memento vivere - supernatural & criminal minds

chapter 26

Chapter 26
Chaos Theory

When Jude proposed that they go fill in Hotch and Gideon, Penelope quickly volunteered to stay back. The corner of her mouth had twitched at the mention of Gideon’s name, but there was no time to press her on it. On the way to the interrogation rooms, Jude asked Spencer if he’d noticed.

“Gideon blew up at her before you got here,” he explained, keeping his voice low. “He called her irresponsible and stupid for letting a hacker get into our personnel files.”

Jude halted outside the interrogation room. Her grip tightened on her notepad. “He called her stupid?” Their superiors met them in the hall and Jude tried to settle her features. Thankfully, Gideon seemed too preoccupied to notice the rage in her eyes.

“We know what the book is,” Spencer told them. “The Collector by John Fowles.”

“You sure?”

“Not absolutely. Not until we see if the code works.”

Jude’s eyes narrowed on Gideon as she said, “Penelope is scanning libraries for the 1963 edition published in Great Britain. We should have it soon.”

“Agent Gideon?” They turned to see a woman leaning out of the bullpen doors. “There’s a call for you on line two, he says it’s extremely urgent. He’s calling himself the Fisher King.”

Spencer took the paper on which this name was written. He scanned it for only a second and blurted, “This could be the unsub. In mythology, the Fisher King is the Grail King. ‘Sir Kneighf’ is an anagram for ‘Fisher King.’ The Fisher King is at the end of all grail quests.”

“But instead of a grail,” Jude said as they migrated to the bullpen, “it’s a girl.” They started a trap and trace on the number and circled the phone. Gideon put the alleged Fisher King on speaker and announced his presence. The rest stayed quiet, as the call had not been meant for them.

“What I had to do was not my fault.”

“Excuse me?”

“It was distasteful and barbaric. No one else had to be hurt.”

“Who is this? Why do you call yourself the Fisher King?”

“I told you there were rules.”

“I’m actually more interested in exactly how you got all those burns.” Confused, Jude turned to Hotch. He mouthed ‘delivery man.’

“Remember this next time you decide to step out outside of my instructions. Agent Greenaway did not have to die like that.”

***

A sheen of worried tears covered Penelope’s eyes as she led Jude and Spencer to the conference room, hastily explaining that she was in contact with the owner of their book. Hotch and Gideon had rushed to deal with the Fisher King’s warning. For all they knew, at that moment Elle could be dead. It seemed barbaric that they still had to work the case, but there was no other choice.

“Mrs. Valez, are you there?” Spencer addressed the conference room phone. Penelope lowered herself into a chair, putting her face in her hands. Behind her, Jude found a marker to write the book code on the whiteboard. She needed something to do with her hands so she didn’t twist her rings until her fingers fell off.

“I am.”

“Wonderful. I’m gonna read you a set of three numbers. The first will be a page number, the second will be a line on that page, and the third will be a word on that line. First is page 222, line 23, word 16.”