Criminal Minds Series Rewrite: Season Four

The Instincts: Final Part

"Would it be possible for us to work in private for a while?" Hotch asks the parents.

"He was at the funeral. I told you!"

"He was at the funeral, and you arrested the wrong man," Craig glares.

"It's not a man," you speak up. "Only a woman would describe his clothing as lime green Oxfords. A man wouldn't reference specific details like that."

"Y/N is right," Spencer backs you up. "She talked about what the child wanted, how he slept, and how she took care of him. She said, 'I loved him'. A male unsub would have emphasized the competition, not the caregiving. He would have talked about how he was smarter than the FBI, and bragged about not being caught."

"The statistics are overwhelming. Women abduct newborns. Men take children," you state.

"Garcia."

"I'm right here, sir."

"Will you run the license plates the police gave you, and find any that might be registered to a woman?"

"That would be zero."

"How is that possible?" Amy asks.

"The transcript almost reads like she's been institutionalized," Spencer says.

"You mean she's crazy?"

"She described herself as being 'locked down' not 'arrested' or 'put away'. Plus, most mental facilities are very rigid about the amount of phone time they allow per day. I think her talking about only having three minutes isn't her rule to us. It's what she's been institutionalized to think of as normal."

"Garcia, can you get records of women released from mental institutions this past month? She most likely has some trauma in her case file, possibly the death of a child."

"I'm sorry. I can't do that. To protect patient privilege, there's no central database. I could hack each hospital individually, but even then, most diagnoses are kept separately by the different doctors."

"I think I might have a way. Will you come with me?" Spencer asks you.

"Sure. Where are we going?"

"To visit my mother."

Hotch gives you the okay to go with him, and the two of you take thirty minutes to drive over to the place where she is. She doesn't know you're coming over here, but Spencer made sure to let her doctor know. If anyone will be able to help, it would be him.

Spencer is super nervous to see his mother, but you're right here with him.

"Everything is okay, baby. I'm right here."

"Dr. Reid. Your mom didn't tell me you were in town," Dr. Norman says once he spots your boyfriend.

"She doesn't know I'm here. I'm working on a case, and I actually thought you might be able to help us."

"Of course."

"You've read about the recent child murder and second abduction?" The doctor nods. "We think the person responsible is a woman. She would have been institutionalized, but we believe she may have been released within the past few weeks just before the first abduction."

"What can I do?"

"I'm assuming you have a good working relationship with the administrators at other hospitals. I know no one can open their files, but if you wouldn't mind just giving them the profile, that would be a tremendous help. She's delusional and fueled by grief. She very well might have lost a child of her own, probably around the age of five."