May 28, 2009
Spencer Reid had only been asleep for six and a half hours when his phone began to beep. With a groan he picked up his cell and answered with a grumpy, "What?" He hated back to back cases, and Hotch was in the hospital leaving them a team member short.
"Spence, there's a case. It's bad, and I need you in the conference room as soon as possible."
"Seriously JJ? We just got home and Hotch is in the hospital." Spencer tried not to whine. Listening to her reply, he sighed, "Fine. I'll be there soon." Grumbling to himself he stumbled over to his closet and pulled out some clothes, not paying attention to what he pulled out.
With a sigh he looked at the clock, grabbed his keys, and headed out the door.
Limping into the BAU on his crutches, he didn't even notice the looks the few agents still in the office gave him, he simply headed straight to the coffee pot, grabbed a mug, and then headed to the conference room.
Walking into the room, he froze, surprised to see a strange man talking quietly with JJ and Garcia. At his entrance all three looked up, the man offering him a smile and a cursory glancing over, before his gaze shifted back to Spencer's chest briefly and raising an eyebrow. The strange man's smile then grew slightly larger as he glanced over Spencer again in a far more assessing gaze, before his gaze settled on Spencer's face. Spencer was confused, especially when he noticed that Garcia was grinning smugly at him and JJ was staring blankly at his chest, before both broke into giggles.
Spencer stared at them blankly, too tired to even pretend to understand what they were laughing at. Girls were strange, and he didn't understand them at the best of times. The strange man seemed to be ignoring the two women, and glanced up at Spencer, with a small smile, "Hi, John Sheppard, I'm going to be assisting on your current case."
"Dr. Spencer Reid," Spencer answered, waving at the man, pleased he hadn't tried to shake hands. He looked the man over noticing the black fatigues, short (if messy) hair and alert green eyes, and pegged the man as military despite his slouched posture, black wristband, and missing rank insignia. "What branch of the military are you?"
The man, Sheppard, didn't even seem surprised by the question, "Air Force. What's your doctorate in?"
Spencer blinked in surprise, he wasn't asked that very often, and a quick glance at JJ and Garcia showed them to be whispering to one another. "I have three, Mathematics, Chemistry and Engineering." He paused, waiting for the gaping look, the awed eyes, the 'But you're so young!' comments that were inevitable.
Instead Sheppard simply said, "Huh. What type of engineering? Mine are in Mathematics and Aerospace Engineering."
Spencer did a double take, the man did not give off the aura of an academic, and noticed that Garcia and JJ were now staring in surprise at the military man, "Geomatics Engineering. What rank are you and why are you assisting with this case?"
"Because General O'Neill called me up in the middle of the night and told me that I've been recalled to temporary duty as an OSI Agent, and ordered me here. And I'm a Colonel."
"Colonel? You're pretty young to be a Colonel." Morgan said as he came in, looking Sheppard over, as Sheppard did the same to him.
"Actually, the absolute minimum amount of time in uniform for an officer to be promoted to O-6, or Colonel, is 12.5 years, although the average is 22 years in service. Meaning that based on the fact that the minimum age officers can be commissioned is 18 someone could theoretically become a Colonel as young as 30 years six months." Spencer informed Morgan.
"I'm not quite that young, since I was commissioned at 19, and I was only promoted to Colonel last month, but I am probably one of the youngest, if not the youngest Colonel currently serving in the United States Military. Which amuses me- my drill instructor repeatedly told me I'd never make it past Captain." Sheppard grinned.
"So how old are you then?" Garcia piped up.
"I'll be 35 next month."
"Really? And you have two doctorates as well? Are you a military scientist then?" Spencer questioned, "Is that why you were assigned by the newly appointed Head of Military Operations of Homeland Security to the investigation?"
Sheppard's grin never wavered even as he raised an eyebrow, "Yes really. Two doctorates and an MA in Psychology. No, I'm trained as a pilot. And O'Neill sent me because I'm familiar with investigative procedure, and wasn't doing anything of vital importance at the moment since my base is on stand-down for a bit and I was only doing a TDA at Fairchild to keep busy." He paused, as if considering, "Not to mention, I fit the request Agent Jareau gave when asking for a liaison familiar with the… situation."
"Request?" Spencer began another round of questions, but was cut off by Morgan looking at him while taking a sip of coffee and literally doing a spit-take.
"Reid, what the hell man? What are you wearing?" Morgan asked incredulously after he stopped choking on his coffee.
Spencer looked at him, confused, but glanced down at his shirt when Morgan flapped a hand at his chest. He groaned aloud when he saw which shirt he'd grabbed without looking, it was one a friend had given him for his birthday last year, and it read 'If you want to taste the Rainbow let's go back to my place.' And the word "Rainbow" was done in rainbow colors and covered in glitter. She had gotten it for him to wear when they went out to her favorite bar, not for him to wear to work. Mortified he put his head in his hands and sunk as low as he could get into his chair.
He sunk even lower as he heard his team mates laughing, and Morgan's "Man, Reid why didn't you tell me? I'd have stopped trying to give you tips with the ladies if I'd known."
He startled a bit when he felt a warm hand placed on his shoulder, patting awkwardly. Looking up through his hair he saw Sheppard was the one trying to comfort him, and at his glance up offered him a sympathetic smile. Spencer offered him a shy one back.
Spencer noticed that Sheppard stiffened and looked over his head well before he heard footsteps drawing nearer. Turning he saw that it was Prentiss, and then he noticed that at the angle Sheppard was seated at, he couldn't see out the door, meaning he had heard Prentiss footsteps. He also noticed that Sheppard's hand had been removed from his shoulder, and was now resting somewhere under the table.
Spencer blinked, well that move answered the question of whether Sheppard served in a combat zone. Moving his hand into Sheppard's line of sight, he held up the military hand signal for "friendly" and relaxed at the same time Sheppard did. Prentiss walked in and exchanged greetings with the others, before turning to Spencer and Sheppard.
"Emily Prentiss, this is our liaison for the case, Colonel," JJ was cut off as Prentiss grinned and strode forward.
"John Sheppard. Well I'll be, I didn't think I'd see you again, figured you were in some Middle Eastern hellhole profiling Al Qaeda members for the military."
"Prentiss, it's good to see you again too. Finally got into the BAU I see?" Sheppard replied, giving Prentiss a smile. Spencer noticed his brief hesitation before shaking Prentiss' outstretched hand; and his neat avoidance about the question of what he was doing these days.
Garcia looked back and forth between the two, pointing at both before commenting, "Wait, wait, wait; you two know each other? Details!"
"We were in the same profiling training class, the teacher used to pair us together fairly often since he hated us both." Prentiss explained.
Sheppard just hummed in agreement, and JJ asked why the teacher hated them. "He hated me because I'd just transferred from Interpol, and he was insecure about that, he kept asking if I felt like I was being demoted. He hated Sheppard because, well," Prentiss paused, and Sheppard continued.
"I was an 'upstart Air Force OSI Captain who thought he was better than he really was' apparently. Also, he kept insinuating that any child who was abused would end up some sort of serial killer or rapist. I kept disagreeing. We agreed to disagree after the third time he had me dragged before the Deputy Director, and I told him what was really going on."
"You also got him fired." Prentiss smirked, "For hitting on the female trainees, and the fact that the man had managed to gain access to sealed files."
"Yup," Sheppard smirked as he popped the 'p' and Prentiss rolled her eyes.
"So what are you up to these days, Shep?" Prentiss asked as she sat down.
"At the moment, I'm running a specialized, advanced SERE course for high-risk military assets in combatting mental coercion and surviving long-term torture out at Fairchild."
"Jesus Christ," Spencer heard JJ mutter under her breath. Garcia looked absolutely horrified at the thought of the course being necessary, and both Prentiss and Morgan looked taken aback. He was sure he looked surprised as well.
"Well that sounds perfectly horrific." Spencer found himself speaking into the ensuing silence.
"But sadly necessary." Sheppard replied. Spencer merely bobbed his head in agreement.
Morgan changed the subject, "So why do we need a liaison for the case? What's going on that we can't handle?"
Spencer was also curious as to the answer, and turned to face Sheppard for the answer, which turned out to be a shrug. He then looked at JJ, who shook her head and said, "I'll tell you about the case when Rossi gets here, I don't want to have to go over this twice."
The room descended into idle chatter, the women gossiping, most likely about Sheppard based on their glances. Sheppard was busy looking at his phone, but Spencer noticed that he seemed to be looking at the same section of text without changing it, and his ears were bright red. Morgan was playing with his phone, Spencer recognized the sounds of "Doodle Jump" coming from the cell. Spencer himself was organizing his notes, and getting ready for the briefing.
After a few minutes of waiting, Rossi walked into the room, apologizing as he entered, "Sorry I'm late, I-" he caught sight of Sheppard sitting at the conference room table and dropped his mug of coffee, not even noticing it shatter on the floor. "Johnny?" Rossi asked, "Johnny Sheppard, is that you?"
"Hi, Agent Rossi."
"Don't tell me you did something stupid kid."
"If I'd done something stupid I wouldn't be in this room would I? I'd be in one of your scenic interrogation suites down the hall."
"Cute, kid. Now why are you here?"
JJ cleared her throat, "I was about to let you all know." She passed out the case files, "There's been a series of murders in the vicinity of Colorado Springs, Colorado over the last three years. Police have only recently tied the murders together with the discovery of the last victim, Sergeant Paolo Orsini, US Marine Corps, three days ago."
Spencer noticed Sheppard's look shocked and angry briefly, before his face went blank again. That was interesting. JJ continued, pushing the remote to bring the images of fifteen men onto the screen, "The cases weren't tied together since there's apparently no consistent victimology, and the unsub crossed jurisdictions, and counties. It wasn't until the murder of the eleventh victim, Colorado Springs Police Officer Patrick Johns that anyone even suspected this might be a serial, since the investigating detective noted that it looked similar to victim number five, Michael English's murder. After that Colorado State Police started looking for similar murders and put this list of fifteen together."
"I'm not surprised they didn't connect these murders, this guy was all over the map. The only thing the victims have in common is that they're all men. He's crossed age and race, all from different areas and backgrounds. The oldest victim has to be at least 80, and Orsini looks like he's what, 25? What can they possibly have in common?" Morgan thought aloud as he flipped through the case file.
"Orsini was 24." Sheppard replied shortly, his jaw tight.
"You knew the victim?" Rossi looked at Sheppard piercingly.
"He's… was, one of my men. Had been from 2005 until this February, when my base got put on stand-down. He was a good man, and a good Marine." He paused, looking back over the faces again before frowning. "Can you zoom in on victim number 3? He looks familiar too."
JJ complied, and Sheppard seemed to stare at the face for a moment before he spoke up again, "I'm not sure but I think we did a tour together in Kosovo in the late '90s, we never really spoke or anything."
JJ glanced at Garcia, "We'll look into that, but that is what ties the victims together. Every single one of these men was in the United States military, and they all served in war zones. They come from four branches of the military, and they were all honorably discharged, except for the last four victims; Sergeant Eugene Gantry of the US Army; Captain Matthew Benjamin, Marines; Airman First Class Vincent Massimo; and Sergeant Paolo Orsini, Marines. Gantry was stationed at Fort Carson; Benjamin, Massimo and Orsini at Cheyenne Mountain."
"Anything else connecting them? Because if not, practically every man in Colorado Springs is a potential victim, there's like four bases in the city." Morgan pointed out.
"Five, if you count the Air Force Academy. There's Fort Carson, Peterson, Schriever, and Cheyenne Mountain. Not to mention the number of defense and aerospace industry installations in the city- Boeing, General Dynamics, SAIC, ITT, Northrup Grumman, Lockheed Martin and the Harris Corporation to name a few. And the defense industry draws a lot of employees with military backgrounds." Spencer thought aloud, "There has to be something else connecting them, at least in the unsub's mind."
"Due to the current rules regarding military service this is not confirmed, but it is suspected that all of the victims were gay. The first victim, Carlos Hernandez had a life partner Nicholas Simpson. Andre Carter and Jacob Lewis were both out. Mark Johnson recently lost his partner of 25 years to a heart attack. Michael English was the owner of a number of gay clubs throughout the state. Anthony Russo was married to a Charles Winston, they apparently met during the Gulf War, and had been together ever since. The only victims we don't know for sure were homosexual are Johns, Gantry, Benjamin, Massimo and Orsini. Officer Johns partner, Officer Lois DuPont says that she suspected Johns might have been gay, but it is unconfirmed." JJ told them.
"Orsini's gay. I caught him and Schmidt in the supply closet on base about three years ago. Those two were one of those things everyone knew, and nobody mentioned." Sheppard sighed, and rubbed the back of his neck, looking at the ceiling. "Fuck, I'm going to have to tell Schmidt, I doubt anyone on the case had any clue to do so."
"You knew two of your guys were together, and never said or did anything about it? Even after seeing them together?" Morgan asked, raising an eyebrow. "Not many officers I know would do that, too big a risk to their own careers not to report it."
"I could care less who my men sleep with, as long as it's another consenting adult." Sheppard paused, "And it wasn't an enemy. I did make sure anybody who was in a relationship never went into the field with their partner. If they were on the same team they were separated, and if it involved men or women with different ranks I made sure the superior had no authority over their lover in any way, even if they only served in the mess and not in the field."
"That's an interesting point of view, and completely against all of the fraternization rules of the UCMJ." Rossi said pointedly.
"I ran the military operations of an international front line garrison in enemy territory in a classified location where we were constantly at war; I didn't have time to care about stupid shit that had no bearing on whether or not my men were good soldiers who could do their duty. So if Orsini and Schmidt were in a relationship, or Dr. Jim Adams wanted to wear his nicest dress to the local harvest festival, I honestly couldn't give a flying fuck."
Sheppard, to Spencer's surprise, hadn't once raised his voice or gotten defensive about his point of view, he had merely laid it out calmly, despite Rossi trying to antagonize him. Morgan's eyebrows had about hit his hairline, and even Spencer was surprised, military men weren't known for their open minded points of view. JJ however looked satisfied.
"So it's reasonable to assume that all of the victims were gay men who had been, or currently are, part of the military." Prentiss pointedly returned the conversation to the case.
"How were the men murdered?" Rossi questioned JJ, "And where were the bodies found?"
"All of the men were taken from public places and were missing for approximately 48 hours, during which time they were tortured extensively, using a knife to make hundreds of shallow cuts, and there is no sign of sexual assault. Also all of the victim's heads were shaved. The cause of death is a single stab wound through the heart, and their bodies were all found in dumpsters scattered throughout the city. No fingerprints or DNA have been found, in fact the only reason the murders were tied together was the fact that they all had a cross branded on their chest above their heart." JJ continued to brief them.
Spencer kept one eye on Sheppard, the man was obviously upset at the torture and death of one of his men but it really wasn't easy to tell that just by looking at him. Based on his facial reactions you'd think the man couldn't care less; but if you looked at his eyes, the pain was plain to see. Spencer couldn't help but wonder just why a man would learn to hide his emotions so well.
Tuning back into the conversation, he heard Morgan start giving the preliminary profile, "This is a hate crime. He thinks these men are trash, defiling the uniform of the armed forces. So he, in turn, defiles them and throws them away like the trash he thinks they are."
"We need to get moving, he seemed to be running on a two month schedule; stalking his victim for two months, abducting, torturing and killing them; and then moving on to his next victim. But he broke pattern, he took Orsini less than a month after Massimo, he's escalating, and he'll keep escalating." Spencer chimed in. He paused considering, "These time gaps, where he deviates from the pattern, probably just mean a body that hasn't been found yet."
"There's more victims?" Garcia asked.
"Probably, Garcia would you-" Morgan began.
"Look through ViCAP for similar MO's? You got it."
"Also check the smaller towns in the area, it's possible that he disposed of a victim in a nearby town and they didn't bother to upload it to ViCAP." Spencer told her, studying the body of the most recent victim. "He's probably already found his next victim."
"Wheels up in thirty," Morgan declared, he turned, as if to talk to Sheppard, but found that the man had already grabbed his file and other items and moved over to talk to JJ.
Spencer watched Morgan shrug to himself, and presumably head out to pack up and load the plane, Prentiss following. Garcia headed down to her lair, to start searching and compiling data. Spencer decided to loiter for a bit, noticing that Rossi did the same. Silently he observed Sheppard, JJ and Rossi. Rossi seemed to be looking Sheppard over, checking up on him, making sure he was okay; it was strangely paternal. Sheppard was speaking quietly with JJ, and she was nodding back sympathetically and seemed to agree with what Sheppard was saying.
She reached out to lay a hand on his arm, and Spencer noticed that Rossi stiffened, as if ready to intervene. When Sheppard didn't even twitch at the contact, Rossi relaxed. That was curious. Spencer looked inquiringly at Rossi, who shook his head, then nodded at Sheppard and JJ, who had finished their conversation and were headed back.
Sheppard walked over to the two of them, "Would one of you mind showing me where Ms. Garcia's office is, I have a question for her."
"I can show you Colonel." Spencer volunteered, he was curious about the man.
"Colonel?" Rossi was surprised.
"We can talk on the plane, Agent Rossi? Catch up?" Sheppard looked at Rossi, and Spencer saw a strange emotion in his eyes, but was unable to place it, his features were an affable mask.
"You bet, kiddo. I want to hear what you've been up to."
"I'll tell you what I can."
"And call me Dave, or at least Rossi, you're not a kid anymore and we're going to be working together now."
"Alright, Rossi it is. Call me John, or Sheppard; I haven't gone by Johnny since I hit my teens." Sheppard nodded to Rossi, then waved his arm towards the door, "After you Agent Reid. Or do you prefer doctor?"
"Just Reid is fine, Colonel."
"Call me Sheppard then."