ABLOCATE ▇▇▇▇ VOLUME TWO
━━ ❛ 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒓 ❜

chapter no. 042!

❪ 𝚃𝚆 ⠀ : ⠀ 𝙼𝙴𝙽𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽𝚂 𝙾𝙵 𝙱𝚁𝙸𝙴𝙵
𝙳𝚁𝚄𝙶 𝚃𝚁𝙰𝙵𝙵𝙸𝙲𝙺𝙸𝙽𝙶,  𝙼𝚄𝚁𝙳𝙴𝚁,
𝚂𝙴𝚇𝚄𝙰𝙻 𝙰𝚂𝚂𝙰𝚄𝙻𝚃, 𝚂𝚄𝙱𝚂𝚃𝙰𝙽𝙲𝙴
𝙰𝙱𝚄𝚂𝙴, ⠀ ⠀⠀𝚂𝚄𝙸𝙲𝙸𝙳𝙴, ⠀⠀ 𝙰𝙽𝙳
𝙶𝚄𝙽⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀𝚅𝙸𝙾𝙻𝙴𝙽𝙲𝙴. ❫

❝ HAVE YOU SEEN CARA? ❞
▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄

﹙ MAY 1ST, 2016 ﹚

     BAU SECTION CHIEF MATEO CRUZ HAD ORDERED THE LARGEST AND DEEPEST DEEP-DIVE OF THE RED SCORPIONS AND CARALYN VALENTINE IN THE HISTORY OF THE BEHAVIORAL ANALYSIS UNIT. Every agent in the unit had been re-assigned to the Red Scorpions case, and both Derek Morgan and Alex Blake had been requested to return to the unit to assist with the case temporarily.

     It was now every acting agent's duty to dedicate their time and resources to the manhunt for British Columbia's notorious drug trafficking gang and to recover one of their own in the process. It was an understatement to say that it was just another day at the F.B.I.

     Kevin Lynch, and his newly assigned technical team, had been put in charge of using whatever measures they had to gather as much information as possible on the Red Scorpions and its affiliated members. Meanwhile, Penelope Garcia was ordered to learn as much as she could about the Valentine family, which had proven to be an extremely difficult task.

     There was virtually nothing on Ross or Cara Valentine. This meant that every file on the Red Scorpions, on Person X, and the files and prison interviews concerning the initial rumor from nearly three years ago that a kid was a part of the Red Scorpions and involved in their activities had to be brought back to the surface and combed through. Yet, none of the files proved to be of any aid and only created more unanswered questions.

     However, after continuous weeks of searching, Penelope discovered a surfeit of new information on Ross Valentine. For one, his first name was Valor, but he went by his middle name instead— Ross. The man was born on November twenty-ninth, nineteen-sixty-four, in Calgary, Canada, to Mathis and Charlotte Valentine. Unfortunately, Charlotte died during labor, and Mathis was a single father until Ross was eleven. On January eleventh, nineteen-seventy-six, Mathis Valentine overdosed on an assortment of pills. According to hospital records, the man struggled with Major Depressive Disorder and took his life the day before winter break ended and schools resumed.

     No extended family members were still alive or willing to care for Ross, so he entered the foster care system. He bounced from house to house before ultimately running away at seventeen with another boy— Hennessy Jamieson Lu (who also didn't have much information on himself)— from one of the foster homes he was temporarily residing in. In the early months of nineteen-eighty-three, Ross and Hennessy were reported on in the Vancouver Sun, Prince George Citizen, Edmonton Examiner, Flin Flon Reminder, and Thunder Bay's Source for various acts of crimes.

     It wasn't until January of nineteen-eighty-four that the reports ceased and didn't resume until nineteen-ninety-two. The very year that Penelope discovered, Ross Valentine and Hennessy Lu initially met Quang Vinh Thang Le, who went and was known as Michael Le, Konaam Shirzad, and Matthew Johnston. After that, there wasn't any record of Valor Ross Valentine existing. There were no bank statements or rental properties in his name— nothing. The same applied to the other four. It was as if they had dropped off the Earth's edge.

     As for Caralyn Rosan Valentine, there was no paperwork, paper trail, digital trail, a record of her birth, or very existence. There was absolutely nothing on her, which drove Penelope mad with how little information she had to go on. Every database she knew of— she searched. She hunted through the dark web and combed through every file she could, but nothing.

     Cara Valentine didn't exist.

     All she and Spencer could figure out was that she had to have been born sometime at the beginning of nineteen-eighty-four. It was the only place in the Red Scorpion and Ross Valentine timeline that made sense. After all, Ross and Hennessy disappeared from the public eye at the beginning of that year. Moreover, when the team first met Cara in twenty-thirteen, she was only twenty-nine. The math added to nineteen-eighty-four. It was only a matter of what month and day. Two elements that held numerous possibilities.

     Although, if she was indeed born that year, that meant Ross was only nineteen— a teenager— when she was born. So, how did he care for her? Where did he care for her? And where was her mother? Another two questions that Penelope was unable to answer.

     It was safe to assume that Cara's mother was no longer alive, as she told the team years ago that she didn't have one. Though, that didn't stop Penelope from attempting to find the woman who gave birth to one of her favorite people.

     In comparison to the bubbly analyst, Kevin Lynch, and his team had found much more on their end.

     According to public records, the Red Scorpions were initially formed in two-thousand-and-five by Michael Le, Konaam Shirzad, Matthew Johnston, Person X (Ross Valentine), and Person Y (Hennessy Lu). At the Surrey Six trial, Michael Le testified that he and Shirzad initially formed the Red Scorpions after meeting at Willingdon Youth Detention Center in nineteen-ninety-two. The same year all the Founding Fathers met. So the Red Scorpions had formed as a group thirteen years before the public was made aware.

     During the trial, Le also stated that the word Scorpion was a tribute to his older brother, whose nickname was Scorpion, while the word Red was used to symbolize blood. Furthermore, Le clarified that the Bacon brothers were not founders but later joined the gang.

     However, despite all that information, it turned out that the Red Scorpions had been running "dial-a-dope lines"/trafficking drugs in the suburbs of Vancouver since two thousand. The gang became identifiable after multiple members were spotted sporting 'RS' tattoos on their arms or necks, followed by an assortment of skull tattoos on their right arms, which indicated how many people each member had murdered. According to the Vancouver PD, the Red Scorpions came from various cultural and linguistic backgrounds, as they reasonably considered race secondary to loyalty and respect.

     Additionally, four regulations that each gang member had to follow were discovered through Kevin's research. These mob rules were read at the Surrey Six trial but had been buried among all the evidence and testimonies given. The regulations stated that one, members must come within a one-hour time period when called upon for gang-related reasons; two, all members must work out and know how to fight; three, no talking in cars, houses, or phones about money or anything remotely illegal without disciplinary action being taken; and four, Red Scorpion members come before family, money and all aspects of life.

     Over the years, the Scorpions had been involved in an increasing number of well-publicized incidents of gang violence in the Vancouver area, partly due to their bitter rivalry with the United Nations gang. The Red Scorpions-United Nations relationship worsened significantly after the infamous Bacon brothers left the UN to join forces with the Red Scorpions.

     Some of the members of the BAU team were unaware of who the Bacon brothers were, which was understandable considering they hadn't been a focus in the initial case years ago.

     Jonathan, otherwise known as Jon, Jarrod, and Jamie Bacon were a trio of gangsters from Abbotsford, British Columbia that were suspected of multiple firearms and drug trafficking charges. Publically known and coined as the Bacon Brothers, they were initially members of the United Nations gang until they partnered with the Red Scorpions. Their association aimed to help the Bacons compete with the United Nations gang. They also competed with the Green Snakes and Hells Angels, two other British Columbia gangs. Local authorities believed that the brothers took control of the Red Scorpions shortly after that.

     This assumption was proved incorrect after the arrest of Cara Valentine. She revealed that the gang's leadership had been under Joseph Arthur, Owen Sánchez, and Kirk Farell since two-thousand-and-seven. They were made leaders the night of the Surrey Six after Ross had been arrested. A fact that Spencer had confirmed and shared with the team the other day. The Bacon brothers just continued to be part of the Red Scorpions.

     In regards to the Surrey Six murders, the team had gone over everything they knew, as well as went over new information that Captain Marvinhill had sent from Vancouver's database.

     The Surrey Six murders were carried out in Balmoral Tower on October nineteenth, two-thousand-and-seven. The murders took place over exactly ninety minutes. Six people were found dead in a highrise condo, Suite 1505. The men were later identified as Michael Lal, twenty-six; Ryan Bartolomeo, nineteen; Corey Lal, twenty-one; Eddie Narong, twenty-two; Ed Schellenberg, fifty-five; and Chris Mohan, twenty-two. At the time, police stated that Schellenberg, a fireplace repairman, and Mohan, who lived across the hall from the murder scene, were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

     Corey Lal was the principal target while the other five were considered to be collateral damage. After Lal was murdered, execution-style, the other five victims were killed to eliminate the chance of there being any potential witnesses to the murder. Cody Haevischer and Matthew Johnston, twenty-two and twenty-three, at the time, were accused of being the ones behind the killings, but it wasn't until May of two-thousand-and-eight that the Vancouver Sun revealed that the murders were tied to the Red Scorpions gang. The leaders/Founding Fathers of the gang, not only Johnston, were attempting to extort a hundred-thousand dollars from Corey Lal and when he didn't pay, they ordered him killed.

     When Lal was ultimately murdered, he was killed execution-style with one of his knees bent forward as if he were kneeling down to his assailant. The other victims were killed in the same manner.

     During the Surrey Six trials, which began on September thirtieth, twenty-ten, a slew of evidence and information was brought to light. Much of which the BAU team hadn't dug into until now.

     At least seven others mentioned in evidence during the trial of accused killers Cody Haevischer and Matthew Johnston died either violently or suspiciously.

     Dylan Becker, Raphael Baldini, Kevin LeClair, Jonathan Bacon, and Stephen Leone were all shot dead in targeted attacks.

     Dylan Becker, thirty-eight, was a longtime criminal who struggled with drug addiction when he was fatally wounded in a Surrey shootout on October tenth, two-thousand-and-seven. His death wasn't tied back to the Red Scorpions, though, until unnamed two witnesses at the Surrey Six trial suggested their Red Scorpion gangmates were involved in the fatal shooting.

     Raphael Baldini was shot to death in the parking lot of Surrey's Guildford Mall on February third, two-thousand-and-nine. No charges were ever laid in his murder. During the trial, his connection to the Red Scorpions was revealed. It turned out that Suite 1505, which was being used by Corey Lal and Eddie Narong as a stash house for their drug line in two-thousand-and-seven, had been rented by a young dealer named Raphael Baldini.

     Kevin LeClair was said to be a member of the Red Scorpions, but it had never been confirmed. He was gunned down with an AR-15 on February sixth, two-thousand-and-nine, outside a restaurant in a Walnut Grove shopping plaza. On the day of his murder, he'd been stalked by Cory Vallee.

     Vallee, thirty-four at the time of Kevin's murder, had been hired as an assassin by the United Nations Gang. The UN had targeted Jonathan, Jamie, and Jarrod Bacon, and their allies and associates in the Red Scorpions, which inevitably included Kevin. Vallee was arrested at the site of the attack but was released on bail. During this time, he fled the country and hid out in Mexico until twenty-twelve, when he was extradited to face the murder charge.

     Next to last, Jonathan Bacon, the brother of Jamie and Jarrod Bacon, was murdered on August fourteenth, twenty-ten, outside the Delta Grand Hotel in Kelowna, British Columbia. He was leaving the hotel with four other associates in a Porsche Cayenne when a man opened fire. Witnesses at the attack reported that they saw a masked gunman, on foot, fire shots from an automatic weapon. The shooting only lasted for a few minutes before the shooter fled on foot, dodging law enforcement.

     Out of the five, Jonathan was the only one to die while two others were severely injured.

     Lastly, for Stephen Leone, his death held the biggest backstory that also pertained to Cara's disappearance. Especially since he was the only one out of the seven that was still alive and seeing how he was caught on film torturing the blonde.

     Two months before the Surrey Six killings, there was a shooting between the Red Scorpions and a rival gang referred to as the Green Snakes. They never had an official name, but the Red Scorpions double-crossed them in a drug heist and to get revenge, one of their top men, Stephen Leone kidnapped Cara. The Green Snakes held her hostage for five days before Owen Sánchez found her. While he was in the midst of rescuing her, other gang members started a shooting to cause a distraction. Leone got caught in the crossfire and everyone believed him to be dead.

     However, as revealed by Cara Valentine and Owen Sánchez in October of twenty-thirteen, yes, Leone was shot in the shooting, but he didn't die like the news and hospital records claimed he did. Leone faked his death and had been living in the Oaks-Rose apartment complex in Ucluelet for an unknown period. He'd abandoned his home, though, when Cara had been arrested and had been a ghost ever since.

     At least until the DVD sent by the Red Scorpions had shown that he was inexplicably tied to the disappearance of Cara Valentine. To what extent was unknown, but he was connected to it in some capacity.

     About halfway through reviewing the material from the trial and Red Scorpion case, Spencer and Kevin had made a simplified timeline, mapping out the major events that happened regarding the Surrey Six. (After all, everything stemmed from that fateful day in October.) It'd taken an entire day to make two large whiteboards, but it had been worth it. It was exactly what the team needed to properly take in what they did and didn't have answers to.

     Early October 2007: Corey Lal is roughed up by rivals from the Red Scorpions and told to a pay one-hundred thousand "tax" for selling cocaine and other drugs in their territory.

     October 10, 2007: Dylan Becker dies in a Surrey shootout.

     October 18, 2007: Corey Lal, Eddie Narong, and other associates forcibly take over a Surrey drug line run by Lal's former partner Stephen Leone.

     October 19, 2007: Eddie Narong, Corey Lal, his brother Michael Lal, associate Ryan Bartolomeo, and bystanders Ed Schellenberg and Chris Mohan are shot to death inside Suite 1505 of Surrey's Balmoral Tower.

     October 19, 2007: Cody Haevischer, Matthew Johnston, and Ross Valentine are arrested for the Surrey Six killings.

     October 28, 2007: Ross Valentine makes an agreement with the Surrey police. He agrees to cooperate and plead guilty to shooting three of the Surrey Six victims, as well as name others who were involved. Additionally, he requests that he and Hennessy Lu remain as unidentified accomplices (Person X and Y) in the Surrey Six killings with a ban on identifying either of them by their real names.

     October 29, 2007: The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) announces that Person X enters a guilty plea to second-degree murder charges for fatally shooting Chris Mohan, Michael Lal, and Ryan Bartolomeo.

     November 20, 2007: Jamie Bacon is arrested and charged with conspiracy in relation to the Surrey Six and one count of first-degree murder.

     December 2007: The RCMP launch an undercover operation into the Red Scorpions.

     December 1, 2007: The RCMP announces official charges against Cody Haevischer and Matthew Johnson for conspiracy and six counts of first-degree murder.

     February 16, 2008: Person X name-drops Person Y in two murders, unrelated to the Surrey Six.

     March 7, 2008: Person Y is arrested on two counts of murder.

     April 13, 2008: Person Y pleads guilty to two unrelated murders and reveals he will not be a Crown witness in the Surrey Six case.

     May 2008: Vancouver Sun reveals that the Surrey Six killings are related to the Red Scorpions.

     June 17, 2008: Quang Vinh Thang (Michael) Le admits he and Konaam Shirzad's involvement in the Surrey Six killings during the RCMP's undercover operation. He is arrested on charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy.

     June 18, 2008: Konaam Shirzad is brought in for questioning.

     July 2, 2008: Shirzad is arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit murder and the arrangement of several gang shootings.

     February 3, 2009: Raphael Baldini is shot to death in the parking lot of Surrey's Guildford Mall.

     February 6, 2009: Kevin LeClair is gunned down with an AR-15 outside a restaurant in a Walnut Grove shopping plaza, by Cory Vallee.

     August 14, 2010: Jonathan Bacon is murdered outside the Delta Grand Hotel in Kelowna, British Columbia.

     September 30, 2010: The Surrey Six trial begins. Haevischer, Johnson, Person X, Person Y, and Le stand trial in Vancouver. Jamie Bacon is set to stand trial separately.

     October 10, 2010: Person X implicates Cody Haevischer and Matthew Johnston in the Surrey Six murders. He also testified that Michael Le and Jamie Bacon had ordered the murders.

     October 11, 2010: On the stand, Person X confirms that Michael Le had others he wanted to kill around the same time the Red Scorpions were plotting against rival drug trafficker Corey Lal, one of the Surrey Six victims.

     November 28, 2010: Le pleads guilty to conspiracy to commit murder, but doesn't agree to testify against his former co-accused or any Red Scorpion members.

     December 17, 2010: Le is convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and is sentenced to 12 years in prison.

     February 1, 2011: Cody Haevischer and Matthew Johnston are convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with no hope of parole for 25 years.

     February 1, 2011: Person X is convicted on three counts of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 15 years.

     February 22, 2011: Person Y is convicted for two counts of first-degree murder in two unrelated gang cases and will serve 25 years to life.

     February 26, 2011: Konaam Shirzad is convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to ten years in prison.

      August 5, 2011: Jamie Bacon's trial begins.

     September 9, 2011: Bacon pleads guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit murder and one count of counseling to commit murder involving a separate shooting.

     November 4, 2011: Jamie Bacon is convicted on one count of conspiracy to commit murder and one count of counseling to commit murder involving a separate shooting. He is sentenced to 18 years in prison.

     Now, after digging into the Surrey Six, the next major piece of the investigation was the in-depth research on each of the Founding Fathers. Matthew Johnston, Konaam Shirzad, Hennessy Lu, and Michael Le were the ones with the least amount of information on them. Especially once everything Surrey Six-related was swept to the side. Surprisingly, Ross Valentine was the only one that Kevin found a hefty amount of information on. All of which had been details Penelope already collected.

     Matthew "Matt" Johnston was born on April nineteenth, nineteen-sixty-four, to Belle and Brent Johnston. There wasn't much information on his parents other than the fact that they'd passed away from natural causes in a nursing home, back in two-thousand. Matthew had no available educational or work background. All that was known of him was that he was one of the co-founders of the Red Scorpions gang and had a slew of news articles on various crimes he'd committed over the years. How he met the other founders of the Red Scorpions had remained unknown.

     Next was Konaam Shirzad. He was born on October sixteenth, nineteen-sixty-three, and left at the entrance of Devon General Hospital. The whereabouts and identities of his parents were unknown as he grew up in an orphanage before he aged out and joined a gang of boys he met in school.

     In nineteen-ninety-two, he and Michael Le met at Willingdon Youth Detention Center. Shirzad was there for multiple charges of breaking and entering, theft, and distribution of illegal substances. Meanwhile, Le was there for manslaughter.

     In the public eye, Shirzad was not regarded as high-profile as the other Red Scorpion founders. He didn't make the headlines as often as others did nor did he have a heavy reputation that intimidated many.

     Then, there was Hennessy Jamieson Lu. Born on June first, nineteen-sixty-four, to Shenae and Layton Lu, he grew up an only child. At the age of three, he was made an orphan by the gruesome hands of his father. Layton Lu murdered his mother on August twentieth, nineteen-sixty-seven, in a fit of rage before turning the gun on himself. With no family willing to take him in, he was brought to a local orphanage until he was admitted to a foster home where he met Ross Valentine. At the time they met, he was allegedly sleeping with their next-door neighbor's daughter, whom he eventually impregnated.

     Years later, at the age of seventeen, Hennessy and Ross ran away together with two-year-old Kirk Farell Lu. Due to the fact that the pair used to be engaged, it was a relatively safe assumption to make that they ran away to be together. Just as found with Ross, in the early months of nineteen-eighty-three, he and Hennessy were reported on in the Vancouver Sun, Prince George Citizen, Edmonton Examiner, Flin Flon Reminder, and Thunder Bay's Source for various acts of crimes. It wasn't until January of nineteen-eighty-four that the reports ceased and didn't resume until nineteen-ninety-two.

     Lastly, Quang Vinh Thang Le, known as Michael "Mike" Le, was born on March tenth, nineteen-sixty-seven. He and his family immigrated from Vietnam and made a home in Coquitlam, British Columbia. His older brother, Hien Binh Thang Le, nicknamed Scorpion, served as his role model until the age of thirteen when he was killed in a shooting in the Lower Mainland of Canada. Following his death, Michael Le joined the world of narcotics and crime.

     As a teenager, he was heavily bullied by teenager Richard Jung. In the summer of nineteen-ninety, he went to a Hi-Max karaoke club in Coquitlam and beat Jung to death in the men's washroom. He was charged with second-degree murder, but in nineteen-ninety-one, he made a plea bargain with the Crown and pleaded guilty to manslaughter. For sentencing, he was given eighteen months in the Willingdon Youth Detention Center where he met Konaam Shirzad in ninety-two.

     During their time at Willingdon, Le, and Shirzad reinvented the Red Scorpions gang from the more loosely structured and informal gangs they had each been in years prior. It was during this time that they declared what regulations the members would have to follow, what the gang's values would be, and their identifying marks.

     Once the pair was released, that was when they met Johnston, Lu, and Valentine. The details concerning how they met, however, were a mystery.

     "What do we know about the Founding Fathers?" Derek Morgan asked, his eyes locked on the freeze-frame photograph of Cara Valentine strapped in a chair taped to one of the many glass boards. His arms were crossed, and his eyes were focused.

     He wasn't expecting to be back inside the arms of the BAU only a month after leaving, but he'd told Hotch that if there was ever a break in Cara's case, he wanted to help.

     "Everything we just told you," JJ sighed, letting her hand fall from where it was resting against her cheek. She didn't need to say out loud that they didn't have much to go off on when it came to the Founding Fathers as individuals.

     Alex Blake scrunched her eyebrows together. "What about Reid?"

     At her question, Hotch stood from the round table. "What do you mean?" he asked, sliding his hands into his pockets.

     "Did you have Spencer confirm any of this?" she clarified, uncrossing her arms from where she stood next to Morgan.

     Rossi tilted his head, glancing at the boards. "He confirmed that everything Kevin found was accurate. He also confirmed that Joseph Arthur, Owen Sánchez, and Kirk Farell were made the new leaders the night after the Surrey Six, directly after Ross Valentine was arrested. Aside from that, he says that Cara didn't tell him anything about her father or the leaders outside of what she'd told the rest of us two years ago."

     "And you believe him?" Morgan raised a brow, turning around. There was no way that the genius didn't know something. Cara had trusted him. At least more than she trusted the rest of them.

     Hotch sighed. "Reid informed us a while back that he and Valentine talked the night of you and Savannah's Christmas Party in two-thousand-and-thirteen. She opened up to him, and when we asked him what else she told him, apart from her history with Paradise Lost, he didn't answer. I believe he knows more than he's letting on."

     If Reid knew something, why hadn't he told the team? was the common thought among Blake and Morgan as they looked at one another.

     Cara Valentine was the first and only woman Spencer Reid had taken interest in after Maeve Donovan. They had a connection, one that resonated with Boy Wonder deeply. And the day she went missing was one he and the team would never forget.

     Jogging up to Morgan and JJ, Spencer darted his eyes frantically between them. "Have either of you seen Cara?" he breathed, coming to a halt.

     JJ furrowed her brows. "Is she not with you?"

     Shaking his head, he looked to Morgan, who shrugged. "Sorry, Pretty Boy. Thought she was with you; you two always come in together."

    Without a word, Spencer swiftly moved around them and toward Blake, who sat at her desk and was completing that day's crossword puzzle. "Blake, have you seen Cara come in?" he asked, latching onto the strap of his satchel.

     "No. No, I haven't. Was she not in her apartment this morning?" Blake replied, placing the newspaper down.

     Spencer shook his head. "No," he muttered, turning on his heel.

     The three agents simultaneously grew silent as they watched their friend briskly walk toward Hotch's office. Something was up; that much was evident. What, however? They didn't know.

     Without knocking, Spencer barged in, interrupting the conversation between Rossi and Hotch. "Have you seen Cara?" he choked out, darting his eyes frantically among the two.

     Hotch stood from his desk. "I thought she was coming in with you," he spoke, narrowing his eyes.

     "She's not at her apartment, and her phone is going straight to voicemail. She hasn't been to the café we frequent. Security hasn't seen her come in. She's not here. I have a bad feeling, Hotch." Spencer stressed, the grip on his bag tightening. He couldn't do this again. If something happened to her... He didn't know what he would do.

     Immediately, Hotch reached for the office phone and dialed a number, bringing it to his ear. "This is Section Chief Aaron Hotchner from the BAU at the F.B.I. I need officers at the Wallflower Apartment Complex, Apartment 1505. Possible abduction. Thank you." He hung up the phone and dialed another number.

     At the words 'possible abduction', Spencer felt his stomach drop. What if it was Le? Or any of the other Founding Fathers? What if they had her?

     Beside him, Rossi removed the phone he had pressed to his ear. "Kid's right. Straight to voicemail," he spoke.

     "Cruz, Valentine's missing. She's not at her apartment or any of the places she frequents. Her phone is going straight to voicemail. Contact Marvinhill." Rossi inhaled deeply, watching as the doctor beside him recognized the name. "We're heading there now."

     "Where's Reid now?" Morgan questioned, his hands falling to his side.

     From where she sat at the round table, Penelope glanced up from her laptop. "He's at Rose's apartment with Cruz. They're searching it again and going back over Operation Azrael," she answered.

     "Operation Azrael?" Blake repeated, darting her eyes from Garcia to Hotch. 

     "It was established in November of two-thousand-and-thirteen, two weeks after Valentine had joined the team. Cruz, myself, Captain Marvinhill from Vancouver P.D., and SSA Emily Prentiss were in correspondence; Rossi joined later on. We were tracking all domestic and international activity associated with the Red Scorpions, their known clients, and the members in prison. Every move, call, text, purchase, case, and paperwork Valentine did while she was here was recorded on and off the record. Copies of all her texts, Google searches— anything she did on the phone we provided her was saved to a ghost server.

     "Everything that'd happened with Cara Valentine and the Red Scorpions was kept secret inside Operation Azrael. Including the information and documentation that Valentine gave us in the bunker. It wasn't until the murders of Kirk Farell and Joseph Arthur, the break-in at Castaway's Mansion where Michael Le directly spoke to Valentine and the resurfacing of Matthew Johnston, and Konaam Shirzad that we knew she was in danger."

     Holding his hand up in the air, Morgan stepped forward. "Hold up. Hotch, you never told us that you knew she was in active danger," he interrupted. The team leader told them about Operation Azrael a few weeks after Cara had been missing. It was right after Blake had left.

     Before the Unit Chief could respond, Matt Cruz and Spencer Reid walked into the conference room. "We have something," Cruz announced. Both of the agents were pale and out of breath.

     Slapping an evidence bag on the table, Spencer stood up straight. "The Founding Fathers— one of them or someone working for them— was at Cara's place at seven-sixteen this morning. Security cameras caught them on the feed. They wore a red ski mask so we couldn't see their face, but they had a copy of the key. They were in and out in sixty seconds. We found that." Pointing to the note, he watched as Hotch picked it up.

     "Whose handwriting is this?" Hotch asked, glancing at the two.

     Cruz stuffed his hands into his pockets. "It's not Valentine's. We were able to rule that out. Garcia, I had the landlord email you the footage."

     Nodding, the analyst quickly opened the email and pulled the video up on the monitor.

     "What does it say, Hotch?" JJ called, leaning back in her chair beside Tara. The two women had noticed the man's grim expression breaking through his typical stoic manner.

     Hotch didn't bother looking up as he ran a hand over his face before reciting the note out loud.

"The final show is here,
And you're in for a ride.
Here's to hoping dear Clementine
Makes it out alive.

"In this terminal round, prison bars will be of aid,
As long as your emotions remain beneath a blockade;
One among us five will let you move ahead,
While another will, unfortunately, drop dead.

"Two among our family live before you in disguise,
Four of us are killers, working with snake eyes;
We deal in dope lines and treasure loyalty,
Finding what Cara left behind should be of your first priority.

"Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind;
Dr. Spencer Reid has the answers,
And you best hope he has a change of mind.

"To unlock the door to paradise,
You will be forced to think twice;
So proceed with caution,
Mistakes can be a toxin.

"It will not be easy, nor will it be hard,
Yet this chase may leave you quite scarred.
We're done with hiding and want to be free,
To locate her body, find the two words missing from me:

"I am damaged at best,
And am slowly falling apart;
I am a whisper, I am a ghost,
I am what people fear most.

"When in action, I cross out names,
No one is safe; these are dangerous games;
I live for the glory, yet thrive in guilt,
My actions cannot always be rebuilt.

"Compare me to none,
For I am one of a kind;
If you search hard enough,
You'll see I live in your mind.

"I am embedded in your DNA,
And trapped in your veins;
No matter what you do,
My voice will never stray.

"Long have you all pursued me,
But never could locate,
Yet, the key to finding her,
Relies upon my fate.

"I am what Cara Valentine desired but never received,
I am what she set out to find yet failed to achieve;
I am what Ross Valentine lost his life for,
I am what's keeping Spencer Reid from walking out the door.

"I am something you treasure but consider a burden,
I am something the doctor knows yet can never be certain;
I am something the missing woman left the F.B.I.,
I am something that will make you say goodbye.

"I am _ _ _   _ _ _ _ _."

     "A bitch." Garcia stated the second Hotch had finished reading. A few sets of eyes shifted, and Tara held herself back from snorting. "What? Tell me I'm wrong." Nobody answered her, and she nodded, knowing she was right.

     Rossi looked up from his focused stare on the round table and to Blake. She was quiet, brows furrowed as she went over everything the poem said. "Does the poem have spaces to fill in the final two words?" Blake walked to the table and sat down, grabbing a pen and a piece of paper.

     "There are eight spaces," Spencer answered, making his way over and pulling out the chair next to her. This was the first real lead they'd gotten, and he had already figured out most of the poem and its riddles. The only part that had him stumped was the two words.

     Everyone watched as Blake wrote "I am," and eight underlined spaces followed. "The first word is three letters. The second is five. I believe the first one is the." She drew a bullet point and wrote the word she'd suggested next to the first one.

     "Why would the Red Scorpions create something like this?" Tara spoke up. "Why did they suddenly break their pattern and send something directly aimed at us? Why now?"

     Breaking his attention away from the paper where the brown-haired agent was scribbling out possibilities, Spencer turned his head. "This isn't the first time they aimed something specifically at us," he corrected. It was time to bring the team in on everything.

     "That's true. They were communicating with us through those lines from Paradise Lost." JJ recalled, leaning forward in her seat.

     Shaking his head, the doctor immediately interjected, "That's not what I'm talking about."

     "Reid..." Morgan spoke slowly, the sound of his name causing their eyes to meet.

     "On February nineteenth, the Red Scorpions sent us Roy, the Toxic Boy. Le was speaking directly to me then." Spencer spoke calmly, pushing out of his chair and standing.

     Hotch narrowed his eyes. "That was two months ago. Why didn't you tell us?" he asked sharply, folding his arms across his chest.

     "I knew the poem's meaning as soon as you read the title. That's why I didn't say anything because the moment I did, it could become a real possibility," the genius muttered.

     "What could become a possibility?" Cruz asked pointedly, entering the conversation.

     "That she... is already gone," Spencer answered hesitantly, briefly closing his eyes as the words left his mouth. "Either that or Le was... with her."

     With the way he phrased his words, Blake and JJ shared glances. Everyone in the room knew what he was implying. It didn't take a brainiac to deduce that Michael Le was, or had been, sexually involved with Cara Valentine.

     "What else haven't you told us?" The Unit Chief demanded. "And do not say that anything the two of you talked about or shared isn't beneficial to this case or connected. Every word Valentine spoke to you matters."

     He'd had multiple opportunities to come clean with the team and tell them everything he knew. Yet, he didn't. He wanted to be the one who figured out where she was or at least discovered a means of methods to locate her. Also, Cara trusted him. Even though she wasn't there, he didn't want to break that bond, but with the new poem, they were so close. Closer than they'd ever been, and he needed to bring her home.

     "I know every word she said to me matters. All I've done since she disappeared was replay our conversations on a perpetual loop, trying to figure out where everything went wrong and if there had been signs that she knew they had found her. I wanted to tell you what I knew, but I told her she could trust me not to repeat anything she said. I didn't want to break that promise," he explained.

     "That's semantics, Reid," Cruz stated.

     Holding his tongue, Spencer averted his eyes back to Hotch. "This poem changes everything, though. If we're going to find Cara, you need to know all the facts."

     Rossi straightened his posture. "And what are the facts?" he questioned.

     "'Cause according to the Scorpions, you have all of the answers," Morgan added, pointing to the evidence bag.

     Spencer breathed in deeply before speaking. "We need to go to my apartment," he announced firmly.

     "All of us?" Tara checked.

     He nodded. "I can't tell you everything without showing you everything."

────

     WHAT THE HELL WERE THEY LOOKING AT? That was the common thought amongst the agents as they stood in Spencer's living room, staring down the chaos before them.

     Four corkboards were positioned side by side; there were two large ones with two smaller boards. They alternated so the first board on the left was large with the following corkboard being much smaller, and that repeated with the next two. Positioned in a line, they almost read like a story.

     On the left, the first corkboard had a mugshot of each known leader and founder of the Red Scorpions on it with their details and key information written underneath. For Ross Valentine and Hennessy Lu, those who did not have mugshots, a sticky note with their name written on it replaced where their picture would be. The small corkboard beside it had the timeline of the Surrey Six murders and the trial was set up. Then on the right, the second large corkboard held pinned copies of all seven poems sent over the last two years from the Red Scorpions, along with newspaper clippings, Reddit posts, articles from blogs in Virginia and Arizona, maps of Hellam Township and Fairbank, Arizona, and pictures from video surveillance feeds. On the final, smaller one, there was a timeline dating everything from Cara's childhood to the present day. Well, moments from her childhood that she'd shared.

     Then, in the study, to the left of the front door of the apartment, was one final corkboard where the initial case, from October of twenty-thirteen, had been mapped out. In the center of it was Cara Valentine's mugshot. Her platinum blonde hair was in perfect waves, not a hair out of place. She stared into the camera lens with a blank expression; her eyes shed no one ounce of light or life in them. She was cold and stoic, exactly as everyone remembered her.

     A small smile tugged at the corner of Spencer's lips as he stared at the photograph. What he would give to have her right there with him...

     "Well, at least we know what the Scorpions meant when they said you have all the answers." Morgan was the first to break the silence in the apartment.

     The sound of Morgan's comment brought Spencer back to the present, and he turned on his heel toward the rest of the team. His eyes narrowed at the dark-skinned man who simply ignored him.

     The atmosphere wallowed in tense silence as everyone took in the forfeit of information they hadn't been privy to. It was a lot.

     Tara still stood by the front door, her jaw slackening as she took in the sight of the apartment. The evidence boards in the living room and to her left in the study didn't phase her. Neither did the overflowing kitchen sink or pillows and blankets decorating the brown leather couches. It was the hundreds of books on the handful of shelves outlining the walls of the space that had her speechless. Of course, she knew the doctor owned more books than most, but she hadn't been expecting this.

     "Wow," she muttered, eyes wide. Spencer's gaze met hers and he tilted his head to the side, confused. "I..."

     "What?" he asked.

     "I just..." she paused, blinking quickly. "Books."

     A fond smile tugged at his lips and he ducked his head, feeling a sense of déjà vu. "Cara had the same reaction the first time she came over," he shared.

     Penelope gasped from where she stood at the kitchen island, setting up her computers. "Rose has been to the Fortress of Solitude?!"

     "We..." Spencer's eyebrows scrunched together. "Garcia, we live down the hall from each other. Of course, she's been here."

     Tara almost laughed at Spencer's flabbergasted expression.

     Before the analyst could reply, Hotch directed a question at him. "Reid, how long have you been working on this?" He and Cruz were staring pointedly at the doctor.

     The team averted their attention to him. By the look on his face, they could tell that what he was about to say was an answer that wouldn't please the Unit Chief.

     "After the first two weeks of her disappearance," Spencer answered stiffly, aware of what his superior's reaction was likely going to be.

     Hotch's lips settled into a straight line. "Reid, I didn't authorize this," he began, but the man cut him off.

     "I know you didn't, Hotch, but I couldn't just sit back and work on it just at work. I needed to do something to find her," he breathed; emotional distress was etched into his facial expression. "I promised her I wouldn't leave her, and I broke that promise. I left her that night when I knew something wasn't right."

     Cruz became confused. "You knew something was off?"

     It was then that everyone properly paused in their movement. If Reid had known something was wrong, why he hadn't shared that with them years ago?

     This was it. This was when he had to tell them everything. Her life was on the line.

     And so he did.

     From what he knew and gathered from the details Cara blatantly told him and dropped about Le during Christmas to the true meaning of Roy, the Toxic Boy, to how Le used to call her from prison and the letters he would send her that she'd never read to the Red Blood and the part she played in it to the night of the Surrey Six and the murders of Raine Russo and Ace Ingram to her incessant nightmares to the night she showed up at his apartment and cried in front of him to the anger he witnessed radiating off of her when they were on a case in Memphis to their last conversation where she implicitly warned him about the second circle of Hell— all of it. He told them everything and the only details he left out were how they almost kissed that one night in his apartment and how she kissed his cheek the last time he saw her. Other than that, the team now knew everything.

     "You should have told us everything from the start," Hotch reprimanded the brown-haired man immediately, expression hard.

     "Just like how you told us about Operation Azrael from the start?" Spencer retorted without thinking, eyes widening once the words left his mouth. He understood why Hotch was angry with him and his decision, but the deed had already been done. All that mattered was that they knew now and all focus could be placed on Cara and her recovery.

     Rossi rolled his eyes. "All right, we've all hidden things, knowingly or unknowingly, about Valentine from one another. The woman is a walking enigma, but we're not going to find her by starting arguments. We need to work together on this."

     JJ nodded in agreement. "Exactly. Now that we're on the same page, we have a better chance of figuring out where she is. First, starting with the poem from this morning."

     "Excuse me," Blake interrupted, clearing her throat. "What do the different string colors mean?" She glanced over her shoulder, darting her eyes between Spencer and Hotch. Instantly, she took note of the genius's tensed posture and subtle tapping against his thigh. She stood in front of the second large corkboard.

     Spencer broke his focus away from Hotch. "Uh, red is for confirmed Red Scorpions activity; purple for potential sightings of the Founding Fathers, blog posts, and rumors posted online in regards to their activity; blue for the poems, how they connected to one another, and how they related to the Scorpions; and then yellow for information that I've gathered but haven't been able to figure out how it connects yet."

     Nodding, she took one last look at the board before facing the rest of the group. A piece of her was tempted to turn back around. Something on that panel was itching at her, but she couldn't figure out what.

     "Well, if we're going to start with the poem, we need to figure out what the hell it's saying," Morgan said, pointing to the evidence bag that sat on the kitchen island.

     Blake dug into her back pocket for the slip of paper that she'd scribbled out possibly answers to the riddle on. "I've written down a few possibilities. However, none of them seem suitable," she unfolded the sheet, glossing over the neat handwriting. "But I do think that I've managed to figure out what the Scorpions are trying to tell us. Garcia, can you hand me the poem?"

     Obliging, Penelope passed her the plastic baggie. She then stood by Morgan's side, leaning against him for comfort.

     Once it was in hand, the brown-haired woman made her way over to the first large corkboard on the left that contained a mugshot of each known leader and founder of the Red Scorpions. She swept her attention down to the printed words, reciting the first two stanzas verbatim.

"The final show is here,
And you're in for a ride.
Here's to hoping dear Clementine
Makes it out alive.

"In this terminal round, prison bars will be of aid,
As long as your emotions remain beneath a blockade;
One among us five will let you move ahead,
While another will, unfortunately, drop dead.

     "In the DVD footage the BAU was sent almost a month ago, five men appeared. Whether it was on or off-camera. Michael Le, Konaam Shirzad, Matthew Johnston, Hennessy Lu, and Stephen Leone." Blake pointed to each mugshot of the Founding Fathers and then a well-known photograph of Stephen Leone from two-thousand-and-seven. It'd been taken from a street camera moments before his "death." "If we're to take what these lines are implying literally, we can assume that one of the five men will drop dead or already has. Another will, in some way, let us move ahead in our search for Valentine. My best guess at this time is that whoever sent this letter could be the one they're referencing.

     "Now, backtracking to the line regarding prison bars and keeping our emotions beneath a blockade. I have a theory on what this could mean. It might be a stretch, though," Blake paused, apprehensive to disclose her thoughts to everyone. It was an out-there hypothesis, but it was the only thing that made sense to her.

     Rossi shrugged. "Stretch or not, I'll take it."

     Nodding, she swept her gaze to the youngest of the group. "Owen Sánchez."

     Spencer's eyes widened while JJ and Morgan shared curious expressions. Tara cocked her head to the side. The name Owen Sánchez had not been mentioned much throughout the investigation.

     "What about him?" Cruz asked, sharing a look with Hotch.

     The last they'd heard from Sánchez was in July of twenty-fourteen, two months after Cara had disappeared. Hotch and Cruz had flown to British Columbia, Canada, over a weekend to question the man. Given that Konaam Shirzad had visited him in April under the guise of Richard Acevedo, they figured that the ex-trafficker knew something, even if it was small.

     Initially, Sánchez had attempted to use the conversation with Shirzad as leverage to get Cara to talk to him on the phone, but Captain Marvinhill had shut that possibility down immediately. Then, he tried to use the conversation as his golden ticket to booking a train to a different prison. And that didn't go in his favor either.

     So when they visited him, he had been very unwilling to speak with them. For two days, they poked and prodded at him, but to no avail. Sánchez offered a plain, "Fuck you, fuck this, Fuck Cara, I'm not helping you," and had remained dead silent. He'd been of no help whatsoever throughout the entire case and showed no sign of caring for Cara's present well-being. And for that reason, he hadn't been a source the BAU had turned to for information.

     "Sánchez is locked behind prison bars and he knew Cara longer and better than anyone else." A part of Spencer wanted to object to the last portion of Blake's statement, but he held his tongue. "He can be of aid as long as our emotions remain beneath a blockade. Meaning, as long as we approach him without our emotions clouding our judgment and motives, he may be willing to help us find Valentine."

     JJ furrowed her brows in thought. "If that's the true meaning, then that raises the question of why are they willingly helping us? Why are they pointing us in Sánchez's direction?"

     "The poem says they're done with hiding and want to be free later on," Morgan pointed out. "Perhaps toying with Valentine isn't enough for them anymore."

     Rossi teetered his head from side to side. "The Founding Fathers, as a collective, are power and control seekers. They thrive and get off on people doing their bidding, controlling and dominating others," he pointed out. "They're also patient and have shown that they have the ability to prolong the process of torturing someone, to hold themselves back from outright killing Valentine. However, nobody can be patient forever. Dominating and controlling her can only be satisfactory for so long until it reaches a point where it's no longer fun or pleasurable."

     "That could be it then," JJ shrugged. "Keeping Valentine around is no longer meeting their needs. Maybe this cat-and-mouse chase they've been dragging us on is more gratifying."

     Hotch's chin upturned. "Possibly."

     Blake took the momentary silence that followed as her cue to continue.

"Two among our family live before you in disguise,
Four of us are killers, working with snake eyes;
We deal in dope lines and treasure loyalty,
Finding what Cara left behind should be of your first priority.

     "In the next stanza, it's implied that two Red Scorpion members are living around us or are close by. It'd make sense if they were to keep an eye on us and our progress on finding Valentine. Then, there are four Founding Fathers left, all of whom have committed murder, and Stephen Leone was one of the top players for the Green Snakes gang in British Columbia. From the DVD, we know Leone is working with them to some extent. The next line is self-explanatory. The Red Scorpions dealt in "dial-a-dope lines" and are known for treasuring loyalty. Now, as for what Valentine left behind, I'm not sure what that could be in reference to." Blake said, looking at Spencer with an inquisitive expression.

     When their eyes met, she didn't need to voice her question. He knew.

     Clearing his throat, Spencer shuffled his footing. "I have a theory on what it is she left behind, but it's not concrete," he spoke up. Everything Blake was telling the team was things he'd figured out the minute he first read the poem, but he was fine with her taking the lead in it. His brain was on overdrive and he was beginning to find it hard to concentrate.

     "Kid, we barely have anything concrete on this case," Morgan replied, shrugging. Even with the new information that had been shared with all of them, they still didn't have much of anything.

     With a sigh, Spencer silently dismissed himself and went to his room, promptly reappearing with a book in his hands. His fingers were nimbly picking at the distressed cover, leftover evidence of it having been read countless times.

     At the sight of the book, JJ stood straighter. "Isn't that Persuasion?" she asked, thinking back to the final plane ride they'd had with the missing blonde.

     Spencer nodded, coming to a stop next to Tara in the space between the kitchen and living room. "Uh, Cara gifted her personal copy to me for Christmas in twenty-thirteen," he shared, still staring at the cover.

     "That was hers?" Hotch double-checked, uncrossing his arms.

     "Yeah, she uh," the brown-haired doctor felt the words get caught in his throat and he had to clear his throat for a second time. "She said it was her personal letter of gratitude to me and what I did for her. I gave her a second chance at life and the opportunity to redeem herself. She didn't have to remain being defined by her past and the mistakes she's made."

     A small smile tugged at Tara's lips. "That's sweet," she commented, noticing the blush spreading across the man's face at the memory.

     "She has her moments," Spencer muttered softly, making sure he used the present tense. She was still alive.

     "Wait," Morgan said, holding a hand up. "So, you're saying the book Valentine left behind should be of our first priority?"

     Glancing up, Spencer shrugged. "I told you it wasn't concrete," he defended himself. "Her apartment has been searched and swept through hundreds of times. I routinely check it, and I haven't found anything. This book is the only thing that makes a sliver of sense."

     Cruz hummed. "Is there anything inside the book? Annotations?"

     "Uh," Spencer opened it up, flicking through the pages. "There are three areas that are underlined, but they're just her favorite quotes. On the inside of the front cover and the last page a series of Daffodils were drawn. That's it, though."

     At the mention of Daffodils, Penelope perked up. "Oh! That's her favorite flower!" she exclaimed.

     Everyone turned to the analyst.

     "At Rose's childhood home, wild daffodils would grow every spring in her yard. As a little kid, she used to go outside with her cat and pick them. On the days when her dad was coming down from a really bad high, she'd make a bouquet for him to cheer him up. They symbolize honesty and truth." Penelope elaborated, smiling.

     In unison, Rossi and Morgan spoke.

     "Blue?"

     "Why do you know that?"

     Eyes darting between them, Penelope tilted her head to the side curiously. "First, she told you about Blue too? And second, I know that because I am one of the nosiest people ever, I say that with pride— JJ, don't look at me like that—" JJ held her hands up in defense, the amusement on her cheeks fading. "And I asked Rose so many questions whenever we would have our weekly movie nights. Eventually, she gave me more than five-word answers."

     Spencer's eyebrows were drawn together and he frowned. That fact was new to him— the one regarding daffodils, not the cat. He already knew that she had a cat growing up with her father. Part of him felt innately guilty at that moment. During the time he spent with her, he didn't get to learn as many of the tiny details about her that he wished he had.

     "Cara told me about Blue once," Rossi explained. "Blue was her cat's name," he added, noting the slightly confused expressions on other people's faces.

     Suddenly, a realization struck Blake and an audible gasp left her mouth.

     Immediately, all attention flashed to her.

     "Blake, what is it?" Hotch asked.

     "The poem," she said, eyes wide. "The latter half of it..."

     It was evident that the woman had figured something out, but nobody was quite sure what.

     Blake quickly scanned the poem, searching for the section of it that had just been solved.

"I am damaged at best,
And am slowly falling apart;
I am a whisper, I am a ghost,
I am what people fear most.

"When in action, I cross out names,
No one is safe; these are dangerous games;
I live for the glory, yet thrive in guilt,
My actions cannot always be rebuilt.

"Compare me to none,
For I am one of a kind;
If you search hard enough,
You'll see I live in your mind."

     Pausing, she skipped past the next two stanzas.

"I am what Cara Valentine desired but never received,
I am what she set out to find yet failed to achieve;
I am what Ross Valentine lost his life for,
I am what's keeping Spencer Reid from walking out the door.

"I am something you treasure but consider a burden,
I am something the doctor knows yet can never be certain;
I am something the missing woman left the F.B.I.,
I am something that will make you say goodbye.

     "I am the truth." Blake finished, looking up with a sense of victory. "The second word has five spaces. Truth is five letters long."

     All was quiet as it was sinking in that she had cracked it.

     The palm of his right hand covered his mouth as Spencer processed what she'd told them. The truth... That had to be it. Nothing else he'd managed to conjure up made as much sense as that did.

     "Ross Valentine lost his life because Cara wouldn't tell the Founding Fathers the truth about things she had told Reid," Tara breathed. Everything was beginning to click into place.

     "The consequences and actions following the revelation of any kind of truth cannot always be rebuilt," JJ sighed. "The truth isn't unilateral, and people fear it more than anything sometimes. It can be a burden."

     "The truth of what happened to Valentine is what's keeping Reid from giving up," Morgan added. Spencer glanced over at him with a sharp glare, his hand falling back to his side. "Sorry."

     Hotch hesitated before saying, "The truth is all Valentine ever desired from her father and Sánchez, but something she never fully received. They never told her that they both became moles for the Scorpions the night of the Surrey Six until their relationships with her were broken beyond repair."

     "That's true," Rossi agreed.

     A frown settled on Blake's lips as she made her way back to the large corkboard she'd been examining earlier. Still, something on that panel was itching at her, but she couldn't put her finger on what. Sure, she figured out the poem, but something was still bothering her. It felt like the answer to where Valentine was being kept was staring her in the face, but she was too blind to see it.

     While her focus shifted to the papers and writings in front of her, the rest of the team continued to dissect the poem.

     "She left behind the truth of what happened to her by giving Spence the cryptic metaphor about Persuasion and Hell. She told him that the Founding Fathers were coming, and that was a truth all of us weren't certain of until the DVD," JJ said, sliding her hands into the pockets of her jeans.

     With her eyes trailing across the Reddit posts and newspaper clippings, Blake pursed her lips. She traced the different strings, aimlessly searching for whatever it was that her subconscious was screaming at her to notice. Eventually, she moved on to the articles from blogs in Virginia and Arizona regarding suspected Red Scorpion activity. Then, onto the pictures from video surveillance feeds. Lastly, the maps.

     And that's when she stopped.

     Blake stared at the map of Fairbank, Arizona, and then of Hellam Township, Pennsylvania. Her head tilted to the side. Creases spread across her forehead. The Seven Gates of Hell... The Gates of Hell... The poem said, "I am a whisper, I am a ghost," and Fairbank had been known as a ghost town for decades... Fairbank, Arizona, was where the Red Scorpions were originally moving to in twenty-thirteen... The connection Cara had made during the initial case... The initial case... Wait.

     "Garcia, do you have a copy of the interrogation between Hotch, Rossi, and Valentine with Joseph Arthur?" she asked, pivoting to face the group.

     All conversation came to a pause.

     "Uh, yeah, I think so," Penelope stammered, caught off-guard by the sudden question. "Why?"

     "Can you pull it up on your laptop?" Blake was already heading in the direction of the kitchen.

     Penelope was hot on her heels, confused. "Of course," she answered, coming to a stop once she was at the island countertop where her laptop resided. With a few clicks of the keys, she managed to track down the video recording. She turned the volume all the way up and pressed 'play.'

     "Ah, hello darling," the voice of Joseph Arthur whispered gleefully. The team immediately crowded around the computer. On the small screen, they watched as Arthur's eyes ran up and down Cara Valentine's figure. "You had so much potential. It's such a shame that you had to go and waste it, but it was only a matter of time, I suppose. Ross Valentine raised you with a little bit too much of a pure heart— which is exactly what brought you to where you are now, my dear Clementine."

     Chills were sent down Tara's spine. She'd never seen this before.

     The point of view from the security camera originated from the left corner of the room above the four individuals. Joseph Arthur sat, handcuffed, to the rectangular metal table. Across from him sat Hotch and Rossi with their case files. Then, back toward the door of the interrogation room, stood the young iteration of Cara Valentine. Her hands were curled into fists and her chest was rising and falling steadily.

     Spencer lingered on the image of her, almost unable to look away. The infamous platinum blonde hair appeared to have recently been done as her roots weren't showing at all. It fell to right above her breastbone in curled waves. She wore the same black stilettos from the day she was arrested but with a long-sleeve black V-neck top tucked into a khaki-colored high-waisted skirt that fell to right above her ankles.

     The sight of her warmed his heart and brought him a sense of temporary peace.

     "Today, you're going to be answering some questions for us, Mister Arthur," Hotch said in the video, opening a manila folder and disregarding every word the man in front of him spoke.

     Hotch watched from beside Cruz as an enigmatic smile spread across Arthur's face, and he sighed happily. "Wonderful! I do love a good game of twenty-one questions," Arthur chuckled. It'd been a while since the team reviewed the interrogation tapes, and they'd almost forgotten the deeply disturbing childish tone that clung to every word the deceased leader spoke. This particular tape hadn't been watched in its entirety and Hotch felt moronic for not realizing that sooner.

     "Why did you want Person X? Farell told us about the deal the two of you made." 

     Blake observed the only woman on screen, catching how her eyes darted between Hotch and Arthur. At the time this was filmed, none of them could see Cara's physical reactions to anything that'd taken place. Now, however, they could, and they needed to.

     It was silent for fifty-three seconds before a delighted look overcame Arthur's face. "Ah hah! The memorable trade between two comrades!" Cara appeared to hold her breath as her lips pressed together. "Agents— it's not a sin to say his name. I'll say it right now! Ross Valentine." Instinctively, the blonde woman stepped forward. The movement caught Arthur's attention and he smirked, sweeping his eyes to her approaching figure. "There's no need to get defensive, Cara, we're all just having a friendly chat."

     On-screen, Cara came to a pause and it almost looked like her fists were tightening, but it was hard to tell. Every word that came from Arthur's mouth was visibly affecting her.

     "Now, to answer the million-dollar question! Valentine is such a key asset to the Red Scorpions. After all, he was the one who nearly ended us. With everything he knows, it would be such a shame for him to unleash those secrets on the innocent. That being said, I needed one Valentine to reach our endgame. It didn't matter who. Farell came to me saying he would bring Ross Valentine in exchange for deciding what Cara's punishment would be and keeping her as long as he pleased. It was a spectacular idea!"

     Cara's chest heaved up and she gulped. It was unclear whether she knew she was showing emotion or not, but Blake was grateful she was. This conversation could be the key to finding her if Blake's suspicions were correct.

     "Let me get this straight," Rossi cleared his throat, speaking for the first time in the video. "You only wanted Ross Valentine because of what he knew?"

     Arthur nodded, a sadistic smile swinging across his lips. Pulling her hands behind her back, Cara hooked her forefingers.

     Eyebrows knitting together, Morgan grew confused. Why were they watching this? Where was Blake's mind heading?

     Leaning forward in his seat, the Unit Chief narrowed his stare. "Where is Ross Valentine, right now?" he asked, and Cara's eyes flashed to Arthur as he began to laugh. The corners of his lips lifted to reveal his pearly white teeth and a bone-chilling smile etched its way across his face. He had the smile of a true madman. "Owen mentioned that he's with Person Y— dead. Farell also said he was dead. Is that true?"

     "Those two never were very good at lying, let's be real here ladies." Hotch and Rossi, both in the video and presently, narrowed their gaze. "Ross Valentine is alive and well enough to still be breathing. I don't know why those two would lie about such a thing."

     Cara's posture stiffened.

     "Where is he?" Hotch snapped, growing irritable.

     The leader paid him no mind. "Ruby lips above the water, blowing bubbles soft and fine, but alas, I was no swimmer, so I lost my Clementine." Arthur directed his eyes to the blonde. She blanched. "Then the miner, forty-niner, soon began to peak and pine, Thought he oughter join his daughter, now he's with his Clementine."

     Swallowing harshly, Spencer briefly glanced away from the laptop.

     Everyone knew that Oh, My Darling Clementine was the song that Michael Le told Cara she reminded him of. The man had sung it himself in the last clip of the DVD.

     "This isn't karaoke night, Arthur. Where is Ross Valentine?" Rossi asked, but the man's eyes never once swayed from Cara.

     A dawning realization seemed to set in for the woman as her lips parted. "He's at the gates of Hell, isn't he?" she asked. Her voice was timid and small, terrified of his answer.

     Hotch shot her a warning look. She had disobeyed his direct orders.

     Arthur clapped his hands, delighted, a crazed look gleaming in his eyes. "Well done, Clementine! Sometimes I forget how brilliant that mind of yours is."

     Cara's hands dropped limply to her sides.

     Reaching forward, Blake paused the tape. "There," she breathed, glancing at Spencer. "Right there. The Gates of Hell." The hunch she had was right. The poem from Paradise Lost that the Red Scorpions sent in March referenced the gates of Hell. However, at the time, the conclusion was made that it could be a message saying that Cara was being held at the rumored Seven Gates of Hell in Hellam Township, Pennsylvania. But they were wrong. So wrong.

     "I don't get it..." Tara trailed off, waiting for someone to explain what the brown-haired woman meant.

     Spencer's jaw slackened and a wave of guilt flooded his nervous system. Thirty-six days had passed since that poem arrived at the BAU. Thirty-six days for him to remember where the origins of the Gates of Hell were from. Thirty-six days for him to potentially find her. Thirty-six days wasted.

     It had been staring him in the face. He'd rewatched the interrogation videos over a dozen times. He'd reviewed every letter in the Red Scorpions case file and dissected every sentence, both said and written. How could he have missed this?

     "No one did until Valentine explained it to us afterward," Blake replied, straightening up.

     "Also, according to Valentine, Joseph Arthur was a lying douchebag. So much of what he said during the interrogation was a lie," Morgan added, recalling the blonde's statement of detest as if it had happened yesterday.

     The corner of Rossi's lips curled up at the memory.

     "Yes, that being said," Blake cleared her throat, bringing everyone's attention back to her, "his lies shed light on the status of the Founding Fathers and their plan at the time. Arthur never needed Person X because of what he knew. He needed him because the Founding Fathers did. Valentine's father was never crucial to his endgame. Arthur only needed Valentine. 

     "Earlier on in the initial case, she told us that, to the Red Scorpions, she represented the character of Sin from Paradise Lost. After this interrogation, Valentine reiterated that fact and explained how it connects to the Gates of Hell. In Book Two of Paradise Lost, Sin meets her father, Satan, at the gates of Hell. According to the book's lore, when you first die and get to Hell, you arrive in the woods in front of this gate made of sticks, but between you and the gate, is a river that you must drink from before you can cross over. Once you cross over, you discover that there are two circles of Hell: Limbo and then Hell.

     "Satan crosses over and meets Sin, who is holding the key to the gates. She opens them for him to pass through on his way up to Heaven. The second lyric Arthur sang: Then the miner, forty-niner, soon began to peak and pine, Thought he oughter join his daughter, now he's with his Clementine. Valentine believed that they left her father behind in Fairbank to be ablocated. He was going to be leased to someone and we now know that someone was the Founding Fathers.

     "Now, the lyrics from Oh, My Darling Clementine have two meanings. The first one refers to how the Founding Fathers left Ross Valentine behind near the San Pedro River, where the river can be interpreted to represent the gates of Hell. The second one refers to how Ross was being ablocated. Sin meets her father at the gates of Hell and is holding the key. Cara's arrest was the key to the Red Scorpion's mission at the time— to cross country borders and enter the United States— and then her father was passing through in Fairbank, Arizona, to make his way into the hands of Le, Johnston, Shirzad, and Lu. The location of the Gates of Hell is in Fairbank, right across from the San Pedro River."

     Spencer swallowed harshly, speaking what everybody had already gathered, "They could be holding her there."

     Cruz and Hotch shared a glance. They both knew what needed to be done.

     "Everyone, pack your bags. We'll meet back at headquarters in an hour." Cruz ordered, retrieving his phone from his back pocket.

     Penelope watched as the Section Chief began to text someone. Her eyebrows furrowed. "Where are we going?" she asked.

     "You, Ms. Garcia, are staying here," Cruz said, giving her a nod of acknowledgment. "I need you to alert the Fairbank, Arizona, PD that federal agents will be arriving in the morning. I went ahead and texted Captain Marvinhill."

     Spencer inhaled deeply, a small, but satisfied smile lined his face. They were getting closer. For real, this time. He could feel it.

     "Morgan, Reid, JJ, Lewis, and I will be flying to Fairbank to check out the alleged Gates of Hell and see if we can find any sign of Valentine. Hotch, you, Rossi, and Blake will go to Millhaven Institution in Ontario to talk to Sánchez. Wheels up."

𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒆   ───   ❪ CRIMINAL MINDS ❫
act two:     𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝚁𝙴𝙳 𝙿𝚁𝙸𝙴𝚂𝚃𝙴𝚂𝚂,      ²
╱ ✹     ▬▬     ❛ © CARDIIAC     2023. ❜
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
𓄹 ━━━ 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝒌𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒓! ࿐ ໋₊ ˖

     hey everyone!! i hope you all enjoyed the forty-second chapter!

     soooooo... basically alex is gonna solve the whole case. that's what i'm gathering here.

     the drama is getting real now. i'm so excited and cannot wait for everyone to see what's coming.

     QUESTION: do you think cara's actually in fairbank or do you think this is another misdirect? let me know! i'm curious to hear everyone's thoughts.

     PLEASE READ: yes, the red scorpions are an actual gang that exists in british columbia, canada. so yes, almost all of the case details on the surrey six are accurate and all the names (minus ross valentine, hennessy lu, cara valentine, owen sánchez, arthur joseph, kirk farrel) are of real people. i have changed the dates of a lot of the events that have happened regarding the surrey six trial, added fictional events, and adjusted the ages of some of the people. as well as fictionally changing the status of some people's lives.

     this chapter was incredibly difficult and frustrating to write because i didn't know how much to put seeing as not everything mentioned pertains to cara's disappearance. however, i did base this book on real events and have dedicated time to establishing certain scenes and moments, so this was the chapter where most of VOLUME ONE was wrapped up in terms of the initial RS case.

     also, i know a lot of information was thrown at everyone, and don't worry, you don't need to remember everything!

     ★ BONUS: if anyone would like a deeper look at the dynamic between cara and michael le, i highly suggest listening to the song ❛ hard times ❜ ━━ by ethel cain. it perfectly describes how she viewed him all throughout her life. my favorite lyrics from that song are ❝ i thought good guys get to be happy, i'm not happy. i am poison in the water and unhappy; little girl who needs her daddy real bad, ❞ and ❝ i was too young to notice that some types of love could be bad. ❞

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

˒⠀𝑹𝑬𝑴𝑰𝑵𝑫𝑬𝑹. . . ▬⠀⤸

Thank you all for taking the time out of your day to comment on this story. It means a lot and helps the story be spread to a broader audience &&& allows me to grow as an author. All I ask is that people vote on each chapter, please. As a creator, it takes time to write and develop stories. Especially ones such as this that take a while to write and dedicate time to. So please, vote on every chapter. It means a lot more than I could ever express.

Don't forget to vote & comment!

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

˒⠀𝑪𝑶𝑷𝒀𝑹𝑰𝑮𝑯𝑻. . . ▬⠀⤸

❝ All Rights Reserved.
No part of this publication may be
reproduced, distributed, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, including
photocopying, recording, or other
electronic or mechanical methods,
without prior permission of the author,
except in the case of brief quotations
embodied in critical reviews and
other noncommercial uses permitted
by copyright law. ❞