"Sorry. Are you looking for something?"
Her face looked confused, but then she glanced down at the name plate on his desk, and suddenly realization had set in. She wasn`t looking for him. "I`m so sorry, Agent Hotchner. I thought this was surveillance." She said, turning around and walking through the door.
"That`s the next floor up!" He called after her. When he closed the door, and walked back to his desk, he added quietly to himself: "Nice meeting you."
He had fallen in love with a woman at first sight, and he didn`t even know her name.
That was three years ago now, and he was just starting to get to know her. The surveillance team had joined an on-going investigation with the BAU to catch a serial killer who was kidnapping his victims at local grocery stores or malls, places with many types of surveillance. This UNSUB had been seen by every security camera in or around where he had abducted his victims but they were still not able to catch him. He was smart, and had completly erased himself from all identification tactics. He had no paper trail, and they could not identify him with facial recognition bacause that face was not in any system. The only thing they had left was profiling and that didn`t work out too well by itself this time, which meant the surveillance team had to join them in this investigation.
"Okay, so victomology is 30-40 year old white, blonde, females with blue or green eyes. He may have an ex-wife or girlfriend that fits that description." Stated Prentiss.
At that moment, the woman Hotch was unable to forget for the past three years walked into the conference room. "Agent Hotchner, I`m Agent Patricia Murphy from surveillance. I was told you have requested my teams help on a case, am I correct or do I have the wrong floor again?" She joked. It was then that he realized she remembered him as well.
"No, this is the right floor." He replied. "Is the rest of your team coming, or should we breif you first?" He questioned, wanting to get down to buisness as soon as possible. The faster they caught this UNSUB the better, then again it`s the same with all of them.
"They are on their way. They should be here any moment now."
As if on cue, 5 agents walked into the conference room. "Well I guess now would be a good time for introductions." Hotch said. "These are Agents Morgan, Rossi, Prentiss, Jareau, Dr. Reid, and technical analyst Penelope Garcia." He said, pointing to each of them.
"This is Agent Smith," She pointed to a tall man with short brown hair and brown eyes. "Agent Johnson," She pointed to a shorter man with blond hair and glasses. "Agent Jones." She pointed in the direction of a young, brunette woman. "Agent Collins." A dark haired, average height man. "And last but certainly not least, Agent Bennet." An average height black male wearing a suit and tie.
"Now that that`s out of the way, why don`t you all take a seat, and we will tell you what we have so far." Hotch gestured for them to sit, which they all did except Agent Murphy who remained standing.
"All of the victims were taken from local grocery stores or shopping malls in and around Port Neches, Texas. He is dumping the bodies in the woods surrounding Zavalla, Texas." Stated JJ, flipping through images on her tablet as Garcia put them on the large screen so that the visiting Agents could see them as well.
"That`s a distance of about 86 miles." Reid said, matter-a-factly.
"Why would he travel that far just to dump a body?" Questioned one of the younger Agents, Agent Collins.
"We don`t know, but it might be part of his MO or it could be that he is afraid of getting caught so he decided to move the bodies far from the abduction sight. Although we are referring to the UNSUB as he, we have not yet ruled out a female." Rossi informed them.
"So, you guys stand here and make guesses about the 'UNSUB'`s personality by looking at a bunch of pictures and crime scene photos? That`s what profiling is, guessing! You can`t possibly expect to lead an investigation based on guesses can you?" Agent Smith all but yelled, jumping out of his seat in protest.
The B.A.U. team members were taken aback by this outburst, nonetheless it didn`t seem to surprise the visiting team. Most of them had their heads in their hands, and a few just sat their and sighed. All except Agent Murphy acted as if they were expecting this, but her eyes widened, and she glared at him in disgust, probably ashamed to be responsible for someone so inmatture.
"Agent Smith!" She said through gritted teeth. "Can I speak to you for a minute." He began to protest, so she added: "That`s an order, not a question." The two Agents walked out the door, leaving a room of half shocked profilers, and Agents who seemed used to, and tired of Agent Smith`s rude and uncalled for outbursts.
Agent Smith was starting to remind Hotch of Gideon, and he wondered if the rest of the team were thinking the same. Jason Gideon was an agent with the B.A.U. up until his girlfriend was murdered by Frank Breitkopf, and he thought that there was no longer a reason to be a part of it. Gideon had a bit of a temper, and never remembered his manners, which sometimes made working with him hard.
When the two Agents came back into the room Agent Smith apologized for his uncalled for outburst, but it was obvious even to the Agents in the room who were not profiers, that his apology was not sincere in the least bit.
"It's alright." Hotch said, equally as sincere. "Let's get back to work, shall we?"
It was more of a statement than a question, and JJ took that as her cue to move on and discuss victimology. "We have determined that the victomology is 30-40 year old white, blonde, females with blue or green eyes. This means he may have an ex-wife or girlfriend that fits that description."
"Or even a daughter, or friend." Rossi added, making it clear to the visiting Agents that even though these were the most likely situations, there were other possibilities.
Prenntiss looked down at the crime scene photos and realized something. "They were all shot to death, execution style in the forehead, but victim number 6 was stabbed repeatedly post-mordem. That's total over kill, look at this. She was already dead, yet he stabbed her 17 times in the torso." She observed.
"Victim number 5 was killed by head trauma, probably a blitz attack, but he shot her after. It's probably part of a ritual." Hotch added.
"Look at the way the bodies were places, this is an arranged crime scene. They were tied to trees, arms tied around the trunks. They were also left naked. This was done to humiliate the victims."
Prentiss stated.
"And scare the living daylights out of whoever finds them." Up untill then, all the visiting Agents had sat in silence, listening to the profile. "What?" Agent Murphy questioned. "I studied criminology and phsycology."
Astonnished, Hotch continued. "The time frame between kills is escalating, this is his devolution, and if we don't figure out who he is soon, we will have many more bodies." He closed the file in his hand and stood up. "Wheel's up in 30."