The couple's house hasn't been treated well. It has so much graffiti and damage that the city had to put a chain-link fence around the place to keep trespassers away. However, if more came, it wouldn't make much of a difference. The place is so badly damaged, you're shocked it's still standing. This place holds a lot of memories, and none of them are good.
This used to be a good house–you can see it. Years of ignored care left it in the state it's in. The outside walls used to be bright white but now are a dirty color. The wood is falling apart at the base of the house. The windows are smashed and shattered, so to keep people out of the house, they board it up haphazardly.
"Jacob's workshop is out the back," Derek says.
"I don't know about this place, Derek. I have a really bad feeling," you say with an uneasy feeling.
Derek leads you onto the property and towards the back. The closer you get to the place where his workshop used to be, the more the uneasy feeling comes back. All that's left back there is just dirt, but you can clearly see the workshop as if it were standing right now. Everything is perfectly clear as to what used to be here.
"He claimed that Sarah Jean would lure the victims from mall parking lots. She'd invite them to smoke pot in her truck. They'd find Jacob but no pot. They'd bring them here."
"This is where the workshop stood," you state, looking around as if it were actually here.
"What do you see?"
"It's a lot smaller than I thought it was going to be. It's big enough to not warrant concerns from anyone else but small enough to hide away from the street's view. It looks homey like a guest house, but not too scary to throw off any of the people who passed by the house on a daily basis. There are high cabinets with a ton of tools inside like a mechanic would have. There are some tools hanging on the far wall, a few desks around, and a big bench saw," you whisper fearfully when you see what's on it.
Right on the blade is red liquid, and you know it's blood.
"The blade has a ton of blood on it. He used it to cut up his victims," you say.
As you get out the last word, you see a mystified version of Jacob standing by the saw with one of his faceless victims on the table. She is squirming, but he cuts her up anyway. Sarah Jean is nowhere to be found, but you have a feeling that she didn't know he did this to these poor girls. Killing, maybe, but killing them this way, absolutely not. Sarah Jean was a victim herself–and she still is.
"I can't look at this anymore," you whisper and look away from the crime scene that's no longer there.
"We know that Jacob was abused as a child. What about Sarah Jean?" Derek asks.
"Her mother refused to give any testimony in her defense. She never talked to anybody," you state.
When you look back at Derek, the workshop had disappeared. Your mind is focused on something else, so it doesn't have the energy to conjure up what was, but instead, focuses on what is.
"Maybe she's willing to talk now. Let's go pay Sarah Jean's mother a visit."
"Despite what happened, she doesn't live far. It's within walking distance."
"I wonder why she didn't move halfway around the world."
"She's a mother, Derek. A Mother doesn't abandon her children," you say with sadness.
"You say that like you know that. Do you have children?"
"No."
You don't say anything more on the matter, not like you would if you could. Your past promised to stay in the past, so there is no use in digging up things that have been locked away for almost a decade now. You two quickly head over to Sarah Jean's mother's house to see if she'll talk to you now.
Her house is still standing, but it looks like there is a lot of work still left to be done. Its as if she wants to repaint and redo the house to give it a new start so she can somehow move on from all this. No matter how much work is done on the house, you can still sense the sadness within the foundations. Right by the door is 'Rot in Hell Sarah Jean' spray-painted loud for anyone who walks by. You ignore it and knock on the door, looking at Derek when she doesn't answer.
"She's sad, Derek–in more pain than anyone I've seen in a while," you sigh.
"Hello? Anybody? Hello! Mrs. Mason?" Derek yells, knowing she is home.
The door opens and Sarah's mother, Deborah Mason, stands there with a small teacup in her hands.
"Yeah?"
"Are you Sarah Jean Dawes' mother?" you ask.
"Who the hell are you?"
"FBI. We are from the behavior analysis unit," you state and flash her your badge.
"My daughter and her son of a bitch husband buried a thirteen-year-old girl under my floor. What more do you need to know?"
"Ma'am, Sarah Jean has agreed to meet with our colleges to talk about why they killed those girls. We'd like some background information if you don't mind," Derek says gently.
She has nothing to lose by letting you two in and talking, so she just shrugs and lets the door open as she heads back inside. The inside looks the same as the outside, but with more work. Plastic covers virtually everything as she gets ready to repaint the house. There are some parts torn up from the floor, so you're careful as you walk inside to where Deborah is in the kitchen. This is an open floor plan, and you can see into the dining room on the other end of the kitchen right through an arched entryway. Almost every doorway is an arch.
"Extensive remodeling. Jacob built the original extension?" you ask and point to the arch separating the kitchen and the dining room. "I see he liked arches."
"Teenage girls, agent, that's what he liked."
"How was Sarah Jean growing up?"
"Fine, until she met Jacob. She was shy, quiet, and also smart."
She picks up a bottle of vodka and adds more to her small teacup, and you exchange silent glances with Derek.
"What about her relationship with her father?" you wonder. "Was Sarah ever abused?"
"He was strict. He was a military man. They didn't always see eye to eye. That's all history. He's dead. She's about to die," she sighs and drinks from the cup.
"Mrs. Mason, if we better understand the dynamics of her relationships, we can get a better idea of why and what actually happened," Derek says.
"Dynamics?" she scoffs and moves away from the kitchen to the living room where her purse is.
"Well, it might answer why Jacob never killed Sarah Jean. They shared something."
"They shared pain."
"How strict was your husband? How did he discipline Sarah Jean? Was he physical with her?" you pry.
"He was a mean bastard, but he only hurt me... never her."
"Why didn't you leave with her?"
"Because we had no place to go," her voice falters as she takes another sip.
"An anonymous caller tipped the police off about Jacob, was it you?" you ask.
"No, but I know who it was," she says and pulls out a letter from her purse. She hands it to you, and you take it gently from her hands. "This came this morning."
You open the letter, and your mouth hangs open just a bit when you read exactly what it is.
"What does it say?" Derek asks.
"It's a statement of innocence," you reveal. "I'll be right back. I'm going to call Gideon about this."
You quickly head outside and dial Penelope so she can patch you through to the older agent.
"Garcia," she says once she answers.
"Hey, it's Y/N. I need Gideon please."
"Yeah, I'll pass you through," she puts you on a brief hold until she can get the older agent on the line for you.
"What?" Gideon mutters quietly.
"We're at the mother's house, and she gave me a letter. A statement of innocence. I want to read to you."
"Read the letter, Y/N."
"Mom, I know how difficult this must be. Things between us were never what they should be between a mother and a daughter. I want you to know that the best part of me, the most important part of me, is now in a better place than you and I will ever be. I'm responsible for the death of those girls. I neglected my duties as a woman and as a mother."
There is more to it, but you can hear Sarah Jean get upset over the line. You don't know what is happening, but you feel like you need to get over there right now. Screw prisons and your fear of them. You need to help this woman, and it sounds like you can, based on what you hear over the phone.
"I'm coming over there. I'll be there soon," you say to whoever is listening before hanging up. Derek exits the house, and you put your phone away and hand him the letter. "I'm going back to prison. You'll be okay here? I can send Elle to help you."
"Yeah, that'd be great. I'll see if I can't get anything else out of Deborah."
"Okay, stay safe."
"And stay sane," he quips back as you head to the car.
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When you get to the prison, Gideon and Spencer are done talking to Sarah Jean. She didn't know you would be reading her private letter, so she needed to clear her head before you go and talk to her. If she is truly innocent, then why is she fighting so hard to stay here? Why not fight to get out and separate herself from Jacob? She is scared of something... or she's trying to protect someone. You sent Elle to go to Derek when you arrived, and the team gathers where Penelope is to watch the tapes of the interviews to see if they can't spot anything that they might have missed.
"They died as a result of my neglect," Sarah Jean whispers regretfully.
"This letter suggests to me that an innocent woman is about to be executed for a crime she did not commit."
"I could tell you right now, it's not enough to get a stay," Sam Shapiro sighs.
"Well, facts. Reid," Gideon says.
"Human sexuality is a complex dynamic of three components: biological, physiological, and emotional. Jacob's needs were informed by the emotional, sexual abuse that he received at the hand of his mother. Long-term appetitive abuse informed the template of his love map. Something we refer to as a signature. Jacob was an only child, so he was alone when the abuse occurred. So, in order for him to fulfill his fantasy he has got to be alone with his victims."
You look from the tape of Sarah Jean to the one with Jacob, and you just narrow your eyes in anger for him. He's not a good person at all, and you refuse to even be within sight of him. There is no way you'll survive talking to him about anything.
"If I told you that what would I have left for myself?" Jacob says over the tape.
"He said 'myself'. If Sarah Jean was present, it would have destroyed his fantasy," you note.
"She confessed to killing her son," the warden, Charles Diehl, states.
"Yes, true, but we are also convinced that she is the anonymous caller that made the phone call that nailed Jacob. In fact, I know she is."
"Guilt-ridden and filled with remorse, she called the police. It's not the profile of a woman who would then kill a child," Gideon sighs.
"What else do you need?" you ask the attorney.
"Evidence."
"So, if we prove Jacob killed Riley, would that get a stay?"
"Absolutely."
"She protects the painting, she protects the boy," Gideon mutters.
"What?" you ask.
"Paintings are her statement. We need to figure out what they say."
"Get me into her room, and I'll find that out. I have to be alone though. I can't have her influence on this."
"You'll get it," Gideon confirms with a single nod.