Chapter one
Opens on a funeral, a flag covered casket. Strouss and Hotch stood beside a crying young woman clad in black.
After the service the girl nudged Hotch and motioned for him to follow her as she walked a safe distance away from the gathering of people.
"Aaron, thank you for coming." She said quietly.
"You're father was my best friend, Mikenna." Hotch replied.
"Mine too," She clutched the folded flag closer to her chest; she nodded her head to the side. "Walk with me?" She asked him. He gestured for her to lead the way. They walked past a few headstones before she began.
"I need your help." She stated simply.
"With anything, you know that."
She smiled and concluded, "Can I come in tomorrow to talk to you and your team?"
"Yeah. You've got me worried though, are you alright?" He asked.
Mikenna smiled again, shrugged her shoulders and started walking to her car, turning to briefly say, "See you tomorrow".
The next day; in the BAU bullpen
Prentiss and Garcia were teasing Morgan about his dating habits while Reid sat laughing but still managing to focus on the file in his hands.
JJ walked by escorting a beautiful young woman who caught Reid's eye. JJ pointed to Hotch's office and the woman walked up by herself.
"Hey, JJ, who's that?" Garcia asked
"Mikenna Jayne Davies, the daughter of Hotch's friend."
"Agent Davies' daughter; his funeral was yesterday. I haven't seen her around here in years." Morgan quipped.
"You know her?" Reid asked.
"Yeah. She used to want to be in the BAU. She stopped comin' right before you joined the team; I'm pretty sure you got her job." He said with a smirk.
Hotch came out of his office and told them to meet in the conference room before leading Mikenna in.
In the conference room everyone got a better look at her. She was about 5'7" with redish brown hair, piercing green eyes, and a kind smile. She wore red skinny jeans tucked into flat, black, over the knee boots with a white screen tee advertising "The Who" and a grey, oversized, cowl neck sweater; a big black purse slung over her shoulder. Hotch pulled a chair out for her and she sat with a small, "thanks".
"This is the team. SSA's Rossi, Prentiss, Jareau, Morgan, Dr. Reid and our Tech Analyst, Penelope Garcia. This is Agent Davies."
"Agent? So you are FBI now. Why aren't you working with us?" Morgan asked.
"I heard you were still here," she joked with a devilish grin, earning a chuckle from everyone.
With a smile Morgan replied, "Haha, remind me later that I still owe you something, Brat."
"How do you guys know each other?" Rossi asked.
"Aww, you didn't tell them anything about me, did you?" Mikenna cast her eyes to Hotch with mock surprise. "Well I used to come around all the time."
"I thought she was some weird groupie but I found out, she's just weird." Morgan interrupted, earning a glare from Mikenna.
"Anyway, I've known Aaron since I was born and my father was in the BAU so I'd come in as often as I could, but I got sick of Derek." She concluded with a smirk.
"So what brings you over here?" Rossi asked, interested.
"I'm following up on a case my dad worked, from like six and a half years ago." She gave.
"A cold case?" Morgan asked.
"Yeah, I remember it. There's someone behind bars for it, what exactly are you following up on?" Hotch pointed out.
"Did you ever meet the guy? Interrogate him or anything?" She got up from the chair and started to pace. Reid listened to her steps, worried about her obviously rising stress.
Hotch shook his head, "I worked the case and knew the profile, but I wasn't the one to interrogate him."
Mikenna looked surprised for a moment, "Why not? He wasn't here; shouldn't you have taken over the case?" She said, finishing the sentence under her breath, mostly to herself.
"Maybe you could explain the case to us and we'll see how we can help," Morgan suggested.
"Yeah, sorry. Can you put this up please?" She handed Morgan a disk and continued when five faces filled the screen. "About six and a half years ago my father took the lead of a murder investigation; the murder of these five young women. Each women was taken while on some part if her daily routine, held captive for days, beaten, raped, brutally murdered, then dumped on the side of the road. Recently I found murders with identical MO's. Starting nine months ago, nine more girls were killed." She clicked a button and nine new faces appeared on the wall beside her.
"So we're looking for a copy cat." Morgan stated.
"No, that's not what I'm saying at all."
"But the original murderer was caught." Rossi replied, confused.
"No." She said quickly with force.
"I thought you said –" Rossi started to ask Hotch.
"He said someone was arrested for the murders, I'm telling you; it's the wrong guy." She clipped.
"What?" Hotch demanded.
"I met with the guy. I wrote about the case for one of my classes but there is no way this guy killed anybody." By this time, everybody looked hopelessly confused.
Hotch asked, "How can you be sure?"
"Do you forget that I was raised by two BAU profilers? That I have a PhD in Behavioral Psychology? I was born for this Aaron, I am 100% sure, that this sick bastard is still out there, hunting me."