CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE: BELIEVE ME !

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THE MORNING STARTED OFF PRETTY NORMAL. For all the team could say, it was just a paperwork day. That was until Hotch immediately spoke up to announce that they had a case. JJ rushed behind him with the file in her hands.

      "Guys, we have a case." JJ announced. "Round table. Now." Hotch followed as they both entered the room. Casey immediately stood up and the rest of her colleagues joined her. "Sounds serious." Morgan commented. "Yeah, come on." The group rushed upstairs and to the round table room they went.

    "What do we know?" Emily asked as soon as they entered. Everyone took their seats. "Eve Williams, Rachel Desmond and Ava Baker have all been reported missing in the past month and were all found murdered in various places in Virginia, all sexually assaulted with a red blindfold around each of the women's eyes." JJ explained, showing the team the pictures.

     "Where were they all found?" Rossi asked. "Eve was found near Lake Anna. Rachel, Red Wing Park and Ava was found behind a store building in Jamestown." JJ informed.

     "All found with a red blindfold." Hotch stated. "Could be some form of guilt, he didn't want to look in their eyes as he killed them." Casey said. "Ligature marks indicate some type of struggle." Reid tells.

     "Yes, but the way he's hiding their bodies is sloppy," Morgan told. "He has to be new to all of this." Casey adds on: "He's dropping them off at different locations each time."

     "Morgan, I'd like for you to check out Eve's crime scene in Lake Anna. Prentiss, the store building in Jamestown. Rossi, Reid, I'd like for you to look at Rachel's crime scene at the park. JJ, Willows and I will go to the PD. Leaving in ten."

As ordered, the team headed to their significant spots and Casey, JJ and Hotch were at the PD and we're met with the lead detective and the sheriff. "Detective, Sheriff." Hotch greeted and the two turned and immediately reached for Hotch's hand.

"Aaron Hotchner." The sheriff shook the man's hand first. "Thank you guys for coming, we really appreciate it." He tells. "My colleagues, Agents Jennifer Jareau and Casey Willows." Casey and JJ shake the men's hands.

"Casey?" Casey furrowed her eyebrows and turned her attention to the room they had set up for them and is met with a familiar face and her face immediately lights up as soon as she noticed her favorite dopey grin in a uniform.
"Adam?" She asks.

The man and Casey immediately collided in a hug. "Oh, my gosh!" Casey exclaimed. The two began to talk over each other. Hotch and JJ immediately shared a glance and Casey turned over to her boss and colleague. "I'm assuming you two have met?" Hotch asked.

"We go way back," Casey nodded. "We went to high school together." Adam looks at the girl. "See you finally made your way up to being in the FBI... Agent Willows."

"That's right, deputy, I'm assuming?" Casey guesses. "Damn, you're really good at that profiling thing." Adam says. "I'm also really good at reading name-tags." Casey stated, eyeing his name-tag. Adam looks down and realizes that's how she figured it out.

Hotch clears his throat. "Sorry to cut the reunion short, but the task at hand?" Casey nods, pulling a strand of hair behind her ear. "Right, sorry, sir." Adam looks up at Casey's boss. "My fault."

The sheriff leads them to the room where they will be doing all of their research and delivering their profile. "Three of these of women being kidnapped and found dead is really setting this town on edge." The sheriff states.

    "It's setting all of us on edge, Don." The detective tells. "Do you think we'll be able to catch this guy?" Adam asks Hotch. "We will," Hotch assures. "The rest of my colleagues are examining the crime scenes."

     As the team sets up and Morgan, Emily, Rossi and Reid get back, they go over the crime scenes. As they do, Casey takes notice of a young girl walking in. Casey locks eyes with her for a moment and she doesn't think much of it since the girl's ushered away pretty quickly.

    Thirty minutes later, Casey is going over through Eve Williams' file, she notices Adam standing next to her, helping her. "So, you're an agent." He starts. "You're a deputy." Casey remarks. "It's nice to know that we finally got the jobs we've always wanted." Adam added.

   "We have to be missing a variable to these killings." Reid says, looking up at the board. He's in the room with them (since Rossi had paid him $20 to stand and overhear their conversation). Hotch and Rossi had been pretty overprotective when it came to this old friend but Casey had assured them multiple times that Adam was a friend and nothing more.

    The team had gone over the profile and after a brief conversation between the sheriff and Hotch, a woman walked in the office. "Don?" Everyone turned their attention to her as she approached the sheriff. "Pardon me, it's just... that girl is troubled. That Jordan Fern, she's completely shut down on us, would you take a crack at her?"

    Casey had assumed that it was the girl that had walked in and made eye contact with her before she was ushered away. Before the sheriff can say anything, Casey immediately steps in. "I can handle it." She figured since she wasn't doing much, she could at least help out this girl.

   "Agent Willows, all due respect, I don't think that's necessary." The detective tells. "Detective, all due respect, but a frightened teenage girl isn't gonna wanna talk to a man without another woman present." Casey told.

    The detective and sheriff look at her superior — Hotch. "Let her go ahead." He nodded.

     The woman had taken Casey and the detective to the room and explained to her the details of the situation. The girl, also known as Jordan Fern, had come in the police station, claiming that she was kidnapped and raped. Due to her "habits", no one seemed to believe her.

    "Why don't you believe her?" Casey questioned. "Well, the details are a bit unbelievable and she's too detached." The woman told. "Ever think that she's just in shock? I mean, that's a reach if you don't believe her when she's obviously very serious about it."

    "I mean, we are all focused on a much bigger case. I mean, 99 times out of 100, the runaway just turns out to be a kid who stayed out all night." The detective told. "Yeah, maybe she's 1 in 100."

     Casey looked over through the transparent glass. The girl looked terrified and she kept her head buried in her lap. "She looks so scared." Casey knocked on the door and hesitantly entered the room.

    "Hi, Jordan." Casey spoke. "I'm Agent Casey Willows, I'm, uh, with the FBI..." Casey sat over on the table in front of the girl. "You wanna tell me what happened?"

    "Agent, like I said, there's no point—" The detective started.

    "Sir, respectfully, could you please leave?" Casey raised her voice a bit, it was unbelievable that no one seemed to believe this girl, simply because of "habits". The woman and the detective left, leaving Casey and Jordan together.

    Casey then thought of something and reached for her wallet and pulled out a picture of Henry that JJ had gave to her for keeps. "This is my, uh, godson, Henry." She places the picture next to her so Jordan could see. "I'd go through any length to protect him. And I'd go through any length to protect you."

     Jordan looks up at her with her tear-filled eyes. "Tell me everything. I believe you." Casey stated. Jordan was hesitant but she knew she could trust Casey. Who else was going to believe her?

    "Um... the car was black..." Jordan wiped her eyes, her voice still wavering but it was clear. "With two doors and red carpet and red leather seats. There was, um, there was the word "Magnum" on the dashboard." Casey took out her notepad and began to write everything down. "And green carpet going upstairs. I counted 22 steps to the top of the second floor." Casey nodded as she continued writing. "He was white and left handed, he had a thin mustache. Uh, stubble on his cheeks. His hair fell down in front of his forehead and his eyes were kinda close together. He had a waterbed."

After having a discussion with the girl, Casey immediately went to the team with what the girl had told and spoke to the detective and sheriff and the woman that had previously talked to her. "She didn't make this up. Her level of detail was excellent. Please get her a change of clothes after the exam. I want her clothes in for evidence." The woman nodded and walked away.

"Casey, we have a whole other case to focus on. How does this connect with our guy?" Morgan questioned. "Besides, the sheriff explained that this girl has habits of lying to the cops — how do we even know if she's telling the truth?"

Casey couldn't believe what she was hearing. "She wasn't making this up. I know she wasn't." The girl looked over at Hotch, maybe he could take her side. "Casey, it's not under our jurisdiction to find out about what happened to this girl—" Casey immediately interrupted him.

"When is it under our jurisdiction to do anything?" Casey questioned. "We also disobey, don't we?" Hotch knew what Casey was referring to, it was crystal clear.
Casey looked around at the room and scoffed, disappointed that no one was saying anything. "You know what? I'll figure this out by myself even if you guys don't want to. Because I am willing to give this girl a chance unlike some people that didn't want to in the first place."

Casey grabbed the notes she wrote about the girl's story and looked over at Morgan. "Why would you even think that she made that up?" She walked out of the room as Hotch, Emily and Morgan called her name.

"Casey." Reid was about to follow her out but Adam had stopped him from doing so and volunteered himself. "I got her." Adam patted Reid's shoulder and followed Casey as she had gone outside for some air.

"Cee," Adam called and Casey turned around and saw that it was Adam. "You okay?" He asked. Casey sighs, "She's not lying. Maybe I'm associating this with what happened to me... but... no one else believes her and she looks scared. And I wanna do what I know others wouldn't do for me."

There was a pause and Adam spoke. "I would. I would believe you. And I did." The only person she had ever told about what happened to her when she was a teenager was Adam — her best friend. He was there for her, no matter what. Never judged her, he always kept her secret. "I know. I know you would." Casey stated.

"And thank God you found that guy. I would've killed him the first chance I got." Adam told. He was always pissed at himself for never telling anyone about Eddie and what he did to Casey. He felt bad for putting Casey through that pain and never helping her.

Casey put her hand on his. "I missed you." Adam looked at the girl. "I can't believe I haven't spoken to you in over two years. I promised myself I would keep in contact with you every single day."

Adam shrugged, "Life got in the way. It's understandable. We had dreams and we fulfilled them."

Casey smiled at him. "You'll always be my best friend, Adam Brody." Adam smiled back at the girl. "And you'll always be mine, Cee." He tells.

"Cee," Casey reminisces on the nickname. "It's been a while since I heard that nickname." She tells. Adam chuckles to himself. "Well, it's been a while."

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A day had passed and they had not luck with catching their unsub. Casey, however, had still been focused on Jordan Fern. She was supposed to coming in to do a cognitive interview. No one decided to argue with Casey on this — they all decided to put their work into the case. Well, as much as they all wanted to, they knew they had to try and find this unsub first.

Casey had been discussing something with Adam and Reid had walked in the room. "Hey, uh, Casey?" Casey looked at the man at the door. "Uh, Jordan Fern's here for her cognitive." Casey began to rush out the door and was met with Morgan.

     "Jordan's here?" Casey asked. Morgan nodded at the girl. "Yeah, we sent in a sketch artist so maybe we could figure out who this guy is." Rossi stated. "Where is she?" Casey asked.
     "We got an issue," Morgan started. "We called to let her parents know about getting her to do a cognitive and they denied us doing anything. They ignored the question, asking us when she was gonna be home."

      "Shit," Casey cursed. "That was our only chance for her to remember." Morgan sighs, "Well, we have to respect their wishes." Casey nods, "I'll go tell her." Rossi led her to the room that she was in and the sketch artist had walked out, leaving Casey and Jordan alone in the room.

     "Jordan, there's some bad news," Casey started. "Your father denied you doing a cognitive interview." Jordan didn't say anything but the look on her face said it all. The subject of her father pushed her to tears. Casey could tell something was wrong. "Jordan, are... are you okay?"

     Jordan pulled her knees up to her chest and Casey sat in front of her. "I know... you're scared. At one point, I was scared, too. But you can tell me anything. Anything at all." Casey assured the girl and Jordan paused before continuing: "He's not my father."

      Jordan began to go into detail about her parents. Her mother was a drug addict and so was the guy she was living with. He was her mom's boyfriend and he has been sexually abusing Jordan since she was younger. The news set Casey on edge and everyone else as well once Casey had informed the team — with the permission from Jordan to do so. (Either way, Casey would've told the team).

       Morgan had the pleasure of arresting the dirtbag and throwing him in the back of a police car as Jordan had gathered up belongings from the home because there was no way she was staying another night there. Casey was gonna make sure of it. Jordan was staying at her grandparents for the time being.

       Back at the PD, it seemed as if they were never gonna find this guy. He was hiding his tracks well. "So, no leads. None, whatsoever." Casey stated. "We're hoping that this guy talks to someone." The detective answered. "He's good at covering his tracks. I'll give him that." Rossi tells.

       An officer had walked through the door. "Agent Willows, Jordan's here for her cognitive." Casey immediately stood up and gathered everything she needed.

     "Casey," Hotch started and Casey turned her attention to the man. "You got this?" Casey shrugged, "She's not gonna wanna talk to anyone else."

      With that, Casey had entered the room and Jordan had started off with all of the details of her kidnapping. Casey knew she had to get her in the mindset before starting her cognitive. Casey had learned that Jordan had left her fingerprints everywhere around the man — in his car, in his home. Jordan was doing whatever necessary she could in order for this man to get caught. She knew exactly what to do and Casey was paying attention and one detail caught her attention.

"He said he wanted to get back at women." Jordan stated and Casey began to think. "Back at women..." Casey began to replay the pictures of the women that their unsub had killed. "You said he drove a red Magnum Ferrari, correct?" She asked and Jordan nodded. "Yeah."

The profile on the unsub had told them that the man would presumably old school and that car had been pretty old school. Casey began to try and piece it all together. "Uh, by any chance... did he ever put a red blindfold over your eyes?" Casey questioned. "Yeah, why?" Jordan asked and Casey had figured it all out.

Casey immediately rushed out of the room and ran right into the team, ready to tell them about her theory. "Guys!" Casey announced. "Casey—" Hotch was immediately interrupted. "I think Jordan Fern's another one of our unsub's victims!" Casey announced, causing everyone to look at one another in confusion.

       Casey had announced it to the detective and sheriff, all of them in utter confusion to why Casey was saying this. "Jordan Fern's one of our victims? That's a stretch." The detective spokes.

      "I know it sounds crazy. But what if Jordan Fern's rapist is our unsub? I mean, she was taken at night when she was alone, he stalked her and tied her up in his car."

      "That's not enough." The sheriff spoke. 

      "He told her that he wanted to get back at women. It fits the profile." Casey stated.

      "Yeah, but our guy doesn't let his victims go—"

      Casey immediately interrupted. "Jordan is smart, brilliant, she's a survivor through and through, she's gone through abuse her entire life and she's a fighter. What if she did what no else could and got him to let her go?" Everyone looked at the girl and Casey could see why they were thinking she was crazy. She then looked at the only other person she knew could help her through this sticky situation.

      "Reid, I could use a statistic right now." Casey stated and everyone looked his way next. Reid took a deep breath before starting. "She could've used reverse psychology on him. Jordan probably persuaded him to trust her and he probably decided to."

      "I want to do a lab report to find red fibers in Jordan Fern's clothes." Hotch spoke. "If she has the red fibers..." Emily continued for him, "Then, we've found our guy." The detective hesitantly looked at the team. "I really hope you guys know what you're doing."

       After talking on the phone with Garcia to do research with the sketch they had of the unsub and the info Jordan had, the detective came back with the lab report. "Agent Willows," He started and Casey turned to him. "You were right. Lab found red fibers on Jordan's clothes." He said, holding the evidence up to the girl. "Just like our other victims." JJ told. "Gather everyone up." Hotch informed.

      "Casey," Hotch called as everyone was already gathering up for their new profile. Casey walks up to Hotch. "I want you to deliver the profile yourself." He stated. "Really?" Casey asked. "Without you, we wouldn't have anything on our unsub. I think you'd be best to deliver the profile." Hotch explained his reasoning and Casey nodded, "I took a chance on a scared girl. Without me, we'd have no case." She told.

       Casey stood in front of everyone, excited yet terrified. "Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new victim. And she's alive. We have a witness."

Afterwards, Casey and Morgan had taken the girl to help her with her cognitive. Jordan had had a hard time focusing and Casey was helping the girl stay on track and she was then remembering the directions — she had paid attention to every single detail. Jordan had remembered the place she had been dropped off for freedom.

Casey had taken Jordan back and the girl had insisted on staying at the station — for the time being, it was the safest bet until they found the son of a bitch. Reid had sat in front of Casey and she held pictures of the vehicle running a red light. The girl yawned and looked at Reid. "Hey, tell Garcia to run these through ViCap, see if she could get a clear picture of our guy." Casey hands the pictures to Reid who nods.

Suddenly, a ear-piercing scream had startled Casey and Reid. "Was that—?" Reid asked and Casey immediately jumped up to go rush into her room. "Jordan..." Casey rushed into her room and saw that Jordan was having a nightmare. "Jordan?"

Casey rushed over to Jordan. "Hey, hey, hey. You're okay. You're okay." She woke the girl and Jordan cried as she held onto Casey. "We are looking for him, okay? We will not stop until we find this son of a bitch. He can't get you here, okay? He can't get you here." Casey looked up at Reid and held onto Jordan since she wouldn't let go of her.

Successfully, Garcia had been able to manage owners of Red Magnum Ferraris that lived in the Virginia area. And Jordan was able to confirm one of the owners to be the unsub they were looking for.

With the picture, they sent it over to Garcia, who was ready to tell them the details of the unsub. Casey looked over at JJ, who had walked in. "She okay?" Casey asked. "Yeah, she's finally sleeping." JJ told. "Alrighty, amigos. I have dug in deep to find out who this guy is and our guy is Benjamin Riley." Garcia's voice chirped as his picture popped up on screen.

"Average grades, average life up until he was fifteen when his father overdosed on heroin and his mother killed herself two days prior. He was married to a Stella Driscoll, they both worked together at an auction place up until they divorced two years ago and she now goes by Stella Keller — Stephen Keller, being her boss that she had had an affair with." Garcia informed.

"Wife leaves you and has an affair with her boss." Emily spoke. "More to add on: they recently got married two months ago." Garcia added. "The murders didn't start until that period of time." Emily tells. "There's your stressor." Rossi tells.

"Sending you his address and his workplace address right now." Garcia tells and with a thank you, they leave to surround this bastard.

Benjamin Riley wasn't found at his workplace or his home but Jordan's fingerprints in the apartment were found. Benjamin Riley was eventually found at a convenience store and was immediately taken into custody. JJ had gotten a call about the news and she looked over at Casey, who was paying attention. That meant that Jordan was safe and the bastard was caught. As soon as she got the look, Casey rushed into Jordan's room and awoke her with the news. Everyone had gotten back and Jordan walked in the room and the first thing she had gotten was a standing ovation and handshakes from like a million officers.

         It had been a day later and everyone was getting ready to leave. Casey was packing up and Jordan had walked in the room, a smile shining on her face that Casey hadn't seen before. "Agent Willows?"

     "Hey!" Casey greeted. "I, uh, wanted to let you know, uh, my grandparents are coming to take me in. They live in LA. Hopefully, I have a fresh start there." Jordan smiled. "That's great!" Casey nodded.

       Jordan looked at the girl. "I, um... I just wanted to thank you. I mean, you believed me when no one else did. Literally. Words can't explain how much it means that you care."

      Casey took a deep breath. Everything about Jordan reminded her of her. "Jordan, I've been where you've been. I had a similar situation. And I was afraid that no one was gonna believe me. And all I wanted was one person that was going to believe me." As soon as she said that, as if on cue, Adam walked in the room. "And I had that person. And all it takes is for one person to believe you. And that's what matters."

       Jordan nodded at Casey's words and began to walk away, taking that advice with her. Before she could officially walk out, she stopped. "Uh, one quick question." Casey looked up. "When can you sign up for the FBI academy?" Casey smiled, "Whenever you want to."

      With that, Jordan left and that left Casey and Adam alone. "You, uh, going home?" Adam asked. "No, I'm going to Canada." Casey answered. "I, uh, wanted to give something to you before you left." Adam handed something to her and Casey looked down and saw the familiar picture of her and her friends at a pool party.

     "Oh, my God." Casey smiled widely. "How old were we here?" She questioned. "I think you were eleven and I was thirteen." Adam answered.
     "I forget you're a couple of years older than me." Casey tells. "Hey, you're the one who skipped a couple of grades." Adam holds his hands up in defense. "Um, not by choice."
"Kind of is." The two begin to laugh.

      Casey took a pause and looked at the picture and then back over to Adam. "Thank you." She said. "For what?" Adam furrowed his eyebrows. "For believing in me when you did." Casey answered.

     "You're my best friend, Cee." Adam told. "Of course I'm gonna believe in you." Casey inhaled deeply and then looked back at the picture. "Geez. Who else was in the picture? I don't even recognize some of these people."

     Adam pointed them out. "Uh, Nora Belsik, Taylor Quickly, Stacey and Cooper Rogers. Remember Cooper?" Casey sighs in exasperation. "Oh, I remember Cooper. He had the biggest crush on me, remember that?" She tells.

    "How could I forget? He wrote you love letters." Adam tells. "Dude, he was so weird." Casey sighs, "Maybe he meant well."

     That night, Adam had taken Casey out for ice cream so they had hung out the entire day, catching up with one another. Adam had decided to drop Casey off at her apartment and Casey looked down and noticed a box in front of her doorstep.

      "What's that?" Adam asked. "I don't know." Casey answered, kneeling and picking up the box. She opened it and it revealed to be dead flowers. Just dead flowers.

       Casey furrowed her brows. "What the hell?" She questions. "Who delivers dead flowers in a box?" Adam asks. Casey had read the card on the box. To you, C.

      Casey sighed and remembered that she had been gone for a couple of days, that's probably why the flowers died. This was nothing, just dead flowers that had been delivered a day late. But just in case, Casey had decided she was going to tell her doorman to stop delivering flowers and boxes of dead flowers to her doorstep. And hopefully, it would end at that.

hey, lovelies!!!
ik this is super long
but i'm actually proud of this chapter!
now, we're introduced to adam brody!
he's an important part of the story!! lol
also
idk if y'all noticed or have seen the movie
"believe me: the abduction of lisa mcvey"
but i based the case off of that movie and the actual case.
it's actually one of my favorite crimes that i had personally looked into.
anywaysss
i hope you guys liked that!
-mya <3