Natalie

Chapter 26

"How are they doing?" Hotch asked, looking towards the couple sitting in the other room of the precinct.

"Just as you'd expect," Spencer replied as he marched towards the team, list of names in hand. He looked at it once, but kept the paper so the team could take a look. Analyzing the way Rose wrote the names could give some insight into the significance of each name. Though, there was one name that truly stood out whether or not they analyzed that paper.

"What's that?" Morgan asked, pointing at the paper in Reid's hand. The coffee mug in his hand almost tipped over as Derek moved around the table he was sitting on.

"List of kids Cindy Thompson used to hang out with," Spencer said, giving his awkward smile while handing off the paper to Derek.

JJ leaned over Morgan's shoulder to look at the names as well. The second she noticed the one name that stood out the most, she looked up at Spencer who was giving her a knowing look. Morgan then saw it too, and handed the paper over to Hotch to let him, Emily and Rossi see it for themselves.

"That's way too much of a coincidence," Emily said.

"I'll call Garcia," Rossi said, taking out his phone from his suit jacket.

Hotch wanted to focus on the other names, but none of them seemed to stand out. "Anyone else we should know about?" he asked, looking sternly at Spencer.

"The Thompson's seem to dislike a man named Matthew Ainsworth who Cindy was seeing before her disappearance. He had a solid alibi at the time, but it might still be useful to find out where he is," Spencer said. "The captain might know, the guy was a known drug dealer at the time,"

"I'll go talk to him," Emily said, turning around and heading into the office of the precinct's captain.

"Now we wait until Penelope gets us more info on that name," Hotch said.

----

Natalie sat in Britney's car while the two attempted to distract her from her current situation. They chose to park in one of the strip mall's parking lots with their Chinese takeout. It didn't seem like it would take her mind off things, but Natalie always enjoyed spending time with Britney. Spending time with Penelope was great, until she's reminded that it's like hanging out with her dad's friend.

Britney was great at keeping a conversation afloat. If there was anyone in the world to distract from sorrow, it was Britney. On the other hand, the girl was fantastic at making a person talk about their feelings. 

"So, what are you gonna do for the rest of high school if you're already taking the senior classes?" Britney asked.

"I've been thinking about it, and I might just graduate," Natalie laughed. 

"I would say it's a waste, but you were lucky enough to meet me out of it," Britney laughed, pointing her chopstick at Natalie. This was automatically followed by an awkward pause that Britney jumped to break, "Have you ever had a boyfriend?"

Looking up from her food, Natalie was ver obviously confused. "No, I haven't," she said.

Britney looked at her thoughtfully, "Seriously? You're way too cute to not have had a boyfriend yet,"

It was something she struggled with understanding herself, but Natalie never really felt she was interested in boys. That wasn't to say she was asexual, they just never seemed to catch her eye. Maybe there was something to say about the fact that her best friend was a guy. "I guess I never really had any interest," she said, not wanting to go into any more detail.

"You're totally gay!" Britney exclaimed. She jumped up in her seat like she had been waiting for this moment her entire life. 

Natalie jumped a little bit, but then laughed at Britney's reaction. "Yeah, I guess I am,"

"I knew it! I mean you're pretty low-key about it, but a cute face like yours and you're not even remotely talking to any guy? And don't act like none of them are interested," Britney said.

"Oh my god," Natalie's face flushed. "Why do you wanna know anyways?"

Quickly, Britney suddenly became extremely focused on her food. She was picking at it with the chopstick she held in her hand. Feeling the burn of Natalie's confused stare, Britney laughed it off, "I was just curious," she said.

"Right..."

Suddenly, Britney closed her food container and threw it in the takeout bag. "I like you Natalie," she blurted out.

Natalie was thrown off guard for a moment, and repositioned in her seat. It was dead silent in that car while she thought of a way to respond. This was not a rejection that she was trying to come up with, but Britney interrupted her thoughts when the silence went on a little too long.

"You know what? Just forget I said anything, I'm sorry," Britney said, grabbing her seatbelt to prepare to drive Natalie home.

"What, no! I was trying to come up with something witty to say, but I'm terrible at being witty," Natalie laughed. "If you're suddenly hellbent on taking me home," she pointed to the wheel that Britney already had two hands on, "Then, let's get breakfast tomorrow... as a date,"

"Okay," Britney said softly, as she moved her hand to put the car in drive.

----

Rossi had spoken to Penelope on the phone for about twenty minutes. Not only did she find the the person they were really looking for, but she also found out where Matthew Ainsworth was. Richard was right in thinking that he was in jail. The man was serving a five year sentence after pleading guilty for sexual assault.

"Morgan... you and Emily go talk to him. I'll notify the Warden that you'll be questioning Ainsworth. Rossi what did you find on the other guy?" Hotch asked.

Sighing, Rossi stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked at Reid. Then, he looked back at Hotch and said, "A complete plot twist,"

"What do you mean?" Spencer's body sort of perked up.

"Well... we're not gonna find that guy here because he went missing around the same time as Cindy," Rossi was taking this revelation much slower than anyone wanted, but he anted to make sure everyone could properly process the information he was giving. "But, no one connected it because he was ten years older than Cindy. I also asked Garcia to look into any other missing women with that age range,"

"So, the plot twist is that there were more people missing at the time?" JJ asked, trying to push Rossi to finish talking.

Shaking his head, Rossi walked a bit closer to the team. Being especially careful to keep the next part private. "The plot twist is Frederick Miller. We were so hellbent on the Frederick of it all, figuring you could get Freddie from it that we missed the obvious,"

"Which is?" Morgan egged him on.

To the side, Reid was deep in thought, but it didn't take long for him to put two and two together, "Oh my god,"

Knowing he wasn't going to share what he was thinking right away, Rossi began to explain, "The lead detective on Natalie's case was a man named Ray Miller. According to Garcia's search, they're brothers,"

Emily nodded, "Explains why the investigation was closed so quickly, he was trying to protect his brother,"

Spencer found his head burying itself deep in his hands. Now, he was extremely frustrated with what they were finding. The man that Natalie trusted with her life before she met Spencer had been lying to her this entire time. It just didn't make any sense. How did these two men have entirely different lives in the same place?

"Reid, what is it?" Hotch asked, noticing his change in behavior.

"I spoke to Miller on the phone and he told me to stop investigating this for her and he seemed genuine about it," Spencer said, letting his hands drop down, but not making any sort of eye contact with his boss.

"Well, while we get some information out of Ainsworth, we're going to track down some of the Miller relatives. Then, we're heading back to Natalie's hometown," Hotch said.

The team exchanged a few glances before getting back to work. Morgan and Emily hurried out the door to speak to Ainsworth. As things were coming together, nothing was making sense.