Teaching jj

Chapter 24

"Vivian!" JJ hissed. "Did you have to?"

"Yes, I have to! We finalized a deal on this house before discovering that there might be a ... a ..." She forced a shudder. "A serial killer on the loose?"

"All I can say is to take safety precautions," Spencer replied carefully. "But coming from New York City, you're probably already used to doing that. The people here are more trusting, almost naively so. That's why I dug a firewall tunnel around my area of the house around back - and I should probably tell you that for it to work, I had to expand it into your backyard and kitchen, too."

"Why would you need a firewall?" JJ asked suspiciously. "I mean, you could be the serial killer, for all we know."

"I, um, I have a girlfriend? Back in California? And sometimes we like to ..." He coughed, blushing, as Emily and JJ exchanged amused glances. "Sometimes we like to send text messages that aren't exactly G-rated. And since this whole town operates under the same IP address and anyone can easily hack into it, I wanted some privacy."

"How does it work?" Emily inquired, certain that he was telling them about this for a reason.

"Well, if you're in the kitchen or the backyard and you send a text message, anyone trying to hack into your messages will just see a bunch of characters that don't make sense. But the person receiving it will see the text you meant to send."

Emily nodded. This was truly a brilliant move, probably orchestrated by Garcia to divert suspicion about the nonsense text messages they were supposed to send every night. If the unsub hacked their phones, she'd assume that they were in the kitchen or the backyard under the protection of the firewall. Ingenious.

"But will you be able to see our messages?" JJ asked, looking concerned. "I mean, you're a twenty-something male living next door to a lesbian couple. How do we know you haven't taken further liberties with our property so you can ... I don't know, peek into our bedroom at night?"

"Alexandra!" Emily admonished her, an apology forming on her lips before Spencer interrupted.

"No, no - it's OK. But you need to worry more about all those kids running around with infrared binoculars and miniature video cameras than you do about me. In fact, Ms. Winters was positive she saw a suspicious-looking red truck outside of your home the day before you arrived and became hysterical, babbling about the truck and secret video cameras. She was so upset I had to administer an injection of lorazepam to calm her down."

"So ... there could be cameras here now?" Emily said in a low voice, an uneasy shiver running through her.

"If Ms. Winters is right - and please keep in mind she has a long history of delusions - it is possible," Spencer answered, tucking his golden hair behind his ears. "But, according to her, you'll never find them. Or even if you do find them, there will be multiple types in multiple rooms, smaller than a tack."

JJ's eyes watered with genuine tears. "I don't want some pervert watching us every night!" she sobbed. "Forget the down payment. Let's just go home. Let's go back to New York now."

Emily laid a steady hand on her arm. "Alexandra. Baby. Calm down. We've been here for one night. If some kid gets off by watching us, then how is it any different than the Peeping Tom we didn't even know about, until the cops knocked on our door with all that video footage? At least now we're aware of it and can put on a show for that little perv. Or we can always do it in the car." She leaned in to kiss JJ who, to her surprise, kissed her back. If not for Spencer clearing his throat awkwardly, they might have forgotten that he was even there.

Glancing at him, Emily couldn't wait to describe to the rest of the team how his face turned bright red, beads of sweat appearing on his forehead, with his leg jiggling up and down at an unprecedented speed upon seeing them kiss.

"Anyway," Emily added dismissively, "this is coming from a woman with some serious psychiatric issues. Maybe she imagined the whole thing."

"You're right," JJ said, straightening her back. "But if we find even one camera, I am calling every single one of my legal contacts to go after him on warantless wiretapping charges."

"She's so protective," Emily cooed, stroking JJ's arm. "You'd never know it, but there's an absolute tigress hidden underneath that blonde hair and those blue eyes."

"I ... I can see that," Spencer choked out.