Disclaimer: See chapter 1

Author's Note(s): Rogueandkurt, bumblebee917, IheartTV'tv-lovin-hottie' (Hehe do you have some sort of nickname? That is such a mouthful!), didi2909, smokeylove, Angelus-Summers and withoutatacegirl – words cannot describe how much I appreciate your comments. You are too good to me. Thank you to everyone who is reading and I hope you like this chapter :)

Easier to Lie
Chapter 3

Morgan couldn't help but feel a strong sense of foreboding on the drive to the hotel recommended by Sheriff Regal. It was ridiculous he knew. Lightning doesn't strike in the same place twice. It didn't stop him from surveying Prentiss out the corner of his eye though.

She seemed to sense him watching her, for she shifted uncomfortably in her seat and turned to stare out the window so Morgan could no longer see her face. He shook his head ever so slightly and turned his full attention back onto his driving.

They had been driving for more than half an hour, where ever this guy was leading them it was a fair distance away from the police headquarters and the crime scene. It was probably Regal's intention, Morgan thought on reflection. To keep them away. Why he had bothered to call them when he clearly didn't want their help was beyond Morgan. The guy had balls though, not many people would speak to Hotch the way he had done earlier.

Rounding a corner, the two cars in front finally came a slow down. Morgan looked up at the hotel they were staying at and his eyes widened. The place bore an eerie and striking resemblance to the Bate's Motel. He half expected Norman himself to walk out to greet them.

The sound of Prentiss opening the car door made Morgan realise that the others were waiting for them and he got out of the car to join them. Regal stood next to Hotch with a rather smug look on his face.

"Well here we are," the sheriff said, his eyes sweeping over the 'hotel' and lingering on the boarded up windows on two of the rooms.

No one quite knew what to say. Hotch opened his mouth to speak but Regal's phone rang.

"Sheriff Regal," he said putting the phone to his ear. Morgan rolled his eyes.

"Hello, Mother," Regal said coldly, "I told you not to call me in work…No…I…Yes, Mother…No…"

He walked away from the group, presumably to give himself and his mother some privacy.

"A boy's best friend is his mother," Prentiss quoted under her breath.

Morgan snorted, obviously she had made a Psycho connection too.

"Are we really going to stay here?" asked JJ, "It doesn't even look like it's open."

There was something that sounded like disgust in her voice, but beneath it Morgan was sure there was a hint of fear there. He felt an overwhelming urge to move closer to her and place a protective arm around her shoulder. He didn't though.

"Yes," said Hotch reluctantly, "Just for today and we'll find somewhere else tomorrow."

"It looks dirty," Reid said, eyeing the muddy footprints on the door.

"Right then," came Regal's voice from behind Morgan, "I'll leave you to it. Enjoy your evening and we'll see you bright and early at seven o clock."

He turned and left, but not before Morgan saw the unkind sneer on his face and the amused glance he shared with his deputy. It angered him far more than he knew it should have done. He tried to let it go though and followed his team into the broken down hole that they were supposed to spend the night in.

There was no one else in the hotel. Absolutely nobody. Not that Morgan could blame them. Who would willingly stay in this dump? On the plus side though, it meant they all had rooms next to each other. Not that anything bad was going to happen, but it was comforting to know that JJ and Prentiss were in the two rooms between his and Hotch's. Just in case.

He looked around his room miserably, there were questionable stains on the threadbare carpet and the sullied curtains that covered the cracked window were caked in dirt. The 'bathroom', which contained a shower with the head missing, and a toilet with no seat, had a hole in the door where the handle used to be. Morgan knew there was no way he was going to sleep tonight. He wondered if everyone else's room was equally horrific.

With a sigh he resigned himself to sitting on the plastic stool for the rest of the night. There was no point in even attempting to get some rest. As soon as this case was over, Morgan was going to make Regal suffer.


"So," Morgan said groggily, "Did anybody get any sleep last night?"

It was half past six in the morning and they were gathered in the 'lobby' waiting for Reid. The lack of response from Hotch, JJ and Prentiss told him all he needed to know.

"I could call Garcia when we're in the car and ask her to find us a proper hotel," Morgan offered.

The manager looked up at them from behind his desk and shot Morgan a look that was almost as filthy as his room had been. Morgan ignored him.

Hotch nodded his assent, "I think that would be a good idea."

It was at that point that Hotch's phone rang.

"Agent Hotcher," he said, and then he stopped talking. He remained silent for a whole two minutes before saying, "All right," and putting the phone down.

Luckily, Reid was on his way towards them and Hotch turned to speak to them, "That was Regal. There's been another murder. It looks like you could have been right about where he lives Reid, the bodies were found at the edge of town, just on the outskirts of Staten Island."

"He's devolving," Morgan observed.

"That would make sense. If he can no longer wait to get to the park where the other two couples were killed he could just be killing closer to home," Prentiss said. Morgan thought her voice sounded rather strained. It was probably due to her lack of sleep.

"It's happening pretty quickly," said Reid thoughtfully as the team made their way to the cars, "There was a two week break between the first and second kills and now he's killed again with only a day and a half in between?"

"He could be in a psychotic break," Morgan said, realising what Reid was getting at.

In contrast to everyone else, Reid actually looked and sounded rather chipper. It was puzzling. Out of all of them Morgan thought that Reid would be the least tolerant of the dirty mess, something was obviously wrong with the boy if he had managed to get a good nights sleep here. He stored that in the back of his mind to consider later, they had more pressing problems to deal with than Reid being in a suspiciously good mood.

Problems like how freaking cold it was outside. As they walked to the cars Morgan had to wrap his jacket around him as tightly as possible. He looked at the dark sky where storm clouds hung threateningly over their heads. The rain had held off so far but Morgan suspected they wouldn't be quite so lucky today.


The two bodies where in much the same condition as the last two Morgan had seen. There were more prominent signs of torture on the woman and by the looks of it the thing that had finally killed her was eleven stab wounds to the chest. It was massive overkill. If Morgan wasn't such a seasoned profiler he would have felt utterly sickened by the amount of blood that pooled on the ground and covered the woman's once pretty face. The man has only one stab wound through the heart, like the other male victims.

"Have the victims been identified yet?" Morgan asked Sheriff Regal who stood next to him.

"No," the sheriff said darkly, "The other victims were from my town so they were easily identified. No one has ever seen these people before though."

He then seemed to realise who he was talking too and his personality shifted back to that of the obnoxious man from the day before, "But surely you already know that? What with your ability to read minds and solve crimes so well that it makes everybody else ineffectual."

Morgan clenched his hand into a fist and turned away to speak to Hotch. It was then that he spotted JJ. She stood facing the crime scene, but wasn't actually looking at it. Her arms were crossed in a typical protective stance, but Morgan wasn't sure if this was due to the cold or for some other reason. He hoped for the former even though he knew it wasn't. He felt helpless; he knew neither JJ nor Prentiss would willingly come to talk to him or Hotch. They were both too stubborn for their own good. They needed help from somewhere though. Morgan resolved to talk to Hotch about it at the end of the day.

"Okay," Hotch said, catching everyone's attention with a single word, "We are going to go back to headquarters to give a formal profile. Then Reid and JJ, I want you to go and speak to the man that found the bodies. Morgan, Prentiss and I will start a geographical profile and see if Garcia has any leads for us."

It was only an hour after that when the first innocent snowflake fell from the sky.


Author's Note(s): Alas, back to reality for me.

Okay, so the next chapter is going to be a JJ and Reid bonding chapter. It will contain trouble, tears and tantrums. Well…maybe not that last one but I wanted another word beginning with 't'.

As always, a massive thank you to everyone and I will try to get the next chapter up as soon as I can :)