A/N: Any inaccuracies or inconsistencies in this story are completely my fault. I only hope you won't hold them against me.
WARNING: This story has been rated M due to violence and adult themes. Please heed the warning and be aware that some of the content may not be suitable for younger readers.
The Road to Nowhere – Chapter 2
No one can confidently say that he will still be living tomorrow. Euripides
They sat on the jet after it had taken off. The information they did have was spread out across the table they were gathered around and they were ready to expand their knowledge and start building a rudimentary profile.
"Let's work this. Lieutenant, Sergeant, what made you link up all the cars except the first two?"
"First off, call me Duke. Despite my rank, I was never a stickler for formality. As to the cars, they all had several things in common. Death was the biggest one; neither of the first two cars had fatalities. In every instance we examine the cars to see if it is a fault of the car that caused the incident or the stupidity of the drivers. This is now protocol because we've had a few lawsuits slapped on towns governing local crossings because of lack of signage in the past.
"The ten cars we believe to be linked were all found to have some telling signs. The engines all appeared to be overheated. The heat gauges in 7 of the vehicles froze in the hot zone on the gauge at the moment of impact with the river. After speaking with families, the owners of the cars had checked them thoroughly before heading off on their trips and 5 families confirm coolants and water were topped up. In all cases, all cars were out of water and coolant, with no visible signs of cuts or tearing in their hoses."
"Tires that were in a couple of cases brand new just prior to the incidents were worn down to almost nothing and in a couple of cases we found evidence that they were still accelerating even with flat tires. Add to that brake pedals stuck to the floor as if someone has pushed it to the floor trying to stop a speeding car and the speed panel showed speeds at the very top of what the car was designed to drive and we knew it was the same MO. Car doors also appear to be locked in nine of the cases. The tenth case didn't have a central locking system. What we can't figure out is why they are locking their doors, accelerating beyond madness and using brakes that obviously don't work."
"I have a better question for you Sergeant," Emily said. When he raised an eyebrow, she continued, "What would make ten drivers drive their cars into the White River with passengers in their cars with them."
Mick Farris sighed. "That we haven't been able to figure out either. If it was suicide the cars would be empty. But not one family reported issues with any of the women struggling with depression or the like. It is almost uncanny how often we are hearing of good women, good lives, everything to live for, happy. The why and the how are big questions we don't even have theories for and when you've been at this job for as long we have, you usually have at least one theory by now."
"We have only one case where the unsub actually used his car to kill his victims, by running them down. I'm not even sure what you'd need to do to tamper with a car to render it unable for anything but accelerating. Reid?"
Reid frowned and shook his head. "I'm not sure Hotch. I'd have to do a bit of research."
"What about a signal of some kind?"
Everyone turned to look at Garcia and she gulped but pressed on when she saw the encouragement from her team.
"I don't quite know how you'd engineer it, but most new cars are computer driven to some degree. Something within the workings could be putting out a signal that disrupts all driving abilities bar the one the unsub needs to fulfil whatever sick delusion this puppy is using. Something that wouldn't show up when the cars are examined. Problem is, it could be transmitting from anywhere in the vehicle to be successful so it would be hard to pinpoint an origin."
"Reid, focus on that theory but if you have any more, see what you can find. Garcia, help him if he needs it. Now what about a why?"
"We've never seen an offender like this, but I'd say he'd be extremely sophisticated."
"I agree with Morgan; figuring out how to put a car in the river without leaving evidence is pretty impressive."
"Rossi's right. With no physical evidence to go on, we don't even know if we are looking for a man or a woman."
"You think a woman could do something like this?" Duke asked incredulously.
Emily shrugged. "Depends on what the motive behind all this is and that is something we just don't have answers to as yet. But if it doesn't have anything to do with brute force, I don't think we can rule out a female unsub at this stage." Everyone nodded agreement of this.
"What does the timeline look like?" Derek asked.
"Both the family and the jocks were in the river in the first day of flooding and both admitted they were on the bridges when the waters just suddenly rose up and swept them off. We personally think the jocks attempted the crossing thinking their vehicle could handle the half foot of water, but that is beside the point. 9 days after that, the first vehicle was in the river. Over the next week, another one went in. Then it stopped and we just figured we got really unlucky and that would be that. We ensured all signs were up and clearly visible no matter what the weather conditions were like and we went about business as usual.
"The next week was free of incidents and then in this fourth week we had another two. We were still trying to figure out exactly where the last car entered the river when I stopped for dinner to try to unwind and we figured we had a pattern."
Duke Phillips took over. "We had a bad start to the flooding season. Two cars in the river in the first week, all dead. I was pretty suspicious straight away simply because this location isn't normally used throughout the year and definitely not when the river is this high. After three camping families were swept away in the night 8 years ago, you couldn't pay anyone enough to have them be in that location between the months of February and June. So we put a couple of patrols in the area in case people had started to forget and things stopped for a week. Then the week after that I had four cars in the river over five days and going in four separate locations. Then it stopped again."
"So we are looking for someone who is local; someone who knows the areas and roads around the river so well they know where to send the car in. Maybe someone who travels back and forth along the river for work?"
"The river is for the most part navigable its entire length so it could be someone either travels alongside it by road and knows the areas around it or someone who actually works in a boat on the river. But why this river? It's not the longest or even the most well known."
"Garcia?"
"On it like bears on honey sir." She immediately started typing on her laptop.
"What can victimology tell us?"
"It's all over the place. We have different ages, races, socioeconomic backgrounds, locations. The only thing we know for sure is that they target women."
"So the unsub is organised and intelligent enough to set up the cars to go into the river leaving no traces of origin. They'd have to be sadistic though to do something like this and watch innocents suffer. Drowning isn't slow and causing fear and panic in advance is a brutal way to torture someone. Could whoever is doing this be getting off on it somehow?"
"That's sick," Mick muttered.
"But highly likely," Hotch said. "The victims are far too random for this to be because of revenge and you said yourself, one of the groups was from out of state. The only other likely reason would be because something about this causes a sexual release they can't get anywhere else. We won't discount revenge, but I'd be extremely surprised if that was the motive. I'd also be extremely surprised if this unsub turned out to be a woman; it's just too cold and merciless for a woman to pull off. Garcia, start digging into the backgrounds of the victims. See who is linked to each other and who isn't. Also, go back a week before each incident and see what each woman did. I want to know if there is anything all of these women had in common; a movement or a purchase. Anything to explain how they specifically are being targeted."
"Yes sir. I should probably warn you that this might take a little time to collate though. It's a lot of lives for me to go through."
"Reid and JJ, help Garcia with the victimology. Reid, the how of this is important too but so is the geography. I know it's a lot to ask of the three of you but we have too many deaths on our hands as it is. We need to hit the ground running and not lose momentum until this is done.
"Prentiss, you and Morgan will stay in Arkansas with Duke. Look at everything. Rossi and I will go to Branson in Missouri. Reid, JJ and Garcia will stay and work out of the office in Fayetteville with Prentiss and Morgan. I don't need to tell you how time sensitive this one is. Any questions?"
No one had any, but Emily groaned silently as JJ and Garcia eyed her gleefully. They'd been shooting her looks ever since she'd turned up with Jack and Hotch in tow. They'd put the case first for sure, but there was no way they wouldn't dig into her relationship with their boss if they found even a minute to talk. She also appreciated the fact that Hotch was trying to secretly prove they could continue to work together without issues but pairing her with Derek was the worst thing he could have done because Rossi would ask and back off if she asked him to. Derek would be like a dog with a favoured bone; no way was he not going to ask until he got answers.
So much for keeping secrets among this lot, Emily thought with another inward sigh as everyone made themselves comfortable for the rest of the flight.
End-
A/N: References on the river and both states are from Wikipedia and information further on in the story regarding the unsub's behavioural characteristics and profile are courtesy of information I pulled from the Criminal Minds fanwiki glossary page.
As always, I love reviews, so please feel free to let me know what you think.
