Chapter Sixteen

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When Emily woke up, the first thing she noticed is that JJ wasn't next to her in the hotel bed. She didn't find this unusual because JJ often woke up early and left for the station before everyone else.

Emily got up and started to get dressed. She called JJ but the phone went to voicemail. She didn't find this weird either, she just assumed JJ was busy.

She drove herself to the police station and met up with Derek, Hotch, and Rossi who were already there. "Where's JJ?" she asked, setting down her stuff.

"She didn't drive in with you?" Hotch frowned. Emily shook her head. "She left the hotel early this morning. She wasn't there when I woke up."

Spencer arrived as they were talking. "Have you seen JJ?" Derek asked him. "No, she isn't here already?" Spencer questioned.

Everyone shook their heads. "Maybe she went to get coffee," Rossi suggested, glancing at the time. She would've been back by now if she had and everyone knew it.

Hotch went to ask one of the uniformed officers if she had been there today. He told him that he saw her come in at 6:30 and then go outside for some air.

"Just check the cameras. See where she went," Emily said. She had a bad feeling. She never got a bad feeling and had it turn out to be nothing. When she felt like this, something was always wrong.

Hotch had the security tapes from outside the building pulled up and projected on the big screen. They could see JJ walking outside at 6:35. They saw her standing there and nothing happened.

Then at 6:43, they saw the man come out of the car. Emily's bad feeling only got worse. "Who is that guy?" Spencer asked. "I swear, he looks familiar."

"The kid's right." Rossi nodded. He started to dig through the scattered papers on the table. "I've seen him before."

That's when he found the file. He pulled out a picture of a man with dark brown hair and pale skin. It was the exact same man in the video.

"Thomas Jacobs," Hotch said, recognizing him. "He's one of our main suspects that Garcia found when she was searching the profile."

"So our unsub has JJ," Emily said quietly. They all turned to look at the screen as JJ walked into the car with the man. The tip of the gun was gleaming so everyone could see it.

Nobody spoke for a minute. Emily wanted to vomit. Her head was spinning and her mind wouldn't focus.

"We'll find her," Derek said softly. "We know who he is. We'll find her. We have to find her."

___

"Emily, we've checked these files a dozen times," Spencer said, as they all poured over the casework.

"Well, check again," Emily snapped. They hadn't found anything that would lead them to JJ yet and she was beyond terrified. When Emily was terrified it came out as terrifying to everyone around her.

"You know what he did to those women," Emily said. "He raped them, he tortured them, and then he killed them and stuffed them in a dumpster like trash. That's what's going to happen to JJ if we don't find her, unless it already has."

Derek and Spencer were silent. The thought of finding JJ like they had found those other women was completely unbearable.

"Garcia found something," Hotch said as he walked into the room, followed by Rossi. Everyone turned to look at them.

Hotch continued, "She was looking at the last time she could track JJ's phone before it was shut off. The signal was lost in the middle of the road but she found a building within a few miles that's been abandoned for months. A paper company that went out of business, so it should be empty. But someone's been using the wifi in there. Specifically, reading articles about this case."

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