Chapter 3
Less than an hour later, Chuck and Angie had the group winging northwest to their next case. The minute they said the seatbelts could come off, Matt was up. He went to the galley, found the team's stash of the extra-large ibuprofen bottle and shook out three pills to take. He grabbed a small water bottle from the fridge and washed them down. Blake, going for her usual re-fill of coffee, looked at him. "You OK?"
"This case is a huge headache." She looked at him with a question. "We'll fill you in as we fly." They both moved back into the cabin.
They continued discussing the case with Hotch and Matt leaning against the counter with Dave standing behind the four-top of seats holding the three ladies and Reid. Morgan was standing next to Alex's seat. Once they reached cruising altitude, Garcia appeared on the laptop on the table and the screens at each end of the plane.
"Garcia," Hotch questioned. "Is there any connection between the victims?"
"None that I have found yet sir, but I've only started my snooping."
Dave was looking over the ME's reports. "They all had blunt force trauma to the head."
"Sounds like a blitz attack," JJ said.
"PG, we're the victims killed before the dump job?"
Dave looked at Emily. "ME's report confirms that."
"Any evidence," Reid asked.
Dave shook his head. After how many years of doing this, he could blaze through a coroner's report almost as fast as Reid reading every word. Hotch and Matt looked at each other with a small smile. Bells and whistles Dave told Hotch the first case he rejoined the team. And I know the bells and whistles. "None; no hair, no fibers, no DNA, no nothing."
"Our unsub is male to overpower these victims," Reid said. "And he is meticulous, leaving no evidence behind."
"Which speaks to an organized unsub," Blake added.
Morgan pointed at her and added, "Which means our guy is intelligent. He knows what he is doing."
"And with the progression he's making through the properties, it's almost like he's a mission based killer," JJ added. Dave smiled at his protégé, already rapidly developing into a well-honed profiler.
Matt pointed to her. "There may be more to that than we know right now. It'll be interesting once Garcia has been able to work her magic and dig up some more info on them." Hotch nodded his head in agreement.
Alex looked at Matt. "The headache?" Morgan looked at Matt with a question.
Matt looked into the laptop. "Garcia, can you pull up a geographic map of the area, starting out with a 75 mile radius."
"Give me a few Cob." The team could hear her typing away. "Waala, my assistant liege." The map came up on the screens.
"Now cut off the top 45 percent. We don't need it." Garcia hammered away more and a new map re-appeared. "First off, we're flying into Madison; they have the closest airport that can handle the jet. The Dells area is about 45-50 minutes up I-94," he said, pointing at the laptop.
"Here's the fun part for Hotch and me. Like we profiled, the LEO's involved have figured out that their victims were not killed at the dump site. Garcia, now redefine that map focusing in specifically on Wisconsin Dells and Lake Delton, giving us about a 15 mile radius." The map appeared. "Now add in the home addresses of the victims." That pinged up less than 15 seconds later.
"Look closely at the map. The city of Wisconsin Dells sits exactly on the corner of four counties; Columbia, Sauk, Adams and Juneau. Three of our four victims lived in each of those different counties. And folks, I don't have to remind you, we're talking about small town USA. Everyone knows everyone."
Morgan rolled his eyes. "The sheriff departments in those three counties will want in on the investigation." Hotch nodded.
Matt continued. "Garcia, now narrow the map down to just the two cities." Garcia worked her magic. "As the area grew along what is now known as the Wisconsin Dells Parkway, Lake Delton annexed that area between the two cities into their city property. They took the Sheriff Departments out of the picture, which was a smart move, considering how many tourists they deal with on an annual basis."
Dave looked at Hotch and Matt. "We're going to be walking into a taskforce aren't we?"
Hotch nodded. "That's on me. We have to work with the two local PD's but I'll get the SD deputies chased."
Morgan nudged Alex's arm. "How many Advil did he take," he asked, pointing at Matt.
"Three," she responded.
Morgan looked at Matt. "Cob, I'd have taken a handful." Matt smiled at his back-up.
JJ looked up from her iPad. "Just how many tourists are we talking about annually?"
Matt shook his head. "Over five million annually." Prentiss whistled at the fact.
"Which is really astounding given the fact that the average temps in the winter in Wisconsin…..." Reid started.
They all looked at him. Matt smiled. "That's why Doc, the big resorts have 'indoor' water parks, he said gesturing with his fingers like quotes. "They draw guests from all over the region year round. The Minneapolis/St. Paul area is a five hour drive to the Dells; a little under four from Chicago." He looked at JJ. "You and Will live in one of those two cities; you're sick of winter and can't afford Florida or Arizona on spring break with your school age kids and you just want a weekend away. Where'd you go?"
"Boom Cob," she smiled, mimicking his finger point and his usual verbiage of hitting the target. The team all smiled.
"One other thing: between the two cities, the population is a little under 6,000 people. Yet, because of the tourists, they have larger than normal police staffing. Yet, with that small of a population, the unsub is going to know we are there."
"Which means he'll either go into hiding, or get bolder," Dave noted. They all nodded their head in agreement.
Hotch looked at his team. "When we land, JJ and Reid go to the state ME's office in Madison. The latest victim is still there. Find out what you can. You can meet up with us later in Lake Delton at the local PD. The rest of us will head straight there." They all nodded again.
Just then Angie came over the intercom. "Sorry folks, we're about to hit some bumpy weather. Please get buckled in."
Emily quickly got out of hers to sit with Morgan in the two top of seats at the front of the plane he took for takeoff. Matt looked at Hotch and just shook his head as the four standing moved to their seats.
-00CM-
The team was buckled in the rest of the trip. Matt, on the couch across from Dave and Aaron, had tried to stretch out his right leg as much as he could to make himself more comfortable. Dave looked at Hotch, knowing that he was not accomplishing that goal.
Just as Chuck and Angie got the jet out of the rough air, they started their descent for landing. Matt was able to get up and walk around for a couple of minutes to give his hip some relief. Fifteen minutes later, Chuck pulled the Gulf Stream to a halt on the tarmac of Dane County Regional Airport in Madison. As was the custom, Matt, after acknowledging Chuck and Angie, got off the jet first to meet up with the agents from the Chicago office to get their vehicles. He noticed them moving up to the jet as he reached the bottom step. Following the direction of ground personnel, they pulled the black SUVs up a bit away from the jet for safety.
Matt walked to the three vehicles. A fourth, to take the agents driving the first three waited a bit further back. The agent got out and put his hand out. "SSA Taylor," he asked. Matt nodded with a smile. "I'm Agent Laurie from the Chicago office."
"Pleasure to meet you Agent Laurie," Matt said shaking his hand. "We appreciate you bringing us the vehicles."
"Not a problem sir; just sign here." Matt signed his name in the usual FBI paperwork place. Laurie had him a business card. "Please just give me a four to six hour heads up when you want to return the vehicles. Chicago traffic can be brutal to get out of the city."
Matt smiled. "I grew up there for a while and we take in account the drive times when we return borrowed vehicles from the field offices."
Laurie smiled. "Sounds great; good luck on the case sir."
"Thank you Agent, have a safe trip back." The whole team grabbed their weapons from their go bags before loading them into the back. Matt turned to help the ground personnel so that JJ and Reid would have their personal luggage as well as their go bags in their vehicle. It was around three in the afternoon local time and one of Matt's many mottos was just in case. JJ smiled at him as he shut the back hatch and she climbed into the driver's side. Reid slid into the passenger seat and they took off.
Matt walked up to the first SUV, pleasantly talking about the area weather with one of the ground personnel. "We ran into a storm front on our way from Quantico; figured that's why you've got great weather," he smiled. The man looked at him. "I grew up in Wisconsin in my teen years."
The guy smiled. "Go Pack Go!" Matt smiled broadly and shook his hand as he moved off to the next corporate jet coming into the area. Hotch looked at Matt and they climbed into the SUV as the others were already in.
Matt looked at him. "What time are we supposed to meet the locals?"
"Four-thirty." Matt looked at his watch and smiled. "Piece of cake SAC Hotchner; relax."
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A/N: Amazing what a drive on I-94 can conger up for story ideas. ;)
SD is Sheriff's Department. Go Pack Go is a term every person in Wisconsin recognizes. It is the cheer for our NFL football (American) team in the state: the Green Bay Packers.
Annexing property is a city formally expanding the area of the city. There can be many reasons why. My mention here of this area and annexation is purely fictional for the purpose of my story.
