AN: Happy to see the positive reaction to chapter 1 of this story. I'm thinking on shooting for updating every two weeks, on my weekend off, so expect chapter 3 two weeks from now, give or take a day. Hope you all keep enjoying this story!
Reaching his apartment, Spencer Reid unlocked the door and gratefully slipped inside. The evening at Nichols home hadn't been terrible but he was glad that it was over. He was relieved to be able to slip into the comforting solitude of his own apartment.
Closing and locking the front door, Reid headed for his bedroom. After showering and changing into his pajamas, Reid retrieved a legal pad and pen from the night stand and headed toward the kitchen. Placing the pad and pen on the counter as he walked by, Reid poured himself a glass of milk and settled on the stool to begin writing.
Dear Mom,
I hope this letter finds you doing well. The reports I've been getting from the staff there have all been positive. I'm sorry that we keep missing each other with the phone calls. I have tried returning your calls but I seem to have bad timing with them. In the meanwhile, I hope you have been enjoying my letters.
I have managed to reach my ninety-day mark at my job. There were times when I didn't think I could do it, but I remember how you always told me to keep pushing through the hard times and eventually you would make it through. Well, another milestone is reached. I'd like to think the hardest part is behind me and that I've managed to gain a bit of respect from the other guys in the last three months. For the most part people do seem more receptive of me even if I can't describe them as being overly friendly toward me, all of the time.
Nichols made sure that this milestone didn't go unnoticed. Not only did he bring a cupcake in to celebrate at work but he also invited the team over for dinner at his house to celebrate. The whole team was there and even though I was a bit reluctant about the whole thing it turned out okay. I enjoyed myself and it was good way for us to all get together in an informal setting - something that I think we all needed after the start we've had on this year. Like I said before, it seems to be one hard case after another and even at the office work seems to be piling up.
Anyway, back to this evening, the team had a friendly pool tournament while Vanessa and Haley cooked dinner. I paired up with Nichols and by the flip of a coin we took on Hotch and Gideon first. The game was close, but Nichols and I managed to win the first game. Going up against Morgan and Hudson was no easier. In fact, those two were ahead of us most of the game and probably would have beaten us if Hudson hadn't accidently knocked the eight ball into the hole prematurely. It was a lot of fun, especially with Evan, Karen, and Tara cheering us on. Tara was on her dad's side the whole time while the two younger kids cheered for whoever Nichols and I were playing against. I think that might have mostly been because Evan didn't want to be cheering for the same people that Tara was.
Vanessa and Haley cooked a wonderful meal and besides the fact that Hotch, Gideon and Nichols decided to embarrass me by giving speeches before we actually ate, I enjoyed it. In a way I guess it was flattering to hear my teammates say nice things about me, but you know me mom, I've never cared much for being the center of attention. I have to admit that I'm glad they didn't just let the day go by like any other day but I could have done with a little less fanfare to it all. Of all my teammates, I think Morgan understands that the most, or he respects it more than the others. I'm not really sure which. Either way he had his own way of commemorating the occasion.
After he joined the team last year, Morgan designed challenge coins for the team. Seems collecting them is one of his hobbies and he thought having a team coin would be a way for the team to feel a sense of unity. The coins are pretty neat. They're about the size of a half dollar with a brass coating. On one side is an eagle head with BAU Team One written around the circumference of the coin. On the other side of the coin is a set of scales with the bureau's motto - fidelity, bravery, integrity inscribed around the circumference of the coin. Morgan presented one of these coins to me tonight. It may sound silly, but I feel as though having that coin really makes me a part of the team now. I'll have to show it to you when I see next.
Reid paused in his writing of the letter to think back to the moment that Morgan had given him the coin. The dark-skinned agent had waited until the two of them were walking out to the car, Hotch and Gideon had left right after dinner both claiming work to do at home, and Hudson was still inside playing pool with Nichols.
"Hey Kid, I've got something for you," Morgan called out as they approached Morgan's SUV.
Almost at the vehicle, Reid paused and turned to face his teammate. He watched as Morgan pulled something out of his pocket as he approached. Reid watched the older man curiously, wondering what was going on.
"I probably should have given this to you when you first joined the team but . . . "
"You and Hudson weren't exactly thrilled to have me on the team," Reid finished when Morgan let the thought trail off.
"Yeah," Morgan said embarrassed. "Well, that was our mistake. You've more than proved that you belong here. But, well, after I started putting it off, I had a hard time finding the right moment to give you this," he added, holding out the small object he had in his hand. "Surviving ninety days with this team seemed as good a time as any."
Reid held out his hand, and Morgan dropped the object into his hand. Looking down, Reid saw that he was now holding a decorative coin. He looked back up at Morgan.
"What's this?"
"A challenge coin," Morgan replied. "I had them made up last spring. With all the tension that was going on between me and Robbins at the time, I was looking for some way to ease that. To make everyone feel as though we were a team and not competing with one another. It took me awhile to come up with the design and then I had to place the order. They came in a week before Robbins left," Morgan supplied. He paused then, giving Reid the impression that Morgan was debating on whether to go into more detail or not. "It has served its purpose since then - helping with team morale and the challenges have provided some opportunities for us to bond."
"Challenges?" Reid asked, looking up from the coin he had been examining.
"Come on, Reid, I thought you knew everything?" Morgan said, with a huge grin on his face.
"No, you made the assumption that I know everything," Reid countered.
"Well, then I fill you in on the history and the role of challenge coins while I drive you home," Morgan said, gesturing toward his SUV. "I'm going to enjoy telling the resident genius about something for a change.
Reid found himself smiling at the memory, as he thought of the coin he had tucked away safely within his messenger bag. He had a feeling that once the others knew Morgan had finally given their last member a coin, that challenges were going to be made. As he always had his bag with him, he figured it was a safe place to keep the coin.
Returning his attention back to the letter, Reid started writing down the history of the challenge coin as Morgan had relayed it to him. Afterwards, he brought the letter to an end, tucked the papers into an envelope, and addressed the envelope. Leaving the letter sitting on the counter, Reid stood and stretched his hands above his head. It was getting late and tomorrow was a work day. Downing the last of his milk, the young genius rinsed the cup and headed for bed.
Gideon walked into the conference room, the file for their next case in hand, ten minutes before ten and muttered a curse under his breath. He was still trying to catch up on paperwork and Strauss still hadn't replied to his email requesting an explanation of the denial of adding a media liaison to the team and the section chief was actively avoiding his phone calls. Giving his current time constraints, he had asked Nichols to set up for the morning briefing, the computer specialist already routinely being the one to set up the photos for the projector. The fact that the younger agent was nowhere to be seen didn't sit well with the unit chief. After the morning he'd had already, half of it spent arguing with Strauss' secretary, he at least wanted to get their case started off on the right foot.
Turning on his heel, Gideon was about to march out of the conference room in search of Nichols when said agent came striding through the door. Taking one look at Gideon, the profiler knew instantly that Gideon had been coming to look for him.
"Relax, Boss. You'll be able to start the briefing on time," Nichols told him, gesturing toward Gideon's normal place at the conference table with the stack of files he had in his hand. "Everything is ready. I was just talking to Detective Franklin. Apparently your phone has been getting a work out this morning and when he couldn't get through to you he asked to be put through to someone on the team," he informed his superior, handing Gideon the sheet of paper with the new information the local detective had faxed a little bit ago as the unit chief sat down at the table. "They found another victim this morning, though an identification on her hasn't been made," Nichols continued as he started placing files at each of the places for his teammates. "Locals are going to try matching dental records but you know how long that can take. Meanwhile, I've got a facial recognition search going, pulling up photos from local news agencies, police records and school yearbooks for Kansas City, Missouri and the surrounding areas for the last ten years."
"This is only two days since his last kill, down from the five days between the other four," Gideon commented.
"He's either devolving or something didn't go right this time around," Nichols commented, as Hotch and Reid entered the conference room.
Taking places at the table, Hotch and Reid opened the files Nichols had placed there, looking through the information contained within while Nichols double checked to make sure the most recent crime scene photos were ready for the on screen presentation. As soon as Morgan and Hudson stepped through the doorway, Gideon spoke up.
"We're all here, let's get started," the unit chief announced even though the hands on the clock hadn't quite reached ten o'clock yet. Picking up the remote, he pointed it at the screen bringing a photograph up on the screen. "About three weeks ago, police in Kansas City, Missouri stumbled upon the body of Alicia Hayes. Officers were involved in a foot chase of another suspect when the pursuit took them down the alley where Alicia's body had been dumped."
With a push of the button the photo of Alicia changed to a series of crime scene photos showing the condition her body had been found in.
"A single mother of one, who was struggling to make ends meet, Alicia worked at a local café during the day. According to friends that police interviewed, she made extra money via prostitution on nights that her two five-year-old daughters were with her paternal grandmother, the children's father having died of a drug overdose not long after the birth of the twins. As you can see in the crime scene photos she was still gagged and her wrists bound when her body was dumped. Alicia was raped and ME determined that cause of death was strangulation."
"The way he dumps the body indicates that he has no use for them after he kills them. Not only doesn't he bother to untie them but the body looks like it was simply dumped in the alley," Morgan commented, gesturing with a pen toward the photo on the screen that showed the position in which the body was found.
"Which is exactly the way Margaret Vance was found five days later in another alley two blocks east of where Alicia was found," Gideon said, changing pictures once again to a raven haired woman who barely looked to be out of her teens. "Again, she was raped and then strangled and left in the alley. This time a restaurant worker getting ready to open for breakfast found the body."
"The UnSub clearly has no remorse for what he's done. It's even likely that the abduction and/or assault took place in that general area. He probably disposes of the body in the first place he comes across," Reid speculated, his gaze no longer focused on the screen but on the hard copy of the photos in the file. "Especially as the next two bodies were found in different parts of the city."
"Yes, victim three, Sandra Ricardo, was found in the northern area of the city. She was a seventeen-year-old runaway from Independence. Five days later, Maureen Trent turns up near the river front," Gideon said, flipping through the victims pictures as they talked. He looked over to Nichols.
"We got a call this morning from Detective Franklin, who is heading up this investigation," the computer specialist said picking up on Gideon's nonverbal cue for him. He motioned to the screen and Gideon flipped to the next set of pictures. "Kansas PD discovered the body of this woman in an alley in an area well known for prostitution. Detectives there were ready to chalk the murder up to just another customer/client dispute, seems there have been quite a few in the area this winter, but thanks to the media coverage of the other recent murders one of the Kansas detectives notice the similarities - body left in the open, sexual assault and victim still bound and gagged. No ID has been made on this victim."
"So our UnSub has now crossed state lines," Hotch commented. "He definitely does not seem to be discriminate about where he finds his victims."
"But he does have a type," Morgan interjected, as Gideon brought up a screen showing all five of their victims. "All the victims are in their late teens to early-twenties and have black hair."
"All of them have shoulder-length black hair actually," Reid corrected.
Morgan looked at the young genius mildly annoyed until he looked back at the screen and realized that Reid had a point. All five of the victim's hair was roughly the same length.
"You think the hair length is really important to this UnSub."
Reid shrugged his shoulders. "I'm just making an observation at this point, but it is a similarity among all five of the victims."
"And on the surface the hair and age are the only commonality. We've got two single mothers, college student, and a runaway. None of the victims lived anywhere near one another nor do they seem to frequent the same places," Hudson supplied.
"I'll look into their electronic lives but with the exception of Maureen, our college student, I doubt there is going to be much to go on. Sandra would have been living off the grid since running away three months ago and with the exceptions of bills and utilities, I doubt our two single mothers are going to have much of an electronic print."
"Well find us what you can, Nichols," Gideon told him. He glanced around the conference room at the rest of his team. "I don't think there is much more that we'll be able to accomplish from here. Let's get out there and see what the crime scenes can tell us, we'll have at least one fresh one to go off of."
"Nichols, see if there are any other recent murders in Kansas that meet the criteria of the other ones," Hotch suggested. "The police there almost dismissed this last one. There is a chance that they missed others."
The computer specialist nodded, jotting down a note on a legal pad as a reminder. "How far back do you want me to look?"
Hotch glanced toward Gideon for the unit chief's input.
"Let's start with as far back as December for now," Gideon said. "Depending on what you come up with we'll decide if the search needs to go back further."
"You got it, Boss," Nichols replied, his mind already formulating the necessary computer inputs that would be needed to set up the search.
"Does anyone else have anything to add right now?" Gideon asked, glancing around the table. When none of his agents spoke up, he continued. "We'll meet at the airstrip in forty. Nichols I want you with us on this one. I think we're going to need all the manpower we have for this one."
"Yes, sir," Nichols replied trying to hide his excitement. He had been left behind on every case they had gone on since the case in Alabama at the beginning of the year. While that meant he hadn't had to leave his family during that time, which was nice, it also meant that while at work all he had seen were the inside walls of the BAU. As much as he loved computers, even he liked to see the field every so often. It was one of the reasons he had left the Cyber Division for the BAU.
Still, acting like a little kid in a candy store at his boss' announcement would not be professional.
"Dismissed," Gideon said.
The team all got to their feet, files in hand, and left the conference room, each of them mentally going through a checklist of things they needed to accomplish before leaving town for an indefinite amount of time. In the conference room, Gideon glanced back through the information they had again, trying to commit the facts and the faces to memory. It was times like this when he envied Spencer's eidetic memory. Though when he thought about some of the horrors he had seen on this job, he realized how that talent could be a curse. It was actually one of the doubts he'd had about bringing the young doctor onto the team. The horrors were hard enough for the rest of them to forget, for Spencer they would be impossible.
Still, the young genius had chosen the FBI on his own. Whether he was in the BAU or some other department, he'd still be exposed to the crimes they tried to solve. That choice was out of Gideon's hands. The fact was, Spencer's genius and talents, including an almost natural affinity for profiling, was a benefit to this team as he had proved time after time. Gideon would have been doing no one a favor by not bringing Reid onto the team as he wanted to be in the BAU, this department and this team would benefit by having him here. The benefits went both ways as Gideon had watch Reid become more comfortable with his position with the team and more self-confident since he had first joined back in October, especially these last few weeks.
After reviewing the information one more time, Gideon pushed all the paper and photos into the file, and stood up. He planned on stopping by his office and checking his email one last time before leaving. Having already taken care of the most pressing paperwork earlier this morning, he would then grab his go-bag and head to the air strip. The moment he stood up and glanced toward the doorway, those plans went right out the window.
"Erin, good morning," Gideon said coolly, as he noticed the section chief standing in the doorway of the conference room. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"
"Well, given all the calls my secretary has fielded from you this morning I decided to come down and answer your inquiry in person," Strauss replied, her tone of voice just as cool as the unit chief's.
Gideon gave a short nod, and then sat back down at the conference table. He gazed at his supervisor with an 'I'm waiting' look on his face, patiently waiting for her answer.
"The bottom line is that I don't see the necessity for a media liaison that would justify the cost of adding another team member to this team. Your team functions well as is. You get the job done, more efficiently than a lot of the other teams, and with the exception of Agent Hudson, I don't recall issues with the media arising due to team members mispeaking during an interview or press conferences. Even your probationary agent, Dr. Reid, seems to be handling the media well."
"Granted, we've all learned the finer arts of negotiation and watching what we say to the public, but the simple fact is time spent with the media is time taken away from us working on the case. Not to mention, ironing out wrinkles with the local law enforcement can also delay a case getting solved. Instead of spending our time heading to the location, one of my team members has to spend time talking with the local leading up the case instead of reviewing the case, which means they've got to be brought up to speed and we lose their insight in the discussion."
"Surely, with five others involved one person doesn't make any difference."
"Perhaps if you spent some time in the field with your teams, you would understand just how much of a difference one person could make."
"Are you implying that I don't know how to do my job?" Strauss asked, her voice taking on an edge as she narrowed her eyes at Gideon.
"Not at all. Just pointing out that you don't know first hand what your teams do out in the field."
"Perhaps if you had Agent Nichols speak with the LEO while the rest of you have your discussion things would work more efficiently for you. After all, he is the technical analyst for your team and probably has the most free time of all of you."
Gideon snorted at that comment. Their section chief clearly did not have any understanding of how things worked.
"Agent Nichols probably has the least amount of free time of anyone on this team, me included. Not only does he have his duties as technical analyst for this team, but he is also a gifted profiler and helps solve technical issues that arise within this department and the Academy in between cases. Take this case for example, we've got four identified victims and one unidentified one. Not only is Nichols already starting the process of searching for information on our known victims but he is also trying to help identify the most recent victim. Asking him to speak with the LEO about what this team needs when we arrive in Kansas City seems a bit much for one person, don't you think?"
Erin Strauss glared at her unit chief, unable to come up with a counter argument to what Gideon had just pointed out.
"Perhaps," she finally conceded. "Nevertheless, unless you can clearly show me that the benefits of a media liaison will outweigh the costs, I stand by my decision. As far as I'm concerned, the subject is closed until that time."
Gideon nodded his consent. As he watched Strauss turn on her heel and stride out of the conference room, an idea was already forming in his head. If she needed to see a real life example of why they needed a media liaison, he could provide her with one. All he needed was the right set of circumstances and he was sure those would arise on their own before too long.
Getting to his feet once again, Gideon finally left the conference room automatically putting staffing concerns out of his mind in order to focus on their current case.