And If I Fall, Let Me Part I: At Your Service - A. Hotchner x OC & Jemily

Unrest

"You want to see it? It's a few rooms, but it's hard to get out of it again, the whole perimeter is always under video surveillance. So hiding someone would be hard."

"So you've analyzed the video material?" Morgan asked, earning himself another nod.

"No one left these perimeters in between the last gala and the murder with a dead body. In fact, at least two victims have checked out before they have vanished."

Emily huffed.

"Could they have left with the killer?" she asked, looking back and forth between Alex and Morgan. The blonde nibbles on her lip, thinking back to the tapes she had seen.

"As far as I remember, they were alone, but we can take another look back later. It was hard to pinpoint their exact location. Some of them checked out and then went out the back to smoke. The tapes were...well," she said, unable to hide a little discomfort, "chaotic. We usually focus on security, not on surveillance, you know."

Alex felt the twinge of guilt she had tried suppressing in her stomach. Three people. She had known them, at least seen them that night. Even if just in passing.

"I'm sure you did your best," Morgan said, but she only raised an eyebrow at him.

"Thanks, but I'm still not convinced we did," Alex continued, sighing heavily, "Do you still want to see the basement?"

A nod from both agents made her turn around, leading the way. She wondered if the others had more luck finding something than they did. Rolling up the sleeves of her blouse, she gestured towards the door at the end of the corridor.

"This is it," Alex said, fishing the keys out of her pocket. She opened the door, a dark staircase behind it. "Have fun."

Emily raised her brows at her. "I always prefer if one person stays up. Security reasons," Alex winked at them, hoping it was convincing enough. If it wasn't necessary, basements weren't her favorite places on earth. She met Morgan's inquiring eyes, glad he decided to look away after a few seconds.

"After you, Prentiss," he said to Emily. Watching them go down, Alex pulled out the plan of the building again, checking if there was something they had missed. However they had done it, no surveillance had picked them up, and no secret liar had been anywhere. It didn't make sense. People don't just vanish, Alex thought to herself, huffing out air. When her phone made a sound, she was almost thankful. This was really giving her a headache.

'Chief, we don't have anything, hbu? :)'

A small smile played around her mouth. Tyler was seemingly in one of his better moods today. He usually reserved the chief and the smiley for days that were good.

'Nothing so far. Are you back yet?'

He was typing fast enough that she knew he wasn't driving a car at least.

'Just arrived. Doc told me all about the probability of dying because I'm working for the service.'

Snorting, Alex shook her head.

'I'm sure we both signed a contract that included that.'

She pocketed her phone when she heard Morgan and Emily making their way upstairs again.

"Nothing," Morgan said, looking in her direction, "besides some rooms that haven't been used in probably a hundred years."

Alex closed the door behind them. "I checked the map again, there is nothing we missed. Do you have any other idea?"

The two exchanged looks, and Morgan shook his head.

"No, we should head back. Maybe the others found something."