An Imitation of a Light - Part One
An Imitation of a Light
Written for cm_bigbang
See the header here for full details.
Quantico, Virginia, six weeks earlier
Jennifer Jareau, JJ, picked up her coffee mug, cradling it in her hands as she took in her office. It wasn’t neat; she didn’t have any of the books that seemed to take up most of the space in other offices, and her wall was bare of awards. It wasn’t that she hadn’t received any; it was just that she didn’t feel the need to put them on display.
Whenever someone visited her in her office, she needed the focus on them, wanted them to feel like they were on equal ground with her, like she understood them; awards wouldn’t do that. The piles of folders scattered around also made her office seem less intimidating, or at least she hoped so. She didn’t think she would ever be able to make it look orderly.
She sighed, leaning back in her chair a little more, gaze resting on the three files she had open on her desk. She’d managed to whittle her heap down to just these three cases. All of the others had gone into various piles, each one intended for a different profiler. Those, she would take out and drop into the relevant inboxes, ready to be reviewed.
But these three, each one very different from the next, were more difficult. Time was a factor in two, the other she thought could probably wait, but she wasn’t certain, and she didn’t want to make that choice alone.
She glanced at her computer screen, eying her inbox. There, at the top of the list, sat yet another email from the Department of Defense, another reminder that she could have almost any job she wanted. The only problem was, people didn’t seem to understand that the job she had was the job she wanted.
They all thought she was crazy.
She sighed, freeing one hand to rub her eyes wearily, before glancing at the clock. Aaron Hotchner, her boss, would be back from his meeting now, which meant it was time to move.
She shifted her various piles, collecting the ones she could drop off on the way to Hotch’s office, ordering them so the three piles that she was taking to him were at the bottom. It wouldn’t take long to do a circuit of the bullpen, leaving Hotch’s office for last, but she would be aware of every moment, just as she always was.
Time meant a lot, in more cases than she could count; the quicker they got involved in a case, the better the outcome. It wasn’t always true, and she knew that, there was a small pile, hidden away one of her desk drawers, of the ‘impossible’ cases. The ones where they’d lost, despite how hard they’d tried.
She hoped that she wouldn’t be adding another file to that pile anytime soon.
-
JJ did her rounds quickly, offering her team mates a faint smile as she filled their in-trays, and she knew they could all read the tension in her. At work, when they weren’t working a case, she kept herself fairly open, not bothering to hide how she was feeling; better to save the energy for when she really needed it.
She handed David Rossi, their senior profiler, his own stack last, and he made a point of catching her hand to give it a quick squeeze before he let go. “Hotch got back about half an hour ago,” he said, as he held her gaze, “and he looked grimmer than usual.”
JJ offered Rossi a faint smile, nodding, “He always does, after his monthly briefing with Strauss.”
Rossi snorted, nodding, “Anyone would.”
JJ nodded quickly, heading out of his office and moving to the door of the office next door, knocking and waiting for permission to enter. Hotch’s blinds were open, as they almost always were, which meant she could see him bent over his own stack of paperwork. JJ let out a soft sigh; he wasn’t going to get the chance to finish whatever it was he was working on.
She pushed the door open at the sound of his voice, which had been muffled by the wood of the office door, holding up her files, “I have a few cases that I wanted your opinion on.”
Hotch’s eyebrows rose, just slightly, and he motioned to the visitor’s chair, before he cleared space on his desk, pulling out a fresh notepad. JJ settled into the chair, then handed him the files, opening up her own notes.
“The first case,” Hotch opened up the file as she spoke, “is a serial arsonist in Denver; he hasn’t killed anyone, but that seems to be mostly due to luck. The locals think that it’s only a matter of time before he kills someone.”
Hotch had nodded, along, listening to her, barely sparing the contents of the file a glance. That was the way it worked, he trusted her to brief him on a case, and he would read though the case once she had finished, “You think they might need us there?”
JJ nodded, “Their unsub is speeding up, setting fires more and more often, and they’re getting bigger. There is a good chance he will end up killing someone, and even if he doesn’t, the potential amount of property damage alone concerns me.” They didn’t just profile serial killers after all. People didn’t have to die strangely to gain the BAU’s attention.
Hotch nodded then ducked his head to flick through the file, scanning the police reports. It took him a few minutes before he looked back up. “The next case?”
JJ took a breath, it was worse, she knew, though again, no one had been killed. Yet. “A serial rapist in Lawrence, they think he’s raped at least ten women over the last year, possibly more. He seems to be getting more violent with each attack, but there’s no clear type in his victims. Different faces, builds, hair colour, background, age, it’s more like he doesn’t care who he attacks, just that he can get access to them.”
Hotch frown deepened, and he flipped open the file, reading through the reports again, “What do you think?”
“I think it’s only a matter of time before he kills one of his victims, and once he does that, he won’t go back. He’ll just keep killing.”
Hotch still didn’t really react, but JJ didn’t expect him to. He liked to get her opinion, unbiased by his own, before he started really discussing the cases with her. Before they debated which case needed the team’s attention the most urgently.
Hotch opened the third file, and JJ needed no more prompting, “Charleston County Sheriff’s department think they have a serial killer.”
Hotch flipped through to the first set of crime scene photographs. “They aren’t sure?”
“The MO varies, the only thing they have to tie the murders together is the timeline, and the dump sites.” JJ explained, “I think they’re right, and if the timeline is correct, there’s going to be another victim soon.”
Hotch scanned through the rest of the reports, and JJ watched as his shoulders tensed just a little. She didn’t need to hear what he said next to know that he would agree with her assessment.
“I’ll hand the other two cases to the other teams, there’s enough here to build a basic profile for the arsonist. The serial rapist will be more difficult, I expect they’ll be called out, but judging from the reports here, we’ll be the most helpful in South Carolina.”
JJ nodded, “That was my feeling.”
Hotch offered her a faint smile, “I’ll let the team know we’ll be presenting a case in two hours, if you can call and let them know we’re coming.”
JJ nodded, accepting the files back from Hotch, and heading out. She would call home quickly as well, once she’d called the Sheriff, to let them know that she wouldn’t be coming home for a while.
-
JJ stood by the whiteboard, watching as her teammates trailed into the room, one after another. Hotch was the first one to arrive, carrying his own copy of the case file, then Rossi followed, claiming the seat at Hotch’s left. Emily Prentiss came next, carrying her notepad and a steaming cup of coffee. She offered JJ a smile as she settled into the chair on Rossi’s other side.
Next, arriving at the same time, each carrying their own mugs and notebooks, came Derek Morgan and Spencer Reid, the look Morgan was giving Reid suggesting that they’d been having an interesting discussion on their walk up. Penelope Garcia, their technical analyst, and always the most brightly dressed of them all, arrived last, carrying her laptop, a notepad and a fluffy pen.
JJ waited for them all to settle, giving them a moment to open up the files that she’d set ready for each of them, before she began, “Charleston Sheriff’s Department have requested out presence.”
“South Carolina?” Rossi made it sound less like a question, and more like a rumination on past visits. JJ was sure he could tell some stories. Both from his time in BAU, and from his numerous book tours.
She nodded, “It seems they have a serial killer.”
“Seems?” Morgan caught the word, as JJ had expected him to. She glanced at Hotch, letting him answer.
Hotch nodded, meeting Morgan’s gaze across the table, “They have a series of murders that they think might be connected, but they aren’t certain, none were killed in the same way.”
JJ took that as her prompt to begin the main section of her presentation. She had selected the less disturbing images from the reports, knowing that Garcia would appreciate it. JJ pointed the controller at the screen bringing up the photos of the first victim, “This is the first victim, Nick Barnett,” there was a copy of Barnett’s driver’s license photo, alongside a crime scene photo. It was almost impossible to recognise the body that was laid out on the ground, “they identified him from his finger prints.”
“He was beaten, then shot point blank in the head,” Morgan read from the file, wincing as he flipped to the next page, and the close up pictures of the body, it wasn’t pretty.
“He was missing for two days before his body was found,” Hotch added, as he split his attention between JJ and the rest of the team. He didn’t need to reread the file.
JJ brought up the next set of photos, of a woman this time, “This is Keri Osbourne, she went missing a week after Barnett’s body was found. They found her body three weeks later.”
“She was starved, then drowned.” Prentiss read from the file this time, frowning, “The killer spent a lot more time with her, but her death was less violent.”
“The third victim,” JJ brought up her final set of photographs, “Scott Monroe, was found two days after he went missing.”
“And he was,” Rossi paused, wincing as he read from the file, “raped with a foreign object, beaten and then strangled.”
“What made the locals think these cases are connected?” Morgan asked.
JJ brought up a set of three photographs, “The killer left newspapers next to all of his victims.”
Reid frowned, squinting at the pictures, “None of the dates on the newspapers match the period that the victims were taken, or when they were killed.”
“They haven’t been able to figure out why the unsub left those particular newspapers as yet.” Hotch replied, “There is another reason that they called us; the timeline. This unsub always takes another victim within a week of dumping the last.”
“And it’s been two days since the last body was found.” JJ added, watching the reactions of their teammates.
“So we have five days until this guy takes his next victim?” Morgan said, sounding grim.
“In theory,” Rossi hedged, “could be that he takes a victim a week after dumping the last, but the next victim will be missing three weeks, like Keri.” He nodded to the photos on the whiteboard.
“First victim, two days, second, three weeks, third, two days,” Morgan ran through it, “you think the next could be three weeks again, then another two days.”
“Could be.” Rossi said, turning his attention back to the file.
“Or,” Prentiss spoke up again, “it could be that this unsub takes longer with women, makes them suffer a slow death, but the men, they get quick, painful, violent deaths.”
Rossi nodded, “Or it could be that.”
“Either way, the sooner we get there the better. If there’s a chance that we can catch this unsub before he can take another victim, we need to take it.” JJ said, and the others all nodded. Garcia was shifting in her sheet, her gaze on JJ rather than the screen.
“What do you need me to do?” Garcia asked, turning to her right to meet Hotch’s gaze.
“See what you can find out about the victims, see if there’s anything that connects them, and see if there is anything to connect them to the particular issues of the newspaper the unsub left with the bodies.” Hotch said, watching as she took notes, her pen hesitating over the last instruction.
“That one’s going to be hard, there might not be complete records of the newspapers online.”
Hotch nodded, “I realize that, just do what you can, we can always follow that up once we’re in South Carolina.”
Garcia nodded, gathering her stuff together, “I’ll go get started on that, don’t you guys have too much fun without me.” It was a less bright parting comment than she was known for, but crime scene photos tended to do that to her.
“Everyone grab your go bags, wheels up in an hour.” Hotch said. Anyone else, JJ thought absently, probably would have made some comment about ‘stopping this guy at three’. She glanced at Rossi then, and almost smiled. It looked like he had considered it, for a moment, before thinking better of it.
They would never have let him hear the end of it if he had.
-
It would be a relatively short flight, but it would be enough time for them to work through the possibilities, and decide on a game plan.
They settled into their chosen seats, waiting for the plane to take off before they gathered, Prentiss, Rossi, Reid and Morgan having claimed the seats around the table, while JJ settled on the end of the couch, and Hotch half sat on the smaller table across the aisle.
“Three murders, three different MOs.” Rossi was the first to speak, spreading the crime scene photos across the table.
“It could be a contract killer,” Prentiss glanced at Rossi briefly before focusing on Hotch, “like Commack.”
“It doesn’t seem likely,” Rossi answered, “a contract killer would have had a similar MO, there would be some sign of them keeping a record of the deed.” He pointed at the crime scene photos, “They wouldn’t dump the bodies like this, and they certainly wouldn’t leave the newspaper. It draws too much attention.”
“It seems more likely that the unsub is doing this because of a personal need.” Hotch agreed.
“The victimology is all over the place,” Morgan pointed out, “Barnett was a car mechanic, Osborne was an unemployed foster mother, and Monroe was a teacher.”
“Two men and one woman,” Reid agreed, “though they’ve all been white so far.”
“There must be something that made the unsub pick these people. It can’t be completely random.” JJ argued, drawing a reaction from Reid.
“While it’s true that it’s impossible for the killings to be completely random, it’s possible that the killer just picked them because they were available.” Reid said, and Prentiss frowned.
“Maybe, if the kills were quick, or at least similar, but this guy takes time. He has a place that he takes them, and the newspapers suggest that he picked these people for a reason.” She argued.
“The unsub might be a vigilante,” Reid moved on to his next point, tapping one of the photographs idly, “it does seem to be planned, like there’s a sequence for each victim. The method of torture is specific to each victim, the same as the way they were killed.”
“So, he’s killing them for a reason, as a kind of punishment for some perceived wrong doing.” Hotch suggested.
“Unfortunately, that doesn’t give us any way to narrow down who might be next.” Rossi said, “We still need to figure out why these victims, why the particular MOs.”
Morgan held up one of the pictures of Monroe, “Considering the torture for each one, I think we can make some safe bets on why. Monroe, the teacher, with the rape I’d say if we look into him, there’s been some marks on his record.”
“Osborne might have mistreated the children in her care,” Hotch said, while Prentiss and Morgan exchanged a look. It wouldn’t be the first time they’d encountered an abusive foster mother.
“And it’s possible that Barnett beat his kids, or his wife.” Rossi offered, remembering what he had read about the man’s background. Sadly, nothing that they’d listed as reasons for the torture was as rare as people liked to think. Rossi was sure that Reid could give them all the statistics on each particular set of crimes. Rossi didn’t envy the kid that.
“We’ll have to check, talk to their families, work mates, and Garcia can run a background check. We need to be sure of the facts before we mention anything about possible reasons to the locals.” Hotch said, and they nodded. They didn’t need it getting out, people would jump on the bandwagon pretty quickly if they thought there might be a reason for these people to have deserved their fate.
“I’ll make sure the media don’t catch onto that angle.” JJ said. It might be a difficult sell, but she would find a way to keep the details from the media for as long as possible.
“Getting back to the unsub,” Rossi pointed to the photos of Keri, “this is someone who has space to do this. Somewhere that they can keep their victims, somewhere that either no one knows about, or somewhere that’s protected. A basement the wife isn’t allowed to go into, storage place out on the edge of town. Something.”
Hotch nodded, “That’s another thing for Garcia to look into, it should cut down the list of potential suspects.” It would, but not as much as they needed. A lot of houses had basements, and it wasn’t hard to pay in cash for private space. Chances were, that was something that they wouldn’t be able to follow up on until they had a suspect in custody.
“There might be a connection between the unsub and the victims.” Prentiss said, “A lot of this seems pretty personal.”
“Or whatever it is that the unsub sees them as being guilty of, is something that they’ve suffered themselves.” Morgan said, and Prentiss nodded.
“Garcia can check on that as well, though it’s possible that they’re all linked by something, with two of them having kids, and the other being a teacher. A list of people who’ve suffered personal losses recently might help, but it could as easily been a while ago, but it’s only now that they’ve been driven to start killing.” Hotch said, voicing the concerns that they all had.
This wasn’t going to be an easy case.
“I hate to be the one to say it,” Rossi said, “but odds are, until we have another victim, anything we come up with is going to be a hard sell.”
“Finding the connection between the victims and the newspapers will help.” Reid said, and they all nodded. Silence fell for a long moment before Hotch spoke.
“Dave, Emily I want you to follow up on Osborne, visit the dump site and talk to her family,” they nodded, both turning to the relevant pages of the files, “Reid, Morgan, take Monroe and do the same, JJ and I will head to the station and get set up.” They all nodded their understanding, and JJ followed Hotch to the smaller table. They needed to present a united front to the sheriff as soon as they arrived.
First impression were always important, even more so in their line of work. They had to keep the locals on their side, do their best not to step on any toes, all while still doing their job.
-
Part Two
Written for cm_bigbang
See the header here for full details.
Quantico, Virginia, six weeks earlier
Jennifer Jareau, JJ, picked up her coffee mug, cradling it in her hands as she took in her office. It wasn’t neat; she didn’t have any of the books that seemed to take up most of the space in other offices, and her wall was bare of awards. It wasn’t that she hadn’t received any; it was just that she didn’t feel the need to put them on display.
Whenever someone visited her in her office, she needed the focus on them, wanted them to feel like they were on equal ground with her, like she understood them; awards wouldn’t do that. The piles of folders scattered around also made her office seem less intimidating, or at least she hoped so. She didn’t think she would ever be able to make it look orderly.
She sighed, leaning back in her chair a little more, gaze resting on the three files she had open on her desk. She’d managed to whittle her heap down to just these three cases. All of the others had gone into various piles, each one intended for a different profiler. Those, she would take out and drop into the relevant inboxes, ready to be reviewed.
But these three, each one very different from the next, were more difficult. Time was a factor in two, the other she thought could probably wait, but she wasn’t certain, and she didn’t want to make that choice alone.
She glanced at her computer screen, eying her inbox. There, at the top of the list, sat yet another email from the Department of Defense, another reminder that she could have almost any job she wanted. The only problem was, people didn’t seem to understand that the job she had was the job she wanted.
They all thought she was crazy.
She sighed, freeing one hand to rub her eyes wearily, before glancing at the clock. Aaron Hotchner, her boss, would be back from his meeting now, which meant it was time to move.
She shifted her various piles, collecting the ones she could drop off on the way to Hotch’s office, ordering them so the three piles that she was taking to him were at the bottom. It wouldn’t take long to do a circuit of the bullpen, leaving Hotch’s office for last, but she would be aware of every moment, just as she always was.
Time meant a lot, in more cases than she could count; the quicker they got involved in a case, the better the outcome. It wasn’t always true, and she knew that, there was a small pile, hidden away one of her desk drawers, of the ‘impossible’ cases. The ones where they’d lost, despite how hard they’d tried.
She hoped that she wouldn’t be adding another file to that pile anytime soon.
-
JJ did her rounds quickly, offering her team mates a faint smile as she filled their in-trays, and she knew they could all read the tension in her. At work, when they weren’t working a case, she kept herself fairly open, not bothering to hide how she was feeling; better to save the energy for when she really needed it.
She handed David Rossi, their senior profiler, his own stack last, and he made a point of catching her hand to give it a quick squeeze before he let go. “Hotch got back about half an hour ago,” he said, as he held her gaze, “and he looked grimmer than usual.”
JJ offered Rossi a faint smile, nodding, “He always does, after his monthly briefing with Strauss.”
Rossi snorted, nodding, “Anyone would.”
JJ nodded quickly, heading out of his office and moving to the door of the office next door, knocking and waiting for permission to enter. Hotch’s blinds were open, as they almost always were, which meant she could see him bent over his own stack of paperwork. JJ let out a soft sigh; he wasn’t going to get the chance to finish whatever it was he was working on.
She pushed the door open at the sound of his voice, which had been muffled by the wood of the office door, holding up her files, “I have a few cases that I wanted your opinion on.”
Hotch’s eyebrows rose, just slightly, and he motioned to the visitor’s chair, before he cleared space on his desk, pulling out a fresh notepad. JJ settled into the chair, then handed him the files, opening up her own notes.
“The first case,” Hotch opened up the file as she spoke, “is a serial arsonist in Denver; he hasn’t killed anyone, but that seems to be mostly due to luck. The locals think that it’s only a matter of time before he kills someone.”
Hotch had nodded, along, listening to her, barely sparing the contents of the file a glance. That was the way it worked, he trusted her to brief him on a case, and he would read though the case once she had finished, “You think they might need us there?”
JJ nodded, “Their unsub is speeding up, setting fires more and more often, and they’re getting bigger. There is a good chance he will end up killing someone, and even if he doesn’t, the potential amount of property damage alone concerns me.” They didn’t just profile serial killers after all. People didn’t have to die strangely to gain the BAU’s attention.
Hotch nodded then ducked his head to flick through the file, scanning the police reports. It took him a few minutes before he looked back up. “The next case?”
JJ took a breath, it was worse, she knew, though again, no one had been killed. Yet. “A serial rapist in Lawrence, they think he’s raped at least ten women over the last year, possibly more. He seems to be getting more violent with each attack, but there’s no clear type in his victims. Different faces, builds, hair colour, background, age, it’s more like he doesn’t care who he attacks, just that he can get access to them.”
Hotch frown deepened, and he flipped open the file, reading through the reports again, “What do you think?”
“I think it’s only a matter of time before he kills one of his victims, and once he does that, he won’t go back. He’ll just keep killing.”
Hotch still didn’t really react, but JJ didn’t expect him to. He liked to get her opinion, unbiased by his own, before he started really discussing the cases with her. Before they debated which case needed the team’s attention the most urgently.
Hotch opened the third file, and JJ needed no more prompting, “Charleston County Sheriff’s department think they have a serial killer.”
Hotch flipped through to the first set of crime scene photographs. “They aren’t sure?”
“The MO varies, the only thing they have to tie the murders together is the timeline, and the dump sites.” JJ explained, “I think they’re right, and if the timeline is correct, there’s going to be another victim soon.”
Hotch scanned through the rest of the reports, and JJ watched as his shoulders tensed just a little. She didn’t need to hear what he said next to know that he would agree with her assessment.
“I’ll hand the other two cases to the other teams, there’s enough here to build a basic profile for the arsonist. The serial rapist will be more difficult, I expect they’ll be called out, but judging from the reports here, we’ll be the most helpful in South Carolina.”
JJ nodded, “That was my feeling.”
Hotch offered her a faint smile, “I’ll let the team know we’ll be presenting a case in two hours, if you can call and let them know we’re coming.”
JJ nodded, accepting the files back from Hotch, and heading out. She would call home quickly as well, once she’d called the Sheriff, to let them know that she wouldn’t be coming home for a while.
-
JJ stood by the whiteboard, watching as her teammates trailed into the room, one after another. Hotch was the first one to arrive, carrying his own copy of the case file, then Rossi followed, claiming the seat at Hotch’s left. Emily Prentiss came next, carrying her notepad and a steaming cup of coffee. She offered JJ a smile as she settled into the chair on Rossi’s other side.
Next, arriving at the same time, each carrying their own mugs and notebooks, came Derek Morgan and Spencer Reid, the look Morgan was giving Reid suggesting that they’d been having an interesting discussion on their walk up. Penelope Garcia, their technical analyst, and always the most brightly dressed of them all, arrived last, carrying her laptop, a notepad and a fluffy pen.
JJ waited for them all to settle, giving them a moment to open up the files that she’d set ready for each of them, before she began, “Charleston Sheriff’s Department have requested out presence.”
“South Carolina?” Rossi made it sound less like a question, and more like a rumination on past visits. JJ was sure he could tell some stories. Both from his time in BAU, and from his numerous book tours.
She nodded, “It seems they have a serial killer.”
“Seems?” Morgan caught the word, as JJ had expected him to. She glanced at Hotch, letting him answer.
Hotch nodded, meeting Morgan’s gaze across the table, “They have a series of murders that they think might be connected, but they aren’t certain, none were killed in the same way.”
JJ took that as her prompt to begin the main section of her presentation. She had selected the less disturbing images from the reports, knowing that Garcia would appreciate it. JJ pointed the controller at the screen bringing up the photos of the first victim, “This is the first victim, Nick Barnett,” there was a copy of Barnett’s driver’s license photo, alongside a crime scene photo. It was almost impossible to recognise the body that was laid out on the ground, “they identified him from his finger prints.”
“He was beaten, then shot point blank in the head,” Morgan read from the file, wincing as he flipped to the next page, and the close up pictures of the body, it wasn’t pretty.
“He was missing for two days before his body was found,” Hotch added, as he split his attention between JJ and the rest of the team. He didn’t need to reread the file.
JJ brought up the next set of photos, of a woman this time, “This is Keri Osbourne, she went missing a week after Barnett’s body was found. They found her body three weeks later.”
“She was starved, then drowned.” Prentiss read from the file this time, frowning, “The killer spent a lot more time with her, but her death was less violent.”
“The third victim,” JJ brought up her final set of photographs, “Scott Monroe, was found two days after he went missing.”
“And he was,” Rossi paused, wincing as he read from the file, “raped with a foreign object, beaten and then strangled.”
“What made the locals think these cases are connected?” Morgan asked.
JJ brought up a set of three photographs, “The killer left newspapers next to all of his victims.”
Reid frowned, squinting at the pictures, “None of the dates on the newspapers match the period that the victims were taken, or when they were killed.”
“They haven’t been able to figure out why the unsub left those particular newspapers as yet.” Hotch replied, “There is another reason that they called us; the timeline. This unsub always takes another victim within a week of dumping the last.”
“And it’s been two days since the last body was found.” JJ added, watching the reactions of their teammates.
“So we have five days until this guy takes his next victim?” Morgan said, sounding grim.
“In theory,” Rossi hedged, “could be that he takes a victim a week after dumping the last, but the next victim will be missing three weeks, like Keri.” He nodded to the photos on the whiteboard.
“First victim, two days, second, three weeks, third, two days,” Morgan ran through it, “you think the next could be three weeks again, then another two days.”
“Could be.” Rossi said, turning his attention back to the file.
“Or,” Prentiss spoke up again, “it could be that this unsub takes longer with women, makes them suffer a slow death, but the men, they get quick, painful, violent deaths.”
Rossi nodded, “Or it could be that.”
“Either way, the sooner we get there the better. If there’s a chance that we can catch this unsub before he can take another victim, we need to take it.” JJ said, and the others all nodded. Garcia was shifting in her sheet, her gaze on JJ rather than the screen.
“What do you need me to do?” Garcia asked, turning to her right to meet Hotch’s gaze.
“See what you can find out about the victims, see if there’s anything that connects them, and see if there is anything to connect them to the particular issues of the newspaper the unsub left with the bodies.” Hotch said, watching as she took notes, her pen hesitating over the last instruction.
“That one’s going to be hard, there might not be complete records of the newspapers online.”
Hotch nodded, “I realize that, just do what you can, we can always follow that up once we’re in South Carolina.”
Garcia nodded, gathering her stuff together, “I’ll go get started on that, don’t you guys have too much fun without me.” It was a less bright parting comment than she was known for, but crime scene photos tended to do that to her.
“Everyone grab your go bags, wheels up in an hour.” Hotch said. Anyone else, JJ thought absently, probably would have made some comment about ‘stopping this guy at three’. She glanced at Rossi then, and almost smiled. It looked like he had considered it, for a moment, before thinking better of it.
They would never have let him hear the end of it if he had.
-
It would be a relatively short flight, but it would be enough time for them to work through the possibilities, and decide on a game plan.
They settled into their chosen seats, waiting for the plane to take off before they gathered, Prentiss, Rossi, Reid and Morgan having claimed the seats around the table, while JJ settled on the end of the couch, and Hotch half sat on the smaller table across the aisle.
“Three murders, three different MOs.” Rossi was the first to speak, spreading the crime scene photos across the table.
“It could be a contract killer,” Prentiss glanced at Rossi briefly before focusing on Hotch, “like Commack.”
“It doesn’t seem likely,” Rossi answered, “a contract killer would have had a similar MO, there would be some sign of them keeping a record of the deed.” He pointed at the crime scene photos, “They wouldn’t dump the bodies like this, and they certainly wouldn’t leave the newspaper. It draws too much attention.”
“It seems more likely that the unsub is doing this because of a personal need.” Hotch agreed.
“The victimology is all over the place,” Morgan pointed out, “Barnett was a car mechanic, Osborne was an unemployed foster mother, and Monroe was a teacher.”
“Two men and one woman,” Reid agreed, “though they’ve all been white so far.”
“There must be something that made the unsub pick these people. It can’t be completely random.” JJ argued, drawing a reaction from Reid.
“While it’s true that it’s impossible for the killings to be completely random, it’s possible that the killer just picked them because they were available.” Reid said, and Prentiss frowned.
“Maybe, if the kills were quick, or at least similar, but this guy takes time. He has a place that he takes them, and the newspapers suggest that he picked these people for a reason.” She argued.
“The unsub might be a vigilante,” Reid moved on to his next point, tapping one of the photographs idly, “it does seem to be planned, like there’s a sequence for each victim. The method of torture is specific to each victim, the same as the way they were killed.”
“So, he’s killing them for a reason, as a kind of punishment for some perceived wrong doing.” Hotch suggested.
“Unfortunately, that doesn’t give us any way to narrow down who might be next.” Rossi said, “We still need to figure out why these victims, why the particular MOs.”
Morgan held up one of the pictures of Monroe, “Considering the torture for each one, I think we can make some safe bets on why. Monroe, the teacher, with the rape I’d say if we look into him, there’s been some marks on his record.”
“Osborne might have mistreated the children in her care,” Hotch said, while Prentiss and Morgan exchanged a look. It wouldn’t be the first time they’d encountered an abusive foster mother.
“And it’s possible that Barnett beat his kids, or his wife.” Rossi offered, remembering what he had read about the man’s background. Sadly, nothing that they’d listed as reasons for the torture was as rare as people liked to think. Rossi was sure that Reid could give them all the statistics on each particular set of crimes. Rossi didn’t envy the kid that.
“We’ll have to check, talk to their families, work mates, and Garcia can run a background check. We need to be sure of the facts before we mention anything about possible reasons to the locals.” Hotch said, and they nodded. They didn’t need it getting out, people would jump on the bandwagon pretty quickly if they thought there might be a reason for these people to have deserved their fate.
“I’ll make sure the media don’t catch onto that angle.” JJ said. It might be a difficult sell, but she would find a way to keep the details from the media for as long as possible.
“Getting back to the unsub,” Rossi pointed to the photos of Keri, “this is someone who has space to do this. Somewhere that they can keep their victims, somewhere that either no one knows about, or somewhere that’s protected. A basement the wife isn’t allowed to go into, storage place out on the edge of town. Something.”
Hotch nodded, “That’s another thing for Garcia to look into, it should cut down the list of potential suspects.” It would, but not as much as they needed. A lot of houses had basements, and it wasn’t hard to pay in cash for private space. Chances were, that was something that they wouldn’t be able to follow up on until they had a suspect in custody.
“There might be a connection between the unsub and the victims.” Prentiss said, “A lot of this seems pretty personal.”
“Or whatever it is that the unsub sees them as being guilty of, is something that they’ve suffered themselves.” Morgan said, and Prentiss nodded.
“Garcia can check on that as well, though it’s possible that they’re all linked by something, with two of them having kids, and the other being a teacher. A list of people who’ve suffered personal losses recently might help, but it could as easily been a while ago, but it’s only now that they’ve been driven to start killing.” Hotch said, voicing the concerns that they all had.
This wasn’t going to be an easy case.
“I hate to be the one to say it,” Rossi said, “but odds are, until we have another victim, anything we come up with is going to be a hard sell.”
“Finding the connection between the victims and the newspapers will help.” Reid said, and they all nodded. Silence fell for a long moment before Hotch spoke.
“Dave, Emily I want you to follow up on Osborne, visit the dump site and talk to her family,” they nodded, both turning to the relevant pages of the files, “Reid, Morgan, take Monroe and do the same, JJ and I will head to the station and get set up.” They all nodded their understanding, and JJ followed Hotch to the smaller table. They needed to present a united front to the sheriff as soon as they arrived.
First impression were always important, even more so in their line of work. They had to keep the locals on their side, do their best not to step on any toes, all while still doing their job.
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Part Two