Healed Present

Chapter 12

"Garcia, report to the malls security office, Reid, Morgan. I want you to find the head of security, We need all data from every search team. You guys start with Katie's parents" Hotch as he looked at JJ and Celeste who nodded.

"We'll treat the mall like a neighborhood, and we'll separate into areas of control" he then said everyone nodded to him and walked away.

"God, this is horrible" JJ said as they walked side by side.

"Push it down JJ, it's not the place to let your emotions get the best of you" Celeste let out as they made the corner and saw a Rapid Deployment officer walking towards them.

"Katie was last seen by her cousin in the arcade about twenty five minutes ago, she was wearing jeans, a green shirt, gray sneakers, and ponytails. Registered offenders located within the forty five mile radius" the lady said giving papers to Celeste who quickly looked at it.

"OK, run this againts current and former employees as well" she said as they walked together.

Hotch and Jim were making there way up to the second level.

"If this animal so much as looks at me wrong once we get him..."

"I read the Jessica Davis report" Hotch cut in.

"I know you found the remains last week" he then said, Jim nodded to him.

"Twenty years, never seen anything like it. Can't get the image out of my head. I joined the bureau to rescue people, not to stand over another dead kid today. I couldn't handle it" he said, Hotch let out a hum in agreement.

"Hopefully you won't have to" he said as they stopped walking and looked at each other.

"It's all chance you know. Wrong place at the wrong time. No logic, no sense. How does a parent reconcile that?" Hotch looked at Jim for a moment then looked away.

"they never do" he said.

"Ms. Jacobs cell phone had Katie's picture on it" the rapid Deployment officer said as she walked up to Celeste and JJ who were talking.

"Mall security helped us make copies" she then said as she passed a picture of the little girl to Celeste, who looked at it. her stomach dropped a little as she looked at this beautful sweet girl.

"Ok, we need to get one of these to every search team, every officer, every patron. Potential witnesses need to know who we're looking for too. Problem is our UNSUB could be any one of them" Celeste said passing the picture to JJ.

"There's her parents" the deployment officer said pointing to a group of people standing. Celeste nodded then started walking towards the group with JJ walking beside her.

"take point I'm going to watch" Celeste said, JJ nodded to her.

"Hi, We're Agents Jareau and De Luca with the BAU. And you must be Katie's aunt and uncle" JJ said and the man and woman nodded to her.

"This can't be easy, we're here to walked you through this" JJ then said. Celeste and JJ escorted Katie's parents Paul and Beth Jacobs to the security office, where Hotch and Garcia were looking over the surveillance video. The parents sat in front of a computer where they watched the video that Garcia found. Celeste was standing a few feet away and studying the parents.

"this image was captured moments before your nephew reported Kate missing" JJ explained.

"Oh god" Mr. Jacobs said.

"I know the angle's limited, but is there anything or anyone in the frame that you recognized?" Hotch asked looking at both parents.

"No" they said at the same time.