Disclaimer: See chapter 1
A/N: thanks again to all who read and reviewed.
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"What are you talking about Garcia?" Hotch asked.
"Sir, promise me that none of this will get Reid in trouble." She waited for Hotch to respond.
"None of what Garcia?" Hotch's eyes narrowed. He didn't think he was going to like what he was going to hear.
The computer tech remained silent. "Now Garcia," Hotch said sternly.
"Okay, okay," Garcia advanced into the room and sat down. "Reid asked me to look into any suspicious deaths in Charlottesville. He said to pay special attention if a letter was spray painted somewhere near the crime. He wanted to keep it just between us and I told him that I would," she finished.
"And did you find anything?" Rossi inquired.
"Uh...yes…yes sir I did," Garcia kept looking between Rossi and the door, afraid with each word that she was betraying either Rossi or Reid. "There have been six suspicious deaths or murders where police photos show a letter has been spray painted near the scene."
"Six," Reid said from the doorway. Everyone looked in his direction. He entered the room as if nothing had happened and sat next to the computer tech. "What did you find out Garcia?"
Garcia looked at Reid and then at the others. Hotch nodded for her to continue. The tech laid her work out in front of Reid. "The first case happened about sixteen months ago. It was a car accident and has never been ruled anything else. The decedent's name was Ian Chambers. He was 46 and worked at a service station in Charlottesville. You can see here," she pointed to one of the pictures, "there's a picture of his truck. There's what looks like a 'D' spray painted on the telephone pole he hit. The police assumed he was responsible for the accident because his blood alcohol tested .16. The report said when they notified his wife she said she'd always expected something like this and had begged him to quit driving drunk. I don't think they investigated any further." Reid looked closely at the photo depicting the contorted remains of an older model red truck that had rammed quite forcefully into a telephone pole, and passed it to Emily who was beside him.
"The second victim was six months later, Gail Nevin, 42, who worked at the public library. They found her dead body at the foot of her stairs. It looked like she had consumed a large amount of wine prior to her death. They found a bottle of wine in her kitchen, three quarters empty. Her blood alcohol was .09 and they concluded initially that she'd simply gotten unsteady and fallen."
"You said initially Garcia, did they find something else later?" Reid asked.
"Yes, the tox screen revealed something interesting. Apparently, according to relatives, the police found out that Hazel had been on antidepressants since her daughter had died of leukemia. Her antidepressant was Effexor which they found in her system but they also found Nardil which is…"
"An MAOI," Reid interjected, "monoamine oxidase inhibitor," he explained to the others. "The drug interferes with an enzyme that metabolizes monoamine neurotransmitters, the transmitter responsible for breaking down neurons like serotonin and dopamine which are usually associated with depressive episodes. Taking that in combination with Effexor would be lethal." He rambled without taking a breath.
"A gold star to the good doctor," Garcia said, "but they couldn't find any Nardil in the house. They looked everywhere. CSI tested the Effexor capsules in her bottle and found half of them were filled with Nardil, and" she said before Reid could interrupt, "there was a green 'E' spray painted on the sidewalk in front of her house."
"He's watching them," Prentiss said as she passed the pictures to Morgan. "He knows all about their lives.
"If it's even a he," Morgan threw in. "Poison is more a woman's method."
"He's doing both men and women; that's unusual isn't it, why?" JJ asked. "What does that make him?"
"There doesn't seem to be any sexual component to theses deaths and he's definitely not a sadist," Morgan said. "I mean, he wasn't around to watch Gail suffer. A sadist would need that. Did he take anything from the victims Garcia?"
"Nothing was mentioned," the tech replied.
"So no trophies," Emily concluded.
"Go on Garcia," Hotch said.
The tech nodded. "The third victim was six months ago, a man named Doug Potborski, 29; he worked at the country club. He died from anaphylactic shock."
"How did that happen?" JJ asked.
"Since you asked my beauty, Doug was very allergic to peanuts. Someone had gotten into his apartment and added some peanuts ground very finely to his tin of coffee. When he made his morning coffee, it must have killed him. One of his coworkers found him when he went to check on him since he hadn't shown up for work and didn't answer his phone."
"Didn't he have an epipen?" Reid asked.
CSI couldn't find it, the unsub likely took it making sure he couldn't save himself," Garcia replied. "Everyone at the country club said he had one and always kept it on him."
"Probably kept one in his locker," Prentiss began.
"But he didn't feel like he needed to carry it in his pocket in his own home because he controlled what came in," Hotch continued.
"And when he looked for it, it wasn't there," Prentiss finished.
"And the letter?" Reid asked.
"An 'A' in white spray paint on the fire escape outside his bedroom window."
"So that's D, E, A so far," Morgan said.
"Carry on Garcia," Hotch said.
"The next victim, Irene Minton, died three months ago. She was killed in a hit and run while walking her dog. She was 37. There was a 'T' spray painted on the light post. There are pictures of these letters in the crime scene photos but there's really no mention of them in the police reports. It's like the police just think they're graffiti and don't pay any attention to them."
"Someone paid attention," Reid said as he hazarded a glance at Rossi.
"It's happened too many times to be a coincidence," Prentiss said.
"Who's next baby girl?"
"The next was Carl Adolph. He owned a bar called Quench. He was stabbed one night a month ago while leaving the bar after closing. He was 62. There was a blue 'H' on the parking lot right near the door. Maybe the police thought it stood for handicapped or something."
"The last one was only a couple of nights ago in an alley off Market Street. The police think it was a mugging gone bad. A man was beaten to death and his wallet taken. They IDed him through dental records as Mike Vale, 51. There was a red 'T' on the side of one of the buildings."
"Yeah," Reid said, looking at Rossi who'd remained silent throughout the entire exchange, "we've seen that one."
"He's speeding up," Emily said. "He's gone from the first two deaths being six months apart to only one month."
"He's also changing the way he kills. He's gone from knowing a lot about the victim as in the case of victims two and three to just brutal attacks like stabbing and beating. He's not taking the time to get to know his victims anymore," Morgan remarked. "He's devolving."
"So does that mean we can expect another kill at any time?" JJ asked.
"Unfortunately yes," Hotch said.
"What do we do?" JJ wanted to know. "We've got the case in Newport News."
"How long between the kills there JJ?" Morgan asked.
"There have been six deaths in six months, relatively one month apart," the liaison replied.
"The last one was yesterday?" Hotch clarified.
"Yes."
"Then I think we've got another month before we can expect another death there. I think Charlottesville is more immediate." Hotch said, looking at JJ. "Contact Charlottesville PD and see if you can get us invited in. If you can we'll leave in an hour."
The team started to leave the room to collect their go bags and get ready for the trip. "It looks like we might be going back to Charlottesville again," Reid said to Rossi as the pair reached the door together.
"Looks like," Rossi nodded with a smirk. He reached into his right pocket and pulled out a set of keys throwing them to Reid. "And this time you're in the driver's seat."
