CHAPTER FIVE: LINDSEY AND KATIE !

3x12
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     THE TEAM HAD SHOWED UP AT CHULA VISTA, CALIFORNIA  AFTER GAINING INFORMATION THAT A TEENAGE GIRL WAS BRUTALLY MURDERED AND THAT ANOTHER ONE WAS MISSING. The girls were best friends. The team had already visited the crime scene and the parents of the two girls wanted to see who the girl was.

Mr. and Mrs. Owen had discovered — due to the very last message that was sent to them — that their daughter was the one that was brutally murdered. Jack Vaughn, the father of the girl that was missing, knew that his daughter was still alive and Casey always noticed the neutral look on his face and the way he wasn't panicking. His daughter was the only thing he had left, she found out. Perhaps he was numb to this pain since he lost his wife.

Casey had been ordered by Hotch to go with Rossi, Morgan and Reid down to Vaughn's house and search his home to try and discover who Lindsey was as a teenager.

      This girl had been missing for twenty-four hours now and she had found nothing about this girl. Based off of her bedroom, which didn't even look like a teenager's bedroom, Casey found nothing. It was all bland and neutral colored walls.

Rossi, Morgan, Reid and Casey were currently looking through Lindsey's room. "What happened to Lindsey's mother?" Rossi asked. Jack and his pal, Pat Mannan had stood at the doorway. "Does it matter?" Pat questioned.

"It does to Lindsey," Casey spoke. "I mean, she was her mother."
"It's called victimology," Reid states. "It helps us understand more about Lindsey."

"How?" Jack asks and Morgan chimes in, "How she carries herself. How she interacts socially with others."

"She's just like any other 15-year-old." Jack states. "No, she's not," Casey shook her head. "I'm sorry?" Jack questions. "I'm just saying, I was fifteen and focusing on my future career and school. By the way it looks around here, it doesn't much about Lindsey. The walls, no magazines. It doesn't even feel like a teenager lives here." Casey lists out.

"Everything in our house is an externalization of ourselves." Reid follows. "Miss Willows is right,  this room isn't what you'd expect of a teenage girl. No JT posters. No framed pictures. No journals, no cuddly toys. Willows, was your room like this when you were fifteen?" Morgan asks.

"Nope, I was pretty messy and I was never this neat. No JT posters, but I had an *NSYNC poster back in the day." Casey told. "Backstreet Boys, New Kids On The Block, you name it."

"All this suggests that Lindsey keeps herself hidden. She's shy and... shares very little with others." Morgan tells. "Except to one person-- Katie." Reid nods and suddenly, his cell phone begins to go off. "Garcia?" He steps out of the room and Casey looks at Morgan, who motions to her to gain some new info so she follows Reid into the other room.

As soon as she walked in, she leaned over to hear the conversation over the phone and listened as Garcia explains to Reid. "Reid, I ran a check on the folks involved in the search. All good. Nice neighborhood, no sexual offenders. But, here's the big news. I found a blog Katie ran on FacePlace.TV. She talks a lot about Lindsey, and, boy, she did not like Lindsey's dad." She explained.

"Lindsey and Jack moved to Chula Vista six years ago. Up until nine, according to Katie, Lindsey lived in Maine. Jack owned a fishing boat with his three brothers, Mom stayed at home. But then, tragedy struck. Fish stock went down, Dad was forced to sell his boat, the family fell apart, Mom died in a car accident." As she explained, Reid had looked around and found a laptop and sat down in front of it as Casey observed.

"Okay, why does that sound so familiar?" Casey questions. "It should, fair maiden, because it's the exact life story of a girl named Lindsey in a book called 'The Emerald Sea of Dreams'. I've read it like five times." Reid and Casey peeked to see if anyone had seen what they had been doing.

"If Lindsey stole her name and her story from a book, why didn't her father say anything about it?" Penelope questions. "And his computer's set to automatically clear the web browser history and wipe the temp file on a daily basis." Reid tells.
"Why wipe everything if you don't have anything to hide. Something weird is going on." Casey stated, looking down at the laptop.

"Give me his I. P. Address." Garcia insisted.

Reid read out the IP Address and Garcia had come up empty. "Can I help you?" Casey nearly jumped when she saw Jack standing at the doorway and Reid hung up on Garcia.

He had begun to stumble on his words. "I was just, uh..."
"He— we were checking to see if Lindsey had contacted anyone on the internet." Casey spoke for Reid. "P-Predators tend to-- tend to do that." Reid stood up and Casey looked at the man, anxiously. Something about him just felt off. She stood close to Reid.

"Is that right?" Jack asked.
"Yes. Statistically, actually, 43% of predators-"

Reid had been interrupted. "Lindsey doesn't like computers." Jack told. "Oh." Both Reid and Casey said at the same time and nodded. "Cool." With that, Reid walked out and Casey followed immediately after.

Once Jack and his pal, Pat, were out of sight, Casey whispered over to Reid. "Okay, I don't know about you, but this guy seriously gives me the creeps." She told.
"The fact that he wipes the computer daily, Lindsey's room and his calm nerves not reacting strongly suggests that he may be hiding something we don't know or he's not telling us." Reid explained.

"Should we tell Rossi and Morgan?" She asks. "I'm pretty sure they already have figured it out, too." Reid stated.

Once they were done, the four stood in front of the two men and Rossi started. "Doesn't look much like a home. State-of-the-art security system, but the furniture looks rented."
"The walls are bare of any real art. The shelves are devoid of any family photos."
"Spyware wipes your computer file history daily."
"What are you getting at, agent?" Pat questioned.

"In the recording, Katie said what you'd expect of any teenager about to die. She begged for her life. Lindsey did exactly the opposite." Rossi stated.

Jack stifles in his stance. "Which is what?"

Reid took the opportunity to hop in the conversation. "Lindsey's emotional response and the-- the words that she chose to say in a situation as violent as the one she faced... strongly
suggests—"

Rossi raises a hand behind him, stopping Reid and looking Jack in the eye and getting sick of them just waiting around and just said something. "Look-- Lindsey was either coached or she's experienced sexual abuse before." He got to the point.

"You son of a bitch!" Pat stops and stands in front of Jack as Jack tries to launch himself at Rossi. The back of Pat's jacket raises and a gun is seen tucked in behind his pants.

"Gun!" Morgan announces and Casey backs up and puts a hand on her holster as Rossi, Reid and Morgan raise their guns up at the man. "Put your hands where I can see them, both of you! Do not move!" Morgan yells.

Jack puts his hands up and Pat looks at the men. "Stop! Ok? Okay, just calm down." He looks at them. "I'm gonna reach into my pocket... and I'm gonna take out a badge. Just calm down. Okay?"

He takes his badge out and flashes it at them. "United States Marshal. Jack and Lindsey are under my authority." Pat told. "Which is what?" Rossi asks, putting his gun down. "Witness protection." Morgan states.

Casey takes her hand off of her holster and looks down at the gun. She didn't need to pull it out yet and she wasn't even prepared in doing so. She still needed to pass her gun evaluation but Hotch had permitted her in having a gun in case of emergency. She didn't even pull it out and she could've died right there on the spot. She had mentally kicked herself in the head for that one and it was like Derek was giving her the same look she was giving to herself in her head.

         Casey had waited for Hotch, JJ and Prentiss to get down there and the sun was already down by the time they did. Hotch had finally made it inside the home.

        "What's going on?" He questioned as soon as he entered through the door. "Jack's in witness protection." Morgan informed and Hotch looked at the man sitting down. "Ten years," Rossi said. "Must be real important."

        Hotch locked eyes with Pat. "Why didn't you tell us immediately?"
       "Because he's a state's witness whose identity needs to be protected at all costs. You know, Jack, this may not have anything to do with--"
       "With what?" Rossi questioned. "His past?"

       "Jack, every person in this room, with the exception of him," Hotch looked up at Pat. "Is here for your daughter."

       There was a pause and everyone looked at Jack and he knew he had to release the information he was holding. "If this does have anything to do with me, they'll be coming out of Boston. Irish-American. Two or more men." He informed.

       "Let's get them back to the station and keep them there until this is over." Jack lifted himself from his seat and Casey followed behind Morgan as they had made it outside and Katie's parents were standing outside their house with the detective, Emily and JJ.

       "He's under arrest?" Bruce Owen questioned. "No, he's not under arrest." Emily assured. He began to walk towards them and everyone across the street had been trying to stop and he began to call Jack's name.

       He approaches the car and Morgan steps in front of him. Casey stood away and had gotten into the vehicle and Reid followed behind and Casey could hear his yells. "Jack! If you had anything to do with this, I swear, I will kill you!"

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       THE NEXT DAY HAD PASSED AND EVERYONE CIRCLED AROUND JACK AS HE SWALLOWED A COUPLE OF PILLS. Hotch stood in front of him, arms crossed but his lips remained tight. "Who do you work for?" He asked.

      "The McCrelan Corporation, from Boston." Jack told, looking down. "I love how you guys sell that," Morgan started. "By 'corporation', you mean the mob, don't you?" He asked.
       "No one's been able to get anything on them." Pat stood next to him as he always did, like a guard dog. "Until now." Rossi interfered.
        "That's because they murdered anyone who was a threat to them, civilians and cops alike." Prentiss stated.

         "Is that what you did, Jack?" Hotch asked. "Did you eliminate the threat?" He took notice of the pills in his hand. "Do those pills help the memories, or do they just hide the real Jack?"

        Jack spoke, "The only thing that keeps me alive is Lindsey."
       "What they did to Katie, do you think that was a message to you?" Hotch asked and there was a brief pause. "If it is, it's working."
        "Do you recognize the method?"
        "I didn't send messages. I just went straight to the source."

        Pat talked beside him. "In two weeks' time, the McCrelan brothers will face trial." Morgan looked up at the man. "It looks like the McCrelans are gonna walk." The detective standing beside Casey picked up his cell phone as it began to ring.

        The detective spoke at least three words before hanging up his phone and looking at Hotch. "You were right. We just found something in an abandoned house."

       Jack stood up from his seat. "Lindsey?"
      "Where, exactly?" Hotch asked as the detective looked at the drawn map in front of him and pointed. "Here. On the outskirts of town." Reid and Casey examined the map they had managed to work out together.

       "It's still in the comfort zone." Reid stated. "What does that mean?"
       "It means the unsubs are still here." Casey spoke. "Let's go." Hotch ordered.

       Casey had gotten her FBI vest on and followed behind in a vehicle to an abandoned neighborhood. Casey had gotten out of the car, placing her sunglasses on her face as she did so. "What is it to the dump site, five miles?" Hotch looked at Reid.

      "6.2 miles South." Reid cleared up.
      "Why?"
      "Why didn't they dump Katie's body on the other side of town?" Morgan asked.
      "And risk heading out on the open road while everyone was out looking for the girls." Emily continued. "Something definitely forced them to move on. And quick." Casey nodded.

      Casey had put her gloves on and walked behind Rossi as she entered the house. It had been completely trashed — garbage everywhere, it stunk, beer bottles everywhere, cigarette butts on the ground, stains on the carpet. They were not clean, whatsoever.

     The Willows looked down at what she was stepping at and a pink glimmer of a cell phone had gotten her attention and she picked up and saw the initials 'K.O.' glimmered on the back of her phone. "Katie's cell phone." She spoke.

    "Two different sets of footprints. Two unsubs." Morgan told. "Jack said there'd be two of them." The detective nodded.

     "There's cigarette butts everywhere." Emily pointed out. "And beer bottles stacked up in a line, you could play Dominos with them." Casey added on. "For professionals, this is a real mess."

      Emily had picked up a belt off of the ground. "This could be the belt they used to strangle Katie."

      "You'd think they'd just want to do the job and move on." Morgan said. "They're sending a message. Why obliterate the ID And hide the body?" Rossi questioned. "Why not go straight to the source?" Hotch added.

     "Garcia checked all the names against the ICE database and nothing." Morgan informed. "Katie and Lindsey may have left the movie theater of their own free will, but they sure didn't count on coming here." Hotch told.
     "So this has nothing to do with the mob?"
     Morgan had looked over in the backyard and announced: "Hey, guys, this blood trail goes all the way out the back here." Everyone looked down at the trail and followed through the trail. "Must have run out this way."

     "Maybe it was Lindsey."
     "Well, whoever it was, they lost a lot of blood."
     "It's thinner the further we go." Reid told.
     "It's an arterial bleed, there's a lot of blood. Looks like they were dragged out." Casey told.

     "And it stops here." It had led them to the backyard of the abandoned home. "Okay, spread out. Search the grounds and every house." Hotch ordered and Casey had been looking around and seemed to find nothing. She kept her hand on her holster and took the gun out of her holster in case she needed to shoot.

     She jumped at the sound of her radio going off. "Guys, the last house on the left, second floor. I've got something." It was Hotch on the other line and Casey took a breath and put her gun back in her holster and located back at the house Hotch was at.

    Hotch had found a dead boy, who had defensive wounds all over his body and his phone laying next to him. He had been a part of the Katie situation and must've wanted out. He had gotten over to the house and with the other unsubs needing to think, they take Lindsey and stash Katie's body away.

    They had soon found out — with the help of Reid — had found out his name was Douglas Silverman and he was eighteen. They had given the profile of the boy and the unsubs and Hotch and Prentiss had gone to Douglas' father to tell him the news and to figure out more about him.

     They were now trying to figure out who the other unsubs were and Reid took it upon himself to call Garcia. "Go." Garcia spoke. "Back to high school, boys who flunked out or got kicked out. Go back ten years." Reid told. "I think Katie's talking about him right now."
     "Thanks, Garcia." With that, Reid hung up and looked over and saw the look on Casey's face as she looked up at the photograph of the corpse of Douglas Silverman, her hands at the end of her elbows and she had a look on her face — and it was remorse.

      "You okay?" Reid asked, getting Casey to face reality. She immediately nodded, "Yeah, yeah, I'm okay." She said. "It's just... Douglas had his whole like ahead of him. He was only eighteen. That's only two years younger than me." Casey told.

       Before Reid could say anything, Garcia had called again and this time it was on the computer. They rushed towards it and Garcia had called with news. "Okay, I got three Ryans." She informed.

      "The Ryan we're looking for probably went to high school with Lindsey and Katie a few years back." Reid told. "He got expelled or dropped out of high school. Either or." Casey added

      When Casey had finished talking, both her and Reid turned their attention to the door behind them and saw that Bruce Owens had walked out of the room and Reid stood up and found out that Jack was gone.

      "Oh, no." Reid muttered. "What is it?" Casey asked. "Reid, what's going on?" Garcia questioned and the front doors opened and Pat Mannan walked in with a bloody nose.

     "He's taken my car. The bastard took my car." He had gotten on the phone. "This is Pat Mannan. All units, all units, I want an APB out on Jack Vaughn."

      Reid had called up Hotch to tell him the news and told them that Garcia had the name down and afterwards, headed back into the office room to look at the map. Casey said a quick goodbye to Garcia before hanging up and followed Reid, wondering what he was doing.

     "You gotta find him, and fast." Pat walked in the room. "What does it look like I'm doing?" Reid questioned. "Coloring in a map."
      "Trust the process." Casey told, knowing Reid was quick at what he did.
      "All the activity is focused in the Southeastern District. The abduction site, the dump site, Ryan Phillips' house." An officer had come in with a note and passed it to Pat.

      "There's gunshots coming from Jackson Street." He told and looked at Reid. "Are you coming?" He questioned. "We're coming, just give us a minute." Casey told and Pat walked out of the room.

      Reid had finally figured it out and called Hotch on his cell and put it on speaker for Casey to hear.
"Reid, Willows, good news, please." Hotch practically demanded.

     "After inputting all the sites, I've come up with a two-dimensional probability service overlay map that indicates the offenders' operating area." Reid informed. "Reid, where is he?" Hotch questioned.

     "I know it sounds crazy, but I think he's taken her to the Mayford High School two blocks from here." Reid explained. "I'll meet you there, and Reid... be careful." Hotch told. "Thanks." Reid had hung up.

     Casey looked at Reid and nodded, "Let's go." Reid shook his head. "I'm going, you're not." He stated. "What?" Casey questioned. "I'm going, you're not." He repeated, a bit more stern in his tone.
     "You are insane if you think I'm gonna let you go by yourself." Casey told, blocking Reid's exit from leaving. "It's too dangerous for you to be there, anyways." Reid said, not wanting her to go and get hurt. "Like it's not gonna be for you? You're going by yourself. You need backup and I'm your only option right now." Casey argued.

      Reid kept trying to find excuse after excuse so Casey wouldn't go. "You haven't even taken your gun evaluation test yet. How are you gonna shoot a gun if you need to?" He questioned.
       "Um, didn't you need to take yours like, five times?" Casey questioned back.

       She sighed, "Look, I'm going whether you like it or not. I will make sure Hotch doesn't give you shit for it if you're so worried about it. But, come on, we're wasting time." With that, Casey had walked ahead and Reid caught up to her.

       The two put on their FBI vests and Reid had driven himself and Casey down to the school and it had been a quick drive there. Reid parked next to Jack's vehicle and Casey looked and pointed over at it. "Jack's car." She said and got out immediately.

       Reid looked over at Casey over the car. "Stay close and if something happens, run." Reid ordered. "Don't have to tell me twice." Casey said, holding her gun and keeping it steady towards the ground and the two had run towards the building.
        They hobbled towards the main building and made it through the empty halls of the school.

       They had heard yelling across the bathrooms and Casey gave Reid a nod to open the door and Casey followed behind him, holding her gun up and she saw Jack standing next to his daughter and Ryan on the floor.

"Put the gun down!" Reid shouted. "Please! Please help me!" Ryan yelled. "Jack, put down the gun." Casey shouted, aiming her gun up.

"She begged him to stop and he laughed at her! He laughed at her!" Lindsey shouted. "I didn't laugh at her. I would change it if I could. But I can't. Please... just don't kill me." Ryan told.

"Jack... you swore to your wife you'd protect Lindsey. Listen to her, Jack. Listen to what she wants. She's-- she's begging you to kill somebody right in front of her. What do you think your wife wanted you to protect her from?" Lindsey looked over at Reid and had some glare on her face that Casey couldn't make out.

"Jack, you can figure this out. But this is not the way to solve your problem. And the only way we can do that is if you put down your gun." Casey told, ignoring Lindsey's yells about how Jack should shoot Ryan right now.

Reid and Casey kept trying to persuade Jack not to do it. "Jack... your life has been, uh... it's been about violence and if... you do this, Lindsey's will be, too. Do you want that?"

"No, you don't want that!" Ryan said, tears running down his face.

"Do you want Lindsey to live the life you lived?" Casey questioned. "When does it end, Jack?" Reid asked.

"Put down the gun!" Ryan whimpered.
"Kill him." Lindsey encouraged.
"When does it stop?" Reid asked.

Jack looked down and held his gun up and said: "Tomorrow." With that, he shot Ryan in the head and Casey jumped, seeing the boy being shot right in front of her. Reid had flinched as well and Casey kept her eyes on the now corpse in front of her and put her gun down and her ears rung.

Jack took Lindsey, untied her and left the restroom. Both Casey and Reid were left. Casey kept looking at the body in front of her and Reid had been doing the same thing — the both of them standing in silence. She had never seen something like this happen before. Casey just wanted to look away from the body but her eyes just wouldn't leave it. The way his body jumped when he got shot, it would never leave her mind.

Soon, her ears stopped ringing and Hotch, Morgan and Rossi were suddenly there. They had saw what they were seeing. "You two okay?" Morgan asked.

Casey couldn't open her mouth and Reid had answered instead. "I--I tried." Reid spoke softly and lowly, as if he were whispering. "I tried, really. I couldn't..."

Casey's eyes lingered on the body. "What's gonna happen to Jack?" Reid asked. "It depends... how important a witness he is." Rossi answers.

Morgan looked at the girl, who hadn't spoken a word yet. "Casey, you okay?" He asked. The girl swallowed a lump in her throat and put her gun in her holster, her hand shaking a bit. "I just... I just wanna go home." She said and Morgan nodded, leading her out of the bathroom.

Casey had never experienced anything like this before. Something inside told her that it wasn't over. She didn't like the way this chapter ended. But, maybe she wouldn't find out what it was. Only time would tell.

hey, lovelies!
so i was watching this episode and i forgot that they played 'umbrella' at the end of the episode and i started cracking up sksksjsk LIKE OUT OF ALL SONGS THEY PICKED THAT ONE 😭😭
anyways, thank you for reading and thank you for the love and support and i can't believe we reached 5k already! 😩 i seriously cannot thank y'all enough
next episode chapter is: damaged
i love you all!!
-mya <3