"Do you feel it, the poison entering your body?
A woman with short black hair groaned softly, she was tied onto a chair. Her hands bound behind her back. Eyes closed as if doing so would close out the world around her, the man in front of her and the intense pain in her chest. The throbbing headache that sprouted hours ago had grown into a full blown migraine.
"How does it feel, to die slowly?"
The woman ignored the question, it was too much of a hassle to talk, it was labor enough to just breathe in and out, but the man didn't mind. He just gave a small cruel smile.
"How many doses have you had now? Ten, twenty, that's impressive I must say.'
She opened her eyes for a brief second to look at her captor, but found that it was too blurry to see, as her heart started to beat quicker and the pain her chest intensified. Her heart beating rapidly, until finally it gave out.
"Dead, too bad I thought she could have gone longer."
"Three victims have appeared in Lynchburg Virginia. They died from a heart attack and were all dropped off on empty parking lots." J.J showed the team the pictures of the three victims.
"Didn't Prentiss go to Lynchburg for her vacation?" Reis questioned aloud for the entire team to hear.
"That's correct." Aaron Hotchner replied. "It's odd that she didn't inform us of this in the first place, but I'm sure she must have had a good reason."
A cell phone started ringing inside the plane, which belonged to J.J.
"Sorry guy's this will only be a minute."
The rest of the team sat in wonder on what could have caused the heart attacks of these three victims. They were all young women, physically fit, with short black hair, dark eyes. So what could have caused these young women their deaths?
The snap of the cell phone closing told them that J.J was done talking to the other person on the phone, but when she turned around a small tear escaped her eye. "There was another victim." She said quietly "It was Emily; she was found just a few minutes ago on the Home depot parking lot."
The entire team was in shock, the information hadn't sunk in. Morgan stood up and told the team that he would call Garcia. Reid sat quietly in his chair biting his lower lip. Rossi looked down at the airplanes floor which seemed far more interesting to him than the reactions the rest of the team were giving. Hotch stayed expressionless, but his face showed a tinge of red, as he crossed his arms. J.J let a few more tears fall, until she pulled herself together and continued to explain the way these victims died.
"They had high traces of lead in their system when they were found, which is what caused the heart attack in the first place."
Reid who, on normal circumstances would have told the team that lead poisoning can be caused by old houses that had peeling paint that children usually consume and get poisoned, or how some jobs, hobbies can cause this kind of thing kept his mouth shut.
"Victims were taken and kept for days it seemed and as soon as they were dropped off the unsub would find a new victim."
"So, there's a chance that he might already have another victim." Aaron Hotchner said keeping his voice level and calm.
"Yes."
"The unsub might be a painter, painters deal with lead based paint. That could be the way that the unsubs poisoning them by injecting them with the lead based paint." Reid interjected quietly, continuing to bite his lip.
"Then we go from there, J.J how long until we land?"
"Ten minutes."
"Good."
"They were supposed to be here thirty minutes ago." A woman with long black hair said, tapping her foot impatiently, a hint of a New Yorker accent escaping from her lips.
Kat Hawthorn was the lead detective on the current lead poisoning, who was standing in front of the FBI airline waiting for the team to appear in front of her.
Five minutes later the team appeared, Kat Hawthorn introducing herself quickly as she led them to the police cars.
"Glad you finally made it agent Hotchner, I know you want to look at the latest crime scene, but I've got some bad news another girls been taken. Daisy catch, she matches the, what was it that you guys call it again."
"Victimology." Aaron Hotchner said patiently.
"Right, well she fit's that, she was reported missing just recently by her parents. They saw the news and didn't want to take any chances when their daughter didn't pick up her cell, home or work phone."
The team leader nodded, walking briskly the airport, the rest of the team following sullenly. They reached the police cars, most of the team went inside one of the large cars together, but Hotch joined detective Hawthorn, choosing to sit in the passenger seat with the lead detective, to see if he could gather more information.
Detective Hawthorn started the car, but she turned to Agent Hotchner to give him a stern look. "Heard about your agent, I'm sorry about what happened, I really am, but I need to know if that wont distract you and your team from doing your job, cause I'll tell you one thing, I don't need a distracted agent working with me on this case, FBI or not."
"You have nothing to worry about detective, my team can handle this." Hotch said keeping his eyes on the road ahead as he waited for detective Hawthorn to drive.
She took a moment to look him over, but started driving. "We talked to the victims co-workers, friends, relatives, you name it, but we didn't find a common guy, well except this one guy. " She turned a corner on the street.
"Who?" Hotch said holding back the instinct to yell out the question, knowing full well that might cause him to low his chance and his team's to find the man who murdered Emily."
The detective started tapping her finger on the steering wheel.
"The only thing the victims had in common was they recently painted their house, hired a professional painter and everything. Well except your agent, she probably was at wrong place at the wrong time."
Aaron Hotchner flinched at the detectives words, who eyed him carefully for a moment then turned her eyes back on the road.
"Does he have lead based paint?"
"Yep." She said simply, stopping at a red stoplight, pressing the button on some odd stopwatch that was attached to the keychain.
When the light turned green she pressed it again.
"It's a hobby. " She said when Hotch looked at her curiously. "To remind me that traffics not as bad as it is back in New York."
"The thing is with this suspect is that he has a solid alibi, and to top it off he's fifty years old, no way could he have pulled this off, those girls were physically fit."
"I see."
The detective nodded, gripping the steering wheel tightly, as she drove into the Home Depot parking lot, the crime scene.
Most of the team didn't see the body, mostly because the lead detective wouldn't allow it. She allowed only Hotchner to see the body. Some of the members were angry at this, but in the end they were somewhat glad that they didn't need to see their co-worker so lifeless.
Aaron Hotchner wasn't given that luxury. Being the leader of the team he had to set up some type of example for his team, but those thought didn't really comfort him when he saw Emily's body, her cold body lying on the ground never to move again.
"Agent Hotchner come over here." The lead detective's voice interrupted the man's thoughts as he stepped into the designated area the detective was at which was at Emily's side.
She was holding out the arm out pointing at a small pinprick on Emily's wrist.
"This is where he injected the Lead; it was the same for the other victims too. It's always the wrist." She placed the arm back as it were, gently, which Aaron Hotchner was grateful for.
"Ligature marks around the wrists and-", the detective started walking to Emily's feet; her shoes were gone." around the ankles, just like the others. They were bound to something, a chair maybe, these women weren't sexually assaulted, so they probably weren't bound to a bed either."
Hotch flinched at the thought of some unsub having his way with his co-worker, the woman that was his reasonability.
"We should go to the prescient, you might want to talk to the suspect, and the rest of your team could check the other crime scenes if that might help you out." Detective Hawthorn said casually, passing by agent Hocthner, her gloves snapping as she took them off.
"Thanks detective."
The ride to the prescient was fast, and quick. The rest of the team had separated to see where the victims were taken and dropped off and each was being escorted by an officer.
By now Aaron Hotchner was behind the interrogation glass, Detective Hawthorn standing beside him.
The man was sitting in the interrogation room, was Peter Arrow a painter by trade, and by heritage too. He had short black hair that seemed to be sprinkled with gray hairs and white hairs alike. The man wasn't really physically fit, just a tired old man. The man had his fingers intertwined as he moved his fingers slowly up and down, not really knowing what to do with them.
"This is him; he doesn't look like much, huh." The detective said walking to the door of the interrogation room." Guests first." She said opening the door for Hotch to walk through.
The man looked at who entered, startled by the new face that entered.
"I'm agent Hotchner of the FBI. We have some questions about a certain matter you might be involved in Mr. Arrow."
"What, FBI is here too; you haven't even told me the crime that you think I committed." The man asked surprise evident in his voice.
"Do you know any of these women?"
Hotch showed the man the profile pictures of the victims and Emily. The man pulled out some reading glasses from his coat pocket and put them on. "Yes, I painted their house, well except this one." He pointed of the picture of Emily. "Never seen her before, but you know what these women look familiar."
"What do you mean?" Detective Hawthorn asked stepping forward to stand next to agent Hotchner, who towered over.
The man scrunched up his face in concentration. "Hmm, now that I think about it these women look like my daughter-in –law."He nodded once until his face retained a look of sadness. "She really was a nice girl, died of lead poisoning just a month ago; my boy really took it hard."
Hotch looked at detective Hawthorn for a moment, both sharing the same thought.
"Where is your son right now, Mr. Arrow?"
"Probably at the warehouse, he goes there to help me out with arranging the paints and all."
The trip to the warehouse was slow, but they soon got there in no time, the unsub was subdued and the victim found, who was rushed to the hospital. Hotch was the arresting agent at the scene along with Detective Hawthorn. The unsub had confessed to all his crimes, ranting how it was his pleasure to see them die. The rantings of a mentally unstable man
Since it was so late the team stayed over the night at a hotel. Aaron was still at the prescient standing at the front of Kat Hawthorns office. She was scribbling down her signature on some paperwork. When she looked up she saw agent Hotchner standing in her doorway.
"Aren't you supposed to be at your hotel sleeping?"
"Shouldn't you follow your own advice?"
The detective gave a small sigh. "Is something bothering you agent?"
"You didn't need us on this case did you detective Hawthorn."
She signed a few more documents before she looked at Aaron Hotchner in the eye.
"No I didn't, I invited you because I was asked to."
"You don't seem like the type of person to comply to someone's wishes because they ASK you to."
"I do when that person is Ambassador Elizabeth Prentiss." She stated, jotting down some notes on a notepad at the side of her desk.
"When I called Mrs. Jareau I lied when I said we found her body, she was found at least two hours before. I called her mother and she requested that I let you in the case, and she wouldn't take no for an answer. "She sighed for a brief second.
"Thank you, for allowing us into the case."
"Don't, I was forced remember."
Aaron Hotchner turned around and was about to leave when he heard, the detective speak from behind him.
"The Chelation therapy worked, the girls we saved id going to be fine."
Hotch continued to walk, a small smile on his face.
Don't know if this still counts, but here it is.