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"Emily says they're about half an hour out," JJ pocketed her phone and relayed the information to Luke Alvez, who was driving their SUV along the California highway on the way to the airport in Irvine. They'd been in the western state for two days working on another of the FBI's cases. Their presentation of the profile to the local police department in Oxnard the previous afternoon had resulted in the capture and arrest of a sexual predator later that day by the department's deputies.
After hearing from Prentiss late in the evening, JJ got in touch with the Irvine police and started the BAU's investigation, setting up the conference room in the department's headquarters. She and Alvez had already done preliminary interviews with witnesses and contacted the medical examiner's office. They had an early breakfast in the hotel's coffee shop then headed out to rendezvous with the rest of the team.
The sun was just rising as they arrived at the airport and found the secure section where the FBI's jet would be landing. After Luke arranged for a second SUV for the team, he rejoined his cohort in the waiting area. JJ took advantage of the few minutes they had to call her husband; Luke decided to check in with the woman he'd hired to care for Roxy in his absence.
The BAU jet landed and its occupants met up with Alvez and Jareau. Prentiss assigned Lewis and Alvez to the latest crime scene and the rest of the team joined Rossi who took the wheel of the second car. En route to the police department where JJ had set up a conference room for them, the team members exchanged information and brought everyone up to date. Lewis and Alvez continued on to the crime scene of latest victim while the rest of the team assembled at their makeshift conference room and discussed their case.
"So. Three young blond women. All within a stone's throw of the university," Prentiss recapped. Perusing the medical examiner's report, she relayed the findings to the others, "Third victim's c-o-d was also gunshot to the heart. And like the others, also suffered several post mortem shots to obliterate her face. She's been ID'd as twenty-four year old Olivia Hendricks."
"Student?" JJ asked.
"Yes. But she was grad level. She was interning with the university's own police department."
"Jessica Monahan was a student too," Rossi mused. He looked over at Reid and recognised the look on the younger man's face. "What are you thinking? I can see the wheels turning."
Reid was flipping through the notes JJ had made after the interviews she'd conducted. "According to the roommate, Jessica Monahan was a criminology student. Olivia Hendricks was an intern with the campus P-D. And do we know about Natalie Dixon? Was she a student too?" His brow furrowed as he concentrated.
JJ picked up a file and checked before answering him, "She graduated a year ago and was working part time for a security company and was just hired on by LAPD. According to the fitness club manager, she's a member there and works out there several times a week, always late at night because of her work shifts and because she preferred the less busy time."
"All three of them have some connection to law enforcement," Simmons reflected.
"Killed quickly with a gun—do we have ballistics?" Rossi asked.
JJ handed him a sheet of paper, "That's the M-E's report on Natalie Dixon. And then," she shuffled through some papers and found two more files, "these are the reports on Jessica Monahan and Olivia Hendricks. All three were shot with the same gun. A Glock 22."
Reid's eyes narrowed at this information. "Police favourite," he muttered under his breath.
Prentiss called Garcia and put her on speaker, setting her phone in the center of the table before her.
"You have reached the Supreme Hegemony of Enlightenment and PreEminence. How may I assist you today?"
"Hey Pen, can you get us a list of all the male students in the criminology stream at the university here. Current and past five years."
"And those that have flunked out," Reid added.
"What are you thinking?" Rossi asked him again.
"They are all law enforcement related. They're different ages, not in the same year of study. The youngest one, Jessica Monahan is a first year student, top of her class. The oldest one, Natalie Dixon had already graduated and was just hired by LAPD. And the other one, Olivia Hendricks, an intern with UCI's own department." His mind worked faster than he could speak and he tried to rein it in. "The damage to their faces, but without any kind of sexual assault, speaks to anger. But it's not the kind of anger we see with a jilted lover. I wonder, I think we might be looking for someone who's been unsuccessful in his or her own attempts at criminology studies or career."
"Not the kind of person you want in law enforcement," Rossi pointed out.
"No. Exactly. But not accepting his or her failure."
"You think it might be a woman?" Prentiss asked.
Reid nodded. "Could be."
"Garcia, can you expand that list—"
"To include female students. Yes. On it."
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Tara Lewis lifted the tarp from the top end of the body still laying behind the victim's own abandoned parked car and sighed. The display was virtually identical to the crime scene photos of the two other victims. Members of the local Forensic Unit were busy gathering evidence: recovering shell casings, marking locations, taking photos and fingerprints and Lewis stepped aside to stay out of their way.
As a seasoned professional, she was used to the graphic sights but it moved her nonetheless. The campus police officer, Sarah Taylor, who'd accompanied her stifled a gasp and made her way over to the dumpster to vomit. Lewis asked if she was all right and the younger woman managed to nod.
"That poor girl is like, my age," Sarah sputtered, shaking her head and rejoining Lewis, who had replaced the tarp over the victim. Lewis reached over and patted the young blonde cop's hand.
"I knew this was always gonna be a possibility. We talked about it in class. We've even seen photos. It's just so much more—" Sarah trailed off.
"Stark and graphic when you see it in real time," Lewis supplied sympathetically. "I want to say you'll get used to it, but you never will. You'll get used to how to deal with it and wanting to solve it and get justice for the victims, but you'll never quite get used to seeing what one human being can do to another."
Sarah swallowed the lump in her throat and met Tara's eyes, steeled herself and affirmed, "Well let's get justice for Olivia."
Tara nodded.
The two of them surveyed the area and Lewis took several photos and made notes. She opened Olivia Hendricks' car door and made another note. Looking around, they could see the restaurant's back exit, but anyone coming out of that door would not necessarily have seen the body of Olivia Hendricks behind her car.
"Hey, Alvez," Lewis called as she took notice of several cameras mounted along the tops of walls.
He appeared from around the side of the building and followed her line of sight, nodding. "I'll go see about footage," he told her and disappeared into the restaurant to talk to the manager.
After searching through the front seat, Lewis withdrew from the vehicle and turned to face Taylor.
. "I don't think she was killed here. I think she was dumped here after she was killed elsewhere."
"What makes you think that?"
"I don't think she was the one who drove the car here, Sarah. The driver's seat is pushed all the way back, like a taller person would've been behind the wheel."
Alvez returned and told Lewis he'd arranged for the surveillance camera footage to be sent to Garcia for analysis. Lewis shared her discovery about the driver's seat and they exchanged a look. Frowning, Alvez popped open the trunk and the trio made their way to the back of the car.
Evidence of blood and tissue littered the trunk of the car. Alvez muttered under his breath and laid a pre-emptively comforting hand on Taylor's arm.
"Oh God," the younger woman exclaimed.
"Better call Emily," Lewis sighed and took out her cell phone to do so.
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"I need more parameters," Garcia told the others as she relayed what she'd found. "I have more than fifty possible course flunkies, wanna be cop failures and washouts."
"Well does anyone know or have history with all three of the victims?" Reid asked her.
Tapping away at the keyboard, Garcia waited for the computer to tabulate and reported back, "No. Not with the information at hand."
"Any commonalities, Garcia? Same residence or workplace? Course professor? Former boyfriend?" Rossi asked.
"Anything from the fast food restaurant surveillance?" Prentiss added.
"Going through that now," Garcia told her. "Only one camera was actually recording anything, and it wasn't the one trained on the back lot. It was the one watching the take out wind—"
Emily's cell phone interrupted and the Unit Chief stepped aside to take the call from Lewis.
"But I do see Olivia Hendricks' car arriving at the restaurant. It goes straight through the drive through without stopping to order, and makes its way behind the place. Can't make out the driver but I can tell you there's only one person visible. Time stamp on the footage is three-eighteen a.m."
Prentiss put away her cell phone and told the others, "Olivia Hendricks was killed someplace else and dumped behind that fast food joint."
JJ's brow furrowed as she flipped through some notes, found what she was looking for and spoke up, "Garcia, check your list of possibles with current or former employees of that restaurant who also frequented the fitness center."
"I don't think the killer necessarily worked at the restaurant." Three pairs of eyes trained on Reid, waiting for elaboration.
"That place closes at two a.m. The killer knew that. But so would most of the locals. It would be deserted and an opportune spot to dump the body. Natalie Dixon was killed and dumped behind the fitness center. The killer didn't transport her body; she was dumped right at her murder site. He may be stalking them, waiting for the right moment."
"So he's disorganised. Takes his weapon of choice with him, but kills opportunistically. He's not planning the where, just the who and the what," Rossi mused aloud.
"And Jessica Monahan was found behind one of the campus residences," JJ sighed and sorted through some notes before adding "Her roommate told us she never came back after her last class. Which would have ended at five p.m."
"That's weird. Wouldn't there be plenty of kids around that time of day? The quads would be full of students on the way to dinner." Rossi suggested.
"There's a laundry room in the rear of the main floor of this building," JJ spread the campus map out on the table and tapped at the spot. "And Jessica was found—" she drew a line with her finger to the location of Jessica Monahan's body "at the bottom of this little ravine behind the residence."
"Forensics didn't find any indication that she'd been dragged, she was shot and killed at the dump site too." Reid pointed out. He made an educated guess, "She knew the killer and went willingly down into that ravine. What do we know about the roommate?" he directed his question at JJ.
"She checks out. Finished her class, went to their room, showered and changed and headed out to her part time job. Came back at ten p.m. and no Jessica. She knew she hadn't been back to the room because her cell phone, computer and purse were still there. And before you ask, the last text on Jessica's cell was at one-thirty, to another classmate cancelling dinner plans because she had a big assignment due the next day and was gonna be holed up in her room writing it that evening. But her computer doesn't indicate any use after one-thirty either."
"So Jessica went to her afternoon class from two to five p.m. and that's the last we know of until she was found," Rossi paused "Who found her?"
Prentiss waved a file, "Campus police called it in. Patrol was searching around the residences after her roommate reported her missing."
"Did someone speak to the officer involved?" Reid asked.
They looked to one another and Prentiss hauled out her cell phone to make a call.
Thirty seconds later, she gasped and muttered "Are you kidding me? Thank you." Turning to the others, she told them, "The reporting campus officer was Olivia Hendricks."
"Garcia?" Reid called.
"On it," she'd heard the entire exchange.
"I'm going to the Campus PD to get Olivia Hendricks' notebook," Prentiss told them over her shoulder as she stormed out the door.
Rossi glanced at the others and told them, "I'll be back in a few minutes," as he exited behind Prentiss, on his own mission.
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