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CHAPTER NINE:SPENCER REID'S MORAL DUTY

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CHAPTER NINE:
SPENCER REID'S MORAL DUTY

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It's on the way into work the next day that it hits him, and he almost kicks himself for being so ridiculously stupid -- and, honestly, as harsh as I feel to say it, it is a dumb move.

"Hotch!" he calls, racing across the bullpen.

Morgan and Prentiss call behind him, leaping from their desks to follow him, but he's clattering up the stairs with his hands on either banister, leaping three at a time, and two seconds later he's bursting into Hotch's office.

"Hotch," he pants in the doorway, and his boss looks up, confusion and concern written in his furrowed eyebrows, "it's about Nina. She was in Florence."

Prentiss and Morgan land behind him, and there's a chorus of unsynced What's?

He moves into the office, the others following him, and with a nod Hotch orders Morgan to draw the blinds. "She was in Florence," Spencer starts, closing the door behind them all. "At the cafe. I thought I was hallucinating -- I'd spent the afternoon watching video tapes for six hours, and the heat..." But he shakes his head, exasperated with himself. "But she called me last night, and confirmed that --"

"What? She called you?" Prentiss cuts in, as Hotch snaps, "She contacted you?"

Spencer gestures hurriedly for them to calm down. "I'll explain that in a minute, but it's not important -- this is urgent."

But it is important, at least to him, because he can't stop thinking about it and the mere thought of her, and her voice, and the fact she'd actually spoken to him, is driving him crazy.

"She confirmed she was in Florence, outside the cafe where we met Gina Bianchi and Mrs Russo," he nonetheless continues. "Now, this got me thinking. How the hell did she know we were there?"

"She's obviously monitoring us," says Morgan.

"No, they're monitoring us. Edelstein, the people who work for him, the people higher than us who are in his team," he rambles.

All three of them still look mildly confused, and he shakes his head, still exasperated with himself -- this time for being so unclear.

"Before me and Prentiss got on the jet to go to Italy, you said to us, Hotch, that someone  -- a superior -- would be watching us to make sure we were discreet about the case." He glances at Prentiss. "And when we got there, I asked you, Emily -- don't you remember? -- I asked you, do you really think someone's watching us? And you said yes. Which leads me to believe that whoever was watching us that day, works for Edelstein and at least has indirect contact with Nina -- if not direct communication, on a phone or otherwise. It's how she got there so fast."

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