Natalie

Chapter 23

Natalie and Spencer sat at the dining table in Spencer's apartment. They were sitting face-to-face, but comfortably unlike an interrogation. There were a few old pictures of Natalie displayed in front of her that allowed her to relive memories from years past. Apparently, this was a good strategy to dig up the ones that were hidden in the back of her mind. 

They had been talking for a couple hours now, and it seemed to be pointless to Natalie. On the other hand, Spencer was learning way more than he expected about Natalie's parents. Some could of been completely innocent, but the way they sounded were just too good to be true.

"Do you want to take a break?" Spencer asked. After all, she did give up spending the day with Britney to answer all these questions.

"No that's okay."

Spencer nodded, "Alright, I have just a few more things to ask that will help,"

He had already covered Natalie's personal relationships with each of her parents. Now it was time to talk about the relationship they had with each other. This was where it always got messy in these types of interviews. Everyone paints a picture of their loved ones in their minds, and never want to see it another way.

"Fire away," Natalie smiled.

Sometimes, Spencer's eyes were haunting. They were the one thing about him that brought out his emotions. Right now, they were worried. It was almost like he knew what he was about to ask would bring up a lot of things that Natalie purposely locked away in her mind. "Did your parents ever fight?" 

Natalie paused to think, "I don't think so. I mean, not in front of me,"

Sighing a breath of relief, Spencer continued, "Would you say they had a good relationship?"

That was a question Natalie didn't know how to answer. She didn't even know what defined a good relationship. "I don't know," Natalie said quietly. 

"That's okay," Spencer said. Anyone else would've been jotting down notes, but Spencer was lucky enough to have an eidetic memory. The audio he was recording helped too. "How about this... when you spent time with them, were they together or separate?"

Pondering for a moment, Natalie cleared her throat. She knew why he had to ask these questions, it just didn't feel any better to answer them. Especially, realizing how certain aspects of her life looked. "Separate... I never realized. Why was it like that?"

Spencer turned off the recording, deciding it was a good time to stop. "I'm gonna make some tea, alright?" he learned plenty from the interview, and there was no need to push it any further.

----

"What did you find Garcia?" Spencer said walking into her office.

About twenty minutes ago, Garcia called Spencer to tell him everything she found. He insisted on coming in to hear the information. She didn't want him to considering there wasn't much to tell, "I dove deep, I mean deep," she said, "I didn't find anything. Like nothing at all. Everything that you already know is what I found. Except a few details like where they moved from. Apparently, that was Wyoming,"

"Wyoming?" Spencer didn't think that could be true.

"Can I do anything else to help?" Garcia asked, looking up at him.

Spencer nodded, he didn't like the theory that had been boiling in his head, but there were no other angles to investigate at the moment. "I have a theory, and if I'm right, you have to let me talk to Natalie about it," 

Garcia nodded, and turned around to her computer, "Hit me!"

"Natalie said her parents were married for fifteen years the day they went missing," Spencer said, "Look for any missing women around her mom's age from eighteen years ago that were never found," he thought back to the interview when he asked about Natalie's mom specifically. Natalie remembered her as often nervous, and oddly enough she loved pleasing her husband. Meanwhile, Natalie remembered her father as a confident man who sometimes would be gone for long periods of time.

"That's going to be a large number of people," Garcia said, beginning to get nervous about what she might find in the databases.

"Try from Wyoming,"

Penelope began typing, and then stopped when the computer came up with nothing. She shook her head, and looked back at Spencer, waiting for him to give her something else.

He thought for a moment, "It's a stretch, but expand that search thirty years, and include New York,"

"New York is going to bring up a lot of names," Garcia said.

"Specifically, upstate New York," Spencer said.

Suddenly, a list of names appeared on Garcia's screen, about twenty-five. "That's something," Garcia said.

Spencer quickly read over the names, and stopped on one that stood out. Cindy Thompson. "Can you pull up the information on that girl," Spencer said pointing to the name on the screen.

"Whoa," Garcia said, once the file appeared. The picture of the teenage girl in front of her looked strikingly similar to the woman she had just done a deep dive on. "Sixteen year old Cindy Thompson of Plattsburgh, New York was supposed to be home, but when her parents returned she was no where to be found. Police investigated, but after two weeks, police exhausted every resource they could to find this girl, and eventually identified the case as cold. She never returned home," she read.

"Only two weeks, and they gave up? Something's not right there. Can you-"

Penelope cut him off, knowing what he wanted her to do, "I'll run the aging software on her,"

It took about ten minutes for Garcia to give an accurate image, but it was obvious even halfway through that this young girl was Natalie's mother. This was the major lead that Hotch needed to bring the team in, but it broke Spencer's heart. Giving this news would not be easy, and neither would telling her that Detective Ray Miller would have to be investigated. Especially considering that in both cases of her parent's disappearance, and now her mother's apparent disappearance, police supposedly 'exhausted all of their resources' and gave up way too soon.

"Send that to Hotch's office. We're going to Plattsburgh." Spencer said, almost running out the door.