moonstruck//Aaron hotchner

ch.48

"Excuse me, we're looking for Jacob Freeling?" Camilla asked, holding up her ID. Morgan pulled his out beside her, and smiled charmingly at the suddenly flustered young woman.

"FBI? Jake is a good guy, you guys have to be barking up the wrong tree." she insisted.

"We aren't here to accuse him of anything, Ms...?"

"Hanes, Kristen Hanes."

Morgan smiled. "Ms. Hanes, we'd like to have a short conversation with him."

The freckled, redhead looked between the two of them, face unsure and disturbing, but finally relented. "Alright, but you'll have to wait here. We don't allow visitors in the equipment room."

It was started in 1995, just in time to make it into the digital system, after a teacher reported suspicions that Jake's mother was abusing him. The teacher's statement described a quiet 8 year old that recoiled at the touch of adults, and became aggressively defensive with the smallest provocation, as if he was fighting it out. He was in his mother's care, a woman who got by on low wage temp jobs and welfare. Jake had one sibling, on older brother eleven years his senior. There was no record of Matthew, and he wasn't living in the house at the time of the social worker's visit.

"Yeah?" A dark hair and eyes to match, with the slim, but muscular figure of a young man, and facial hair that was a bit thicker. He smelled of wood chips and sweat. "Mr. Freeling?" Camilla asked.

"It's Jake. Kristen said you needed to talk to me?" He briefly glance at the redhead claiming back behind the desk.

"it might be best to have this conversation in private." Morgan suggested.

"Sure, come on." He led them outside, to a porch on the side of the house. "Now, what's this about?"

"We're in town investigating the recent string of rapes."

Jake snorted. "And, someone suggested me as a suspect? That's just great."

"We're wondering about your juvenile conviction for a small fire in an abandoned shed?" Camilla asked.

"That was supposed to be expunged. It was dumb, I was hanging out with some friends, smoking weed, and one of them dropped the match we used to light it, at least the second point. That hole had nothing but a mattress, so the whole thing went up. It was actually a big fire, at least when I was fifteen, it seemed big." He sighed and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. "My brother met us at the station, and ripped into me something good. Told me if I get a history of fucking up all I'll ever be is a fuck up like him. He made me help rebuild that stupid shed, and that's how I got started here. I liked it, and Ed, my boss, he needed some more help. But that's it, nothing exciting."

"What about your mother?" Morgan said.

He snorted. "Wasn't living with her then."

He frowned. "There's no record of her losing custody."

"There wouldn't be, it wasn't official, I dont think. Matt, my brother came by the house one day, I was almost ten and told me to pack. Got into it with our mother, over him taking me, and it wasn't a negotiation, even said he'd be willing to take her to court. I packed while they were having it out, and then Matt took me with him. We didn't have much, he had a record so the best job he could get was fixing long haul trucks, but he never hit me, which is more than I can say for my mother."