I do not own Criminal Minds. One fans take on showing more of the character of David Rossi...
CHAPTER ONE
She put the truck in park and herself into bitch mode. The lights of the emergency vehicles looked more like a nightclub than a crime scene.
Sarah-Jane opened the glove compartment of her Ford F150 and pulled a pair of latex gloves from the box she kept there. She hated the monster size of the truck, but it reeked of masculinity and she'd learned long ago the only way she would make it in this man's world and this far south was to shed her femininity fast. The rain that had been such a welcome relief for this part of Alabama was going to play hell on her crime scene.
She gave a curt nod to passing officers even though most only stared as she approached the yellow tape fluttering in the breeze. She learned early acknowledging her twenty-six years she had with the department would never become more than a mere tolerance from most of the Bureau and its agents, and that was okay. She didn't expect or want a welcome into the boys club; but every now and then it would have been a pleasant surprise if at least one of them recognized her service to the Alabama Bureau of Investigation.
She found Joe Cook and Mike Paget at the edge of the lake, a white sheet at their feet.
"Sarah-Jane," Joe said flipping up the lapel of his coat in an attempt to ward off as much of the downpour as possible.
Sarah-Jane looked at her friend. Twenty-two years and he still hadn't forgiven her. If he could only accept that she had no heart to give him; perhaps then he could find someone to share his life with.
She bent and lifted the sheet.
"COD?"
Mike had been Joe's partner for the past ten years and stepped up behind her. More than once he had extinguished the spark from the powder keg that existed between Joe and herself. She could feel the tension bouncing between them, which meant only one thing - something was up.
"Asphyxiation," Mike offered.
Joe shifted his weight from one leg to another as Sarah-Jane continued her examination of the body. She could have been a rookie at the scene and she'd have known something was off.
She lifted the sheet a little higher, and her heart plummeted to her stomach.
The body of a young woman was there – each piece perfectly aligned as if the sick son-of-a bitch had tried to reassemble the parts after he'd cut them off.
Sarah-Jane carefully placed the sheet over the body. She looked up at Joe.
"Sarah-Jane we don't need him. Hell, we don't even know if it's the same guy."
Sarah-Jane stood and removed her gloves. Not again, there was no way in hell she was going to go through this again.
"At least wait until…
"Until what, Joe? Wait until he cuts up another woman?"
Mike jumped between them, "No Sarah-Jane, just wait and let the coroner tell us if this was done post-mortem or not. Mike looked down at the sheet, "it has been twenty-two years."
Sarah-Jane stood her ground and watched as Joe made a pass at his five-o'clock shadow.
She lowered her voice, "Joe, I'm not going through this again."
"Is this" he pointed to the rain soaked sheet, "the only reason you're contacting him?"
Sarah-Jane shot him a look that would peel plaster.
"I don't want him here anymore than you do, but if this is the Butcher…hell Joe. Do we have any more to go on now than we did twenty years ago?"
Joe shoved his hands in his pockets, "Well at least you won't have far to go to find him."
Sarah-Jane felt her nerve-endings explode with adrenaline. "What do you mean?"
Joe gave a sound that was somewhere between a grunt and a sadistic laugh. "You don't know?"
Sarah-Jane stepped aside as the EMT's began to pick up the pieces of the corpse and place them in the cadaver bag.
She was regretting the pizza she'd had earlier.
"Joe, I don't have time for games."
Joe stepped back and gave her one of those looks. The kind men give women when they are trying to determine if they're being told the truth or not.
Sarah-Jane didn't blink.
"He's here."
She looked at Mike and back at Joe, "What?"
"He's at the University Sarah-Jane." Mike offered.
Sarah-Jane wiped the rain from her eyes. It was coming down harder now. She didn't have to ask what the FBI profiler and her ex-husband was doing there. He was among the most requested agents the Bureau sent to recruit amid college kids. No, she didn't have to ask but she did anyway.
"Why is he here?"
Mike's excitement as the opportunity to talk about his idol was evident even as he eyed his partner tentatively. David Rossi was the one subject even Mike didn't discuss around Joe.
"He's promoting another book and the University asked him to stop and give a lecture."
Sarah-Jane grabbed a crime scene guy's arm as he passed by her, "I want photo's on my desk first thing in the morning."
"Yes ma'am."
"Well I'm sure he's too busy..." she stopped as her cell phone buzzed against her hip. She looked at the bluish screen and frowned.
Joe glared. She had dated Joe occasionally, until David. Once she'd met David Rossi...she flipped open the phone...hell even after all these years she'd kept her married name. "Agent Rossi," she answered feeling the dread wash over her.
Sarah-Jane took a deep breath, "Yes, sir." She listened as the Director for the ABI went through the crime scene detail by detail. It was a long standing joke the man had a crystal ball hidden somewhere he used to throw agents off their game. He played his card and Sarah-Jane felt her pizza rising.
"Yes sir, I'm told he's at the University lecturing. Yes sir, I'm on my way." She snapped the phone shut.
"So, he's in." Joe turned and headed back to the emergency vehicles.
Sarah-Jane watched as the reporters swarmed around the yellow tape like starters at a race.
"You're going to get him?" Mike's voice shook with excitement.
"Looks that way," Sarah-Jane zipped her jacket up, as the goose bumps rose to meet the rain.
Yeah, that was it; her body was responding to the environment and had nothing to do with seeing her ex-husband again.
"I suppose I should have another agent with me."
Mike grinned.
Well, at least she'd made someone happy.