Title – A Killing Thing

Summary – One of the team is killing high-risk targets in DC. DACriminalMindsLovers contest fic: Who would make the best UNSUB? DarkFic and CCD, you have been warned!

Rating – M

Comments – For the contest on the DeviantArt group CriminalMindsLovers, I had to make one of the main characters into a bad guy. My other ideas were a crossover with Deathnote in which Morgan was Kira and Reid was L, and a parody-sort fic where Garcia stabs Straus with a fuzzy pen 50+ times. After brainstorming for a few hours over my crazy ideas, I settled on this one. Hope you like! Oh, this takes place almost directly after 5/10 before Hotch comes back.

Anger is a killing thing: it kills the man who angers, for each rage leaves him less than he had been before - it takes something from him.
Louis L'Amour

No one thought twice when Aaron Hotchner was gone a week longer than expected. After all, he had just buried his ex wife and he had a son who needed "Daddy." So on the morning that DC police called about what was now five bodies found in the back allies of the capital city, the team consisted of Acting Unit Chief Derek Morgan, SSA David Rossi, Special Agent Emily Prentiss, Dr. Spencer Reid, Communications Liaison Jennifer Jerreu, and Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia.

JJ did not brief the case in the BAU room as normal; Morgan sent text messages to everyone telling them to report to the Washington DC police department that Monday morning.

"Okay, I'm confused," Prentiss said as she entered the large conference room with her left eyebrow raised carrying a steaming cup of coffee. "This never happens."

Morgan and Rossi were already seated at the oval table and Reid, who carried his own cup of coffee and wore a similar dumbfounded expression to that of his female colleague, closely followed Prentiss.

"Morgan, sense when do you call us directly to the police department? Protocol states that we –"

"Protocol is a waist of time." Morgan answered before his genius subordinate could quote the handbook. "The case is right here, so we can save a few hours by skipping the BAU room."

Prentiss and Reid shrugged almost in sync. "Fare enough." Prentiss accepted her bosses reasoning and seated herself next to Rossi, while Reid took his place next to Morgan.

"Time is of the essence here," A commanding yet soft female voice came from the doorway. In came JJ, handing files to each of her teammates as se made her way to the front of the room. "Five bodies in two weeks. The last two were killed only a day apart."

Rossi's eyes widened. "Cooling off period is defiantly shrinking."

Everyone immediately opened their files, containing photos and coroners reports of five victims.

"None of them were reported missing?" Prentiss enquired.

"Only one of them has even been identified. Vic number two, Koichi Tatsuga," Morgan answered. "Bums, prostitutes, junkies. High-risk targets."

"Victimology appears to be all over the place," Reid observed. "Respectively, we have an older white male, a young Asian male, a middle aged black female, a young white male, and another black female, this time young. Are we sure it's the same unsub?"

JJ nodded and turned on the overhead screen, showing a lineup of crime scene photos. "Each victim was strangled with a ligature and suffered severe blows to the head post and anti mortem. Forensics says that lividity is fixed."

"He leaves them where he kills them," Rossi pondered, "says he doesn't care if they are found; no personal connection."

"But look at how the bodies appear to be posed," Morgan pointed out, "Their hands are crossed over their chest. The blood on their face is smeared, meaning he touched their faces for some reason. These are all signs of remorse."

"Death by strangulation or blunt force trauma would most likely cause the victim to die with their eyes open." Reid suggested. "The unsub must have closed their eyes."

Rossi nodded. "Confirms that he feels remorse after he kills them. But that doesn't make sense. Why would an unsub who has any form of compassion show so much rage in the kill?"

"Could our unsub be in a psychotic break?" Prentiss suggested.

Reid chewed his bottom lip in thought. "Possible, but not likely. You wouldn't expect to find an M.O. this consistent, even if victimology isn't. It lacks the frantic nature you would usually find in cases where an unsub is having a break of any sort."

"To learn anything else about our unsub, we'll need to see the crime scenes," Morgan said as he rose from his chair. "Rossi, Prentiss, you go to the latest crime scene. Reid, you come to the coroner's office with me. JJ, you stay here and call Garcia, see if you can't track down Tatsuga's family."