The Boss' Niece (Spencer Reid)

69. "Undercover"

The entire team sat in the conference room within the precinct, each of them with at least 2-3 files in front of them. It was now night-time and as much as they all wanted to try and sleep, they had to keep going with the case. They had been on the case for just over 3 days now, and they needed to find something useful.

"Cassidy. Are you feeling alright? You've been eating saltine crackers all day." Emily leaned over and whispered to Cassidy, who smiled.

"Yeah. I'm just feeling a bit under-the-weather, you know?" She smiled nodding.

"All right, the boy doesn't look like he could be any older than 7. Let's work youngest to oldest. Start with the worst behaviour. Get the names of the parents, send them over to Garcia. She can cross-check for criminal records. This guy's dumping bodies between 7:30 AM and 8:00 AM. That gives us..." Emily explained, looking down at her watch.

"...a little over 12 hours to make something hit. Let's get it done." Emily exhaled.

Hours passed, and everyone seemed tired. Cassidy tried to keep her eyes open, but with her lack of sleep due to nausea and the actual feeling sick itself, she was glad that saltine crackers had been helping. By 4 AM, everyone looked like they were about to fall asleep.

"It's impossible. There's too many." Spencer exhaled, trying to focus.

"Keep looking, Spencer. We still have an hour." Emily insisted, watching as every now and again, a member of the team would let out a big yawn.

———
(At The New Crime Scene)

When the team heard the news that another body had been found, they all panicked, rushing to the crime scene. They all nearly gasped when they saw that it was Claire Thompson.

"This is a different area from the other dump sites, isn't it?" Emily exhaled.

"He's getting smart. He knows where all of our manpower will be...so he's changing locations." Spencer shook his head.

"How long before he changes when and where he abducts them?" Matt asked, concerned.

"He does that, we're back at zero." Emily shook her head, hearing someone in the distance.

"Claire?" Her husband yelled out, walking toward the body.

"No, no, no, no. We gotta keep him out of here." Derek insisted.

———
(Back At The Station)

The team spent 2 hours at the crime scene before heading back to the station, trying to make any connection. Spencer had noticed that Cassidy had slipped away. That's when he peeked out of the conference room and noticed her pacing while she ate a bunch of saltine crackers.

"So what's around the dump site?" Emily asked, confused.

"Here's the old printing press of quad graphics, and the paving yard, and then the concrete factory where we found the body. None of them visible from the highway." Detective Wolynski explained.

"You don't end up there by accident." Tara shook her head.

"So we go back to the schools, we eliminate the third ward, and we target problem kids whose fathers have held blue-collar jobs over the last 10 years." Derek suggested.

"What if he's not a problem kid? Sometimes when a parent is unstable, especially if the other one's out of the picture, you'll do anything to be the perfect child." Spencer explained.

"Like help your father abduct women?" Matt asked, confused.

"They're never late for school. Even with the abductions, the disposal of the bodies, it's always timed perfectly so the kid will be on time for school." Spencer elaborated.