Lead the Way Chapter - 060 - 4x14 - Cold Comfort
Damnit. If I don't get these freaking tickets to the crown of Lady Liberty I'm going to have to camp there. That or my sister will kill me. And yes that would mean LTW wouldn't be posted anymore! And I know what's more important to you :)
Alright, here goes. This is the chapter that is responsible for the whole mess. I hope I did it justice. In fact I'm pretty sure I did. It was after all the chapter that prompted me to rewrite all episode chapters that came before it. Somehow the subtext in this episode worked so seamlessly with LTW it just grew and grew. Now enough about the how, here's the what.
Cold Comfort, episode 14 of Season 4 of Criminal Minds was written by Dan Dworkin and Jay Beattie and I assume some pot was involved as well. Where else did that psychic angle come from? On a crime show? Let me know if you feel I didn't handle that well. I had a hard time with it. It actually was one of the rare occasions that I wrote something about it in my writer's blog. Oh, those were the days :)
Lead the Way - 060 - 4x14 - Cold Comfort
So far Emily’s plan had worked more or less. Then again, JJ hadn’t shown up yet. She was just drinking coffee with Morgan, Garcia and Kevin, hiding the fact that her heart was broken into pieces as best she could. Thankfully Garcia was no profiler and Morgan had no clue what had been going on. ‘This might just work’.
They were right now discussing horoscopes, and she needed to tread lightly.
“Current influences should turn this day into one with plenty of potential, but avoid the trap of trying too hard,” Garcia read aloud while Kevin was leaning over her shoulder nodding every now and then. “Know your strengths, rely on them. Confidence, real or pretend is your magic ingredient.”
“Confidence, yes, I like that.” Emily was sure that Kevin would have been just as exhilarated if Garcia had talked about nailing him to a wall and feeding his eye balls to rats. He was so much in love with her it was bordering on creepy. Surprised by the strength of her envy she almost missed Derek asking:
“Come on guys, you don’t think there’s actually anything to this stuff, do you?”
“You’d be surprised.”
“It’s gibberish,” Emily interrupted. Even for a little office chit-chat this was getting annoyingly stupid.
“Thank you.” Morgan said.
“Oh you are just jealous because you don’t have the magic ingredient.” Was that a stab at her sexuality? That she had lost JJ because she wasn’t a straight man? ‘Nonsense! Garcia would never be so cruel.’ Not entirely soothed Emily responded:
“I have the magic ingredient. It’s called Splenda.”
“Alright skeptic, what’s your sign?” Kevin had caught on to the underlying aggressiveness. He was perceptive; she had to give him that.
“Oh uh.” ‘Thanks for the input, Morgan.’ Emily thought bitterly. To Garcia she said:
“No.”
“No. Is that in April?” Just then Reid walked into the bullpen area and Garcia stopped him.
“Reid we need a DOB on Prentiss.”
“Ah 7:12 am October 12th 19…”
“Hey!” He was not about to reveal that she would get 40 this year!
“Libra, should’ve known.” Garcia was back on her quest to convert Emily into a believer. “A romantic opportunity may experience a slight hitch…” ‘Yeah, no kidding.’ “thanks to the pesky lunar influence which could have you dipping into a rather chilly mood…”
Great now she had to be extra careful not to show any sign of anger.
“If being demonstrative and warm is difficult, then neutralize this temporary cold front with a simple but affectionate gesture.” ‘As if that’s going to solve my problems.’
“I have a simple gesture.” Emily turned around to face Garcia and gave her the finger. She really was ready to lash out on just about anyone today.
“Hey.” Of course JJ had decided to pick this very moment to walk in. Emily summoned all her strength and hid her feelings as best she could
“You guys are ready to gather?” Emily didn’t notice that JJ was looking at everyone but her. She was too busy looking at her hair. She looked so young and fragile. Her angel. Quietly she scolded herself.
“Look at you miss thing, first day back and you’re all business.”
“Well it’s either dive right in or confront my separation anxiety.” As soon as she said it, she bit her tongue. Would Emily read into that?
“It’s tough being away from him, isn’t it.” Thankfully she could always count on Garcia to mention Henry.
“Yeah.” She held onto the chair in front of her, unsure if her knees were strong enough to hold her weight. If she was correct, Emily had just looked at her, as if she had been about to say something, anything. Maybe even: Come back to me.
Garcia grabbed her hand and drew everyone’s attention to the ring Will had given her. She hadn’t liked it at first. It was so old fashioned she felt as though she had aged about ten years by putting it on, but she had grown fond of it, knowing what it stood for. As if she had something from Henry with her, all the time.
“Oh hey, that’s new isn’t it?” Emily’s voice sounded as if she couldn’t make up her mind on what tone to use. How did she do it? She wasn’t even looking at her, for crying out loud! How could she compartmentalize their break-up so well? Hadn’t it been a break-up for her as well? She had said that she hadn’t seen any other women at the same time, but really, as if she’d admit it. Suddenly JJ felt very hot and angry.
“Yeah… It’s a citrine, Henry’s birthstone.” ‘Two can play at that game, Prentiss, two can play at that game.’ “Will and I both got one.” She shook her hand for Emily to see. Would she finally look at her?
Emily looked at her alright. And her heart broke up again. She hadn’t thought it was possible, but it shattered into even smaller pieces. JJ was back with Will.
“Awww. That’s sweet,” Garcia said. JJ looked at her ring, pleased that Emily had finally looked at her. She didn’t know what to do with that but the thought that she might be able to hurt the other woman gave her some kind of satisfaction. If she could be hurt, she had cared at some point. Without looking at Emily again she pointed to the paper and asked:
“You done with this?”
“All yours.”
When both Garcia and JJ looked at her, Emily knew Garcia had meant well. She probably had tried a stab at telling Emily she wanted to let JJ know, that she knew about them. But what Emily really saw were two girls laughing at her, because she didn’t fit the requirements to join their club. It was childish, unfounded and irrational. Why did it hurt so much?
She shook her head at Garcia and left the table.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Emily focused on the new case: several women matching JJ’s physical description had been abducted and been found dead months later. Her face glued to the TV she managed to stay professional. When JJ mentioned the abnormal decomp of the embalmed victims she looked at her. A memory of sleeping JJ in her bed flashed before her eyes and she looked back at the file. This would be a long day.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was hard to avoid someone on the jet. Impossible even. JJ couldn’t help herself when Emily walked past her. She followed her with her eyes, sounds that would never be heard on this plane in her ears. Emily told them, without being asked, that she wanted to be cremated. She just shared personal information and JJ got angry once more. If it was so easy for her to open up to the team, why in God’s name had it been such an insuperably difficult task to do it with her?
JJ remembered that Emily had once said all she wanted was for her to be happy. What a load of bull.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Unsub was patronizing upscale businesses. At least that narrowed the profile a little. Emily thought briefly about the things she would have loved to show JJ. ‘Wrong compartment.’ Emily noticed that the police had found a necklace at the abduction sight of Brook Lombardini. The detective had given it back to the mother though, so a psychic could take a look at it. Emily couldn’t believe her ears. This week was getting worse by the minute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When JJ saw the press conference at which Brook Lombardini’s mother addressed the Unsub, she wondered if she was looking into a crystal orb. Was this her future? Would she one day hold a press conference, begging someone to return her son to her?
She had lost Emily; she didn’t want to lose Henry. She saw so much pain, so many victims, so much gore every day, how could she believe she was exempt from all of this? Henry was home with Will right now. Would Will be able to protect their son? Would she?
Well, so far they hadn’t found Brook’s body and as Hotch always said: ‘As long as we don’t have proof of their death, we believe the victim to be alive.’ Hopefully.
Rossi seemed to be determined to believe that they were too late. Even when JJ pointed out to him, that there had been cases where psychics had helped, he remained unconvinced.
“When people are vulnerable, they believe a lot of things.”
Later JJ and Rossi gave the preliminary profile to Brook’s mother. The Media Liaison had to admit that what the psychic said was vague at best. It was of no help to their investigation and Rossi kept shooting her sideways glances as if to say: Don’t fall for it.
He didn’t know that she had to believe. She needed to believe. They had found another body.
It wasn’t Brook. JJ still had hope. She didn’t want to tell a mother that they had found her dead daughter on her first week back on the job. She wanted to believe that the world wasn’t full of evil and loss. Even if Rossi was cruel and snapped at her, she still wanted to believe that her first case could end in a lesser tragedy than Rossi painted for her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Like Ed Gein the Unsub felt the need to recreate and preserve a lost loved one. According to physical evidence he had never been arrested. After giving the profile to the police, the team followed up on incident reports related to dead bodies. The Unsub most likely started with grave robbing and already dead victims before shifting his focus.
The team gave the profile to funeral homes and morgues all over the city. The coroner Hotch interviewed showed him a wig. One of his assistants, Ivan Bakunas had paid too much attention to the female cadavers. Hotch, Prentiss and Detective Fulwood went to interview him.
It was raining cats and dogs and this jerk wouldn’t even let them inside. Emily lost her temper a little and taunted him, saying:
“His victims are just your type: blonde hair, blue skin.” Naturally he wasn’t any more inclined to let them in now. As soon as she could she had Garcia check him out. Apparently he had slipped his girlfriend tranquilizers and had sex with her while she was under. He fit the profile of a necrophiliac, but the rest of the Unsub’s profile…
“Hey Emily, maybe this is that romantic encounter your horoscope foretold.” Despite herself Emily had to smile. She knew she had it coming, after snapping at her in Quantico and Garcia had a great sense of humor. She didn’t know what she was talking about. How could she?
“Bye, Garcia.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When she reported the 911 call, JJ made a point of talking only to Hotch, looking just at him even though Emily was right next to him. She was sitting on the detective’s desk.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Emily did not listen to the 911 call. She knew she should but she felt uncomfortable, as if she would be imposing herself on JJ. Instead she called Garcia.
“You have reached the office of the All Seeing Eye, how may I direct your call?”
“Hi Garcia, could you track a cell phone for me?”
“Anything for my Jet Girl.”
“I sent you the number, she called 911 claiming she was Brook Lombardini.”
“The victim?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll work my fastest.”
“Thanks.”
When she had called her back with the information - the phone had already been dead, unfortunately - Garcia had asked if she was okay. Emily reassured her but she knew she had to tell her at some point. Putting it off, she thanked her for the information and shared it with Hotch, Morgan and Rossi.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Later, JJ thought about Emily, about the way she sat on that desk and she was reminded of Fran Fine; only Emily was classier and more sophisticated and more beautiful and less willing to commit. JJ shook her head and noticed that Stanley Usher had just walked in.
“Mr. Usher, good to see you again.” They shook hands.
“And you.”
“Can I help you with something?”
“I’m spoken for.” She looked behind her and saw the detective arguing with Rossi. She nodded and as he walked away he called out to her:
“Ma’am, congratulations.” She looked down on her hand and saw the ring. He had touched it when they shook hands. Did he know about Henry?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Detective Fulwood had brought Stanley Usher in to tell him something about the wig. None of the samples the team had collected matched the sample they had from the bodies and they were running out of leads. Despite the fact that the profilers had told them that the Unsub would frequent upscale businesses and Ivan Bakunas was living with his mother because he couldn’t hold down a job, he still wanted to interview him.
Good cop, bad cop and Ivan Bakunas. He was so benign he didn’t even come close to a challenge. Not after Kathy Grey in their last case. Emily tried to relate to him, listened to the detective antagonize him; ultimately he was just a pervert.
However, he proved to be very useful when he told them that he used not only a wig but a pair of shoes too. These shoes were special to him as they once belonged to the woman he fantasized about. He called them a ‘genuine article’. Reid then remembered that during one of the grave robberies two sets of earrings had been stolen. All of the victims had double pierced ears when they were found.
The woman from whose grave the earrings had been stolen was Abigail Hanson. She worked as a nanny for Patrick and Leona Gless until her death in 1992. Hotch and Rossi went to interview the family.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Roderick Gless fitted every aspect of the profile. He had a trust fund, but was most likely in need of some cash, he was very close to Abigail Hanson, his nanny and spent days with her corpse because his parents had been on a trip while she died in their home. They needed to find him as fast as possible, but the parents hadn’t heard from him in a while.
Rossi had a hunch but neglected to share it with the team. After he left, Morgan sighed and concluded that they had nothing. JJ decided to go outside the team. She knew if she told anyone what she was about to do, they would try to persuade her not to.
What harm could it do, anyway?
She took the letter Roderick wrote his mother to Usher who told her about water and a rocky shoreline. It wasn’t really specific, she had to admit, but it was something. She shared it with Hotch and Reid who rejected her “lead.” She showed them the picture of Roderick and Abigail that was taken on Mercer Island. The Gless family owned a water front property on the island but no one had lived there in ten years.
Meanwhile Rossi had noticed that the father was still connected to his son and he was convinced that Patrick Gless supplemented his son’s income. With Garcia’s help he got the address to a Western Union office. Every six months the father had wired $ 50,000 to an unknown receiver. He was positive that it was the Unsub. That this was the reason he had never said goodbye to his father in his letters, because they never lost contact.
The 911 call had come from an area that enclosed the Western Union office but not Mercer Island. The team followed the money and Brook Lombardini was saved. Just as Rossi was ready to dismiss the psychic completely Hotch showed him a billboard with a rocky shoreline and a lighthouse. A cold shiver ran down his spine.
Alright, here goes. This is the chapter that is responsible for the whole mess. I hope I did it justice. In fact I'm pretty sure I did. It was after all the chapter that prompted me to rewrite all episode chapters that came before it. Somehow the subtext in this episode worked so seamlessly with LTW it just grew and grew. Now enough about the how, here's the what.
Cold Comfort, episode 14 of Season 4 of Criminal Minds was written by Dan Dworkin and Jay Beattie and I assume some pot was involved as well. Where else did that psychic angle come from? On a crime show? Let me know if you feel I didn't handle that well. I had a hard time with it. It actually was one of the rare occasions that I wrote something about it in my writer's blog. Oh, those were the days :)
Lead the Way - 060 - 4x14 - Cold Comfort
So far Emily’s plan had worked more or less. Then again, JJ hadn’t shown up yet. She was just drinking coffee with Morgan, Garcia and Kevin, hiding the fact that her heart was broken into pieces as best she could. Thankfully Garcia was no profiler and Morgan had no clue what had been going on. ‘This might just work’.
They were right now discussing horoscopes, and she needed to tread lightly.
“Current influences should turn this day into one with plenty of potential, but avoid the trap of trying too hard,” Garcia read aloud while Kevin was leaning over her shoulder nodding every now and then. “Know your strengths, rely on them. Confidence, real or pretend is your magic ingredient.”
“Confidence, yes, I like that.” Emily was sure that Kevin would have been just as exhilarated if Garcia had talked about nailing him to a wall and feeding his eye balls to rats. He was so much in love with her it was bordering on creepy. Surprised by the strength of her envy she almost missed Derek asking:
“Come on guys, you don’t think there’s actually anything to this stuff, do you?”
“You’d be surprised.”
“It’s gibberish,” Emily interrupted. Even for a little office chit-chat this was getting annoyingly stupid.
“Thank you.” Morgan said.
“Oh you are just jealous because you don’t have the magic ingredient.” Was that a stab at her sexuality? That she had lost JJ because she wasn’t a straight man? ‘Nonsense! Garcia would never be so cruel.’ Not entirely soothed Emily responded:
“I have the magic ingredient. It’s called Splenda.”
“Alright skeptic, what’s your sign?” Kevin had caught on to the underlying aggressiveness. He was perceptive; she had to give him that.
“Oh uh.” ‘Thanks for the input, Morgan.’ Emily thought bitterly. To Garcia she said:
“No.”
“No. Is that in April?” Just then Reid walked into the bullpen area and Garcia stopped him.
“Reid we need a DOB on Prentiss.”
“Ah 7:12 am October 12th 19…”
“Hey!” He was not about to reveal that she would get 40 this year!
“Libra, should’ve known.” Garcia was back on her quest to convert Emily into a believer. “A romantic opportunity may experience a slight hitch…” ‘Yeah, no kidding.’ “thanks to the pesky lunar influence which could have you dipping into a rather chilly mood…”
Great now she had to be extra careful not to show any sign of anger.
“If being demonstrative and warm is difficult, then neutralize this temporary cold front with a simple but affectionate gesture.” ‘As if that’s going to solve my problems.’
“I have a simple gesture.” Emily turned around to face Garcia and gave her the finger. She really was ready to lash out on just about anyone today.
“Hey.” Of course JJ had decided to pick this very moment to walk in. Emily summoned all her strength and hid her feelings as best she could
“You guys are ready to gather?” Emily didn’t notice that JJ was looking at everyone but her. She was too busy looking at her hair. She looked so young and fragile. Her angel. Quietly she scolded herself.
“Look at you miss thing, first day back and you’re all business.”
“Well it’s either dive right in or confront my separation anxiety.” As soon as she said it, she bit her tongue. Would Emily read into that?
“It’s tough being away from him, isn’t it.” Thankfully she could always count on Garcia to mention Henry.
“Yeah.” She held onto the chair in front of her, unsure if her knees were strong enough to hold her weight. If she was correct, Emily had just looked at her, as if she had been about to say something, anything. Maybe even: Come back to me.
Garcia grabbed her hand and drew everyone’s attention to the ring Will had given her. She hadn’t liked it at first. It was so old fashioned she felt as though she had aged about ten years by putting it on, but she had grown fond of it, knowing what it stood for. As if she had something from Henry with her, all the time.
“Oh hey, that’s new isn’t it?” Emily’s voice sounded as if she couldn’t make up her mind on what tone to use. How did she do it? She wasn’t even looking at her, for crying out loud! How could she compartmentalize their break-up so well? Hadn’t it been a break-up for her as well? She had said that she hadn’t seen any other women at the same time, but really, as if she’d admit it. Suddenly JJ felt very hot and angry.
“Yeah… It’s a citrine, Henry’s birthstone.” ‘Two can play at that game, Prentiss, two can play at that game.’ “Will and I both got one.” She shook her hand for Emily to see. Would she finally look at her?
Emily looked at her alright. And her heart broke up again. She hadn’t thought it was possible, but it shattered into even smaller pieces. JJ was back with Will.
“Awww. That’s sweet,” Garcia said. JJ looked at her ring, pleased that Emily had finally looked at her. She didn’t know what to do with that but the thought that she might be able to hurt the other woman gave her some kind of satisfaction. If she could be hurt, she had cared at some point. Without looking at Emily again she pointed to the paper and asked:
“You done with this?”
“All yours.”
When both Garcia and JJ looked at her, Emily knew Garcia had meant well. She probably had tried a stab at telling Emily she wanted to let JJ know, that she knew about them. But what Emily really saw were two girls laughing at her, because she didn’t fit the requirements to join their club. It was childish, unfounded and irrational. Why did it hurt so much?
She shook her head at Garcia and left the table.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Emily focused on the new case: several women matching JJ’s physical description had been abducted and been found dead months later. Her face glued to the TV she managed to stay professional. When JJ mentioned the abnormal decomp of the embalmed victims she looked at her. A memory of sleeping JJ in her bed flashed before her eyes and she looked back at the file. This would be a long day.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was hard to avoid someone on the jet. Impossible even. JJ couldn’t help herself when Emily walked past her. She followed her with her eyes, sounds that would never be heard on this plane in her ears. Emily told them, without being asked, that she wanted to be cremated. She just shared personal information and JJ got angry once more. If it was so easy for her to open up to the team, why in God’s name had it been such an insuperably difficult task to do it with her?
JJ remembered that Emily had once said all she wanted was for her to be happy. What a load of bull.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Unsub was patronizing upscale businesses. At least that narrowed the profile a little. Emily thought briefly about the things she would have loved to show JJ. ‘Wrong compartment.’ Emily noticed that the police had found a necklace at the abduction sight of Brook Lombardini. The detective had given it back to the mother though, so a psychic could take a look at it. Emily couldn’t believe her ears. This week was getting worse by the minute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When JJ saw the press conference at which Brook Lombardini’s mother addressed the Unsub, she wondered if she was looking into a crystal orb. Was this her future? Would she one day hold a press conference, begging someone to return her son to her?
She had lost Emily; she didn’t want to lose Henry. She saw so much pain, so many victims, so much gore every day, how could she believe she was exempt from all of this? Henry was home with Will right now. Would Will be able to protect their son? Would she?
Well, so far they hadn’t found Brook’s body and as Hotch always said: ‘As long as we don’t have proof of their death, we believe the victim to be alive.’ Hopefully.
Rossi seemed to be determined to believe that they were too late. Even when JJ pointed out to him, that there had been cases where psychics had helped, he remained unconvinced.
“When people are vulnerable, they believe a lot of things.”
Later JJ and Rossi gave the preliminary profile to Brook’s mother. The Media Liaison had to admit that what the psychic said was vague at best. It was of no help to their investigation and Rossi kept shooting her sideways glances as if to say: Don’t fall for it.
He didn’t know that she had to believe. She needed to believe. They had found another body.
It wasn’t Brook. JJ still had hope. She didn’t want to tell a mother that they had found her dead daughter on her first week back on the job. She wanted to believe that the world wasn’t full of evil and loss. Even if Rossi was cruel and snapped at her, she still wanted to believe that her first case could end in a lesser tragedy than Rossi painted for her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Like Ed Gein the Unsub felt the need to recreate and preserve a lost loved one. According to physical evidence he had never been arrested. After giving the profile to the police, the team followed up on incident reports related to dead bodies. The Unsub most likely started with grave robbing and already dead victims before shifting his focus.
The team gave the profile to funeral homes and morgues all over the city. The coroner Hotch interviewed showed him a wig. One of his assistants, Ivan Bakunas had paid too much attention to the female cadavers. Hotch, Prentiss and Detective Fulwood went to interview him.
It was raining cats and dogs and this jerk wouldn’t even let them inside. Emily lost her temper a little and taunted him, saying:
“His victims are just your type: blonde hair, blue skin.” Naturally he wasn’t any more inclined to let them in now. As soon as she could she had Garcia check him out. Apparently he had slipped his girlfriend tranquilizers and had sex with her while she was under. He fit the profile of a necrophiliac, but the rest of the Unsub’s profile…
“Hey Emily, maybe this is that romantic encounter your horoscope foretold.” Despite herself Emily had to smile. She knew she had it coming, after snapping at her in Quantico and Garcia had a great sense of humor. She didn’t know what she was talking about. How could she?
“Bye, Garcia.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When she reported the 911 call, JJ made a point of talking only to Hotch, looking just at him even though Emily was right next to him. She was sitting on the detective’s desk.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Emily did not listen to the 911 call. She knew she should but she felt uncomfortable, as if she would be imposing herself on JJ. Instead she called Garcia.
“You have reached the office of the All Seeing Eye, how may I direct your call?”
“Hi Garcia, could you track a cell phone for me?”
“Anything for my Jet Girl.”
“I sent you the number, she called 911 claiming she was Brook Lombardini.”
“The victim?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll work my fastest.”
“Thanks.”
When she had called her back with the information - the phone had already been dead, unfortunately - Garcia had asked if she was okay. Emily reassured her but she knew she had to tell her at some point. Putting it off, she thanked her for the information and shared it with Hotch, Morgan and Rossi.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Later, JJ thought about Emily, about the way she sat on that desk and she was reminded of Fran Fine; only Emily was classier and more sophisticated and more beautiful and less willing to commit. JJ shook her head and noticed that Stanley Usher had just walked in.
“Mr. Usher, good to see you again.” They shook hands.
“And you.”
“Can I help you with something?”
“I’m spoken for.” She looked behind her and saw the detective arguing with Rossi. She nodded and as he walked away he called out to her:
“Ma’am, congratulations.” She looked down on her hand and saw the ring. He had touched it when they shook hands. Did he know about Henry?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Detective Fulwood had brought Stanley Usher in to tell him something about the wig. None of the samples the team had collected matched the sample they had from the bodies and they were running out of leads. Despite the fact that the profilers had told them that the Unsub would frequent upscale businesses and Ivan Bakunas was living with his mother because he couldn’t hold down a job, he still wanted to interview him.
Good cop, bad cop and Ivan Bakunas. He was so benign he didn’t even come close to a challenge. Not after Kathy Grey in their last case. Emily tried to relate to him, listened to the detective antagonize him; ultimately he was just a pervert.
However, he proved to be very useful when he told them that he used not only a wig but a pair of shoes too. These shoes were special to him as they once belonged to the woman he fantasized about. He called them a ‘genuine article’. Reid then remembered that during one of the grave robberies two sets of earrings had been stolen. All of the victims had double pierced ears when they were found.
The woman from whose grave the earrings had been stolen was Abigail Hanson. She worked as a nanny for Patrick and Leona Gless until her death in 1992. Hotch and Rossi went to interview the family.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Roderick Gless fitted every aspect of the profile. He had a trust fund, but was most likely in need of some cash, he was very close to Abigail Hanson, his nanny and spent days with her corpse because his parents had been on a trip while she died in their home. They needed to find him as fast as possible, but the parents hadn’t heard from him in a while.
Rossi had a hunch but neglected to share it with the team. After he left, Morgan sighed and concluded that they had nothing. JJ decided to go outside the team. She knew if she told anyone what she was about to do, they would try to persuade her not to.
What harm could it do, anyway?
She took the letter Roderick wrote his mother to Usher who told her about water and a rocky shoreline. It wasn’t really specific, she had to admit, but it was something. She shared it with Hotch and Reid who rejected her “lead.” She showed them the picture of Roderick and Abigail that was taken on Mercer Island. The Gless family owned a water front property on the island but no one had lived there in ten years.
Meanwhile Rossi had noticed that the father was still connected to his son and he was convinced that Patrick Gless supplemented his son’s income. With Garcia’s help he got the address to a Western Union office. Every six months the father had wired $ 50,000 to an unknown receiver. He was positive that it was the Unsub. That this was the reason he had never said goodbye to his father in his letters, because they never lost contact.
The 911 call had come from an area that enclosed the Western Union office but not Mercer Island. The team followed the money and Brook Lombardini was saved. Just as Rossi was ready to dismiss the psychic completely Hotch showed him a billboard with a rocky shoreline and a lighthouse. A cold shiver ran down his spine.