Running

Chapter 17

"You need to tell us who your friend is," I say.

He laughs. "And what would I get in return?"

"You won't be charged with obstruction of justice," I retort. "Ray, another little girl was taken an hour ago. Maisyn Tate. What did your guy have against her?"

"Well if I'm not mistaken," he begins. "Farrah was more by chance. That's what he told me. Grab any girl you can. But Kayden? That was specific. And then he took Payton? Now, where'd he get Maisyn?"

I narrow my eyes at him before reluctantly I sigh. "The grocery store."

"Ahah, and that's chance isn't it? But he also didn't stick to my scheduling. Which means you made him mad." He wiggles his eyebrows.

"So they know now? Your friends, they know I'm your father?"

I don't answer him, but my silence is enough.

"Did they see the pictures? The ones of you girls?" His smile is devilish.

"They looked at the file, yes."

"Hmm... but not the pictures, or, rather, not your pictures. I'm sure that since you have so many members of this town that are loyal to you, they must've helped you out somehow. Unknowingly at least, but I assume you were relieved to not find pictures of you in those boxes. Am I right?"

The truth is, he is right. My dad took many pictures of his victims, wether it was them cowering in the corner of the room, or splayed across a bed. When I flipped through the files and didn't find any photos of me among the others, I was allayed. But I can't tell him that.

"No, that's not true."

"What's not true?" The look in his eye tells me he's looking for a slip. Any indicator in my posture or expression that'll let him know he's won.

"That they didn't look at the photos. They did. We all did."

"Well why don't you tell me what yours looked like," he says with a Cheshire smile.

He knows I'm lying. But then again, he also assumes that I don't remember. That I don't remember the posing. Or the flash of the camera. The clicking sound when he snapped the photos. He thinks I don't remember.

"In which one? There were twenty seven. Are you looking for the one where I'm chained to the table, bent over my chair in my underwear? I think I was thirteen. Or the one where you'd tied my hands to the bedposts and dressed me up in a mini skirt and bra. I was what, fifteen in that one? Maybe you're referring to the one where I was in the shower. A snapshot, from behind the curtain. My front to you, because I hadn't even heard the door open. Sixteen. Is that what you wanted to hear?"

His face is pale for a moment, before he hides it with a fake smirk.

"So they saw those too? How nice. What'd they think of it?" He leans up against the bars. "Did they saw you were beautiful? Because you were."

"How could you do something like that to your own daughter?"

"Well it's not my fault you ended up looking the way you did. Then again, it was. Those are my eyes. Your mothers hair..."

"If somebody else were doing to me what you did, how would you feel?"

"Gotta admit, not too happy."

"So how do you think the fathers of all these other kids feel right now? Do you ever think about that? Sorry, that's a stupid question. You only think about yourself. You're not going to help us. You're not going to save Maisyn. You're going to let this man torture her the way you tortured me, because you don't give a shit."

I turn away from he bars and take a step back towards the stairs when I see a person standing at the bottom. Their eyes sad. Spencer.

I ignore his expression and continue walking. My dad is silent, and I don't turn back to check his reaction.

At the top of the stairs I take a quick look around before settling on grabbing a drink from the break room.

Spencer is there almost immediately. "Elle... I had no idea," he says.

"You weren't supposed too." I smile. "It's fine Spencer, really. It doesn't bother me as much anymore..."

"But he-he watched you while you showered?"

"He was a rapist? What'd you expect? He'd probably do it to all of us if he could..."

He's silent for a while. "Elle... how did you ever get past that?"

"No idea... but I'm sure Morgan does. If I'd heard correctly, Carl Buford was a pretty major part of his youth. It's not always easy to move on but sometimes it just happens. I moved away. I changed my name. I just left... it was that easy."

He nods but his face tells me he 'isn't computing.'

"Spencer. You don't need to understand everything. Sometimes things in life will always be a mystery..." I put my hand on his shoulder and he smiles softly.

"Okay. Well, the others are on their way back. They already sent us a copy of the security footage. We should go look at that..."

"Alright."

We leave the break room and walk towards the glass box. When we walk in Hotch raises a brow but I shake my head.

"Nothing."

He sighs. "Okay. Morgan, play the video."

He hits a button on a laptop and the video starts to play on the projector. Everything seems fine until a man walks up behind a little girl and chloroform's her. He drags her out of the employee exit and disappears. Derek switches the camera to show us outside the store, but all we can see is the back of his head as he throws her in the back of his truck. When he drives off, though, we see that his license plate has been taken off.

"So, he knew enough to shield his face from the camera. He's dressed up like a worker, so he very possibly works at the store. And, he has one of the most common vehicles in town. Almost everybody owns some variation of a truck. But, at least this way we know to take a closer look at store employees. The time stamp is 10:47. You guys got there at like, 10:53. Six minutes isn't a lot of time, and both the suspects were there when you got inside right?"

"Yeah, but the manager said they both just got back from break," Hotch states.

"So many grey pieces, and nowhere to put them. Any one of the shop assistants could be a viable suspect. We just need some sort of other lead..."

The rest of the team walks into the room.

"Nothing useful," Emily says. "Nobody saw anything. Did the footage help at all?"

"No," Morgan sighs.

"We should set up road blocks," I suggest. "Make sure nobody can get in or out. And in the meantime?"

"More searching?" Emily fills in, and Hotchner nods.

"Let's go..."