[CM] THE CASE

Vice is the end of a moment, religion is the misery of a lifetime. - Balzac

Reid's consciousness was drowsy, and he didn't know if he had fallen asleep or not, and even the slightest movement was enough to wake him up.

So when the wooden door was kicked open roughly, he turned his head and took a look.

It's Hankle.

He was holding a pile of wood. Judging from his expression, Raphael had disappeared, but it wasn't Tobias Hankle either, it might be the second personality.

The second personality asked unfriendlyly: "Boy, what are you looking at?"

Reid flinched and didn't answer.

He didn't seem interested in Reid's reaction and just lit the fire.

This simple and primitive log cabin can be said to be leaky everywhere. There is a finger-thick gap between the planks, and the skylight can be vaguely glimpsed.There is no clock in the house, and the solitary light bulb above his head is on 24 hours a day, and Reid can only rely on that little gap to judge the passage of time.

The wound on his head was not bandaged, and the blood smeared his hair. Although it didn't hurt, it seemed a little inflamed, because Reid found that his body temperature was a little high, and he had no strength in his body.

His hands were bound by his own handcuffs, but his feet were not bound, and Raphael had mercifully placed him in a wooden chair last night.But he didn't try to escape. On the one hand, his physical condition did not allow him, and on the other hand, he didn't know where to escape.If it fails once, it will irritate the suspect, and he dare not act rashly until he is sure.

We can only find a breakthrough from Hankle.

So Reid said, "Aren't you Raphael?"

Hankle said coldly, "Do I look like Raphael?"

The conversation couldn't go on, so Reid turned his attention to the wood he burned: "Thank you for burning these."

Hankle paused. "Don't try to trick me."

"I will never play tricks on you."

This sentence hit Hankle somehow, and he dropped the wood: "Liar."

Reid's heart skipped a beat, and he thought, "It's over."

He quickly said, "I'm not."

Hankle turned a deaf ear: "Cheating is a sin."

"I'm not a liar."

Hankle walked across to Reid and sat down, grabbing his feet.Before taking the next step, he also kindly gave Reid a chance: "If you confess your sin now, then this ordeal will pass quickly."

Reid looked him in the eyes: "I'm not a sinner."

"We are all sinners."

Then he threw away Reid's shoes, and Reid blurted out a biblical passage: "God said to Moses, 'Say to all the congregation of God, Be holy, because I, the Lord, your God, am holy.'"

Hankle stopped as expected: "Are you familiar with Leviticus?"

This gave Reid a little confidence: "I am familiar with every word of the Bible, and I know it backwards."

Hankle's expression seemed to loosen a bit, but soon, that awkward looseness was covered by a more intense coldness.

"The devil can read too."

Hankle took off Reid's socks.

"I'm not the devil! I'm not the devil. I'm a man named Spencer Reid. I have parents like you. They taught me the Bible. Let... let me recite the Bible."

Hankle grabbed Reid's ankle with one hand and picked up a piece of wood with the other.

The wood was as thick as an arm, and Reid knew immediately what was going to happen to him.

"It's time to repent, Spencer Reid," Hankle said.

Garcia has a visceral fear of this house belonging to a murderer, which is specifically manifested in the fact that she refuses to go anywhere except the small computer room.

Griffith brought her a cup of coffee.The police officer brought it all the way from the city bureau, and Griffith didn't like it, so he handed it over to her.But Garcia didn't even have time to look out of the corner of her eye, she just said absent-mindedly, "Well, let it go."

Griffith obediently put down the disposable paper cup, and Garcia took a big gulp without taking his eyes off it.

Griffith only had time to say "hey" before Garcia spit the coffee back into the cup: "Oh my God! It's hot!"

"You didn't wait for me to finish, Emily just got hot." Griffith whispered, "It's not my fault."

Garcia looked like she wanted to crush the paper cup, but because of the full coffee, she finally held back.

The little house is full of anxiety and anger, Garcia understands this, all she can do now is to control herself, don't be the last one to explode.

This is the first day of Reid's disappearance, No. 20 hours.

They finally finished reading all the diaries, those who were too sleepy made do in the living room for a while, the girls were better, at least they had a sofa.The other rough guys can only lie on the floor, with at most a coat to cushion them. Hotch doesn't have time to sleep, he still needs to pick up Garcia.

Morgan is responsible for receiving Miss Hacker. Garcia can count on one hand the number of times she has left the computer room to be on site, and now that she is in dire need of reassurance, Morgan is the natural choice.

Together they worked from dawn to dusk, Garcia searched every corner of the hard drive and found an astonishing number of video footage.

Griffith was dumbfounded: "I can't even open my laptop."

Garcia held the coffee and blew gently: "Don't worry, you can hand over your computer to me. Basically, I designed a firewall for each of your computers, which is not so easy to break through, and with me around, you can't No technical support needed."

Griffith said sincerely: "It's an honor to know you."

"You're welcome." Garcia replied in a deliberately arrogant tone, "Okay, let's continue with your cleaning work."

Griffith sighed.

After the computer was done, they started searching the house.

Along with blood on the bathroom floor, they found the remains of the second victim and the body of the vicious dog in the barn.All of these things are enough to convict the prisoner, but none of these things help.

They're going to find out where he took Reid.

Emily shook out an old piece of paper: "Hey, I found a piece of Narcotics Anonymous. There are some people's addresses and phone numbers, although it was 12 years ago."

Tobias Hankle was a kid then.

Gideon nodded: "Try it."

Emily shrugged: "Then I'll call JJ and visit him tomorrow."

Gideon didn't seem to hear the words.He tore off the wallpaper, revealing childish handwriting all over the wall.

It seems that there once was a child lying on the wall, wiping tears and drawing this bitter stroke with a pencil, creating a cold cage for his long life with his own hands.

"Honorapatrumtuum," read Gideon, "Honor the Father."

Morgan lifted the straw and found a door leading to the basement.Griffith shuddered before they rushed in.

"How could it be so cold?" Griffith wondered, "And there's no wind."

The entrance to the basement was too small to allow only a grown man to walk through.In front of him was Hotch, but before he went down, Hotch came up.

"Put the gun away, you go down, Morgan is here." Hotch patted him on the shoulder, "We found Hankle's father."

Then he knew why it was so cold—the basement was full of ice! Hankle froze his father's body in the basement, and when Griffith went down, the dead man was still sitting, eyes wide open, dying.

"I can't contact the forensic doctor at this late hour," Morgan put away his gun and wrapped his leather coat tightly, "please."

Griffith put on his gloves and threw a pair at Morgan: "Here, give me a hand, and we'll lay him down."

"The corpse was well preserved, without trauma," Griffith reached out and pressed the chest of the corpse. "The ribs are intact. I can't dissect them. I don't know if the internal organs are damaged or failed...etc."

He rolled up the sleeves of the deceased, and dropped countless ice shards during the process: "This is a pinhole."

The skin of the corpse was an eerie livid purple, and Morgan had to admire Griffith's eyesight in the limited light conditions.

"The diary records the fact that my father was ill. If it is a long-term drug injection, it is impossible to have only one needle hole. He should have died of the drug." Griffith said, "Can the flashlight shine again?"

"Uh... yes."

"The nails are very clean. They shouldn't have experienced any struggles. It's not a painful experience." Griffith put down the corpse's hand, "I'm not sure what the drug is, but I can inform the forensic doctor and let him test it, although I personally don't expect it , after all, he has been dead for six months.”

Reid didn't want to see Hankle, not at all.

He was tortured for a day, and the soles of his feet were numb due to pain. Fortunately, he was able to move his toes, otherwise he would have suspected a fracture.Except for his feet, his body temperature showed no sign of dropping. He hadn't eaten for a day, and his stomach was like a fiery pain that drove him crazy.

Reid nearly passed out when Hankle left the house.When he slowly woke up, Hankle hugged a bloody pig and gently kicked open the door.

Reid tensed up to hear Hankle's soft voice: "You need something to eat."

"...Tobias?"

Tobias didn't answer, he saw Reid's bare feet, and he looked extremely guilty: "Did he hit you?"

Before Reid could react, Tobias put down his prey and took the belt from his pocket.

He expertly strapped Reid above the elbow, and pulled out a vial and disposable syringe.

Reid suddenly realized what it was, and said, "No no no no, stop!"

"Don't worry." Tobias looked up.His eyes were too pure, they were not the eyes of a murderer.

The needle pierces the skin, and the drug rushes into the bloodstream.

Reid's voice faded away.He showed an extremely happy expression, and slowly closed his tired eyes.

"Good night, Spencer Reid." Tobias knelt in front of him and whispered, "Thank you for coming, Amen."

The author has something to say: Make sure, in religion, homosexuality is a sin, right?