𝓼𝓪𝓯𝓮 ➣ 𝓼. 𝓻𝓮𝓲𝓭

𝓯𝓸𝓻𝓽𝔂-𝓽𝔀𝓸

"In San Francisco," she replied, confirming they were suspects at the least. "Caleb Rossmore is a city parks employee. Harvey Morell is an engineer at a Chinese computer form. He's about to get married. And yes, I just e-mailed you all this information right now."

Mara looked at the info on her tablet. "The soon to be, Marisa Devon, looks like the two female victims. They were surrogates for her. Caleb could be jealous of his friend."

"Or what if he's afraid of losing Harvey?" Reid suggested. "If he was a child prodigy, he may no longer feel special as an adult. He could be trying to hold on to him. Harvey's engagement could have been a trigger."

"Reid, I know Spassky conceded the match, but what would the next move have been?" Rossi asked.

"Spassky would've been checkmates, or he would have lost his queen," he stepped forward and looked at the map. "Spassky's queen was in square E-eight, so that would land us in Richmond."

"Garcia, is there a connection between that location and the two men?" Mara asked.

"Yep," she replied. "Harvey's dad worked there as a chemistry teacher in the sixties. And oh, uh, Caleb lived there in two thousand and eight. He worked at the PowerLinks Gym on second and Hill, and the Dragon Temple Restaurant at six-three-six Mason."

"All right, JJ and Morgan, you go to the gym, we'll check out the restaurant."

They all moved to the trucks, strapping on their vests and getting ready to possibly arrest this guy. Reid was tapping his foot anxiously, Mara noticing.

"Where's your head at?"

"The message you can do so much better in the Chinese paper was meant for Harvey, that means, the original spam message was for him, too." He connected the dots.

"Well, how did Caleb know that Harvey wouldn't turn him in?"

"Caleb has something on him," Mara replied. "That little boy, Robbie Shaw, that was their first kill."

They got to the restaurant and Reid and Mara go in first, the rest sticking to the back, letting Reid take the lead.

"The police won't catch us, because the murders were perfect," Caleb said to Harvey. "Just like Robbie Shaw's."

"Not really," Reid spoke, coming up on them with a gun. "If they were perfect, I probably wouldn't be here right now."

Mara stayed on the other side of the sinks, gun trained on Caleb. 

"I had nothing to do with this." Harvey quickly covered for himself.

"You really went out of your way to impress Harvey, Caleb," Reid said, lowering his gun as Mara stepped forward. "The murders, the chess game, all designed to entice him."

"Yes." Caleb said, slightly lowering his weapon.

"He is pathological!" Harvey yelled.

"I don't know if Harvey's the best friend in the world to be selling you out like that," Reid said, Mara covering him. "I mean, after you killed Robbie Shaw together, you probably thought that you guys had an unbreakable bond."

"He murdered Robbie by himself." Harvey quickly said.

"When we took him into the woods and strangled him, I've never seen you so exhilarated, the look on your face," Caleb said to Harvey. "You can't deny that, Harvey."

"But afterwards, something changes. You two grew apart." Reid said.

"You pulled away from me. Do you know how much that hurt?" Caleb said, raising his weapon. "I would have done anything for you, Harvey. I looked up to you."

"You know what I think, Harvey?" Reid said to him. "I think Robbie Shaw was your idea."

"No!" 

"You chose him because his brother used to pick on you in school," Reid said t him. "You're successful, you're charismatic, you're dominant, which means that you most likely made the plans and Caleb followed. Let me ask you this..where did you hide the body?"

Caleb and Harvey stared at each other, Harvey begging him not to say anything. Reid continued, "If I was gonna kill somebody and hide a body, I think I would probably use sulphuric acid. Especially if my father was a chemistry teacher, right, Caleb?"

"Caleb, don't listen to him," Harvey said to him. "He's trying to trick us."

"Do you trust him, Caleb?" Reid asked him.

"Caleb, listen, whatever happens, we'll protect each other."

"Oh, I'm sure that he'll protect you if he's around," Reid said, putting the final cut between their bond. "I mean, he is moving to Shanghai in a couple of months. He put the transfer in about a year ago."

Reid watched the body language change and Mara knew to prepare herself for what could come next, her finger hovering over the trigger.

"Wait, did you goof friend Harvey not tell you about that?" Reid chuckled. "I'm sure that he'll send you a postcard."

"I was going to tell you." Harvey defended himself.

Caleb dropped the gun and Mara moved in for the arrest. "Robbie's bones are buried in his backyard."

They made the arrest and headed back to Quantico, Reid grabbed a coffee from Muggs before heading in to HQ to finish reports.

Mara made a call on the plane ride back home, Garcia decorating the conference room for Reid's birthday. 

She met him as he got off the elevator, a blindfold hidden behind her back. He smiled gently at her, opening his mouth to say something but she cut him off, pulling the blindfold from behind her back.

He furrowed his eyebrows, thankfully not connecting the dots about his birthday party. She didn't let him say anything because she stepped forward, wrapping the blindfold over his eyes and tying it around his head.

She lead him to the conference room, accidentally bumping him into the doorway, laughing. 

"You know, if you were into this, you should have just told me."

Mara smacked her palm against her forehead before pulling the blindfold from his face, the entire team yelling surprise.

They were all smirking at his comment and his eyes widened in realization that the entire team heard his comment. 

"Happy birthday, Spence." He smiled, standing on her toes and kissing his cheek.

Garcia held the cake up to Reid, the number thirty candle lit up. 

Mara wrapped her arms around his waist and he put his arm around her shoulders, blowing the candles out.