CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE: BEYOND BORDERS IN BARBADOS !

10x19

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      EVERYONE HAD ARRIVED AT THE BAU FOR A CASE - THIS TIME, THIS CASE WAS FROM THE BEYOND BORDERS TEAM, NEEDING SOME ASSISTANCE. Casey had joined the rest of her team, including Section Chief Cruz, Unit Chief Jack Garrett and Agent Lily Lambert, in the conference room to discuss the case.

"Our unsub's eluded both domestic and international teams, and we're not about to let him get away with it again." Cruz started as Garcia pressed the remote to light up the screen of the victims. "As you all remember, last April, the Isaacs family was killed in Florida, and the Everetts were killed in Aruba the year before that."

"Both families were found 24 hours after they were taken. Each family member had been strangled and their bodies were dumped in a remote area. The trails went cold." Hotch explained.

"All signs pointed to the Everetts being his first victims. Because of the hands-on, intimate nature of the kills, we thought it was personal." Lily Lambert spoke as Hotch followed, "And we built on that theory with the Isaacs in Florida, but to no avail."

"Now that he's moved internationally again, it's time to rethink the motive," Jack Garrett sighed. "It's clear he gets off on hunting American families when they're on vacation."

"Just over eight hours ago, he abducted the Sullivans from Barbados." Cruz told, showing the security camera footage of the family getting into a van.

"It feels like he's establishing a clear pattern," Morgan stated. "He started overseas, came back to the states, and now he's gone to another country again."

"The month of April has some sort of significance to him." Spencer pointed out. "Maybe it's easy hunting season." Lily suggested. "All the kills were during spring break vacations. But why families?" Casey questioned.

"It takes guts and skill to snatch a whole family, but you wouldn't know it by watching him." Kate told. "The higher the risk, the lower his heart rate. A true sociopath." Rossi commented.
"And the family's too tired from a long day of travel to see the ruse." JJ added. "And the unsub's probably too charismatic, proper or trusting to set off any instinctual alarms." Vivian finished.

"I need both domestic and international teams working together on this," Cruz stated. "If our unsub sticks to his pattern, he'll kill the Sullivans by sunrise."

"Kate, you and Reid go to the Sullivans' house in Fairfax County." Hotch tells the two. "Look for links between them and the other victims. We need to establish whether he's stalking them at their homes before they take their trips. The rest of us will head to Barbados."

As the rest of the team disbanded, Casey had her go-bag ready to go to Barbados. Both her and Spencer were currently at their desks, getting ready for their destinations. "You think Barbados is sunny around this time of year?" Casey asks, wondering if she packed good clothes for this.

"It should be," Spencer said. "Barbados weather is generally warm and sunny all year round with an average daytime high of 30°C and 86°F. In fact, Barbados has over 3,000 hours of sunshine each year. The prevailing Northeast tradewinds blow steadily so that although it is bright and sunny, it is not unbearably hot." He explained and Casey chuckled at his answer, "Yeah, well, I've always wanted to go to Barbados for spring break. Never got a chance to." Casey told. "First time for everything."

As Casey held her bag over her shoulder, Spencer had propped his satchel around his body. "You know, we've never been actively away from one another during a case. I mean, ever since Chris was born at least." Casey thought aloud. "I know, it's weird, but... we got a family to save." Spencer said and Casey nods, "Yeah, you're right."

Casey grabbed his face and pecked him on the lips. "You'll call me when you land?" Spencer asks. "You already know." Casey smiled and grabbed his hand. "I love you." She said. "I love you, too." Spencer told as Casey squeezed his hand and their arms were extended until they finally let go and were on their ways.

Casey had joined JJ and Morgan so they could be heading out on the jet together. "Think you can survive without Pretty Boy for a case, Willows?" Morgan asked, trying to joke around. "I think the question is will he survive without me?" Casey said, joking a bit.

The three were met with Garrett, Lily and Agent Matt Simmons in front of the jet. "Hey, hey, haven't seen you guys in a while." Matt greeted to the three. "Matt Simmons." Morgan smirked. "Passing ships, man. How you doing?"

"Good." Matt answered and hugged both JJ and Casey in greeting. Casey had met Matt Simmons a couple of times on cases like these. He was a pretty cool guy from what Casey gathered and he always knew what he was doing regarding cases. Not to mention, he was the only other person Casey knew that could kick doors down like Morgan. It was a shame they didn't have the brawn like him at the BAU, but IRT was lucky to have him.

Matt turned over to Morgan and asked: "Morgan, you married yet?" Morgan answered, "Working on it."

"So, uh, how old's the baby now?" JJ asked, striking up conversation with Matt. "Which one?" Lily questioned jokingly. "He's quite a breeder."

"I have four under three." Matt answered, causing Morgan, JJ and Casey to wince at the answer. "Wow." Morgan commented.

"Last round was twins." Matt added. "Oh, my god. Your wife is a saint." JJ comments and Matt nods, "That she is." Casey chuckles, "You're telling me. I couldn't imagine having one more let alone two more after that."

"And how is little Christopher doing?" Matt asked, nudging his head towards Casey. "Getting bigger and bigger by the day. I swear, Spencer thinks I'm feeding him too much." Casey told as the team laughed with one another.

They all headed up on the jet and waited for Hotch, Rossi and Vivian to join them lastly. In the air, they were now discussing the case.

"He used some kind of leather ligature to beat them and finish the job. Our guess was a belt. It must mean something to him." Morgan told Lily, Casey and Vivian, sitting near him. "Well, that weapon versus bare hands certainly prolongs the strangulation. He gets off on controlling their lives until the very end." Lily explained. "Is there a chance he was whipping them?" Casey asked. "We could have Kate and Reid look through autopsy records." Vivian suggests as Casey nods along.

"He could have kept hunting in Florida. It's a target rich environment for his type." Jack told. "Right. But he didn't." Rossi said. "Instead he chose Barbados, of all places. More couples than families who vacation there. He's making it harder on himself." Jack said as Rossi added, "And us. There's not much going on here evidence wise."

"Except those ball caps," Jack told. "The first two times he wore orange, now he's switched to blue." Casey leans over, "Switching caps might some significance to him." She suggested.

Garcia then appeared on the monitor. "Bonjour, crime-fighters times two. Ok, I did some digging on the Sullivans and they just got their passports." Everyone huddled around the area. "This trip was their first stamp."

"Inexperienced travelers tend to make the easiest targets because they're isolated, they're stressed from customs, sometimes there's even a language barrier." Lily explained. "And all those unfamiliar sights and sounds add to their culture shock." Vivian added.

"Yeah, that's why airports are the biggest trap. A few creature comforts, ATMs, restaurants, they trick you into letting your guard down. There are predators waiting to strike." Matt told.

"Yeah, well, I ran their specs through ViCAP and Interpol again, and the only things that are dinging are the suitcases we already know about." Garcia explained. "Garcia, coordinate with the State department on passport activity in Barbados and cross that with Aruba from two years ago." Hotch ordered. "Copy, copy." With that, Garcia hung up.

The team finally landed in Barbados and Spencer had been right about the weather and Casey was lucky enough to pack for any type of weather she was expecting. They had been settled at the US Embassy in Bridgetown. It was a nice place to set up their case.

Jack had greeted a man at the front steps of the building. "Jack, how you been?" The man started and Jack nods, "Great, thanks." He looks towards the team. "Of course you know Lambert and Simmons. This is the Embassy's regional security officer." Jack introduced the man to the BAU team.

"Fitz, this is the team I was telling you about. SSAs Hotchner, Hudson, Rossi, Willows, Morgan, and Jareau. They're experts in family annihilators and worked this offender's case last year." Jack introduced the team and Casey nods her head towards the man in front of her.

"Well, I hate that it takes another abduction to bring out all the big guns, but I'm glad you're here." Fitz told. "Come on in. I'll show you around."

This place reminded Casey of Rossi's mansion mixed with a doctor's office, it was big and neat. Casey looked around everywhere, having to remind herself that this wasn't a school field trip or a vacation anywhere.

"The ambassador wants to keep this quiet." Fitz stated. "'Cause he doesn't want the host government to be embarrassed." Lily assumes. "10,000 Americans victimized overseas each year and State's worried about diplomacy." Matt scoffed. "Gotta love politics." Casey comments.

"In this case, it's island economics," Jack corrects. "Anything that stops money from coming in gets swept under the rug. Other places, challenges can be more political."

"If we thought other families were in danger, I'd argue that we should make a statement, but I think this guy has what he wants." Hotch told. "What about the van?" Vivian asks Fitz. "Tags were stolen. Registered to a rotting VW bus." Fitz tells and Matt nods, "Of course."

"And the make, model, and color all match a popular service van on the island. They're a dime a dozen." Fitz explains. "And what about the driver? Are there a lot of Americans driving shuttles around here?" JJ asks. "Half the service industry are expats who work here all winter. Problem is, most people don't report their presence in the embassy, so we have no record of knowing who's even here." Jack explains.

"Well, he's been here long enough to know his way around back roads. This kind of ruse isn't easy to pull off at night." Hotch told. "His first kills were most likely sloppy. He probably knows what to do now that he's more experienced." Casey added.

"Our technical analysts are tracking passport activity over the past six months." Rossi told Fitz, who nods. "That's a good start."

"Morgan, you Willows and JJ should head to the abduction site." Hotch suggests and Casey nods as her, Morgan and JJ start to walk off but not before Jack tells Matt to go with them.

"I'm gonna run leads in town. You want to come?" Hotch tells and then looks over at Vivian and she nods. "Sure." Lily tags along with them and Rossi and Jack stay behind.

After looking through the abduction sight, the four arrived back at the Embassy. Hotch, Vivian and Lily arrived back after thinking they caught their guy but unfortunately hadn't. Matt had walked into the building with a box of food. "Okay, we have tastes from England, Portugal, Spain, and West Africa. And this is my absolute favorite, flying fish." Matt told.

"Do you guys eat like this wherever you go?" Rossi questioned, stealing the sentence out of Casey's mouth. "Pretty much." Lily nods. "If you ever need another consultation, you know where to find me." Rossi said, getting everyone to laugh.

"And me!" Casey added. "It's like an all-you-can-eat buffet." She grabs a box and gasps as she opens it and looks up at Matt. "Sushi?"

"You like fish, too?" Matt asks. "I love fish. Cooked, raw, or whatever. And I find it hilarious that I love it because Spencer hates it so much." Casey explained away.

Lily then turned her attention to Morgan. "So you said there was good news?" She asks. "Oh, yeah, that." Casey looks over at Morgan to start. "Yeah, Garcia and Monty sent us some footage. It should be on both screens." Morgan tells as Casey picks one of the tablets up and Vivian looks over one shoulder as Hotch looks over the other. "We got this guy trolling inside and outside the terminal over the past two weeks."

"He's focused on families at night, when they're exhausted." Matt adds. "But there's this." JJ points to the screen and notices their unsub moving quickly out of the way. "Yeah, look at his footwork. This guy's definitely athletic." Casey added. "Okay, that move would have sent me to my masseuse." Rossi comments. "Means he's younger than we thought."

Hotch's cell phone ring and he answers it immediately. "Go ahead, Kate." He tells. "We reviewed the ME reports and confirmed that the unsub externalizes rage, specifically towards the two fathers." Kate told. "There was an escalation on the last victim, Mr. Isaacs. Water torture and whipping marks, likely from the same belt used to kill him." Spencer added, proving Casey's theory on the whipping.

"Sounds like he's getting revenge." JJ assumes. "Given his youth and the anger, he's not trying to fill the father role like we initially thought." Hotch told. "He's inserting himself as the firstborn child who has the most rage at his father." Jack theorized.

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After delivering their profile to the Embassy and discovering that this unsub had the family held captive on a boat, Casey had decided to give Spencer a call to check and see how he's doing all while Matt was finishing up with a contact he had.

He looked over at Casey towards the window as she was just finishing up her call with Spencer. "I miss you, too... Uh huh... I love you, too. Bye." She hung up as Matt had joined beside her. "Was that the husband-to-be?" He asks curiously and Casey chuckled and nods, "Yes, it was."

"How long you guys been together now?" Matt asks. "Coming up on four years now." Casey answered. "Wow, you guys are young." He comments, enunciating the word 'young'. "Yeah, but at least we're not popping kids out left and right." Casey joked and Matt smirked and shook his head. "Touché."

Hotch, Jack, Rossi and Fitz walk back into the room. "We're tracking all vessels large enough to hold four people captive." Hotch informed. "He doesn't risk a long drive, so we're looking for marinas closest to the airport." Jack added.
"Problem is, there's a dock in every direction." Rossi says. "Needle in a haystack." Vivian said.

Matt and Casey both rejoin the conversation. "Okay, my contact says there's an industrial marina about a half an hour from the airport. It's isolated. It probably would have been quiet last night."

JJ, Morgan and Matt go to check it out as the rest of the team stays behind and Spencer and Kate get on the phone with them. "We're hitting a dead end with unsolved cases involving water." Spencer told as soon as he got on the phone.

"I've been thinking we should look at solved cases." Jack suggested. "Solved cases?" Vivian asks. "This unsub isn't old enough to be a hardened criminal. But his countermeasures and his confidence feel like he's had a lot of practice." Jack explained.

"So what if he were a budding psychopath?" Hotch questioned. "We should check homicides going back to his teens."

"Lily, cross with juvenile custody worldwide." Jack orders the woman as she skims through her computer. Vivian is sitting in a chair, next to her looking through the computer as Hotch is leaning forward on her chair behind her, looking at the computer as well. "And check which countries have blue and orange in their flags. Or sports teams. There's a reason he chose those colors. We just haven't found it yet." Jack told.

"You don't think he's American?" Spencer asks. "He has some sort of connection to the states. That's why he's attacking American families. Now that we feel that he may have committed murder, it's doubtful that state would grant him a passport."
"What country would?" Spencer asks.
"Plenty." Lily answers as Vivian nods, "You'd be surprised."

"Wait, but if he was guilty of something horrific before, wouldn't he still be locked up?" Kate questions. "Not necessarily," Lily says. "Remember when Natalee Holloway disappeared?"

"It'll be ten years ago in May." Spencer said. "The prime suspect was never put away despite our profile. He was free. And five years later to the day, he abducted and killed another young woman in Peru." Lily explained. "Van der Sloot went dormant, but his underlying homicidal behavior grew stronger. That definitely could have happened here."

As Spencer explained away, Casey drew her attention to the screen in front of her. Footage found of their unsub. "That means the Everetts in Aruba reignited his devious fantasies. So if they weren't his first victims, who were?" Kate questioned.

Casey looked up after coming up with a simple conclusion. "His own family." She answered. "Think about it, we profiled a man who's rage is most targeted to his father." Hotch nods and looks at Lily. "Narrow it down to sons who killed their fathers."

"Hotch, come and take a look at this." Casey faces the screen towards her boss after noticing something on the screens. "The only sign of outward frustration. He nearly gets hit by a car. Right here." Casey points to the screen. "Instead of yelling at the driver, he holds it in." She says.

"Then he has a passive-aggressive moment." Jack noticed beside her. "He taps the center of his head like this." He demonstrates. "That's a gesture, and it means stupid or crazy in Dutch culture."

"Oranje. The Netherlands soccer team." Rossi figures it out and a lightbulb goes off in Casey's head at the same time. "That's why he's wearing a blue and orange hat."
"He's not American." Casey concludes.

Jack looks towards the agent on the computer. "Lily."
"Already on it."

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The team had altogether found out that their unsub was a man named Jerry Tidwell. His first murder was the Tidwell family on holiday in 2004. The month April did in fact mean something to him for April 9th was his father's birthday. The core of his rage. The father had videotaped his abuse towards Jerry and spared his American stepmother and half-siblings, indicating why Tidwell's anger was towards American families.

The teams had set sea into finding the boat and Garcia and Monty had found the boat, isolated towards Aruba through satellite images. Casey headed out onto a boat with Matt and Morgan as they headed off to find the boat. JJ and Jack were in another and Vivian and Hotch had been on separate helicopters.

Luckily, they had finally found the boat in time, finding Tidwell holding a gun to the oldest daughter's head and then pointing it to the parents. Casey held her gun up once she saw the scene. "Tidwell! FBI!" Morgan yelled. "Put your hands up!" Casey yelled.

"Daddy, help me, please!" The girl pleaded in his arms. "Just stop! This is your fault!" Tidwell told. "Drop the weapon!" Jack yelled. "Shut up!" Tidwell screamed back.

"Alison, look at me, all right? Eyes over here. Focus on me. That's it." JJ tried to distract the girl in his arms. Above the boat, Hotch and Vivian were in the helicopters, holding AKs and ready to fire when they had a clear shot. "Let the girl go! You don't have to do this!"

"You don't know what he did! You don't know!" Tidwell shouts. "I don't, but you don't have to die today. Drop the gun!" Jack shouts.

After back and forth banter on both ends and Tidwell started shooting up at the helicopters, JJ shouts: "Alison, drop!" The girl ducked down and Vivian had a clear shot from up above and shot the man in the back, killing him instantly.

The girl rushed over to the her mother and the mother began to shout and grab the attention of the agents. "Our son is overboard!" Her and her husband shouted over and over. Casey hopped into the boat with Matt after Morgan told her to go with Matt to search for the son.

Hotch, Vivian and Lily helped them with the search in the helicopters and directed Matt and Casey to the son. Luckily, he was in a small boat and alive. The two had the opportunity to help him reunite with his family.

After that, the team had gone back to the BAU where the Sullivans reunited with Greg Sullivan's parents. Casey had been the first person through the elevator and the first person she spotted was her fiancé. She greeted him with a kiss and big hug. "You okay?" He asks. "I am, now that I'm back and I'm incredibly wiped." She said. "Ready to go snag Chris from JJ's place and go to bed?"

Casey began to pull Spencer towards her when Spencer pulled her back. "Actually... you have a visitor." As if on cue, Garcia had come up with Christopher in her arms. Christopher had been dressed in a shirt, jacket, jeans and tiny converse shoes. He looked like mini mixture of both Spencer and Casey combined in his little outfit. "Hi!" Garcia smiled. Casey gasped and held her arms out towards her son. "Oh, hi, my sweet boy! Come here!"

Garcia handed Chris over to Casey and she held him tightly in her arms and kissed his temple. "This is a pleasant surprise, my little lovebug." She said and then looked over at Spencer. "I figured you could use something to make you smile when you got back."

"Plus, I practically begged him to bring him here because it's been a long freaking while since I've seen my godson." Garcia tells and Casey chuckles. "We've already showed him the lair and his mommy's desk and his daddy's desk and he even recognized the photo of himself at your desk!" Garcia smiled. "Isn't that just exciting?"

"Yeah, well, you know what exciting is? Finally heading back home with my fiancé and my son and getting some rest." Casey told, holding Christopher on her left arm while holding Spencer's hand in the right hand.

okay this was basically a filler chapter especially because i wanted to see my matt simmons in action🤩

anywayssss
thank you for reading!
an original will be up next!!!
i love you all!
-mya </333