A New Case
They were in the conference room while JJ presented the new case which would take them to St Louis, Missouri. A set of twins, Matthew and Alice Hughes, had been found murdered within days of them being reported missing. The morticians had agreed they'd been killed only a few hours before being found. Now there was another set of twins, Jake and Mary Colter, had been taken in the same fashion.
Their mothers would be momentarily distracted by a lost child and then the twins would be taken. The mothers were both single trying to hold down a job so they could pay to put their children through school. The twins were dark-haired but different ages. Matthew and Alice Hughes were four while Jake and Mary were six. The only thing linking them together was the colour of their hair and the fact their mothers were single, hard-working mothers.
Matthew and Alice had obviously been abused during the few days of their captivity. There had been bruises found on their bodies that didn't date to the time they were killed. They'd both been strangled and suffocated. The morticians had put Matthew's death ten minutes before Alice's.
As they read through the films Hotch had a feeling this wasn't going to be like any other case but no idea why. Maybe it was because he was a single father himself to one year old Jack whose mother had died in a car accident six months ago. His sister-in-law Jessica was helping him raise him. The little boys remind him of Jack.
"Wheels up in thirty minutes," he said while everyone nodded.
They all nodded and followed him. The team had gone through a lot of upheaval recently. Gideon had been killed in a shoot-out around the same time as Haley had been killed and Rossi had taken his place a few months later. Hotch was more than happy to have his best friend back on his team but he was trying his best to be there for his young son as well.