Strange Encounter - a Criminal Minds fic

Chapter 10

Amelia felt blindsided. She knew these agents were doing their jobs, if she had been them she probably would've been suspicious too. But god how she wish they would just believe her. She had seen plenty of crime shows, but never knew what it felt like to sit in a cold metal chair facing two feds with what she knew was two way glass behind them. She felt on display and it was all she could do to keep from staring at the mirrored surface.

"So Amelia. If you look at this.." Emily tapped a few buttons on her tablet and a video played. Amelia watched a video of herself from what she assumed was a home security camera. She watched herself walk across the screening a matter of seconds. They played three more videos, all in all they were two from one day and two from another. Her eyes darted to meet Emily's across the table.

"Is this why you needed to question me?" She asked. She knew when the footage was from, and she breathed a sigh of relief. She'd be able to prove she didn't do anything.

"You seem confident that you can explain this away. I'm not sure if you realize this but, these are the victim's security camerss. So, care to?" Derek said, testing her.

Amelia braced herself against Derek's accusatory tone. "Of course I can. I told you I didn't have anything to do with this. Those are days I went into my office to get mail. I recognize my outfits, plus I mean it's one of the few times I go into center city anymore" she said defensively. She knew they had to treat her like this and she shouldn't be defensive, but she couldn't help it.

"I thought you were working remotely?" Emily asked, a look of confusion on her face.

"Well, I am. But my department has to handle unemployment and with the pandemic, well, there's been a lot of people filing. The government can only send unemployment documents to the business address so my team takes turns going into the office and scanning them onto our hub to access them remotely. My day to go in is Fridays, which are the days these videos are from. You can check my office's security system, I have to buzz in to get inside" she said confidently, almost sure that this would get her out of the woods.

She couldn't help but glance back at the glass behind Derek and Emily, hoping Spencer was there. She imagined he was, just for her ease of mind. Why couldn't he be the one asking her these things? 'Because he knows you didn't do this' the thought flitted across her mind.

She saw Derek type something into his phone before looking back up at her. "Well, that sounds pretty concrete to me. But, until we have confirmation, we need to conduct this as if you were a suspect."

Amelia swallowed the lump in her throat, hoping that their tech analyst she saw briefly on the screen yesterday would work her magic Reid had talked about and get them their answer quickly.

"Amelia, what can you tell me about your mother?" Emily asked, looking down at a paper in front of her.

Amelia looked startled, hoping she heard her wrong. Her mom was not something she talked about, with anyone, and she did not want to start now. She just stared at Emily, willing her to take the question back.

Instead, Emily elaborated. "It looks her like you sent her a text the night before we came to the city, the night Kelley Amada died. You said 'You need to stay the hell away from me or I'll make sure that you do.' Care to elaborate?"

Amelia stared at the agents incredulously.

"What does that have to do with..." she trailed off and shook her head. "I'm not sure how you guys conduct searches or background checks or whatever, but did you look up any of my early childhood history, or my parents histories?" She asked them, crossing her arms.

"No, up until an hour ago we didn't think we had cause to. We looked into your immediate history going back a year or so but that's all" Derek said, leaning forward to place his elbows on the table.