"Since when are you a doctor? Last I remember, you were no better than a tabloid journalist."
Tatum Katz had a rough start with the BAU. Her papparazzi-adjacent photographer being a suspect in one of their cases wasn't exactly a great first impress...
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twenty-seven || "foundation" season 7, episode 18
"Hello, beautiful people!" Tate attempted enthusiasm as the rest of her team joined her on the jet. Spencer was already in one of the seats, the two having come from the same place, drinking a cup of coffee and looking through the evidentiary photos.
"I didn't think cryptic, late night texts were your thing," Emily said, rubbing her sleep-coated eyes.
"Yup. I know, but I have another pot of coffee brewing. I will be going on my third cup. And! I present to you this young, unarmed boy who was found two hours ago in the middle of nowhere, also known as Crawford, Arizona. I'm sure you can see from the pictures that he has escaped some sort of captivity."
"Well, how do we know he wasn't just dropped off there?" Derek asked.
"For one, there are fresh cuts on his feet from local cactus fields and that's away from any through roads like the one he was found on and his skin is rubbed raw around his ankles from chains." Tate cringed just thinking about it.
"He must've had a chance to escape and he took it."
"Or he could have escaped during transit," Emily theorized.
Tate was looking over Spencer's shoulders at the pictures, the ones she'd been staring at for the past hour since learning of the incident. "God, look at this poor boy's eyes," she muttered, Spencer rubbing her arm reassuringly.
"He's jaundiced. Probably hasn't seen daylight in a while," JJ said.
"There are a lot of scars here," Derek said quietly.
"And those are the ones we can see," Rossi added.
"It's hard to tell for certain, but he's maybe... thirteen?" Emily guessed.
"Any missing children in the area, Garcia?" Reid asked their tech analyst who was patched in on a computer screen.
"None until now, but Sir and Doctor, you may have more information than I do," Garcia said, passing it back to Tate and Hotch.
"That would be the boss man," Tate said.
"Earlier tonight, another boy was reported missing in Flagstaff," Hotch told them.
"That's not that far. It can't be a coincidence," Rossi said.
"Technically it could, but Arizona has the lowest abduction rate in the country, so the chances of these cases not being related are ridiculously slim," Spencer corrected.
"And that is why Child Abduction Rapid Deployment will be meeting us on the ground," Tate said.
"The Flagstaff abduction is Billy Henderson, thirteen. His parents say he was coming back from a friend's house after dinner and never made it," Hotch reported.
