Chapter Text
Four days after Penelope had accepted Roxie and Luke into her home a case came across her desk that she had to bring to Emily, it seemed urgent but there were some… Things, for lack of a better word, that didn't quite line up. At first blush the locations, dates, and times just weren't making sense in the context of the file.
"I can see the concern." Emily started, looking at Penelope and Rossi. "Four nearby small towns, middle of nowhere, bodies dropping all over the place and seemingly with no rhyme or reason…" she continued, her brows furrowed. This was an odd one, she had to admit, it was the strangest case they'd seen in a hot minute, and mind you they did just get back from a case where a man was basing his kills off of the hunting cycle of mountain lions.
"And at least four different methods of murder? Drowning, beating, cutting, strangulation. Can't be sure if these are connected or the residents have lost their minds and are all going for it." Rossi cut in, shaking his head. "Could be a group of people and that's the reason for the dump sites and the different methods. It would explain the reason the bodies are so spread out and why they come from so many different places." he added, looking over a map of where the bodies were found. something seemed out of place with it, though. And the fact that this area, these small towns, could have a case of multiple killers? That was a bit concerning, and something that needed to be attended to right away.
Penelope agreed. "Exactly, nobody knows for sure what is happening, and people are scared. But either way, if this town has one murderer or four, there is a serious problem. I just wasn't comfortable pulling the trigger on this until I had some other input on it." She admitted. It was a complicated situation at best, at worst this was the most horrible thing to happen in the area in over 100 years.
"I appreciate that, actually." Emily said, sounding a little tired. "Gather all the information you can, get it set up. I'll contact them and let them know we're coming." She started, flipping through the request. Four towns had this problem on their hands. Bodies were taken from one town to the next, shuffled around, laid in different jurisdictions. It became clear to Emily that this was all purposeful. Confusion was what this was about. Muddy the waters, complicate communications, horrify several separate communities and put them in a state of panic. Whoever this was, was getting off on it, and it wouldn't stand to let it continue.
"Got it, boss lady." Penelope said, ready to scoot off to her office to set files up and get a presentation ready. She would have to do this through her lunch. That was fine, the others could eat, she wanted to pump this out.
"Penelope you're going to need to come with." Emily said. "We'll need a central area set up between points, and I want you on hand." She explained. "Likewise the cell reception for making long distance calls is terrible in small areas like this, we're likely to drop calls frequently. The more local you are to us the easier it will be to get a hold of you, and we will need to get a hold of you." She added, pointing at her. "Make arrangements for Sergio."
"Right. Got it." Penelope said as she got out of there, speed walking to her office. She met Luke there, he was holding their lunch, he had made it in the morning after his run with Roxy. "Oh, hey, you." She said, the little stale tone behind her voice told him there was a case.
"Oh man, what's up?" He asked, setting the food on her desk.
"Nothing good. We gotta make arrangements for Roxy and Sergio. I'm coming with you." She said.
"If you're okay with it, my usual sitter is available. We can have her take care of Sergio, too." Luke suggested. "She lives nearby, it'll be fine." He added, sounding confident of it as he moved closer, however Penelope side stepped him.
"Can you get that set up? I have to set up the files and get my go bag." She requested, going right to her computer. She hated the fact that she dodged his contact like that, but after looking at those files and then being told she was to accompany them, she didn't quite feel like any physical contact. The things that had been done in this rural area were sickening, and it gave her a sick feeling that took hold of her very core.
She didn't understand it, because she saw awfulness day in and day out, but something about this didn't sit right with her. Luke took it in stride, though, taking no personal offense to it as he nodded and made a noise in the affirmative, he left their lunch there, they could probably have it on the plane, eating without her when he was home didn't feel right. Something was wrong in these towns. Horribly and terribly wrong.
Luke called his usual sitter, explaining the situation. "Yeah, I've got a copy of her keys, I can meet you with them after our meeting. All you gotta do is scoop the solids every morning and his feeding schedule for wet food is on the fridge, written in pink ink, top left. You'll see it. Otherwise she has one of those automatic dry feeders for the kibble he gets at night." He said, the sitter agreed and Luke arranged a payment with her, she wasn't charging anymore than usual which he found a bit odd, but Penelope had made the offhand comment two days ago that if the need arises she will chip in half the costs since it was her place, that was nice of her, the thought, very nice. He could handle it himself, but he would let her chip in, knowing once she made a decision like that she couldn't be talked out of it.
The meeting was called and Penelope stood with her bags ready and off to the side, a few agents were accompanying her equipment to the plane already. "Good afternoon my fine furry friends, today we have a few counties having a not so good time." She said, pulling up a map, the cluster of four counties was highlighted in red, with a yellow line separating their touching borders. "The towns here close to the borders are the ones having the most trouble, namely because these are where our people go missing from." She pointed out as a dozen red spots appeared. "And the bodies are being found throughout the counties, never in their own and often very far away." Penelope added, blue spots pinged on the screen.
"Why weren't we called in sooner?" Luke asked as he tapped at his tablet, this was a lot of bodies and a massive area.
"At first the local authorities didn't think they were connected because of distance, and because of jurisdiction they weren't communicating about it. Plus a few of these people weren't missed until they showed up dead, so there was that." She added, pulling up a few profiles. "And by weren't missed maybe I should say 'glad they were gone'..." Penelope started, introducing a cast of people they were as follows.
George Martingale, Store owner in Layman County.
Owns a store called Main Street Market, Riverton.
Past record, numerous assaults most cases dropped. Numerous reports of threats towards neighbors and customers, ten domestic assault charges across three marriages all dropped, and one sexual assault and battery case that was dismissed on a technicality. Body found in a Werner County hunting ground.
Mary Woolman of Werner County. Stillman Junction.
Made a living as a lot lizard according to local cops, according to those same cops also a major home wrecker and has been in fights with the wives of the men she's confirmed to have slept with. Mostly agitated by Mary approaching the women in church or at the grocery store and telling them what she's done and how much better she was than them. She'd also assaulted truck drivers who wouldn't pay the additional amount after she would raise her rates after the act. Found in Veer county.
Michael Fox of Werner county,
No job, retired
Local wino who used to be a teacher at the local community college, however ten years ago allegations of him sleeping with failing students with the promise of raising their grades came up. And not just sleeping with them but forcing them to engage in BDSM scenarios. However the school settled, passing the students through their programs and forcing Mr. Fox into retirement as well as settling each student with an undisclosed amount of money. Found in Veer county.
The list went on, ending on the person who sparked the towns finally asking for help and it was a local priest.
"This," Penelope started as she got to the image of a older, plump woman, she had short salt and pepper hair and wore big, cat eye glasses. “is Maggie Piest, local priest of a non-denominational church called Community Grace and general do-gooder in the counties of concern. She heads up the whole shebang, like she started this church, and gives her sermons in all the churches, even has a website where you can view any sermon she's done at any of the locations, even hosts online prayer groups on Skype, very involved. She lives in a little town called Coal Lake in Keen county." She added, bringing up photos. Last seen outside of a church in Lark's Head in Werner she was visiting one of the food pantry and free closets to lend a hand with some stocking problems. All the cops know her as a harmless woman."
"Has she ever been in trouble before?" Spencer asked.
"Ah, getting there!" Penelope exclaimed, flipping the image to a few police reports. She was accused of embezzling the church for a few hundred thousand dollars two years ago, turns out it was her nephew, Markus Plum, doing it. She had hired him to help manage the church accounts and he got a little too confident with the money he was taking." She explained, showing a mugshot of him. "Some people around town though, had their ideas that she was still involved but nobody could prove anything. And it seems she comes from money and constantly gives her own to keep up with the rent on places like the pantries and closets in all the counties." She added.
"All of the people taken have the situation of being accused of, or having actually committed crimes in common." Emily said, tapping the table. "We'll have to read more on the way, there's a lot of ground to cover." Emily said.
Penelope nodded. "The police have us set up at a small place in Veer county, the church volunteered to let us use a building they're setting up to be a soup kitchen and homeless refuge but there's actual usable rooms and it's got a good internet connection. And it's in the center of all the activity." She said.
"Perfect." Rossi said as he stood up.
Emily nodded in agreement "Wheels up in 30." She said, the room cleared an Penelope went to grab a few final things from her office. Luke was in there grabbing their food that he had left behind.
"For the road?" She asked.
"For the sky." He replied, a smile on his lips, amused she hadn't thought of that. "Lime and cilantro rice with some fried tofu and peppers. Chili sauce." He added.
"Oooh, gonna make people jealous." She said as she grabbed a few things from her desk and tossed them into her bag, desk toys she needed and a few pads of sticky notes, and her fun pen.
"Ready?" He asked, he would take them both to the airport.
"Yep, my gear is on the plane and a field office is there lending me some of theirs as an extra measure." Penelope said her need for tech was already met before they could even go.
"Alright Angel, let's get a move on."
He said, his go bag was in the vehicle already.
On the plane they were reviewing a few details, things that had been done to the bodies, the different methods. There were some things Spencer noticed to bring them together, burn patterns from a taser on them all. Some evenly spaced marks that had been on the bodies, some worse than others. "I don't think these are from anything one would have purchased, but rather made…." He said. "The burning is intense, worse than what a standard taser would put on someone. I think, maybe, that this is someone who's good at making things. Even the contact points aren't normal. They're triangular, not round, that's atypical." He explained.
"They're also arranged in a triangle." Penelope said, sending Spencer an image, there were three contact points.
"Yeah, curious isn't it? Especially the orientation of the triangle being upside down." He said, biting his nails.
"Is it symbolic of something?" Rossi asked.
"Maybe, maybe not. I'm gonna look at the map again." Spencer said, popping the dots up and down, cross referencing them. "I can't be sure…" he said, knowing of very few things that upside down triangles were symbolic of. Suddenly a look came across his face, he had measured the distances of the dump sites using some of the tools available, they were in evenly spaced triangles. Upside down ones. "This is a problem. The dump sites are lining up in this same pattern….." he said, pulling up the images on the small display within the plane.
The group looked at it, shocked and puzzled. "It's organized, but also chaotic…" Luke said, the randomness and repeating patterns were in conflict with one another, something was going on, and it was not good.
"Garcia when we land you and Reid need to look into the symbolic nature of these upside down triangles, see if it means anything to any of the locals as well." Emily said, the duo nodded, Penelope was hiding her fear behind a look of solemn seriousness. "We really need to hit the ground running on this one. JJ and Rossi, you two check out the dump and abduction sites in Veer and Werner, Luke and I will take Layman and Keen." She added.
The group all silently agreed whatever was happening would continue to happen despite their presence, and it may even escalate the scale of it, if there was more than one person involved, this would be bad. Bodies would pile up and fast.
Upon arriving at the soon to be Community Grace Soup Kitchen and Homeless Refuge Penelope found a good corner of it already set up, and some auxiliary agents from the field office were dragging in the rest of her equipment and setting it up. "Get ready Spence, this is going to be bad." She said to him as they approached the area, a state trooper was there to greet them.
"Dr. Reid and agent Garcia?" They asked.
"Yes, that's us." Spencer responded.
"State Trooper Tate Magnus, most folks just call me Tate though." He said, he was a tall, burly man, almost looked like a lumberjack who decided to become a cop. "I'm the one who suggested you fine folks come out here, glad we finally got some fresh eyes." He added, a touch of anxiety in his voice. "You know everything?" He asked.
Penelope, seeing their station wasn't fully completed and was being reviewed by a technician decided to engage in the word of mouth part of research that they needed. "Yes, but we have some questions." She started, pulling out a pale pink notebook with the words "Don't Stress Meowt!" Written on the front in gold foiling, the pages were also a light pink. Her fun pen was ready for action, the little bobbly cat figure on the end already bouncing on it's spring.
"Sure, I can answer just about anything." Tate said, shifting on his feet, the odd doctor and the tech lady seemed an odd pair, but he went through their questions, answering them honestly and even giving them a few opinions and information about the towns and local area.
But then Spencer asked the question that stopped him, drained the color from his face. "Are there any local groups, past or current, outside of any LGBT groups that have made use of an upside down triangle as an important symbol?" That stopped him cold.
"Uh, Tate? Hello?" Penelope asked, looking at him. The large man shook his head and sighed.
"No uh… well, yeah. I mean…. What I want to tell you.." Tate started, the two knew this wasn't any kind of good news. "There was a group back in the settling time of this area, when the river was in use as a shipping route, they used that symbol. But it was disbanded in the early 1910's… some kinda cult, not a lot known about it very secretive." He admitted. "Hand of Divine Chaos." Tate added. "Chaos they were, too. But they weren't about hurting people." He added hastily. "They were about causing messes just because they could. A bunch of crazies who got together every week to cause problems for good, hard working folk." He said a little bitterly. "Attracted the mentally ill and just plain mean people. But I don't think you're looking for anything to do with that." He added, shaking his head.
"Still might be worth looking into, seeing as their symbol is being mimicked. Even if it's a red herring we should investigate." Spencer said, Penelope had been writing it all down.
"Whatever you gotta do." Tate said, shifting uncomfortably in his spot. "I gotta go check in with my supervisors. I'll be back in an hour or two." He said, leaving as quickly as he could. Penelope got a bad taste in the back of her mouth, something told her she wouldn't like what she found about this cult.
Just then the technician okayed them to use the equipment, and Penelope and Spencer went ahead and began setting up the space. Penelope logged into her station and directed Spencer where to put some of the few things she had brought with. Hours passed with them pouring over the information of the cult and several other "secret" groups and societies that had been in the area. It proved fruitful, and worrying. Spencer believed there was valid concern in believing that people who were attempting to revive the cult, or at the very least make it appear that it was, were behind this. It was too coincidental between the use of the symbol and the given history of the area.
Upon the group returning to the center they ordered dinner from a local place and had it delivered, making sure to tip them well for their large order. Before long they were all in the eating and discussing what the duo had come across. Penelope found herself half listening, the fact that she had been alone with Luke for a few minutes when he helped her bring bags upstairs and she hadn't taken the chance to give him a kiss on the cheek or a small hug embarrassed her for some reason. She should have made up for her little side step, but she decided she would have to do it later. After all she was tired and there was no way she would while the others were around. She and Luke had agreed to draw that line in the sand when they decided they were an official thing.
Reid was parroting back everything they had discovered about the cult, how they were the kind of people who made trouble, minor to medium inconveniences really, whenever they wanted simply because they could. But how they had seen no research as to the rules and core beliefs of the group. And questioning really if they could even call it an actual cult, really, it just seemed like a bunch of trouble makers with an excuse to hold weekly meetings. But nevertheless he had found a historian in the area who was willing to come discuss it with them tomorrow, someone who knew a lot and did actually have materials relevant to the group.
Rossi interrupted him. "Someone using this group as an excuse to murder? That is something." He said.
"It isn't really shocking, what may have been chaos back then wouldn't be the same now, not entirely anyways. They're bringing modern chaos to an older group dedicated to it, I think this is what's happening. But we need to decide once and for all if this is an individual or a group, but there isn't enough evidence either way." He explained, picking at a few fries from his meal.
"Are you saying more bodies need to drop before you people have an answer for us?" A voice asked, stepping in from outside was trooper Tate, his voice sounded annoyed having overheard the last statement Spencer made.
"Oh, well, evidence wise it would be beneficial, but I'm sure there's things locals have overlooked that are relevant." Spencer stated, looking at him. "Has something happened?" He asked.
"Yeah, you got what you wanted. A body dropped." Tate said grimly, his eyes looked dead.
"Is it the missing priest?" JJ asked.
"No. A kid." Tate added. "Some kid from the local community college." He added. "From here, dumped here, according to her friends though they got separated in Werner county while they were out there doing some shopping." He finished, shaking his head.
Emily stood "Rossi, come with me, we're gonna check it out with Trooper Magnus, Spencer, JJ, you two to talk to the friends and family." She said, the group went to grab their things and Emily looked to Penelope. "Garcia, you and Alvez stay here and look into anything from the college and any records you can find. Get with us on any relevant information when you can." She said. Luke found himself a bit disappointed he wasn't going out, but understood this was what she wanted, and that Garcia shouldn't be left alone in an unlocked building while some psychos were on the loose.
As Penelope began digging through the school's disciplinary files Luke stood behind her, "You two really like that cult angle, huh?" He asked.
"The way the trooper was avoidant and in denial about it made it a very... Interesting idea. The way he walked about it kind of made it forbidden fruit, in a way." She said, getting into the incident reports of the student, both ones she reported and ones reported against her. "This isn't good." She said, reading them. Luke looked over her shoulder.
"Carla Gains, one two three…" he said, counting the files and listed complaints. "She has several sexual assault complaints against male students, and a few assault complaints, against her, one for every single sexual assault complaint she's made… And there's a few noise complaints? And what's that one?" He asked, pointing at one.
"Academic dishonesty, it looks like someone believes she was cheating." She explained, looking at it.
Through their research they made a few shocking discoveries, and it led Penelope to invade Carla's social media profiles and they found a private forum website where Carla detailed her sexual assault claims being false, all of which had been noted by the college as unfounded and closed, and why she tried to make the claims in the first place.
While Carla was a good student she was not a good person, the latest forum entry revealed that whenever Carla was caught cheating on her boyfriend she would cry rape. When the college said her claims were unfounded, false and were not going to be punished, she would attack the men she'd accused, crying about it and claiming the college was wrong. Making a scene in public and garnering sympathy from people who believed she was truly in distress about it was the name of the game for her.
Most of the time the assault claims would go unpunished because the guys would drop it, taking pity on "Crazy Carla" as everyone on campus would call her, and move on, regretting sleeping with her. But guys would continue to hook up with her, in her words because she was insanely hot, the Aphrodite of campus.
It also detailed how her boyfriend had broken up with her and how she was going to make him pay for it, because she was going to make people believe he had put her up to all of it.
This plan never went through because of her death, but comments below in the forum were saying an assortment of things. That she was just an easy tramp not an Aphrodite, and that it was so funny that she ever thought she could get away with it in the first place, and how stupid her boyfriend was to ever believe it, and how stupid it was that she wouldn't just dump him in the first place and just be the whore she clearly wanted to be.
Some people levied pretty heavy insults on her, but they never bothered her, and others thought it was a brilliant plan. But one commenter on an anonymous account, titled something forgettable and random, most likely a randomly generated account name, wanted to help her as they went to the same campus and to PM them for more info.
"This could be a lead." Penelope said as she pulled up Carla's files, she was going to find the password for this site and read them, if they weren't deleted of course, and get to the bottom of this.
"Maybe they're our in." Luke said, leaning in a bit. Penelope could smell his cologne and oh friends and neighbors it was so delightful and comforting that she found herself sighing gently. And Luke noticed, chuckled a little. "What, too much on the cologne?" He asked, shaking his head.
"No, not at all." Penelope said bringing up a document on Carla's email drafts simply titled 'passwords' clever girl, not a lot of people would look in your email drafts for all of your passwords. She found the right password, which had to be a joke, because she made her password 01CrazeeCarlaa19!, this girl was clearly enjoying the attention she brought upon herself. She got access and found the messages from the account in question.
CarlaOnCampus: u really go to the same cc???
Chaitee266839836: yea and I think we go to the same humanities class if u are really Crazy Carla LOL
CarlaOnCampus: yea im "crazy Carla" LMFAO
CarlaOnCampus: U srsly wanna help me??? Why tho?
Chaitee266839836: I do
CarlaOnCampus: ok yes but Whyyyyyyy
Chaitee266839836: I guess u coud say I like to cause chaos
CarlaOnCampus: Yea it will be total caos if I can get n e one to believe me
Chaitee266839836: I coud make people believe u. I coud be a witness for u haha, people trust me, Carla
CarlaOnCampus: hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Ur in my humanities class?? Who are u then??
Chaitee266839836: I sit just behind u
CarlaOnCampus: OH U!!!!
CarlaOnCampus: Kk that's fine I Kno u.
Chaitee266839836: meet me in the old library anneks at noon
Chaitee266839836: dont tell anyone though
Chaitee266839836: won't help us if anyone knows we r planning this.
CarlaOnCampus: Oh KK the annex nobody ever goes in there don't you need a special pass tho???
Chaitee266839836: yeah kinda need a library key card the anneks is just abandoned pretty much so I'll be there at noon tomorrow, will be unlocked just go in.. I have a key card n ill put tape over the lock just walk in
CarlaOnCampus: KK noon tomorrow.
Chaitee266839836: Noon tomorrow and come ALONE.
Garcia got shivers. Chaos. There was that word again. Could this be the person, or at least one of them, who was responsible for the murders? It wasn't going to be THIS easy, she knew that, but it was a place to start.
"Library key card…" Luke started. "They don't just give those out to anyone it sounds like." He added.
Penelope was pulling up the access card directory for the college, looking at the database and cross referencing it with people in Carla's humanity class. Only one name was on both lists, and that name was Eric Bronner. She called the group and made the information known, they would haul the kid in for questioning tomorrow, they decided. Right into the police station, make him sweat right away. If he was nervous, maybe he would slip, or make anyone else involved slip. If a mistake was made, they could follow that.
The next morning, people were shuffled around. Luke and Rossi were on their way to the community college to get their suspect, and Emily and JJ were following up with more family and friends as well as theories the state troopers had. But Penelope and Spencer were welcoming the historian to the building. "Good building this one." The historian said, going into a history of it with Spencer.
Penelope did not care about it, and was silently kicking herself for not giving Luke a kiss last night when they had a moment. She had to repay him for that side step somehow, and she seemed to be missing every single chance she got. Nevermind the fact that she hasn't even flirted with him since this case started, not even a little. But this case was churning her stomach, something still felt off, and she couldn't put her finger on it. It was there, on the tip of her tongue, but she lacked the ability to articulate it.
"That's interesting, Dr. Anderson, but we aren't here to talk about that, maybe another time." Spencer said, moving to the topic at hand.
"Right, sorry I just love the old buildings, you know. It’s just history still standing." The fat little man said, Dr. Anderson was a local historian who ran a museum in Werner county. It was a museum with old artifacts revolving around the old river trade but the place also had an archive of relevant significant happenings, and he considered the cult very relevant and very significant. “Anyways I have here some books and documents that are related to your little cult.” he said, setting the hefty banker's box on the table in front of himself. Lifting the lid revealed books and photo albums as well as a few loose documents and a small cloth bag that jingled when removed and placed on the table. There were metallic objects inside, they figured, they would see what they were shortly.
“Spencer, you’ll have to do all the reading, this is a lot…” Penelope said, shaking her head.
“On it.” he said, diving into the loose documents first.
“So, Doctor-” Penelope started, the man put his hand up and wagged a finger at her.
“Call me John, please.” Dr. Anderson said, “Or Doc if you want. Never much cared for formalities. Plus I ain't a medical doctor, so I’m just fine bein’ John.” he said.
“Okay, Doc” Penelope started, organizing some of the loose photos. “Care to tell us about some of these?” she asked.
“Ahh, these here are the original photos taken that the papers used to put on the front page back when the group mattered.” he said, pointing to a particular one in which a building was consumed in thick, black mess. “They tarred an entire church. Because they could. Had to tear the building down cause the clean up process was more expensive and more time consuming than just building a new church.” he explained, shrugging. “Made for a good photo, though. The article is in that album there.” he added. “This photo is from about 1900, here.” he pointed. It was a colored photo of people in very complex and confusing robes. “Color photos were getting popular 'round this time, and we’re able to see the coloring of the cult robes.” he added. Penelope looked upon them, the patterns didn't make sense, they were a hodgepodge of solids and patterns. Like someone took a square of every fabric that ever existed and sewed it into this one garment. “The idea of them was to confuse and perplex people, the odd way they were thrown together was another part of the chaos they so loved.” Doc explained.
“Beyond property damage, did they ever seriously hurt anyone? Or kill them?” Penelope asked, her eyes looking at a photo with what appeared to be a couple and their young child in robes during some type of ceremony.
“Hum? Oh, err, well yes. A few times, mostly themselves for their crazy stunts but there happens to be a few documented times where the odd innocent bystander got hurt, one time they did kill a man.” he admitted, a bit saddened by it. Spencer immediately stopped what he was doing and looked to Doc.
“Who did they kill, tell us about that.” Spencer said, leaning in.
“Yep, so back in 1810, some time after they were founded, an incident in Veer county involving a priest happened. The priest was a kind man who seemingly never did wrong, took in people down on their luck, fed them, clothed them. A lot like our miss Piest, if you will. Named Wyland Browne he was a good man. But in a way the cult saw him as an enemy when he spoke out about them in a sermon, condemning the shenanigans they were causing to happen.” he explained, moving around the table. “Happens that they caused a huge commotion out in the street the next week outside the church. Whoopin’ and a-hollerin’ as loud as they could, chanting for the man of God to come and face them, tell them what he was telling his congregation to their faces.” he continued, pulling out a news article of it. “He ended up coming out, preaching that God would want any sensible person to not cause chaos in the lives of others, and that they were all doomed to an eternity in hell should they choose to continue their antics.” Doc said, he sighed heavily and shook his head. “Real chaos started when Browne came down off the church steps, he was swept into the crowd and pushed around from member to member, the men folk got in some potshots on him At some point he dropped dead. Between the punching in the face and the jerking him around he just died from the trauma sustained.” he explained.
“What happened to the cult members responsible?” Spencer asked.
“Not much of anything.” Doc admitted. “There was no way to prove exactly what punch or movement was responsible for him keeling over, you see. So once he vanished in the crowd it was over, bystanders couldn’t exactly see what was happening, and it just happened.” he said, pointing to another article detailing that decision. “The group was branded dangerous from then on, though their injuries to others outside their own group would be few and far between after this.” he added, pointing to a small folder with copies of older police reports.
“Heavy.” Penelope said. “Do you know if Piest had spoken out about them? Would that trigger them taking her?” she questioned.
“Well, I do happen to be a member of her church, and she has spoken out against the murders, saying that such behavior in any case is unacceptable, no matter if those people would be missed or not. Only the law of the land and God had the power and the right to judge them.” Doc said, sighing. “Mags had it right, just wish she’d kept quiet about it.” he added.
After Doc John left them, the two were letting the others in on the potential motive to take Maggie Piest, and about the rings they had seen that could signify whether an individual is a part of the group. Rossi and Luke confirmed that Eric Bronner had one such ring, a silver signet ring with an engraved image of a hand with an upside down triangle in the middle of the palm. Eric was looking good for the abduction and murder of Carla, they would hold him in jail for it.
That night Penelope was doing more in depth research into Eric Bronner, and Luke came to check on her, knowing she was still working when the others had gone to bed two hours ago. He had found himself unable to sleep and wanted to see if sleep had found her. As he approached her command station he could hear a flurry of typing, she was hacking into his school email, and other accounts, looking for any leads she could. Penelope desperately wanted to find Maggie Piest alive. But for every day they didn’t find her at all, it was just counting down to her doom. “Angel, you need to rest.” Luke said, this caused her to jump and look back at him.
“What? No, no no I’m so close.” she cried.
“Close to what?” Luke asked.
“Finding out what happened with Maggie? Finding her? I- I don’t know, Luke, I just know I have to keep going.” she said, her voice cracked on the don’t. She was scared, scared for Maggie, not knowing what was happening to her was putting more and more anxiety into her heart.
“Running yourself into the ground will not help her.” Luke reasoned, his voice soft as he approached her and set a comforting hand on her shoulder. Penelope was still typing, still searching.
“Luke I-” she started, but he cut her off with a gentle squeeze of her shoulders.
“Penelope, Angel, deep breath.” he said.and she gave a deep sigh, rather than a breath, but Luke had gotten her to stop typing and that was good enough for him. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her shoulder gently. “What has you so wound up about this case?” he asked.
“I-I don’t know.” Penelope admitted, tears flowing from her eyes, voice cracking again. “I just have this horrible feeling something awful is going to happen to one of us.” she said softly, the blue glow of the screens washing over them as the dull yellow lights buzzed quietly overhead.
“Nothing will happen to one of us. We’re all here, and when we aren't we’re grouped up.” he added, his voice was soothing like a nice cup of chamomile with honey, and his cologne was still gently lingering, she could smell it. A shaky deep breath came and she turned to hug him back. Luke held her close and kissed her forehead as she took more deep breaths. “Shhh, shhh…. It’s okay…” he repeated to her over and over between soft kisses to her face.
Outside a car pulled up and saw the two forms inside, Tate stepped out of his state vehicle and made his way inside, upon seeing them he cleared his throat, they separated them and he had their attention.. “Hope I’m not interrupting anything.” he said, looking at them with the same dead eyes he had earlier. “We have another body.” he said grimly.