UchiSays: Hello Dear Hearts. I'd like to start off by saying the feedback I got from just the first chapter was much more than I had expected and so amazing and I'm grateful and I love you all for that. Reviews and coffee are the batteries that keep me churning out chapters, so keep them coming! and I'll try to create something you'll all enjoy and eat up. The second thing I'd like to say is, I learned the hard way that it is simply impossible for me to make regular updates unless I already have the entire story written before posting chapter one. So, I don't going to promise you regular updates, because I would just end up breaking that promise. I will promise you that I would do the best I can to get chapters written and posted in a timely matter. The third thing I would like to say is:
Let's all give a warm welcome, a round of applause, lots of hugs and coffee, and many thanks to my supercalifragilisticexpialid ocious new Beta SmcdsShipper19, who not only volunteered her service, but was also able to start right away and edited and sent me back 3 chapters in less than 24 hours, and she let's me call her Lessie, which is a name I have a special attachment to. Thank you Lessie.
Right, so enough chatter, let's start:
Chapter Two: Another Victim
"So what are we looking at here?" Hotch asked as soon as the team was settled on the jet.
"Honestly, I have no idea," Prentiss spoke up. "The UNSUB is all over the place; victims of different ages, races, genders, and socioeconomic classes. They were grabbed from different locations. Dumped in different locations. The only consistency is the cause of death."
"What's the first thing we look at when working a case?" Hotch asked.
Spencer looked up from the case file and answered, "Victimology: why this victim, why this day, why this crime."
"But, like Prentiss said, the UNSUB is all over the place with his victims," Morgan stated.
"What's the second thing we look at?"
"Methodology: how the UNSUB kills, what's his signature, and what does that say about him."
"So what does his method say about him?"
"He guts them like animals and then discards them like trash. A lot of anger, but very little respect for the victims."
"Perhaps he actually sees them as animals or trash or just anything less than human."
"He sees them as less than human and thus they don't deserve to live?"
"Or reproduce. There's no signs of sexual assault other than the removal and sealing of obvious erogenous zones."
"Maybe he's impotent. This could be his way of expressing his displeasure at his own impotency."
"So we have an impotent UNSUB, who views his victims as less than human, seemingly targeting at random?"
"What about the time between killings? After killing Sparx, he waited three weeks before killings Miles, and then over a month before going after Rodriguez. What was he doing in the meantime?"
"Maybe he was hunting? Maybe he was trying to find victims that suited his taste."
"But what are his tastes? We have victims spanning the ages of ten to twenty-two, both genders, Caucasian, African American, and of Hispanic decent, one from lower middle-class background, one just straight middle-class, and another upper middle-class. There's no particular type."
"Maybe the victims each represent someone different in his life. The Cottonwood Grove Killer, Jeffery Daniels, was severely abused both physically and sexually as a child. More than once, he reached out for help but was ignored. When he started killing, he chose victims that resembled those who hadn't helped him as a child, but each victim reminded him of how they were when they denied him help instead of how they are now. His first victim was a twelve year old girl that reminded him of his childhood friend who had called him a liar when he admitted his abuse to her. His second victim was man who he thought resembled the pastor who hadn't asked questions when he'd come to church with bruises. His third victim was a sixteen year old boy that he associated with the older brother that had run away from home and left him behind."
"That's a valid point, but it seems unlikely. Let's not count out other connections just yet."
Spencer frowned. He'd been intently studying the crime scene photos and the case file during the discussion and something wasn't adding up. "Uh... guys," he said realizing what it was that was off, "I wouldn't exactly say he discards them like trash. Sparx 's body was found in a lightly wooded area within two days of her disappearance. She was right off a well-traveled hiking path. The UNSUB had taken the time to cover her body with a sheet after laying her down carefully. Miles was found the day after he disappeared, in an alley behind some commercial buildings not far from the door where one of the buildings received its weekly supply deliveries, on the day said delivery was to arrive. Once more, he'd taken the time to cover the victim after laying him down. Rodriguez's body was found the same night he disappeared, on the side of a well-traveled road, again covered in a sheet after being dumped."
"He wants them found fast. He places them in areas he knows a lot of people pass, so that they can be discovered quickly."
"More than that, he wants to be found quickly. Instead of just wrapping them in a sheet and dumping them from his vehicle while in transit, he takes the time to pull over, lay the victim out carefully, and then cover them with a sheet. The first victim wasn't found fast enough for him, so he changed the dump-site to somewhere more populated. And he lingers there in hope of someone catching a glimpse of him."
"But why is he bothering to cover them with a sheet in the first place, other than giving him a reason to hang around the body a few seconds longer."
"He carries them and lays them down. The victims are all small in stature and considerably lighter than other people their age, but even they would be heavy as dead weight. Yet he still carries them instead of dragging them. And he clears the ground around them before laying them down, as if he wants them to be comfortable. Then he covers them, trying to preserve their modesty."
"He's remorseful. For whatever reason, he feels bad about killing these people and he wants to be caught."
"When we land, JJ you should meet up with the local agents. See if they have any information they might have thought too unimportant to put in the initial briefing, or if they have any new information at all. Ask about witnesses at the dump-sites. Anyone present at all three? Any suspicious vehicle reported being seen at all three? Also, we need to talk to the families of the first two victims; see if you can arrange that. Reid and Prentiss, I want you two to visit the last victim's family. He's the biggest outlier as far as ages goes, but he was chosen for a reason. Find out what that reason is. Garcia, I want you digging. We need to find out whatever it is that connects these victims. The UNSUB found and chose the victims somewhere and we need to know where. Morgan, I want you to visit the Medical Examiner. Rossi and I are going to visit the dump-sites, starting with the last one and working backwards."
…
The Rodriguez residence was a two story home in a regular middle class neighborhood. To Spencer, it was almost remarkably unremarkable. The house was painted blue, with a white front door. The front lawn was cut, but not overly manicured while the car sitting in the driveway was a non-too-expensive family car. Everything was completely normal to Spencer, he wasn't sure what he'd been expecting but this wasn't it. A family who'd just lost their ten year old son couldn't be this normal.
He followed Prentiss up to the door and stood over her shoulder as she rang the bell. A few seconds later, a voice called out from inside the house. "Coming!" they yelled. A few seconds later the door opened and they were greeted by dark haired woman in her early thirties, wearing a tired expression and drying her hands on the frilly apron tied around her waist. This was the face of a grieving mother, Spencer thought. No matter how normal the house looked from the outside, its occupants' faces told the story of their loss.
"Hi, can I help you?" The woman asked.
"Hello, ma'am," Prentiss spoke up. "I'm SSA Emily Prentiss and this is Dr. Reid. We're with the FBI and are investigating the murder of your son, Jordan. We just have a few questions for you."
"We've already talked to the police."
"We tend to ask different questions," Spencer told her. "We're from the Behavioral Analysis Unit, our questions will be more about discovering what type of person would have targeted your son and why he was targeted, and less about the actual crime itself."
"Oh, well come in," she stepped aside and held the door open wider and Spencer followed Prentiss in.
"Sorry for the mess," Mrs. Rodriguez said as she showed them the way to the living room. "I was in the middle of putting everything in order. I'm going to have a house full of people starting tomorrow with everyone arriving in preparation for the funeral. Even my sister Lucy is coming. We haven't spoken in three years, but Jordan was always her favorite nephew. Everyone loved Jordan." She paused. "Anyway, it's a bit of a family tradition that everyone stay's in the... late one's home as a way to commemorate how he lived. Our house isn't very large, but tradition is tradition. I'm trying to figure out sleeping arrangements now, because tomorrow I probably won't be able to step foot out of the kitchen. Another tradition, you see, we cook a feast and throw a party. A celebration of life."
"Will anyone be staying in Jordan's room?" Spencer asked.
"Yes, some of the younger children. I wanted to avoid having anyone in there, but my husband and I have a very large combined family. As I said, our house isn't very large and Jordan has two sets of bunk-beds and room to lay a pallet on the floor in there if need be."
"If you don't mind, I'd like to take a look at Jordan's room. Just to see if there's anything in there that might hint at why Jordan was targeted."
"Um...sure. It's the first door on the left at the top of the stairs. It might be a bit of a mess. Jordan was sick for a week and confined to his bed. It was his first day being allowed outside when this happened. No one's been in there since... Jordan liked his privacy, you see, and I keep expecting him to come running through the door at any minute. He was such a happy boy, I don't understand why anyone would..."
"Mrs. Rodriguez, why don't you speak to me while Dr. Reid takes a look at your son's room," Prentiss said, bringing Mrs. Rodriguez's attention to her.
Spencer slipped out of the room and up the stairs while the two women spoke. The first door on the left at the top of the stairs was closed. Spencer opened it slowly and stepped inside. It was a medium sized room with hard wood flooring and pale cream walls decorated with posters of different anime characters. Despite what Mrs. Rodriguez had said about it might being messy, the room was very clean compared to most children's. There was no pile of dirty clothes, or kicked off shoes, or dropped toys. Everything seemed to have a place and be in that place.
There were two sets of bunk beds on parallel walls. Each of the beds were made up neatly with dark blue sheets. Jordan's bed seemed to be the lower bunk on the left based on the number of hand drawn pictures pinned up there. Spencer went over for a closer look. Jordan seemed to have been trying his hand at drawing his own anime characters. They were fairly decent attempts for a ten year old. Spencer stepped back, but lost his balance and ended up falling forward. He caught his balance by pressing his hands against Jordan's mattress. He sneezed as he got back to his feet, his nose suddenly burning. He stepped back more carefully this time and turned around.
On the wall between the beds was a desk with a stack of notebooks and school books, but no computer. The desk had a built in bookshelf and it was filled with manga volumes. Spencer took a step closer and looked at the books: Naruto, Bleach, Death Note, and Hikaru no Go. From what Spencer knew about anime and manga, these were some of the more popular and typically boy manga. There was also an assortment of music books. He looked through the schoolbooks on the desk. Apparently Jordan's class was studying long division in math and mitosis in science. They were reading Where the Red Fern Grows as a class and Jordan was reading Bud Not Buddy for his personal reading log. They were covering the Civil War in history and Jordan had been tasked with memorizing The Gettysburg Address. He was good at math, bored in science, intrigued by history, and enjoyed reading. He was a normal ten year old boy and a low risk target.
Spencer rubbed his still burning nose and barely managed to refrain from sneezing again. As he was about to look over the room again for something he might have missed, Spencer's phone rang. It was Hotch.
"Hello," Spencer answered.
"Reid, how close are you and Prentiss to finishing up there?"
"We should be wrapping up in a minute or so."
"Garcia is going to send an address to your phone. Meet the team there as soon as you two finish up."
"What's going on?"
"There's been another victim."
…
The latest dump-site was the parking lot of a local diner about five miles from the Rodriguez home. Spencer and Prentiss arrived on the scene fairly quickly. Hotch, Rossi, and JJ were already present when they got there. JJ was standing off to the side talking to an old couple.
"The victim is twenty-one year old Julie Summers," Rossi said. "She'd been reported missing just ten minutes before her body was found."
"Who reported her missing?" Prentiss asked, a small frown etched across her face as she looked at the sheet-covered body of the young woman.
"Her fiance, Michael Gregory; the LEO's are trying to contact him now. He said she went to the gym yesterday and never came home. He waited exactly twenty-four hours before reporting her."
"There's something different about her," Rossi added.
"Other than the fact that he only waited two days before targeting her while there was weeks between the first three murders?"
"Take a look."
Spencer and Prentiss stepped up to the body of the victim and pulled back the sheet covering her. Julie Summers was a petite woman with an almost childish face covered in freckles and framed by long red hair. Her skin was pale and cold and it took all Spencer had to ignore the smell of death clinging to her—one of the downsides of being an omega. He pulled the sheet farther down until it showed all the way to her waist. Both of her breasts had been sliced off and a splattering of red wax showed that her vagina had been sealed, but...
"She wasn't gutted," Prentiss stated, confusion in her tone.
JJ walked over to them at this point. "Patrons at the diner say she couldn't have been here more than ten minutes before being found, as no one had seen her when they'd arrived. No one saw her being dumped either. Apparently people pull up onto this parking lot and use it as a turn around point all the time, so its not out of the ordinary for a car to pull up on the lot then leave it right away."
"No one saw him at all?" Rossi asked, a little doubtful if his tone was anything to go by.
"If they did, they're not saying. The body was dumped in the middle of the lunchtime rush. The parking lot was full of cars, but most likely everyone was already inside."
Hotch frowned. "Let's reconvene at the station and go over what we've gathered. Morgan should meet us there."
…
"What did you learn from the ME?" Hotch asked once all the team was present at the police station and seated around the table in the room they'd been given for use.
"The cause of death for all the victims was asphyxiation. The UNSUB first gutted them, then smothered them with a pillow before they could die from the wound. The removal and sealing of their... personal parts happened postmortem."
"But why would he wait until they're dead to degrade them in such a way? If he's trying to tell them they don't deserve to reproduce or that they're less than human, wouldn't they need to be alive for the torture?"
"Maybe he isn't trying to tell the victims anything? Maybe he's trying to prove something to himself with these acts?"
"Maybe he's sexually attracted to the victims and he's killing and mutilating them in order to show that he's in control of himself and his unwanted urges."
"But what about the gutting? He does that first, right? That's the important part to him. More than wanting them dead, more than wanting to remove their sexuality, he wants them split open."
"Except he didn't gut the last victim."
"Are we sure we're dealing with the same UNSUB and not a copy-cat with last one?"
"A copy-cat is highly unlikely. The only information given to the media is that the victims had been gutted. A copy-cat wouldn't know about the mutilation."
"What about the people who found the bodies? They would know about the mutilation."
"Actually, they wouldn't, because of how the UNSUB takes the time to cover the body in a sheet after he dumps them. The only thing uncovered is their heads."
"If we're not dealing with a copy-cat, then why the break in pattern?"
"We'll have to wait to hear back from the ME to see if there's any other discrepancies with Julie Summers. What did you two learn from visiting the Rodriguez home?"
"Nothing much. They're a normal family. Jordan was a normal boy. Nothing really stood out. I saw no reason why he would have been targeted."
"JJ, did you contact the family of the other victims?"
"Yes, Megan Sparx's parents and boyfriend are unable to make it to the station, but they will welcome us to visit their home tomorrow sometime before noon. Nathan Miles has been estranged from his family since he was nineteen. Apparently he was kicked out because of his sexuality. I did manage to contact his boyfriend; he will be stopping by tomorrow."
"Have Garcia run background checks on these boyfriends as well as Summer's fiance. We can't count out anyone as of yet."
"Yes sir," Morgan said, pulling out his phone and dialing Garcia's number, putting the phone on speaker.
"You're on the line with the all knowing empress of awesome, speak and be recognized."
"Hey baby girl."
"Hello my luscious drop of sinful dark chocolate, I was just about to call you. I've got news."
"Good news I hope?"
"Unfortunately my news is a whole lot of nothing. I've been digging like our fearless leader bid me and found zip, nada, nothing. Our victims didn't even so much as buy the same type bubble gum in the last year. Sparx was a student at a local university. She lived on campus. Spent a lot of time at the movie theater if her credit card purchases are anything to go buy. The only thing of note is that for the last week or so before her death, she'd used her credit all of one time, which is big considering the amount of times she'd used it since she got the plastic beauty two years ago. Not that she's wracked up any debt or anything, seeing she paid all of her bills on time, never even a day late. Her credit score is enviable. That one time she did use it was at a gas station across town from her school. An area she's not in very often, except she was there as well a couple of months ago. Didn't take much digging to find that it was a gas station she frequented before going away to school. It's right around the corner from her parent's house.
"The wonderful Nathan Miles is another fellow with a credit score I would kill for; he'd also wracked up a lifetime of good karma. He lived nowhere near either Sparx's school or parents. He was a certified nursing assistant employed by a small company catering to in home care of senior citizens. He must have been really good at his job because no one has ever lodged a complaint of any type about him. On weekends, he volunteered answering calls for a hotline and shelter that serviced LGBT youth. Kudos for that my man. The last big purchase on his credit card was a platinum engagement band that he was supposed to pick up the day of his disappearance, but never retrieved. He'd also booked hotel reservations for the week following his death. Looks like he'd planned to wine and dine and propose to his sweetheart then spend a week celebrating the engagement by doing the dirty in a hotel bed.
"Little darling Jordan Rodriguez was an honor student at Ripley Elementary. His name was mentioned in the newspaper no less than five times in the last three years, boasting of his vocal prowess in school choir, church choir, and a private children's choir. From what the papers say and from what I saw on YouTube, the kid had the voice of an angel. He was out of school for a week just before his death. According to school records, his parents called in saying he was ill. Prior to this, he had perfect attendance, and the perfect attendance would have remained in tact because his parents had called him in. There is, however, no record of him visiting a doctor during that week of illness, but considering it is flu season they may or may not be justifiable.
"All and all, we have some wonderful people but nothing saying why they were chosen, I am sorry my dearest."
"That's fine, Garcia," Hotch said, "Thank you for digging. We have a few more names we want you to look into."
"Another victim?"
"Unfortunately, baby girl. Tell us what you can find out about Julie Summers, as well as her fiance Michael Gregory. And while you at, look into the boyfriends of victims one and two." Morgan gave her their names. "Work me some magic, baby girl, we're counting on you."
"Magic is what I do best, over and out."
"There's nothing more we can do tonight. Let's head to the hotel and get some rest; we'll look at this with fresh eyes in the morning."