Psych / Criminal Minds
Prologue
Spencer Reid stifled a laugh at his desk as he checked his e-mail. His cousin liked to send him joke e-mails, and the man had a great sense of humor. The two were slightly estranged; their mothers were sisters and had had a falling out a few years before each woman had gotten married.
Reid and his cousin, Shawn, had met a few years back. Shawn was traveling the continent looking for his proper place in life when they’d met. They’d bonded over the fact that they both had an eidetic memory, later finding out that they were related. Shawn had finally settled back down in his hometown of Santa Barbara, California about three years ago, and they still kept in touch.
“Hey kid, what’s so funny?” Morgan patted him on the back with a thin folder as he passed.
“Nothing special.” He shut down the e-mail and turned back to his paperwork. “I was just checking my mail.”
“Reid, you have a visitor.” JJ entered the bullpen with a man following her, heading straight for Reid at his desk.
The man following JJ looked nervous and worried. He was a black man, his skin a shade darker than Morgan’s. He wore a light gray suit with a pink dress shirt, black dress shoes. Reid recognized him as his cousin Shawn’s best friend, who he’d only met face-to-face once before.
“Thanks, JJ.” Reid nodded at the blonde woman as he stood. “Gus, what are you doing here?”
“Is there somewhere we can talk in private?” Gus twiddled his fingers nervously, eyes darting around the BAU bullpen.
“Sure.” Reid turned and closed all the open paperwork on his desk before leading him towards the empty conference room. They sat with their backs to the open window leading into the bullpen. “What’s up?”
Gus tugged at the lapels of his suit jacket, trying to calm his nerves by busying his hands with straightening the non-existent wrinkles in his suit. After he finally settled down he was quiet a moment, taking in his surroundings. “Reid, you and I don’t know each other that well.”
Reid nodded.
“I hate to ask anything of you, especially since we don’t know each other well enough for me to ask you for any kind of favor.”
“What do you need, Gus?” He knew it was better to get straight to the point with Gus as clearly rattled as he was.
“I need a favor.” He stated, looking him in the eye. “There’s this case, it crosses states so it’s federal. It’s kidnapping and now murder. There are thirteen victims so far, three bodies have been found; they’re inconsistent. The bodies that have been found are that of the first, fourth, and seventh victims, numbered as they went missing of course. Victims are both male and female and they range in age.” He paused, shaking his head. “There may be more victims; it just wasn’t noticed until now.”
Reid nodded, already coming up with a profile for the Unsub in his head.
“The victims were all beaten, tortured, and mutilated. They were drugged and starved, as well as raped and sodomized.”
“There’s something you’re not telling me, Gus.”
He averted his eyes for a moment, when his gaze returned to Reid’s own his eyes glimmered. “All the victims are palm readers, charlatans, and psychics.” He murmured quietly, almost as if it hurt to say.
“Shawn…”
“He’s been missing since earlier this week.” His breath caught in his throat for a moment before he continued. “This isn’t like one of his usual disappearances. His apartment is untouched, he didn’t say a word to me, and his bike is still parked out in front of his office. He’s not answering his phone…” Reid let him calm himself, knowing there was more. “I’m so scared, well, more than usual.”
“Gus…” He murmured quietly.
A weak, forced smile found its way onto Gus’ face. “Shawn is so reckless. He doesn’t spend a lot of time thinking about the possible consequences of his actions so I make sure to watch his back for him. When he got into this Psychic thing I made sure to always be there for every case to watch out for his stupid mistakes, that way he hopefully won’t ever be found out and they won’t throw him in jail.” His smile fell. “I watch out for dangerous cases, for things like this! So this won’t happen!”
Reid knew that telling him it wasn’t his fault wouldn’t help. “We’ll find this guy, Gus.”
Gus shook his head again. “He’s never going to forget this.”
Reid understood, his mind flashing to his time with Tobias Henkel, Shawn was cursed with the same eidetic memory. “I’ll go talk to Hotch. If the team can’t take this case I’ll go by myself. We’ll get Shawn back.”
Gus nodded as Reid stood and began to straighten himself up as the FBI agent left.
Hotchner was just heading into his office when Reid stepped out of the conference room. He followed the older man into the office and closed the door behind them.
Hotchner glanced up at him as the door closed with a click, opting not to sit down behind his desk at the serious look on the younger man’s face. He blew on the steam from the cup of coffee in his hand, watching Reid carefully. “Everyone is whispering out there.” He nodded out toward the bullpen. “You have a visitor?”
Reid ignored the question. “Hotch, I have a case I’d like us to take.”
Aaron Hotchner watched him seriously for a moment, as if he was looking for something in the younger profiler’s face. “What is it?”
“Thirteen known victims, three bodies so far. The Unsub is crossing state lines for victims. Severe torture…” Reid paused to lick his lips, needing to collect himself. “My cousin is one of the latest victims, he disappeared earlier this week. That’s his best friend.” He waved in the direction of the conference room where he’d left Gus.
Hotchner set his coffee down on his desk. “Gather everyone in the conference room, Reid. We’ll do what we can.”
Reid nodded gratefully, turning back out toward the bullpen as Hotchner headed towards the room where he’d left Gus. When he entered the conference room with the rest of the team at his back Gus looked cleaned up, though still a little nervous.
Everyone took their seats and Reid went to stand beside Gus.
“What’s going on?” Emily Prentiss asked, making herself comfortable.
“We may have a case.” Hotchner announced. “Reid?” He prompted the younger man to continue.
“Gus, you know the details better than I do.”
He nodded curtly, Reid noticed as his back straightened and he took a deep breath to calm himself. Gus probably had a lot of training calming his nerves as a drug sales-rep, as well as being Shawn’s best friend. “This case crosses states, its kidnapping and now murder; thirteen known victims, three bodies so far. The bodies that have been found are that of the first, fourth, and seventh victims, numbered as they went missing of course. Victims are both male and female and they range in age. The victims were all beaten, tortured, and mutilated. They were drugged and starved, as well as raped and sodomized.” He paused to make sure everyone was paying attention and absorbing the information, like any good sales-rep would do. “As near as authorities can tell this guy starts in the major cities first, he’s in California right now. He’s already hit LA, San Francisco, San Diego, and Sacramento. He then moved on to Stanford and Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara was the last place he stopped and picked up a victim and that was earlier this week.”
“What’s the connection between the victims?” Derek Morgan asked, sitting forward a little to show his interest.
“All the victims are palm readers, charlatans, and psychics.” Gus answered with a slight quiver in his voice. “The latest victim was a Psychic Detective by the name of Shawn Spencer who works closely with the Santa Barbara Police Department, they are willing to lend any help they can and they’d like to be kept as in the loop as possible. My name is Burton Guster and I am Shawn’s best friend as well as his business partner and Shawn is also Reid’s cousin.” Gus motioned lightly to Reid.
“Oh Reid…” Penelope Garcia moaned pitifully.
“Shawn isn’t a real psychic.” Reid began explaining. “He was raised by his father, a police officer, and basically trained since birth to be a cop. He notices things other people don’t, and he reads people the way we do. He also has an eidetic memory…”
“He also has ADHD.” Gus added. “He fell into this psychic thing, he ran off at the mouth and got himself into trouble, which he always does.” He stood. “There shouldn’t be any reason to tell the SBPD that Shawn isn’t a psychic.”
“I don’t see any reason for the information to leak.” Hotchner assured him. “We’ll take the case.”
“Thank you.” Gus’ voice and the grateful slump of his shoulders said it all
“You can ride in the jet with us Mr. Guster.”
“Thank you.”