CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO: ABDUCTION !

14x12

━━━━━━

           THE FIRST DAY BACK TO WORK ALWAYS FELT LIKE THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL ALL OVER AGAIN. Casey Willows felt that way at least. She actually couldn't go wait to go back to work, she missed her team. Correction, she missed her family. So, she arrived super early at the office.

          As she walked into her office, the first thing she noticed was the stack of boxes on her chair. It was like she never even left. Casey sighed as she examined her desk and she didn't even notice JJ walking through her door.

        "Hey!" JJ smiled and Casey looks back at the woman and smiles back. "Hey." The two greet each other with a big hug and JJ pulls back first and looks around the office. "First day back. How you feeling?"

        "Better, until..." Casey points towards the stack on her chair and JJ's eyebrows raise as she says: "Wow." Casey nods, "It is like I never left."

        Casey looks at the box as she puts the heavy stack on her desk and blows the dust off the files. She sits in her seat and takes a breath. "I know you're probably tired of hearing this but... if you need anything, anything at all. We got you." JJ reminds Casey, as if it's a mantra and Casey nods at her anyways. She knows the team means well.

       "I know," Casey says. "But I have been on the sidelines for way too long... I think it's about time I come back. I am the unit chief after all." JJ smiles at how strong Casey is and before she can speak again, a gasp is heard outside the door.

       "Hey! I knew I heard your sweet tones of love." Garcia walks into Casey's office with open arms towards her. "Hey, Pen!" Garcia gives Casey a gigantic hug and then pulls away.

       "Not to interrupt this and ruin the mood, but we do have an urgent case." Garcia tells and JJ and Casey exchange a glance. "Now, it really is like I never left." With that, Garcia leaves and Casey nods at JJ. "Come on, we should go."

        As Casey walks out and expects JJ to follow her, Casey's surprised when JJ stands where she is. "Actually, I need to take the case off." Casey furrows her brows. "What? Why?"

        "My mother's in town," JJ starts. "And a pipe burst in her apartment so she's staying with me for the time and I just... I'd feel bad if she were alone, so... I'll definitely consult from here but... you know my mother." JJ sighs as she says this and Casey nods, "Yeah, I get it, family's tough. Take all the time you need."

          The family thing was so much more important to Casey now. She felt as if she took her family for granted and since Leah died, she wanted to hold onto her family for as long as she could. She understood why JJ needed this time off and maybe it could fix a few things with her mom.

        "Thank you." JJ tells and with that, Casey helps Garcia get ready for the case and they figure out what they need to deal with.

          When everything is set, Garcia calls everyone into the conference room. "Welcome back." Emily starts the train and it leads with everyone saying their welcome backs and giving Casey hugs or patting her shoulder.

           "Let's get started." Casey nods at Garcia to do so as she hands the files out. "What do we have?" Matt asks, already going through the file as Garcia sits with the team on her laptop as she delivered the case.

           "Last night three ten-year-old kids went missing from their homes in Wesser, Iowa." Garcia said. "The parents didn't notice they were gone until they woke up this morning." Casey stated.

        "Well, all of the families slept through the abductions. There must not have been much of a struggle." Luke figures. "No signs of forced entry, either. Neighbors didn't hear a sound." Rossi follows.

        "Look, I'm not minimizing this, but is it possible this wasn't an abduction at all? I mean, group of ten-year-olds, tip-toe exit in the middle of the night." Tara suggests.
        "She's got a good point. I mean, what if the kids just made a bad decision to sneak out on a big adventure together?" Spencer follows with the suggestion.

        "I was wondering that myself, but it was nearly freezing last night, and it appears all the kids left wearing their pajamas." Casey stated and Emily nodded, "None of them took any clothing or food."

         "If these kids were somehow planning some big adventure, they'd most likely bring that sort of equipment if that were the case." Erik nodded in agreement.

        "Maybe it's a straight-up kidnapping. The ransom demands could be on their way." Matt tells and Casey continues from there, "JJ has some personal business to attend to here, but she will be consulting by phone. For the rest of us, wheels up." Casey stands up and then thinks to herself out loud, "Man, I missed saying that."

          As they all begin to head out one by one, Casey is close to the doors when Garcia comes rushing out of the conference room. "Guys, guys, guys. There's something that just came in. You need to see it. It's from Wesser PD It's surveillance footage from a neighborhood park." Garcia shows the team on the TV screen below what she was sent in.

          Casey furrows her brows as she sees the missing kids, swinging on the playground scenes. It looks as if they're dissociated. A nearby white van comes into frame and the kids start heading towards it one by one.

        "Those are the kids." Erik points out. "What the hell is going on?" Tara wonders. "Garcia, can you zoom in on that, please?" Luke asks as Garcia zooms in on the van and the kids voluntarily getting into it.

          There was definitely something bigger at play here. And there was something very eerie about it.

          The team soon headed into the jet to get to the Wesser PD to deal with the case. Casey had been making some calls when the team had been looking over the footage on the jet once more.

         "Forty years in law enforcement, I've never seen an abduction like this." Rossi starts with. "The children appear to be complicit. I mean, they went to the unsub voluntarily." Tara stated.

          "Yeah, but watch the last child's face. It's like he senses something wrong at the last moment." Spencer tells, looking at the screen in the jet.

          Casey walks towards the team as she announces, "There's still no ransom demand. That plus the tape, I don't know about you guys but this is looking less and less like a kidnapping." She sits next to Emily on the couch.

         "Normally, I'd think this was a sex offender, but pedophiles almost never abduct more than one child at a time." Luke stated.
         "If for no other reason than it's hard to control multiple victims." Matt added.
         "I don't know. The kids on the swing set looked pretty damn controlled." Rossi nodded. "Maybe they were drugged somehow earlier." Emily assumes.

         "What do we know about these kids?" Tara asks. "They were all good students, stable homes, no behavioral issues at all." Erik tells. "And still, they voluntarily head towards a van with someone trying to kidnap them?"

         "When we land, Emily and I'll coordinate with Agent Channing, who's already on the ground with her child abduction rapid deployment team." Casey remembered when she had helped the team out once before a few years earlier with Kate Callahan's niece going missing. "The rest of you pair up, go to the children's homes, talk to their parents. We need to get a sense of these kids. Someone or something got ahold of them. We need to find out what. And we need to get those kids home."

            When they did land, Casey and Emily went down to the PD to chat with Agent Channing. "Okay, catch me up, Agent Channing. What's going on?" Casey asks.

          "We've got local PD canvassing the neighborhood looking for home surveillance cameras." Channing tells and Emily nods, "Good. We'll set up monitors here for viewing."

         "Our CARD team has handled hundreds of child abduction cases. But something like this, we're in uncharted territory." Channing tells. "Because they voluntarily walked into the van, I'm assuming?" Casey wonders and Channing nods. "It's probably why it's looking less and less like an abduction." Emily agrees.

         "Have you met the mayor yet?" Channing asks and Casey shakes her head, "No."
         "Buckle up." Channing warns.
         "Oh, God." Casey mumbled.

          As both Emily and Casey turn around, they are faced with a man, in a suit and tie with an irritated look on his face and who Casey presumes are his child and wife are following behind him.

         The man walks over, less than professional and Casey can see the stress on his face. "Are you the other FBI people?" He asks and Channing walks away as both Emily and Casey deal with the mayor.

        "SSAs Willows and Prentiss. I understand you're the mayor?" Casey introduces both her and Emily as they both shake his hand out of respect.

        "Rob Tremaine." The man introduces himself. "Can someone please tell me what's being done to get to the bottom of this?"

         Both Casey and Emily exchange a look. "Our BAU team is in place, Mayor, and we're very good at what we do." Casey assures.

        "I'm talking about specifics. What specifically are you doing?" The mayor asks with a bit of tone in his voice and Casey's eyebrows raise and she looks at Emily.

       Before Casey can reply (in sarcasm), Tremaine's wife speaks. "Honey, I'm going home with Timmy." She pats him on the shoulder. "Take a deep breath."

        The man does take a breath and he looks at both women as begins to speak, "Look, I'm sorry. I don't mean to come on strong, but a thing like this..."

         Casey nods, "I understand. But it is important for you to present a calm and confident face to your community right now. You owe the public that at a time like this." She advises.

         The man sighs, "Well, that's easier said than done. Three kids in one night? How do we know that this maniac isn't going to take more?"

        "We don't." Emily answers. "But right now, you have to leave this to us. We will find the person responsible." She assures and the man nods, leaving them with goodbyes and Casey and Emily exchange a look as they begin to set up in the PD.

          Spencer and Tara arrive from one of the family's homes after pairing up together and they both help Casey and Emily with setting up.

         "So why these kids and why now?" Emily asks the burning question. "The behavior in the video, it appears as though they're responding to a post-hypnotic suggestion." Spencer tells.

          Tara furrows her brows. "If true, that's an awfully elaborate ruse. The seeds for this abduction must have been planted a long time ago."

        "But the parents have confirmed that these kids didn't really know one another. They went to different schools. They didn't hang out socially. So, where's the overlap?" Emily questions. "Maybe there isn't any," Tara suggests. "I mean, they could have been selected randomly online."

        "Except if this is a form of hypnosis, the unsub would need to know that the children are susceptible to suggestion." Spencer stated.

          Before Casey could speak her thoughts on this, her cell phone rings and she answers it after checking the caller ID. "You're on speaker, Garcia." She announced.

         "Okay, I've gone through the registered sex offenders in a fifty-mile radius of Wesser. And at the conclusion of this phone call, I am going to take three, maybe four, showers, scrub myself with steel wool, during which time I'm gonna tent the office, fumigate it, and when it clears out, I'm gonna fill it with kittens and—"
           "Garcia, did you find anything underneath that dirt?" Casey interrupts the woman as she rants.

         "Yup and his name is Arthur Brodie." Garcia tells. "What about him?" Emily asks. "Fifty years old. He's got a long rap sheet of sexual deviancy, including but not limited to voyeurism, indecent exposure, possession of child porn, the stealing of young women's undergarments. I'm definitely gonna need four showers." Garcia explains.
         "And just when you think chivalry is dead." Casey comments.

         "Why did Brodie pop out more than any others?" Emily questions.
        "Well, thing one is he was released a month ago after serving a 12-year sentence for statutory rape. Thing two, he owns a white van that is eerily like the one from the surveillance video." Garcia informs.

       "Does Brodie live in town?" Spencer asks. "Yes. He lives with his mom. He works the graveyard shift at an assembly plant in town. And if you'd like another pop for this weasel, last night when the kids went missing, guess which bra thief called in sick to work?" Garcia guessed.

        Casey tells Garcia thanks before hanging up on her and she looks at her team members. "I think I'm gonna go have a little chat with this dirtbag." As she begins to walk out, Spencer speaks up. "I think I'll join you." Casey doesn't mind as they both head to Arthur Brodie's address.

         The car ride there is silent and Casey supposes she deserves that. Spencer hasn't talked to her in a few weeks, unless it regards Chris or work. She wonders if it's gonna be like this all the time. And honest to god, hopes it's not.

         When they arrived at the Brodie's mother's house, she told him that he wasn't home but they could most likely find him at the park and when she said that, both Casey and Spencer exchanged a look and definitely assumes it's not good.

          And of course, the first thing they'd seen when they arrived was Brodie sitting near a couple of young girls, who looked to be around twelve, maybe thirteen and both Spencer and Casey approach him.

         "Arthur Brodie?" Spencer asks. Casey holds her badge up. "FBI. Your mother told us we might find you here." Brodie furrows his brows. "What's the problem? I'm minding my own business."

        "You minding your business or theirs?" Spencer corrects and Casey grabs the book he's 'reading' and scoffs when she reads the title out loud. "'Assembly and maintenance of your Corvell vacuum cleaner'. Really? You want to pretend you're here to read, you got to do better than that." Casey plops the book back down.

         Spencer turns his head and asks, "That your white van parked over there?"
        "You can't touch it without a warrant. I've got my rights." Brodie tells.
        "Yes, we can. And no, you don't." Casey corrects. "You're on parole. That's all the warrant we need." Spencer follows.

        Brodie scoffs, "The hell with you people." He stands up and Casey stands in front of him. "Hold on, Brodie. We're not done yet."

         Suddenly, Brodie shoves at Casey and suddenly, Spencer grabs him and pulls his arm behind his back and shoved him into bench. Casey is impressed with this from Spencer. She would've never expected this from him and it's definitely out of character for him.

           Casey pulls out her handcuffs and Spencer holds him down as she places the handcuffs around his wrists and the two pull him up. "Now we're done." Casey told and the two start heading towards their SUV.

━━━━━━

          After Emily and Rossi questioned the dirtbag, they realized that this guy was definitely a dirtbag but he definitely didn't do this. Casey was currently with Matt, Erik and Tara as the mayor walked into the room.

       "Okay, so we have a citywide curfew in place tonight." They had just finished discussing the curfew when Tremaine walked in. "I heard the good news about Brodie. I'm scheduling a press conference to announce that we have our primary suspect in custody." Tremaine tells and Casey walks towards him.

        "Um, I actually advise you not to do that quite yet, Mayor." Casey tells and Tremaine gives Casey a confused look. "Why?"

       "Well, because people are gonna think the danger is passed. It hasn't." Tara agreed. "Brodie's still a person of interest, but his van came back clean and he has an alibi." Matt added.

         Tremaine scoffs, "You mean his mom? And the only reason the van is clean is because he cleaned it." Casey can see that Tremaine just wanted to wash this away and to pretend it never happened. But it was easier said than done.

       "We'll hold a press conference when it's appropriate." Erik nodded, standing behind Casey.

        "Oh, good. When would that be, when the next batch of kids goes missing?" Tremaine questions. "Unbelievable."

         "Sir, I understand how frustrating this is and I know you want it swept under the rug but right now, our main focus is finding these kids and bringing them back home. If you hold a press conference now, our unsub will most likely go into hiding or... I don't know, take more kids and maybe hurt them out of anger so right now, you just need to sit back and let us do our job." Casey explained.

         Tremaine walked out with a defeated look on his face and Casey took a breath and sat down in a chair after the altercation. "What was that?" Erik questions the woman. Casey shrugs, "I don't even know."

         "Someone has their inner Hotch coming right out." Tara comments and Casey looks up at Tara with a glare she didn't mean.

         "Look, I know he wants to tie this all off in a tidy bow, but come on. He needs to give us time to look. There's more underneath all of this." Casey told.

        "You think Brodie's our guy?" Matt wonders to the group. "No, no. The guy's a moron." Tara said. "And morons don't grab children?" Erik questions.

        "Yeah, but this unsub isn't grabbing. The kids are going to him. For an offender to sink in their hooks that deep requires patience, planning, and smarts, none of which is Brodie. At least this town's on high alert. I doubt there's a door in Wesser, Iowa that hasn't been double- and triple-bolted." Tara explains.  "Yeah, well, let's hope that's enough." Erik commented.

          The next morning, another child had been abducted and even when their doors were bolted shut and barricaded, the girl still found a way out. Their unsub sent in evidence of the children being alive and a flash drive with recordings of the children, scared. They had then profiled that the children had not been the source of the man's anger, this was simply a means of revenge.

          Later on in the night, the team had found out that there was a disturbance at the mayor's house so Casey had Spencer and Rossi go check it out. When they'd gotten there, the mayor's wife was found dead and their son was missing.

          Matt and Casey had gone to check out the scene after the fact. When they got there, the first they noticed was the blood all over the carpet.

           "What the hell happened?" Casey questioned. "Mrs. Tremaine's skull was crushed, and the boy's missing." Rossi told. "That's a big change in M.O., but this had to have been our unsub." Matt said.

         "Judging by the volume of blood, she was most likely attacked here and left for dead." Spencer pointed to the carpet. "But I thought Mrs. Tremaine was in the kitchen fixing dinner." Matt furrowed his brows.

       "That was after the attack." Rossi stated and both Matt and Casey exchange a look. "What?" Casey asks. "Come again?" Matt added.

      "Her neocortex was destroyed, but her paleocortex must have remained intact. It's the more primitive part of the brain that guides instinct and habitual action." Spencer explains. "Like when it's dinnertime, you go fix dinner." Rossi gave an example. Casey took a sharp breath. "Jesus, she was still alive."

      "Well, that's a sharp escalation of violence. And the unsub didn't try to lure Timmy out like he did the others." Matt said. "Or he tried and failed." Rossi said.

       "It's my house. Let me in." The four hear the mayor argue and Casey takes a breath and wonders how he's gonna handle this.

       "They said, uh..." The mayor sees the blood and lands on the chair behind him after seeing it in the carpet. He breathes heavily and he shakes his head, "Joan is dead."

       "Mayor..." Rossi begins and the man looks up at the people standing in front of him. "Where's my boy?" He begins to tear up. "He's gone, isn't he?"

       "Mayor, we are gonna find your son. You have my word on that. We will." Of course, Casey knows her and the mayor steered off at the wrong foot but she still had a job to do and she was gonna find the mayor's son.

       "Mayor Tremaine, I know it's difficult to think clearly right now, but it's incredibly important that we know if Timmy had a cell phone or a computer." Spencer wonders as he treads carefully with the mayor.

        The man nods, "Yeah. It's upstairs in my office."
       "It's in your office?" Matt asks.
        The mayor nods, "Timmy didn't do his chores, so we took it away for a few days."

         As Casey began to usher the mayor out of his house, Matt went upstairs to retrieve the cell phone.

         Timmy had originally been a part of the group that was going to be abducted but when the mayor took his cell phone away, he had no access to the boy. They had discovered that two of the victims took a papier maché class and that all of their abductees took the same activities groups but there was no instructor that could've been their unsub.

         Emily and Spencer had gone through Timmy's emails and found some encrypted files the date the children went missing. Spencer concluded that the unsub sent them ASMR videos that could invoke euphoria to young children and Emily concluded that euphoria was the drug used to drug the children most likely. The emails were automatically self-deleting after being viewed so Emily had recorded them for evidence use.

         Garcia had gone through more encrypted files and found a voice recording of their unsub speaking and saying the word 'Hamelin'. This unsub was referring to himself as a Pied Piper of some sorts. But instead of him using a flute to lure his victims, he exchanged it for a laptop.

          The next morning, Emily and Casey explained to Tara what they found last night. "He had these kids right where he wanted them. ASMR, susceptibility to tactile stimulation, subliminal messaging, plus, they're at the most vulnerable age for psychological manipulation." Tara explained.

          "A perfect storm." Emily comments and Spencer walked in and Casey nudged her head towards him. "What have you got?"

        "Employment records for the summer activities program. The first set of payroll checks were issued on June 15th, except for one. The computer teacher didn't get hers until July 8th. I looked back, discovered that the original teacher, Wayne Hollis, was fired after only weeks on the job for suspected inappropriate behavior with the students." Spencer explained.

          "I think that thud we just heard is a dart hitting a bull's-eye." Tara comments. "Suspected?" Casey asks. "What kind of inappropriate behavior?" Emily wonders.

       "Undetermined and maybe nonexistent," Spencer said. "Apparently, he would meet with children after school to teach them things, sometimes at the park or in the mall. Anyway, the parents found out, they started talking, things snowballed, and people wondered if he was molesting them."

        "So once the gossip machine revved up, it didn't slow down. I bet you the parents of some of these abducted children were right in the middle, stirring the pot." Tara explained.

       "Does Hollis have a regular job?" Casey asks. Spencer nods, "He does. He's a research consultant at a hi-tech firm in Des Moines. He's also a single father to a 15-year-old son named Garrett. Garcia has the address."

        Casey nods as she exchanged a look with Emily. "I'll send Luke and Dave."

        After Luke and Rossi had gone to check out the Hollis home, they'd come back with news. "So, the Hollis house was empty?" Casey asks.

       "Yeah, except for a chair that was knocked over in the middle of the living room." Luke told. "Like there'd been a struggle?" Emily assumes.

        "That's what we thought and then looked up at the ceiling." Rossi holds up bagged evidence of a rope noose. "It was hung over a roof beam." Luke said

         "Matt said that Hollis' son Garrett had been teased and tormented in school over rumors surrounding his father." Emily told. "Garrett must have hung himself. His father found him and cut him down." Rossi tells.

         "And buried him," Luke adds. "There was freshly turned dirt in the backyard. It's being excavated as we speak."

         Suddenly, Channing walks towards the group. "We have a hostage situation in Legacy Park." She informs and Casey immediately pulls out her phone. "Tara and Matt are in the area."

━━━━━━

         Tara and Matt found Hollis in the park but he had killed himself before he could tell the them where the kids were. Matt had found some suspicious goop under Hollis's shoes and brought it in for a rush analysis.

           When they found what it was, a woman delivered a file to Spencer. "Lab results on the mud." He announces to Rossi, Casey and Erik.

          "And?" Rossi asks. "Sample contains large amounts of proteases." Spencer informs.
          "And?" Rossi asks again.
          "Proteolytic enzymes."
          Erik and Casey exchange a look. "Okay, for anyone that can speak English?"

         "They break down the peptide bonds between amino acids found in complex proteins. It's commonly found in meat tenderizers." Spencer explains as Rossi pulls out his cell phone to call a Rossi.

        "Garcia."
        "Uh... Got it. Great plains meat tenderizer. The company was based out of Wesser, Iowa, until it went out of business twenty years ago. I'm sending the address now."

         In the end, Rossi, Matt, Emily, Erik and Casey had gone to save the kids and Matt knocked the lock out the door. All of the kids were on the ground, unconscious and they had carried all of them out to safety.

         The looks on their parents' faces had been relieving to see. Casey smiles as Tremaine reunited with his son. Erik comes up next to Casey and speaks. "So, first case back? Good one?" He asks almost sarcastically, since it was a good one to come back to. "You tell me." Casey exhales.

        "A lot of wounds to heal, but it's started." Emily assures to the team. "These poor kids have been through enough." Casey takes a breath as Erik wraps an arm around Casey. "Let's head home."

━━━━━━

When Casey was flying back home, she had texted Marco to see if maybe he wanted to hang out when she got back. Chris was going to be at his dad's for the night and of course, Casey was still trying to get used to being by herself in her own home.

She had arrived home and out of instinct, checked to see if her door was unlocked or locked and when she turned the knob, the door opened.

Immediately, Casey reached for her gun in her holster and headed inside, cautiously and carefully. She opened and closed the door as quiet as she could and placed her things off to the side.

Casey had heard some clattering in the kitchen and started heading towards there with the gun at her side, ready to pull it out when need be. "If someone is my house right now, I'd like to let you know that I do carry pepper spray, a shiv and a gun and I am not afraid to use any of them."

"I surrender!" Casey furrowed her brows when she heard a familiar voice and turned towards the kitchen and lifted her hand off of gun when she'd seen Marco in the kitchen cooking.

"Marco?" Casey questions, wondering why the hell he's in her house right now. "Yeah, sorry, you had a spare key under the mat." Marco said and immediately read Casey's face. "I probably shouldn't have done that, I'm sorry."

"On an FBI agent who is still healing from her internal and external wounds? Yeah, too soon." Casey said and Marco sighs, "Sorry."

"It's fine," Casey said and takes a breath. "How'd you know where my spare key was?"
"You have it trapped under a fake rock."
"You'd think I'd hide it better."

Casey looks down as Marco is setting two plates up. "What's all this?" She asks. "I was cooking. Famous Rossi recipe. Spaghetti and meatballs, as well as sautéed shrimp." He tells.

"You did this for me?" Casey asks and Marco nods, "Of course." Casey looks at the man in gratitude. "Thank you... for being so patient with me. And with all of my worries and crap like that."
Marco looks at the woman and smiles at her. "However long it takes, right?" Casey nodded.

For once, it felt nice to come home to someone and to not discuss work as much. It was like she finally needed someone that she didn't work with. And it actually felt good to have someone around here when nights felt alone and lonely.

          Marco usually stayed some nights, on the couch. Sometimes when Casey had nightmares, he slept on the ground in her room. It was nice having him around. And Casey was maybe reconsidering the waiting thing. But she knew it was what was needed. And it would only take more time to heal.

lemme just tell y'all
casey IS going to be humbled in the next chapter by our man reid TRUST😭
(at least that's what i'm planning)

me @ spencer the entirety of this episode:

this man makes me GO FERAL
so does tom blyth (solely because i just watched the new hunger games movie and it was SO good)
AND CONRAD FROM THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY😭
all white men are fine period

anywayssss
i'm sorry this literally sucks
but yea
thank you for reading
and i love you mwah
-mya </3