or what, sir? |a. hotchner| ✔️

eight

I stopped Aaron before we could enter the station by grabbing his forearm, making him turn to look at me.

"I uh..." I looked down, letting go of him. "I know Rossi already talked to you about it, but he kind of made a joke out of it" I started, and then I sheepishly let my eyes meet his, "You know this isn't your fault, right? If you had done what Shaunessy did all those years ago, you would have made an even bigger mistake"

He nodded, "I know, it was just an in the moment thing. I'm so tired" He admitted. He rubbed one of his eyebrows with the palm of his hand, "Thank you for checking in on me, I really appreciate it" I smiled faintly, and we both walked into the station. Everyone was there, and I sat next to Reid. He nudged me lightly, causing my glances to change from the team to just him.

"Is he okay?"

"Yep" I rested my head on Reid's shoulder,

"Why is he so focused on Foyet? What's so special about him?" Hotch asked himself, and I looked at JJ as she played with a pen,

"He was his only surviving victim, the only one he couldn't defeat"

"But he's not a threat, defeating him would be no great accomplishment. There's something there that we're missing" Hotch was sure of it, he was basically defending what we all knew was true.

"Okay, well what about the girlfriend, Amanda Bertrand?" Emily questioned,

"What do we know about her?" JJ added to her words, and I picked up the case file.

"She was 19, a freshman. She came here from Michigan to go to school. Foyet was a teacher's assistant in one of Amanda's courses" I read off of a piece of paper, and I narrowed my eyes at the thing I just said. "Michigan?" I realized, and I picked my head up off of Spencer's shoulder.

"That was where The Reaper had Shaunessy post the personal ad" Morgan said before I could.

"That can't be a coincidence"

"He told us she was the love of his life, that he was gonna propose" Rossi started,

"But she just got here from Michigan. They only met when the class started" Reid said quickly, and I pursed my lips. I leaned on one of my hands, which was supported by my thighs. I looked at Emily, knowing she was also holding a case file.

"How long had she been in the class?" I asked,

"4 weeks. So it was either love at first sight or... what?"

"Foyet was lying?" And that's when it hit me. It hit me that the man I felt was hiding something was in fact the Boston Reaper. He had to have stabbed himself, but why? So he was never ruled as a suspect? Psychotic.

I was about to voice my opinion, until...

"Garcia" Hotch said into the phone, but then he quickly put it on speaker. "What are Foyet's aliases?"  He asked me, and I handed him the file. "I want you to look up in the Boston city records for Kevin Baskin, Miles Holden, and William Parker. Try the department of education" I nodded,

"Well played, sir. So they all work for the department of education, They're all substitute teachers, And they all teach computer science"

"High school?" 

"Yeah..." Then she paused, "Oops, scratch that. They're not all working for the department of education" I raised an eyebrow, glancing at Reid, who was already looking at me with the same facial expression.

"They're not?" Hotch sounded just as confused as we were,

"No. William Parker was fired for alleged inappropriate behavior with his female students" This made Hotch tense up, he looked like he was remembering something.

"Hotch?" I said, trying to snap him back into reality.

"Colson went to see Foyet. Garcia, I need you to locate Roy Colson's cell phone. George Foyet is the reaper" I smirked, glad I wasn't the only one who figured it out.

"Oh, god. Uh-- Ok, triangulating now. I got it. 2633 South Budlong" She sped spoke, and we all started standing up,

"That must be an address that Foyet didn't give us" We all rushed to get everyone ready and into a car. I hurried into the car with Hotch, Morgan, and Rossi, trying to adjust my FBI vest in the back seat.

"He stabbed Amanda Bertrand to death, he drove a mile, he called 911, he went back, and he inflicted those wounds on himself. He knew EMS would get there in time to save him. Between the phone call and the severity of his wounds, we never considered him as a suspect" Hotch explained to us, and I shook my head in disgust and annoyance. The bastard was right under our noses the entire time,

"Why would he do that to himself?" Morgan questioned

"It put him at the core of the investigation. Everything we had came from him" I told him, knowing how this kind of stuff worked.

"He left his own glasses at the crime scene, he pointed us right back in his direction, and still we didn't see it" Rossi and I exchanged looks as we were the two in the back seats, and he nodded. Hotch was right, we completely missed it.

000

We entered his house through the back door, me following directly behind Hotch. Rossi was right behind me, and we all had our guns at the ready. Hotch looked in the one room, and that's when he pointed his gun. Rossi and I entered as well,

"It's over" Hotch told him, and that made the Reaper get up from his seat and point his gun directly at Roy Colson.

"Stop" Foyet ordered, "I'll kill him" He ensured, and Hotch shook his head.

"No you won't, you need him to write your story" Aaron taunted,

"I'm taking him with me" George exclaimed, "I'll let him go as soon as I'm safe"

"No you're not" Aaron instructed,

"I said I'll kill him!" Foyet yelled, and then I looked at Hotch. He was furious, he was almost shaking in anger,

"You kill him, I kill you" He told him, and then George suddenly looked at me. He was examining me, as if he was trying to figure out where he had seen me before.

"You think I'm afraid to die?" He directed that to Hotch, however he was still staring at me. It was unsettling, it gave me goosebumps.

"I know you aren't. You're greedy and narcissistic. You want the recognition that's going to come from the book that he's gonna write. You want the fame that's gonna come from the media. It's gonna be like Bundy" Aaron was profiling the man, and for some reason, I thought it was abnormally attractive.

Wrong place and certainly wrong time, Veronica.

"I'm gonna be bigger than Bundy" He smirked at me, "Bundy didn't have a daughter" My eyebrows furrowed and my eyes turned narrow, I was confused yet curious. 

"A daughter" Aaron was barely asking, it was more of an amused confusion to his voice. "Well, you can't enjoy the fame if you're dead"

"Yeah, a daughter" Morgan, Prentiss, and Reid came in behind him, all their guns pointed right at him. He turned his head a little, "Hello, Derek" Foyet suddenly put his gun down on the table, putting his hands up.

"Where's my badge? Where is it, you son of a bitch?" Morgan began to handcuff him,

"I'm gonna be more famous than you even realize, just like Angie said" He said to me, and Morgan dragged him out.

"You're dreamin'" And then, they were both gone. I held my breath, and I realized why I wanted to look into Foyet in the first place.

I had remembered his last name.

The same last name was Angelina Foyet.