So this is my first Criminal Minds Fic. Ever. So I apologize in advance if it's shabby, putting all the terminology and stuff will probably trip me up somewhere down the line but I will try my utmost for this to appeal to everyone and get the characters as they should be. So without further ado…
"Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life" – Oscar Wilde.
"Okay so we have four murders in three nights down in Conneticut!" JJ began as she stood at the front of the bullpen; remote in her hand as she flicked through the case files that were up on the projector screen. The other's sat around the table in the bull pen looking at hard copies of the folders.
"They're all completely different circumstances" She continued onwards and clicked a button moving it onto the first murder. "The first murder was of a young man named Jack Hartman, 19 years old now he was found hanging from a meat hook in an old abandoned warehouse just outside of Windsor. No signs of torture or anything, a quick clean kill the police there believe".
"I wouldn't call being strung up by your neck by a meat hook a quick kill!" Morgan sighed as he scanned the images in front of him. As JJ had said there were no signs of the boy being tortured except for an angry gash to the back of his head.
"You're telling me" Emily agreed taking a sip from her coffee before looking at JJ and nodding urging her to continue with her pitch.
"The second was of 22 year old Lynsey Williams. She was found stabbed to death in the bedroom of her home. She was found by her parents a few hours after she was murdered. She had been stripped naked and posed on the floor but no sign of sexual assault" JJ carried on looking between the group.
Garcia visibly cringed as she looked at them. No matter how many different photos or scenario's she saw day in day out she was always horrified at how man could act to one another. The brutality of their species. "Now the third which took place last night was a double murder. Emma Davidson, 23 years of age and her boyfriend Max Barnes 25 who live in Hartford. Max was tied up to a chair out the back garden and had been stabbed repeatedly causing extreme damage to his torso whilst Emma was found hanging from a tree not too far away practically disembowelled. She too had been stabbed repeatedly. Both were covered in bruises showing that there were signs of a struggle and the house was in disarray. No witnesses at all. It seemed no one heard or saw a thing. The murders took place in the early hours of the morning and they lived just outside of the town in a quiet area" JJ plowed on scrolling through the next set of crime scene photos.
"So what's the connection?" Rossi asked looking at JJ. "Turn to the next page in the file" She said and they all complied and turned to the next page. "At every crime scene these letters were found near the bodies, it seems the Unsub has a signature".
"BW was scrawled in blood at the first scene. MM was found on the wall next to Lynsey's body and then GF was found on the patio window of the last scene. Now four murders in three nights seem to indicate that there's more than likely going to be another tonight, that's why Conneticut PD have called us in" She finished sitting down at the table finally.
"So each murder was in a different location. The first seems to be an easy kill, the boy was subdued with a blow to the back of the head before being impaled through the neck by a meat hook. The second, young woman home alone having been stabbed to death. Naked but no sexual assault, so the killer doesn't seem to want sexual gratification and she was posed. Then the third was a double murder with extreme overkill. It's hard to imagine that this is one killer, even with the letters at each crime scene" Morgan sighed his eyes scanning the folder intently.
"Maybe. Or it could be one killer, one killer with multiple personality disorder. Each kill is a different personality of the Unsub?" Hotch spoke up giving a quick gaze to each member of his team. Everyone nodded bar Emily who's face was scrunched up in deep concentration. Something didn't fit. All three murders seemed familiar to her. Like something she had seen before. She held the photo's in her hand and studied them intently. Meat hook. Stabbing. Strung up from a tree. BW. MM. GF, She raced over every thought trying to piece it all together.
"Whoever the Unsub is looks like their escalating. The first three victims weren't very imposing. Average height and build. Max Barnes was a big man who kept himself in shape. Muscular, athletic. He's getting adept at killing" Rossi pitched in. "Also by the looks of the first murder he didn't know what he was doing. He just wanted to kill. Compared to the most recent he's being more flashy about it all!".
"The Unsub is killing fast as well. There's no sign that he's going to slow down any time yet" Morgan added as they spread all the photos across the table.
"What makes you think it's a man?" JJ asked curiously. They needed to get every theory, every hypothesis out there before they even travelled to Conneticut.
"Physically a woman wouldn't have been able to restrain Max Barnes the way he had been" Rossi spoke up and JJ nodded agreeing with his logic.
"And his kills are different. So he's unpredictable, we don't know what he's going to do next so narrowing down purchased weapons or predicting his next move is going to be hard" Emily groaned rubbing the back of her neck tiredly. Everything was so confusing, and she couldn't shake the feeling that she had seen those murders before.
"Okay then. Garcia I need you to run their backgrounds, find out every single thing you can about these victims. Good and bad moments, everything they've done, everywhere they'd been the last few weeks" Hotch ordered and Garcia nodded and got to her feet grabbing a hold of her laptop.
"On it Sir" She said and exited the room hurriedly knowing that the faster she got background on them the faster the team could build a profile on the victims.
"Okay as soon as we get off the plane JJ and I will go straight to the police station and find out what we know, we'll then head on over to the first scene. Rossi and Reid I want you to go to the second crime scene and meet with the officers on the scene. Morgan and Prentiss you two can take the third. Wheels up in 30" Hotch ordered and exited the bullpen to retrieve his go bag. Everyone began to filter out of the bullpen bar Prentiss who was still studying the case files.
Morgan noticed that she hadn't moved from her chair and perched himself on the table next to her. "What you thinking about Princess?" He asked kindly peering down at his partner.
Emily shrugged and closed the file dropping it in front of her. "I don't even know" She groaned leaning back in her chair. "I'm sure I've seen these murders before somewhere, and the initials seem familiar somewhat" She spoke up looking up at the man who always had her back.
He nodded and placed a large hand on her shoulder and she welcomed the comfort off of him, as little as it was. She couldn't help but notice the change in their relationship recently, being as she was a profiler. Ever since she returned to the BAU after the whole Doyle incident, something had changed them. They stood a little closer together, they partnered up together hell of a lot more recently. They were invading each other's personal bubble with fleeting touches and glances. To say they didn't spend most of their time together was an understatement. Ever since she had returned to the BAU, and especially after that dance they shared at JJ and Will's wedding things had most definitely changed.
"We've seen so many murders and I'm not surprised there's a resemblance. Come on, let's go get a coffee before we hit the plane yeah?" Morgan said kindly easing her up out of the chair. She nodded and gathered up her folders and the two left the bullpen missing the strange glances the rest of the team were giving them.
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"Man it always looks even worse in person" Morgan sighed pulling off his sunglasses and scanning the patio. Prentiss was knelt down next to the body studying the wounds.
"Oh yeah. This was extreme overkill, this was violent. As if he was pouring all of his rage into Max Barnes" She spoke up taking note of the chair he was still tied to. Rigor had begun to set in and she felt sorry for the coroner who was getting his stuff together, he was going to have a hard time straightening the body out. She then flicked a glance up at the body of Emma Davidson who was swinging from the tree due to the light breeze blowing through the area. Emily shook her head as she looked at the once pretty youngster. "And the way he's hung her up, is it a taunt, is he showing her off?" She questioned loudly to Morgan who was looking at the initials written in blood on the patio.
"I don't know. But I definitely think it's a message of sorts, like we said earlier this is certainly a lot more flashy than the other murders… It wouldn't surprise me if he did that to her to brag about his kills?" Morgan answered thoughtfully watching as Emily walked over to him to look at the initials as well.
"Right so let's run the scene!" Emily spoke up walking back into the house and to the front door, Morgan on her heels. "There's no forced entry, which means he must have gotten in another way and had been hiding somewhere. There's scuff marks on the inside of this door" She spoke pointing at the straight indentations along the inside as if a knife had been dragged along the wood. "Now his first thing is to nullify the biggest threat which in this case was Barnes" She continued on looking around at the scene. Everything was trashed but there was no blood in this area of the house.
"Looking around I think Emma was waiting for Max to come over. The shower was still warm when the police arrived and the tubs still wet, so what if the boyfriend comes in whilst she's showering, so she doesn't know he's arrived. The killer comes out of the cupboard and subdues him" Morgan continued on catching where Emily was going with it.
"Exactly. Slight scuff marks on floor by here, which look like drag marks. So he drags him around the back" She said following the easy route from the front to the patio. "He ties him to the chair, ducktaping his mouth, arms and feet so he is completely helpless. He then proceeds to stab him multiple times and leaves him there for the girlfriend to see. He comes back into the house ready for Emma. She comes down the stairs, wondering where her boyfriend could be, and as anyone would do rings his phone" She continued completely lost in the scene. She walked over to the phone which lay only a few feet away from the poor man. "She hears it ringing and goes to have look around the back and finds Max dead. Panicking she tries to run but the killer makes his move and this is where the struggle ensues" Emily said pointing to the trashed furniture and slight droplets of blood that covered the place.
"She gets the upper-hand and runs out of the patio doors trying to escape" Morgan finished for her as the two walked passed Max's body and following the trail.
"He catches her and stabs her a few times here" Emily spoke up once again pointing at the large blood pool right on the edge of the concrete slabbing. "But she keeps dragging herself away from him, but she's injured and no match for him. Now it's just a matter of whether he killed her and strung her up, or did it whilst she was alive" Emily finished and shuddered slightly.
"How did he know that there was a couple there? Was he watching them? How would he have the time to watch them when he'd killed two nights in a row?" Morgan questioned, glad that they seemed to have managed to come up with a plausible scenario but frustrated by the lack of intelligence they had on the man.
"Better get in touch with Garcia, she can see if they went to the same places, similar transactions" Emily said and Morgan nodded instantly flipping open his phone. After only one ring the voice that always made him smile reached his ears.
"Your glamour puss speaking, what can I do for you my hot piece of chocolate" She grinned fingers at the ready to do some more digging.
"Babygirl could you see if the victims had any kind of connection between them and also check phone records, incoming and outgoing calls" He asked kindly and he could already hear her begin typing furiously.
"No problem superman, I'll get it back to you as soon as I get something!" She replied already beginning to pull up every record imaginable.
"Thanks PG!" He said before flipping his phone shut and walking back over to Emily who was staring at the initials.
"So we've got a rough estimation of what went down here, and he's certainly got a thirst for killing that's for sure. And if he's getting more violent, then I can't even think about what he's going to do next" Emily sighed looking down at the ground once more.
"Tell me about it. The initials have nothing to do with any of the victims, not even close. So what do they stand for?" Morgan put out as the two continued to bounce theories off each other. It just didn't make sense. Any of it.
"We'll just have to wait and see won't we. Let's head back to the station, see if the others have anything" Emily said standing to full height and walking away. Something still didn't sit right with her, that familiarity followed her like a plague.
But that wasn't the only thing that followed them. Sat in a small car just down the road was a figure cloaked in dark colours watching the scene in utter amusement a camera in his hands. Things were getting better and better everyday. Checking their watch a low laugh escaped the culprit and turning on the engine he drove off. It was time to get ready for the next act.
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So first chapter down. It's pretty simple really what the pattern is following and I've dropped a lot of clues for you all. Again this is my first Criminal Minds fic so you'll all have to bear with me guys, even though I'm watching CM as I write it's ridiculous keeping up with the countless terminology. So I'm just going with the flow.
So I hope you like it, and if so drop me a line and give me your thoughts, they will be very much appreciated.
Thanks again guys,
Gwen.
