Disclaimer: I don't own Criminal Minds and intend no copyright infringement.
Their cases were always hard and every lost life was saddening in its own special way, even if it was an unsub's they had to take in self-defense. Victims who barely survived an attack only to die hours later in a hospital bed, however, took their own kind of toll.
Professor Lamerson was almost gone when the doctors gave Reid and Rossi permission to see him. He was in the worst state you can be shortly before dying – terrified, confused, full of panic and unable to articulate himself coherently.
It was very clear that he wanted to say something, desperately, but couldn't get the words out. They gave him a pen and a notepad, then tried it with Reid's tab pc, but it was useless. He couldn't control his fingers anymore. His hands grabbed the air in helpless frustration.
Rossi sat down by his bedside, calmly took hold of his wrists and gently massaged his arteries. "It's okay, professor, you've done your best", he said. "Just let go now.""
The professor, however, started fidgeting, twisted his hand, clung to Rossi's right ring finger… and painfully scratched at the thick FBI commemorative ring Rossi had made of the pin the bureau gave agents after a decade of faithful service.
"Broken", he whispered.
"We'll find him, professor. Don't worry." Rossi rested a hand on the dying man's shoulder. Reid however, suddenly jumped up.
"Broken ring…"
The professor started wriggling to the point where his infusion sets were in danger of being pulled out.
"Reid, you're making him nervous."
"She promised me faith
Gave me a ring
She broke her faith
The ring broke in two."
"I think it would be better to leave him in peace now", Rossi insisted.
Reid, however, was not listening. "Is that it? Professor?" He sat back down by Lamerson's side. "Is that what you mean? In a cool valley?"
The professor jerked violently, something that could be interpreted as a nod.
Rossi frowned at Reid. "Care to explain?"
"He's a professor of literature! There's a poem by Eichendorff… In a cool valley… "
Lamerson jerked again.
"In a cool valley
There's a mill wheel
My loved one is gone
Who once lived there", Reid recited.
"We found odd traces of oil on the other victims, didn't we? The unsub hides out in an oil mill. That's what you want to tell us, right?" He turned to the professor again.
Suddenly Lamerson grew very calm. He closed his eyes, his rasped breathing subsided and he died.