CHAPTER EIGHT: FAMILY LINE !

8x14

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CASEY ARRIVED AT THE ROUNDTABLE ROOM, HALF ASLEEP DUE TO THE LACK OF SLEEP SHE'D BEEN GETTING FOR OVER THE PAST FEW WEEKS. The team had been called in for yet another case. They had been listening in on a recording of a phone call from a father about his missing daughters.

Hotch paused the recording. "That call came in an hour ago." He told. "How does a single father lose his teenage daughters for 36 hours?" JJ questioned. "He doesn't." Rossi told. "He loses them on Monday but calls on Wednesday? If anything, he sounds like the suspect." Casey told. "His girls are gone. He doesn't blame anyone." Blake tells.

"And he doesn't use any buzzwords first responders are trained to hear. He never says missing, abducted, runaway." Morgan says. "Maybe that's what they did, though. Maybe they ran away." Garcia tells.

"There's no history of that." Rossi tells. "The likelihood of a stranger abduction in a neighborhood like this is rare. I've counted 7 turns from the entrance to their driveway. No one just stumbled onto the house." Reid explains.

"And where's the mother? Could this be a parental child abduction?" JJ asks. "Uh, doubtful." Hotch says. "Exactly one year ago today he made this call." Hotch plays another recording. "She'd also been missing for two days before he contacted authorities, and she's never been found."

"This man is either the victim of a serial offender or he is one." Rossi says. "Please tell me this guy's in custody." Morgan says. "The Salisbury police are at his home and they've been there since the call came in." Hotch told.

"There are hard copies and tablet copies of both case files on the plane." As Garcia explained, Reid handed Casey a file and a map he used for the geographical area so she'd help out on that. "It's a short flight to the eastern shore. There'll be more when you land."

On the jet, the team had been going over the family line and what occurred before the abductions. "Bruce and Judy Morrison were well liked and active in the community. All signs point to them living a quiet life." JJ explains as Reid hands Casey a coffee mug.

"He's a writer and a professor, and it looks like she got into real estate a few years ago." Morgan pointed out. "'02, before the market crashed." Rossi says.

"Well, ten years later Judy had an affair with a co-worker, a Jeff Godwin?" JJ read. "That was discovered in the investigation but never made it in the papers." Blake tells. "Bruce Morrison was a prime suspect, but they never found any evidence and the affair wasn't deemed enough of a motive. The university's put him on sabbatical since then." Hotch explained.

"He's been writing forever, and he's been teaching since 1985. Transcript says he was grief-stricken and couldn't handle the pressure. Hm, wonder why." Casey told. "Not many people could. The odds of this event striking the same family on the same day must be a billion to one." Rossi says.
"Close enough." Reid shrugged.

"Judy inherited money from her family and it's in a trust for the girls." Blake explains. "Ah, jeez, please tell me he did not get rid of his wife for money." JJ sighs. "Bank records indicate he hasn't touched the funds, despite the depleting supplemental income from the university." Reid tells. "Yeah, but it could be a combo platter. Revenge and profit." Rossi told. "His wife cheated and he retaliated in anger." Morgan says. "It might not be a surprise, but that doesn't explain why he would harm his own children." Casey reasons.

After they landed, the team had been driving to the house. Casey was in the backseat with Blake as Morgan was driving and Reid was in the front. "The oldest daughter Sera had a 4.0 GPA, but she didn't apply to a single college back East. She accepted a Stanford early admission. Maybe her father saw going that far away as a form of betrayal." Reid assumes. "Well, it'd be the second one in a year." Casey tells.

"First his wife of twenty-seven years fools around and then probably threatens to end the marriage. A year later, the daughter can't wait to leave." Rossi explains out over the phone. "Abandonment could be the common denominator." Blake shrugs.

"There is another possibility. Maybe Bruce Morrison didn't do it." Morgan tells. "The family have any enemies?" Rossi continues, "The only person that might fit that would be Jeff Godwin."

"Mm, looks like he had a pretty solid alibi the night Judy went missing. He was wining and dining his own wife at a local restaurant." JJ told. "So the only viable suspect back then was the same one we have now." Blake says. "All the answers are in that house." Hotch tells.

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The team arrives at the house and Casey had been in charge of going through Sera and Katie's lives. JJ and Reid were scoping through Katie's while Morgan, Blake and herself were going through Sera's.

"Nothing in the past year since her mom disappeared." Blake says as she goes through a notebook of Sera's. "It looks like she kept it all bottled up." Morgan looks through her computer. "Except when she was assigned to write. There's a lot of papers in here from her creative writing class."

"Her dad's a writer and English Professor. Maybe she was trying to get his attention." Casey assumes. Morgan looks around the room and Casey noticed the look on his face. "What is it?"

"Are most high school seniors this neat?" Morgan asks. Casey furrows her brows and notices the cleanliness of the room. "Trash is empty. Bed's perfectly made." Casey looks around. "She probably wouldn't have cleaned, not willingly. Unless she decided to before she and her sister disappeared." Casey told.

"So, is that what he did for two days, clean the house?" Morgan questions, talking about the father and Casey looks around. Sera reminded her of herself. Seventeen and bottling everything up. She knew she had it rough.

After Garcia had received the phone and checked the phone logs - she was going through the messages and who they were messaging. Casey, JJ and Reid had looked through the basement and couldn't find much. They decided to go and question the neighbors to see if they knew anything. On Monday night, Bruce had an argument with his daughters. And it was discovered that Katie's body had been found in a river but Sera was still missing. There had been gun residue on sheets they found and knew they had to get Bruce to the station.

Casey had stayed at the house with JJ and Blake when she had gotten a phone call from Garcia and she put her on speaker to share the news. "I think I may have found something creepy. There's a bunch of text messages between Sera and a number that I have traced back to Jeff Godwin."

"Why would your missing mother's ex-lover stay in touch?" Blake asks as she scans through Sera's phone. "More than a little inappropriate." JJ adds. "And here's a text from JG." Blake says.

"Please tell me there was nothing strange going on between him and the daughter." Garcia says. "It seems more paternal." Casey says as she looks over Blake's shoulder. "Listen to this. It's gonna be okay. You just have to stay strong."

"Is he encouraging her to leave?" Casey asks. "Or for her to face her father in some way?" JJ asks. "Well, what about the texts on Monday?" Garcia asks. "There aren't any. The latest were from Sunday night." Blake tells.

"No, no, no, yes, there are. I'm looking at the phone records. There's texts between them on Monday between 5:23 and 5:56 p.m." Garcia tells and the women all give one another a look. "So she deleted 'em." Casey assumes.
"Weird." JJ comments. "Very."

Blake had decided to call up Morgan, who was at the station. "Hey, Blake." Morgan greeted. "Morgan, we need you to find Jeff Godwin." Blake says. "Uh, he just walked in." Morgan informs. "He did?" Casey asks.

"Says he heard we found Katie and he's worried about Sera." Morgan says. "He also texted Sera the night she went missing and then deleted the texts." Blake tells. "It looks like they texted a lot." JJ added. "Really?" Morgan asks.

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After Morgan had a conversation with Jeff Godwin, he seemed clean. Everyone had made it back to the station and Garcia had discovered a recording from Katie's cell to a local abuse hotline. After showing the phone call to Bruce, he'd had a meltdown and completely changed his personality and talked like he wasn't even Bruce anymore — to which he wasn't.

Hotch and Rossi had come back and the team discussed what had just occurred. "So Bruce said Katie baked cookies Monday night. We found them in the kitchen, so that's true." JJ told.

"And two of Sera's friends confirmed she never made it to her study group." Blake tells. "That's because Jeff Godwin was in the parking lot with her from 8:15 to 9:30." Casey adds. "And the girls called the hotline at 9:58." Reid added on.

"Detective, have your officers found either gun?" Hotch asked. "No, but we've increased the search, given where Katie's body was found." The detective answered. "We've got residue, but we don't know which gun or where it is now." Morgan says.

"Look, whoever that was in there said he wanted to scare them, not hurt them." JJ says. "Katie was beaten over the head in the middle of nowhere." Blake debunks, questioning if this guy was telling the truth. "You're right. The alter could have lost his temper, or it could have just been a horrible accident." JJ tells.

"But getting the girls out of the house was planned." Rossi says. "He said he wanted to scare them and had a gun to do it." Rossi says. "And then he drove them somewhere." Morgan tells. "Bruce's car had the same mud on the driver's side floor that he had on his boots, but there wasn't any in the backseat."

"So three people drove somewhere, but only he came back." Casey says. "And the DNA coming back from Katie's nails will tell us what we already know-- that Bruce Morrison did this. So can I arrest him now?" The detective questions. Casey understood the frustration but she could tell he just wanted this over and done with.

"Detective, you have sufficient evidence to make the arrest, but we still don't have Sera. Give us an hour and maybe he'll tell us where she is. It's your call, but he could still help us." Hotch explained and the detective gave in and took a breath. "Okay, one hour."

As Hotch spoke to him, the team began to try and uncover the man's life. They'd discovered that Bruce's wife had been taking a medical prescription. "Disulfiram. Am I saying that right?" Garcia asked. "It's for chronic alcoholism. She had a 90-day supply delivered 4 times a year for as long as I can tell. And it stopped coming a few months ago."

"It makes you just feel nauseous if you drink alcohol." Casey told. "But she isn't the one who had a drinking problem." Morgan says. "He is."

"Garcia, who canceled it?" Casey asks. "Please hold while I dig." Garcia says. "Could that be the trigger?" Blake asks. "He goes after his daughters now that he's off his meds?"

"That instability could work for us." JJ tells and looks towards Casey. "Case?" She asks. Casey had knew the idea she was planning on her head. "I'm with ya." Casey nods.

The two had gotten Hotch's okay with this and the two plus Morgan had gotten Jeff Godwin to go into Bruce Morrison's interrogation room and Jeff tensed up as he entered the room. "Hey, I--I didn't-- hey, I didn't agree to this." Jeff told.

Casey stood off to the corner as JJ began to speak. "Well, we're looking for Sera, and you're the last ones to see her alive." Jeff looks towards Morgan. "Look, like I told your guy here, I had nothing to do with this. And Sera's afraid of him."

"Do you want to tell us about your relationship with Sera?" Casey asks. "I don't have one." Jeff says.Well, that's strange. Why do you text her all the time, then?" JJ asks.

Casey watched Bruce's behavior stiffen as his personality was beginning to shift. "Jeff, it's not that big of a leap. You couldn't have Judy anymore, so you thought... why not? Sera looks just like her mom."

That was when Bruce pounced up and started to go after Jeff but Morgan held him back. "Stop! Back up! Back up!" Morgan yelled. "I'm gonna kill that son of a bitch!" Bruce yelled. "Get him out! Get him out now." Morgan told the officer in the room. "Easy!"

Morgan took his hands off of him and left the room and the personality fully shifted when Bruce said: "Judy was gonna leave my boy for that scumbag." JJ and Casey looked at one another and we're prepared for their interrogation. "What's your name?" JJ started.

"What's your name?" The personality asked. "I'm Jennifer." JJ introduced. The man looked towards Casey next. "Cassandra." She blatantly said. "Your turn." JJ adds.

"My name is Johnny and I need a cigarette, Jennifer and Cassandra." Johnny spoke. "Well, I might be able to help you out there. I'm sure you're stressed." JJ tells. "Oh, I'm not. I just want a smoke." Johnny says.

"Johnny, come on. I know these teenage girls stress you out, no matter what you say." JJ says. "Oh, yeah. I mean, how do you deal with it? All they do is bitch and moan, right? I'm guessing you like to... shoot things when you get mad?" Casey followed.

Johnny shrugs, "Sometimes. But I don't get much chance to do that." JJ continued, "Oh, I thought you did have a chance recently. I think you did." Johnny laughed and Casey confirmed, "Oh, you definitely did."

"Now, you know, I'm just-- I'm just curious. And then I'll go get you that cigarette." JJ tells. "I like you two." Johnny says exchanging a look with both JJ and Casey.

"So... you took the girls somewhere to scare them." JJ assumes. "Help me out, Cassandra." JJ nudges towards the other woman. "Maybe somewhere quiet and isolated... near the water?" Casey asks, arms crossed and keeping her head high.

"I didn't do anything but scare 'em." Johnny tells. "Of course not." JJ shakes her head. "Do you have a place by the river?" Casey asks. "Pretty and smart, the two of you." Johnny sighs, "It's not my place. It's not anybody's place anymore. I've taken them out there before, but this time, I got their attention."

Both JJ and Casey exchange a look as they finally gotten the location of where he took them. They'd done a whole search party and successfully found Sera with a rifle in her hand. She was now in the hospital and she was scared. Casey had taken the liberty to go and talk to her.

"Sera, I know you don't feel like talking, but if you think you can, there's some things I need to know, and I can't ask anyone else but you." Casey started off slowly, trying to ease her way in. "He killed my mother, too, didn't he?" Sera questioned. "It's hard to say unless we find her body." Casey told the truth.

"I want to talk to him." Sera told. "Would that be okay?" Casey nods, "Of course." Sera looks at the woman. "Will you come with me?" Casey hesitantly nods at the girl. "Yeah, but we gotta get you warmed up first, okay?" Casey wraps a blanket around the girl. "There you go."

"My mom used to wrap me in this quilt that she made before I was born," Sera spoke. "She said she always knew it would be for her little girl." Casey was glad that she had been opening up to her. "I miss her." Sera began to cry and Casey hugged the girl, resting her head on the top of Sera's. "I'm so sorry. I miss my mom, too, sometimes."

After getting Sera straightened up, Casey had taken her to talk to her dad. She watched as Sera and Bruce sat for a minute before speaking. Bruce took his daughter's hands into his and she accepted. "I'm so sorry." Bruce apologized. "Dad, you need help." Sera told.

Bruce nodded and took a notice of Sera's wounds on her head and cheek. "Did I do that? I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." He apologized. "What can I do?" Sera takes a breath, "They say that if you just tell them where mom is that this will all just be--" Bruce interrupts. "But I don't know. You know I don't know."

"She didn't just disappear, Dad." Sera argues. "Oh, God, you killed her, didn't you?" Bruce shakes his head. "No. No, I didn't." Bruce tells. "How am I supposed to believe you?" Sera asks. "This. This is what you've done." She points to her face and to her arm as she rolls her sleeve up. "You have hurt us all for a long time." The girl stood up and decided she wanted to leave and Bruce begged her to stay but she didn't. Casey followed behind the girl and decided to go with her to take her home.

       Casey watched as the girl was scattered through her family line, she felt the same way. She knew she was trying to run but she couldn't hide and somehow, it felt like everything was falling apart. She'd hope she could get through to this girl.

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Casey had arrived back at the house with Sera. "The detective said my aunt was coming. Which one?" Sera asked. "Karen. She's driving in from Charleston. Are you cold?" Casey asks. Sera shrugs, "A little bit. The thermostat's right there." Casey nods, "Okay." She turns it on. "It should warm up soon. Think you'll be able to sleep?"

"Yeah, I want a shower first." Sera nods. "Okay. Um, sure you're gonna be okay up there? You don't need anything?" Casey asks. "Yeah, I'll be fine." Sera assures. "Okay. Um, I could make us some tea if you'd like." Casey says and Sera nods, "That'd be really nice. Thanks."

As Sera went upstairs, Casey couldn't help but notice how odd Sera was acting. Casey would've thought her younger sister's death would've affected her more. Her gut feeling told her that something was off. Casey looked around and had gotten a text message from her boyfriend.

doc❤️
All good?

Casey decided to text back, "not sure, feels off"

After she fixes up the tea for herself and Sera, she gets a call and sees that it's Spencer calling. "Hey." She spoke once she answered. "What's wrong?" He asks almost immediately.

"I'm not sure. There's something off, I just can't put my finger on it." Casey tells. "How so?" Spencer asks. "She's just... too casual and almost distant since we got here." Casey told. "It could be the shock." Reid assumes.

"I know, but she's composed at the same time. Don't you think you'd be a wreck if your sister was dead? Someone you grew up with? I mean, she has not mentioned Katie to me, even once, since we got here." Casey explained.

"I couldn't walk into my house after my sister died, let alone walk past her room." JJ told. "Well, what do you think, Casey, Sera pulled it off?" Blake asks. "I think it may be a possibility." Casey muttered a bit, in hopes Sera wouldn't walk in at the wrong time. "It's a very detailed plan." Blake added. "What, she knew about her father's condition and took advantage of it?"

"She set up character witnesses like Jeff Godwin to back up her fear. She even got her little sister to make calls to a hotline. She manipulated us from the minute we found her." Morgan explained. "Her writing suggested no empathy and no real emotional connection to family." Blake says. "Psychopathic tendencies." Reid added.

Great, I'm in a house with a psychopath. Casey thought as they spoke. "Her wounds are more than superficial, but they could be self-inflicted, right, Casey?" From the corner of her eye, she saw Sera walked in the kitchen and she knew she couldn't have the girl know about her being on the phone with the team so she acted like she wasn't on the phone with them.

"Spence, I know, I'm sorry I canceled date night but you and I know this job can be really tough sometimes and I'm doing it for the good." The team was confused at first but they knew what she was doing. Casey looked over towards the girl and acted as if she didn't see her walk in.
"You okay? I didn't hear the shower."

Sera nodded, "Yeah. I just wanted my tea." Casey nods, "Oh, um, I was gonna bring it to you, but it should be ready by now." Casey stands as she hands the tea to the girl. "Uh, yeah, I'm still here." Spencer speaks, "We'll be right there. Stay on the phone." Casey continues, "I gotta go." With that, Casey hangs up and hopes the team will be here soon.

Casey had heard the shower running, indicating that Sera was in the shower and that gave Casey time to investigate the house. She decided to investigate the basement due to what she had discovered earlier and might help with the case.

She grabbed one of the boxes and began to look through it and saw the quilts she talked about before. She'd been looking through a real estate book when she heard a gun cock behind her. "Why did you have to come down here?" Casey realized that Sera was holding a gun to her head. Shit. She thought as she turned around.

Casey kept her cool as she saw Sera with the gun. "So, that's where the other gun went. We've been looking for that, you know." Casey told. "It's an old house. I know the best hiding places." Sera says. "But you, what do you think you know?"

"You put everything that went missing with your mother inside this box." Casey nudges her head towards the box and Sera was irritated that she figured it out. "1999."

"Maybe my dad did it." Sera shrugged. "See, I don't think so. You chose this box because it's the year Katie was born and everything changed. She was your little sister." Casey told.

"Katie ruined everything and my mother let her." Sera told. "Your mother loved you." Casey tried. "Well, she loved Katie more." Sera shook her head. "I should have cried for Katie. I guess there's some things I just can't fake."

Casey held onto her gun in her holster and Sera noticed the woman do so. "You won't do it." Sera began to approach closer.'"You need to back up — now." Sera shakes her head. "I can say my trauma kicked in. PTSD. I saw you with the gun and I didn't know what else to do." She pretends as if she were crying.

"You thought of everything, huh?" Casey asks and she then noticed Morgan and Reid arriving and holding their guns up. "Sera, put the gun down." Morgan says. "No, no, you don't understand. She has a gun. She was going to hurt me." Sera acted out quickly.

"No. No, Sera, it's okay. Listen to me. I understand. It's okay, Sera. She wasn't gonna hurt you. I know. You've been through enough. All right? I get it. Sera, you're safe now." Morgan tried to persuade her as Reid held a gun to her head in case she tried something.

The girl began to put the gun down and that was when Reid arrested her. "What are you doing?!" Sera questioned. "You're a smart girl, Sera. Figure it out." Morgan took her back upstairs as she yelled. Casey took a deep breath as she scanned through the box.

"February 4th. The day Judy went missing." Casey told. "Trophies. If Detective Friedman had ever found it, she would have pinned it all on Bruce." Reid added.

After that, Reid had looked at his girlfriend. "You don't know how fast I was telling Morgan to drive." Casey furrowed her brows. "If-If-If something were to-were to... happen to you, I wouldn't..." Reid shakes his head at the thought. "I hate thinking about that."

Casey cups his face and softly smiles at him. "Then, don't." She said. "Because I'm not going anywhere. Anytime soon. You got me. And to be honest, you're kinda stuck with me." Casey smirked and Reid had smiled a bit. "Let's go home."

el oh el
wait til you see what i have in store mwhahahaha😈
anywaysssss
just started senior year
pretty rad so far i love all of my classes and my teachers😁
can't wait for more chapters hopefully soon!
i took a lil bit of a break due to school starting but it looks like my only days to update are weekends lol
also
family line by conan gray🥲
anywayssss
thank you for reading!
next chapter is:
z u g z w a n g
-mya <3