Authors Note: And chapter 2 is here! I hadn't intended to take so long to update and I promise the next chapter will be up before the weekend. Thanks and hugs to dannymesserforever11, jessicaflack, terriberri23, CSI4lyfNCIS13, DreamerChild88, afrozenheart412 and Runner043 for the reviews, I love you guys.

Chapter 2

"You're sure it was the same guy?" Jess questioned as they walked into the hospital. Detective Messer had informed them only that morning that they had a living victim, the only woman to have escaped from this killer. Don had made a point of letting both the detective and his captain know that he was not happy with information so vital to the case being withheld. Jess had held her tongue, she wasn't happy about it either but Don had made sure they knew they were in the wrong, or at least that Messer knew he was wrong, the captain hadn't known the file wasn't sent along with all the others.

"She has the same mark on the back of her shoulder that all the other victims have, we're guessing since he never got her to where he took the other women that he brands them as soon as he knocks them out," Messer explained and Jess once again watched Don's fists tighten at his side. They'd lost valuable time by not being told this sooner and she couldn't understand why the detective had kept it from them. There was a lot they could learn from this woman, things they could have learned 24 hours ago when they'd arrived if they'd been told.

"We should have been informed about this immediately detective. We can't help you if you withhold information like this from us," Jess said. She knew Don was in no mood for being nice, she'd gotten to their hotel to check in late last night and gotten a few hours of sleep before she'd been back at the precinct that morning. Don had been there, working through the case files and additional information they'd gathered. He was wearing a different suit so she knew he'd at least been back to the hotel to change. She wasn't entirely sure if he'd slept or not and she hadn't pressed him for answers when he shrugged off her question.

They stopped at the reception desk while Messer had the nurse who had survived their UNSUB's kidnapping paged. He turned back to them, his face clearly showing that he understood his screw up, Jess wasn't entirely sure he wouldn't do the same thing again if he could do it over. They were silent for a few minutes, waiting for the woman.

"Danny," a young woman greeted as she rounded the corner. She fit the UNSUBs type perfectly, young, pretty, brunette.

"Lindsay," Danny greeted. First name basis Jess noted, even in front of two FBI agents. "These are Agents Flack and Angell with the FBI; they need to ask you some questions."

Lindsay looked them both over warily but smiled slightly and nodded. "Not here though."

They followed her out of the hospital, to a bench on the grass that was obviously put there for patients who were able to get out of their room and get some air. She sat down and when Messer realised Jess wasn't going to sit down next to her he did it himself. She looked shaken now, sat forward on the bench, hunched over herself slightly, an anxious, insecure posture.

"What do you need to know?" she asked looking up at her and Don.

"We need to know what happened," Jess told her. "I know you already went through all of this with the police but we need you to go through it with us, we might pick up something the police missed."

"I drove home from work; I had a late shift so it was dark when I got home. I got out of the car, I had to park a little away from my building but it wasn't far. I was just walking along the street; I thought I heard someone behind me so I turned around but there wasn't anyone there. I sped up, I was probably just a few steps away from the door, someone grabbed me from behind," Lindsay explained, her eyes were unfocused, she was reliving it.

"Take your time," Don said as Lindsay paused, her hands shaking.

"He put a cloth over my mouth, I tried to get free but... he was a lot stronger than me. Everything went dark and the next thing I know I'm waking up in the trunk of a car. Its pitch black but I can hear the car engine; I can feel the car moving. I started screaming for help, trying to force my way out, he must not have closed the trunk properly because it opened. I didn't even think about it, I just threw myself out... it hurt like hell."

"Did he stop the car?" Don asked and Lindsay nodded, clasping her hands together in an effort to keep them still.

"I could barely drag myself up from the road, my head felt fuzzy; my body didn't feel like it was working properly. I didn't understand what was happening; I just knew I had to run. He got out of the car and started walking towards me and I just ran. I didn't know where I was going, I just kept running until I ran into a couple of people," Lindsay finished taking a deep breath to calm herself and both Don and Jess gave her a minute before continuing.

"When the man walked towards you, did you get a look at him?" Jess questioned.

Lindsay shook her head apologetically. "It was dark and my head was all over the place... I didn't..."

"It's alright Lindsay," Danny placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "The chloroform was still in your system, it's not your fault."

"Could you tell us anything else about him?" Don asked. "Did he say anything, do anything?"

Lindsay looked thoughtful. "He just... told me to get back in the car, I'm sorry, I really wish I could help you more but..." Lindsay trailed off.

"It's alright Miss Monroe, you did great," Jess said and handed her card to the young woman. "If you think of anything, please call."

Lindsay nodded and took the card, the two agents left and after a few moments Messer followed them. Jess noticed him look back at Lindsay several times before they were out of sight; it was only natural for him to be concerned with a surviving victim in a case like this. Sometimes investigators got attached to witnesses or people involved in their cases, she had a feeling this was something different though.


The victim list had gained two names in less than a day, first Lindsay Monroe and now another young woman found dead in an alleyway. The cooling off period had shortened dramatically now, if he'd kept this latest victim for two days like he had all the others it meant he had kidnapped her only a day after killing Diana Swanson. Don walked onto the crime scene, forensics had already finished processing and the body would be moved shortly. The woman looked to be about twenty, pretty, long brown hair, same as all the other victims.

"We've managed to get an ID on her, one of the uniforms recognised her," Messer said as he walked over to them. "Andrea Bell, 21 years old, she's the nanny for his kids. He said he saw her three days ago, his wife's taking some time off work and so she'd been taking care of the kids instead, apparently Andrea was real happy to get some time off too."

"Did he say why?" Jess questioned.

"Boyfriend had been wanting to take her on vacation for a while, said this was her chance to go," Messer explained and Jess looked down at the woman.

"So why is she here and not tanning on a beach somewhere?" she questioned.

"That would be a question for the boyfriend," Don said as he knelt down next to the body. He started cataloguing the injuries, his mind comparing them to the photos of the other women. He could already see the similarities, the same type of blade had been used, cigarette burns on the shoulders, arms and stomach, taser burns on her chest and stomach, bruises in a lot of the same places.

"I got a couple of people on the way to his place now, I'll have him taken down to the precinct," Messer told them walking away again.

"We're losing light," Don said looking up at the sky for a moment then back at Jess. "Let's let them take the body, I doubt the ME will get to the autopsy until tomorrow. We can talk to the boyfriend and then I'd suggest we get some sleep."

Jess nodded her agreement and the two of them left, heading for the black SUV that they'd driven to the scene in. When they arrived at the precinct Don sat in on the interview with Detective Messer while Jess watched from the next room. The boyfriend was distraught; it took ten minutes for him to pull himself together enough to continue the interview. He'd had to go to his brother's wedding yesterday, that was why he hadn't taken her on vacation; they'd planned to go over the weekend instead, a long weekend somewhere nice.

"Did you not notice she was missing?" Don questioned.

"I wasn't expecting to see her," the boyfriend replied. "We had my brother's stag night and we were completely hung over from that. I text her yesterday after the wedding but she never text back, I just figured she was busy and I'd see her tomorrow. I should have just taken her on vacation, or taken her to the wedding but she didn't want to go, she doesn't... didn't know my brother all that well yet, said she'd feel out of place, if she'd just been with me..."

"You couldn't have known," Messer said. The boyfriend broke down again then and Don knew they weren't going to get anything else useful out of him, at least not then.


Jess closed the file she'd been scanning through as Don parked the car in the hotel parking lot. It had been a long day and they had a lot of new information to process. Having had very little sleep for the last couple of nights they were both in need of a break, a chance to recuperate so they could come back to everything with a fresh set of eyes. They both got out of the car wordlessly, walking into the hotel and Jess nodded an acknowledgement to the woman on reception who smiled tiredly as the phone began to ring.

Don hit the button for the elevator and Jess noticed a couple staring at them curiously, word had obviously gotten around that FBI agents were staying in the building. She was relieved when the elevator arrived, the doors closing her off from the curious stares. It was something she'd learned to ignore when she was on the job, the looks and stares she would sometimes get but for some reason when she wasn't working it still made her uncomfortable.

"I think we have enough information for a preliminary profile," Don stated as he leaned back against the wall of the elevator. Jess turned to look at him, the case file still in her hand, it wasn't exactly pleasant bed time reading but it would be there if she couldn't sleep. "We should head in early tomorrow, go through everything we know and then present the profile to the officers."

"So I'll meet you for breakfast at 7:00?" she questioned. "We can get something to eat and then be at the precinct before 8:00."

"Sounds good, I'll talk to Taylor and Messer in the morning about setting up a press conference," Don added. "Give the public what we know so far."

Jess nodded. "Are you going to do the press conference or do you want me to do it?"

The elevator reached their floor and the two of them stepped out, heading down the corridor. "You do it; I'm going to make sure everything is in place for the onslaught of calls we're going to get as soon as the press conference is over."

They reached the wall between their rooms and Jess turned to look at him for a moment. "I'll see you in the morning."

"Night," he said and she went to her room, fishing her key out of her pocket and giving him one last glance before she went into her room. They never stayed together when on a case, were never anything other than professional, work was work and they kept it at that. They hadn't gone into this lightly, for her part she'd spent the better part of a year telling herself all the reasons why falling for her partner was a bad idea and convincing herself he would never return those feelings. She hadn't been able to switch it off though, especially once she'd realised the feelings weren't just going one way.

She didn't even understand exactly what they had; they hadn't really talked about it since it had started a few months ago. They only went out to dinner on occasion, not that work provided them a lot of free time for dating. It was the reason so many of her relationships failed, her work was more than just what she did, it was a part of who she was and boyfriends had never been able to understand that, many of her friends had never been able to understand that, and the sometimes insane working hours had cost her. They'd stay at each other's apartments, usually at his, but she hadn't introduced him to the handful of friends she had that the job hadn't cost her, and she'd met none of his.

She shook herself out of her thoughts, they would do nothing either to help her sleep or solve the case which meant they had no place in her head right now. Changing into sweat pants and a baggy t-shirt she climbed into bed, the case file on the bedside table in case she found a use for it but she knew she needed to sleep, tomorrow was going to be busy and she needed all the rest she could get. She could still hear Don moving around in the next room, but those sounds soon stopped so he was either in bed or reading the case files she knew he'd have with him, she hoped it was the former.


Breakfast had been eaten quickly, Jess was still eating a slice of toast as she and Don walked into the precinct. Taylor was already there, she could hear his voice coming from his office and he didn't sound happy with whoever he was talking to. Messer hadn't arrived yet but there were a lot of other detectives and uniforms moving about the place, most of them working their own cases but sticking around for the profile that would be given later.

Don and Jess sat in the room they'd been given, the evidence board to one side covered in pictures and information, the desk buried in files and paper. They spent an hour going through everything, putting bits of the profile together to ensure nothing was missed out. Jess called Macey and the two of them worked out what to say during the press conference, it wasn't her first but Jess was a profiler, not a media liaison and it always helped to have input from one, especially for issues as sensitive as this, she wanted to warn people not panic them.

It was almost 9:30 when Taylor had his people gather for the profile and Jess stood beside Don in front of them all. She was used to this part of the job, the dozens of eyes on her, some hopeful, some cynical and she was prepared for not only the questions she would get but the criticism of them, their job and their profile. It would be nothing new, nothing she hadn't seen and dealt with before.

"What we're about to give you is a preliminary profile," Don told the room, emphasising the point. "More may be added or changed as we receive new information but we feel it's important to give you at least some idea of the person you're looking for," he continued, his eyes watching the room. "The person you're looking for is a white male, approximately 25 – 35. He's a sexual sadist, he derives pleasure from the pain and torture of his victims, he gets on off on it, in fact he can't off without it."

"This won't be new to him, he'll have a history of deviant behaviour starting from his early childhood, he most likely has priors for things like peeping, stalking and assault. His choice of victim likely reflects someone he knows or has known, someone he feels has wronged him in some way and he picks victims that resemble them," Jess took over. Several of the officers and detectives were making notes, taking in what was being said, others were looking incredulous. "He'll have poor social skills, keeps to himself, is very much isolated from the people around him. He won't be able to sustain romantic relationships, he may have enticed previous girlfriends into sexual activities that cause them pain, it could be for this reason that the relationships ended. He's intelligent and egocentric, he believes he's better than others and that includes the police, he understands the power of law enforcement but he doesn't respect it. He covers his crimes meticulously and he believes he can't be caught."

"He'll take the girls somewhere he feels safe, a place he's chosen in advance that's quiet and isolated, somewhere the chances of them being found and rescued are small. He'll take his time with them, prolonging the torture until his desire to kill becomes too strong to resist," Don told them, getting into the unpleasant details of the crime that were horrible to hear but still essential to understanding and catching the UNSUB. "He'll take souvenirs from his victims, clothes, jewellery, maybe even photographs and videotapes and he probably keeps any media articles related to the case. These all help him to relive the experience after the kill and he'll continue to get off on it until it's not enough anymore, this is when he'll kidnap another girl."

Jess stepped back in there. "Someone here has likely already met the killer, he'll want to inject himself into the investigation and he's probably done this more than once already."

"His cooling off period, the time he takes to relive the experience between kills, is getting shorter, this means he'll probably kidnap another girl within a couple of days," Don stated, finishing off the profile with a reason for them all to take it and seriously get to work.

There were several questions thrown at them, a few comments about it all just being guess work but both she and Don were used to it by now, giving well rehearsed replies to the critics and answering the rest of the questions with more interest. Most of the officers went back to work; some of the detectives who had merely been sitting in on the profile in case they came across something went back to their own cases.

TBC