Smart Woman (in a Real Short Skirt); The Hammer of Witches
Disclaimer: My lawyers at Dewy, Cheatem, & Howe tell me I need a disclaimer stating that I own nothing. I own nothing.
Chapter Two
Elkins, Massachusetts
"Hello my naughty school girl, what can I do for you?" Penelope Garcia chirped over the wire. She and Magdalene had hit it off in a very beautiful, terrible way. They got along splendidly and that made them a terrible two.
"Can you hack my computer for me, oh nerd of my heart?"
"Your wish is my – wait your computer?"
"Yep, my computer, I need a few files."
"Okay…." Garcia said slowly as her fingers few across the keys. "You have wireless?"
"Yep." There was a rattle of keys.
"Alright, I'm in. Ooh nice background." Magdalene could hear Garcia swoon on the other end.
"Which one is it?"
"Sean Connery."
"Isn't it?" Both women indulged in a lover girl sigh.
"Alright, what do you need?" Back to business. Magdalene listed off a few documents.
"They're on their way my NSG."
"Why thank you ONoMH." The women rang off.
"I hope you have something Maggie, we've got nothing." Gideon said turning the conference floor over to the young professor of religion.
"Oh I've picked up your slack, don't worry." Magdalene smiled. She called up the first text. "This is a witch hunt." Magdalene said.
"A witch hunt?" Elle repeated.
"Witch hunt, these women were executed for crimes of say…" Magdalene referenced a line of Latin, "in gist knowing what a woman should not. The first was a doctor right?" it was confirmed. "Here's what I got. We have an 'unsub' killing women, believing they are witches. This is based on the text Pango Veneficus1 which came out in the middle ages, it's safe to say it was a huge part of the European burning times. These texts are lists of convictions, using 'The Hammer of Witches' as a law book." The team exchanged looks.
"Back in the day there was a brief burning time here in Elkins." Hartford said from the back of the room.
"Two years, five executions." Magdalene added nodding.
"Well, I think we have enough for a preliminary profile. Magdalene, would you like to start?" Hotchner said, wanting his newest agent to take wing.
"Well, while there is a chance the killer is religious, I doubt it. Witchcraft accusations generally were aimed at women with wealth, no men, or just all around women, plus a smattering of men were accused for being witches because they A didn't fit their societal boy or B they had something the town wanted." She slid the glasses off her nose and folded them. "I find the unsub to be male, probably older and with some authority, he's going to have somewhat conservative views – at least when it comes to women. Pango Veneficus is old, hard to read, and obscure so there's also going to be a history or distorted religious teachings." Gideon nodded.
"The meticulously simple and clean scene also suggests a knowledge of history, especially local knowledge as well as some maturity." The team began to iron out JJ's statements.
So the little lady thinks she knows something. The only thing she knows is familiarity with the devil. Leading men, holding a PhD – a man's education and living without a husband. Oh you handmaiden of Satan, you will pay…
"Okay, the first vic was a doctor." Elle said looking at the 'big board' "And historically female doctors, nurses, and midwives were bad." Magdalene nodded.
"Sarah Good, unmarried and running a successful company." Derek began on the next victim.
"A modern equivalent to landholding." Magdalene said. Hotchner looked up from a file.
"She was involved in a recent crack down on sexual harassment."
"Oooo, a successful, outspoken female holding something of value, yep, she's definitely a witch."
"Then what about the last victim, she was a housewife with four kids." Spencer asked getting up from his seat to look closely at the crime scene photos. Magdalene moved closer to him to reread the 'charges'. Spencer could smell her shampoo. He remembered the last time they were this close, the evening in her library loft. He shivered slightly, barely detectable to even the trained eye. Magdalene tapped the glass bringing him out of lustful la la land.
"Possession of children." Magdalene turned to the officer in the room and asked, "Was there a flu bug in school, the chicken pox, any incidence involving the Johnson children?" the man though.
"Well, there was one thing, but it didn't involve the boys per say"
"What was it?" Gideon asked.
"Well, Emil Bergson, a friend of the second oldest Johnson kid – Daniel… anyway he was having lunch at the Johnson's house and he has a real bad peanut allergy – they knew about that, but they didn't know this granola bar was packaged in a place with peanuts. Emil's throat swelled close and he was rushed to the emergency room. He's fine now."
"Possessing children, classic 'witch behavior' when did this happen?" Magdalene asked, the officer shrugged.
"Few days before she died, I only know because I helped my son make Emil a get well card." Nathan Ingersaw interrupted further speculation.
"They found another body." The BAU looked at one another. Three days between, perhaps the unsub was devolving, or perhaps he was welcoming the FBI.
The charred remains of what once was a body made bile rise in Magdalene's throat. She wasn't field duty; this was the first dead body she'd ever seen in person outside of a wake. She tried not to turn green, but she must've failed because Spencer took her arm and walked away from the death. He made sure she had her back to the body and only looked at him until her stomach settled. He was so sweet.
"First time?" he asked, she nodded.
"Sorry it couldn't have been prettier for starting out. You should be able to handle anything now." He gave her a shy smile, she tried her best to return it, she found it helped suppress the gag reflex. Good to know.
"Tell me about your first time." Spencer could feel his pupils dilate; his mind was instantly in the gutter. Dead body, jackass, seeing your first dead body. Nothing kills the libido faster than a cadaver.
"It was my third or fourth case; there was a series of stranglings in California. Other than being dead she looked very peaceful, like she was sleeping… with her eyes open."
Gideon broke from his mental reconstruction to see the two youngest profilers, his borrowed children, standing off together looking at nothing but each other. Magdalene had never been in the field before, never seen such a death, Jason was thankful Reid was taking care of the tyro. The wind picked up one of Magdalene's loose curls and Jason watched Maggie tuck it behind her ear shyly. The wind caught another few and this time Spencer's hands smoothed them back. They stayed in her hair for a time, enough for Jason to hope a little for a 'kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss'. Leave it to investigators to find romance at a crime scene.
"I've found the text. Ingersaw announced killing the moment. Magdalene and Spencer broke away like they were zapped. Sheepishly Spencer's eyes followed Magdalene as she headed for the paper.
He found it so endearing as she perched her dark framed reading glasses on her pert nose and wrinkled her brow as she read. Spencer could hardly focus on anything but her.
"Your nose is on fire." Derek Morgan commented to Spencer as he joined him.
"Hum?" Spencer looked at the man, not having heard a word. Morgan laughed.
"Nothing, nothing." Both men turned back to Dr. Burgess.
They weren't the only ones observing the dark profiler. So she's interested in the nerd, but not as much as she was in the note. There will be no note next time, Veneficus, this is how I will get you. You Veneficus will die soon enough, one less evil in the world.
1 Based loosely on the Malleus Maleficarum (The Witch Hammer), first published in 1486. I don't know enough about the actual text to use it faithfully so I made my own.