks on the Agents' faces. 

       "My parents were average, my mom is-" Ada caught herself, realizing she should have said was.

       "My mom was a freelance interior designer, but she was technically unemployed. My dad was a principal at Sorrel (yes the flower) Middle School, where I went last year. Mom was gone sometimes, and dad left at seven and normally got back at four. Neither of them really have enemies per say, but mom was in friendly competition with the other interior design place. They went out of town recently, two weeks ago they went to Vegas for a weekend while I was gone. I don't know the name of the place, but I know that they visited the Strip, because Gramma said that they were ecstatic about winning almost two-thousand dollars. I know that they're not perfect though, my dad was arrested for DUI about five years ago, and my mom wasn't always faithful when I was younger. Did you know that having children is what motivates 82% of male cheaters? And men to cheat about 7% more than women? Twenty percent of men have confessed to  being unfaithful, while only thirteen percent of women disclosed the fact that they had been cheating. There are so few cases of women cheating after birth of a child, it's insane that it even happened. It was kept hush-hush though, no one knew but dad, and the woman she was with. I don't believe they know that I understood what was happening when I was seven," Ada explained. JJ nodded, and Spencer looked grim.

      "Do you know his name?" Reid asked softly. Ada shook her head.

       "I now know that he was a prostitute, I was looking for a pair of earrings when she was cheating and I moved her dresser over, and a pamphlet fell out advertising the men. There was a circled man, under the name Todd, but odds are that wasn't his actual name," Ada said hesitantly. She never liked talking about when she was seven. She counted everything under the age of eight as the dark ages, because she hated the feeling of being babied. She was able to read by the age of five, so she was able to pass the hours reading. She would love reading fiction books, reveling in her fantastical surroundings, and magical characters. She would distract herself from the words being thrown harshly in  the living room, with the words that she eagerly sought solace in.

       "Ok, now we're getting somewhere. We're going to complete a cognitive interview, so long as it's okay with you," Spencer asked, and Ada nodded, "It may not be successful since it was so long ago, but I want you to close your eyes. Think back to when you were younger," Spencer instructed. Ada shut her eyes lightly, fidgeting with her hands. She laid her left thumbnail on the second knuckle of her pointer finger, and tightly squeezed and stroked her left thumbnail.