Written for Challenge 26 - Halloween Horrors!
CM Pairing : Spencer Reid / Lila Archer
Steven King Inspiration Title : Firestarter
No One Mourns the Wicked
Part I
"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." Exodus 22:18
The rain was coming down as the SUVs pulled up in front of the theatre. Posters and the marquee of the theatre all announced that the musical 'Wicked' was coming soon. The musical was, if fact, due to open in three days.
As the team entered, Reid was suddenly swept away by a blur of green and black that startled everyone but Hotch.
Wrapping one of his arms comfortingly around the young woman, Reid took his other hand to her face, cupping it gently.
"Lila - are you alright? When we were called here, I imagined the worst."
Lila Archer clung to Reid, sniffling as she nodded.
"I'm fine. Physically. I - I found her. There was this thud and when I went to see what fell, there was her body and - oh God, Spencer. The blood . . ."
"Easy, Lila. Come on - deep breath. Whose body?"
"Her name is Julia Shelley. She is - was - Cathy's understudy in the role of Galinda. Cathy has a sore throat, so the director asked Julia to fill in for her during the dress rehearsal tonight so Cathy wouldn't strain her voice before opening night."
Hotch was half listening to the young actress talking to Reid while the rest of his attention was with the detective that was over the crime scene who had requested the BAU's assistance. Their quick response was due to the detective's insistence that others were in immediate danger. It was also Hotch's impression that a large portion of the fast response was due to the producer of the play being a personal friend of Strauss. While that might irk him somewhat, so long as the case was legitimate, it wouldn't bother him professionally. It was whether or not this was actually a valid case for the BAU that he was questioning with Detective Harper.
"I don't know how you and your people judge these things, but I've never seen anything like these cases for weird, Agent Hotchner."
Catching the wording, Rossi moved closer.
"Cases? I know we were called in on this one because of another attack that might be related and the chance that others are in danger, but what other cases?"
"Well, to be truthful, it was my daughter that reminded me of the other ones. It was about two years back, there was a production of 'Into the Woods' came to town. The actress that played the witch in that play was found dead - drowned in the swimming pool of the hotel she was staying at. Weird part was that she was in her costume. It was ruled an accident, but everyone that was involved with the play swore that she'd never leave the theatre in costume."
"You discussed the case with your daughter?"
The detective shook his head and pointed.
"Didn't have to. She was the one that called it in. Bea? Come over here for a minute. Agents, this is my daughter, Beatrice Harper."
Rossi offered her his hand.
"Miss Harper - you're involved in the theatre?"
"Backstage. I'm working the props for this production. I was also working props for the children's plays last year when the other woman died."
They looked back to Detective Harper for details.
"It was a touring group that came through doing plays of children's stories for the local school kids. Anyway, the woman that was acting the part of Cinderella's fairy godmother was found hanging from a tree in the park that's not far from the theatre. She was also in her costume. The circumstances looked a little funny, but there wasn't nothing definite to show that it wasn't a suicide, so that's how it was ruled."
"A little funny in what way?"
"The woman's sister swore that she had problems with stiffness in her hands and that there was no way that she could have tied the hangman's knot that was in the rope, so that meant that someone else would have had to do that for her. But no-one ever came forward to admit it."
"And now we have a third woman in costume dead. What happened to her?"
"Crushed when one of the overhead lights fell down on her. But this time, there's no question of it being an accident. The rope was cut."
Rossi automatically cast a look toward the catwalks over the stage area as he mused out loud.
"Pretty wide range of methods if we're actually thinking they're related. Drowning, hanging, crushing. Nothing in common unless you count them being in costume."
Reid gave Lila what he hoped was a reassuring squeeze before releasing her and stepping closer to his teammates.
"Actually? The methods of death do all have a common factor."
Everyone turned to look at him at that and Reid took a deep breath, hating to say it in front of Lila.
"All of those are accepted historical methods of killing witches."
Detective Harper gave Reid a scathing look.
"You believe that kind of crap?"
"It doesn't matter what I believe, Detective Harper."
It was obvious that Detective Harper was about to snark back at Reid again, but Hotch firmly stepped in, emphasizing Reid's title as he did so.
"Doctor Reid is correct. It doesn't matter what he or any of the rest of us believe. What matters is if you have someone in this area that does believe it and who has taken matters into their own hands."
Harper was obviously still a bit disgruntled about treating the cases as a possible real-life witch hunt, but grudgingly admitted that was one thing all of the victims had in common beyond acting was that they were portraying magical beings. Morgan brought up a question he had been wondering about.
"The other possibly related attack. Was it also against one of the actresses?"
That got a firm shake of the head from Harper.
"Nope. The attack was against the actor that's got the role of the Wizard. He's a smoker and he had stepped outside to take a break when he was hit by these."
The detective moved over to the table he was using to work from and lifted up three sealed bags with small rocks in them.
"He took two blows to his body that bruised him pretty well and the third rock damaged his ear. He's lucky it didn't hit him in the head. From how hard the doctor estimated that they hit him, we're pretty sure some sort of slingshot was used."
Morgan looked back to Reid.
"That still fit in with the witch theory?"
Taking one of the bags into his own hand, Rossi answered that.
"I'd say that would fit under the category of stoning, wouldn't it?"
Nodding, Reid moved closer to the table as well.
"That is another method of dealing with witches."
Rossi directed his attention over to Lila then.
"Miss Archer - you know this musical pretty thoroughly, right?"
Taking a deep breath, Lila nodded to the older profiler.
"Very thoroughly."
"How many characters deal with magic?"
"Several really. Elphaba and Galinda are witches, the Wizard, Madame Morrible teaches a sorcery school - and, of course, everyone that's part of the school is learning about magic, Nessarose has magical slippers and she's the Wicked Witch of the East - even the characters that don't actually use magic seem to get affected by it."
Hotch looked over to Lila.
"Approximately how many are in the cast altogether?"
"Counting understudies and the ensemble cast? I'd guess around forty to fifty."
Hotch and Rossi exchanged a look. This definitely wasn't going to be an easy case to cover.
