[Criminal Minds] years before love

Rossi saw a middle-aged lady sitting on a chair in a daze, a little fat, holding a hamburger in her hand, looking confused and tired.

There was no doubt that it was a family member of a victim. He stepped forward and sat beside her, "Hello."

The other party didn't even bother to look up, but just glanced at him dully.

"I'm sorry to disturb your life."

The lady sighed softly, "I would rather not find him, I can still lie to myself that he is still alive...it is much better than living by my side."

"Sorry." Rossi knew the word meant nothing, but he couldn't think of anything else to comfort him.

"Anyway, you found him." The woman tried to give him a smile, but in the end she only hooked the corners of her mouth weakly, "I just can't forget that day."

Rossi didn't push, just waited for her to speak.

"His father was right. It was all my fault. I shouldn't have taken him to the park that day." The woman stared fixedly at the ground and was silent for a while before continuing, "His father went to work. I I was going to work and babysit other people's children, but he kept arguing to go to the park... Then I thought, maybe I can take him and the children to the park together. Al has always been very good, he will follow I'll be fine."

She wiped her eyes carelessly, "It's all my fault."

"He ran away?"

"I don't know." The woman shook her head, "I just remember seeing the baby crying, I coaxed him to stuff the bottle, and when I looked up again, I couldn't find my Al."

"Can you think of anything that didn't feel right to you?" Rossi handed her a tissue.

"No." The woman narrowed her eyes and thought for a long time, "No, the park is the same as before."

"Sunshine, wind, teenagers running around," Rossi murmured, "You're pushing the pram, and Al follows you..."

The woman blinked, "Al pestered me saying he wanted ice cream."

There was a nostalgic smile on the corner of her mouth, "Al likes ice cream, but his teeth are bad, the doctor said he can't eat more sweets."

Rossi frowned. He didn't see the problem for a while, but instinct told him that something was wrong here.

"Al was very excited, he was calling..." The woman was a little flustered, "then the baby cried."

She opened her eyes wide and reached out to grab Rossi, "I tried to calm him down, Al...Al ran away screaming. I coaxed the kid to look up, and he was, gone."

"What is he shouting about?" Rossi grabbed her arm.

The woman tried hard to remember, "...Ice cream, he is calling for ice cream."

Rossi let go and patted her on the shoulder lightly.

"...will you catch him?"

"We'll do our best." Rossi hesitated for a second, without reassurance, the officer waved to him from the other end of the corridor, and he patted her again, got up and walked over.

"Any new discoveries?"

"The identities of the three more victims have been confirmed." The other party led him to the table with more files, picked up one of the yellowed papers and handed it to him. The woman who spoke, "One of them is her son."

Rossi glanced over, and was attracted by the time of the murder, "November?"

"Yes. What's the problem?" The police officer glanced over his head and didn't think there was anything special about this time.

"His mother said he was arguing for ice cream before he disappeared." Rossi looked around the hallway in astonishment, and checked the report in his hand again.

"Well, even if it's winter—my kids love this."

"But he disappeared in the park." Rossi looked at him. "There are no stores in the park. I guess under normal circumstances, no one would push the ice cream truck out in the winter."

"You mean?"

"This may be our suspect."

The police officer's eyes lit up, but soon dimmed again, "Even if it were, we have no way to find this ice cream truck from more than ten years ago."

"I've been thinking, we've been busy identifying the victims. But obviously, these victims don't have much alike in appearance, and they're looking for easy prey." Rossi pursed her lips, "And we It is impossible to find them from the materials of that year."

The officer sighed, "I know, but this is the closest we've come."

"No, I'm saying, if they've been jettisoning victims they don't think are fit anymore, are they still replenishing kids?"

"what?"

"I guess you haven't sift through the disappearances in recent years." Rossi quickly scanned the files on the desk.

"No." The police officer raised his head slowly, "—we will do it right away!"

"We've got to hurry up. The Christmas holidays are coming up and it's a great hands-on time for them."