Lead the Way - Chapter 079 - 4x19 - House on Fire
I'm a woman. I'm not very girly, I don't like skirts (on myself) or pink, fluffy, lacey things, but I can somewhat understand how someone might like these things. And I do like them on my gf. Well skirts anyway ;)
One thing will probably always remain a mystery to me and that is the "wedding-drama". I do want to get married one day, have a wife and kids maybe... I understand wanting to get married. I understand wanting to share this with your family and friends and going bananas with the dress. Okay.
But what about the rest? Why pick a fight with your fiancé over garden candles / torches thingys. Why have a veil that's heavier than my school bag used to be? Why does it have to be two days and why for crying out loud do you need to release pigeons? What's with the wedding newspaper and video message to the bride and groom?
This wedding isn't my first and certainly won't be the last, so I would like to understand for my personal peace of mind why women get gushy and gooey and plan a hundred things that lead without fail to an itinerary that dictates a 30sec potty-break at 15:14 and not a second earlier!
Oh boy. But my d-day is years and years away and when the time comes I certainly won't pick a fight over two shades of white I can't even tell apart let alone name :)
Here's the new chapter, another small step forward for our two ladies. House on Fire was the 19th episode of the fourth season, aired March 25, 2009 and was written by Holly Harold.
Lead the Way - 079 - 4x19 - House on Fire
It was a date. She had never seen the woman sitting across the table before. She couldn’t even really see her now. Emily knew she wanted to tell the woman to leave because the only person she wanted to take to dinner was JJ. She wanted to get up and leave, but her body didn’t obey her.
The woman leaned toward her and Emily realized it was JJ. She was beautiful. She held her hand. She smiled at her. And then she said:
“I think your cell phone’s ringing.”
As Emily looked down to get her purse she woke up. It took her a few seconds to recover. She wanted to get back into the dream, back to a night with JJ. Her cell phone rang. It still was. So she picked it up.
“Hey Morgan.”
“I don’t even want to know where I got you out of.”
“Bed?”
“Proving my point.” He snickered. “Hope you’re near your closet, ‘cause we got a case.”
“BAU or airstrip?”
“BAU for now. Could you call Reid? I was working out and I need a shower before I can go back in.”
“Sure thing. Later.”
“Later.”
She called Reid and got dressed. She was still rubbing her eyes when she got into her car. As she drove through the city she slowly but surely woke up. Gradually the signs that she had been extremely tired all day vanished from her face. The deep lines had been proof of her ongoing inner ‘Should I take the next step now or wait a little longer’ debate and the droopy attitude had shown that she still had no answer. At midnight, when she arrived at the briefing room, she was fully awake and ready to start the case.
“This is news footage from a movie theater in Royal, Indiana, population 2,000.” Just like East Allegheny. “Earlier tonight, 19 people were killed.”
“And they’re sure it’s arson?” Morgan asked.
“Yeah. Two days ago the same thing happened at the local recreation center.”
That was the article she had read, when JJ approached her about the poem, wasn’t it? “12 victims, no survivors.” Yes, definitely.
“I heard about that.” Emily looked to JJ for confirmation, who nodded. She remembered the headline too. And the poem. And the answers to her questions.
“Yeah it was all over the news,” Morgan confirmed.
“There were some details that didn’t make the news. A week and a half earlier there were some fires at a convenient store, a local restaurant… luckily it was after hours, no one was hurt.”
“So, whoever set these fires went from no victims to 31 in less than two weeks. That’s a hell of an escalation.”
“Why didn’t they call us in sooner?” Emily looked right at JJ. For the first time her heart didn’t break all over again.
“The local police and fire department knew they were dealing with an arsonist, but they had no idea he’d become a killer.” JJ looked back and the profiler’s heart leaped. ‘Okay. You made some ground, now focus on the case.’
“Most arsonists don’t. They just like setting fires. Any deaths that occur are almost always accidental.” Reid informed them.
“31 victims is not an accident.”
“Police Chief knows he made a mistake.” Hotch said, nodding grimly. “And he learned the hard way that even though not all arsonists are killers they do have one thing in common. Once they start, they can’t stop. Wheels up in thirty.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The flight had lasted only an hour and a half, barely giving them time to strategize. After landing in Indianapolis the team split up into two cars, borrowed from the Indianapolis field office.
The drive would take two more hours and Hotch and Morgan had volunteered to take the wheel. JJ and Emily rode with Morgan; Rossi and Reid with Hotch. Morgan had asked if she would mind if he listened to his iPod. She knew it was part of his routine to get into and out of a case and she agreed. It would give her a chance to brace herself for yet another case in a small town.
She tried to imagine the ways people would react to their presence, their questions, what questions the team could have and how she could diffuse the panic that was bound to rise. She thought about scandals and gossip which led her without fail to her home town, to her family and to her own life.
JJ hated working cases in small towns. She never got any rest, constantly looking over her shoulder. These people deserved their help like any other, but her job was so much harder, when she felt like a child being surveyed by a thousand watchful eyes.
She looked in the side-mirror and saw Emily sleeping. She wished she could be relaxed enough to close her eyes and drift away. As she watched the brunette she remembered what it was like to fall asleep in these arms, back when she thought Emily would eventually let her in.
She had felt safe and at peace with the world. Everything was going to be okay as long as she was with her. No one would hurt her, no one harm Henry, because Emily wouldn’t let anything happen. JJ’s eyes started to burn and she closed them before they could water. Remembering the feeling of Emily’s arms around her, she fell asleep, too.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After settling in to the hotel and a couple of hours of rest, the team decided to split up to cover more ground the next morning. Prentiss and Morgan went to the most recent crime scene, the movie theater.
The Unsub planned his attack in advance. He turned off the water supply so the sprinklers wouldn’t work and he made sure that his victims had no escape route.
Rossi looked at the recreational center, but didn’t find new clues. He did, however, disclose to the volunteer firefighter leading him through the debris, that the Unsub was local, that his rage had been building for years.
Hotch and JJ shared this same theory with the doctor after being introduced by the sheriff. He was used to treating headaches and the flu. It was clear that the town was not equipped to deal with loss of this magnitude.
Hotch wanted the doctor to tell him more about the town’s people, rumors, suspicions and half truths. JJ’s stomach tightened. Then she heard her boss say: “What we’re asking you to decide is what’s more important: People’s privacy or their safety?”
She knew they needed every information possible relating to victimology because the geographical profile wouldn’t get them anywhere in a town this small. For this reason only she bit her tongue and didn’t say what she thought: ‘Without privacy, there is no safety.’
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At a quarter to ten the team compared notes at the command center Reid had set up. So far, no one on the security footage from either location looked suspicious and Garcia hadn’t found any smoking matches either.
When she started to tell them about the victims’ private lives Hotch was about to lose his patience: “You’re going to have to start weeding out some of these Garcia. Third cousins and religious affiliations are probably not going to help us. I need to know who had enemies, who had secrets, who was a target.”
“With all due respect, Sir, my brain muscles are comfortable being intuitive with information not people. Looking at people like that is not part of my job description. I’m not a profiler.” The media liaison understood what her best friend wanted to say, but couldn’t. She also understood that Hotch wouldn’t ask if he had any other choice. She still winced when she heard him say sharply:
“Well, you’re going to have to be. We don’t have much time. You two stay on the nuisance fires,” he said to JJ and Reid, “Garcia, stay on the radio.” With that he left the room.
Seeing the distraught look on the analyst’s face, JJ said quietly:
“Think of them like characters in a book, Pen.”
“I’ll try,” she said, utterly unconvinced.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Although the team had warned the locals about large gatherings they allowed the memorial service for the victims of the movie theater fire at the Cornerstone Church this afternoon to proceed. The Unsub was unlikely to disturb the grief he created and probably among the people in the church.
While they were sending Garcia headshots of possible suspects - which all came up dead ends - they heard sirens outside. Hotch’s phone rang and the team made its way to a bar. It too had been burned to the ground, only minutes ago.
“This doesn’t make sense. He should have been at the memorial.”
“He shouldn’t have been able to resist seeing the damage he’d done.” Prentiss agreed with her boss as soon as they arrived on the scene.
This time there were only five victims and the back door was locked with a chain and a padlock. This deviation from the original MO revealed to the agents that this fire would tell them who the Unsub was after.
Morgan gave Garcia the five new names. One of them was barely but still alive. While she was checking them out the team gave the profile of a revenge arsonist to the local policemen. Since he didn’t get attention the way he wanted the Unsub had targeted someone specific within the bar. One of the five victims had made him so angry he was willing to commit mass murder.
After giving the profile the team decided to call it a day and maybe start fresh with Garcia’s information in the morning.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
JJ was exhausted. She had spent the day at the precinct answering phones and people’s questions. Apparently every one of the 2000 inhabitants had something to say. She did all she could to keep under wraps that they suspected someone from Royal. It would start a frenzy of false allegations and revenge attacks.
When she closed the door to her hotel room, JJ left the lights off and sunk to the floor. She took comfort in the silence and the dark. Here, where no one could see her or judge her, she could be herself.
An overworked FBI agent. A mother, missing her child. A hurting ex-lover. A grown-up who wanted to fall into her mother’s arms so she could tell her that everything would be okay. That she would find happiness and love, that other people’s opinions didn’t matter and that the world was a beautiful place. She wanted to believe.
Sighing, she got up and turned on the lights. Maybe she would go to East Allegheny for her annual leave this summer. If she still felt like going home to her mother. Maybe by then Emily would have done something other than leave mysterious gifts. Actually asking her out would be something worth considering.
She walked over to her bed and sat down. Would she say yes? Would she go out with Emily if she asked her tomorrow? Instead of answering that question she saw herself sitting in a fancy restaurant with the beautiful profiler, smiling at her. All she could think about were those lips and how wonderful they felt on her own.
JJ fell back on the pillows and sat back up immediately. She had bumped her head on something hard. She turned around and found a little box with a blue bow. This wasn’t the kind of hotel that would leave chocolate on your pillow. This wasn’t even the kind of hotel that changed your towels without your asking.
It had to be from Emily. She found a card attached to it that read: ‘Denying the truth’. JJ frowned. What did that mean? Was that an accusation that she was denying the truth by not falling into Emily’s arms or that Emily was? What truth, anyway?
Shaking her head she opened the box and found pastries. She tried one and it was sweeter than anything she had ever tasted. Emily had meant well but she couldn’t possibly eat a box full of these sugar bombs.
After a long hot shower JJ went to bed. She couldn’t find sleep. She thought of Henry and imagined herself at home, in the room next to his. Usually that helped, but tonight it failed her. She was too tired to go for a run, so she got up and looked through her notes of the day.
Maybe she could find something between the lines. Hotch had said that the Unsub’s rage had been building for years. There must be something of interest in this heap of half-truths and semi-fictional ramblings.
Her eyes kept wandering back to that box of sweets. What had Emily been thinking? She sighed and left her room.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Something was wrong. Emily opened her eyes, but the room was so dark it made no difference. Why did she wake up? Someone was knocking on her door. Quite vehemently too. If only they would shut up so she could figure out why she was awake. ‘Right’.
She turned the lights on and off again when the brightness hurt her eyes. The agent went to get the door.
“For Christ’s sake, JJ. It’s 3am.”
“I can’t sleep.”
“I could.”
“It’s your fault.”
“What?”
“Stop being cryptic.”
“Look who’s talking.”
JJ burst into her room and spun around. Only then did the image sink in. A dark room. The middle of the night. Emily wearing nothing but one of those thin nightgowns, she had taken off of her more than once. It took all her strength not to cross the distance between them and kiss her.
“I got your box. I don’t get it.”
Emily tried to yawn as discretely as possible. She failed.
“I’m boring you, am I?”
“No, JJ, but you did just wake me up.”
“So answer and I’ll be out of your hair.” Which was dishevelled, be the way. ‘So cute.’ She wanted to run her fingers through it. ‘Focus JJ.’
“Those are arabic sweets. They are a bit sweeter than what you are used to.”
“No kidding.”
“It’s not about the food though. I wanted to say… sounds gaudy said out loud.”
“Say it anyway.”
“I want to show you the world.” Because it really did sound ostentatious and quite corny, too she added quickly: “France, Italy, Syria, Egypt, Spain. I want to show you all those wonderful places.”
JJ felt rather stupid now. Emily was telling her that she was ready to commit, that she would not look for a way out, should she be given another chance and all JJ had on her mind were dirty thoughts. She needed to get back to her room, to get things back in perspective.
“Sorry to wake you. See you in the morning.”
After JJ left, Emily closed the door and said quietly: “I see you all the time.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At 10:00 am the next morning, Hotch and Rossi had gone to interview the only surviving victim of the bar fire. She had woken up earlier that day and was ready to answer a few questions despite her grave injuries. In the meantime Prentiss, JJ, Morgan and Reid compared notes with Garcia at the FBI Command Center.
“So tell us about the bar victims.” Last time they had spoken Garcia had said that she was out of witty banter. Morgan tried to respect that wish.
“Alright, Hilda and Roger Drake.” Reid pointed at the first two people he saw.
“He was a teacher, she sold insurance.”
“Friends, enemies?” Emily kept her eyes on the monitor, because JJ looked absolutely gorgeous this morning in a maroon shirt. She feared that she could see in her eyes, that she had cried herself to sleep, that she was lonely, surrounded by people.
“Oh no, nothing like that. They seemed sweet. Biggest problem was finding baby names. Hilda was pregnant.”
“Are you sure?” JJ asked. “The ME hasn’t even started yet.”
“Now people in Royal take out ads. Lordy, Lordy, look who’s forty. Ask Jane what she was doing at the American Legion on Friday night.”
“That’s just wrong.” Emily groaned.
“That’s small town life for you. Your business is everybody’s business.” Just a couple of weeks ago, JJ had spoken to her mother. Although Andrea had tried to hide the fact that people had found out about her and Will she asked if there was someone new. JJ knew immediately why she had raised the issue and gotten very upset. Three days later she had called her mother and they had talked as if their last phone call never happened.
“There was a belly watch on Hilda.”
While Garcia told them about Eric Gaul, Hotch called Morgan. He informed them that the bartender remembered a man who kept switching seats. He had left right before the fire started. Together the profilers concluded that he must have been the Unsub and that he was unfamiliar with the layout of the bar.
He had known the make up of the movie theater and planned his fire accordingly. This suggested to them that he had moved away before the bar was built, which was in 2003. The movie theater had been built in the forties; the recreational center in the late seventies.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The team had informed their unit chief and both he and Rossi joined them at the command center.
“Jason Elliott opened Pop’s Place six years ago when he moved to Royal from Indianapolis.”
“Why? Does he have friends or family here?” JJ wondered out loud what would make him move.
“None that I could find.”
“What about the bar? Did Jason buy it from someone; took over their business?” Morgan offered.
“No, Jason started the bar himself, he named it after his father, who, by the way, was the sole beneficiary.”
“Makes sense, he was single.”
“Well he was single up until a couple of days ago. Because two days ago Jason married Tina Wheeler.” Penelope corrected Emily, holding up a picture of the redhead.
“The EMT.” Rossi remembered her from visiting the recreational center. Now he knew it had been burned down only a day before she got married. Was there a connection or was it cross over because the town was so small?
“Yeah. I checked her out originally as one of the first respondents, but her work record’s like squeaky clean, so I let it go until I realized she’d married Jason and then I did some more aggressive digging which I should remind you, you asked me to do and it turns out that Tina’s parents died in a fire when she was five. After they died her and her brother, Tommy, were sent to live with their grandparents in Royal.
“Send us everything you have on them.”
“Well, that’s just it. I got plenty on Tina but I can’t really find anything on her brother. Tina, she lived in Royal, she went to a community college a few towns over, got a degree, took a job, worked hard, married Jason…” She gestured to mean that this was all normal and expected. “But Tommy, it’s like he just disappeared.”
“Find him Garcia.” Hotch ordered.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Hi Rocky, it’s me.”
“Did it work?”
“We’re not quite there yet.”
“But you’ve made some progress?”
“I’d like to think so.” Emily kicked a pebble to the curb. She was standing outside the command center fighting the urge to start smoking again. She had bought a pack of cigarettes but left it untouched in her jacket. Instead of lighting one she had called her best friend.
Emily told Rocky about her gifts, how their plan seemed to work so far and how she was going to proceed. She withheld that she had called because she was nervous, because she didn’t know what to do and that this anxiety made her crave a cigarette, because at least she knew that was the wrong thing to do. It made sense unless she said it out loud.
The problem was that JJ hated working in small towns. She knew that. She had talked to her about it, back when things had not been easy but not as complicated either. Hearing about the personal ads, she had looked at JJ and felt that she should do or say something to make it better.
She couldn’t. She shouldn’t deviate from her plan. She shouldn’t jeopardize her chance of getting closer to JJ by forcing herself on her. Or should she, because that was what JJ wanted? Maybe her plan would fail because she failed to ask the right question. Not asking a question could be just as bad as asking the wrong one.
SSA Prentiss was too proud to ask for help. She was too dependent on her independence to admit that she could do with a little guidance. Rocky would never mention it again or judge her for it, but she would know. And so would Emily. She terminated the call and went back in.
Minutes later, Garcia called back and gave them what Hotch had asked for. It wasn’t what they had expected though.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Because the subject matter was delicate Hotch asked both the Police Chief and the doctor into the room. Garcia was on the line and the entire team was ready to hear how the locals would explain what she had found out.
“We believe Jason Elliott may have been the target.” Hotch opened.
Step by step the agents explained how they had reached that conclusion and how they had come to suspect Tommy Wheeler. As soon as they mentioned him, both the Chief and the doctor tensed.
After watching their parents burn to death when they were five, Tommy and his sister Tina moved to Royal. Reid explained how their isolation distorted Tommy’s love map, his way of receiving and giving love to the point where she was his whole life.
“By the time they were eight they even had their own language. It was a bit disturbing.” The Chief agreed.
“But understandable.” Garcia said from the screen. “Perfectly understandable.”
“Maybe.” He conceded reluctantly.
“So what happened?” Hotch asked, rubbing his eyes.
“What do you think happened? People talk. That’s the only real occupation in Royal.” She made no attempt to hide her anger and JJ understood her all too well.
“There were rumors that Tommy and Tina were too close. Nothing was ever confirmed though.” The Chief was still uncomfortable talking about it.
“No. It wasn’t. But then the truth didn’t matter.”
“After the rumors started, things got ugly.”
They did indeed. Tommy got expelled from school. Garcia was so angry that she ignored her boss saying her name in an effort to calm her down, when she told them that not only was he pointed at and made fun of, but that he was beaten within an inch of his life by adults.
The Chief tried to make excuses, but the fact remained the same. Tommy was sent away to boarding school by his grandparents. The entire town contributed to his rage. The profilers predicted that his next move would be to seek out Tina. Hotch, Rossi and the Chief went to bring her in for questioning, while the others stayed behind.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tina wasn’t home and after hanging up Morgan shared the information with the others. He checked to see if she had gone in to work, but she hadn’t. He called Hotch back immediately.
Garcia shared with them what she could find on Tommy after he left for boarding school. He went to college for one semester, spent three years in juvenile detention and disappeared from the radar until buying copious amounts of gasoline in Franklin, 200 miles out of Royal, two months ago.
What had happened here was just an escalation of what went on everyday in small towns all over the country. During the conversation JJ didn’t notice how often she looked to Emily or how often that look was returned.
Even if she ever got back together with Emily and even if they would share a wonderful relationship they still had a long and windy road ahead of them. Parents, siblings, friends, neighbors, colleagues… the list of potential obstacles was a mile long.
She was right to make sure that Emily was fully committed to their relationship before risking even more than she had already lost. She had decided to push all of these thoughts out of her head and focus on the case and she had succeeded.
When Emily leaned on the table and looked straight at her with her big brown eyes, her determination was put to the test. She felt her reluctance to jump ahead melt away and her knees go weak. She was happy she was sitting down right now and that Morgan and Reid were in the room.
A second later, she had her feelings back under control and watched as Reid, Morgan and Prentiss put on their kevlar suits and drove to Tina’s house.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The entire house was void of any memory of Tommy. The entire house that was but a small box under Tina’s bed. Reid found a flyer for a school dance amongst pictures and other memories. The siblings never went, because Tommy was hospitalized just before. Maybe he wanted to try to live out what they never had.
Sirens howling, the agents and the police rushed to the community center where the dance was held every year. They found Tommy holding Tina, standing next to a can of gasoline. As soon as they walked in he kicked it over and lit a match, threating to set everything on fire.
Hotch managed to get through to him and get him to release his sister. Tina fell into Emily’s arms crying while Morgan made the arrest. No one felt as if justice had been served.
One thing will probably always remain a mystery to me and that is the "wedding-drama". I do want to get married one day, have a wife and kids maybe... I understand wanting to get married. I understand wanting to share this with your family and friends and going bananas with the dress. Okay.
But what about the rest? Why pick a fight with your fiancé over garden candles / torches thingys. Why have a veil that's heavier than my school bag used to be? Why does it have to be two days and why for crying out loud do you need to release pigeons? What's with the wedding newspaper and video message to the bride and groom?
This wedding isn't my first and certainly won't be the last, so I would like to understand for my personal peace of mind why women get gushy and gooey and plan a hundred things that lead without fail to an itinerary that dictates a 30sec potty-break at 15:14 and not a second earlier!
Oh boy. But my d-day is years and years away and when the time comes I certainly won't pick a fight over two shades of white I can't even tell apart let alone name :)
Here's the new chapter, another small step forward for our two ladies. House on Fire was the 19th episode of the fourth season, aired March 25, 2009 and was written by Holly Harold.
Lead the Way - 079 - 4x19 - House on Fire
It was a date. She had never seen the woman sitting across the table before. She couldn’t even really see her now. Emily knew she wanted to tell the woman to leave because the only person she wanted to take to dinner was JJ. She wanted to get up and leave, but her body didn’t obey her.
The woman leaned toward her and Emily realized it was JJ. She was beautiful. She held her hand. She smiled at her. And then she said:
“I think your cell phone’s ringing.”
As Emily looked down to get her purse she woke up. It took her a few seconds to recover. She wanted to get back into the dream, back to a night with JJ. Her cell phone rang. It still was. So she picked it up.
“Hey Morgan.”
“I don’t even want to know where I got you out of.”
“Bed?”
“Proving my point.” He snickered. “Hope you’re near your closet, ‘cause we got a case.”
“BAU or airstrip?”
“BAU for now. Could you call Reid? I was working out and I need a shower before I can go back in.”
“Sure thing. Later.”
“Later.”
She called Reid and got dressed. She was still rubbing her eyes when she got into her car. As she drove through the city she slowly but surely woke up. Gradually the signs that she had been extremely tired all day vanished from her face. The deep lines had been proof of her ongoing inner ‘Should I take the next step now or wait a little longer’ debate and the droopy attitude had shown that she still had no answer. At midnight, when she arrived at the briefing room, she was fully awake and ready to start the case.
“This is news footage from a movie theater in Royal, Indiana, population 2,000.” Just like East Allegheny. “Earlier tonight, 19 people were killed.”
“And they’re sure it’s arson?” Morgan asked.
“Yeah. Two days ago the same thing happened at the local recreation center.”
That was the article she had read, when JJ approached her about the poem, wasn’t it? “12 victims, no survivors.” Yes, definitely.
“I heard about that.” Emily looked to JJ for confirmation, who nodded. She remembered the headline too. And the poem. And the answers to her questions.
“Yeah it was all over the news,” Morgan confirmed.
“There were some details that didn’t make the news. A week and a half earlier there were some fires at a convenient store, a local restaurant… luckily it was after hours, no one was hurt.”
“So, whoever set these fires went from no victims to 31 in less than two weeks. That’s a hell of an escalation.”
“Why didn’t they call us in sooner?” Emily looked right at JJ. For the first time her heart didn’t break all over again.
“The local police and fire department knew they were dealing with an arsonist, but they had no idea he’d become a killer.” JJ looked back and the profiler’s heart leaped. ‘Okay. You made some ground, now focus on the case.’
“Most arsonists don’t. They just like setting fires. Any deaths that occur are almost always accidental.” Reid informed them.
“31 victims is not an accident.”
“Police Chief knows he made a mistake.” Hotch said, nodding grimly. “And he learned the hard way that even though not all arsonists are killers they do have one thing in common. Once they start, they can’t stop. Wheels up in thirty.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The flight had lasted only an hour and a half, barely giving them time to strategize. After landing in Indianapolis the team split up into two cars, borrowed from the Indianapolis field office.
The drive would take two more hours and Hotch and Morgan had volunteered to take the wheel. JJ and Emily rode with Morgan; Rossi and Reid with Hotch. Morgan had asked if she would mind if he listened to his iPod. She knew it was part of his routine to get into and out of a case and she agreed. It would give her a chance to brace herself for yet another case in a small town.
She tried to imagine the ways people would react to their presence, their questions, what questions the team could have and how she could diffuse the panic that was bound to rise. She thought about scandals and gossip which led her without fail to her home town, to her family and to her own life.
JJ hated working cases in small towns. She never got any rest, constantly looking over her shoulder. These people deserved their help like any other, but her job was so much harder, when she felt like a child being surveyed by a thousand watchful eyes.
She looked in the side-mirror and saw Emily sleeping. She wished she could be relaxed enough to close her eyes and drift away. As she watched the brunette she remembered what it was like to fall asleep in these arms, back when she thought Emily would eventually let her in.
She had felt safe and at peace with the world. Everything was going to be okay as long as she was with her. No one would hurt her, no one harm Henry, because Emily wouldn’t let anything happen. JJ’s eyes started to burn and she closed them before they could water. Remembering the feeling of Emily’s arms around her, she fell asleep, too.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After settling in to the hotel and a couple of hours of rest, the team decided to split up to cover more ground the next morning. Prentiss and Morgan went to the most recent crime scene, the movie theater.
The Unsub planned his attack in advance. He turned off the water supply so the sprinklers wouldn’t work and he made sure that his victims had no escape route.
Rossi looked at the recreational center, but didn’t find new clues. He did, however, disclose to the volunteer firefighter leading him through the debris, that the Unsub was local, that his rage had been building for years.
Hotch and JJ shared this same theory with the doctor after being introduced by the sheriff. He was used to treating headaches and the flu. It was clear that the town was not equipped to deal with loss of this magnitude.
Hotch wanted the doctor to tell him more about the town’s people, rumors, suspicions and half truths. JJ’s stomach tightened. Then she heard her boss say: “What we’re asking you to decide is what’s more important: People’s privacy or their safety?”
She knew they needed every information possible relating to victimology because the geographical profile wouldn’t get them anywhere in a town this small. For this reason only she bit her tongue and didn’t say what she thought: ‘Without privacy, there is no safety.’
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At a quarter to ten the team compared notes at the command center Reid had set up. So far, no one on the security footage from either location looked suspicious and Garcia hadn’t found any smoking matches either.
When she started to tell them about the victims’ private lives Hotch was about to lose his patience: “You’re going to have to start weeding out some of these Garcia. Third cousins and religious affiliations are probably not going to help us. I need to know who had enemies, who had secrets, who was a target.”
“With all due respect, Sir, my brain muscles are comfortable being intuitive with information not people. Looking at people like that is not part of my job description. I’m not a profiler.” The media liaison understood what her best friend wanted to say, but couldn’t. She also understood that Hotch wouldn’t ask if he had any other choice. She still winced when she heard him say sharply:
“Well, you’re going to have to be. We don’t have much time. You two stay on the nuisance fires,” he said to JJ and Reid, “Garcia, stay on the radio.” With that he left the room.
Seeing the distraught look on the analyst’s face, JJ said quietly:
“Think of them like characters in a book, Pen.”
“I’ll try,” she said, utterly unconvinced.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Although the team had warned the locals about large gatherings they allowed the memorial service for the victims of the movie theater fire at the Cornerstone Church this afternoon to proceed. The Unsub was unlikely to disturb the grief he created and probably among the people in the church.
While they were sending Garcia headshots of possible suspects - which all came up dead ends - they heard sirens outside. Hotch’s phone rang and the team made its way to a bar. It too had been burned to the ground, only minutes ago.
“This doesn’t make sense. He should have been at the memorial.”
“He shouldn’t have been able to resist seeing the damage he’d done.” Prentiss agreed with her boss as soon as they arrived on the scene.
This time there were only five victims and the back door was locked with a chain and a padlock. This deviation from the original MO revealed to the agents that this fire would tell them who the Unsub was after.
Morgan gave Garcia the five new names. One of them was barely but still alive. While she was checking them out the team gave the profile of a revenge arsonist to the local policemen. Since he didn’t get attention the way he wanted the Unsub had targeted someone specific within the bar. One of the five victims had made him so angry he was willing to commit mass murder.
After giving the profile the team decided to call it a day and maybe start fresh with Garcia’s information in the morning.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
JJ was exhausted. She had spent the day at the precinct answering phones and people’s questions. Apparently every one of the 2000 inhabitants had something to say. She did all she could to keep under wraps that they suspected someone from Royal. It would start a frenzy of false allegations and revenge attacks.
When she closed the door to her hotel room, JJ left the lights off and sunk to the floor. She took comfort in the silence and the dark. Here, where no one could see her or judge her, she could be herself.
An overworked FBI agent. A mother, missing her child. A hurting ex-lover. A grown-up who wanted to fall into her mother’s arms so she could tell her that everything would be okay. That she would find happiness and love, that other people’s opinions didn’t matter and that the world was a beautiful place. She wanted to believe.
Sighing, she got up and turned on the lights. Maybe she would go to East Allegheny for her annual leave this summer. If she still felt like going home to her mother. Maybe by then Emily would have done something other than leave mysterious gifts. Actually asking her out would be something worth considering.
She walked over to her bed and sat down. Would she say yes? Would she go out with Emily if she asked her tomorrow? Instead of answering that question she saw herself sitting in a fancy restaurant with the beautiful profiler, smiling at her. All she could think about were those lips and how wonderful they felt on her own.
JJ fell back on the pillows and sat back up immediately. She had bumped her head on something hard. She turned around and found a little box with a blue bow. This wasn’t the kind of hotel that would leave chocolate on your pillow. This wasn’t even the kind of hotel that changed your towels without your asking.
It had to be from Emily. She found a card attached to it that read: ‘Denying the truth’. JJ frowned. What did that mean? Was that an accusation that she was denying the truth by not falling into Emily’s arms or that Emily was? What truth, anyway?
Shaking her head she opened the box and found pastries. She tried one and it was sweeter than anything she had ever tasted. Emily had meant well but she couldn’t possibly eat a box full of these sugar bombs.
After a long hot shower JJ went to bed. She couldn’t find sleep. She thought of Henry and imagined herself at home, in the room next to his. Usually that helped, but tonight it failed her. She was too tired to go for a run, so she got up and looked through her notes of the day.
Maybe she could find something between the lines. Hotch had said that the Unsub’s rage had been building for years. There must be something of interest in this heap of half-truths and semi-fictional ramblings.
Her eyes kept wandering back to that box of sweets. What had Emily been thinking? She sighed and left her room.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Something was wrong. Emily opened her eyes, but the room was so dark it made no difference. Why did she wake up? Someone was knocking on her door. Quite vehemently too. If only they would shut up so she could figure out why she was awake. ‘Right’.
She turned the lights on and off again when the brightness hurt her eyes. The agent went to get the door.
“For Christ’s sake, JJ. It’s 3am.”
“I can’t sleep.”
“I could.”
“It’s your fault.”
“What?”
“Stop being cryptic.”
“Look who’s talking.”
JJ burst into her room and spun around. Only then did the image sink in. A dark room. The middle of the night. Emily wearing nothing but one of those thin nightgowns, she had taken off of her more than once. It took all her strength not to cross the distance between them and kiss her.
“I got your box. I don’t get it.”
Emily tried to yawn as discretely as possible. She failed.
“I’m boring you, am I?”
“No, JJ, but you did just wake me up.”
“So answer and I’ll be out of your hair.” Which was dishevelled, be the way. ‘So cute.’ She wanted to run her fingers through it. ‘Focus JJ.’
“Those are arabic sweets. They are a bit sweeter than what you are used to.”
“No kidding.”
“It’s not about the food though. I wanted to say… sounds gaudy said out loud.”
“Say it anyway.”
“I want to show you the world.” Because it really did sound ostentatious and quite corny, too she added quickly: “France, Italy, Syria, Egypt, Spain. I want to show you all those wonderful places.”
JJ felt rather stupid now. Emily was telling her that she was ready to commit, that she would not look for a way out, should she be given another chance and all JJ had on her mind were dirty thoughts. She needed to get back to her room, to get things back in perspective.
“Sorry to wake you. See you in the morning.”
After JJ left, Emily closed the door and said quietly: “I see you all the time.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At 10:00 am the next morning, Hotch and Rossi had gone to interview the only surviving victim of the bar fire. She had woken up earlier that day and was ready to answer a few questions despite her grave injuries. In the meantime Prentiss, JJ, Morgan and Reid compared notes with Garcia at the FBI Command Center.
“So tell us about the bar victims.” Last time they had spoken Garcia had said that she was out of witty banter. Morgan tried to respect that wish.
“Alright, Hilda and Roger Drake.” Reid pointed at the first two people he saw.
“He was a teacher, she sold insurance.”
“Friends, enemies?” Emily kept her eyes on the monitor, because JJ looked absolutely gorgeous this morning in a maroon shirt. She feared that she could see in her eyes, that she had cried herself to sleep, that she was lonely, surrounded by people.
“Oh no, nothing like that. They seemed sweet. Biggest problem was finding baby names. Hilda was pregnant.”
“Are you sure?” JJ asked. “The ME hasn’t even started yet.”
“Now people in Royal take out ads. Lordy, Lordy, look who’s forty. Ask Jane what she was doing at the American Legion on Friday night.”
“That’s just wrong.” Emily groaned.
“That’s small town life for you. Your business is everybody’s business.” Just a couple of weeks ago, JJ had spoken to her mother. Although Andrea had tried to hide the fact that people had found out about her and Will she asked if there was someone new. JJ knew immediately why she had raised the issue and gotten very upset. Three days later she had called her mother and they had talked as if their last phone call never happened.
“There was a belly watch on Hilda.”
While Garcia told them about Eric Gaul, Hotch called Morgan. He informed them that the bartender remembered a man who kept switching seats. He had left right before the fire started. Together the profilers concluded that he must have been the Unsub and that he was unfamiliar with the layout of the bar.
He had known the make up of the movie theater and planned his fire accordingly. This suggested to them that he had moved away before the bar was built, which was in 2003. The movie theater had been built in the forties; the recreational center in the late seventies.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The team had informed their unit chief and both he and Rossi joined them at the command center.
“Jason Elliott opened Pop’s Place six years ago when he moved to Royal from Indianapolis.”
“Why? Does he have friends or family here?” JJ wondered out loud what would make him move.
“None that I could find.”
“What about the bar? Did Jason buy it from someone; took over their business?” Morgan offered.
“No, Jason started the bar himself, he named it after his father, who, by the way, was the sole beneficiary.”
“Makes sense, he was single.”
“Well he was single up until a couple of days ago. Because two days ago Jason married Tina Wheeler.” Penelope corrected Emily, holding up a picture of the redhead.
“The EMT.” Rossi remembered her from visiting the recreational center. Now he knew it had been burned down only a day before she got married. Was there a connection or was it cross over because the town was so small?
“Yeah. I checked her out originally as one of the first respondents, but her work record’s like squeaky clean, so I let it go until I realized she’d married Jason and then I did some more aggressive digging which I should remind you, you asked me to do and it turns out that Tina’s parents died in a fire when she was five. After they died her and her brother, Tommy, were sent to live with their grandparents in Royal.
“Send us everything you have on them.”
“Well, that’s just it. I got plenty on Tina but I can’t really find anything on her brother. Tina, she lived in Royal, she went to a community college a few towns over, got a degree, took a job, worked hard, married Jason…” She gestured to mean that this was all normal and expected. “But Tommy, it’s like he just disappeared.”
“Find him Garcia.” Hotch ordered.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Hi Rocky, it’s me.”
“Did it work?”
“We’re not quite there yet.”
“But you’ve made some progress?”
“I’d like to think so.” Emily kicked a pebble to the curb. She was standing outside the command center fighting the urge to start smoking again. She had bought a pack of cigarettes but left it untouched in her jacket. Instead of lighting one she had called her best friend.
Emily told Rocky about her gifts, how their plan seemed to work so far and how she was going to proceed. She withheld that she had called because she was nervous, because she didn’t know what to do and that this anxiety made her crave a cigarette, because at least she knew that was the wrong thing to do. It made sense unless she said it out loud.
The problem was that JJ hated working in small towns. She knew that. She had talked to her about it, back when things had not been easy but not as complicated either. Hearing about the personal ads, she had looked at JJ and felt that she should do or say something to make it better.
She couldn’t. She shouldn’t deviate from her plan. She shouldn’t jeopardize her chance of getting closer to JJ by forcing herself on her. Or should she, because that was what JJ wanted? Maybe her plan would fail because she failed to ask the right question. Not asking a question could be just as bad as asking the wrong one.
SSA Prentiss was too proud to ask for help. She was too dependent on her independence to admit that she could do with a little guidance. Rocky would never mention it again or judge her for it, but she would know. And so would Emily. She terminated the call and went back in.
Minutes later, Garcia called back and gave them what Hotch had asked for. It wasn’t what they had expected though.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Because the subject matter was delicate Hotch asked both the Police Chief and the doctor into the room. Garcia was on the line and the entire team was ready to hear how the locals would explain what she had found out.
“We believe Jason Elliott may have been the target.” Hotch opened.
Step by step the agents explained how they had reached that conclusion and how they had come to suspect Tommy Wheeler. As soon as they mentioned him, both the Chief and the doctor tensed.
After watching their parents burn to death when they were five, Tommy and his sister Tina moved to Royal. Reid explained how their isolation distorted Tommy’s love map, his way of receiving and giving love to the point where she was his whole life.
“By the time they were eight they even had their own language. It was a bit disturbing.” The Chief agreed.
“But understandable.” Garcia said from the screen. “Perfectly understandable.”
“Maybe.” He conceded reluctantly.
“So what happened?” Hotch asked, rubbing his eyes.
“What do you think happened? People talk. That’s the only real occupation in Royal.” She made no attempt to hide her anger and JJ understood her all too well.
“There were rumors that Tommy and Tina were too close. Nothing was ever confirmed though.” The Chief was still uncomfortable talking about it.
“No. It wasn’t. But then the truth didn’t matter.”
“After the rumors started, things got ugly.”
They did indeed. Tommy got expelled from school. Garcia was so angry that she ignored her boss saying her name in an effort to calm her down, when she told them that not only was he pointed at and made fun of, but that he was beaten within an inch of his life by adults.
The Chief tried to make excuses, but the fact remained the same. Tommy was sent away to boarding school by his grandparents. The entire town contributed to his rage. The profilers predicted that his next move would be to seek out Tina. Hotch, Rossi and the Chief went to bring her in for questioning, while the others stayed behind.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tina wasn’t home and after hanging up Morgan shared the information with the others. He checked to see if she had gone in to work, but she hadn’t. He called Hotch back immediately.
Garcia shared with them what she could find on Tommy after he left for boarding school. He went to college for one semester, spent three years in juvenile detention and disappeared from the radar until buying copious amounts of gasoline in Franklin, 200 miles out of Royal, two months ago.
What had happened here was just an escalation of what went on everyday in small towns all over the country. During the conversation JJ didn’t notice how often she looked to Emily or how often that look was returned.
Even if she ever got back together with Emily and even if they would share a wonderful relationship they still had a long and windy road ahead of them. Parents, siblings, friends, neighbors, colleagues… the list of potential obstacles was a mile long.
She was right to make sure that Emily was fully committed to their relationship before risking even more than she had already lost. She had decided to push all of these thoughts out of her head and focus on the case and she had succeeded.
When Emily leaned on the table and looked straight at her with her big brown eyes, her determination was put to the test. She felt her reluctance to jump ahead melt away and her knees go weak. She was happy she was sitting down right now and that Morgan and Reid were in the room.
A second later, she had her feelings back under control and watched as Reid, Morgan and Prentiss put on their kevlar suits and drove to Tina’s house.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The entire house was void of any memory of Tommy. The entire house that was but a small box under Tina’s bed. Reid found a flyer for a school dance amongst pictures and other memories. The siblings never went, because Tommy was hospitalized just before. Maybe he wanted to try to live out what they never had.
Sirens howling, the agents and the police rushed to the community center where the dance was held every year. They found Tommy holding Tina, standing next to a can of gasoline. As soon as they walked in he kicked it over and lit a match, threating to set everything on fire.
Hotch managed to get through to him and get him to release his sister. Tina fell into Emily’s arms crying while Morgan made the arrest. No one felt as if justice had been served.