Belonging

Morgan and Sullivan walked into the Toledo Police Department. They hadn’t gotten any new information, but did establish that, like Nicole Benton, the other two victims were probably leading some sort of double life that no one in their real life new about. Hotch was on the phone and hung up when he saw the two agents walk in.

“Reid just through looking at Nicole’s computer, he sent his findings to my E-mail.” Hotch motioned for them to follow him to the computer they were using at the department. He pulled up his E-mail and the photos that Reid had just sent. There were several of Nicole at different clubs in the area, dressed in revealing clothing, and giving off the impression of being drunk. None of the other girls in the photos with her looked like students at UT and they ranged in age from early twenties to mid-forties.

“There’s our secret life proof.” Morgan said examining the pictures, hoping maybe to find the unsub in them. “Maybe our guy isn’t a classmate, he has to be someone they met at a club.”

“That narrows it down a whole lot,” Kate sighed. Even though she knew they were getting closer, it still seemed as if they were miles away from this guy, that he still had the advantage. She knew that her first case on the job wouldn’t be easy, but she was still letting it get to her. It seemed that Morgan felt the same way, though. He let out a sigh of his own.

JJ approached the group. “A girl named Sasha Dean just called in a missing person. Her friend never showed to up to class. She believes it has to do with our investigation.”

--

Sasha Dean sat in an interrogation room, waiting for one of the agents to come speak to her. She nervously tapped her fingers on the table. Hotch, Morgan, Sullivan, and Rossi stood outside the two way mirror and observed her, the older agents each internally debating which of the younger two to send in. To Rossi, it was clear, send Morgan. He had experience in this, he could be trusted, he was reliable. Hotchner, however, thought it best to send in Sullivan. She needed the experience, and this seemed an easy interview to ease her in.

“Sullivan, do you think you can handle this?” Hotch finally spoke. Even though he disagreed with his colleague, Rossi kept his feelings to himself. It was Hotch’s call, not his.

Kate nodded. “Yes, of course, sir.” After taking a deep breath, she entered the room. “Don’t screw this up, Sullivan,” she thought. Sasha looked up at as the agent sat in the chair across from her. “Hi Sasha, I’m Special Agent Sullivan.” Sasha flashed a half smile. “You called in your friend Maddie Paulson as missing?”

Sasha nodded. “I know it’s only been a few hours, but I know she’s missing. She wasn’t in class.”

“She never misses classes?” Hotch had Garcia do some digging on Maddie before Sasha arrived. She wasn’t a horrible student, but not the best. She often missed classes after a night of partying. Her grades were decent though.

“Well, yeah, but not on test days. And if there were some kind of emergency, she would’ve sent me a text. Her phone is off. It’s never off.”

“What makes you believe this is connected to our case?”

Sasha opened her mouth and closed it. She seemed to be debating on telling Kate the information she knew. “A friend overheard you talking to your partner, the cute one,” a small smile came over her as she thought of Morgan, but it quickly disappeared when she remembered why she was at the PD in the first place. “You were throwing around the idea that the three victims had a boyfriend that wasn’t exclusive. I immediately thought of this new guy Maddie started seeing earlier this week.”

“Do you know who the guy is?” Sasha shook her head, but Kate could tell she was holding back. “No clue? Not even a name? Maybe Maddie mentioned it?”

“It was… Chris something? I don’t know. I never saw him. But the way she talked about him made him seem sketchy.”

“When was the last time you saw Maddie?”

“About an hour before class. She came to the auditorium to drop off some of her mom’s cookies and stuff for the fundraiser. I ran into her as she came out, she said she was going to get a quick dinner with Chris and that she’d see me in class. We were supposed to get dinner, but she ran into him.”

“Does he go to school with you?”

Sasha shrugged and sighed. “I have no idea. Like I said, I’ve never seen him. She didn’t introduce me; said it was too early in the relationship for that.” Kate sighed and thanked the girl for coming down then excused her. Sasha, after leaving her contact info, left the police department. Kate walked out of the interrogation room and over to a desk in the PD’s bullpen. Sighing, she brushed her hair out of her face then stretched out her arms to brace herself on desk in front of her. Morgan approached with two cups of coffee.

“Damn it.” Kate plunked down into a chair. Morgan watched her quizzically. “Morgan, this guy was in the auditorium. Right there in front of us.”

“Are you sure?”

Kate sipped her coffee and choked it down. All police department coffee was the same. It was no wonder cops usually brought some from home or Starbucks, or even a gas station. She wished she had thought of that before. “I know were supposed to use clues and behavior to determine this, but my gut says that this girl is right in thinking her friend not showing up for class is connected to our case.”

Morgan nodded and sipped his own coffee. He showed no signs of disgust. She wondered if she’d eventually get used to it. Not likely, she wasn’t a fan of coffee to begin with, but the caffeine was necessary and sodas and teas weren’t always as helpful as she wished they were. “We don’t tell the general public this, but gut feelings are a part of our job. Intuition is a great starting point for finding clues that lead us to the criminals.” Kate shrugged and choked down another gulp of coffee. “Is there a list of volunteers that were at the school?”

“Nope,” Kate pursed her lips. “I’ll go call Garcia, have her do some more digging. Maybe she can find something about Maddie that can lead us to this dirtbag.”

Morgan cracked a smile. “Dirtbag? I think you’ve been watching too many detective movies.” Kate rolled her eyes and mock-laughed, a smirk playing on her lips. She then directed a certain hand gesture at her co-worker, glad her boss wasn’t there to catch her. The smirk never left her lips. Morgan put on an act of hurt and offense. “Go make your phone call, hot shot.”

“Who’s watching too many detective movies now?”