Unknown- A Criminal Minds Fanfic

Chapter 6-Zombie Walking

My anticipated comatose state didn't last long, however, because my phone went off at--I squinted at the lit up screen--12:03. I grabbed it off the table and unlocked it, a text from Garcia displayed on the blue screen.

BAU ASAP. Child abduction.

I sighed and rolled over onto my back, blinking away the starbursts dancing across my black ceiling from staring at the bright phone screen. Twenty-four hours was our time frame if we wanted to get a victim of child abduction back alive, so I sat up rubbing my eyes before climbing out of my warm bed and hurriedly getting dressed.

I tried my best to not go too far over the speed limit on my way in and before I even entered the conference room I had a Coke in hand. I needed the caffeine, not the sugar, but I suppose the sugar couldn't hurt.

A boy from a family in WITSEC had been abducted, suspectedly by the mafia family they were in protection from though a ransom demand had yet to be made.

"I'm already going through all the contacts the Heather's family had before they went into Witness Protection, and the limited list of those they have contact with now," Garcia told us.

"All right. The rest of us will head to Alabama. JJ and Rossi, go to the boy's school, Morgan and Reid, set up at the station, and Prentiss and McDowell, you're with me to interview the family," Hotch said, followed by a, "Wheels up in twenty," as we all gathered up our stuff.

One thing I had never admitted to the team was that I hated interviewing the family. I know it was a necessary part of the job and I would have no idea what it felt like to be them, missing a child or a daughter or a husband, but part of this job meant you were good at compartmentalizing. So good in fact that facing crying mothers, angry fathers, and silent siblings every day didn't affect me, at least not until the case was over and solved, and by then there was another case you needed to be clear-headed for, so it was rare I felt anything. Not that I minded, I had always been good at compartmentalizing and if that's what it took to save lives, I was all for it.

Through tears from the mother and short, stoic answers from the father, they explained that a few years back the father's brother had gotten involved with a mafia group and came to him when he needed help paying off debts so he could get out, but a shoot out ensued and the brother was killed, a price put on the heads of the Heather's once a couple of the mafia members were tossed in jail because of Mr. Heather's brother's involvement.

Garcia confirmed that their records checked out, and one of the aforementioned mafia members had just gotten released from prison which means we had our unsub. The problem remained to find him before he hurt the boy within our quickly diminishing time limit.

While we informed the public--with our profile and an appeal to the unsub from the boy's parents--Garcia was busy searching the vast database of the internet for whatever she could dig up for Wylie Fransuto.

Apparently the Heather's appeal worked, because minutes after we had all returned to the police station, a restricted number called.

"Keep the focus on your son," Prentiss said before letting them answer it. Rossi had Garcia trace the call.

"Hello?" Mrs. Heather asked in a wavering voice.

We all heard the deep voice on the other end reply, "Two-hundred thousand. By two o'clock."

"Is Daniel okay?" she asked.

"You won't get a cent until you prove he's okay," Mr. Heather challenged.

We were met by silence on the other end, but then a faint crackling ensued and a timid voice asked, "Mom? Dad?"

Mrs. Heather gasped and pressed a hand over her mouth to keep from breaking down in tears and Mr. Heather sighed in relief, a hand on his wife's shoulder as he answered, "Daniel, I promise you'll be okay soon, all right, bud?"