Putting the clues together

Prentiss was distracted by one of the cops in the bullpen, gesturing for her to answer the phone on Chan's desk. She picked it up and pressed the flashing button to connect.

"Agent Prentiss."

"Emily!" she immediately recognised the voice of Penelope Garcia, the BAU's analyst, researcher, tech support and general computing wizard. "What’s been going on in Vegas?"

"Oh, so much."

"I have programmes set up that flag any mention of any of the team, and some... videos of you have popped up recently."

Prentiss remembered that there had been many cameras surrounding her when she was out on the street, it did not surprise her that some footage had made its way online.

"I'm working on deleting any videos of you stripping," Garcia continued, "although they keep coming up on other sites. I'll keep you posted."

"Great, Garcia, thanks. I've gotta go, something's happening here."

She rang off and turned her attention back to Sara and JJ.

"There's no such place." Sara insisted.

"There definitely is." JJ replied, confused.

"I've seen every casino, dive bar and strip club in the city, and there is definitely nowhere called The Golden Caboose."

"And we weren't anywhere near it," the naked blonde girl piped up, "we were in an apartment complex a couple of miles from the strip."

"Okay, but everyone else..." JJ began.

"Was going towards a casino that doesn't exist?" Sara said, "That doesn't help us."

"Not only does it exist," JJ sighed, "Alisha Derby worked there, and you and Prentiss visited it this afternoon."

"No! We went to... to... to a place called..." Sara looked at the map on the wall. The victim lines were all pointing towards a building labelled The Golden Caboose. "Well, I'll be damned. Agent Prentiss, do you remember us going there?"

"I would have sworn I'd never heard of the place." Prentiss replied, "But what does that mean... Hold on a second." she picked up the phone again and dialled. "Garcia, you said you've got video of me stripping? Not stripped, past tense?"

Five minutes later Prentiss, Sara, JJ and Chan gathered around Chan's computer as a video Garcia had sent through loaded.

It opened on a stage in a packed theatre, where a voice announced,

"Ladies and gentlemen, The Golden Caboose is proud to present the master of the mystic, the high priest of hypnotism, and the sultan of the strange- the one, the only, Mesmero!"

A man walked on the stage to rapturous applause. He was slightly built, dressed in a tuxedo and cape. On his face he wore a white mask, adorned with a large purple gem.

"Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, thank you..." he began.

"Garcia says to fast-forward to five minutes ten." JJ read a text from her phone. Chan clicked on the video slider, moving it forward. She misjudged the distance a couple of times, and they saw a tourist convinced they were a chicken and then another one acting like they were swordfighting an invisible opponent. Then she managed to play the video from the right moment.

"Usually, I would get a volunteer from the audience for this next trick, one which has proven to be... extremely popular." Mesmero smiled, "But a volunteer already came to me backstage just before the show started, and I could tell how much she wanted to be in the show. So please give a big Las Vegas welcome to FBI Agent Emily Prentiss!"

Mesmero led the applause as Prentiss walked on to the stage, smiling broadly and waving.

"What the hell?" the Prentiss watching the video exclaimed.

"Okay, Agent Emily," Mesmero instructed her on the stage, "let's give the folks a show."

Music started up, a thumping beat which Prentiss on the stage began to sway her hips to, still smiling. She was wearing the police t-shirt, which made the time of the video quite easy to tell, and when she turned her back to the audience and wiggled her butt at them she exposed the split in her black pants, to a chorus of laughter from the audience.

Prentiss turned back to face the crowd and peeled off her t-shirt, slowly, bringing her grey and pink bra into view again. She whirled the t-shirt around before throwing it into the audience, where someone caught it and cheered.

Next she unbuttoned her pants and slid them down her legs, bending at the waist as she did so to show her cleavage. The pants she then kicked into the audience on the other side, where someone else got them as a souvenir.

Prentiss stepped out of her shoes and, now in only her underwear, turned away from the audience and unclasped her bra. She let it dangle for a minute as she kept moving to the beat, then she turned back, one arm over her breasts. As she had down with the t-shirt, she twirled the bra around and threw it to the audience.

She turned around so when she slipped her panties off there was a full view of her backside, but nothing else yet. Then, as the music built to a crescendo, she suddenly span back around. She pulled the panties between both hands, stretching the elastic before firing them into the audience and then she struck a pose, one arm up in the air and the other hand on her hip, giving the audience a full frontal view.

Mesmero came back on the stage, joining the audience in enthusiastic applause, while Prentiss stood frozen in place and still smiling. Mesmero whispered something in Prentiss' ear and then turned to his adoring audience.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Agent Emily Prentiss!" at that, Prentiss skipped happily off the stage, completely nude.

"That thing he whispered to me," the real Prentiss in the office said, "must have been instructions to go out on the street somewhere before snapping out of the trance, forget what happens and even forget the name of the casino."

"There's another video being sent through," JJ said, looking at her phone,"apparently it's a two-for-one special, a cop and an FBI agent, uploaded today from the matinee show."

Prentiss and Sara looked at each other.

"Maybe we'll watch that later." Chan said, "Let's go find Mesmero."