Soaring Through the Sky - Spencer Reid

therapy

   Emily walked out of the conference room, her mouth half-open in shock as she looked at the quivering members of her team. Claire stepped out of the room as well, clad in a deep red sweater with her hair pulled back into a sleek ponytail. 

   "What's our case?" Bella asked, her teeth chattering as she slipped off her coat. 

   "It's a cold case," Emily answered, her eyes flickering over to the window as snow fell heavily to the ground outside. "No pun intended." 

   "A body was found by a group of hikers," Penelope answered as the rest of the team made their way up to the conference room. "Decomposed completely, forensics has determined that it's an 18-year-old male who has been dead for 25 years."

   "25 years?" Luke questioned. "No offense to the deceased but...why should we care about this case?"

   "25 years ago a boy went missing, his father was a former agent here," Emily answered. "This case...it's a personal favor."

   "You think these remains are that boy?" Bella questioned, sitting down at the table.

   "I'm almost certain that it's him," Emily nodded. "His father passed away 10 years ago, he never got the closure that he deserved. His mother is too medicated to understand what's going on. We--we need to bring justice to what happened to this boy."

   "His name is Devin Xander and he was 18 when he went missing," Penelope said, bringing up a photo of a smiling, brunette boy with big brown eyes. "He was a handsome thing." 

   "This case is going to be heard but let's just try to work with what we have," Emily said. 

   The team nodded as Penelope slowly passed out the case files. 

*                  *                 *

   "Forensics has confirmed that the remains belong to Devin," Emily announced, walking back into the room. 

   "That poor boy," Penelope said with a large frown. 

   "He was sweet, he was in the top 5 of his class. He was part of the school's debate team. Everyone loved him."

   "Then who would want to kill him?" Claire pressed. "This isn't attached to any serial crimes. It seems like it was a completely random attack."

   Emily nodded in agreement, "I don't mean to make this any stressful for you all...but I told the rest of the team not to bother coming in. The roads are terrible and I don't want anyone risking their lives just to come look at a case that has almost nothing to help it. You can leave if you want, but the roads are bad."

   "We're not leaving," James said before anyone could say anything else. "This boy deserves justice and we can help with that."

   "He's right," Bella agreed. "It's been 25 years, we need to help find something."

   Emily nodded, her heart feeling warmer as she took out the photos of Devin's remains. The team studied the bones carefully, reading over the notes that the forensics team had left. 

   "He had blunt force trauma to the top of his head," Luke said. "And evidence of...deep cuts on his face."

   "He also has blunt force trauma to his forehead," Spencer said, studying the picture closely without looking at the notes. 

   "Like something hit him hard directly in the forehead. Something long."

   Claire looked over at the notes, "That wasn't what killed him, though. His windpipe was crushed."