CM Fic: "The Good Boy" (2/7)

[bibliothekara]

Disclaimers: I don’t own Aaron Hotchner, Jason Gideon, David Rossi, or Derek Morgan. They belong to Eddie Bernero and Mark Gordon. But SSA Jenna Plancini, SSA Alex Sheridan, and the various denizens of my fictional version of Waverly, Iowa do belong to me.
Rating: FRT,  due to it being  case-fic
Spoilers: 1.17, “A Real Rain” in particular, up to season 4 in background
Genre: General/Pre-Series/Case-Fic/Ep-Related
Characters: Hotch, Gideon, Rossi; one OMC, one OFC, and various townsfolk.
Pairings: None
Notes:  a) This is a completed fic, written back in the fall of 2008 and archived originally at FF.net. My crop of WIPs is kicking my ass. And I suddenly recalled I had never reposted this to LJ! So, thus, a chapter a day, until it's finished.
b) Waverly, Iowa does exist, and I have tried for accuracy in detail, but this version is fictional, and any resemblance to real people is purely coincidental. Especially since I have never been to Iowa.
c) I am completely ignoring the various timeline weirdness and decided to have Rossi, Gideon and Hotch on the team at the same time. If that or the dates bother you, just stop thinking about them. :)

Summary: “Waverly, Iowa, 1999, a man kills two boys, only to walk away free and kill another one.”- Hotch, A Real Rain. Every agent has their own ghosts.

Prologue

Chapter One

 

Waverly, Iowa, April 14^th, 1999

For some reason, he and livestock just didn’t get along, Jason Gideon decided, looking down at the nanny goat currently chewing on the cuff of his trousers.  He could deal with all sorts of domestic animals: cats, dogs, hamsters, fish, even the occasional snake. But this job inevitably took one to isolated, rural areas, and that meant farmers, and that meant cows, pigs, sheep and, today, goats. He and farms had never been a good fit. He didn’t know why, it wasn’t like there was some deep dark incident in his past involving lambs. But farms were just one of the many things in his life that he did not do that well.

          
  Thank God for Aaron Hotchner, he decided. The rookie SSA continued to reveal new facets of himself daily, and today’s was apparently to be his ease with farm animals. While Jason attempted to extricate himself from the goat’s clutches, Hotch had worked some sort of Virginian magick on the homestead’s affectionate border collie, who according to her collar was named Louise. Hotch, therefore, had made it significantly closer to the home of Ms. Janet  Leeward, widow.  27 Linnet Lane had also been the home of Ricky Leeward, known now in FBI records as Victim No. 2.

Victim No. 1, Mark Brentano, had sent the small, peaceful Iowa town of Waverly into a tailspin. The discovery of Ricky’s body, two days ago, brought the normally bustling population of 9, 000 to a near standstill. The discovery had also sent the BAU jet into Cedar Rapids as if on a frozen rope.  As Gideon and Hotch drove down Waverly’s winding country roads on a sunny Saturday afternoon, there was nary a sound to be heard. No echoes of laughter or play, only a few dogs barking. Two of the town’s children were dead, and Waverly was confused and terrified.

Finally removing his slacks from the goat’s hungry maw, Gideon reviewed what little they did know. Two boys, both 14 years old, both white, both found in wooded areas. Different wooded areas, however; on the exact opposite ends of town.  Found nearly naked, except for their underwear. Raped, and then strangled with a fine ligature, possibly some kind of wire.  And yet, apart from the sexual assault, the bodies themselves were nearly pristine.  Whoever had killed Mark and Ricky had not dumped them, in the  cruel way Gideon had seen too many times before. They had been laid upon the moss carefully, almost gently; and, in each case, their hands placed over their eyes. To shield them? To shield himself? Still unknown.  But this was not a crime of rage; in his sick way, the unsub loved these boys.  Gideon didn’t know if that made it better or worse.

“Found your footing?”  “Now, come on, Hotch, we don’t all have your Doctor Doolittle touch.”  “I think she liked you.”   “Nah, I get that from all the goats.” That got a smile out of the younger agent. Gideon had worried during the first week or so after Hotchner arrived that the young agent was physically incapable of the act. But after a month or so, Gideon had made an enjoyable discovery. Their newbie profiler had a dry, but wicked, sense of humor.  It had unsettled Dave Rossi a little bit, that much was clear, but he too had begun to come around. Katie Cole’s departure had roiled the seas of the BAU, but Aaron Hotchner was just the bromide to calm them.

Gideon and Hotch reached the porch of the Leeward house together, and Jason raised his hand to knock on the door, when it apparently opened of its own volition. The tear-stained face of Janet Leeward stared out at them.

“Mrs. Leeward?”

 “ I heard Louise barking. You’re…”

“Agents Gideon and Hotchner, from the FBI, ma’am. “

“Yes, John told me he had called you.  You want to ask me some questions.”

It was not a question, but a statement. No affect. This woman had seen too much, and had no will left to fight anymore. What had not been ripped from her by her husband’s death, she had poured into her son. And now Ricky, as well, had been taken from her.

 
Hotch was the first to venture a question. “Ricky disappeared three days ago?”

 “Yes. They called me the next morning when they found him. Last time I heard his voice, he called, that night. Said Coach Rowe was making ‘em all stay late, because of the sloppy play against Davenport last week. Said he might go get dinner at the Millers.”           

  “This is his friend, Brandon Miller?”

“ Best friends since kindergarten. …Brandon would come eat dinner over here, or Ricky would have burgers and mashed potatoes over at the Millers. Every week, every fall, since they were both in Pop Warner.”

That seemed to break the somber mood. The thought of tiny shoulder pads and oversized helmets briefly brought Janet Leeward out of her catatonia. She smiled. And then, as quickly as it appeared, it passed.

  “Did you talk to Brandon too?”

 “No, and Ricky got called away from the phone. It was noisy in the background. Like, he was calling from that pay phone near the field. I’d know those sounds anywhere.“

 That sparked Gideon’s interest. Mark Brentano had called his parents, saying he was staying late at school, that he’d take the 5:00 bus. A bus that had never picked him up.  This unsub did not snatch. He planned.

Hotch proceeded on. “So football was big for Ricky?”

 “Oh, yes. Just like his daddy. Rick was left guard, for the state champion team, back in ’78? And he put a ball in Ricky’s hand just about as soon as he could walk. But Ricky was smaller, see, and faster. So, he’s been playing wide receiver since about the age of 8. “

The young man smiled. “Yeah, you gotta watch those second graders, they’re sneaky fast. My little brother Sean always said that he could have made the NFL, if he was drafted out of Lane Elementary.”

“Ricky was just the same way. They’d lose sight of him for just a second, and whoosh, like the Road Runner, off he’d go.”

        
Gideon hated to break the reverie, but he had to. “Ms. Leeward, what about school? Was Ricky a good student?”

         
“Well, he liked his teachers well enough, and they liked him. But it never came easy. And before you say anything, it wasn’t football. Coach Rowe is always very, very strict about that kind of thing. You don’t see any lazy athletes in Waverly.”

           
 “ But he did okay?”

          
  “ C-plus, B-minus mostly. You know, we had a pizza night a couple weeks ago when he got an A-minus on his algebra test. I even bought some root beer and some vanilla ice cream… so we could make root beer floats….I’m sorry…”

As much sense as these things ever made, root beer was what broke the dam. Mrs,  Leeward’s somber visage crumpled into tears, and she closed the door.

Hotch and Gideon stood on the stoop for a moment, then wordlessly headed for the car. Time to expand their canvass to the surrounding neighborhood.

           
They reached the dingy Crown Vic that had been provided by Waverly PD.

          
  “Gideon?”

   “Yeah?”

           
“This doesn’t ever get easier, does it? ”

           
 “…no. But it doesn’t get much worse, if that’s any consolation.”

         
“It isn’t.”

 

*********

 

Comments

[kuriadalmatia.livejournal.com]

I loved Gideon's 'issues' with the goats, the line about the lambs perfect. And Hotch having the Doctor Dolittle moment was fun. I also enjoyed how you added in references from the CM canon (as wacky as the timeline usually is). Nicely done.

[pabzi.livejournal.com]

Very well done! Great fic so far. Looking forward to the next part :)

[katewallace.livejournal.com]

Yeah, part 2! And Gideon was right..Hotch does have a sense of humor, but it's the 'blink-and-you'll-miss-it' kind..like his quiet remark to Reid when the good Dr. is trying to impress the ladies with his 'physics magic'..and then the little half-smile when Hotch turns away. (Sorry, can't remember the episode for the life of me.) Can't wait for part 3!