timeless, spencer reid [ 1 ]

040. mosley lane

"Aimee Lynch, 8 years old, was taken an hour ago from a winter festival in Ashburn." JJ informs.

"Any witnesses?" Emily asks.

"Her mom Barbara was right next to her when she vanished." JJ says.

"There must have been hundreds of people there. No one saw anything?" Emily questions and JJ shrugs.

"It's a temporary gathering, with little to no security." Spencer says.

"All right, Reid, you and I are going to head to the family's house. The three of you, I want you to work with Garcia. We need to look at every local abduction or attempted one in the past year, see if there's any overlap." Derek says.

"Good news is that we're barely into the second hour." JJ says.

"Yeah, well, odds are we've only got 22 hours to find Aimee alive, so let's do this." Derek says.

+++

"Ashburn has a winter festival every year, and not a single attempt at kidnapping." JJ says.

"Hey, JJ." Emily walks into Penelope's lair. "There's a woman here who says her son was abducted by the same offender." JJ sighs.

"Has she been drinking?" JJ asks.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure. How'd you know that?" Emily asks.

"Sarah Hillridge. She lost her son, Charlie, eight years ago. She comes in every time a child around his age goes missing." JJ says.

"She thinks her son is still alive?" Emily asks.

"Yeah, I know." JJ mutters.

"I remember her. She stays for the first 24 hours, right?" Penelope asks.

"Yeah." JJ walks out.

+++

Emily hangs the phone up as JJ walks in.

"Aimee's mom was distracted by a mother looking for her daughter, and she's blaming herself for looking away." Emily informs.

"Wait. Sarah-- Sarah said the same thing when Charlie was taken." JJ says. "There was a mother searching for her lost son. Do you... do you think it's a coincidence?"

"Or a ruse?" Bedelia asks.

"A woman looking for her lost son -- that's pretty specific, right?" JJ asks.

"Add to that a target rich environment with no security? Yeah." Emily says.

"Okay, so, if the woman was a distraction, who took Aimee?" JJ questions.

"A partner?" Bedelia asks. "If it's the same people, they've been doing this for close to a decade."

+++

"Look, we all think that Aimee could be alive. No one's given up on her." Hotch says. He, Derek, Spencer, Penelope, and Rossi are sitting at the round table. JJ, Bedelia, and Emily are standing between Spencer's and Penelope's seats.

"That's why there's hundreds of volunteers and officers combing every inch of the county." Hotch says.

"But they're dragging the rivers and digging up the woods. That's not gonna help us if Aimee is still with the unsub. If she's still alive out there." Emily says.

"What about Charlie? Is he still alive?" Derek asks.

"Sarah believes it." JJ says.

"Eight years she's been saying the same thing, JJ." Derek says.

"Well, maybe we've been stupid and just haven't actually taken her belief into account." Bedelia comments.

"Have you thought about why you suddenly believe her? Do you think it might be because you're a mother?" Derek asks the blonde woman.