29Disclaimer: I'll admit once again that I do not own Criminal Minds. Hopefully I don't have to say it anymore because it is kind of obvious.
Hey, love to my reviewers, especially the ones who say they love my story. You make me smile. 3
Currently Untitled: A Criminal Minds Fic
Chapter Eight: Mysteries and Misery
"So what's the occasion?" inquired Esmee as she sat across from Penelope Garcia in a hole-in-the-wall restaurant where they were planning on having lunch together.
"Oh you know," Garcia said off-handedly, "the team is out of town working on a case, I was in the mood for some kung-pow chicken-"
"Hence the reason for an Italian bistro?" Esmee finished for her, glancing up from her menu with a playful smile.
"So maybe I'm just a little curious about the girl Hotch just adores," Garcia confessed and Esmee snorted rather unladylike with laughter.
"Aaron doesn't adore me," Esmee protested, "he worships me." Both Garcia and Esmee burst out in laughter this time at the mock serious tone and look on Esmee's face as she said Hotch worshipped her. A couple eyes darted towards them and both girls smothered their laughter behind their hands.
"So what do you want to know?" Esmee inquired, setting down her menu and taking a quick sip of her lemon flavored water.
"How about the basics," suggested Garcia, "how did you two meet? The in-depth version, not the cliff notes bit Hotch gave everyone." Esmee's eyes wandered to the window for a moment as she contemplated what to say before she returned her gaze to Garcia.
"I was visiting a friend of mine for the summer," she explained, "and being the incredible klutz I am, I happening to walk right into Sean Hotchner. I was five and he was seven. Aaron had just graduated from high school then and was getting ready to marry Hailey."
"So you've always been Sean's best friend," specified Garcia and Esmee nodded.
"Sean's best friend and Aaron's pain in the ass. At least until I was twelve and then he turned to big brother mode and has kept up the act since then." She laughed softly, more for her sake than Garcia's.
"Did you visit often after that?" she questioned and Esmee shrugged.
"I would visit during the summers and a couple years my parents flew them out to visit me during the holidays."
"Where are you from again?" Garcia questioned, keeping mental notes so she could inform her chocolate Adonis of all she had learned later.
"My parents are of mixed nationality," Esmee explained, "so I've lived in multiple countries in Europe. Mostly France, Italy, and England though. During the holidays, we were usually in Italy, but sometimes we'd visit my cousins in southern France."
"You were?" Garcia asked, noticing the use of a past tense in the statement. Esmee's smile fell a little, but she answered nonetheless.
"I don't really visit my family anymore," she confessed, "we had a bit of a falling out a few years ago."
"Oh," was the only reply Garcia could give. The two fell silent, only being shaken from it when they decided to order their food and return to their table. Esmee's eyes wandered around the room for a few minutes before Garcia found a topic that might make Esmee more comfortable.
"So tell me about Eva and Liam," she suggested, "how you guys met. How you started the McCord and Aces fashion lines." Instantly, Esmee's eyes lit up as Essie came dashing forward to talk about her accomplishments.
"Liam and I met in Milan," Esmee, as Essie explained, "he was a photographer and I was just visiting the city. Cute Italian models are a great reason to go sightseeing." At this, she winked playfully at Garcia who grinned. "We had a mutual friend, another photographer named Andromache Shaw. Liam had been talking a lot about starting his own fashion line and Andromache knew I was someone who could properly fund something like that. I was in town long enough to talk turkey with him, so he agreed to meet me in Paris that winter."
Esmee paused for a moment, taking a long drink of water before fingering a few of her curls as she continued with her story. Garcia took careful notice.
"That's when I met Eva. She was a model who wanted to be a designer. I met her at a fashion show and we became rather good friends. Then Liam came to town and those two fell for each other and fell hard." She laughed for a moment, a half-hearted thing, before continuing.
"Eva had a more whimsical, sophisticated, and feminine style while Liam was more edgy, punk rocker, and loud. Definitely a Ying-Yang. Anyways, Eva discovered I could sketch and had designed a few pieces myself and wanted me to work with her. So did Liam. So in an effort to keep the peace between the young lovebirds, I funded both lines, design for both, and even did some brief modeling for the two until we were up in the air." She concluded her story with a low sigh before focusing her eyes on Garcia instead of the wall behind the analyst.
"Are they still together?" questioned Garcia and Esmee smiled.
"Liam is going to be proposing soon. He has it all planned to happen on the night of his winter fashion show." Garcia mentally started to salivate at the thought of an Aces&Spades winter fashion show. Esmee noticed the look in her eyes and grinned at her.
"If you help me convince the rest of the team to come and enjoy New York with me," she bargained, "we'll all go to the fashion show so you can meet Liam and Eva. Liam has a younger sister, Delancey, who will just adore you." Garcia wiggled her eyes playfully and soon enough to duo were planning on how to get everyone, Hotch and Reid included, to go to New York.
While Esmee and Garcia were enjoying a casual lunch, Hotch and his team were drawing up blanks in Louisiana where women ages 16-27 were disappearing all over the county.
"Why these girls?" JJ asked for the millionth time as the team all gazed at the photos of the dead girls. Each girl had been raped, beaten, and then granted death with a bullet to the right temple. So far, there had been no similarities connecting all of them. And with the latest victim having been taken only two hours ago, the team was quickly running out of time.
"Kelly Harper, Madison Car, and Joanne Simpson are all aspiring models," Derek recited again, "and Lee Waters, Abby Wilson, and Tanya Mills are all aspiring singers. Do you think our UNSUB has a thing for divas?"
"No," Hotch disagreed, "because Simone Kensington was a writer."
"She took classes at the community college," Reid said, trailing off for a moment as he glanced through files. "How did we miss this?" he gasped incredulously and all eyes were on him.
"They all took classes at the same college," Reid stated Derek quickly called Garcia.
"Office of Supreme Genius," she said, "what may I do for you?"
"Baby Girl, I need a list of all the classes the victims took at Perry Shaw Community College. And I need them a week ago." The team waited impatiently, some pacing as they did while Garcia searched for the records.
"Sending now," the analyst said and Derek said a quick goodbye before Emily pulled up the files.
"We want the classes they had in common or any professor teaching more than one class that they might have shared," Hotch stated as Emily searched the list.
"You think he might be a teacher?" Reid questioned.
"One who knew their talents," Rossi piped up, "perhaps a dance teacher or a vocal instructor or-"
"Someone with enough jobs to give advice and help classes for students wanting a career in modeling, singing, or writing?" Emily butted in as she stopped scrolling the list.
"Our aspiring models all took the same class and all our singers did as well," she stated and the group waited for more.
"And Simone Kensington, the writer?" prompted Hotch.
"Different class, but al three classes were taught, more or less, by the same person."
"How so?" questioned Rossi and Emily looked up at Hotch.
"The instructors for all three classes were Essie Brooks and Jaye Doe."
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
an: Ha ha! Esmee is in trouble. Bet you didn't see that one coming, did you? Yes well, next chapter will be… wait, why am I telling you about the next chapter? I'll only put it up if I get a review from….
My flamer. I want another review from my flamer. Yes. Then I'll post my next chapter.
Cheers.
Changer.