Author's Note: First, while the original character is "mine" as much as a fictional being can be (and I thought of the case myself) nothing else in the story is. This is my first attempts at a Criminal Minds based fan-fiction piece and it's self-beta'd so, please, be kind!

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Logan leaned back in the chair, feet up and over the corner of the conference table, as he examined the crime scene photos stuck on the white board. He was trying to get that feeling he'd had while looking at them in the hotel room before Emily stopped by. It just wasn't coming to him though.

"Nice haircut," a slightly scratchy voice commented as the owner braced himself in the doorway of the room, arms crossed but his body language still relaxed.

Logan turned to smile at Rossi, "Thanks, Emily did it for me."

Rossi's eyebrows arched some and he smirked, "Emily, huh? So you've found someone with whom you can share a first-name basis with."

"Yeah, I guess," the junior replied with a small shrug, "I mean, so far she seems the only one that can stand me for more than two minutes."

"And the only one I'm assuming you've bothered to open up to…Why is that?"

Logan simply smiled then turned their attention over to the whiteboard, "I keep thinking I'm…I'm missing something. It's right at the back of my brain but I can't seem to figure out what it is."

Rossi accepted the topic change with a slight smile and then looked over at the board as well, "About the victims or something else?"

"Don't know." He then looked at Rossi, "Any chance we'll be able to visit any of the crime scenes or talk to witnesses today?"

"Actually that's why I'm here, it's time for some field work. You'll be riding with me, Reid, and JJ."

"Where we going?"

"Wherever Hotch says."

Logan gives a groan as he rolls his eyes, "Great, that guy'll probably have me dumpster diving or something."

Rossi laughed, "He's not that bad. Uptight, slightly controlling, and humorless but…" the senior agent shrugged, "Not that bad."

"You think you can help me get him to listen?" Logan asked as he followed the other agent.

"Depends."

"On what?"

"On what he's supposed to listen to," Rossi walked out into the sun and headed towards one of the SUVs parked out front, "And why you want him to listen."

Logan continued to follow, letting Rossi head towards the driver's side. He figured it'd be better to play the subordinate roll at the moment both to shine Rossi's ego and show Hotch he COULD be just the follower if the man was watching from the other SUV. "I want to…suggest," it sounded better than tell, "how he spilt up the teams," he answered as he got in the SUV with Rossi, "I grew up here, I know how people in Southie act and think, and I think I might be able to spilt us up to get the most cooperation from witnesses."

"I didn't know you were from around here!" Reid piped up from the backseat so suddenly Logan nearly gave a jump, "Wow, that's so amazing. I mean you virtually grew up in the city where this country was created. Have you ever been to the Adams' birthplaces or, uh, get to visit the battlefields in Lexington and Concord?"

Logan turned in his seat with a slight smirk…He was going to tease Reid some, call him a nerd, but the young agent's face was just so excited that Logan, well, couldn't. He wasn't good with authority, he was stubborn and sarcastic, but Logan wasn't a bully. He smiled a little, "Uh…yeah, I did all those things. They're sorta part of the traditional field trips we take. They're okay places but I always preferred the Salem field trip. You know, with the witch trials and the house from Hawthorne's House of Seven Gables."

Reid began to shift forward, straining against his seatbelt, "Have you ever been able to go to Salem on Halloween? I, uh…I hear that it's quite an event there. Costumes and masked balls and, um, parades in the streets and the like."

"Tell you what, we ever get to this part of the country again around Halloween and have the time you and I can take a detour into Salem," Logan offered, "then you can find out yourself."

Rossi and JJ (who was in the back with Reid) had been chuckling a little as they listened to their colleagues but at Logan's offer JJ started to laugh a little more, "Oh boy, now you've done it," she smiled at Logan, "Halloween is Reid's favorite holiday, I'm pretty sure celebrating Halloween in Salem is his ultimate fantasy." She winked at Reid to reassure him it was a good-natured teasing.

Logan paused, then smirked, "Not the typical male fantasy but," he shrugged and turned his attention back to Reid, "it is one that's a little easier to make come true."

"With some of the costumes women are known to wear on Halloween it could also satisfy the typical male fantasy," Rossi commented with a smirk of his own as he pulled up to a street curb behind the first SUV and slowed to a stop.

JJ rolled her eyes, smiling nevertheless, as she went to get out, "I'll choose to ignore that statement, thank you very much." That's what you got for riding in the car with a bunch of single guys, she guessed.

The men in the car all got out and followed JJ to their teammates waiting on the sidewalk. Once they were all together Hotch spoke, "This is the neighborhood of the last victim, the crime scene's still fresh and so are the memories of any possible witnesses…"

"Sir, I'd like to help in splitting up the team," Logan blurted out unable to stop himself, unable to wait for Rossi to grease the wheels as it were. The team looked from Hotch to him and back expectantly, wondering how this might end as the tension between the men rose a notch. "I grew up around here, I know what'll work best in getting people to talk to us." He added when Hotch said nothing.

The senior agent stayed quiet a moment longer, both to think and let his newest subordinate sweat some, before speaking, "What are your suggestions?" He might've thought Logan loud, abrasive, obnoxious, and maybe a little too sure of himself for his own good but Hotch would never turn away help on a case…especially from a colleague.

"Let Morgan and Rossi take the crime scene, JJ should talk to the family, you and Prentiss and Reid and I can take on any potential witnesses." While on a personal level Logan would've rather paired himself with Prentiss he knew, professionally, putting Hotch with a woman would more likely offset his stern, cop-like, vibe that'd get even the most helpful Southie resident to tell Hotch to go fuck himself.

Hotch gave a nod, "But I'm putting Reid with Prentiss and you and I are going to interview witnesses together." Mainly because Hotch wanted to keep an eye on Logan, especially after the stunt he'd pulled with the police chief. He then gave orders on keeping in touch and when to meet back at the SUVs…with that everyone spilt up with Hotch and Logan staying behind.

"You tryin' to keep tabs on me?" Logan asked with a slight smirk. He was a little irked that Hotch didn't seem to trust him still but, well, at least his whole idea wasn't shot down.

"A new haircut doesn't erase past behaviors," Hotch said simply before heading towards the victim's neighbor's house.

Logan gave a small laugh; he couldn't help it.

--

Logan got them in the neighbor's place with the offer to move the TV set before the game started…he also got the neighbor to talk by bonding with the older woman over a shared love of what else but the home team.

"So did you notice anything usual about Kelly's behavior in the days before she was murdered, Ms. Shea?" Hotch finally jumped in wanting to get down to business.

"Like what?" The older woman asked almost annoyed…she had yet to warm up to SSA Aaron Hotchner.

"Did she seem distracted, upset, worried," Hotch offered, "maybe a little more guarded or make mention of feeling like she might be being followed?"

When Logan saw the woman's look of slight confusion he jumped in, "We're thinkin' she mighta been followed. The person who attacked her knew she'd be home and she'd be alone." He explained, already having taken on the Bostonian accent and speech pattern he'd had back in his youth. Wanting to sound more professional he'd trained himself out of it as he grew up (he loved his hometown but he found most others viewed the Bostonian accent as low-class).

The woman laughed a little as she started to move around, setting up bowls of chips and such, "Hell, most everyone was home then, it's the playoffs and the Sox were playin'!"

Logan smiled, "And she didn't have any friends over?"

"Normally her boyfriend woulda but he got locked up awhile back."

Hotch gave a curious look, "What for?"

"Drug charges, Walpole State prison for the next five to ten which is kinda weird now that I think about cause he didn't seem the druggie type."

"What makes you say that?" Logan questioned a little surprised at her confession…they were in Southie projects, just like any other low-income housing projects drug-usage was common to say the least. …Finding out a neighbor was involved in drugs should not be at all odd.

The elder woman shrugged, "Don't know, just didn't seem the type. Guy had a steady job, seemed to treat Kelly good, and don't think he'd been in trouble before." She smiled a little at Logan, "Ya live in a neighborhood long enough ya just sorta getta feel for your neighbors. I know the difference between the folks around here that're clean and the ones that aren't. Mikey was the clean type."

Logan nodded a little, "Musta been quite a shock for Kelly then. Thinks her man's squeaky clean and suddenly she's the idiot who dated the druggie loser."

Ms. Shea shrugged a little as she grabbed a cigarette out of her box on the coffee table and then lit it from a light in her back pocket, "She tried ta act like it didn't bother her none, but I could tell it did. Sorta kept to herself a little more after he got locked up." She finally pulled the cigarette out of her mouth only to blow the smoke in Hotch's direction.

Hotch's nose wrinkled in distaste at the smoke, but otherwise he ignored it. "What about the day of the murder? Did you notice anything out of the usual? Either from Kelly's place or possibly even the neighborhood at large?"

The woman smirked some at watching Hotch's reaction (it was such a cop reaction in her opinion) before shaking her head, "Nah, sorry. But I was mostly focused on getting' ready for the game, ya know? I was having friends over to watch and everything so I wasn't paying much attention to anything but getting ready for guests and then the game itself." Ms. Shea then frowned some, "I invited her to my house ta watch the game; she turned me down. I knew she was gonna but, still, I wish she didn't."