Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds, though I wish with every fiber of my being that I did.
Kara and Hotch stared at Derek in disbelief before turning to look at each other for a moment.
"Way to be overly dramatic Morgan," Prentiss grumbled from her place on one of the sofas in the room.
"What?" Derek questioned, shrugging his shoulders his eyes moving around the room.
"Yeah that was a little cliffhanger in a daytime drama," Rossi noted.
"Very much a Young & the Restless moment," JJ chuckled.
Derek rolled his eyes at their teasing and turned to his wife, he knew that she'd understand his choice of words and inflection. He saw her eyes were filled with amusement as she looked at him. "I'm sorry my love, but that was a bit dramatic. Which truly means something when it comes from these ruby red lips," Penelope responded with a glimmer in her eyes.
Kara shook her head at the good-natured ribbing going on between the members of the team, she was glad to see that the case wasn't so serious and dangerous that it had taken their sense of humors away from them.
"So what's the case?" Hotch inquired, his deeply sensuous voice broke through the haze of friendly banter and reminded the team of the purpose for their visit.
Sighing, Reid opened his messenger bag and pulled out a large accordion folder and began pulling out file after file after file, placing them on the coffee table. Hotch and Kara watched expressionless at first until Reid pulled out the fifteenth file and then their eyes widened.
"All of these files are for the same case?" Kara whispered in shock as Reid continued to pull out files.
"Yes," Derek gritted through his teeth.
"Morgan," Hotch breathed, "What the hell is this?" Finally, Reid had stopped pulling out files and the final total was around thirty files. Thirty files, thirty murders, thirty different cases, all apparently connected.
Derek stood and walked towards the coffee table where Reid had placed the files. He opened the top file. "Sherri Davis, age 42, African American, strangled in her home, two years ago, police ruled it a suicide as did the M.E." He opened another file, "Jorge Gonzalez, age 58, Hispanic, massive heart attack due to a scare he sustained when he walked in on a group of young men robbing his home. He was literally scared to death. This was five years ago." He opened another file, paused for a moment and then turned it towards Kara, "Lieutenant Richard Johnson, age 27, Italian American, killed in the line of duty, twelve years ago…"
Kara gasped, "My Richard? But why is his file in with this case? He was killed in the line of duty. It says so in the file." She turned to look at Hotch a look of bewilderment on her face.
"Please explain how all of these cases are connected, Morgan, because right now I'm not seeing how all of them are," Hotch stated as he put his arm around his wife.
Derek nodded. "I understand Hotch. I felt the same way when JJ first brought it to me. Especially because Richard's file was among them, but we looked at the crime scene photos carefully. Apparently there's an officer who discovered the connection first." Pulling out the crime scene photos, Derek began to point. Kara gasped, "Richard didn't have a green clover tattoo on his wrist! There's no way the service would've let him have it. It's connected to one of the deadliest mobs in the world."
"Exactly," Derek nodded.
"Wait, Morgan are you trying to say that all of these people…all thirty of them were killed by the mob? But why?" Hotch questioned.
"We actually think it goes beyond the mob," Rossi interjected as he stepped closer to the coffee table, "You see we looked at the connection between some of them, and of the thirty, ten of them had government connections, like, upper crust, presidential connections."
"Wait, so what are you saying? Someone in the Cabinet is killing off these people? But why?" Kara asked stunned.
"We don't know, and we still don't know the connections with the others, all we know is that each body has a post mortem tattoo of a green clover on their wrist. The women on their left wrists, the men on their right," Prentiss pointed out.
Kara shook her head and sat down on the couch. "I just don't understand. What would be the purpose in killing Richard? He was a decorated officer. A good soldier, but he didn't work in intelligence, he had no sensitive knowledge about any type of military strategies or manuevers. What's the purpose?" she glanced up at Derek, "Why Derek? Why?"
Derek shook his head sadly and sat next to her. "I don't know Apple Head, but we're going to find out. I promise."
Hotch shook his head as he observed the files that littered his coffee table. He didn't know how realistic Derek's claim was to Kara, this might be one case where they were unable to find out the reason so many people had been killed.
Dr. Spencer Reid sat back with a sigh of disgust and rubbed his fingers into his eyelids. "We've poured over these files again and again and even with my knowledge and my brain's power of observation,, I still don't see anything that connects these victims."
David Rossi groaned as he stretched out his legs and folded his arms behind his head as he looked over the group gathered in the living room. Kara sat on the floor in front of Hotch her eyes scanning the pages contained in the file that she read. Hotch sat in the chair behind her, his hands on her shoulders as he read the file over her shoulder. Derek and Penelope sat looking over her laptop as they delved into the lives of the thirty victims. Prentiss was on the phone with her mother trying to find information on the ten victims with the government connections. While JJ fielded calls from various members of the Bureau. Rossi sighed and shook his head, "You're right Reid. So if you can't find it using your power of observation, then there has to be another way." Rossi turned to look at Kara, his expression pensive.
"What is it David? Why are you looking at me that way?" Kara asked hesitantly.
"Do you mind doing a recall with Derek and trying to remember your relationship with Richard, maybe there's something there that we're overlooking. Like it or not you're our only link to this case, our only way in," Rossi explained as he gestured towards Derek.
Kara glanced up at Derek and sighed. Turning to glance up at Hotch, Kara saw his approval lurking in his eyes and then turned to nod at Derek. As the two cousins moved toward the dining room area to talk, the rest of the team and Hotch continued to pore over the files again.
"Tell me how you and Richard met…" Derek began.
Kara began talking about her relationship with Richard, sparing no detail, allowing for no distraction. Even when Hotch came to sit in a chair right next to her, she continued talking about her relationship with the deceased military officer.
"Richard was so proud of his family. He was always telling me about his family history, how he was descended from President Hamilton. How his family were directly connected to kings and emperors," Kara said on a chuckle, "As a matter of fact, his family was connected to a mason group. Richard was involved in it also, he'd leave every Saturday to…" Kara's words broke off as she gasped and gave a cry of dismay, before leaping up from the table and racing over to the coffee table where the files lay.
"Kara are you okay?" JJ asked.
"Honey?" Hotch questioned as he rushed over to her side.
"I just remembered-" Kara mumbled as she looked through the files one by one, a slow smile coming to her face. "The names of the parents…atleast of six of the victims, I've heard before. Richard mentioned them." Kara looked up at Penelope, "Pen, can you check to see if our vics or their parents or any family members have any connections to a mason group?"
"Sure can babydoll. Which mason group?" Penelope asked as she typed furiously on the keyboard.
"The Illuminati."
*A/N: The Illuminati are a realistic mason group. Although they have no ties to any actual murders (not that I know of anyway), I do know that every president has some connection to them (I'm not sure of our current president, but I've heard that he does also). It has long been said that it is actually this mason group that chooses our President and members of government and make certain decisions for our country. If you believe in conspiracy theories then that's an interesting piece of information, otherwise, you can just read this story as I intended it, as a piece of fiction. However, you've learned something that the Illuminati are a mason group and that all of our presidents have a connection to them. Never say that you didn't learn anything from me! LOL. I'll try to update the story more often. My muse has given me some clue about the direction of this story. The BAU will end up travelling the world in this story and will meet some very interesting characters and have some interesting experiences as well. I hope you enjoy them! Please rate and review, I'd so appreciate it!*
