Chapter 1~ Tonight's News

The club was packed. Of course, it was, it was Saturday. Trying to navigate the crowded floors with a tray full of drinks was tricky enough, add that to drunk-ass people flailing around like they were having seizures? Not to mention the fact that two girls had called in sick, so she was picking up the slack.

"Yo, Sal, dancefloor numero uno!" the manager yelled to her.

"I'm not schedualed to dance tonight."

"Yeah, well, the other girl ain't here. In other words, get that sweet little money maker up there and make some money."

Sally was known as Sugar Sal by everyone at the club. An, since it was Christmastime, the girls had to wear some sort of holiday costume. Tonight, she was a naughty elf. She didn't even know what song she was dancing to, nor did she care. All she wanted to do was go home...This was just not her night.

"Sally Gregoravich, age 25, last seen leaving Monroe's Club and Bar at 1:30 a.m. on Saturday morning after her shift." J.J. went over the latest case. "A local jogger found her two days ago at the national part in West Virginia. There were signs of torture, including evidence that a cattle prod might have been used. She was bound and her wrists slit. She bled to death in under an hour. When the jogger found her, she was cleaned up, her make-up was freshly applied, and she was wearing an elf costume...similar to the one her manager said she had danced in that evening."

"What makes the police think this is a serial?" Morgan sipped his coffee.

"In the last three months, there have been six other women killed, all during a holiday season: Halloween, Thanksgiving, now Christmas."

Reid started flipping through the pictures. "This suggests that the unsub either has something against the holidays, or the way the victims portrayed them."

"Portrayed?" Rossi inquired.

"All the victims were dancers...and they had all danced the night they were abducted, all wearing some kind of costume."

Blake jumped in, "And so far, there are no obvious links between these women? Why weren't we called in sooner?"

"They were all taken from different towns. All the girls went to different schools, worked at different clubs. Other than being close in age and being dancers, there's nothing that really connects them." Reid told them.

"Actually, there is something." J.J. clicked a button, and a picture of a woman came up. She was a smiling girl with a long brunette braid hanging over her shoulder and keen brown eyes staring straight at the camera. "This is Kyona Lael. She's 25 years old, and is employed as a waitress and dancer at Scorsezzi's Bar and Club. She apparently came in yesterday demanding to talk to whoever was lead on the case. According to local police, she knew all of the victims."

"Did she saw how?" Morgan sat up.

"They all shared the same cabin at summer camp."

"Well, then why didn't she come forward sooner?"

"Apparently, she doesn't own a T.V. And, all of the women fell out of contact after that summer, except for Sally Gregoravich and Kyona Lael. And, that is only because they went to the same school and were in the same grade."

"Ok," Hotch began gathering his things,"Wheels up in 20. If the unsub keeps to his time schedual, we'll have another missing dancer in two days."

"Other than their career choices and this one woman, what could possibly get all these women killed by the same guy?" Morgan asked on the jet.

"And how did they all even end up as dancers?" Blake added.

"It's actually not all that uncommon," Reid started rambling about numbers and statistics. "All in all, working at a bar seems to pay pretty well for a young, high school to menially college educated women."

"Yeah, Reid?" Garcia's face popped up on the screen, "Don't let Kyona Lael hear you say that. She went to community college and then up to a local university studying child psychology."

"Whatcha got for us, Baby Girl?"

"Well, I found one of her term papers, and it seems that Miss Lael thought that if the signs were caught early enough, by the right people, then the chance of a child becoming a serial killer would lessen dramatically."

"But isn't that what child psychologists already do?" J.J. looked around.

"According to her paper, no. They try to, but many of them never had the experiences that most of these children have when they talk to them."

"And she does?" Rossi asked.

"Looking at her files, I'd say that, yes, she does. She had her mother's first and second husbands arrested for child abuse. The first one, the bruise was seen by a teacher and they got the story out of her, and the second she reported after about two years of being abused by him."

"Sounds like she couldn't take it anymore."

"Oh, she took it. She told police that she only called them because he hit her mother, too."

"Garcia, is Miss Lael still at the police station?" Hotch asked.

"Yes, they figured she was a prime suspect and had her put in a containment cell for the night, until you guys could interrogate her."

"Alright. Reid, Blake, I want you to go talk to Kyona Lael. Morgan, Rossi, you head to the crime scene and find out what you can. J.J. and I will set up at the police station."

A/N: Hey, sorry for the mistakes, I fixed them. I'd like to thank my one an only reviewer for calling me out on that. I'm using Word Pad and it doesn't have a spellcheck. I'll be fixing chapter 2 as well, then I'll get chapter 3 ASAP.

Reviews are love, so please review!