Prologue

He had been watching her for so long. He couldn't believe she was finally in town. It would be glorious meeting her at last. He had got the messages she had sent him, done what she said. It wouldn't be long now, he promised her, stroking one of the many photos he had copied, stuck to the wall.

He walked the length of his small shack planning everything. She would be hostile at first, it was how the game worked but slowly she would come around. She would be his. She had to be.

Chapter 1

JJ stepped off the plane inhaling deeply as the warm humid air hit her. After the coldness of a Washington winter a warm break was welcome. There were 3 murders initially that brought them down south. Each with a calling card but up to 15 when Garcia searched that could match the profile, all it said on the paper was: this is for you.

Who the note was referring to nobody knew. The killings had been spread out over 60 miles, Garcia was looking for more luckily the area was mostly rural with only 5 bigger towns, it meant a huge victim pool with no obvious connection between victims.

Getting to the bottom of the steps her phone rang again.

"Hey Garcia what can you tell me." JJ questioned

"I have found a total of 17 murders over the last 2 years" Garcia reported "This case as strange, lots of people have been killed, mostly white men but there had been other ethnicities and even women killed too all matching the profile, all killed with a blade, throat cut taken by surprise in the night. But I have searched I can't find any connection. Different towns, jobs, in fact there is nothing that matches." Garcia told them sounding frustrated, she hated when she got nothing.

JJ told the team as they got into their cars. They would all mull over the information and start forming theories once they got to the station.

Arriving at the station they met the local detective in a private room.

"We know from the murders spanning this distance that the unsub is mobile so he owns a car or a truck." Morgan started

"There is no sexual element, the victims were dressed and no evidence of semen was found near the body." Hotchner added.

"So maybe he can't," JJ guessed

"Or maybe that's not what it is about" Reid thought out loud. Everyone looked at him, waiting for him to continue he paused to collect his thoughts. "Most people are attracted to the same type or at least gender it's unusual for them to swap so maybe that's not the motivating factor"

"So what is?" Rossi asked.

"Right, we need to talk to the family's find something in common split up we have a lot of ground to cover" Hotchner ordered. JJ took the 5th and 8th victims family. Both were located east. The interviews were hard, both families were devastated, although both described their relative differently. They went to different shops, different towns, one was outgoing the other shy, nothing matched. JJ considered maybe the killer picked random people from random towns and cities as she drove back to her hotel room.

After checking in with Hotch and Garcia she began reviewing the folders of all the victims again starting from the beginning. Hugh Daniels was 53 years old, white male balding killed in his house on 8th September, socially isolated from his community it took them over a week to find his body. JJ remembered that day in her life. It was the day, thanks to the press conference she had given, they had arrested Simon Samuels a white 55 year old male balding. The profile matched them both. What were the coincidences of that?

She looked at the next case, a Diana Herbert 45 years old high powered business woman killed on 16th October. JJ checked her diary. She had given another press conference that day, they had been looking for a high powered woman, she would blend in with a crowd be able to work a room would be your boss or someone respected, but she was killing men offering to meet them off a website, they too were business men all had distain for women. They had found the killer she was 49 years old Fiona Matterhan tired of working twice as hard to get half as far she took her revenge on any man who would meet her.

JJ began searching all the cases reported her alarm growing. They all matched her press conferences dates exactly and the victim matched the profile of the unsub. She reached for her phone to call Hotch, when the door was slammed off its hinges.

She screamed jumping off the bed going for her gun. The man was behind her in an instant grabbing her arm before she reached it. A knife was pressed against her throat

"Easy now" A male voice behind her warned. JJ slowly lifted her hands, a hand on her back pushed her down on to the bed. She heard a gun cock and knew it was her own.

"Hands behind your back" he instructed he did hearing the click of handcuffs as the cool metal encircled her wrists. He threw the gun back on the bed.

"Good now walk" he instructed yanking her up by her arms. JJ yelped with the pain pretty sure he had just dislocated her left shoulder.

He took her outside taking time to fix the door so it looked unbroken, JJ searched the rooms she knew her team to be staying in but from the dark windows knew nobody was home. It made sense the families she had interviewed lived closer to the station and lived near each other. Nobody else would be back for at least 30 minutes.

They neared a truck. He opened both of the back door allowing her to step inside. An old mattress lay on the floor of the truck.

"Lie down JJ" he ordered clumsily she got onto her knees, it was hard without landing hard on her shoulder. Impatiently he pushed her so she was lying in the foetal position she screamed as she landed hard on her left shoulder. He rolled her onto her back shoving it again. She heard it click back into position and whimpered.

"Good girl now hold on tight it's going to get bumpy" he whispered stroking some of her hair back into position. JJ studied him late 40's early 50's white, brown hair that was thinning on top he wore a hunters jacket not a rarity in these parts. Everyone was a hunter here. His eyes were hazel, he didn't look like a serial killer not like some of the others JJ had seen with an evil so inherent it practically oozed out of their pores.