CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE: GARCIA VS. REID !
5x03
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THE TEAM HAD BEEN CALLED INTO A CASE AND WERE READY TO GO OVER IT. Casey sat at the round table with the team as JJ pointed towards the screen. Hotch and Rossi had walked into the room.
"What have we got?" Hotch questioner. "Ben Vanderwaal was killed in Commack, Long Island. Last night, shot at close range, once in the heart, once in the head, .22 caliber shell." JJ explained.
"They found hair and blood traces from Ben Vanderwaal's wife, Heather." Morgan stated. "But not Heather?" Rossi asked. "No, she's still missing, presumed dead. The caliber and placement of the bullets match that of two previous victims. The first, Rita Haslat. Eight months ago, she went missing from her home in New Jersey. Four weeks later, she was found in a trash bin." JJ explained.
"She went from that to this in under 3 weeks?" Emily questioned, motioning to the pictures. "She's totally emaciated."
"Ligature marks on her wrists and ankles Indicate she was constrained." Reid states: "One in the heart, one in the head-- same as Vanderwaal." Casey added.
"Sounds more like an execution." Hotch said. "Then why cut off Vanderwaal's hands postmortem?" Reid questioned. "What about the third victim?" Rossi asked.
"Bill Levington," JJ changed the picture on the screen. "His appearance was certainly altered." Emily read from the file: "His genitals were missing."
"Though the method of mutilation is different in each crime, Clearly there's a signature. The question is, what? Wheels-up in 20." Hotch stands and passed over a paper towards Reid and he looks down at it.
"What's this?" Reid questioned. "You told me you were cleared to travel, you lied." Hotch stated and Casey raises her eyebrows at Reid. She had remembered a conversation she had with Reid about a week ago that he had planned to lie to Hotch about being cleared to travel. Casey knew his plan wasn't gonna work out and she was right. "Ooh, you in trouble." Casey teases. "Naughty boy." Emily adds.
"Uh, no, I didn't. I am a doctor, so technically, it wasn't a lie." Reid said, looking up at Hotch. Penelope peeks through the room and stands against the doorway. "What was it, then?" She asks.
Reid thinks. "Um...second opinion." He says. "Hmm. You're my bitch now." Garcia tells and both Morgan and Casey chuckle to themselves as Reid awkwardly looks back down at the table.
Reid looks over at Casey, looking as if he's pleading for her help while Casey shrugged, "Hey, told you it wasn't gonna work. And who was right in the end?" Reid sighs and Casey begins to get ready to go to Long Island.
Everyone had been on the jet as they discussed the case. Casey was seated beside Morgan as both Emily and JJ were seated in front of them. "In the Ben Vanderwaal case, his hands were taken. Uh, Bill Levington, his genitals. Only in the Rita Haslat case she was starved and tortured, then executed and there was no sign of postmortem mutilation." Emily explained.
"Why would he take Heather Vanderwaal and not simply kill her?" Hotch questioned. "We'll, maybe he hasn't and she's still alive. The question leaves is to why he's only killing the men?" Casey questioned herself.
"The only thing concrete is the MO, which depicts an efficient no-nonsense murderer." Hotch explained. "Well, then we need to figure out what each act of mutilation means to the unsub." Morgan said. "Or to the victim." Hotch added.
The team had gone their own ways up until they had been informed that Heather Vanderwaal was found wandering the streets. JJ and Casey had been sent over to the woman's hospital room and they had fortunately got there in time to speak with her.
Casey stood against the doorframe as JJ spoke with the woman. Casey watched as JJ had the conversation with her and began to recite the night with her. Heather began to describe what she saw that night. She said she had seen flashes and heard sawing noises and she was left wondering why he didn't kill her.
Casey's cell began to ring and she stepped outside for a sec to take the call and she had seen that Garcia was calling her. "Hey, you find anything?" Casey asked. "Well, we've been getting to know Heather Vanderwaal. I can't tell you her favorite Beatle, but I can tell you she was living la vida unhappy." Garcia explained.
"What did you find?" Casey asked and Reid's voice chirped up over the phone. "Her ex-husband took her daughter, Allison, out of school mid-term. After that, Heather cut a check for $5,000 to a place called Lewis, Bell, & Peters six days ago." Reid explained.
"Law firm?" Casey questioned.
"Family law." Garcia clarified.
Casey had seen JJ walk out of the room, wanting to know what she found out. "Thanks." Casey then hung up and turned over to JJ.
"Did they find anything?" JJ asked the girl. "Not much," Casey spoke. "But they did find out that Heather's ex-husband took their daughter, Allison out of school in the middle of the term and then cashed a $5,000 check to a family law firm." Casey explained and JJ nodded, going back into the room and Casey followed behind as JJ went to speak with Heather again.
"Mrs. Vanderwaal... at mid-term you moved your daughter out of school?" JJ asked. "Yes, I did." Heather said. "After that, you filed for divorce from Ben." JJ said. Heather looked as if she didn't want to talk about it.
"This man left you alive for a reason. I need to know if these two things are connected." JJ told and Heather took a deep breath and began to explain. "A few months ago, I found a picture of Allison on Ben's phone."
"Your daughter."
"She was naked." Heather stated.
"Where was it taken?" Casey asked.
"I couldn't tell."
"Did you confront him?" Casey asked.
"Yes," Heather said. "He claimed that Allison sent it to him by mistake. She meant to send it to another student at her school. It's called sexting."
"What did Allison say?" JJ asked. "She said Ben took it, but she--she lies. Allison, she's a liar. She caused us a lot of trouble, you know?" JJ and Casey exchange a glance as Casey steps closer to Heather's bed.
"She wasn't lying about this, though, was she?" Casey questioned and Heather's eyes welled up in tears and she began to cry. "No."
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Rossi had come to the conclusion that they were dealing with a hitman and that he would need to talk to some "old contacts" as he called them. Casey figured it was best not to pry into it. The team had been surrounded and began to try and piece this altogether.
"The removal of the hands is as specific as Rita Haslat's condition was when she was found." Morgan told. "Just as specific as the removal of Bill Levington's genitals." Emily stated. "There's a message in the mutilations the unsub wants us to know." Hotch told.
Casey turned her attention over to the screen Reid and Garcia were using to talk with the team. "I got something here that might help us with--" Garcia is then interrupted by Reid. "Technically, we have something here that might help with that." Reid corrected.
"Bill Levington was involved in a serial rape case, all involving minors, and it never went to trial." Garcia informed.
"Rita Haslat?" Hotch asked.
"A former—"
"A former social worker, attained said former status when she was fired from the DCFS for gross negligence. In one of her cases, a 7-year-old boy starved to death." Reid interrupted Garcia and Casey could tell by the look on Garcia's face that she was not used to Reid interrupting her and infesting himself in her own lair.
"Which explains why Haslat was so emaciated when she was found." Prentiss told. "If all the victims were indicated in crimes against children, then we've found a connection." Casey stated.
"One of the unsubs has access to the crimes of the victims and probably works in the justice system. Garcia?"
"On it."
"On it."
Both Garcia and Reid say before they start to argue with one another before hanging up on the call. Casey smiled to herself, knowing that Reid and Garcia were definitely going to an issue working alongside each other during this case.
"All right, well, we know what the victims have in common, we just need to find out who they have in common." Morgan told.
"Wait, this social worker and the suspected rape case, those were matters of record. Ben Vanderwaal's relationship with his stepdaughter is not." Prentiss stated. "Unless the stepdaughter told someone else." Hotch nodded.
"I'll call Rossi." Prentiss told.
"I'll have the daughter brought in."
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Long story short, Rossi had gotten help from an old friend of his and he had to wait to go in his restaurant to get info. Casey waited in the car for the stakeout with her FBI vest on, along with Rossi and Hotch.
"He dims the lights, we go in." Rossi said. Casey nodded and watched the restaurant. "So, uh, Jack's, what, four today?" Rossi asked. "Yeah," Hotch nodded. "And I literally have no idea where he is."
Hotch had still be struggling with the fact that Haley and Jack were in WitSec. And with it being Jack's birthday today, it must've been hitting Hotch pretty hard. "He's safe." Rossi reassured.
Casey looked up ahead. "Hey, I thought Prentiss and Morgan were up the block." She said, looking at the unfamiliar car in front of them. "They are." Hotch said. "Then, who's in the Sedan?" She questioned.
"That the counter surveillance in case Foyet is watching me. For which, apparently, there's no more money." Hotch told.
"Yeah, I heard." Rossi nodded.
"Did somebody call you?" Hotch questioned and Rossi looked over at Hotch. "They're concerned."
"What did you say?"
"What I'm telling you," Rossi said. "An attack against you is an attack against all of us."
Casey nodded, "Damn right."
Rossi's cell phone began to ring and he picked up. "Why are you calling? You okay?" Rossi questioned, putting his phone on speaker. "I hope you got some good guys out there. This man is a mean son of a bitch." Rossi's friend said.
"We're all over," Rossi assured. "He's not gonna know what hit him." His friend spoke ups "Hey, that kid-- the, uh, smart one-- I could use a little help."
"Reid?" Rossi asked.
"Reid here." Reid's cocky voice chirped up.
"Crossword question," Rossi's friend spoke. "Ten letters. 'Crater creator'." Reid repeated back and before he could answer, Garcia answered for him. "Arctangent."
"Did you get that?" Rossi asked.
"Damn, she's smart." Rossi's friend hung up and Casey could already tell that Reid was butthurt about Garcia getting the answer before him and that Garcia would be cocky.
"Think they're arguing?" Rossi asked as he hung up the phone. Casey chuckled to herself. "Believe me, put two of the smartest people in the room together and—"
Suddenly, there was a flash from inside the restaurant that put a pause on their conversation. "Did you see that-- Flash?" Hotch hadn't seen it but another flash came and went. "I saw that."
"He's already in there." Rossi told and the three began to scramble out of the van.
"All units, go, go, go!" Hotch yelled.
The group entered the restaurant, guns held up. Rossi had found his friend, dead and blood pouring from his skull.
Soon enough, police were there, ready to take the body. "Morgan's out canvassing the area. This whole place is swarming with cops." Emily told. "We had the streets, the building, even the damn roof covered. How the hell did he get through us?" Rossi questioned.
"Garcia traced Finnegan's phone calls. He made one at 4:38 to a pre-paid cell, another one to you at 11:41." Emily explained. "We gave Boslola seven hours to prepare. I think he was here before we arrived." Hotch said.
"And he heard Ray call me. This is all my fault." Rossi blamed himself. "Now he knows we're onto him." Casey stated. "He's not the only one. Whoever he works for does, too."
To make a long story short, the case was solved and a judge that Rossi had known through an old friend of his by the name of Emma, was guilty of the murders and they had been taking him in when someone from a building had shot right at the man, scrambling the news and everyone to dodge. JJ was covered in his blood. In the end, they could've only guessed that the case was solved and had gone right back home.
me updating: surprise bitch,,, i bet you thought you'd seen the last of me😁
y'all i AM SO SORRY I HAVE NOT UPDATED IN LITERALLY OVER A MONTH
but school, football and me getting a new phone got in the way😐 i'm so sorry i will be updating more soon!!! i'm actually pretty proud of this i missed writing so much!!!
thank you for reading!
also garcia and reid in this episode >>>>
next chapter episode is: the eyes have it
love you all!!
-mya <3