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Conversation over Lunch

Reid switched his phone to speaker. He punched in Garcia's number and waited for her to answer.

"You've reached Penelope Garcia, Supreme Goddess of the Information Superhighway. Speak fortunate mortal."

Detective O'Donnell elbowed Reid and mouthed "Goddess," at him.

"Shut up…" He mouthed back as the detective laughed silently.

"Hi Garcia… Reid here," he said with a bit of a squeak.

"Hello sweet cheeks… You must have read my mind. I was just about to call you."

"Garcia, I have you on speaker. The rest of the team's out, but Detective Katherine O'Donnell is with me."

"Hello detective," Garcia said.

"Hi," Katherine said, grinning at Reid.

"Did you find something about our victims?"

"I know everything there is to know about them handsome."

Reid sat down to listen. Katherine sat across from him and pulled out her notebook.

"We're ready Garcia."

"Okay… I'll start with the first victim. Elliot Carter, forty-seven years old. He worked as a carpenter. He didn't have a family and his parents are dead. He didn't have any brothers and sisters. In fact, I couldn't find any family for him at all. He paid all his bills on time. I didn't find any criminal record, not so much as one parking ticket.

The second victim, Stanley Olson, forty-five years old worked as an orderly for St. Mary's hospital in Baltimore. He's divorced, no children, again no family to speak of that I could find. I found a few parking tickets and one arrest for assault.

The latest victim, Harvey Keller is the most interesting. He'd just had his forty-second birthday. He worked as an accountant. He also had several DUIs on his record. He'd been from job to job in the last three years. His bosses had him under review for termination if he didn't stay sober. Since 2002, he has worked as an accountant for Garrison, Toby and Carlton. I can't find any spouses, children or family."

"Is that all Garcia?"

"You have that tone in your voice baby cakes, which says you doubt me."

"I'd never doubt you Garcia."

"I'll keep digging, but only because you're cute and I have a reputation to protect."

She hung up without goodbye.

Detective O'Donnell, began to laugh.

"What?"

"Nothing, I like her a lot. She's great. I'm glad you have someone that cares about you. I didn't think the FBI allowed it's agents to fraternize."

Reid looked at her in confusion, and then a light came on in his eyes. "She's not my girlfriend! She talks to everyone like that, well except for Hotch. She has a boyfriend at Quantico who's another technical analyst. She's my best friend, though."

"It's none of my business, sorry for making assumptions."

"It's okay. Garcia can be a bit of a mother bear, or so says JJ."

"She seems like it."

"So back to the case," Reid said, missing the look on his old friend's face."

"Yeah… So we know that this guy is in to killing people that are apparently alone in the world. Why? Does it make them easier targets?"

"Maybe, perhaps the un-sub is alone in the world too."

The conference door opened and the rest of the team filed into the room. "I just got off the phone with Garcia." Reid told them as they sat down around the table.

"What did she say?" Hotch asked.

Reid relayed what Garcia had found for them.

"So Harvey Keller is the only one that might fit into this guy's view of a sinner."

"Um… Scot- I mean Detective O'Donnell and I was talking about these." Reid pointed out the photographs of the ravens feathers.

He told them the same facts about the raven as he'd shared with the detective.

"So you think he's playing with us?" Hotch asked.

"I think it's a good possibility."

Hotch nodded his head. "I think you're right. Still, let's see if Garcia can dig a bit further under the surface. Unfortunately, these men were loners. We don't have family and friends to talk to about them. We'll have to rely on neighbors and co-workers."

"We did the knock on doors for each one of them as the killings happened," the detective said. "I'll get the reports for you."

Hotch nodded. "Thanks…" He looked at his watch. "It's nearly six pm."

"Time flies when you're having fun." Morgan quipped.

"There's a great little sandwich place around the corner," Detective O'Donnell said. "We're there so often they give me a discount. Give me your orders and I'll get some food for us."

"You don't have to do that," Hotch said. "It's not your job to wait on us."

"I wasn't planning on it SSA Hotchner. I'll just call it in and make Officer Weisenski go get it." She winked at Reid who went pink in the cheeks.

The food arrived half an hour later. Katherine made Officer Weisenski pass out the sandwiches and drinks to everyone before dismissing him. He gave her a withering look before stalking out of the room.

"Okay… What was that all about?" Morgan asked.

"He doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut." Katherine said, unwrapping her ham and Swiss on rye.

Reid kept his eyes on the roast beef and cheddar on sourdough he'd ordered.

Morgan tried another tact. "So where did you two meet?" He asked Katherine.

"Morgan!"

"Come on Hotch… We need a break to rest the brain cells and refuel." Morgan said.

"You don't have to answer him." Rossi told the detective.

"It's okay with me if it's okay with Spencer."

Reid choked on his Dr Pepper. "I don't care," he squeaked.

"We met about six months before he joined the FBI at Comic-con. I was there with some friends and he was there with a couple of friends from school. We competed against each other in a Star Trek trivia contest."

"Great… Another trekkie," Morgan said around his giant hoagie.

"Who won?" JJ asked curiously, as she delved into her pasta salad.

"I did," Katherine said.

It was Morgan's turn to choke on his food. "You're kidding me!"

"Nope," Katherine took a bite of her spinach salad.

"How did you do that?" Emily blurted out. "Sorry detective, I didn't mean to say -"

"It's okay… I didn't know who he was or that he had this genius thing going on so I wasn't intimidated."

"There had to be more to it than that." Morgan said, pointing a spoon at the detective.

"Do you want to tell them or shall I?" Katherine asked Reid.

Reid shook his head and studied his sandwich as if it might disappear right in front of him.

"Spencer has a prejudice again anything that isn't strictly Star Trek. I happen to like The Next Generation better."

"I don't have a prejudice." Reid retorted with the air of having had this argument hundreds of times in the past.

"Whatever!"

The team stopped eating and stared at them.

"She's exaggerating," Reid protested.

"He's in denial." Katherine said. "I won fair and square and he can't handle it."

"Yes I can!"

Emily giggled and Morgan laughed outright. Even Hotch's mouth was twitching a little.

"Admit it Spencer… If it isn't the original series, you pretend like it doesn't exist."

"What about you? You don't like the original series. You're the one that has a prejudice against the most groundbreaking science fiction series in the history of television."

"Okay wow, take a breath before your head explodes kid," Morgan laughed.

Reid looked at Hotch who seemed to be very interested in his potato salad. He could just see the smile on his boss's face.

"This argument will never be over as long as you're in denial." Katherine told Spencer.

"So how did you two get to be friends if you can't agree on who won that contest?"

"Spencer congratulated me. He was a very good loser. So I asked him out."

Reid choked again on his food.

"Oh… Sorry Spencer, open mouth insert foot." She shrugged.

"It's okay…"

"You guys dated."

"Morgan, how about we leave them alone and get back to work?" Hotch interrupted.

Everyone heard the command in Hotch's voice including Katherine who picked up her file. "Right, so let's go over it again shall we," she said.

Rossi grinned at her. "Whatever you say little lady?"

----

He pulled off his gloves and sat down in front of the mirror over his dressing table. A large portrait of a woman with flowing red hair and deep green eyes looked down at him as he began to work on his face.

"Dear sweet wife," he said in a silky whispering voice. "You shall not wait much longer for me. The police think they know all about me, but I'm leading them around by the nose, just as I'll lead around the profilers from Quantico.

He blew a kiss to her. "I'll see you very soon my sweet. Until then sleep well."

---

Garcia hummed as she watched code and information scroll down on her screens. So far, her searches hadn't turned up much, but patience had its rewards.

Someone knocked on her door and she jumped. "Who is it?" she shouted.

The door opened. "Are you busy my sweet?" Kevin asked.

"Go away," She waved at him. "I'm busy.

"Did you forget we had plans for dinner tonight?"

"I'm sorry Kevin. I can't, I really need to find something and I'm running a background check on a detective."

"You're what!"

"You heard me!"

He leaned against her desk. "Pen, you promised me and Hotch you wouldn't look into cops anymore."

"This isn't any cop. There's something going on with her and my Reid. I can hear it in his voice. I'm going to find out everything I can about her."

Kevin smiled. "Can't it wait until tomorrow?" He begged. "We haven't had a nice night out in weeks."

She relented and smiled back at him. "Okay, I'll set up my system to alert me by email on my phone if something comes up."

"That's all I ask."

"Come on my tech god, you owe me Italian," She got up and pulled him by his tie out of her office