Bag of Bones
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the ideas
As promised here is this week's offical update - another next weekend. Thank you for the support - it is appreciated.
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. . .
Gathered at one end of the soft leather clad cream jet, the team waited for Reid to return with his second cup of coffee. The rest of them had barely touched their first mug. All of them were busy reading through the information again before they continued the briefing. As they read the reports from the original case and compared them to the latest developments, notes had been made and paper files had been cross referenced with the electronic versions. The bigger picture was being broken down into its components, ready to be rebuilt in the form of a working profile.
As Reid squeezed into his seat he cleared a space for his mug before picking up the folder that he already knew the contents of by heart.
"The hessian bags would have been perfect for storing the bones for the past twelve years," Reid continued, "natural fibres allow the bones to breathe. If they had been buried then we would have seen increased discolouration and damage to the bone surface. Equally storage in something manmade, such as plastic would have also led to the bones being damaged."
"Let's go back," Rossi interrupted. "Twelve years ago we consulted on a case that left us without any answers. We had a detailed victimology. Our profile was sketchy, and way too general to give us any specific suspects. We had eliminated every name that had been put forward and we all knew we were missing something, but without a single body we didn't know what the killer was doing after abduction. Hell, we didn't even know if the kids were dead. We worked every possibility from killed, through tortured, to sold for God knows what purpose."
Emily looked up from the folder she had and switched her attention back to the team, "But now we know they were killed and possibly consumed by our killer."
Rossi gave enough of a nod to be noticeable, "Which changes all combinations of our original profile; cannibalism was about the only thing we didn't consider at the time."
"We had profiled our UnSub as organised, which is still true, but without knowing their intentions, we could not establish what drove him to abduct the boys." Hotch continued, "We considered various possibilities including that the killer was female looking for a replacement for a lost child, a team abducting for profit, a sadist – anything was possible."
"But now . . . "Emily prompted.
"Now we are assuming he was a cannibal. It is a very specific reason to kill," Rossi mused, his gaze having shifted to the window beside him.
"Anthropophagi, or the consumption of human flesh," Reid began again, "has a long history based in both in myth and fact. Many civilisations have stories of a cannibalistic nature. In modern culture there have been stories of survivors of extreme disasters eating the remains of those around them through to infamous serial killers such as Jeffrey Dahmer and Albert Fish, neither of which fully rationalised their intent in such matters. Many cannibalistic killers give some belief of the ritual being necessary for their survival, that the consumption of human flesh will prolong their life or cure them."
"So, are we working on the assumption we find the killer then we find who is returning the remains, or that we find who is returning the remains and that will lead us to the killer?" Morgan asked, glancing up from the information in front of him.
"Yes," answered Rossi gruffly. "Personally, I don't care which route we take as long as we get to the destination as quickly as possible."
"We know the person responsible for the return of the remains has enough knowledge of the original crimes to return them in order," Hotch said as he changed tack in their discussion.
"Or that they have found something that gives them that information," Reid interrupted, "a diary, records, news clippings, internet research – there are many possibilities. Though they are matching the remains correctly to the families they belong to. So there has to be some way of identifying them."
"Granted," Hotch nodded from where he was seated, "but add to that the fact they seem to be remorseful I would say they have a very personal connection to the original case and have been profoundly affected by it."
"What are we looking for? Parent, spouse, sibling, child?" Emily listed.
Most of the team shrugged in response.
"At this point we have to remain open minded, but realistically I feel that we are looking for a spouse or child, someone that was submissive enough to know what was going on without being directly involved," Hotch voiced his opinion. "In addition, we need to consider what may have triggered the return of the remains now."
"Do you think it could be linked to why the killer stopped so suddenly?" Emily asked.
"This type of killer is not going stop without a reason. We looked into all possibilities at the time that the abductions ceased," Rossi spoke softly, "death, injury, imprisoned – something physically stopped the UnSub from continuing his killing."
"Relate those to what could have motivated someone to return the remains and the list is something similar," Morgan chipped in. "Somehow this person now feels free of our UnSub. I hate to say it Rossi, but I don't rate your chances of actually catching the guy who did this."
Dave tried to shrug nonchalantly, though no-one was fooled by his action. He needed closure as much as the victims' families. He took cases personally, holding onto the facts for many years, reviewing them regularly.
Hotch narrowed his eyes as he focused on his friend and colleague. Personally, Hotch was not finding this easy, and he knew the same applied to Dave - just for very different reasons. Back when they had been brought in on the original case, they were both very different. Hotch had only just started his BAU career, he was keen to prove himself to the veteran who was overseeing his induction into the team. Dave on the other hand was jaded and bad tempered. He was ready to take a break or be broken; he chose to leave shortly after this case. Hotch wasn't saying it was the straw that broke the camel's back, but another 'failure' did nothing for the man's confidence.
"Morgan, Emily – I want you to focus on the person that is returning the remains. Reid, you and Dave focus on the original UnSub. I'll co-ordinate with the locals and oversee the media."
With Hotch's final words they all settled back into reviewing the evidence and sifting through the facts to aid their particular course of action.