Here's the next installment.
Disclaimer: Again, nothing is mine except the storyline and the characters who have never before been seen in the CM world.
Victimology
"So, what are we thinking is the victimology of this UnSub?" Hotch asked, he and Rossi had been to both snowdrift sites, even though they hadn't been crime scenes in over a year or two. They'd visited the bedrooms of the missing and the workplaces of the abducted women.
"Possibly a stalker first, but some kind of personalized MO, a ritual even. The only thing I can't figure out is why he changed, if it is even the same UnSub." Prentiss began.
"Yeah, I'm mean; first off the UnSub's what? A peeping tom who escalates into abductor? The first four Vic's were abducted from their beds. The next three from their places of work – all jobs related to cleaning. Then this recent one, Betty Sumner, disappeared from where exactly?" Morgan asked.
"There's no information about her disappearance. She just didn't come home. Went out with a group of friends, at least that's what she told her parents." JJ looked worriedly towards the makeshift timeline they had pinned to one wall. The longer this case went, and it was pretty long already (given the two year timeline they had going), the less evidence they had.
"We need to have more information about the UnSub." Rossi interrupted the silence, "There's not enough here to even get past the basics. It could even be two different UnSub's using 'The Snowman' as a cover."
"I know" Hotch said, staring darkly toward the table. A distinct lack of anything helpful was beginning to give him an extremely bad feeling. "So, what do we know?"
"Ah, he's most likely a white male, twenty-five to forty. Strong build, local, knows the area. Either hates winter or is fanatic about it. Given the fact that all the abductions take place during that time." Reid rattled off the profile.
Emily sighed, "This isn't exactly the best profile we've ever given."
"Agreed but the separations between abductions, the groupings mean that the UnSub is very patient, at least until he abducted a victim. Then he seems to have little control of his urgings." Hotch stated.
"Are we assuming that every time he abducts a new victim, the old one is…deceased?" Emily asked carefully.
"Why do you say that?" Rossi questioned.
"Well, I just get the feeling that the UnSub is searching for something in particular with these women. That he won't stop 'til he gets what he's looking for. I don't believe he's functioning under a mission based mindset. It's more…" she trailed off looking at the timeline and the groupings.
"Yes?" JJ prompted softly. She'd seen Emily un-focus mid-sentence like that before, usually right before her mind jumped to some weird but accurate hypothesis. Some people like Morgan and Hotch used a A + B C arrangement. While Emily was more instinctive, she seemed to skip letters completely and intuitively jump to C, then backtrack to find the A's and B's that supported her argument. JJ couldn't even begin to describe how Reid came to know what he did but then, Reid was a genius, eidetic memory and all that.
"What if he's fine-tuning?" Emily began, haltingly though, still working through the idea.
"Fine-tuning what?" Reid asked.
"Not sure exactly. But the time distances between abductions grows, so he's either evolving in his rituals, sexually or physically. He's perfecting his craft…Reid what's the ratios between abductions?"
"Oh ah…" Reid stopped, a stunned expression entering his face as his mind utilized his memory to compile the data. "The gaps between abductions are nine, nine and nine the first year, seventeen and thirty-two the next."
"Ok, but didn't the coroner make estimates as to how long the first group of women were kept alive for?" Rossi asked picking up on the idea Emily had.
"Ah…yes, Shelly Buyers, the first abductee was probably alive for two days, and Jodie Shipper, the second abductee was probably alive for four days."
"So add that into your calculations Reid." Morgan demanded.
"Right, so…two days captive, seven free, four days captive, five free, nine and then another abduction. Oh."
"What?" The team collective asked.
"Emily's right. He's fine-tuning his process. Two then seven, four then five, most likely the next victim was six then a three day gap to the last victim."
"Then what about this next grouping of victims?" Morgan inquired.
"That's difficult because if it's the same UnSub, he's changed his method." Rossi answered.
"Maybe he…" Emily started but failed to continue.
"Em?" Reid leant over and touched her arm. She was completely zoned out; even physical touch couldn't reach her. "Em?" He shook her arm a little hard this time. Glancing around to the others, he noticed their concerned expressions too. "Emily!" Reid demanded.
"Huh? Oh yeah. Um, I guess I was going to say…"
"Yes?" Hotch pressed.
"Maybe the UnSub decided…he needed to see the women awake before he took them?" Emily had never posited a scenario with such a lack of confidence before, even Hotch was surprised by her disposition.
"So you think it's the same UnSub?" Rossi inquired.
"Eh." Emily didn't want to commit to such a big statement. She went to shrug her shoulders in the universal gesture of not-knowing but, she truly felt that she was on to something. She wanted to dismiss her own thoughts in a bid to appear more confident in front of the team, especially Hotch and Rossi.
"It's possible" Morgan began, "If it's the same UnSub, the change in place of abduction could be linked to an evolution in choice of victim. What if the UnSub was a peeping tom like I said earlier? Who evolved into an abductor of the very women he spied upon. But when they awoke where ever he keeps them. He didn't like what he found. They fought, or cried too much, just weren't who he wanted them to be. Wouldn't that explain a change in victimology?"
"So he changed type from sleeping women whose personality's he couldn't gauge to women who cleaned?" Prentiss asked, relieved that Morgan was at least giving her vague hypothesis a chance.
"Traditionally, cleaning is an act of servitude. The superior does not clean; the superior is the breadwinner, the head of the household or business. Typical of feudal systems in the Middle Ages. It is also thought that, stereotypically, women make better wives when they are proficient in household duties." Reid spouted.
"He changed from sleeping women to cleaners because it suggests what?" JJ inquired.
"A more conducive nature to his fantasies." Rossi posited.
"He's looking for a wife." Hotch concluded.
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Arc
