She stared at the bulletin board, pursing her lips into a sort of frown as she worked her way through the information it offered.
"If you aren't careful your face could freeze like that," Morgan said as he stepped up behind Reid, looking over her shoulder at the map of the murders the local PD had compiled.
"Actually, there's no statistical proof that one's face could freeze like this," she responded absently. "Granted, using certain facial muscles to a greater extent than others can result in certain expressions feeling more natural than others, but that doesn't preclude one's ability to make other expressions. Personally, it's my impression that is just an old wives tale used to-"
"Reid," Morgan interrupted, stopping her mid-sentence.
She turned quickly to look at him, her dishwater blond hair flying and a strand getting caught in her still-open mouth. She blinked a few times as her brain rewound back to the start. There was something disconcerting about the effect, too innocent for someone who had seen and gone through so much. That, combined with her age, was enough to make someone want to protect her, she'd called out a local officer more than once for trying to "shield" her from the graphic nature of the crimes they investigated.
"Catching flies?" Rossi asked as he joined them, tipping his head slightly as he looked at the board. Morgan inwardly groaned as Reid began to blink even faster, but Rossi continued before she could start on another tangent, "What do you have, Reid?"
Turning her attention back to the case, she motioned to the board. "There's a pattern to the murders."
"Of course there's a pattern," Morgan said. "He's a serial killer who targets women out walking their dogs in different parks around the city. He usually attacks on a Thursday night, kidnapping the victim from the park and murdering and dumping her in another location. We put together a profile. It's all in there."
"No," Reid said, shaking her head. "Not that kind of pattern. Look."
She pointed to the map, where the PD they were working with had marked the pertinent locations. Where the women had been attacked (red). Where their bodies had been dumped (blue). Where they lived (yellow). Where they worked (orange). Each attack had its own set of pins, and as far as Morgan could tell it was chaos all over the map. Catching his look of confusion, Reid huffed in annoyance and began removing the orange pins from the map.
Hey, that's-"
One of the local detectives started to protest, but he quickly quieted at a look from Hotch. It seemed like half the law enforcement officers in the room began to crowd around the bulletin board, watching her pull out all of the orange pins before starting to remove the yellow. What was left was a cloud of red and blue push pins, and Reid with a rather expectant look on her face.
"Okay," Prentiss said, stepping forward, "what are we looking at?"
"You see this?" Reid asked, pointing to the pin that denoted the location of the first victim's abduction. "This is where he grabbed her. This-" She pointed to a blue thumb tack nearby. "-is where the body was discovered. What do you see?"
"The location of the second abduction point," Rossi said, catching on. "That park is right in between where he grabbed her and where he dumped her body."
"That may be how he spots his next victim," Morgan said. "Most people have patterns and routines: you're usually going to take the same route each time you walk your dog. So he's driving by the next park and sees someone who fits his purpose."
"Except that doesn't work with Susan Huschka," Prentiss reminded them. "She isn't even from around here, she was walking her dog at that park because they were staying in a hotel nearby."
"Perhaps he just needs to know that the park is used by dog walkers in the evening," Hotch said. "There haven't been any reports of vehicles loitering at any of these parks, and by now people are being extra vigilant when they're out. They'd notice a strange vehicle slowing down. Just driving by the park isn't enough time to truly get a good look and pick out a particular victim. This is a well populated area; it's likely that someone else who matched the unsub's profile had been using the park when he drove past."
"So he just needs to know that women with light colored hair go to these parks to walk their dogs." Morgan nodded, then reached over and ruffled Reid's hair. "Good job, kid."
She shot Morgan a mock-glare, pushing her hair back behind her ears and pointing back at the map. "You realize what this means, right? We know where he's going to strike next. Here. Whilmer Park. It's in between Maple Falls park and the dump site."
"And we're going to have a team out there to stop him," Hotch said. "Detective Schultz, I need you to call your people together. Prentiss, Rossi - work with Reid, start putting together a plan for tomorrow night. Morgan, JJ, you two are with me."
::
"You sure you want to do this?"
Sarah rolled her eyes at Morgan's question as she carefully strapped on her kevlar vest. It was the fifth time in the past twenty minutes he'd asked it or some variation of it as they waiting at a hotel not far from Whilmer Park for the signal to go. She was about to suggest he switch with Rossi, who was off prepping the dog - a Bernese Mountain dog barely a year old with an enthusiastically wagging tail and huge paws - that she'd be working with. Glancing over at them, she wasn't certain who was the bigger puppy - Rossi or the dog. JJ and Prentiss were both having to hide their grins as they attempted to brief the LEOs on what they'd be doing.
"Hey. You with me?"
A tap on her chin brought her back to Morgan and their conversation. She shrugged, tucking her right arm around behind her back to grasp her left elbow.
"I'll be fine, Morgan."
"We can get Prentiss to do this," he offered.
"I don't think she could bleach her hair in the next 30 minutes. None of the unsub's targets have had dark hair."
"We could find her a wig. I'd sure she'd be willing to step up in your place. She can be the decoy."
"And I can't?" She peered up at him, a disgruntled look on her face.
"I'm not saying that." He back-pedaled quickly, hands up as if to ward off further comments. "It is just a suggestion, in case you don't think you're ready."
"Do you think I'm not ready?" she asked, raising an eyebrow with her question.
"I think-" He paused, running a hand over his head. "I think you can do whatever you put your brilliant mind to. If that's this, then so be it."
"But you don't want me to do this."
"Hey, you know me, I'm practically your big brother. It's my job to check on these things."
"You do realize I don't actually have any older siblings," She pointed out, carefully keeping her face blank as she spoke.
She hated it when Derek referred to himself that way. If there was any role in her life she wanted him to fill, it wasn't that of an older sibling. She also knew better than to get too caught up in her attraction to him. His preferred type ran more towards supermodel gorgeous - and with his looks and charm he always got it - than a walking encyclopedia with zero curves.
Besides, after that thing with Lila, he probably thought she preferred women. She wasn't quite certain how to tell him that she was bisexual, that she wasn't attracted to just men or just women, but she was attracted to people. He just happened to be one of those people, too.
"Hey, you're zoning on me again." The interruption came in a warning tone, snapping her back to reality. Morgan was frowning at her, clearly not pleased with her lack of attentiveness. "Keep it up and I'll have Hotch call this whole thing off."
"You wouldn't," she retorted, crossing her arms in front of herself. "You know the unsub's schedule as well as I do. He will be abducting a target tonight, whether we're out here with a decoy or not. Now, we could wait here and see if someone matching his victim profile shows up in this park and try to stop him before he abducts her; or we can get a decoy out there and offer him what he wants before he decides to try better hunting grounds somewhere else. We know he'll be at the park, Morgan. We don't know where he'll go if he moves."
"And we don't know what will happen if you don't have your head in the game."
"My head is 'in the game'; it is, however, difficult to prepare if you keep interrupting me." She felt repentant almost as soon as the words left her mouth, seeing his face fall as she got her hackles up. She closed her eyes briefly, reaching up to massage her forehead lightly before looking at him again. "Sorry. I didn't mean to snap. I just need to get ready for this-"
"And I'm not helping by questioning you or your abilities." He held his hands up in a position of surrender, "Don't worry, I got it. You know what to do."
"Get the dog, walk around the park, scoop poop, act natural while overheating in my jacket and vest," she recited, ticking the points off on her fingers as she spoke. "Really, Morgan, the worst part is going to be cleaning up after that thing. It's huge-"
"Hey, there are municipal laws about that here, so no shirking your duties. Don't worry, though, I think Rossi remembered to include a doggie bag."
"It's too bad the unsub doesn't target men," Reid muttered under her breath as she looked back over at Rossi and the dog again. "He's the one who'd be the best at this. Who'd have thought Dave Rossi was a closet dog lover."
Beside her, Morgan began to chuckle. The air around them seemed to lift, and she could feel herself relaxing. She wasn't an undercover agent; her role was statistics - patterns and random knowledge - but they all stepped into roles that weren't necessarily theirs, roles they played by necessity. This wasn't any different.
Rossi joined them with Rufus - they both smiled at the dog's name - and handed him over. "He's excited. He knows something is going on."
"Is everyone in position?" Morgan asked as she crouched down and said hello to Rufus.
The puppy sniffed her outstretched hand a few times before swiping his slobbery tongue across her face. Above her Rossi and Morgan both laughed, though she ignored them. Wiping her face off with the handkerchief offered (Rossi's, and she wasn't at all surprised to see it was monogrammed), she stood and took Rufus' leash in hand as they started for the door. Behind her, Reid could hear Morgan and Rossi giving final instructions to the unmarked car situated along her four block route to the park. Over her earpiece Hotch was giving more instructions to the plainclothes officers already there while he, Prentiss, and JJ made their way to the SUVs they'd take directly to the park. Rossi and Morgan would be behind her in another.
The heat was the first thing she noticed when they reached the outdoors, Rufus straining against the leash and excited for the walk. The Las Vegas heat she'd grown up in had been dry, nothing like this humidity that she still couldn't get used to regardless of where she was. By the time she reached the end of the block, she was baking in her vest and jacket and doing her best to ignore Morgan's commentary (the nice day, the hot girl walking towards her, she and Rufus seem to be getting along well, and so forth) over her earpiece. He was trying to be reassuring and keep her from over-thinking things. Reid was fairly certain that was the biggest reason why Hotch hadn't told him to get off the line, and it was the reason she hadn't told him to be quiet herself. Plus, it did help her stay calm and focus, the soft chatter turning into background noise as she walked.
Whilmer Park appeared before she was expecting it, across the street with verdant, lush grass with a playground and several trees. Trees the unsub could use for cover, she reminded herself as she and Rufus crossed the street. She took a deep breath, reached down and patted Rufus, and stepped off into the grass.
She could do this. It was going to be a walk in the park.