Outer beauty attracts, but inner beauty captivates, Kate Angell. The easy breeze, lifted up the spare flicks of hair that fluttered across Agent Prentiss' face. She smiled and lifted her hands to push it back but was beaten by Agent Hotchner, as he gently swept back the her black locks that had gotten free. He moved his hand slowly across the red and white striped picnic blanket upon which they sat and held onto his dear friends hand.
"I wish it could be like this everyday. I mean just look, there is no calls, no boring office, no case files. Don't you ever just get sick of the same routine?" Emily asked as she shuffled her head in Aaron's lap.
Her piercing brown eyes, cautiously watched Aaron as he mulled over his answer.
"Yes, I do wish it was like this sometimes especially when it's a heavy case." He slurred his words ever so slightly now that he was free of the office.
The stress of work and professionalism, changed even the slightest part of his life. Emily continued to smile in return and focused on his face. Her eyes followed the lines of his face, taking in the creases and edges. She loved him, all of him and just wanted to stroke her fingers along those edges that defined his face. Aaron smiled back at Emily, it was different with her, different from Haley or anyone else he loved, with Emily, it was easy and he didn't feel the nagging need to protect her, although he would at any instance. It was during this moment of peace and calm, that a small buzzing started. A buzzing that Agent Prentiss and Agent Hotchner knew all too well.
The second that Agent Hotchner stepped into the room, it came alive with action. JJ stood at the front of the room, passing files around to everyone who sat crowded around. She nodded at Hotchner as she handed him a file and turned to face the team.
"This is Meredith McDaniel, she was sixteen. Her parents; Jewel and Douglas McDaniel reported her missing on Friday but nothing happened until Monday when Sargent Brenner took up the case. She has a sister; Valora, who was with her at the time of the abduction. Unfortunately Valora, didn't seen anything because she was in the bathroom. Camera footage doesn't show clear enough because a couple was in the way of the view. I'm getting Garcia to work on it now but she doesn't think that she will get anything. This is believed to be the first abduction from this unsub. Her body was found yesterday. It was posed on the family's front yard with a sign attached to her saying 'am I pretty now'. Meredith has blonde hair, brown eyes, she's short, sort of pudgy," JJ stated.
Agent Hotchner shot her a look, he believed it was rude to say such things unprofessionally about the victim but knew it was probably important somehow.
"Her hair is stringy and she has pimples all along her face especially on her forehead," JJ finished.
"And that's relevant how?" Agent Morgan asked, rolling his hand around in question.
"I see where's she's going with this. It's horrible to say but her sister; Valora is much more attractive. Look at the screen, if you were going to abduct someone, wouldn't you abduct the prettier girl?" Agent Prentiss answered.
The team sat quietly as they took in this information.
"Well it does tell us something. Wheels up in twenty, with something like this it doesn't seem personal so he'll probably kill again soon." Hotchner said as he closed his file. Time to go.
The team stepped up into their jet, Rossi still taking in the jet. After twenty or so years away from work, the jet took him by surprise. The feeling of the comfortable leather seat, relaxed Reid, he looked out the window and he buckled his belt. His smooth hands wrung together as he focused on his breathing.
"Would it be fair to say that you don't like flying?" Morgan chuckled as he sat in front of him, doing his own.
" I don't understand how it works, I mean I get all that above wind, speed and what not but it's not actually attached to anything." Read explained, his hands gestures described all of his words visually as they danced to his words.
Morgan laughed and rubbed his hand against his balding head.
"So that's what the resident genius is afraid of, flying."
Fifteen minutes into the flight, Hotchner stood up to continue the case study.
"When we land, Reid visit the family, they'll be more calmed by a younger detective, Rossi go with him, senior authority will help as well. JJ speak to the press, make sure nothing gets out, at the moment we don't want to start giving out information, also contact Garcia and find out how she's going with the surveillance footage. Prentiss; victimology, Morgan and I will speak to Detective Brenner, we'll start on any witnesses who were there at the time. Review the case again before we land, we want to know anything to do with the unsub." Agent Hotchner directed before sitting back down.
It was not too long after that the plane landed with a solid thud. The team exited the plane and broke up to work on their separate parts which hopefully would help find Meredith's killer. "Hi, I'm Agent Jareau, this is Agent Morgan, Agent Prentiss and Agent Hotchner of the FBI, we work in the Behavioural Analysis Unit. Where can we setup?" JJ asked shaking the warm hand of Detective Brenner.
"There's a conference room at the back. Have you been alerted of the facts?" He asked in his smooth American accent.
JJ nodded at Emily and she left to start victimology, "yes, we have. If you'll excuse me I need to contact the local media but Agent Hotchner and Agent Morgan will continue to speak with you."
JJ smiled at her fellow agents and left to contact the media, leaving them to continue.
Agent Rossi tapped the door with his closed fist as he and Agent Reid waited patiently for the parents. Almost immediately after Rossi knocked, it opened to reveal a beautiful sixteen year old. Her eyes were red and blotched as if she had been crying recently. Reid let out a sigh, with one family member already crying, asking them questions would only make it harder.
"Valora, we're with the FBI, we'd like to speak with your parents."
Valora nodded and opened the door for them to come inside. She led them to a kitchen, the floor slightly dirty with the grime of yesterday. Reid noted that dishes sat uncleaned on the bench and felt sorry for them. They probably hadn't been able to do anything normal since their daughter's body was found yesterday morning. Valora left her parents and watched from the comfort of the dining room that look in on the large kitchen. Jewel McDaniel tried to smile but only broke down in silent tears. Douglas; Meredith's father cried and looked up at the agents.
"I'm very sorry for your loss, it's something no parent should have to go through but we have some questions we need to ask." Agent Reid said.
Douglas nodded, holding his wife's hand.
"She was ah, very smart. She liked soccer I guess, she played with Valora. Um I think her favourite colour was black, yeah black. I just wish there was something we could done." Douglas replied.
From the dining room, there was a slight chuckle and a snort. Reid and Rossi looked up and across at Valora. The red eyes had turned to tears and her unhappy smile had turned into a vicious scowl. She stood up from the table and Rossi noticed hands were in fists. Reid arched an eyebrow in surprise at the girl. She marched forward and glared at her parents.
"She liked soccer? And her favourite colour is black? She hated black! She only wore it because that's all you'd ever buy her. You brought her black because you didn't want her to stand out. Look around is there any evidence you loved her at all? Her favourite colour was purple. Did you even know your daughter?" She yelled before she left through the hallway door slamming it after her.
Rossi looked around at the walls, they were plastered with photographs of Valora, her winning soccer and holding up a medal with some friends, her class photos, her at the beach with some friends, her on all of her fifteen birthdays and soccer certificates. He shook his head, every wall was evidence of Valora's life. But there was almost nothing with Meredith in them. Meredith's photos amounted to one class photo, one family photograph and a picture of Valora and her together with their soccer team. Reid noticed this as well and was devastated with the objective truth.
"Why is there only pictures of Valora? Why isn't there half as many of Meredith?" Rossi questioned annoyed.
Rossi looked over at Reid who left to find and speak to Valora. The parents eyes followed Reid, as he walked off in the direction of where Valora went. They seemed resistant before the silent mother finally answered.
"Because she wasn't the favourite. I mean come on, look at them, Valora was so much more prettier, of course we liked her better! Valora is beautiful! Meredith wasn't!" Screamed Jewel. "She was ugly!"
Further down the hall, Valora could hear her mother scream and cried even more into her pillow. The soft coldness made her feel alone, now without a sister. Reid stood outside the pathetically closed door and watched her weep. The girl lay crunched over a small white pillow. The bed still messy from whenever it was last used. Reid waited until Valora's tears slowed and her breathing became more constant before knocking on the already open door. Upon hearing the small knock, Valora stopped and waited. She slowly turned to face Reid and sat up. She crawled over against the wall and desperately wiped her hands at her face.
"I'm sorry for letting you see me like this. Usually I'm not in tears." She said half-heartedly with a sigh.
She coughed before clutching the pillow around her chest.
"That's okay, you have every right to be upset. I'm sorry about your sister... and your parents. They sound like they put a lot of pressure on you." Reid replied slowly walking into the room.
His eyes gazed over everything in the room, a bed, desk, chair, drawers and a bookshelf. Reid took everything in, the plain whiteness of the walls, the desk with a homework stacked on the corner, purple pens sat in a black pen can. The black desk chair had an extra large black cardigan thrown over the back. The bookshelf, what would have normally be stacked with books was almost empty exact for a soccer book and a makeup book stacked in the corner, pushed aside as if wishing they weren't there. His eyes took in the thick curtains stapled shut on one side, the drawers where black tights spilled out over the side. A cracked mirror and ripped up soccer certificates sat dangerously in the small waste bin at the foot of the drawers. From what he'd seen this had clearly been Meredith's room.
"So this is her room, huh? I'm not very good at speaking but did you want to talk?" Indicating the desk, he asked cautiously, "can I sit here?"
Valora nodded and sat up straighter as the agent perched himself on the plush seat.
"They always made it so clear that they thought I was better but it wasn't like that. Meredith was as good as me. She was so kind to Me but they were always horrible to her." She cried. "Everyday they would go on about how good I was, how much I helped out any home, anytime we met someone it was Valora. Neither of us liked it and when she went missing I was afraid, Meredith had gone and done something, you know. I mean she was never like that but they were just so horrible to her. I hate them for it. Why didn't he take me? I wish the guy had taken me instead so she could be safe." Valor a hugged the pillow more as Reid finally understood the extent of it, in the eyes of the parents, Valora was perfect and loved and Meredith was anything but.
Meanwhile back at the station, Hotchner and Morgan were busy speaking with Detective Brenner.
"The parents came in crying, we weren't sure what was going on. It was hard to speak to them, plus the mother was sort of, well, for lack of better word hostile. You could sense that there was some sort of hatred towards Meredith." Detective Brenner explained.
He, Agent Hotchner and Agent Morgan were busy speaking about the case in the lead detective's office.
"We need to start organising a profile, Agent Prentiss is working on that. We should have a working one soon. Was there any witnesses to the scene? I mean either of them; the abduction or the drop off," Morgan questioned.
The detective replied instantly,"there wasn't for the abduction, nobody really noticed anything. At the drop off, one of the neighbours saw a car stop in front of the McDaniels during the day. She said it was weird because during the day, all of the family was out and there was no reason for anyone to ever go to their house during the day. She mentioned that she had to answer a phone call so she missed seeing the rest of the drop off."
Morgan nodded his head as if he already knew that would be the answer, but Hotchner just ignored him.
"We'll need to speak to the witness as soon as possible. At the moment, that's all we can do." Hotchner replied.
Detective Brenner sighed and felt an ache at the lack of things that they could do. He felt for this family and longed to be arresting the unsub as soon as he humanly could. Unfortunately a break came through.
Her body was contorted into a pose. With a hand on her hip, and the other under her chin, Rihanna Evan's body was the next in the series of murders that had come from the 'Pretty Killer'. The murderer was dubbed that after one news reporter idiotically published a report on the deaths. Detective Brenner cringed and rubbed his closed eyes as he saw the report on the tv.
"Why were we not told about this?" Agent Morgan yelled.
"I have no idea, I did not even know about this." Detective Brenner said half-heartedly.
Morgan paced backwards and forwards as he desperately tried to calm himself down. Garcia sat shocked as she watched the same footage from the comfort of her office. Prentiss stood staring at JJ with desperation as Agent Jareau made the call to the reporter to discuss the matter. Rossi and Reid stood in silent, desperately focusing on all the information that the team had just collaborated.
When JJ returned, she turned to look at all the team. "I just spoke to the reporter, the body is on the Evan's lawn. The address is 34 Timer Lane. The only reason they knew about it is because they were coming back from on site filming and saw the body."
The perfectly cut grass, sat picturesque with the blood stained body soaking the ground. The young girl's hands were held in place by expansive and special fishing wire. The bruises on her face were already turning purple. Her eyes stared ahead I'm a ghastly reflection of who the girl probably used to be. The girl's mother stood to the side crying. Her sobs were almost eerie in the furious bindle of noises. The victim's sister clung to the ground, begging for her sister to come back. The stepfather clung to a police officer, emotions running wild. If there had been a photo taken of the family, it could never shown the anguish they were feeling.
When the BAU decided to examine the crime scene, the family were escorted away.
"Another daughter, do you think it has something to do with the sisters? This is the second sister that he's taken who is less appealing. I think it has something to do with the victim being underrated, maybe because she is compared to the other sister." Rossi stated giving his opinion.
"That's probably it, there's too much of a coincidence that he's abducting the less attractive girl." Reid replied.
"Whatever it is, he's getting bolder. Its the middle of the day. He can't have dropped her off last night. He knew that nobody would be home here, otherwise he would have waited until night. It means he's part of the neighbourhood." Agent Hotchner told the team.
Emily's piercing eyes scanned the crowd before she summoned a member of the press. The rest of the team watched her as she ordered the man to start taking photos of the crowd.
"What is it?" JJ asked on edge, she hated the media being involved when they didn't have to.
"He's here now. He's watching us." She explained.
Suddenly the rest of the team withdrew. Their eyes immediately looking at the surrounding people. All except Hotchner, he watched her. He watched her as she went quiet and carefully thought how to put the next thing she wanted to say.
"This is about a show. He won't contact bus directly but 'am I pretty now?' It's about a reaction. He'd be watching how we react to her. To the girl. Essentially he needs to know or like care for her even after her death. I think we've got our profile." Prentiss explained as she turned to leave, the rest of the team followed in pursuit.
As soon as they got back to the conference room they discussed profile and easily agreed it was time to release it to the media and get the everyone on board. They collected everyone in the office and started their profile.
"Thank you everyone. The profile we are about to give you is an analysis of the unsub. It will help to determine who he is." JJ explained to the office full of police officers.
"He is a white male, about forty years old. He will look and be average. He is part of the community. People would be shocked to learn that it's him. He needs to be able to lure these girls somehow and is able to because people think they would be able to trust him. He appears trustworthy and has probably lived here for many years." Hotchner stated.
Morgan shifted into a more comfortable position and continued, "he has a good memory, people would be able to pick that up almost immediately while talking to him, that's something that's distinguishable from this man."
"He is a father and has two daughters. One of them is clearly prettier, the other probably has a facial scar from an accident. They don't live with him anymore. Either because they moved away or died." He resents the prettier daughter, in public he may ignore the prettier sister if he met you at a shopping centre." Prentiss said as she told the crowded room.
"He has basic computer skills and likes to fish. The expansive and specialised fishing wire suggests he's patient and comes from money. He would have an average job because money is not a worry for him. The public may not necessarily know he likes to fish but instead that he goes away on extended weekend trips every so often." Tried finished. The police officers sat quietly as they took in the information, some of them dumbfounded at the level of information. They slowly stood and left as they went to speak to members of the community. "Now all we have to do is find him," Rossi said as the BAU team decided what to do next.
"Good afternoon Mrs Torres, thank you for coming in."
Prentiss was interviewing the McDaniels neighbour who had seen the unsubs car during the drop off earlier this week. The team hadn't had the opportunity to interview her yet and Detective Brenner had said she had very basic details about the pretty killer. Prentiss helped Mrs Torres into a red fold out chair as her frail body moved across the room. Her curly grey hair was shiny as if it was made of silk and her clear fashion lacking outfit, was paired with sandals and socks but all the same, she appeared to be a nice lady.
"That's okay dear. I just wish there was more I could do. It's a shame that I didn't get a better look," she replied. "Stupid optus callers," she muttered under her breath.
Mrs Torres eyes, search around the room as if looking for something but the frail lady was actually just taking in the room.
"Well, anything that you saw can help, do you remember anything about the car?" Prentiss said calling back the lady's attention.
"I may be old, but my memory is as fit as a fiddle, with me you've got nothing to worry about love. Just catching this bastard." She said looking Prentiss square in the eyes.
She wriggled her wrinkled body backwards and sat up straight in the chair before continuing.
"It was a blue car. Quite large, I wouldn't know the model but the man had brisk, short blonde hair. He was tall, I remember for the few seconds that the actually faced me, he had a big nasty scar on his face but you wouldn't notice it if nothing else seemed odd. He waved even before rushing around to the other side and glaring at me through the car's windows. He seemed very nervous and shaky. That's when the phone wrung so I can't tell you any more after that love. By the time I came back he was gone and I could hear the screeching of tires from the kitchen when he must have sped off. I just thought he was loony. I can't picture him exactly but I know I've seen him before, like at the shopping centre or something. Definitely before, he is a local, isn't he?" Mrs Torres answered.
Prentiss looked up from her laptop where she had quickly typed out Mrs Torres answer. She watched the old lady as she realised it was a local who had killed those girls. She felt bad for this little lady who must have lived here forever, suddenly felt violated.
"Yes, he is, that's why the media is being alerted. We took some pictures of the crime scene and people who were watching. We think he was there. Could you look at the pictures and tell us if you see him?" Prentiss asked as she picked up a file containing the pictures to her right.
"Yeah, alright love. Let's catch this arse," Mrs Torres said cracking her knuckles, supposedly out of habit.
Despite her lack of fashion sense and continuous use of profanity, Prentiss imagined it wouldn't be hard to love Mrs Torres. Her attitude towards catching the unsub reminded the young agent, what she was here for and that despite how useless she may feel right now, she was doing somebody justice. Prentiss opened the file and spread the pictures along the desk so that it was possible to see all of them at once. Mrs Torres eyes graced the photographs carefully, putting those that she believed didn't contain the killer away from any remaining ones.
"There! That's him!" She gasped as she pointed out someone who fit the description perfectly. The scar that Mrs Torres had previously described was evident now as it crisscrossed along his forehead, despite the attempt to hide it under a baseball cap. Prentiss thanked her and stood to leave before Mrs Torres suddenly grasped at wrist.
"You have to promise me one thing. Do it. Promise me you'll get this dickhead." She muttered, her voice almost a whisper.
Her request caught Prentiss off guard and she nodded enthusiastically.
"I will, I promise."