Morgan and Emily had gotten maps of tidal patterns and mapped out where the various body parts have been found. With so few parts it was hard to be sure where they were originally dumped but they have a bit of an idea.
Emily points, "The unsub is tracking south."
Morgan nods. "Yep. You know, he has to have his own boat. No way you can charter a boat and toss body parts off of it without someone noticing."
"True. We need to get Garcia looking for someone renting a spot nightly at local docks."
Morgan whips out his cell phone. "I got her. You keep doing your weird Reid-like nerd mind thing and see if you can discern any other patterns we may have missed."
Emily grins at him. "I should probably be offended by that but I'll—"
"Uh, Agents?"
Emily turns. "Yes, Sheriff Pines?"
"Just got a call from the Coast Guard. Fishing charter found more parts. They are on their way in with them."
Emily sighs. "Okay. Do you know where on these maps they were located?"
He walks over and circles an area with his finger. "Around here. Coasties will have the exact coordinates in their paperwork."
Emily nods. "Of course. But an idea for now is helpful. Thank you."
As the Sheriff leaves Hotch and JJ come in, both with their hair still wet and new clothes on. Emily grins.
"Something you two kids want to tell us?"
JJ rolls her eyes. "Had to get the morgue smell off of us and our clothes. We went by the hotel and luckily Hotch's room was available so we could both strip down and jump in the shower."
Emily's grin widens as JJ blushes, realizing what she said sounds like. Morgan busts out laughing. Hotch looks at JJ, a blush on his cheeks, too.
"Agent Jareau, you are no longer allowed to speak without permission," he says dryly.
JJ nods. "Yes, sir. Might be safest that way."
Emily can't help herself. "Well, I've been rooting for you two kids. Congrats!"
"So not funny, Prentiss," JJ mumbles as she goes to plug in her computer.
Emily looks at Hotch. "Sheriff Pines just let us know more parts are on their way to the morgue. Charter found them and alerted the Coast Guard." She gestures to the map. "Looks to be in the same general area where the bull shark was caught."
"Good. Maybe they will be from the same person and we can start to get a victim profile."
Morgan steps towards them. "Baby Girl, you're on speaker. Guys, listen to this."
"Okay, so Morgan and Emily wanted me to check on people renting boat slips. Problem is, every dock is managed by a different company. And by dock, I literally mean in one port their can be multiple dock masters." She takes a deep breath before continuing. "Additionally, a major problem in any port is slip squatting. Someone just pulls in and docks for the night in an empty reserved slip. Or if someone is going to be gone a while, they can sublet the slip. Essentially, I can search and search but come up with bupkiss. Now, if you can find me a boat name, I can search where it has registered legally, but again if it's a squatter or a sublet we won't know unless they got a ticket."
"Shit," Emily states.
"Sorry, Super Friends," Garcia apologizes.
"Don't fret, Baby Girl, we know you'll come through for us when we have more to give you," Morgan assures her.
"Aww, thanks, Darling. You always make me smile. Garcia out."
Reid and Rossi come in and add their report on their talk with the captain to the gathered intel. Rossi sighs.
"Hotch, the Gulf is huge. The chances of catching this guy in the act are slim to none. But it wouldn't hurt to go out there specifically to look for parts instead of just hoping someone comes across some."
Hotch nods. "I agree. Morgan, you can't go out there. Prentiss, no chance with your morning sickness. Reid…why do I feel you'd be worse than Prentiss?" Reid just grins. "Jayje, how do you feel about the ocean?"
JJ stares at him. "There are two things in the ocean, Hotch: sharks and bait. If you ain't the shark, you're the bait."
Hotch chuckles. "Well, Dave, how would you feel about a day on the Gulf with me?"
Rossi shrugs. "Eh, could be worse people to go with."
Hotch grins. "Good. Set it up."
JJ's phone rings and she steps to the corner to answer it. After a few minutes she turns to those in the room.
"Guys, the ME got hits back on three of the tattoos he found. They are all surfer related."
"Surfers? That would definitely be a specific demographic," Emily notes.
"Yeah. And the DNA markers are all back. All the parts he has so far are male."
"Male…male surfers…" Emily mutters.
Hotch looks at her. "What is it, Prentiss?"
Emily shrugs. "Well, crazy thought just flashed through my head…could our unsub be a woman? Women dismember to make it easy to get rid of bodies, if she actually does the dismembering out at sea it would be easy to clean up. Just throw bucketfuls of water on the deck until it's clean."
"And that would chum the waters, too, drawing in predators to the body parts," Rossi notes.
The team mulls over that theory a moment. JJ finally shakes her head. "But how would she overpower him?"
Emily grins at her. "Asks the woman who can bring a man to his knees with a smile."
The room chuckles as JJ blushes. "Smart ass. What I'm saying is how is she getting them on her boat? Based on the parts we saw the guys would be kinda big. Maybe Morgan big."
"She's getting them on the boat while they are still alive," Reid answers. "She's probably pretty, finds them at a bar, lures them back and kills them."
Hotch slowly nods. "It's a good theory. Unfortunately it's just that until we have more proof. Get the tattoos to Garcia. See if she can track where they originated."
The team spends the next two hours pouring over missing persons reports and reports of any body parts that had been found in Texas. Morgan notices Emily staring at the map.
"Something catch your eye, nerd girl?" he teases.
"Yeah…I think so." She pulls out her phone and calls Quantico. "Garcia, can you check records in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida for like crimes? Or rather similar body part discoveries?"
"Uh, sure. May take a bit since it's multiple states but I can check."
"Thanks. Let me know when you have something."
"Of course, Emster."
Emily stares at the map a second more then moves to her lap top. She pulls up a weather website. She searches archived maps of weather patterns. She then moves back to the map.
"She kills when storms drive her to shore," she mutters.
Morgan and Hotch move towards her. "What are you seeing, Prentiss?" Hotch presses.
"I won't know for sure until Garcia gets back to me and I can expand my search but…but I think she kills when she heads to shore due to storms. That's what was bothering me earlier. I checked the weather down here before we left, wondering if I needed to swap out anything in my go bag for the extra's I keep in JJ's office."
Everyone exchanges a look at her slip of using her wife's initials instead of her name. This train of thought she's working in her mind is obviously taking most of her attention. She slowly shakes her head.
"Still…something…what am I missing?"
Hotch lays a hand on her shoulder. "Prentiss, we still have a lot of missing pieces to this case. Sleep on it. When something is that close to the edge of your mind I trust that you just need sleep or another clue to bring it forward."
Emily sighs. "Right. Okay. Shit, it's right there, Hotch."
"Rossi and I will be out in the Gulf tomorrow. Our cells probably won't work but you'll have the boat contact information if you get something that could help us."
Emily nods. "Right. Okay."
Hotch just shakes his head. When Emily repeats one word answers he knows her mind is running through scenarios but is tired. He looks at the team.
"Since Emily's getting so talkative let's call it a night." She glances at him, then shakes her head. "You all get back here by 8 unless we get a lead sooner. Time to start narrowing down some of these theories."
Back at the hotel, Emily can't turn her mind off. She is sure the weather patterns are the key to figuring out the next dump site. She pulls up the Weather Channel on her computer again while JJ gets ready for bed. She sees a storm is brewing off Port Aransas.
"If I'm right, she'll dump someone there next. How do I convince Hotch and the Coast Guard of this?" she mumbles too herself.
JJ walks out of the bathroom and rolls her eyes. "Em, baby, you know you have to turn it off for a while."
Emily sits back in her chair. "I can't, JJ. Not when I feel like we're waiting to—Hey!"
JJ had walked over and dropped the screen on the laptop. She is glaring at her wife. "That's two times in the last hour that you have called me JJ. And, yes, the team noticed, too. Your mind is too wound up, Em. You need to shut it down for a while."
Emily frowns. "I…I called you JJ?"
"Twice," JJ confirms with irritation.
Emily sighs and pulls her wife onto her lap. "I'm sorry. I guess…I made the call to bring us into this, Jen. What if it's a wild goose chase? What if we can't do any good here and some other city suffers for it?"
"Em, you think I don't ask myself the same question every time I choose a case? Emily, you are a profiler. A lot of that is instinct. This case clicked something within you. You told Hotch and it clicked for him, too. We'll do what we can here. Sometimes we solve the case, sometime we don't. But we'll at least try." JJ stares into her wife's eyes. "What else is going on in that head of yours?"
Emily looks away. "Morgan and I finally had it out."
"About Doyle?"
Emily shrugs. "More about me and Lauren, really. But yeah I guess about Doyle, too. I…I asked if he wanted to see the doc with me. He said yeah. Maybe we can say more about what we need to air out. He's the best friend I ever had, Jen. We're going to fix this crack in our friendship. We have to," she reiterates with desperation.
JJ smiles and kisses Emily's forehead. "I'm sure you will, baby. You two both have your share of secrets. Maybe Doc can help you both come clean about everything and help you start fresh."
"I hope so. I really, really hope so."
JJ stands and pulls Emily up. "Come on. Get ready for bed. I'll order us a couple of hot fudge sundaes, we'll watch something silly on TV and then get a good night's sleep."
Emily nods and pulls JJ into a hug. "Sounds perfect. I love you, Jen. Sorry about the 'JJ' thing."
JJ grins and kisses Emily. "You're forgiven…in exchange for a back massage."
"A back massage? Didn't you get that from Hotch when you two showered together?"
JJ slaps her wife's arm as Emily laughs. "You are evil, Emily Prentiss. Absolutely evil."
Across town, Buffy Nitodu bats her eyes at the blonde man at the bar. "Come on…surely you remember me?"
He looks her up and down. "Trust me, baby, I'd remember you."
She runs her hand up his arm. "Maybe we need to go somewhere private so I can remind you who I am?"
He quickly finishes the rest of his beer. "Who am I to argue with a pretty lady?"
She smiles coyly and they head out together. She convinces him to ride in her car to her boat.
By sunrise, she is dropping his body parts into the ocean, a sacrifice to the sea gods to keep her protected when she surfs and sails. It has worked since she started the ritual two years ago. She runs her hand over the scars on her arm. She hadn't lost it to the shark. She knew he bit her to remind her to show her appreciation to the aquatic world and the gods that protect the sea.
And now she does so…regularly. She smiles as the first fish start to bite at the floating parts.
"Enjoy, my friends. I will see you again soon."
She turns her boat back towards shore. He is a big man; a sizable offering. It would be a good day for surfing. Between the sacrifice and the approaching storm, life was definitely looking good for Buffy.
