"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls. The most massive characters are seared with scars." Khalil Gibran
*EDITED*
I get up and head towards the door about to leave Spencer's house when my cell phone rings. I glance at the caller ID, "It's Garcia," I tell Spencer before answering the call. "Yes, Garcia. All right. I'll be right there." I say to her on the phone.
"We have a case." I tell him before grabbing my things. "Tonight? Are you serious?!" Spencer complains. "Yeah I know it sucks." I say, "I'll meet you there I need to get my clothes."
"Ok," He says opening the door for me, "See you in 16 minutes, approximately."
I laugh as I walk out his door and get into my car, driving to my apartment to get my work clothes on and my travel bag. I drive to the office and walk into the conference room being the last one of us to arrive.
"Sorry I wasn't home." I say taking the empty seat next to Emily.
"Oh, my fighters of crime, I hate to call us all in on Halloween, but there are wicked things afoot." Garcia says standing up. "Last Halloween-" Garcia starts but is interrupted by thunder outside causing the lights to go out.
"Uh-oh." Garcia mumbles.
"Generator should kick in." Hotch says and quickly after the emergency lights come on.
"Well that was spooky. Anyway, Joshua Parker. Chronic runaway and disciplinary problems. San Diego P.D. never classified it as an abduction until this morning, Joshua turned up in a pumpkin patch from where he was last seen."
"I know this case." I speak up, "Same thing happened in Miami last year."
"Yeah, that would be Tommy Wilcox, 10 years old. He was found at the beach on Halloween, and he went missing the previous November 1st, too."
"Yeah. He died a few hours after they got him to the hospital." I say. "We caught that guy. He had a bunch of stalker pics of the boy, he confessed and pled guilty."
"Yes and yes." Garcia says putting up a picture of the unsub, "That would be Rodney Tanner, pedophile sex offender, all-around icky person, currently residing at Chino state prison."
"So what do we have, a copycat or a coincidence?" Emily asks.
"We also need to consider the possibility of there being a partner." Hotch says. "How's the Parker kid doing?"
"He's physically stable, but he's vacillating between catatonics and completely freaked out. So I'm guessing he's not talking much." Garcia informs him.
"If the pattern holds, another boy will go missing tomorrow night." JJ says.
"And we're headed to San Diego to prevent that from happening. Weather permitting, wheels up in 30."
~
On the jet the team goes over the case again with more detail, "Both victims were found exactly 364 days after their disappearance, which suggests they were actually released." Rossi says. "And someone wanted them found."
"Well, they were each Caucasian boys about the same age." Morgan says.
"Both grabbed one day after Halloween night." Spencer says.
"So the victimology is consistent, and clearly Halloween is significant because that's when the boys are being found." Hotch says.
"The question is, what did he do with them for 364 days?" Emily asks.
"What are they doing with them? Can't rule out a partner until we talk to this Tanner creep." Morgan says.
"There was never any evidence of sexual assault. At least not the traditional kind." I say.
"The first victim Tommy Wilcox died from malnutrition, and his muscles were severely atrophied, which means his physical activity must have been extremely limited." Garcia says.
"It's possible he spent the duration of his captivity restrained." Morgan suggests. "He also had puncture wounds, bruises, and was covered in splinters. What did he do, restrain the boy for a year while he stabbed him and beat him with a two-by-four?"
"Too bad we can't do the same thing to that unsub-" JJ starts, "Or unsubs." Spencer says interrupting her.
"JJ, I want you and Prentiss at the hospital with Joshua Parker, and, Dave, you're with me at San Diego P.D." Hotch starts." And Morgan, Reid, and Singfield, go to Chino state prison, find out of Rodney Tanner has a partner."
~
An officer at the prison is leading us to their interrogation room to talk to Rodney."Can I ask you guys a question?" The officer says as we make our way down the hallway.
"Shoot." Morgan says.
"Honestly, what do you think? This guy Tanner, he have a partner, or is this some sort of copycat?"
"Well, M.O. that specific, that usually belongs to a single unsub acting alone." Spencer says.
"But we'll know more after we talk to him." I say as the officer stops us in front of a door. "An officer is waiting with him inside so whenever you are ready you can go in." He says. "The viewing room in through that door there." He says pointing to another door, "There won't be room for all of you in there."
"Becca should talk to him." Morgan says. "Why me?" I argue with him.
"You know him best; you're the one who arrested him." Spencer says agreeing with him.
I take a deep breath, "Ok fine." I say taking the folders and stuff from Morgan before opening the door and going inside.
As I close the door Rodney Tanner looks up and me and grins. "Ah, Detective Rebecca Singfield, good to see you again."
I sit down at the table across from him and begin to go over to case and asking him questions.
~
"And that was it. I was done with him. So I let him go." He tells me after he finishes his story about what happened.
"You weren't concerned that he'd be able to identify you?" I ask.
Rodney chuckles "I knew he'd never live long enough. I made sure of it."
"All right, listen, Rodney, I'm gonna get right to it. I hate prisons. I don't want to be here longer than I have to be." I say in an angry tone. "See, the truth is, we don't think you did it." I put a picture of the missing boy on the table in front of him, "You know that boy?"
Rodney exhales deeply, "Maybe. Why?" He says with a smile.
"We're gonna take that as a no, we're done here." I say standing gathering the files.
"Wait. What?"
"We also watched your taped confession, and that nervous knee thing you're doing-- you never stopped doing it then. It's called a tell, Rodney, and the reason you were doing it is you were under stress and making up a lie. But today you give the exact same confession, but that knee, it's not moving at all. Not until we showed you that picture." I say and walk to the door.
"No, I had pictures. I took pictures of him."
"Yeah, well, that just makes you a whack job. No way that you abducted anyone." I say and leave the room.
I walk into the hallway just as Spencer and Morgan go back into the hall as well, "Wow. A pedophile willing to go to prison just for some spotlight. Talk about desperate." Morgan says.
"The glory of stolen thunder. The ego's a powerful motivator." Spencer agrees.
Morgan's phone starts to ring, "Yeah Hotch." Morgan says answering the phone. "No this isn't even the unsub, he lied for fame. What? Ok We'll be there soon." Morgan hangs up the phone and looks at us.
"A boy just went missing." He says and starts to walk down the hall.
"What? He's a day early." I say following him.
"Yeah well he got someone."
~
"You didn't see anybody else at all?" I ask the neighbor Emily and I were questioning.
"No."He says. "Nobody saw anything. Even if they did, it's Halloween. He could be in costume."
"We could be looking for Sponge Bob for all we know." Emily says. "Thank you for your time." She says and we walk over to the team who were circled up in the middle of the street.
"No one saw anything." JJ says.
"He was smart to move up a day, all he had to do was put on a costume and he blended into the crowd." Rossi says.
"Mrs. Wilcox said that Tommy took the toilet paper. He was out TP-ing houses." Spencer says walking up to us.
"Wait, wasn't Hunter Olson egging houses?" I ask.
"And Joshua Parker has disciplinary problems. Bad boys all around. We should deliver the profile." Hotch says walking to the car and getting in.
~
We get done presenting the profile around 2 in the morning. We walk into the room the local P.D. started to set up for us all of us taking turns yawning.
"We'll pick this up in the morning." Hotch says gathering his things.
"Agent Hotchner?" The detective walks into the room, "There's a lady here who's insisting she talk to the FBI agent she saw on TV. Our guys tried to talk to her, but she's not taking no for an answer." He says.
Hotch sighs, "You all go back to the hotel and rest, I'll see you in the morning." Hotch walks out of the room leaving the rest of us alone.
"Well I'm heading out, you kids be careful." Rossi says leaving and one by one the whole team leaves going over to the hotel.
~
"Go ahead, Garcia." Hotch says on the phone the next morning in the conference room. The whole team sitting around the table drinking coffee or eating some kind of food.
"All right, John David Bidwell. Rebellious student, rebellious kid. Got picked up for vandalism. Got picked up for joyriding in a stolen car. Wow. His mom called the cops on him a couple of times, even." Garcia says through the phone.
"For what?" I ask her.
"Uh, police report says she wanted him removed from the premises. But she dropped the charges both times."
"Do you have a current address for him?" Hotch asks.
"Last one was a P.O. Box. The IRS must be after him, too. He hasn't filed taxes in 3 years. For the last year he's worked as a driver for a courier company." Garcia reads from her computer screen. "Huh. He applied for a marriage license 3 years ago. He was engaged to a one Charlene Taylor, who-- Oh, this is awkward. Her name's now Charlene Baker because she married someone else."
"That could have been the trigger. The rejection and rage that made him feel alone, worthless, same way as dad used to make him feel." Emily says.
"So why not punish father figures instead?" JJ asks.
"Maybe he's trying to regain a sense of power and control by reenacting what his father did to him." Spencer suggests." I guess we all become our parents at some point."
"He's also making good on his dad's threat to keep him locked up till next Halloween. That was 12 years ago." Hotch says.
"What was it about that night that made such a lasting imprint?" Morgan asks.
"It was the night his parents split. Garcia, have you found his dad yet?" Hotch asks her.
"Sam Bidwell? Negative. They were never officially divorced, by the by. And he's completely off the grid." She says.
"All right. Keep looking."
You can hear Garcia starting to type again, "Gotcha. On it. Bye."
"We need to go talk to Mrs. Bidwell." Hotch says. "Dave, take JJ and Singfield with you, gather all the information about her son and husband that you can."
The three of us stand up, "Got it." Rossi says as we each get our things and head out of the office.
~
We knock on the door of the house Garcia sent us an address to and wait for an answer. When the door opens Rossi pulls out his badge, "Mary Bidwell? I'm Agent Rossi. These are agents Singfield and Jareau. We're with the FBI. We'd like to ask you a few questions about your son John David." He says.
"Well, I haven't seen him." Mrs. Bidwell says not opening the door.
"We'd still like to ask you some questions, if you don't mind."
"Yeah, come on in." She says opening the door letting us inside her home and leads us to the living room and motions us to sit down.
"No, he couldn't have done those things." She says after we explain to her what we believe her son did. "He's a good boy."
"That's not what your daughter told one of our agents." Rossi says, referring to the girl who came to talk to Hotch last night.
"Well, she's dramatic. Always has been. And she's no Saint, either, by the way."
"When was the last time you saw him?" I ask her.
"Uh, well, it's been a few years-"
"How many years?" I say interrupting her.
"Well, last time was his engagement party, so, I guess about 3."
"So right before Charlene left him." JJ says.
"That little bitch broke his heart." Mrs. Bidwell says referring to Charlene, "And her rich daddy thought they were too good for him. He's a good boy. I know my son. He didn't do this."
"Mrs. Bidwell, we know the truth about Johnny. We know about the dead animals. We know you had to call the police to get him out of your own house. He's always been different, hasn't he? Isolated, not many friends. And it got really bad when he hit puberty." Rossi says listing the things Garcia found about him.
"Look, if it were my son, I would try to protect him, too. I would. But this isn't the way to keep him safe." JJ tells her.
"Well, I--I'm trying."
" No, you're not. You're hiding something. Mrs. Bidwell, we can't seem to find your ex-husband Sam anywhere. You have any idea where he might be?" Rossi says with an angry type of tone.
Mrs. Bidwell starts to tremble, obviously scared of the memories.
"You need to tell us exactly what happened the night you and your husband split." Rossi continues.
She takes deep breath. "Mary. Please." I say," Just close your eyes for me." She closes her eyes, "Ok. Now, what's the first thing you remember happening that night?"
She lets out a sigh before beginning to talk. "It was Halloween, so I had to work a little later, and when I got home, I could hear the screaming before I even got in the door." She says, "And I come in and Sam is yelling at this old trunk of his. Yelling' you're gonna stay in this trunk till next Halloween! You hear me?!' "
"And then I asked him what he was doing and Johnny started yelling inside the trunk, I tried to get him out, but Sam hit me. But that time- that time, I fought back."
"What happened then, Mary?" JJ asks her when she stopped talking, and the trembling go worse.
"He had his back to me. And I picked up a fire poker I couldn't take it anymore. And then I got Johnny out of that damn trunk. And he saw his dad lying on the floor." She says."And then we dragged him out. There was so much blood. He helped me. He's the way he is because of me."
"What did you do with his body, Mary?" I ask but she doesn't answer. "Mary? Mary, listen to me. It was self-defense. Yes, you were just protecting yourself and your kids. But we need to know."
She suddenly starts to cry, "He's at Sam's dad's old place out by Harbison Canyon. I buried him there. We buried him there."
"Let's go." Rossi says standing up and heads to the front door, "Thank you Mrs. Bidwell." JJ says as we follow Rossi to the door.
We get in the car and Rossi calls Hotch, "Yeah, we know where he is."
~
We are the first of the team to arrive. We stop the car and see Johnny walking over to his car, we all quickly get out, vests on and guns loaded and aim at him. "John David Bidwell, FBI! Show me your hands!" Rossi yells as the sound of sirens appear in the distance.
Johnny stops walking surprised and holds up his hands. We approach him and Rossi starts to cuff him. "Where is he?" I ask him.
"You're not gonna find him." He smirks at me. The others pull up and get out of the car and run up to us, "We need to tear this place apart." I say and officers and the team start running around calling out for the boy.
"You know we're gonna find him, don't you?" Rossi says to him as he finishes cuffing him.
"Maybe. Maybe not."
"Look, if you cooperate, we can put in a good word and the court may be lenient, but if you don't, we're going to do everything we can to make sure you go away for a very, very long time." Rossi starts, "Have you ever seen the inside of a prison cell, John? It's a box. Probably not too different from the kind your dad put you in."
"You don't know a damn thing about my father."
"Actually I do." I say to him, "God-fearing, short-tempered, alcoholic. You could never make him proud, could you? Everything you did was always wrong."
"Shut up."
"Because you're such a waste." I continue ignoring him.
"Shut the hell up."
"And obviously not very smart."
"Yeah? I'm smart enough to know where that kid is at."
"He should have left you in that box." Rossi says.
The look on John's face turns into sadness, "That little boy doesn't deserve this, any more than you did. He's just like you were, Johnny. Innocent." I say "But right now you to save this little boy. Don't make it any worse."
He glances over to his truck and smirks at me. I run over to the truck and look under it finding a door to a basement. "Get a paramedic over here." I yell standing up getting into the car and starting it pulling away from the door.
Morgan runs over and opens the door and jumps inside, "I got a pulse!" He yells and lifts the boy out of the box.
~
Yo!
Gosh I'm not cool....
Anyway random fact, this was the first episode of Criminal Minds I've ever seen!
I don't know why anyone cares just...I don't know...
Ok give me any impute you have so I can make this story the best I can cause I really am enjoying writing it!
Ok bye! :)