Criminal Minds Series Rewrite: Season One

The Tribe: Part Four

Author's Note: This episode deals with a lot of Native American talk/history/etc. I am not familiar with this topic at all, so I kind of used the slang/language/information that was given in the show. If I offend anyone or get something wrong, please let me know so I can change it :)

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You had to pick up the case the very next day since Peter wasn't getting you anywhere, the phone records would take some time to go through, and it was late as it is. However, the bad thing with leaving a case until the next day means there is room for killers to strike again—which is what they did.

Unfortunately, the victims are already dead and will continue to be dead until you have time to get there. Right now, Hotch is talking to Peter about his phone records since they were very interesting.

"About a month ago, you placed a call to a psychiatrist in Boulder named Dr. Richard Frank. He's a deprogrammer, and his specialty is getting kids out of cults. Your daughter joined a dangerous cult, and you couldn't convince her to leave, so you had her kidnapped."

"Now you're protecting her because you think Ingrid and her cult killed those kids, and you're probably right," you shrug.

Peter looks anxious, but he doesn't say anything.

"There's another killing. A family of five was slaughtered in exactly the same way as the Terra Mesa killings, and among the dead are three girls. Ages five, eight, and eleven. Legally, this could go a long way in distancing your daughter from the others. If Ingrid had a change of heart, a case could be made for brainwashing or even temporary insanity."

Peter still isn't talking.

"Mr. Greisen," you sigh. "We need you to tell us what you know about Ingrid's situation."

"It's all my fault. Ever since her mother died, I've done everything I could for her. Somehow, I left her vulnerable to these people," he breaks down.

"Given the wrong circumstances, this could happen to anyone's child. Tell us what happened."

"Ingrid was in her first semester. She started acting strange, she hardly visited anymore, and when she did, she was... different."

"How? How was she different?" you ask.

"The way she spoke. She kept repeating these words—this jargon. I didn't know where she was getting it, and she just disappeared."

"Cults commonly have their own language. They invent or redefine certain words only the cult members understand. It's a way of isolating the members from outsiders. It's a very powerful form of thought control. If you could help us identify some of the key words, perhaps we could get Ingrid talking," Hotch explains.

"She said I was a trespasser, that I had no right to be here."

"In New Mexico?"

"In the desert. She said grandfather... had taught her the ways of, what was the word? Gahi, gaji—"

"Ga'he," you correct.

"Yeah, that's right."

"Thanks, Mr. Greisen. You helped a lot more than you think," you grin.

You and Hotch leave the interrogation room, and join the rest of the team along with the Sheriff inside a conference room to talk about the new development. Now that you have substantial information on the unsubs, you know exactly who to look for.

"We're looking for the cult leader. Typically men between the age of twenty-five and thirty-five with a high level of intelligence. Sociopathic underachiever, with an extremely abusive childhood, and obviously someone with an interest in and affinity for Apache culture and rituals," Spencer explains.