Running

Chapter 16

We stand in the anteroom of Seth's interrogation. The anteroom is the room connected, where you stand and look through the two way glass.

Seth sits at the metal table, an untouched glass of water in front of him. His hands are crossed in his lap. He doesn't seem nervous. If anything he looks angry, or annoyed. Probably the latter.

"Where the hell did you guys go!" He yells. His impatience shining through.

Only a moment later Hotch and Rossi walk in. Their faces are stoic as they sit, a file in front of them.

"Seth Laymen. It's to our understanding that you work at the supermarket that Payton stole from only a few weeks ago. Did that upset you? The fact that he wasn't punished?"

He growls. "Yes. I was the one that reported him, and everybody decided to do nothing! What kind of police force do we have here that lets something like that slide?"

"Well, we have agents speaking to your friend right now. And if I'm not wrong, you took the fall for Payton's crime?"

He mutters under his breath and it sounds suspiciously like "that bastard."

"Yeah, okay? I took the fall. But that doesn't mean I went and took some kid. Word around here is that Ray is the one who took Kayden and Farrah. What's to say he didn't take Payton too?"

"That's for us to know, and you to find out," Rossi says.

Seth grunts.

"Whatever. You have nothing on me. No evidence whatsoever. You can't keep me here."

"You're right, we can't, but answer me this. Your younger sister. Layla. She's adopted right? And she just so happens to be in Kaydens grade. Did he ever bully her?"

"No," he says through gritted teeth.

"What'd he do to her Seth?"

"Nothing! He never did anything!"

"Then why do you seem so angry?"

Seths face is beat red in fury.

"I'm angry, because you bozos are keeping me here for no other reason than that I have an enemy on your team. Has she told you about it yet? Do you know what she did?"

"Who," Rossi replies, taking the bait.

"Eleanor Grace!" He yells.

"Eleanor Grace, Eleanor Grace..." Rossi says, tapping a finger against his chin in feigned thought. "Nope. We don't have an Agent Grace. We have an Agent Price though, does that sound right?"

"Of course she changed her name. She's too much of a coward to confront the Grace name. Did you hear what she did? She let her dad rape and torture her for four years, and didnt say anything, meanwhile nine other girls including my older sister, were being treated the exact same way in a room somewhere."

"Oh Seth... if you believe everything you've just said than I guess the therapy you attended when you were seventeen did nothing."

At that Rossi stands from the table, walking out with Hotch following. I chuckle and leave the anteroom.

The five of us meet in the hall.

"That kid is probably the most angry person I've ever met. But he didn't slip once in his story," Hotch says.

"But Logan never said anything to Morgan about the blame did he?" I ask.

He smirks imperceptibly. "Don't know yet."

Right at that moment, Morgan and Emily exit their interrogation room.

"We didn't get anything we could tie him up with," Derek sighs.