SIX. GARCIA
"THIS ISN'T EXACTLY HOW I THOUGHT I'D BE SPENDING MY WEDNESDAY NIGHT," Daisy muttered, wrapping her cardigan around herself and standing close to Emily to maintain body warmth. She didn't exactly feel comfortable with the whole tomb raider gig the Sheriff had going on, but at the same time she knew she had to see everything for herself. Rossi, Hotch and Prentiss all felt the same.
"Welcome back to the field, kid," Rossi glanced her way briefly, though the majority of his attention was directed towards the six foot deep hole before them.
"I have to advise against this," Hotch's voice grew louder as he and the Sheriff approached. Daisy looked over her shoulder to see her boss, rather disgruntled with the decision being made.
"All due respect, this isn't your town," the Sheriff responded, and Hotch made eye contact with Daisy for a few seconds. She forced a polite smile, before quickly averting her eyes. She still wasn't particularly fond of him. "I have to convince them that Cortland Ryan is dead and buried."
"But you're indulging this killer by perpetuating the ruse he's created."
"He's right," Emily agreed. "It may embolden him, prompt more murders."
The Sheriff stared down into the dark pit. "Sela lost her only daughter to that bastard. We met when I was working the case, grew close. I thought we'd gotten past all this, but I guess I was kidding myself."
With that, he signalled the small crane to start, and the vehicle began carefully lifting the casket from inside the grave. Daisy winced a little at the shrill sound of the machinery, though that was nothing compared to Hotch.
She looked across when she noticed him lift his hand to his ear, and her eyebrows furrowed deeply. She grabbed Emily's arm to alert her, and the older woman turned her head as well. "Hotch?"
The man stepped away from the scene, pain visible on his face. Daisy and Emily exchanged a look before the former trudged over to check if he was okay. It probably wasn't the best idea, considering that they hardly knew each other, so Emily remained close behind.
"Agent Hotchner?" she asked softly, instinctively reaching out and cradling his bent elbows. She was short in comparison to his large figure, and since she chose not to wear heels like Emily or JJ, she didn't have any artificial advantage. "Sir, are you okay?"
"It's from the accident," Emily sighed, running a hand through her hair.
"Agent Hotchner, is there anything I can do?" Daisy asked, trying not to speak too loudly as to not overwhelm him further. She wasn't exactly sure what to do other than treat what he was experiencing as sensory overload, and she chose to back away to give him the space he needed.
Once the casket was lowered to the ground, Hotch calmed a little, though he still held his ringing head. He stumbled a little, so Daisy kept her arms out just in case she needed to catch him. As much as she disliked him, she wasn't going to let him fall. "Yeah, I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay."
Daisy nodded a couple of times as he moved past her and joined the group once more, though she kept a careful eye on him as she returned to her spot beside Emily.
Her attention was divided between her boss and the casket, which was being pried open. She tried to focus on the latter, watching as the two construction workers tossed the lid to the side. She felt her stomach drop to her feet when she saw what was inside.
Nothing. Nothing was inside.
★☆
Two days later, Daisy found herself rereading the letters sent to and from the Angel Maker. After Morgan and Emily had found the guard from the prison's body in his home with clear marks from the copycat killer, they had come to the conclusion that the Unsub was a woman. This put an entirely new lens on all of the fan mail being sent to the dead serial killer.
She had six piles. One, the tallest, was of letters that the killer received but never responded to. Two, three, four and five were those he most frequently wrote, and the final pile was made up of letters addressed to 'my Dove'. They were otherwise unnamed.
Before long, she found herself dialling the new number that had been put in her contacts. She held her mobile up to her ear and anxiously tapped her pen against the desk.
"Good morning, my pretty! How may the wicked witch of Quanitco be of service?"
Daisy was lost for word for a moment. "Uh, hello?"
"Oh, um, who is this?"
"My name is Daisy Alvarez, I'm new to the BAU..." Daisy trailed off, feeling quite uncertain about herself. Hotch glanced over from the side of the room, somehow having an inkling of who she was talking to. "Is this Penelope Garcia?"
"Yes, yes it is!" Penelope chirped from the other side of the line. "We haven't met yet, but I've looked through your files and may I just say, I love you. You got written up for telling Erin Strauss to 'mind her goddamn business'? God, just marry me already."
Daisy couldn't help the grin that now threatened her lips. "That's me. So, do you mind if I ask you something?"
"Of course, sugar. Anything for you."
"Morgan gave you the prison visitor reports," she looked down at her list of the most common letter recipients she'd gathered. "Can I read you some names, and if you can, would you be able to check their visitation numbers?"
"Can I? Sweet thing, that's a piece of cake. Go ahead."
"Rita Louberry?"
"Nada."
"Sophie Halliday?"
"Once."
"June Calmez?"
"Ooh, three times."
Daisy hummed to herself as she reached the name in bold lettering. "How about Shara Carlino? How many times did she visit?"
"Shara Carlino...." Penelope trailed off as she searched. "Bingo. She visited Ryan seventy-four times."
"Really?" Daisy inhaled, circling the name on her sheet. "Do you have access to some background information on her?"
"Of course, babe. Sending it through now." Penelope replied cheerfully. "When you get back, I'm taking you for drinks!"
With that, the tech woman hung up, and Daisy was left feeling a little lighter than before. She looked up and saw Hotch watching her curiously. "Did you find anything?"
"Shara Carlino," she stood up and grabbed the prominent stack of letters that had been sent between the woman in question and Cortland Ryan. "Penelope Garcia said she visited Ryan over seventy times before his death. The stuff she wrote him is...profound. She was in love with him."
"Do you know where she works or lives?" Hotch asked, taking the file from her.
"Penelope is faxing the information to us now," she replied, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear.
Hotch nodded, his eyes briefly flickering up to her face. "Thank you. And just call her Garcia."
With that, he turned and stalked off. Daisy exhaled a breath she didn't realise she was holding. She'd gotten a thank you. She'd also gotten unnecessary advice.
"Baby steps, Daisy," she whispered to herself. "Baby steps."
★☆
"It's gotta be a code of some kind," Daisy muttered, having spread out the letters addressed to 'Dove' before her. With Emily having followed up on Shara Carlino the previous day, she was now redirecting her energy towards the rest of the letters. With another body having been discovered the day before, she and the rest of the team had limited time before the inevitable next murder.
"Here's another one," Spencer picked one of the letters up. "November second, two-thousand and six."
"Same thing?" asked Rossi, who paced back and forth before the two young agents.
Daisy looked over Spencer's shoulder. "Yeah, looks like it."
"Weather is good here. Out in the garden all day. Birds land on the fence. The moon is full now," Spencer read the photocopied note, and handed it to Daisy for further inspection.
"He's full of shit," Daisy muttered, her choice of words leaving Rossi to chuckle and Spencer to stutter. She circled the words garden, birds and moon with her pencil. He got an hour a day in a concrete yard."
"There was no garden, there were no birds," Rossi took the sheet and glanced over it too. "Death row Haiku. I mean, you have to try to write this bad."
"I think he did," Spencer said as Daisy handed him another sheet of paper. "He tried very hard to put each word, each letter, even, in the right order."
Daisy peered over and something in her brain clicked. She reached forward and began reorganising the letters chronologically with haste. "It is a code."
"This steganographic method would allow him to write letters that don't appear enciphered. The real message would be hiding in plain sight," Spencer caught on to what she was doing, and started helping her lay the letters out.
"What do you need to crack it?" Rossi asked Daisy looked at Spencer, having an inkling that the genius might just be able to do so in a matter of time.
"The ability to clone myself and a year's supply of Adderall," Spencer joked.
Daisy stood up and walked towards the doorway. "I'll put on the coffee!"
★☆
ALMOST DONE WITH THE EPISODE