Hi guys, thanks for checking out chapter 2! I hope you like it, as always I am always open for advice/constructive ideas.
The team had assembled the things they would need for the case. It was roughly a two hour and thirty minute flight from DC to Wichita. When they arrived, they drove from the airport to the local Sheriff's office to see what they had gathered from the scene and to look at evidence. The office building was busy with deputies running back and forth, phones ringing off the hook, and the sounds of crying. It seems the families of these boys were notified immediately, since they were reported missing from their homes that day. Hotchner was the first one in the building and was approached by the Sheriff.
Hotchner flashed his FBI identification. "I'm BAU Unit Chief Aaron Hotchner, this is my team," He introduced the team as they walked in behind him and stood next to him, "SSAs Jason Gideon, Derek Morgan, Elle Greenaway, and Dr. Spencer Reid."
The Sheriff reached out his hand to shake each of theirs.
"My name is Sheriff Wallace, I'm glad you could fly out here on such short notice. Wichita has never seen anything like this before, so we thought we'd called you."
The Sheriff put his hands on his duty belt and walked the team over to the investigation board. Other deputies were tacking up pictures from the crime scene along with whatever evidence they deemed necessary. The same pictures they had seen at the BAU were on it, along with a few more new ones. They all had the same morbid and grotesque images of the slaughtered boys.
"This is what we have gathered so far, but I would suggest we take a drive over to the crime scene before it gets dark. Them boys are going to the autopsy now, and we should know what the killer used to do this," the Sheriff said.
Hotchner looked at him for a second, "Have had any reports any suspicious activity that may involve anything dealing with religious cults. These types of murders are more than usual, carried out by a group of psychotic individuals, likely with a pack mindset."
"No, we haven't had any of that sort of thing here as long as I've been around. The farmer's been complaining of bright lights coming from his farm for some time though, that, and random loud noises in the middle of the night, so I dunno if that's cult activity or not. He is still at his home, if you want to talk to him."
Sheriff Wallace grabbed the keys to his cruiser from his belt and nodded to the team to follow him. They drove twenty minutes outside of the main town, and got deeper into farmland. The land out here was flat. They passed a few decrepit barns and homes along the way, as well as some that looked to be demolished by tornados that had come through this area years ago. It was getting closer to the evening, and the team was running out of daylight. They planned on coming back tomorrow, but they wanted to see the crime scene as soon as they could.
The big black SUVs against the tan and green land created an ominous look as the kicked up dust and dirt along the roads. They had left the few paved roads that there were, and were now traveling along the more abundant dirt trails. You could see more imprints in the path from trackers than you could normal vehicles. It seemed strange that someone would travel so far out of their way to commit the crime, but then again, it was their job to find that out.
Ahead, up the road, they could see the outline of on the department's cruisers. Pulling up next the roped off area that had the 'CRIME SCENE' tape around it, the Sheriff and the team had exited their vehicles. On the other side of the tape, below a tree, there was a rather large patch of blood. Morgan and Gideon stepped over the rope to investigate that, while Hotchner and Reid proceeded to the farm house to talk to the farmer.
Morgan leaned over the stain of blood, "This looks to be where all five boys were found, there aren't any other spots of blood so they all were killed in this small area." He turned to Gideon, "You'd think that once the unsub had come up on them, at least one of them would have gotten away. Five teenagers wouldn't get so close to each other like that.
"Unless they were forced to be so close together. There weren't any traces or fragments of a gun being fired, but that doesn't mean the unsub didn't have one to scare them with."
With a puzzled look on his face Morgan said, "That could be a possibility, if someone had a gun pointed at me and my friends, running for it might not be the best idea."
----
Reid and Hotchner made their way up the steps to farmhouse and knocked on the door. Reid looked at his report sheet and talked to whoever was inside.
"Mr. Fuller, we are with the FBI, I know the Sheriff's Department had already spoken with you, but we may have some different questions to ask you."
"All right. Hold your horses, I'm coming."
The farmer had opened up the screen door and made his way to the wooden rocker on the front of his porch. Reid and Hotchner followed and sat the wicker bench across from him. The farmer, who looked to be in his late 50's, took out a pipe from the pocket of his plaid work shirt. He lit it and began to smoke it, before he talked again.
"Whattya, wanna know? I already talked to the local authorities, what's the government want from me now?"
Reid gave Hotchner a quick, skeptical glance, and began interviewing the farmer.
"Mr. Fuller, you said that you've reported strange activity coming from the fields of your farm over the past few days. Have you seen any vehicles drive by here on a regular basis, or had maybe seen people walking about your farm? Anything suspicious at all?"
"Well, a few days ago, I heard a loud crash over in the barn. I grabbed my shotgun and went to check it out myself. The barn door was creaked open, but when I looked inside, all that I found were some my tools knocked over like somebody had just darn near shoved it over."
Reid interjected before the farmer continued, "Did you notice any tools missing? A rake or maybe an axe?"
"No, they were all there. I just shut the door and went back to my business. Later that night though, I looked out my window to see some lights over yonder," He pointed in the direction of the rest of the team, "They looked like flashlights or maybe a lantern. I had thought some of the local trouble boys been over there jacking around, maybe had gotten into my barn. The lights didn't last very long and they went away, it was like they knew I was looking at them from all the way back here. I didn't see the lights for a few days, but they came back."
"Is that what happened again this morning? Is that why you called the Sheriff?"
"Yep, I was fed up with it. I looked out the window at about midnight, saw them lights, but I heard them boys yelling this time, they were yelling real loud. I still thought they were messing around so I went back inside and dialed. That's about all I can give you."
Hotchner stood up and shook the man's hand.
"Thank you for your time, Mr. Fuller."
Reid stood up as well, and then the two were heading back to the rest of the team to tell them what they know.
-----
Morgan and Gideon were about to turn back to go to the SUV and talk to Elle, who had spoken more with the Sheriff and his deputies. Out of the corner of his eye, Morgan noticed something and branched off of Gideon's side and over to the tree. He inspected it closely, and his eyes widened as he made a discovery.
"Hey Gideon, you might want to see this."
Gideon walked over to where Morgan was standing to see what he was talking about.
Morgan continued, "Remember when Reid said that it looked like claw marks on the victims? Well look at the trunk of this tree."
Morgan ran his fingers over a set of three parallel marks that repeated on other places along one face of the tree's trunk.
"It looks like these are the same type of markings. They seem to be going up the tree, like the unsub…climbed it."
Gideon looked at the claw marks, perplexed.
"So you're saying our unsub isn't human. What is he? A bear?"
"No it can't be a bear, they have five claws on each paw, I don't know of any animal this big that has three; Reid might know. I just highly doubt we are dealing with just an animal. Maybe our unsub, thinks he's an animal though, and has tools and weapons formed to recreate his twisted fantasy."
"So now we are looking for a guy with extreme psychosis, possibly schizophrenic, and demonstrates an intense animalistic or tribal mindset. Who would fit that kind of profile?"
"Let's get some picture of this, maybe Garcia can run some scans and see if there are any matches of various claws markings.
Morgan and Gideon went back to the get a camera, just as Reid and Hotchner were returning from the farmhouse. Behind the SUVs the sound of a car was heard pulling up. A grey Sedan was kicking up some dust as it got closer to the BAU team and finally came to a rest. Two figures got out of the car. One was a male with black hair, and the other was a shorter woman with red hair. They both wore sunglasses. Hotchner walked over to them, as these must have been the two they were going to work with.
Hotchner reached out his hand to greet them, "You two must be the other agents working on this case, I'm Aar-," He was interrupted by the man
"Aaron Hotchner. I know who you and your team are.
The man wasn't even looking at Hotchner, but behind him to the crime scene. Still looking around, as if he was looking for clues he introduced himself.
"My name is Special Agent Fox Mulder; this is my partner, Special Agent Dana Scully. What do you have so far?"
They followed Hotchner over to the rest of the team, and introduced themselves again. The BAU didn't know what to think of these new agents, they've actually never heard of them, even though they were still in the FBI. They had all gathered around the back of the SUV to discuss the findings thus far.
"I'd like to see those marks on the tree," Said Mulder
Gideon looked up at him from the pictures he was looking at.
"Sure thing, they are over here follow me."
"Whatever climbed this tree climbed it before it killed those kids."
"How do you figure that?"
"These marks on the tree, they're clean. If it killed them before, there would be blood in the grooves. My guess is that it climbed up the tree, and then attacked your victims. During the night, there's no way they could have defended against an aerial attack."
"So he jumped out of the tree. Why do you refer to the unsub as an 'it' may I ask you, Agent Mulder?"
"We don't know what did this, so right now it's an 'it'.
-----
"Special Agent Scully, if I may ask what part of the FBI are you from? I've never heard of you or Agent Mulder." Reid asked.
"I cannot disclose that information Dr. Reid, but let's just say it's a very special unit of the FBI," Scully replied without looking up from the pictures. "I'd like a chance to examine the victims myself, Sheriff."
"We already have our local unit working on that ma'am, so you don't got to do that extra work."
"I wasn't asking."
-----
The light was slowly going into the evening hours, and the units packed up and headed back to the office to find proper sleeping arrangements. They were able to find sleeping arrangements in a nearby hotel, they had each gotten a separate room. Morgan walked into the hotel lobby and stretched his arms wide, almost hitting Reid in the face by accident.
"Alright team, good work out there today. Everyone get some sleep, it's going to be a long day tomorrow," announced Gideon.
Mulder and Scully had gotten a room together, with separate beds of course. Unlike the BAU, they slept in the same room, there were only two of them, and they usually stayed up and discussed their cases for awhile. Scully was one of Mulder's only friends anyway.
7 hours later.
Hotchner was awoken by his cell phone ringing on the nightstand beside his bed.
Groggily, he answered.
"Hotch."
The Sheriff's voice came onto the line at the other end. There was a sense of urgency and fear in his voice.
"Agent Hotchner, you need to get down to the station right away, there's something you gotta see."