CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: SOUL MATES !

4x12
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TO MAKE IT A SHORT STORY, A MAN HAD BEEN ACCUSED OF RAPING AND MURDERING GIRLS DOWN IN FLORIDA. These accusations had followed him from Atlanta, which the family had been forced to move right afterwards. He was now taken into custody because a girl named Missy Dewald had gone missing and it was linked back to him and now Reid, Garcia and Willows were about to go through his computer.

        Casey had been sitting at the computer, on the phone with Garcia and Reid had stepped up after walking out of the room for a moment. "You find anything?" Reid asked, sitting down.

      "Give me a minute," Garcia spoke. "I will find the grime." Casey sighs, "Alright. You ready to start searching his computer?" She asked. "Born ready." Casey could practically hear her smirk.

      Garcia had taken over the laptop. "Seem to be in control." Reid comments. "You're surprised?" Casey asks. "I'm always in control, sweet cheeks." Garcia told and Casey smiled. "So far, William Harris appears to be quite intelligent. He's covering his tracks pretty well." Reid continued.

       "Well, he's been caught in the crossfire like this before, he's learned a few things and how to get away with it properly this time." Casey explained.

      "Yeah, just because you delete your history, It doesn't mean all your dirty cyberlaundry isn't hanging out there for me to find on your hard drive. Rookie mistake." Garcia had gone through it all and found a link through that led to a bunch of journal entries. It looked pretty suspicious to Casey.

      Both Reid and Casey decided to take it over at the boards — which had all the info and dirt on William Harris. Rossi, Morgan and the detective on the case had been waiting for the info they found.

      "Garcia's been digging through William's computer. She found an encrypted link to a web page." Reid explained. "Where'd it take you?" Morgan asked. "Uh, an unsearchable, untraceable blog with tons of journal entries." Reid tells. "It's like some sort of diary he's been hiding." Casey adds on. "You find anything incriminating?" Rossi asked looked at the two.

     "Willows and I were able to differentiate between two distinct voices, two authors. I found various idiosyncratic words, phrases, punctuation, And orthography within the blog entries consistent with each separate person -- words like 'soda' and 'pop'. One guy uses dashes while the other uses ellipses." Reid chuckled at his own words.

      The detective looked over at Rossi. "Where'd you find this kid?" He asked. "He was left in a basket on the steps of the FBI." Rossi whispered to him and Casey chuckled and added, "You get used to it after a while."

     "One side of the discourse made a reference to the Devil's strip." Reid told. "What the hell's that?" The detective asked. "Uh, it's a small patch of grass that separates the sidewalk from the street. Now, that term is only used in Central Ohio. William lived in Atlanta for 20 years, but he grew up in Columbus. The other guy uses words like 'turnpike' and 'filling the gas tank', both specific regionalisms for Florida." Reid had explained as the police officers had brought in a handcuffed William Harris.

       Casey began to overthink. "Hey, are you sure about this?" She asked and Reid had narrowed his eyes at her, giving her a look she was all-too familiar with. It had been the look that she gave to others and maybe him at some point. "Don't give me that look. I invented that look." She commented.

William had been messaging someone and that this was his partner he was messaging. Now, Reid and Casey were still going through the emails William had been sending to his partner.

        Reid had been circling things with a red marker and a blue marker and Casey watched as he did so.

       Her somewhat-staring had been interrupted by Morgan approaching the two. "Tell me you found his partner." Reid didn't say a word. "Reid." Morgan said, trying to get his attention.

      "It's all so cryptic." Reid said and Morgan stood up behind Reid looked at the letter he was looking at. "'The end of the day came too soon.'" He read. "Well, they clearly enjoyed being together."

      "They wrote a cluster of others right after the first victim, Kim Groves, was killed." Reid told. "We need to figure out how they met." Morgan said. "There's gotta be something in all this about their courtship."

       Casey had read from another letter. "'It all seemed so hopeless, but I finally learned to rise above it.'" She read. "It sounds like William confessed he was feeling incomplete."

       "He was," Morgan told. "He didn't start killing until he met his soul mate."

      "'Faith should never be broken.'" Reid said. "The longer they got away with it, the stronger their relationship." Casey stood behind Reid.

      "Sounds like these guys aren't just obsessed with rape and murder. They're addicted to one another, as well. Mash two dangerous alpha males — it won't end well." Casey stated.

      "We could have saved her." The detective from before had walked in, along with Rossi, Hotch, Jordan and Prentiss, getting the attention of Casey, Reid and Morgan.

       "There were no signs of his having a partner until now." Hotch stated. "I guess that's why he's so cocky." The detective told. "Well, his arrogance is typical of a dominant personality. He's found a submissive who's willing to kill for him."

        "The partner is a biter." Emily informed the three in front of her, making Casey furrow her eyebrows. "We found marks on Missy Dewald."

         Morgan looked at the group. "They never did that before." He said. "Well, with William out of the picture, he's changed his behavior." Hotch told. "Maybe the partner went back to something that's comfortable, something he's done before." Rossi added. "I've got Garcia checking dental records against other cases." Hotch told and Morgan had looked at Casey and Reid and the two had gone back to work.

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With the help of Garcia, they had found a woman who had the same bite marks from the unsub and Hotch and Emily had gone to talk to her. "Connie Mayers described an anger-excitation rapist just like William." Emily told.

        "So we're lookin' at 2 dominant personalities." Morgan spoke and Casey clicked her pen, remembering what she said earlier about them being both alpha males. "Makes sense. They have a similar discourse. They're equally well-written." Reid agreed. "It's rare in criminal partnerships."

         "If their personalities are the same, their lives probably mirror one another's as well. Both being alpha males and all." Casey told.

         "Harris goes to church, on the board of the PTA, coaches his daughter's soccer team, rarely drinks." The detect listed. "Sounds like a saint." Jordan spoke. "With a dark side," Hotch spoke. "That's what he connected to in the partner. Prentiss and I will go talk to the family, see if they know who it might be."

         Hotch and Prentiss had gone their own way, leaving the rest of the group. Morgan stood up and looked at Casey. "Willows was right about them both being dominant personalities." Morgan said.

         "What can I say? It's kind of a gift." Casey joked. Reid had studied the girl hard. Of course she was smart, she was related to Gideon, for God's sake.

      "Two alpha males won't be easy to break." Morgan said. "The partner is definitely following the investigation." Jordan spoke. "Let's do the talking for them." Rossi decided. "You want me to put this out in the public?" Jordan questioned.

       Rossi holds the printed email in his hands. "We've got something better."

       "Why would he read it?" The detective asked. "He knows William won't be writing."

       "These men are addicted to each other." Morgan said. "Right now, he needs a fix, and the words they've shared are all he has to cling to."

        Reid looked at the detective. "His partner wrote 'faith should never be broken.' A betrayal could devastate him." He told. "All we have to say is that William's cooperating and he'd believe it." Casey told. "Or we just hope he takes the bait." Morgan said.

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      They sent a message to the partner of William and Reid and Casey were finding more clues and discovering that they really worked well together.
"You got something?" Rossi asked as Morgan and him walked in.

"One day, the partner wrote, 'I feel like such an outsider. No one understands me. I watch them chase their little spawns, the same old conversations. Nothing stimulates me.'" Reid read out to them.

"Sounds like a party with kids." Morgan told. "Yeah, and somebody was not happy to be there." Casey said "'I looked over, and everything changed. The only spark in my day.'" Hotch read out next and Reid had figured it out. "This is it. It's buried in a later entry, but he's talking about the first time they met."

Morgan and Rossi gave a look to one another and went back to the interrogation room to confront William about this.

After interrogating him some more, Morgan and Rossi walked back in. "Reid, we need to figure out where that party was." Morgan told.

"Let's review one more time. I'm a serial killer writing my partner. Why do I keep a secret blog?" Reid questioned. "It's a safe way to relive your crimes." Casey listed. "Uh, no one ever sees you together, and, uh, no one overhears you talking." Emily tells.

"I'd buy all that."
"Sounds like they take turns surprising each other. Uh, listen to this. 'I love the challenges. "the timing is always perfect. Thanks for tonight. It was tough, but I figured it out. Nothing was gonna keep me away.'"

Casey reads Spencer like a book and sees his furrowed brow and the squint in his eyes, indicating that he was into something. "Reid, your eyes are glistening. What are you thinkin'?" Casey asked.

Reid turns around and looks at Casey. "They never write about a time." That was odd, Casey thought. "So how'd they know when to meet?" Morgan asked, reading her mind.

The team called up Garcia. "What have we got?" Garcia asked as soon as they had gotten her on the phone. "All four victims were abducted at different times of day. It was never consistent." Hotch told and Casey sat down in her seat next to the phone.

"One was even taken on Thanksgiving morning when she went to the market for her mom." Emily said. "Other than the blog, there is nothing else suspicious on Mr. Sneaky's phone or his computer. All texts, numbers, and files have been accounted for." Garcia explains.

"What did they do to communicate?" Hotch questioned. "We have to be missing something." Casey noted to the gap in the case. "We know based on the language and the knowledge of the area that the partner was most likely born and raised in Florida." Emily began to think back.

"All right, let's work with the theory that the partner lives in Sarasota." Rossi says. "They don't call. They don't write. The signal could be something visual, or it could be something audible." Reid thinks.

"Okay, if it's visual, that could be hanging a flag on their house."
"And if it's audible, they'd obviously have to live close enough to each other to hear it."

"Something audible," Reid mutters to himself and scans through the papers. "Something you can hear. What if... What if they're not writing poetry to each other? What if they're writing lyrics to a song? Uh, 'This feels so good, so free, so right.'" Reid tells, so that Garcia could look it up.

"Give me something else." Garcia says.

Casey scans through a paper and then at the board. "Uh, 'It looks so right, it's all I need tonight.'"

"I found it."

Casey had recognized the song to be Here Comes My Girl by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

"Garcia, that's it. That was playing when we pulled in to the cul-de-sac." Hotch says, looking at Emily and Rossi. "It was coming out of a car."Emily reminded herself. "That's the signal. That's how they knew to go back to Missy Dewald."

"The partner lives nearby. That's where they met. It was a neighborhood party." Reid says. "Garcia, we need to know which neighbor it is." Rossi says.

"Give me the parameters again."

"We're looking for a while male —"
"Married, with children —"
"He's either got a good steady job, or he owns his own business."
"He's lived in Florida his entire life."

"Within close proximity to William, there are seven white males. Five are married with children. Two were born and raised in the sunshine state. One is on disability. One owns a real estate business." There is a pause. "Oh, my god. He lives right next door. Steven Baleman."

The team had gone to his house and talked to his side and discovered that he had been hostile and that William's daughter had gone missing and they linked the two together and William's wife had needed to talk to William and asked him where Steven had taken her and William had decided to go himself to save his daughter and in the end, both Steven and William went to prison.

hey, lovelies!
OH MY GOD THIS IS LITERAL SHIT
but heyyyy i updated so yeah 😬👍
don't get used to daily updates anymore since i have practice every single day this summer so yeah lmao
next chapter is — cold comfort
ily all
-mya <3