EASY WAY OUT ¹ ➢ spencer reid

XXIX

As I walked past the baggage claim I spotted Morgan, standing near the exit. He leaned against the wall, arms crossed over his chest as he scanned the building. When he saw me he smiled and walked over, grabbing the small duffle bag from my shoulder and sliding it onto his. "How'd you pull this off?" He asked. We walked side by side to the vehicle, piling inside as quickly as possible.

"I have no idea," I answered honestly, watching as he started the SUV. When he pulled onto the road I leaned back, closing my eyes. I felt the vehicle move pretty quick. Morgan changed lanes frequently, attempting to get ahead of the traffic, knowing we needed to rush. At one point we slowed down to a stop. I opened my eyes, watching Morgan tap the steering wheel impatiently. "Anything happen yet?"

He shook his head, stepping on the gas as soon as the light went green. He drove a couple of blocks before making a swift right turn and continuing. "Sanchez won't budge," he sighed. "The only information we've got out of him is why he did it."

"And?"

"He thinks he can give these women to God as some sort of offering to get his wife back." Morgan shook his head. "The man's suffering a psychotic break."

"It sounds like he's stuck in the grieving process. He's using these girls as a way of bargaining." I replied. Grief was a hard thing to deal with. That mixed with some sort of breakdown was a recipe for disaster.

Morgan took a couple more turns, cutting through a few of alleyways before finally pulling into the station. We hopped out and quickly made our way inside. I followed him towards the office where Reid was. He was standing in front of a whiteboard, writing down addresses, while glancing at the map that hung beside it.

"Find anything?" I asked as I stepped into the room. I glanced up at the clock on the wall. It was nearly seven.

He turned to face me, smiling wide. He took a couple steps toward me, but stopped when he saw Morgan. His smile faded slowly, his eyes darting between us before nodding his head. "I got Garcia to look into Sanchez's records and managed to find significance in some of the locations. Now, given the profile, I've determined that since we're already working with the number seven he probably wouldn't stray away from it." He turned towards the map, circling four out of the fifteen marked spots.

He was about to speak again, but Morgan interjected. "I'll let you guys get to it. Hotch wants me in interrogation." He pointed to the door, giving us both a quick nod before leaving.

"Seven is still a lot." I sighed. I moved over to the chair closest to the whiteboard and sat down.

"Still, it makes sense." Reid responded.

"Yeah, but how are we supposed to find the significance of seven places? We know nothing about this guy's personal life and it's not like he's going to tell us if we ask."

Reid fiddled with the marker in his hand, twisting it around his fingers as he stared at the map. "There has to be something..." He mumbled to himself.

"Have you checked the previous map we got? Maybe we can cross reference them for similarities?"

"I did that," he sighed. "The only abduction site that matched up was Sydney's."

"She worked at a diner, right?"

Reid nodded.

"That diner meant something to him then," I bit my lip. "Maybe he's showing us his story? How he met Martina?"

"The four spots I've managed to pinpoint where all places he frequented with her," he agreed. "According to the owner, he and Martina went to that diner almost every week."