Chapter 8

Kat's POV

Reid rang the doorbell of Keith Perry's rather large house. Honestly I found the size of it kind of obnoxious. I'm pretty sure the main barn on the ranch I grew up on was smaller than this house. While we waited for someone to answer I turned to Reid, "What exactly does this guy do for a living?"

"He's the head of a major advertising company." He responded.

Before I could say anything else the door was opened by a girl who looked to be about six, maybe seven. I tried for my most friendly smile. "Hi, I'm Dr. Katarina Mars and this is Dr. Spencer Reid. We work for the FBI. Is your dad home? We need to talk to him." Ok. Not something most six year-olds will respond to, but we're working against a clock and I will never claim to be the best with kids.

Before she answered me a man who I assumed to be Mr. Perry came up behind her. "Tess, why don't you go play in your room while I talk to these agents?"

Tess flashed me a shy smile before running off into the house. Mr. Perry motioned us inside. We walked in and followed him into a very posh living room. He sat in an armchair and Reid and I settled on the couch. He made the first move. "I'm assuming you're here about the murder of Leah."

I nodded. "Mr. Perry-"

He cut me off. "Please call me Keith."

"Ok. Keith, we were wondering, were you ever out at the bar alone and then struck up a conversation about your love life with a stranger at some point a few weeks before Leah's death?"

He looked confused. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Reid piped up. "We have reason to believe that the Unsub selected his victims through their exes."

I picked up the thread from there. "And what better way to figure out which guy got dumped by their girl than talking to them at the bar?"

He considered. Then, "Yeah. About a week before she was killed. I was sitting at the bar upset because she and I had a fight about her taking permanent custody of Tess. Anyway around my third beer this guy comes up. We exchange the usual pleasantries and somehow the conversation turned to my relationship with Leah. I ended up spilling pretty much everything to him."

Reid and I exchanged glances. My longshot idea just might be what's happening. Boom goes the dynamite. I looked back at Keith. "Can you give us a description?"

"It was my third beer and a week before she was even killed so it's a little fuzzy, but he definitely had dark brown eyes. I remember because those eyes kind of gave me the creeps the way he was watching me when I was talking to him. And I think his hair was blonde."

I nodded. "Anything else you can remember? Did he say his name?"

He thought a movement and shook his head. "If he gave me his name I don't remember it."

"Alright. Thank you for speaking with us Keith."

"Hey, whatever I can do to help you catch this guy."

An hour and a half later the team was once again gathered in the conference room. And we were feeling pretty pumped. We all had varying forms of the same success from talking to the victims' exes. And to make the deal even better, Eli Clark remembered a name. We were currently eating fast food and waiting for Garcia to call us back with a full report on Cody Salazar.

I had just finished the last of my fries when Morgan's phone rang. Putting it on speaker he answered. "Hey Baby Girl. What've you got?"

"Well at the first glance it looks like you were just fed a name to make you happy. This guy had no parking or traffic violations of any kind. No juvenile record. No current police record. Just your average citizen. But, then again isn't almost always the ones you don't expect? With that thought I dug deeper and what do you know? Our guy's ex-girlfriend took out a restraining order."

"That's why he picked women who recently dumped a guy. He was rejected by his own girlfriend." Prentiss.

"He gets a breakup story from a guy and goes after the girl." Rossi.

"Garcia what's the girl's name?" Hotch asked.

"Kelsey Meyers. And before you ask, I already sent you both his address and her phone number."

"Thanks Garcia." Hotch said hanging up.

"JJ call Kelsey Meyers, see what she can tell us about Cody. Everyone else will go see if he's home."

We pulled up in front of Cody Salazar's house. When we got out everyone formed up and headed to their positions assigned by Hotch on the drive over. Hotch, Morgan, and Prentiss took the front. Reid, Rossi, and I looped around the back.

We waited. Then there was Hotch's call of, "Cody Salazar, FBI." Followed by some cussing and the sound of the door breaking down. That was immediately followed by Salazar busting through the back door. I reacted first, holstering my gun and sticking my arm out to knock him to the ground. I admit I was gloating a little when I looked him right in the eye and said, "Cody Salazar, you're under arrest as a suspect in the murders of Leah Kane, Kristy Thomas, and Morgan Bell."

I know its bribery, but I'm going to do it anyway. If I get around 10 reviews I'll post another chap Friday night at the latest. So please let me know what you think.:~)