The Agent and The School Teacher

Chapter Six: The List

We walked into the police depatment, and I stayed close to Aaron, feeling significantly safer now that he was here.

"Agent Hotchner."

"Chief." Aaron greeted, shaking the police cheif's hand.

"Dave."

"Sorry to meet again under these circumstances." Rossi shook his hand as well, then the Cheif turned to me.

"Eliza? Eliza Bartlett?" He asked. I nodded.

"I go by Elizabeth now." I shook his hand. My name is Elizabeth, but a lot of people chose to call me Eliza in High school.

"Should you really be here? I mean this information is sensitive."

"She's a consultant," Dave answered, "We've enlisted her help, as she was Randy Slade's best friend. We're hoping she might be able to provide some valuable insight." The Chief nodded.

"Took your advice and shut down the school. Was gonna cancel the memorial too, but some of the alums said they'd go through with it anyway." He led us into a small room that had a table in the middle of it. There were case file boxes on it.

"Did you get the student files to our technical analyst?" Aaron asked. He nodded. "Good. We'll start with criminal records."

Rossi's phone rang and he answered it on speaker.

"What'd you find, Garcia?"

"A blast from your past, I beleive. Does the name Brandon Slade ring a bell?"

"That's Randy's brother." I stated.

"Sweet kid. He couldn't give us much back then." Rossi added.

"Most seven year olds don't. They do, however, grow up to become seniors who attend the same High School."

"Thanks, Garcia."

"I thought the Slades were gonna leave Boise." Aaron addressed.

"They tried, but the network interviews made them nationwide pariahs." I felt a pang of guilt. I was Randy's best friend, and here I was turned into one of the heroes while they were held accountable for his crimes.

"Did you question Brandon about last night?"

"He said he was watching pirated movies. His mom backs him up. So does his laptop."

"We'll need to talk to him." Aaron said. Rossi and the Chief left the room and Aaron put a hand on my back.

"Are you ok?" He asked. I nodded.

"I just...it's unfair how things work out, that's all." He nodded, guiding me out of the door.

~~~

We got in the car, heading to Brandon's house. We stopped on the way to pick up to of the other agents, a muscular black guy and a woman with black hair.

"Who is this?" The woman asked.

"This is Elizabeth Bartlett that I told you about earlier. Elizabeth, this is Agents Emily Prentiss and Derek Morgan." I shook their hands, offering them a small smile. We took off to Brandon's house, arriving only to discover that the front lawn was chocked full of reporters.

"Looks like we're not the only one's interested in Brandon." Derek stated.

"It's gonna make it a lot harder for us to talk our way in."

"I don't think you'll have to." I said. "The Slades know me. They'll talk to you if I tell them it's alright."

"Also, if we use it to our advantage." Aaron threw in. Derek and David got out first, addressing the press. Aaron turned around to face me. "Are you sure you're ok with this?" I nodded.