We walked into the police depatment, and I stayed close to Aaron, feeling significantly safer now that he was here.
"Agent Hotchner."
"Chief." Aaron greeted, shaking the police cheif's hand.
"Dave."
"Sorry to meet again under these circumstances." Rossi shook his hand as well, then the Cheif turned to me.
"Eliza? Eliza Bartlett?" He asked. I nodded.
"I go by Elizabeth now." I shook his hand. My name is Elizabeth, but a lot of people chose to call me Eliza in High school.
"Should you really be here? I mean this information is sensitive."
"She's a consultant," Dave answered, "We've enlisted her help, as she was Randy Slade's best friend. We're hoping she might be able to provide some valuable insight." The Chief nodded.
"Took your advice and shut down the school. Was gonna cancel the memorial too, but some of the alums said they'd go through with it anyway." He led us into a small room that had a table in the middle of it. There were case file boxes on it.
"Did you get the student files to our technical analyst?" Aaron asked. He nodded. "Good. We'll start with criminal records."
Rossi's phone rang and he answered it on speaker.
"What'd you find, Garcia?"
"A blast from your past, I beleive. Does the name Brandon Slade ring a bell?"
"That's Randy's brother." I stated.
"Sweet kid. He couldn't give us much back then." Rossi added.
"Most seven year olds don't. They do, however, grow up to become seniors who attend the same High School."
"Thanks, Garcia."
"I thought the Slades were gonna leave Boise." Aaron addressed.
"They tried, but the network interviews made them nationwide pariahs." I felt a pang of guilt. I was Randy's best friend, and here I was turned into one of the heroes while they were held accountable for his crimes.
"Did you question Brandon about last night?"
"He said he was watching pirated movies. His mom backs him up. So does his laptop."
"We'll need to talk to him." Aaron said. Rossi and the Chief left the room and Aaron put a hand on my back.
"Are you ok?" He asked. I nodded.
"I just...it's unfair how things work out, that's all." He nodded, guiding me out of the door.
~~~
We got in the car, heading to Brandon's house. We stopped on the way to pick up to of the other agents, a muscular black guy and a woman with black hair.
"Who is this?" The woman asked.
"This is Elizabeth Bartlett that I told you about earlier. Elizabeth, this is Agents Emily Prentiss and Derek Morgan." I shook their hands, offering them a small smile. We took off to Brandon's house, arriving only to discover that the front lawn was chocked full of reporters.
"Looks like we're not the only one's interested in Brandon." Derek stated.
"It's gonna make it a lot harder for us to talk our way in."
"I don't think you'll have to." I said. "The Slades know me. They'll talk to you if I tell them it's alright."
"Also, if we use it to our advantage." Aaron threw in. Derek and David got out first, addressing the press. Aaron turned around to face me. "Are you sure you're ok with this?" I nodded.
"I want to." He nodded, getting out of the car signaling for Emily and I to follow him.
"...David Rossi of the FBI. That's R-O-S-S-I. So if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask them now." We walked past them to the door and Emily rang the doorbell. The door opened, but I couldn't see from where I was.
"Mrs. Slade? I'm Special Agent Emily Prentiss with the FBI. This is-"
"Go through my lawyer."
"Wait, Martha?" She stopped, and I stepped forward so that she could see me. She squinted.
"Eliza?" She asked.
"Elizabeth...now. Martha with all due respect, if they go through your lawyer, they're just going to have to come back later. Trust me, when I say that all these people want to do is catch the man that killed Principal Givens, but they can't do that until they eliminate Brandon as a suspect." She opened the screen door, grabbing my arm and pulling me into a hug. She pulled away, looking up at Aaron.
"Agent Hotchner..."
"How are you?" He asked. "You can supervise and stop us at any time." She looked past us at Rossi.
"Agent Rossi was always very nice to Brandon. Let him do it." She took my arm, leading me into the house.
"You look good, Elizabeth. I'm glad to see you're doing so well. Working for the FBI?"
"No. I'm actually a teacher, but...I was back for the reunion and I'm...friends with Agent Hotchner so I'm doing what I can to help. Martha, believe me when I say that I never intended-"
"I'm going to stop you right there." She said. "I don't believe the contrast in our reputations was your fault. You deserved to be remembered the way you were-"
"And you don't deserve this." I said. "Neither of you deserve this and I can't help but feel guilty that I...I can't do anything."
"Nobody expect you to do anything."
"Martha...when you're ready." Aaron said. She took my hand in both of hers before getting up and following David back to Brandon's room. David went in, where Brandon sat playing a video game, and we waited out in the hallway. I wondered if Aaron had heard our conversation...and when he reached down, taking my hand in his larger one, I knew that he had. I couldn't help but notice how pleasantly warm his hands were as his callosed palm rubbed against my own. It was calming.
"You know there's a sniper right be-Oh, never mind." Rossi said as Brandon died in his game. Brandon threw the console aside, on the bed.
"When did you become a gamer, old man?"
"Oh, a while back. After this kid told me how much he loved playing with his brother." Brandon walked over to the bookshelf, taking a book down and tossing it to David.
"Will you sign this for me?"
"First edition. I'm touched."
"You're a good writer."
"So are you." I zoned out of their conversation as Aaron's thumb skimmed lightly across my skin. I repeated his action before letting go of his hand and grabbing it again, this time intertwining our fingers.
"When did Harry leave?" Aaron asked, releasing my hand and returning to his professional side.
"About five years ago." Martha said, turning around. "He got his fresh start and I got the underwater mortgage."
"Is that way Brandon ended up in North Valley?"
"I did my best. But I know my son. He wouldn't have done this."
"I just wanted to see if you'd taken after your big brother." David said.
"You know what dude? I did it. So go ahead, cuff me."
"Actually dude, I don't think your mean enough to have done it. But tell me the truth. You're happy Principal Givens is dead, aren't you?"
"Yes, I'm happy. It's what Randy wanted." I bit my lip.
"Well Randy wanted to whole school dead." Brandon scoffed.
"Yeah. Right." Whoa. Am I missing something here, Brandon?" My jaw dropped slightly and I looked at Aaron.
"No, you got it all figured out."
"Well, did Randy have some sort of agenda? Did he target specific people inside of the school?"
"Everybody knew who he wanted to take out." Brandon told him.
"We didn't. We couldn't find any logic to his actions. So how do you know? Huh? Did he tell you? Did a seventeen year- old confide in a seven year-old? Did you find something? He had a list, didn't he?"
"I want my lawyer." David left the room, coming out into the hallway.
"If he still hast he list, it's somewhere in that room."
"Martha, do you know anything about this?" Aaron asked. She shook her head with tears in her eyes. "We can have a search warrant within the hour."
"No."
"Mom!" Brandon exclaimed.
"Tear it apart."
"No mom, please." I wrapped an arm around Martha, rubbing her back.
~~~
Darkness fell as Derek and Emily looked through Brandon's room. I leaned against the arm of the couch, my arms wrapped around myself. Aaron came up beside me, putting a hand lightly on my back.
"You should get back to your hotel. This might take a while. I can take you-"
"No." I said quietly, not looking at him. "I want to know if you find the list. I want to know who's on it."
"Elizabeth...I think I'm going to have to draw the line and take you back to your hotel." I did look up at him now.
"I just want to know if...I want to know if my name is on it." His face softened and I tucked my hair behind my ear. "He had a list and...I'm starting to wonder if it wasn't an accident that I was in that cafeteria."
"Hotch, we found it!" Emily yelled. I looked at Aaron, standing up and rushing back to the bedroom.
"Elizabeth-"
"Principal Givens is on the list." Emily looked up to see that it was me and not Aaron. "Elizabeth-"
"Is my name on that list?" I asked.
"I think maybe-" Derek started.
"Just tell me. It's a yes or no question." Emily looked behind me, presumably at Hotch. She sighed, looking down at the list.
"Yes." I shook my head. I felt Aaron's hand on my shoulder.
"Elizabeth..." He trailed off.
"I think I'll go back to my hotel now. If you don't mind."
"Yeah, um...I'll take you." Aaron said, just as his phone rang. He passed it off to Derek and lead the way to the car.