About 20 minutes later, Rossi was sitting next to the driver in an ambulance. JJ and Reid were talking to the sheriff while Hotch, Morgan, and Prentiss were being attended to by EMTs. The driver's name was Linda and she had lost her husband Dale and her 14 year old son Miles in the fire.
Rossi touched Linda's shoulder and said, "I know that this has been a horrendous day for you, but is there any way you can explain to me in more detail about what happened?" Linda nodded and walked over to an intersection with Rossi. Both sat down while Linda whimpered, "I'm so sorry that I hit your vehicle."
"It's ok, it was an accident. You were trying to save your family. My team wasn't hurt," stated Rossi.
"I failed at trying to save my family. A man, a monster, snuck into our house about an hour ago. He started to walk around and look at photos of my family. My husband was extremely angry and threatened to call the police on him. The man then turned around and stabbed my son in the chest. He started to walk towards my husband with the knife in his hand, but my husband told me to run and get help. Last thing I saw before I darted out the back door was my husband and the intruder struggling for the knife. I left my baby boy bleeding to death on our kitchen floor!"
"How old was your son?"
"15. I know that made him a young man, but he was still my baby boy."
" Do you remember what the man looked like?"
"Um, yes- he was about 6 feet tall, white, and skinny with brown hair. I think he was around my husband's age- he was 42. He even had a little salt n' pepper like my husband did," Linda whimpered. She broke down crying on Rossi's shoulder. As Rossi let Linda cry on his shoulder, the other members of the team were finishing up getting checked on by EMTs. Prentiss and JJ stood next to the damaged SUV.
"We should have stayed in Hawaii," muttered Prentiss. She walked to the back of the SUV and took her go- bag out of the trunk. JJ followed her and said, "That's the 6th explosion. He's keeping up with the pattern- one a day."
"Is the driver ok?"
"Yes, she is giving Rossi her statement. "
"Ok. So he's breaking into homes once a day and murdering his victims. This is within the five mile radius- wait, do you have a map?"
"Of the town? No. "
Prentiss walked over to a police officer assessing the damage of Linda's car. She asked," Hey, do you have a map of the town?"
"Sure," the officer stated. He pulled out a crumpled map from his back pocket and handed it over to Prentiss. She opened up the map and laid it out on the hood of the car. The rest of the team gathered around her as she started drawing circles on the map. Morgan leaned over and said," Emily, what are you thinking?"
" This last explosion confirmed an idea that I had. There is a pattern- this last explosion was half a mile away from the last. The same goes for all of them. He still chooses a house at random,but within half a mile of the last one. He is also moving from the left side of town to the right."
"That's great. We need to inform the sheriff to patrol a half mile radius within the last fire," answered Hotch," Let's head to the police station and start a profile. Dave, I need you go to the coroner and see if he found cause of death for the victims of the fifth fire. JJ, set up a press conference to inform the citizens not to panic, but to be cautious. I don't want people panicking and setting him off."
JJ and Rossi nodded and went to get a ride with one of the town's police officers.
Ten minutes later, Hotch, Prentiss, Reid, and Morgan sat around a table in the police station. It was a very small and cramped building with only three rooms. Triangle only had four officers and 1 detective who all worked in 1 room. The other two rooms were used as a jail and a lunchroom. Rossi has just returned from the coroner while JJ was still conducting the press conference.
Hotch glanced up to Rossi as he entered the room. He asked, "Did you get any new information from the coroner?"
"Yeah, apparently the fifth fire victims died due to some kind of explosion. This occurred before the house was set on fire."
"Explosion? That's a big jump from stabbing and strangulation," stated Reid. He walked over to a whiteboard which had the case information listed on it. He wrote explosion next to a photo of the fifth fire victims.
"Did the coroner say what could have caused that?"
"No," responded Rossi, "He said he would look into later after he finished off the autopsy on the victims of the last fire. "
"Ok, so what information do we have for the profile?" asked Hotch.
"He has a way sneaking into homes undetected so he is probably knowledgeable about construction or the city's house blueprints. He continuously changes his killing strategy every time he gets into a home. He kills at random times of the day, but stays within half mile of the previous home. He also kills the son first, the father second, and then the mother last. The driver of the sedan that hit us said he was in his early forties, white, brown hair with salt n pepper, and about 6 feet tall. After killing the family, he burns the home down and sneaks away unnoticed," answered Morgan, "To be able to accomplish that, he's probably well educated."
Prentiss fingered through a file and said, "But according to the demographics of the town, 3500 of the people who live here are white males. Until we get DNA or some more evidence, we have only narrowed it down to about half the town."
"Well, let's call Garcia and see if she can find something that we are missing."