"Intellectual growth should commerce at birth and only cease at death." –Albert Einstein
After the team arrived back at the office, JJ met with Hotch alone, and he gave her the okay to bring the case up to the team. She walked from Hotch's room, through the hallway, passing Prentiss and Reid as they poured coffee. "Come to the conference room when you're done. We have another case."
The young genius turned after JJ continued after them and then back to Prentiss as he added more sugar to his caffeinated beverage.
Emily Prentiss shrugged, taking a quick sip of her drink before walking on after the liaison.
Upon arriving in the room she noticed it was for the most part occupied. Garcia and Morgan were already using the window board and shuffling through the paperwork from the Wyoming case and Hotch and Rossi were in the back talking to the team's Media communicator. Reid walked in after her, sipping on his highly tolerated coffee before holding it to his chest and sitting down. Prentiss then sat down and set her coffee on the conference table.
JJ walked towards the center of the room, clicking a single button on the television that was shown before them.
"From what we've gathered, our team has been being followed throughout Quantico since last year. It wasn't clear until now that our team was the one being targeted, or stalked per se. The way it works out is that one or more of us go somewhere besides home and work in the Quantico area, say at 5:00p.m. on Monday. The killer will go out and kill someone at the exact same location and time, just one day later. Somehow, he knows exactly where we are and has for some time."
"As far as we can go back, do we have any idea when the attacks on the public started?" Reid asked, leaning forward in the carpeted chair, reaching for his sugar with coffee.
"It's assumed October, but there might have been an earlier date. We're not sure what the unsub wants, just that it somehow concerns us," Hotch continued, stepping towards the table.
The genius glanced around the room. "How can we be sure that it isn't someone in the bureau? Everyone around here knows exactly where we are at all times. They could've been using the GPS as an advantage."
"We have nothing that points to the bureau in any way, just that it's us being followed," JJ replied, looking down to the youngest member.
Morgan sat at his seat tapping the table's leg. "Is there anything that points us away from the bureau? We need to take all precautions. The killer could continue the spree and get bored with killing people one day after us. He might move onto us ourselves."
"That would be changing his entire MO, so it's highly unlikely that would happen," Rossi said, disagreeing.
"Maybe that's exactly what he wants us to think," Reid mumbled, tearing his glance away from his beverage and to JJ. "Is there a way you can get me the exact day that it started? Or the first day we noticed it starting? There might have been a trigger."
JJ nodded, looking over to Hotch who was now fumbling through a gigantic folder of information. "Prentiss, Morgan, you two look over the places the murders have taken place. Rossi and I will go through everyone we've worked with in the entire last year and see who can possibly fit our profile. We know this unsub, and he knows us. JJ, get the information on the dates for Reid. Make sure none of this gets to the public."
"It was October 15, 2009," JJ said, walking back into the conference room as Reid continued to make a mind map on the window board.
"That was a Thursday, the day after we got back from D.C."
"What happened when we were in D.C.?" JJ asked herself, sitting down in front of the map that Reid was producing.
"If I'm thinking of the right D.C. incident, the group of killers went around and killed people at random. That could've been a trigger, like, bringing back suppressed memories of whom someone really is. The group we caught there simply wanted the power, more like the thrill of each kill."
JJ raised her eyebrow, glancing from the board to Reid. "But how could that have been a trigger in the unsub's mind?"
Reid glanced back to the blond, making sure he would explain it the correct way. "It's a collective understanding that when someone who's lived by their morals until a certain point normally has a trigger, and in this sense the idea that someone can randomly kill people just appalls our unsub. He believes that everything needs to be constructed in a righteous manner and that doing things out of the blue just makes him angry. He thinks there has to be a reason to go out and call people, and somehow, we're part of this reason. It's fits the profile of any FBI agent: constructive, overly protective, organized. If I'm not mistaken, I'm pretty sure we're dealing with an agent here, or at least someone who's been an agent. Possibly one of the people we've worked with at D.C.?"
Hotch leaned forward from the back of the room. "I came to the same conclusion, but Rossi seems to disagree. He's been set against it since Morgan brought it up."
"Maybe he doesn't think that an agent could do this?" JJ asked.
"Or he knows more than he's leading on. I wonder if he remembers anything from D.C. that I don't," Reid mumbled, walking towards the table to sip some coffee as Garcia barged through the conference room door.
"Guys, I looked into what happened on our cases a couple weeks prior to the one in D.C., and it looks light the cases were really different. We went back to Rossi's hometown and then the other case was with the man who suffered a psychotic breakdown in that pharmacy, killing the people there."
"It could be possible seeing Rossi go back to his hometown could've been a trigger, or seeing Hotch still reacting from when Haley and Jack were put under government protection," Reid spoke up, eyeing the room. He hoped nothing he said had affected Hotch too much in a negative way. He was still recovering from Haley's death.
"I'm getting the feeling the unsub has been watching us way before he made any motive of killing people. He had to know our schedules, he had to know when we got home and where we were, our day-to-day lives. He's been watching us a long time before October, possibly even years before he made a move."
The team that was present glanced to Hotch, who had just finished talking.
"Should we look back as far as we can in our records?" Reid asked, glancing from JJ to Hotch.
The unit chief shook his head. "No; by the time we begin to sort through our records someone else will wind up dead."\
As Cicero once said, "the life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living."