Title:

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is owned by CBS and I think Paramount. I don't own either (wish I did, then I'd have some money).

Summary: When an unsub targets one of their own, the team must work quickly before it is too late.

Chapter One

He ran his fingers through the long hair, almost lovingly. "Don't worry, my darling, I'm going to take care of you." he crooned, rocking back and forth, cradling the body of the dead woman like a baby. He lay her down gently on the hard cold cement floor and began to stroke her face, her hair, and her body, almost as the blind do to memorize someone's features. He lifted her hands and marveled at the long pink fingernails. "How gorgeous, my darling. Must have cost you a pretty penny to do this."

Then suddenly, like a summer storm, his mood changed. He began to rant and rave, yell and scream. "Didn't anyone ever tell you that vanity is a sin! Beauty dies, just like you did, you horrible creature! You will go to hell!" He screamed some more, echoing off the brick walls that surrounded him and his victim. No one heard him, just as no one had heard her, or the victims before her, as he had slowly drained the life from them.

Behaviorial Analysis Unit

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Quantico, Virginia

"Knock, knock." Jason Gideon rapped on the doorframe of Jennifer Jareau's office, where she was, for once, actually in the room. "We've got a case and we need you with us. Here's the file, I'll brief you more throughly with the team."

"Thanks." JJ took the file. "Where are we headed this time?"

"Santa Barbara, California, and we'll be leaving early in the afternoon." he answered her second question before she asked it.

"Okay. Hey, you want me to write a press release on what's in here? I can probably get something out of this, right?" She indicated the file in her hand.

"Sure, you probably can. I don't know who well the press has been keeping the locals informed. There are a few clippings in there but not many. Guess we'll find out when we get there how they've been doing." Gideon shrugged. "Let's go brief the team."

JJ nodded and followed him down the hall to the conference room.

"I've got us on a two o'clock flight to Santa Barbara, so everyone needs to be back here by 1:30."

"Okay."

They turned a corner and nearly ran into Penelope Garcia.

"Garcia, we're going to need you to look up these people." Gideon handed her a list. "I want the most through backgrounds you can get, going back as far as you can. I want to know everything."

"Got it. What happened?" Garcia asked JJ as Gideon strode ahead.

"Looks like the disapperence of three women. Literally. Like they were there one minute and gone the next." JJ rifled through the file.

"Creepy. I'd better get on this. See ya later." Garcia ducked into her office.

"Bye." JJ hurried to catch up with Gideon.

When she walked into the conference room, Gideon was hanging crime scene photos on the whiteboard. There was three sets, one for each victim. As she took her place at the long table in the middle of the room, the rest of the team came in. Morgan came first, Hotch and Reid came together, it looked as if they had been out at the firing range practicing, and last came the newest member of their team, Elle.

Gideon turned to look at his team now assembled before him. "As you can see, there have been three victims. What you do not see is their bodies or anything that says what has happened to them. Victoria Lawrence, age 24, and Mildred Sidney and Cleo Bartholomew, both 26, have all disappeared within the last three weeks. No one has seen nor heard from them."

"Three victims in three weeks, this guy is escalating fast," Elle remarked, shaking her head.

"I think it is possible there are victims we aren't aware of, maybe homeless women no one would've reported missing." Gideon suggested.

"Very possible." Reid got up to look at the photos. "Most unsubs don't act in such a succession without some experience. with prior victims, so he has probably had time to perfect his M.O."

Hotch looked up from the file he was studying, "Not a whole lot to go on. Is there any connection between the victims besides their disapperances?"

"The local police haven't found any."

Morgan was quiet, reading the files and glancing at the photos from time to time. "There doesn't seem to be much of a struggle. That suggests they either knew the unsub or that they were drugged with something fast acting like choloform."

"Not many use that anymore." Hotch said. "But it is possible."

JJ nodded, taking notes for the press release. "We'll have to see what Garcia comes up with in her search. Maybe someone works where they can get choloform easily or something that works like that."

"They all look alike, similar hair length and color, same color eyes. They're probably all about the same height and weight,too." Reid commented.

"The looks may be the same but nothing else is." Elle looked up from one of the newspaper clippings she was reading. "Victoria Lawrence teaches fourth grade, Mildred is a stay at home mom of three, and Cleo is a dancer. Where is the connection? What is the connection?"

"Just because we can't see it, doesn't mean it doesn't exist." Morgan answered. "There's got to be a reason why these women were chosen."

"Maybe it was random. Like they were the first longhaired women he saw." Reid suggested.

Gideon shook his head. "It's possible, but not too likely. The crime scenes were too pristine for that. If it were opportunity, then there would probably be more signs of a struggle."

The team agreed with him, then went five different directions to ready themselves for the trip and the case, if that was even possible.

They always tried to prepare as best they could but the truth was that no matter how horrific the photos were (or in this case the lack of anything to tell what had happened), the reality was always worse.

A/N- The story is outlined out for five chapters, I'll post one a week, I think as it takes me about that long to write them. Please read and review! Thanks! Sarah