So, we had to have a mandatory conference room scene. It just gives a little background on the case. I hope it makes as much sense in print as it did in my head! But not too much...can't give everything away in Chapter 1! I'm not thrilled at how I wrote Reid in this chap...he's just smarter than I am! So I apologize in advance to any Dr. Reid fans!

Enjoy...


Chapter One

"Love is as much of an object as an obsession, everybody wants it and everybody seeks it, but few ever achieve it, those who do, will cherish it, be lost in it, and among all, will never...never forget it." ~Curtis Judalet

"Seven women have gone missing from the D.C. area going back about 6 months."

Once again the agents of the BAU were gathered around the conference room table viewing a file handed to them by Agent JJ Jareau. Circling the room, she hit the remote control and brought the photographs of seven beautiful women onto the big screen.

"All beautiful, all successful in their respective fields…but that is where the similarities end." JJ said grimly as the team looked up at the beautiful faces smiling down upon them. "All seven have different careers, live separate lives, were abducted from different locations around the city at various times of day. The lead detective on the case…" The blond agent leaned down to check her notes, "…Danny Callahan, did a lot of thorough investigating and there was no crossover anywhere. These women hardly had anything in common…they didn't even go to the same dentist."

Hitting a button on the remote, JJ changed the picture on the screen to a split screen shot that showcased only two of the previous seven women. "Two of the abducted women have now been found dead. Allison Stewart, a 27 year old financial advisor, was found three weeks ago. And this morning, they found Carrie Ann Southard…23 year old medical student at George Washington University. Both were found in Rock Creek Park, but in separate locations. Both women were badly beaten, had their hair chopped off, and were tied to trees in remote areas of the park. They did a rape kit on Carrie Ann and are waiting for the results, but Allison's body showed signs of repeated sexual assault when it was autopsied."

"How were the bodies discovered?" Section Chief Agent Aaron Hotchner asked, never taking his dark eyes off the case file.

"The first, Allison, was found by a group of adventurous campers out for a late winter hike in the park." JJ responded, looking around the room carefully. "Carrie Ann's body was discovered by a park ranger making his rounds of the area early this morning."

"So he made no attempt to hide them." Agent Derek Morgan deduced, standing up to study the photographs on the closer. "It's like he wanted them to be found."

"According to Detective Callahan's notes, neither Allison nor Carrie Ann were the first women abducted." Agent Doug Rossi noted, leafing through the case file. "A woman named Theresa DeMarco was the first woman taken, but her body has not turned up."

"Yet." Agent Hotchner remarked dryly. "But it does seem like there is no pattern to the killings…no sequence."

"Like he simply abducts them and kills them when he is done with them." Agent Spencer Reid chimed in, also studying the case file closely. "And then leaves the bodies for the police to find. But this woman here, Leslie Rosenthal, was abducted only two days after Allison's body was found," he continued, a look of thorough concentration on his young face. "It's like he's rotating out his victims…he kills one and then has a spot to fill so he abducts another woman to take her place."

"And then puts the one he killed on display," Agent Emily Prentiss breathed, watching as JJ changed the images to show crime scene photographs of how each of the women were found in the park. "As if to taunt the police with what he has done to them."

"With Carrie Ann's body, the unsub got personal with Detective Callahan," JJ remarked, changing the image on the screen once more. "He left a note addressed to the detective on the second body and signed it 'Casanova'."

"The great lover?" Agent Emily Prentiss asked, squinting to read the barely legible handwriting on the note.

"I begin by declaring to you, Dani, that, by everything good or bad that I have done throughout my life, I am sure that I have earned merit or incurred guilt, and that hence I must consider myself a free agent...Despite an excellent moral foundation, the inevitable fruit of the divine principles which were rooted in my heart, I was all my life the victim of my senses; I have delighted in going astray and I have constantly lived in error ... my follies are the follies of youth." Agent Reid read from the screen, standing up to get a closer look. "As for women, this sort of reciprocal deceit cancels itself out, for when love enters in, both parties are usually dupes." Turning to look at his colleagues, Reid informed them, "Those are the opening words of Giacomo Casanova's memoirs. He changed a few words and added the detective's name to the first line, but that is definitely the beginning of Histoire de ma vie, which was written in French instead of his native Italian. Casanova once said that he wrote the memoirs in French because it was a more widely known language than Italian…"

"What is this mark?" Hotch interrupted, pointing to a scripted letter "C" with a dramatic flare finish at the base that was located where the closing of a letter would usually be.

"It may be his signature," JJ informed them, bringing up the photo of the mark Hotch was referring to. "They found one on Allison's left shoulder and another on the back of Carrie Ann's neck…"

"Like the way you would brand cattle," Rossi remarked, shaking his head. "How was it made?"

"Looks like he carved it," Prentiss said, showing Rossi an image from one of the girl's necks. "It's scabbed over…so he probably carved it as soon as he abducted them."

"To mark them as his own." Rossi agreed.

"It seems that he is getting bolder, like he wants the police to know who he is. The letter to the detective, leaving Carrie Ann to be found in the morning, when he knows the rangers will be patrolling the area." Morgan deduced, leaning back and crossing his arms over his muscled chest. "Almost as if he is annoyed that they haven't figured him out by now."

"Well, let's help them figure him out before he abducts another young woman," Hotch announced, standing up and signaling that the meeting was over. "JJ, get the names to Garcia and have her run complete background checks on all of these women...just in case there is some connection that the detectives missed. And then call Metro P.D. and tell them that we'll be there first thing in the morning."

A/N - The information about Casanova's memoirs came from Wikipedia.