Chapter 3 - Profile of a Killer

Booth and Brennan arrived at the crime scene as quickly as traffic would allow, finding the FBI evidence techs already at work. Brennan moved immediately to the body, Booth right behind her.

"Another young woman, same approximate age," Brennan said. "Cause of death appears to be stabbing. Judging by the lack of decomposition, I would say this victim was only killed and buried in the last 24-48 hours. Cam should be able to tell us more specifically when she completes the autopsy."

Booth nodded, taking notes, then directed the crime scene team to wrap the body and get it to the Jeffersonian immediately. He then made his way to the agents who'd been in charge of securing the scene.

"What the hell happened here? How'd he get in here, bury a body, and then get back out again without anyone noticing?" he growled, hands on hips.

"We're not really sure yet, Agent Booth," one of the younger agents volunteered. He immediately regretted opening his mouth when the senior agent's furious gaze turned on him.

"You're not really sure yet, Jacobs? Excellent, I'll be sure to pass that along when the AD asks what the hell happened. Better still, I'll have something to tell the press when they ask how we let a serial killer dump a young woman's body right under our fucking noses. Thanks so much for clearing things up for me, agent." He turned back to the group at large. "Find out what happened here ASAP. And get more agents out here to watch this place. If this guy dumps another body out here, we'll all be looking for new jobs," he barked. Turning on his heel, he stalked back to his SUV, leaving the junior agents staring at the ground behind him.

Behind Booth, a set of cold, dark eyes watched his progress. The eyes followed Booth to the SUV and settled on Brennan as Booth opened the door for her, handing her her bag. The eyes then watched the vehicle speed from the scene, kicking up a small dust cloud in its wake. A small smile crossed the watcher's face, but was quickly masked. Everything was going to be alright after all.

~~~B&B~~~

It was evening when Booth made his way back to the Jeffersonian. He found Brennan in her office, reviewing X rays of the most recent body.

"Hey, Bones," he said, leaning a hip against her desk and scanning the files he'd brought with him. "Find anything interesting yet?"

Brennan looked up from her X rays. Her eyes drifted briefly over his profile noting how tired he looked already. They'd only been on the case a short time, but with so many bodies, so many young women, it was already a difficult case. Plus, she knew how upset he was that the killer had managed to kill another young woman and drop the body right in front of the FBI.

When she didn't answer immediately, Booth looked up from the files to find her gaze fixed on him. He read the concern there and smiled at her, trying to reassure her he was fine. "Bones?" he said.

"No, not anything more than what we already had. Hodgins was able to pull quite a bit of detritus from the remains, but he's not finished analyzing everything yet." She paused, her eyes searching his face. "We'll find him, Booth," she said quietly. "We're the best, right?"

He stood and snapped the folder shut. "Right," he said with another swift smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Of course we're the best, Bones. Always get our man."

She frowned, looking back at her files, thinking perhaps she'd missed something. "Our man? We don't know the killer is a man yet, Booth."

Booth rolled his eyes. "It's a motto, Bones. Like the Mounties. They always get their man."

"Since there are plenty of women who also commit crimes, I would say that's quite an inaccurate statement," Brennan replied. "Are the Mounties not committed to catching female perpetrators as well?"

Booth laughed and this time his humor was genuine. "Yeah, Bones, I think the Mounties arrest women too." He snickered again as he watched the confusion and a little frustration slide across her face.

But his amusement was interrupted by a knock at the door. Dr. Sweets stuck his head in and said, "Are you ready for me, Agent Booth?"

Booth stood and motioned Sweets into the office. Answering Brennan's questioning look, he said, "I asked Sweets to come up with a preliminary profile. Maybe give us something to look for, something to do until we find some more evidence."

Brennan looked skeptical, as she always did when it came to psychology, but she nodded and stood.

The three moved over to the seating area in the center of the office. Booth and Brennan settled in the armchairs, while Sweets flopped on the sofa, tossing a thick file onto the coffee table between them.

"Whatcha got, Sweets," Booth said, leaning back in the chair to put his feet up on the table. "Anything at all useful?"

Sweets sighed and propped his head on the back of the sofa. "Well, I don't suppose Dr. Brennan would find anything short of me pulling the killer out a hat at all useful, but I did apply my totally mad skills to the case at hand to come up with a brilliant preliminary set of findings, if I do say so myself."

Booth sniggered, "Yeah, sorry kid, but you will have to say so yourself since you're not gonna get any kind of compliment like that from here."

Sweets closed his eyes and shook his head before leaning forward to rest his forearms against his knees. "Yeah, I got it. God knows I'll never get any validation of my work from either of you."

"No, of course not, Sweets, you're not really a scientist. However, your insights have, on limited occasions, proved somewhat useful, so please proceed with your profile," Brennan interjected.

"So, wow, with that ringing endorsement," Sweets replied, "here's what I can tell you so far." He leaned forward even further, as if about to impart some great secret. "This guy? He's totally loony tunes. Nuttier than a fruitcake. He's ..."

Booth interrupted with a snort. "Yeah, Sweets, we've got it. We knew he was crazy already, that's why we called you in. Please, for the love of all that's holy, tell me you can give me something more substantial than something you got from a Cracker Jack box!"

Sweets rolled his eyes, but put on his "serious" doctor face. "Alright, here's what I can tell you. This guy is an organized, power and control oriented serial killer. He's not in it for the game, and he's not on a mission. Obviously, there's a lot of rage here given the amount of overkill, but he's not completely out of control and ultimately he gets off on the fear and terror he evokes from his victims. Further, he's waaay angry at women." He paused and waived off the "we knew that" comments he knew were coming. "Yeah, I know, that's clear, but it's not clear what he's angry about at this point. He's not recreating some scene from his past since the victims are all so different. My feeling is that he's stalking them ahead of time. He meets them somewhere, probably something casual they'd never remember...maybe they were in line together at the coffee shop or something. Anyway, he feels there's some kind of connection formed between them. But then when he finally approaches them, tries to act on this "connection," he doesn't get whatever it is he's seeking. That's when the rage consumes him and he kills them."

"What about the dumping ground?" Booth asked. "Is there some kind of significance to the location?"

Sweets nodded, flipping to the crime scene photos in his file. "Absolutely. If he was just trying to get rid of the bodies, he could have dumped them somewhere near to where he killed them and they'd be all over the place. There's clearly something significant about the wooded area. I would suggest that it reminds him in some way of whatever it is he's looking for from these women. Perhaps he witnessed something in his childhood...I can't be sure without more data."

Booth nodded, clearly thinking about all the implications of Sweets' theories. "Ok, so we're looking for a really angry nutcase, anything else?"

"Well, keep in mind that this guy isn't going to be some kind of drooling nightmare with "I'm angry" stamped on his forehead. He's going to be highly functioning, no outward signs of his psychopathy. Think Ted Bundy, not Freddy Krueger." Sweets leaned back against the sofa again and said, "Have you found anything odd on the bodies yet?"

Booth looked to Brennan, who shook her head. "No, nothing out of the ordinary so far. But many of the bodies were already skeletonized, so if something was there, it's likely gone now."

"But you do have a recent kill, don't you?"

"Yes, Cam's doing the autopsy now. I estimated time of death at no more than 24-48 hours ago, so there was plenty of flesh," Brennan replied, her lips forming a small moue of distaste at the word "flesh."

"Excellent," Sweets exclaimed, standing quickly. "We need to tell Dr. Saroyen to look for any foreign objects inserted somewhere in the body."

"Huh?" Booth said, looking at Sweets skeptically. "An object?"

"Yeah," Sweets replied, walking toward the door. "This guy's signature is definitely going to involve objects."

Booth and Brennan stood quickly and followed Sweets out toward the autopsy room. "What do you mean, Sweets? His signature?" Brennan asked, frowning.

Sweets slowed to allow her to walk with him. "Yes, Dr. Brennan. Most serial killers have some type of signature linking their crimes together. Some will pose the victims a particular way, often in positions with a sexual overtone. Others will insert an object of some kind on the body." He could see she was still frowning and tried to think of a way to make it more clear. "It's sort of like when killers take souvenirs. Something to remember the kill, something they can use to recreate the feeling of it later. In this case, I think the killer will leave something behind...a souvenir for the victim if you will. And this object will link to the reason he's killing these women."

Brennan nodded as she pulled open the door to the autopsy room. "I understand. But I'm still not sure I see how it will lead to the killer."

Sweets just smiled and nodded a greeting to Cam.

"What's up?" Cam asked, looking up from the brain she was extracting from the latest victims skull.

Brennan moved to answer before Sweets could even open his mouth. "Dr. Sweets here feels that there will probably be some kind of foreign object placed in the body and it will indicate why the perpetrator is killing these women."

Cam raised an eyebrow at Sweets as she set the brain onto a scale to be weighed. "Really?"

Sweets shook his head and sighed. "No, it's not really that simple at all. Contrary to Dr. Brennan's beliefs, psychology is not magic." He held up his hands in surrender as the group snickered. "Ok, fine, whatever. But I still strongly suggest you check the body. And I guarantee you, it'll be important to identifying the killer." With that, he turned and stalked from the room, shaking his head in frustration.

With a grin, Booth said, "You don't suppose we hurt his feelings did we?"

Cam smirked and returned to her examination of the body. Her smile faded and she raised wide eyes to Booth and Brennan as she pulled the heart from the chest cavity.

"What is it, Cam?" Booth asked, stepping closer to the table and peering at the body with a grimace.

"You should probably get Sweets back here," she said, as she carefully dissected the heart with her scalpel. "I think I found something embedded in the victim's heart."

A/N: Ok, wow, I know it's been a long while since I updated this. I've been on sort of my own hiatus and apparently my muse decided to take a summer vacation without giving me any notice. But I'm back and I think the muse is in residence again! Special thanks to Rochelle Templer and jsq for their not-so-subtle nudging to get me back on this story. Thanks bunches for your encouragement and support! Extra special thanks to blindassasin for being so kind as to re-read the previous 2 chapters and make many helpful suggestions on where this story could go. Several of her ideas are incorporated here and will be used in later chapters, so she has my eternal thanks for helping me get past my writer's block! All three of these fabulous folks are fantastic writers here, so please go read their stories! So, thanks for reading and please let me know if you like where this is going!