Hello all. Thanks for the reviews. Please see Ch 1 for disclaimers.
"…and these two were found just today?"
"Late last night. Two students stumbled over them, just laid out on the sidewalk."
"What's that there? That white thing just behind his ear?"
"That," JJ replied, "is a cochlear implant. David Lincoln had the procedure done just over a month ago."
"I've heard of those," Emily Prentiss said, staring at the picture a little more. "Lets deaf people hear, right?"
"Actually, the device only amplifies sound waves that the nerves in the ear are already processing," said her colleague, Dr. Spencer Reid, as if he'd just read up on it in the New England Journal of Medicine. "It works if there's something to amplify, but not in a profoundly deaf individual that has no working sound receptors to attach the device to."
David Rossi looked over the six photographs. "Any of these other kids have an implant?"
"Only one other, Alicia Faulkner. She was the first victim, found two months ago, and then it was believed to be an isolated incident."
"Her hands and tongue cut out, and it was an isolated incident?" Derek Morgan asked. "I mean, who does that? What's this unsub trying to say here?"
"All the victims are around eighteen to twenty-five, all posed, all mutilated in the same way," murmured Aaron Hotchner. "Was there any other signs of assault?"
"No," JJ replied. "Pretty much what you see is what happened."
"Okay," said Rossi. "Six individuals, all murdered, all having their hands and tongues cut out, all found on a college campus for the deaf. Is this unsub trying to say something about the deaf community? Or about the handicapped in general?"
"Actually, we thought Lavinia was trying to shut people up about something," a voice said, coming from the back of the room. Six heads spun as they focused on a young woman sitting behind them, as if she'd simply appeared out of nowhere and always been there.
"Who are you?" a myriad of voiced asked, puzzled.
"Everyone, this is Chase Davis," JJ said, making the quick introduction. "She's the one who brought this to my attention."
"I do a lot of things for the college," Chase explained. "One of those things is make sure things like that"-- she waved a hand at the photographs—"don't happen. With Alicia, we thought someone was it was isolated, a garden variety psycho, but after the next two victims we started looking at things and coming up with nothing."
"We?" Hotch asked.
"Security for the college. It's a different world there, Agent Hotchner—one where they'll try themselves before going outside the community for help. Some people there don't like the hearing world much. The current president of the college is one of them, but in this case he can't have kids being slaughtered on his campus and not bring in help."
"He would keep us out?" Reid asked.
"Yes, doctor, he would."
"Then why are we even looking at this?" Morgan asked.
"Let's just say there's six families that need closure, and about 7,000 more that need someone to find Lavinia before she does this again. Now, if you don't want to take this, I understand—but frankly, I get the feeling this is gonna be harder to solve without your help. Are you in?"
Each team member looked at the photographs. Each one's mind filled with questions about just what they would be getting into when a phone went off.
"That's me," Chase said, looking down at her Blackberry. She read the display quickly, then heaved an exasperated sigh.
"What is it?"
"There's another one. She's getting quicker. Less than twenty-four hours." Chase shook her head. "I've never seen anything like this. I'm having everything sent now, unless you want to talk to my people directly?"
"Talk?"
"You have someone who can set up a video feed?"
"Garcia," Morgan said, dialing a number.
A few minutes later, a screen cropped up. Chase stood toward the side, waving at he man on the other end of the line.
"—Hey, what do you know?—" she said, her fingers flying as fast as she spoke.
—Bad, Chase,-- the man signed. —These your friends?—
"—Yeah,--" she said. "—The victim, Kyle?—"
A series of photograph cropped up in the corners of the screen. A young man lay facedown, his arms set over his head, hands missing.
"Thomas Daniel," Chase translated. "We're seeing it just as they found him, not twenty minutes ago." The woman's fingers flew again, and Emily noticed a peculiar sign she made with her hands.
"What's this mean?" she asked, repeating the sign—the thumb and forefinger set in an "L" shape, cutting across the opposite wrist. The motion was repeated, with the "L" and the wrist being opposite.
"That's the sign for 'Lavinia,'" the younger woman explained. "I know it's bad form to give these people a name, but it's a lot easier to have a sign rather than spelling out long words ."
"You couldn't make a sign for "unsub?" Morgan asked.
"There are just over 4000 signs in American Sign Language, Agent Morgan. Some words just don't translate, so you make things up. Perhaps before we're done you can make a sign for that," Chase said plainly.
"Okay, that's enough," Hotch said. "Can you tell your colleague we'll take this case and be there as soon as possible?"
Chase's fingers flew, and she spoke as she signed. "—We'll be there in a bit, Kyle. Get the rest together, and have the office set up.—"