DISCLAIMER: I do not own Criminal Minds or any of the characters
Morgan and Prentiss were on the crime scene minutes after they left the station. It was a chilly January afternoon and Derek was wearing nothing but a short sleeve, meanwhile, Emily was bundled in layers of jackets, trying to keep warm.
"So," Morgan approached the detective on the scene, standing next to the latest victim's body, "What do we got here?"
"Betty Klous. 31 year old female, same markings on the bodies as the others," the detective stated, looking grim, "and we got her picture this morning with the mail."
The detective looked at Derek straight in the eyes, Derek noting a flash of something occur in them. Hotch had called not even 5 minutes ago informing them of the tattoos and pictures the station had been getting, sending Emily pictures of all the different markings so far.
"I knew things were missing in the case file," Prentiss had said in the car ride to the crime scene, "It was just way too incomplete for this many murders."
"Where are the markings?" Derek kneeled next to the body, "on her abdomen?"
The detective nodded, expression pitiful and…angry? "Same as all the others."
Derek carefully, with a glove, lifted the victim's blouse to inspect the markings. The detective looked away and made a sound of disgust, abruplty walking away without another word.
Emily knelt down next to Derek, both of them looking after the detective, "What's wrong with him?" she asked Morgan.
"I don't know," he said, calculatingly, "but he's gotta get a grip if we're going to have any chance of catching this guy."
Derek refocused on the body, now getting a full view at the tattoos. Emily pulled out her phone and began to swipe between all the pictures of the markings Hotch sent her, trying to find a match.
At last, she said, "Here! Look, it matches this one. Um, belonging to…" pausing as she tried to search for the name of the victim with the same markings, "Craig Bryan, died 56 days ago."
Morgan let go of the shirt and motioned for the coroner to step in and finish up, Emily dialing Reid to let him know about their findings.
Reid picked up on the second ring, "Hello?"
"Reid," Prentiss said clearly through the phone, "The tattoos on Betty Klous' body matches the ones on Craig Bryan's 56 days before."
Reid pressed the phone against his ear with his shoulder as his hands ran through the files of each victim, trying to find Bryan's.
"I got it!" he exclaimed, getting that sense of adrenaline when they made a discovery, "Craig Bryan, 32 year old male, found in an alley on Morton Street with the same markings on his body as Betty Klous. His picture was sent 3 hours before his body was discovered."
"Reid," Morgan now spoke through the phone, "We're coming in. Tell Hotch to also question Ellory about the lead detective on the scene, something doesn't look right about him."
"Got it," he said hurriedly and hung up the phone.
Derek and Emily started walking towards their car, getting ready to fit more pieces of the puzzle back at the station. They both were silent, all of them a little trumped by this killer.
"I have a feeling this case is going to get more interesting than it already is," Derek said, opening the driver seat door.
"Yep" Emily said in agreement, slamming the passenger seat door shut.
…..
All the BAU agents were rounded up in the BPD conference room 20 minutes after Emily's call to Spencer. Reid was informing the table of his finds on victimology, having made a few connections between the murders.
"When Emily told me that Betty Klous was in her early thirties and I saw Craig Bryan was as well, I decided to check all the victims' ages and," Reid started putting pictures of the victims on the screen, "they all ranged from ages 29-34, that seemed to be more than a coincidence to me."
"All of them?" Rossi asked, surprised.
"Yes! And I don't think that's all, I haven't finished with the data yet, but I think they were all maybe at one time or another in particular organization or club or company, something where they all knew each other," Reid was getting excited, voice rising.
"Have you called Garcia?" Hotch questioned.
"Yeah, and I've ran a few of their names in the system," Reid explained, "so far, nothing yet but Garcia's going to call me the minute she finds anything."
"Good work, Reid," Hotch praised, getting up from his seat, "Keep working victimology and look for anymore connections. These people weren't chosen at random, find out why."
Reid nodded, eyes widening at the major task ahead of him.
"JJ, get us the names of all the families, let's find out if the victims knew each other at all. Derek and Emily, keep going through the tattoos, see if you find anymore matches. David, you're with me. We're going to go speak to the DA," Hotch announced with authority.