Premeditated Chapter 16a
The night sky was dark and starry. When it dawned, the day would be bright and sunny, without the threat of precipitation. Reid had wished for rain, but nature had not granted his wish.
"No matter," he thought. "You can't always get what you want."
He yawned widely as he lay on the couch in the lounge at the police station. The yawn brought tears to his eyes and clarity to his mind. He sniffled, rolled over under the blanket, and checked the clock on the wall. It was six. Soon, Detective Scott Collier would leave the police station to go home after his night shift. Soon, the BAU would arrive.
With a groan, Reid sat up. He stretched out his arms and legs, stiff and sore after a night of dangling dislocation. They were long and gangly, and there was never anywhere to put them whenever he fell asleep anywhere other than the bed or the floor.
With the blood flowing through his limbs, Reid stood up. He promptly fell over, because one of his feet was still asleep. He snorted in annoyance, tapped the offending foot against the carpeted floor, and picked himself up from his undignified position as it tingled to greet the day. Hoping that no one had seen him, he lunged towards the opposite side of the room. On the opposite side of the room was the counter, upon which was ensconced the Holy Grail of Wakefulness, the Patron Saint of the Awakened, the Tears and Blood of the Awakening - the Coffee Pot, filled to the brim, with Coffee.
"You alright, Doc?" came the sound of a familiar voice from his right.
"What? Huh?" Reid turned to face the doorway.
"Just me, Doc," Collier waved a hand. "Have you been here all night?"
"Oh, hi, Detective! Yes, I've been here all night, waiting for some results from the tech," Reid nodded with a yawn, both the nod and the yawn genuine expressions of his genuine self that had yet, on this blessed new day, to be defiled by the pretenses of exaggeration and attenuation. "Your tech who works the night shift...Uh, what was her name again?" the ingenue didn't last long.
"Lori," Collier said.
"Yeah, Lori," Reid nodded again, then yawned again, this time for effect. "Lori's been working to recover the original CCTV footage from the deleted files on the hard drive of the storage server. She and her software have been working on it all night. It's a slow process, but she tells me that the videos should be ready by nine. In a few hours, once everyone gets in, we'll be able to analyze the footage for the UnSub. I won't even have to watch it myself. The software should give us tons of hits for Technical Analyst Terrence Wood. That'll help us put the final nail in the coffin, so to speak," he yawned again.
"Where's the rest of your team?" Collier asked calmly. "Where are Agents Hotchner and Rossi? I have yet to meet Agents Morgan and Prentiss."
"Morgan and Prentiss are still staking out the UnSub's apartment," Reid answered. "They've been there all night, so they must be frozen to their seats by now. Hotch and Rossi went to the hotel to get some sleep before the, uh, whatever happens today."
"What's going to happen today?" Collier asked curiously. "Are you going to raid the UnSub's apartment? Grace is coming in soon, but I can stick around too, if we're going to..."
"Oh, don't bother, Detective," Reid shook his head. "You should go home and get some sleep after your night shift. It's been a long twelve hours. Whatever we decide to do, it's going to take us hours to get around to it. We're going to have to get a search warrant for Wood's apartment and an arrest warrant for Wood himself. As you know, that's going to take quite a bit of time."
"Yeah, you're right," Collier agreed. "How about you call me if anything comes up? Especially if and when you do get those warrants. Now that we've identified the UnSub, I'd hate to miss out on apprehending and interrogating him."
"Sure, no problem," Reid replied. "I know you've been on this case since the very beginning. Regardless of whether or not we're here, it's only fair for you to see it through to the very end."
"Thanks, Doc," Collier reached out to shake hands. "So, uh, you drew the short straw, didya?" he pointed at the couch, upon which the blanket shared space with Reid's messenger bag and gun.
"Yeah, I guess I did," Reid smiled slightly. "It's OK though. I don't really mind it. It's not a big deal for me to sleep here one night. Even at home, I fall asleep on the couch all the time. One time, I even fell asleep on the floor. I was high on Tylenol, so the whole time I was sleeping on the floor, I thought I was sleeping in bed. It was actually pretty comfortable. I dreamed that I was sleeping on a soft white cloud in the sky," he laughed a little.
"Wow, Doc, that's some special Tylenol you've got there," Collier remarked. "Care to share?"
"It only works on me," Reid smiled again. "My physiology is unique."
"Oh, I see," Collier smiled back. "Well, I'll leave you to it then. Don't forget to..." he made phone fingers against his head.
"Don't worry, Detective, I won't forget," Reid waved goodbye as Collier backed out of the room.
He peeked around the corner and tracked the detective with his eyes as Collier walked down the hallway towards the back door of the police station. He realized that he had been fooling himself for several days now. Ever since he had named the profile, only last Wednesday, he had felt an irrepressible, but totally explicable, urge to kill Detective Scott Collier. Ever since he had tried and failed to kill himself, he had wanted to kill this man, who was to him as was Terrence Wood to Penelope Garcia. Now, rain or shine, he realized that there was no way he was going to push the detective down the falls. Compared to Reid, Collier was two inches shorter, but fifty pounds heavier, making up for a slight disadvantage in one area with a significant advantage in another. Poetic justic be damned, there was no way Reid was going to push the man over the railing, into the river, and down the falls. Instead, he would have to shoot him, but even had there been torrents of rain to wash away the blood from the gunshot wounds, there was no way Reid was going to push the body over the railing, into the river, and down the falls. Unlike some of his other victims, Detective Scott Collier was not a waifish crackwhore.
"No matter," he thought as he turned back to the couch. "Nothing is perfect," he checked the number of bullets in his government-issued revolver.
Satisfied that there were six, he poured himself a cup of coffee, added several spoonfuls of sugar, and stirred the black liquid in the retrograde direction, as was most natural for the right-handed. The heavenly aroma filled him, worn and weary after a nearly sleepless night, with a sense of physical well-being, and the taste, once he had taken a sip, was heaven incarnate.
"Hey, Pretty Boy, how was your night?" came the sound of a familiar voice, again from his right.
"How do you think?" Reid turned to face Morgan in the doorway.
"Sorry, Man, no sympathy here," Morgan chuckled. "I had to spend several hours in a freezing cold SUV outside the apartment building of a random computer geek who turned out not to be the UnSub. Good thing you figured out that he wasn't the UnSub. Otherwise, Prentiss and I would have spent the whole night there. Tell me, Reid, did you really lull the UnSub into a false sense of security with your babbling and blabbing? Did you really lure him into your pit of vipers with facts, facts, and more facts? Garcia tells me that at one point, you went on and on and on about CCTV, rockets, and some guy named Wiener?"
"Wernher!" Reid corrected. "Wernher von Braun. And no, I didn't lull or lure anyone into anything. The UnSub made mistakes as a result of his own guilty conscience."
"Yeah, right," Morgan snorted. "I know you, Reid. I'm on to you. There's no way you could have failed to notice the discrepancies in his statements the first time around, while the video was first being recorded. You knew exactly what you were doing. You were only playing dumb for the sake of the team, so it wouldn't look like you had figured out everything yourself."
"You can believe whatever you choose to believe," Reid shrugged. "I'm sticking to my story. You have no evidence against me."
"Except for the fact that you recorded the video," Morgan pointed his finger. "Accident, my ass. You just wait, Reid, just you wait. One of these days, I'm going to dig up your dirt. Sooner or later, uh, probably later..." he gave in to reality.
"Where's everyone else?" Reid changed the subject.
"Talking to the detective," Morgan replied. "Good Cop, I mean. We ran into Detective Dylan on our way into the station. Hotch sent me to get you. Did the tech finish recovering the files yet?"
"Yeah, it didn't take long," Reid said. "She finished a few hours ago, so we had time to run the footage through the software before I turned in for the night, uh, morning. We got tons of hits for the UnSub. I didn't even have to watch the videos myself. He was recorded walking around the main viewpoint on all five days from the 8th through the 12th."
"He was there around sunset?" Morgan asked.
"Yeah, either before his night shift or after his day shift," Reid answered.
"So all there's left to do is to bring him in for interrogation and try to get him to confess," Morgan said. "Good thing we've got a profile. It's not much, but it does give us a general idea of his thought processes. And we'll also search his house and office, just in case he collected any souvenirs from the victims. And his computers too, for the original and modified footage. If we can get our hands on both types of evidence, then they should be enough to put him away for good."
"Hopefully," Reid sighed.
"What's wrong, Pretty Boy?" Morgan teased. "Did you get rejected by that hot tech girl down the hall? Is that why you had to sleep in here instead of in her cozy little hacker cave?"
"Shouldn't you be having this conversation with Garcia?" Reid asked.
"It's funnier to have this conversation with you," Morgan said. "When you gonna learn, Reid? Whenever you see a Hot Hacker Honey like the one I just saw sitting all alone in front of her computer, it's up to you to..."
"Unlike yours, my thought processes are not constantly occupied with 'honeys', with whom..." Reid started, but Morgan interrupted, "And therein lies the problem."
"Wherein lies what problem?" Rossi poked his head into the room.
"Nowhere...Nowhere lies any..." Reid started again, but Morgan interrupted again, "Reid's come up with a new profile. He calls it 'The Fallen Chia Pet'."
"Let me guess, the chia pet wanted to elevate itself to the level of its human owner, and as a result, fell from grace," Rossi smirked.
"Chi-Chi-Chi-Chia!" Prentiss entered the room.
"Damn it, Prentiss, why'd you have to do that?" Morgan sputtered in frustration. "That stupid jingle is gonna be stuck in my head all day now. We'll be in the middle of the raid, and I'll be singing, 'Chi-Chi-Chi-Chia!' Thanks, Prentiss, thanks a lot."
"Happy to help, any way I can," Prentiss smiled brightly.
The smile, followed by a laugh, were both cut short when Hotch stepped into the doorway. Suddenly, the BAU was all business, any residual jibbing and jabbing crumpling and melting under the Glare. Rossi, Morgan, and Prentiss turned to face Hotch as Reid hid his face behind a coffee cup.
"What's the plan?" Rossi asked Hotch.
"It's half past six," Hotch checked his watch. "It's going to take another two hours for us to get the search and arrest warrants. Collier left the station right before we came in. We saw him drive out of the parking lot. Detective Dylan tells me that he lives thirty miles outside of town, on a multi-acre property that he inherited from his uncle. Normally, on Mondays after his night shift, he stops by a diner in town for breakfast before going home for the day. He doesn't work again until Wednesday morning. Then, he works day shifts from Wednesday through Saturday. Right now, he's off enjoying his version of the weekend. Reid, did you speak to Collier as we had planned? Would you say that he's an immediate danger right now?"
"No," Reid answered. "I don't think he's not an immediate danger right now. I made sure to emphasize that we were still considering Wood to be the UnSub. I told him that the CCTV footage wouldn't be ready until nine and that we'd be analyzing the footage for the tech. He took the news well."
"Good," Hotch nodded. "We don't want to arrest him until he gets home. Obviously, he's armed, and there's no telling what he'd do if we confronted him at the police station or anywhere else in public. Detective Dylan is assembling a team of officers to assist us in making the arrest. Hopefully, he comes easy, but we've got to be very very careful during this raid."
"How'd she take it?" Morgan asked.
"Not very well," Hotch answered. "I explained about the footage and the profile, but it's going take some time for everything to sink in. She's still skeptical, but she's willing to defer to us for the time being and bring him in for questioning. She's also going to let us search his office. We don't need a warrant for that."
"Once we bring him in, supposing that he lets us, are we going to hope that he confesses his crimes?" Prentiss asked. "We don't have any physical evidence against him. All we have is that bizarre profile and the circumstantial evidence of the CCTV footage."
"That's why we're hoping to find something on his property," Hotch replied. "All four victims were missing something that they had been wearing on their bodies, so maybe he collected souvenirs from them after their bodies were recovered from the river. Each time, he was the chief responder on the scene."
"Colin Taylor, missing a class ring from his alma mater, Hahhhvahhhd," Rossi recited. "Kazuo Sato, an earring from his right ear. Melody Sanders, a Phiten titanium bracelet. Angelina Alvarez, a gold necklace with a ruby birthstone pendant. Apparently, he prefers jewelry. Overnight, Garcia contacted the victims' families and collected photos of those exact items. She emailed them over just now," he held up a stack of glossy printouts and passed them out to everyone in the room.
"Perfect," Morgan snapped his fingers as he viewed the photos. "These should help us nail him for sure."
"What about the interrogation?" Prentiss asked. "What's our approach for that? And who's going to take the lead?"
"Reid," Hotch answered immediately.
"Oh, uh, what, me?" Reid blinked in surprise. "I thought, um, I thought that you'd want to..."
"It has to be you," Hotch said. "From the video, it looks like he has some kind of special rapport with you. He might clam up in front of others, but I bet you can get him to talk. Do what you did before. Cold clinical knowledge and analysis...Try to get him to crack and make mistakes, or better yet, confess. I want you to work on that while we're away on the raid."
"Oh, you mean I should stay here?" Reid asked. "I'm not going on the raid?"
"No," Hotch said. "I'm sorry, Reid, but we need your brain more than your gun. We've got enough guns already. You understand?"
"Oh, of course. No problem, Hotch," Reid brushed off the concerns. "I'll stay here and work on the interrogation."
"Good," Hotch said. "Morgan and Prentiss, get the warrants when the courthouse opens. Dave and I will meet with Detective Dylan and her team, then search Collier's office and computer. Reid, the interrogation. Everyone else, check your weapons. Make sure everything is ready to go by nine. Maybe we'll be able to surprise him in bed."
"Yeah, it would help if all the UnSubs could be asleep when we raided their homes and/or torture chambers," Rossi muttered on his way out of the room.
"Um, Hotch?" Reid approached Hotch as Rossi, Morgan, and Prentiss went off to do their duties.
"Yes, what is it?" Hotch lingered in the doorway.
"There's been, uh, one thing that's been bothering me all night," Reid said. "It's about what I said in the video, the part at the end when I kind of, um, gave him his options. I really regret saying that now."
"When you were talking about serial killers choosing to kill themselves or others?" Hotch asked. "What did you call it? 'The Angel' and 'The Devil'?"
"Yeah, I have a bad feeling...I mean, I dunno if he'll, uh, take me up on one of those options?" Reid said.
"You mean that he'll try to kill himself or someone else before we get to him this morning?" Hotch asked. "I wouldn't worry about that, Reid. You know as well as I do that these serial killers live day-to-day. Any day that they don't get caught is a good day in their books. Collier thinks that we think that Wood is the UnSub. He's not going to kill himself or anyone else as long as he thinks that we're not on to him. He hasn't killed anyone in a week. He can control himself."
"I hope you're right," Reid nodded. "I'm probably worrying over nothing."
"Or you're restless, because you're not going on the raid," Hotch suggested. "I promise you, Reid. Next time there's a raid, you're going, whether you like it or not. This time, I'm just...I'm just afraid that..." he hesitated.
"What? Afraid that what?" Reid prompted.
"Sooner or later, Collier's going to recall his mistakes from his conversation with you," Hotch explained. "He might be recalling them right now over breakfast. He might recall them on the drive home or once he gets home. If you go on the raid...If you show up at his house this morning, then I'm afraid that he might target you specifically. And once he decides to target one of us, then he might also decide to go down shooting. That's why I asked you to stay here and prepare for the interrogation instead."
"Oh," Reid opened his mouth in surprise. "I, I didn't realize...Yeah, you're right, Hotch...I guess he really might target me out of all the people on the raid...And, and go down shooting too."
"I think it's better for all involved if you're not there," Hotch continued. "Anyway, you'll be waiting for him at the police station. Why don't you get some breakfast and find somewhere quiet to prepare for the interrogation? I wasn't kidding about that. Take a cold clinical approach, but don't be afraid to get a little aggressive, intellectually, I mean. Do whatever it takes to get a confession out of him. Insult his intelligence, point out his mistakes, explain the profile to him, whatever it takes. I'm sure you'll be able to outsmart him. We'll be backing you up outside."
"Yeah, alright, sure," Reid answered. "I'll see you later then, after you bring him in. Be careful on the raid."
"Will do, see you later," Hotch nodded as he stepped out of the room.
As he had done earlier for the detective, Reid peeked around the corner and tracked Hotch down the hallway. He tracked Hotch with his eyes until Hotch turned towards the conference room. He turned back to the lounge, crossed over to the couch, and gathered up his belongings. He took a final chug of cold acrid coffee before dumping the empty cup into the wastebasket and exiting the room. Soon, the officers would be coming in for their morning coffee, and he wasn't about to stick around to meet any of them or answer any of their questions. No doubt they had already fallen victim to the ad hominem logical fallacy. Besides, he had his own questions to answer and his own messengers to shoot.
Outside, in the hallway, Reid looked for somewhere quiet to prepare for the interrogation. Most of the officers were gathered in the conference room with Hotch, Rossi, and Detective Dylan. Morgan and Prentiss were preparing a written request for the search and arrest warrants. Now was the perfect time for Reid to sneak into the CCTV control room. In modern usage, CCTV footage was recorded and analyzed automatically, but live videos could still be transmitted to be monitored by live people. It would not be his fault if, while preparing for the interrogation somewhere quiet, dark, and cozy, he happened to glance up and spot Detective Scott Collier in the live feed from the main viewpoint above Niagara Falls. Nor would it be his fault if, while all the officers and agents were gone on the raid, he was left, all alone, to stop the detective from killing himself or anyone else unfortunate enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Again, it was a case of killing two birds with one stone. First, the UnSub. He would kill him. Second, everyone else. He would save them from him.
For himself, Reid was not afraid. This morning, one way or another, "The Fallen Angel" would be completed and the fall complete.
Master Post