He remembered this man. This had been the man who had stood over him while in was in the hospital bed, and tried to tell him that a law suite wasn't necessary. Like he could sue the woman he loved for saving his life? This man had to pay, he hadn't liked the way that he spoke of his lovely nurse. This man hadn't appreciated her the way he should have. But he would appreciate her, he would love her, he would take care of her just like she had taken care of him.
Garcia scanned the screen in front of her and began reciting off useful information to the team on the other end of the phone. "Valerie Kent, aka Val. She got her LVN in 2001, and then went strait into the BSN bridge program, and graduated in the end 2003, took the state boards and got her license at the beginning of 2004. She was the top of her class for LVN, and third highest for her BSN. It looks like she lives in Westlake, and visits her parents and brother often. She is active with the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society. Doesn't look like she has much of a social life. She doesn't seem to get out a whole lot… No criminal record of any kind, juvenile or adult. Other then that one mark on her nursing record she is clean as a baby's bottom. And the tip hot line is up, and calls are coming in."
Hotch, Gideon, Prentice, JJ, Reid and Morgan sat around the phone. With a nod to JJ Hotch said, "Thank you Garcia, if anything else comes up, keep us informed." JJ hit the switch on the phone and the team fell silent.
"Criminal record or not, I think she's our un-sub." Morgan said into the silence that followed the phone call. "We haven't been able to find this mystery patient that was a part of that case anyway, all of the information that was in his file was a fake, for all we know he was a phony-she hired him to fake it so that she could play the hero. When it backfired she couldn't handle it, and it became her stressor that set her off. We haven't been able to confirm her alibi."
"No but we haven't been able to find anything else connecting her to the murders either." Prentice pointed out.
Hotch regarded his agents for a moment. "I think we all need to take the rest of the night off, we are a little to stressed out right now, and spread thin. We can question the suspect in the morning."
"I want a crack at her tonight, if that's all right with you." When Morgan's statement was met with silence he challenged everyone in the room with his eyes. No one said anything. "I feel fine, I don't need a break."
Gideon studied him for a moment then nodded, "I can stay to observe. The rest of you go on to the hotel and get some sleep, we will meet you here first thing in the morning."
"I wouldn't mind-" Reid began.
"Go on Reid, I will be fine." Morgan insisted.
With a final searching look at his friend Reid followed the rest of their group to the waiting SUV's and went to the hotel.
Gideon turned to Morgan, "you want me in there with you? Or are you ok to do this on your own."
Morgan was silent for a moment before answering in a tight voice, "this lady killed two of her coworkers, one of them was her classmate from LVN school. I will have no problem going all night with her."
"We don't know this for sure Morgan, she doesn't fit the full profile. We assumed it would be a male-"
"Who has through knowledge of the anatomy, and would have access to surgical instruments, I think a nurse also fits that description." Morgan insisted.
With an assessing look Gideon nodded and lead Morgan to the interrogation room. The older agent still didn't look convinced as Morgan entered the room with the still agitated nurse, but he held his tongue and settled in to watch the taping interrogation through the one way glass.
Morgan circled Val, much like a lion looking for a good angle to attack. She studied him with wary eyes.
"I was under the impression that nurses were supposed to set a good example for their patients." Morgan said as though just voicing a thought off his head, nothing important. Nothing that needed to be answered.
Val glared at him, "Dr. Stone said something like that to me the other day, he said that he didn't think it was appropriate for nurses scrubs to come in any other size then extra small. You would like him, he's an ass hole too."
Morgan kept talking as though she hadn't said anything. "I mean nurses are the ones who are always in the room telling the patients what to do to stay healthy, so wouldn't a patient listen better if the nurse doing the teaching was healthy themselves?" he paced around the room again, not looking at her, seeming to just enjoy the walk.
"Ass hole." Val muttered under her breath.
"Excuse me?" Morgan said, leaning over her.
"Don't push her to far Morgan." Gideon whispered to himself on the other side of the glass.
She turned to face him, and gave him a falsely sweet smile, "you heard me, a-s-s h-o-l-e. That's what you are being, but I don't believe this is how you normally behave. So it must be something about me."
"OOhooo so now your going to analyze me is that how this goes?" Morgan said taking a step back and pretending to be insulted.
Val studied him, her eyes had black rings under them from lack of sleep, he wondered why he hadn't noticed that before. "I would never presume to be able to analyze someone after such a short time frame, I was instead referring to the way your team seems to care for you. If you were a jerk off all the time, I don't think they would give a rat's ass about you. But since them seem to care for you-though I may not personally understand it at this time-you must be putting on an act to scare me." She studied him for a moment, letting the silence lengthen. "And just an FYI for you, nurses are people too, we have weaknesses just like you do. Mine just happens to be for a double-double animal style with a strawberry shake."
Morgan studied her for a moment before circling around searching for another angle to push her from. "We still haven't been able to find that patient whose life you saved. Any ideas?"
Val braced her head on her hands, elbows on the table. The room was cold enough to make her want more then just her sweater; scrubs didn't offer much warmth. "I didn't take care of the paper work, remember I was sent home? I did my documentation, but I wasn't there when he filled out his paper work. He passed out before he had a chance to say a word."
"So none of this is your fault? He just shows up and you become the hero. A little to easy isn't it?" Morgan flipped the other chair in the room, and straddled it, his arms crossed before him. He stared at her on an eye to eye level. "Nursing wasn't enough for you anymore? You had to want to play doctor? Isn't that what all nurses are really, don't they just want to be doctors? What you couldn't hack it in real school?"
When she looked up, her movement was slow and seemed to be taking a lot of effort. Her voice was gravely and sleep deepened. "Not everyone does it for the pay check, or the pristine." She turned away from him and closed her eyes. She refused to cry in front of him, but she was tired, so tired.
Morgan watched her for a few more minuets before standing up, "maybe a night in here is what you really want. I am here if you want to talk, so you better talk now."
Eyes still closed she answered, "I just worked a double shift, 24 hours. I had four hours of sleep between that and my last 12 hour shift." She turned to regard him, "I lost two of my friends, and haven't had a chance to grieve yet because the patients need me. I am tired. Please leave me alone."
Gideon tapped on the glass, and waited for Morgan to enter the room. "we are done for the night. She needs sleep, and so do we. If she is the un-sub, at least the streets are safe for the night."
Morgan stared at the other officer for a few moments, then looked away, and nodded. "I just-ahh." Morgan nodded again, and followed Gideon out of the room. In the other room and officer was taking Val to holding cell.
This crime scene looked like the others, but there were additional mutilations done to this body. The male doctor had been castrated before murdered. The other wounds were the same, the body positioning was the same. Reid moved through the room looking at the few photos, and multiple degrees on the walls. Prentice stood talking quietly to the neighbor who had been the one to find the man, in his living room. The neighbor had come over to make sure he was all right, the doctor never stayed up late, and knowing about the recent murders the neighbor had been concerned.
Morgan shook his head and passed close to Reid. "The MO changed."
Reid was now studying the books that the MD had on his shelves. "The last two victims were female, but all three have been in the medical field. Maybe the un-sub has softer feelings for females, that's why he was more brutal with this victim."
Moving closer to his friend Morgan said softly, "So I was wrong about the nurse. Is anyone going to bring that up?"
"At the time, all signs pointed to her, no one is talking about you behind your back. You did the right thing at the time." Reid said. Looking over at Morgan he noted how upset his friend was. "What?"
Eyes downcast Morgan confessed, "I wasn't exactly nice to her last night."
"She's a nurse, they are used to tough situations. I am sure she will understand in the end." Reid offered comfort.
Morgan's rang, and he smiled when he saw the caller. "Talk to me beautiful lady."
Garcia's normally bubbly voice tense, "we just got a call on the tip line that I think the team needs to hear."
Morgan made an arm gesture to get the rest of the teams attention. Hotch and Gideon moved closer to him. Hitting the button to make the phone go on speaker, "talk to me beautiful, everyone is listening." Prentice moved over and stood behind Hotch.
"This call just came through on the tip hot line," Garcia's voice was replaced by a recording of a rough male voice, "Let her go, or what I did to the doctor will be kind compared to what I will do to each of you."
