1 | TREPIDATION. [SPENCER REID]

THIRTY ONE.

"Quinn said that he 'saw something in her'," Kate recalled. "Was that 'something' a thing other than skill?"

Morgan's stomach dropped as he looked toward Hotch and Garcia. The three became uneasy as JJ spoke up.

"This entire seven year mission was about Quinn, wasn't it?" she said, disbelief evident in her voice.

"Not her," Morgan said. The entire room looked at him. "At least not at first."

Spencer's breath caught in his throat. "What do you mean?"

Hotch sighed, biting the inside of his cheek. "Garcia found information on Quinn's family," he began, "who've which have all passed. The last to go were her parents."

"So you think her parents were involved?" Rossi questioned, brows raising.

The genius let out a shuddering breath, the word 'no' falling from his lips in repetitive whispers as things began to add up in his head. "Reid," Morgan said cautiously, nearing the man to make sure that he was okay. "Reid?"

"I know where she is," he responded. His eyes clenched shut as he turned back to the whiteboard behind him, sketching out the letters L O V-E. "Love may have been the answer, but there's even more to this as well."

"The dash between the V and the E," Kate noted. "The answer isn't just love, is it?"

"It's an acronym," Spencer answered. "The acronym is a location. I knew that as soon as I saw the letter. But it was a matter of where. I had a couple of suspicions, but I wasn't sure." He inhaled shakily as he turned back toward the board. "But, now that we know Quinn's parents were actually involved with the Horsemen, I know that one of them is right." Spencer uncapped the marker, writing words vertically beneath the acronym. "JJ told me that we found out that Quinn's father worked in the finance department for largest electric railroads in California, the base of which, is in Visalia, where Quinn grew up."

The each member of the team seemed to stiffen as Spencer moved away from the board, revealing the phrase, Located Over Visalia-Electric.

"If this is about Quinn's father, then this is where she is," Spencer stated, looking up at his teammates. "I know it."

Hotch eyed him suspiciously. "You're sure about this?" His gaze focused on the shaking hands of the doctor.

"It makes the most sense to me," he replied. "It's the one thing that I can think of that adds up."

The leader nodded, pulling his phone out of his pocket. "I'll tell the Bureau to prepare the jet. Wheels up in twenty." He then turned to Garcia. "I want you to find everything in your power about Quinn's father." The technical analyst nodded, running off as soon as she was given her orders.

As Hotch left the room, Rossi narrowed his eyes at the board. "There's one thing about this that still doesn't make sense to me," he commented. "If this is about her parents, why not kill Quinn?" He saw Spencer's face harden and Derek shudder. "The Horsemen wouldn't have held onto Quinn if this was about her parents. They would have killed her before shooting them. Why keep her?"

It was a question that left them thinking. Rossi had a point. Why make it about Quinn and not end it with Andrew Carson?