"Current influences should turn this day into one with plenty of potential, but avoid trap of trying too hard. Know your strengths. Rely on them. confidence, real or pretend, is your magic ingredient." Garcia read from the newspaper. Rowan chuckled. From her seat across from the blonde, tech genius.
"Confidence. Yes, I like that." Kevin Lynch, Garcia's boyfriend and technical analyst, said.
"Come on, guys, you don't think there's actually anything to that stuff, do you?" Derek said, sitting on the table that Rowan and Penelope were placed at.
"You'd be surprised." Penelope responded, confidently.
"It's gibberish." Emily said as she stirred her coffee.
"Thank you." Derek sipped his coffee.
"Oh, you are just jealous because you don't have the magic ingredient." Penelope determined.
"I have the magic ingredient. It's called splenda." Emily fired back, jokingly.
"All right, skeptic, what's your sign?" Kevin asked.
"Uh oh." Rowan said, looking back at Emily.
"No." Emily said simply.
"No. Is that in April?" Penelope's sarcasm made Rowan laugh. "Reid, we need a DOB on Prentiss."
"Ah, 7:12 AM, October 12, 19-" Spencer started but was cut off by Emily.
"Hey!" Emily said, stopping him from saying the year she was born.
"Libra. I should have known." Penelope looked on the newspaper for Libra's horoscope. "A romantic opportunity may experience a slight hitch thanks to the pesky lunar influence which could have you dipping into a rather chilly mood. If being demonstrative and warm is difficult, then neutralize this temporary cold front with a simple but affectionate gesture." Penelope sent a cheeky grin to the dark haired agent.
"I have a simple gesture." Emily simply flipped the bird, earning a laugh from the group.
"What about you, honey buns?" Penelope raised an eyebrow at the young doctor.
"I refuse." Rowan chuckled. "Everybody hates my sign."
"Okay, searching for Gemini." Penelope smirked as Rowan rolled her eyes. "Ah! Here we go. 'Your curiosity is well known, dear Gemini. This is the perfect time to get serious both in and out of privacy of the bed-"
"Okay, we're done here." Rowan snatched the newspaper and held it away from Penelope, Rowan's cheeks red. She wasn't the only one. Spencer had a noticeable blush going on as well.
"You guys ready to gather?" JJ said, moving into the room, a new haircut. Her blonde hair was now chopped to her collarbones.
"Well, look at you, miss thing. First day back and you're all business." Derek said, saluting JJ.
"Well, it's either dive right in or confront my separation anxiety." JJ smiled nervously.
"It's tough being away from him, huh?" Rowan asked. JJ nodded in response.
"Oh, hey, that's new, isn't it?" Emily asked, looking down at JJ's right hand as Garcia looked at it closely. A gorgeous orangey-gold stone was surrounded by small diamonds on a silver band.
"Yeah, citrine. It's henry's birthstone. Will and I both got one." JJ smiled down at the ring.
"Oh, that's sweet." Penelope smiled up at the petite blonde woman.
"You done with this?" JJ asked Rowan, pointing at the newspaper.
"All yours." Rowan flashed a cheeky grin at Garcia as she handed the newspaper to JJ. Penelope stuck her tongue out at Rowan and smiled.
The team gathered in the round table room and waited for Hotch to arrive to begin the debriefing.
"There's been a string of abductions in Olympia, Washington, going back 9 months. Blue-eyed, blondes, early 20s. This morning they found one." JJ clicked through the slides of victim photos.
"When were they taken?" Hotch asked.
"9 months ago." JJ clicked through more photos.
"So she was the first?" Emily asked.
"Yeah."
"Looks almost mummified." Rossi noticed.
"Uh, not exactly." JJ said, raising her eyebrows.
"Frozen?" Derek asked.
"Embalmed." JJ answered, earning surprised looks from the group.
"That's a new one." Rowan said, looking at the photos on the screen.
"So the time of death is a bit of a question mark right now." JJ informed.
"Where did they find her?" Hotch asked.
"In a state park just east of Olympia. Seasonal hiking area. The body was jarred loose during a mudslide. That, plus the abnormal decomp makes it difficult to know how long she was there."
"It says the victims were abducted about 3 months apart. He's rotating his victims out." Spencer added.
"There are gonna be more bodies out there. Wheels up in 30." Hotch determined and the team dispersed.
"So if I wanted to embalm a body, well, what's the process?" Emily asked, coming from the drink counter.
"Start with some nose plugs." Derek chuckled at his own joke. Rowan rolled her eyes, across from Derek and Spencer, next to Rossi.
"The blood is drained through the jugular vein And replaced with embalming fluid through one of the two major arteries. It usually takes a few hours." Spencer said. Rowan observed the way he talked with his hands. He caught her looking at him and she sent him a wink. A quiet flirtation. He blushed and averted her eyes for a moment.
"Then you'd need special equipment, training. Knowledge of the human vascular system would also be a plus." Rossi looked through the case file.
"A doctor, maybe." JJ shrugged.
"A nurse, technician, somebody with a background in mortuary sciences." Hotch suggested as well.
"Now, there's a major they didn't offer at my school." Derek threw in.
"Personally, the whole thing just seems weird to me. Embalming, I mean." Emily had an odd look on her face.
"Some people like to look good for their funeral." Derek defended.
"But it's not them. It's just a shell, polished and painted. I just want to be cremated." Emily concluded.
"The question is why somebody would embalm the body of someone they just murdered." Hotch inquired.
"He wants to hold on to them. It's a possession issue." Rossi said.
"He may have an attachment to them or whom they are surrogates for.' Rowan added.
"Maybe fear of abandonment speaks to his history." Derek suggested.
"But eventually even an embalmed body will decay and he finds himself in need of new victims." Spencer said, looking down at the victim photos.
"That explains the abduction cycle. A new victim every 3 months. Which means at least 2 of the remaining women are already dead. It's been 4 days since Brooke Lombardini disappeared following her shift at a local restaurant. We know the odds." Hotch placed her photo on the table in the middle of the group.
"90% of all abduction victims are killed within the first 36 hours." Spencer said, his voice low.
"Brooke worked the closing shift the night she disappeared. She would have walked this way to her car." The lead detective on the case, Foley, lead us in front of Brooke's workplace.
"Upscale restaurant?" Hotch asked.
"Well, let's just say that I don't go unless it's on someone else's dime." Foley admitted.
"What are you thinking?" Emily asked. Looking at Rowan and Hotch. Hotch looked to Rowan for an answer.
"Each of these women were taken as they left work. High-end spa, nice restaurant, jewelry store.
If he patronizes these businesses, then he's got money. Unless the unsub has a job or connections at all three locations, which is highly unlikely, due to the distances between each location and the hiring requirements at high end establishments." Rowan spoke with confidence, earning a smile from Emily and a stern nod from Hotch.
"It narrows the profile a little." Hotch added.
"The cook said that he left just a few minutes after brooke. Saw her car there, driver's side door open." Detective Foley informed.
"He was quick. Surprised her. She probably never saw him coming." Hotch concluded.
"It says in here they recovered her necklace, amethyst, broken chain?" Emily asked as the group slowed to a stop.
"Right here, right next to the car. We processed it but we couldn't get anything off of it. Just some of her hair in the clasp." Foley informed.
"I'd like to take a look at it." Hotch requested.
"Yeah, well, I gave it back to her mother." Foley admitted.
"Isn't it a little premature to be returning evidence to the family?" Hotch raised an eyebrow.
"There were special circumstances. Brooke's mother, She hired someone. Guy by the name of, uh, Stanley Usher. He helped find a kid in portland a couple years ago." Foley informed.
"Private investigator?" Rowan asked.
"A psychic." Foley said, earning a look from the agents.
"What does that have to do with the necklace?" Emily wondered aloud.
"Apparently he can read personal things, their aura. I don't know." Detective shrugged.
"So what did he tell her?" Hotch asked.
Hotch had assigned Rowan with Derek and Spencer, to go to the ME's office, knowing she'd never had that experience before.
"Annette Hagen, Erin Bonham, and Melissa St. Claire, all embalmed." Spencer read from the case file. Rowan looked at the bodies of the 3 blonde women.
"That's the first 3. That leaves the Lombardini girl still out there." Derek said, also looking at the bodies.
"What's the COD?" Rowan asked, taking a closer look at the victim's faces.
"Blood loss." The ME responded.
"Blood loss? They were alive when they were embalmed?" Spencer asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Looks that way. Tox screens show significant levels of barbiturate. They were sedated, maybe unconscious." ME responded.
"Guys, look at this." Derek pointed at all three victims. "They all have the same haircut."
"These are recent photos. These two had much longer hair at the time of their abduction."
"So the unsub cut their hair, possibly to fit the image of a surrogate." Rowan added.
"Something else he may have done. Their ears have all been double-pierced." The ME informed.
"Were they sexually assaulted?" Spencer questioned.
"Not exactly. There was no tearing or bruising that would normally suggest it. But I did find trace amounts of semen."
"You're saying it may have been consensual?" Rowan raised an eyebrow.
"No. She's saying the sexual assault happened post mortem." Derek said.
"I spoke to the families. None of the victims had double-pierced ears at the time of their abduction." JJ informed the group of agents as they gathered around the evidence board.
"Cutting hair and piercing ears." Hotch said, with furrowed eyebrows.
"He's changing them." Rowan sat on one of the table surrounding the evidence board.
"It's who, though?" Derek questioned.
"The burial suggests an affection for his victims. Which says he might be remaking them into the image of a loved one." Hotch crossed his arms. Spencer took a seat next to Rowan.
"The ME found high levels of barbiturate?" JJ asked.
"Yeah. Why?" Derek responded.
"Just, uh, something the psychic said. He said that brooke felt tired, heavy." JJ said.
"Why are we talking about the psychic? It's a scam. This guy talks without saying anything and you fall for it." Rossi sounded frustrated.
"Well, he said that Brooke's alive, so I guess I just want to believe him." JJ said, looking at the case file.
"We need to give the profile." Hotch declared.
"By now we know the dna found on the victims did not match anyone in the system, so we're gonna have to look beyond physical evidence to identify the killer." Hotch said to the group of officers and investigators.
"Our unsub is a white male in his mid to late 20s, and he has money. He lives alone, in a large residence." Emily began.
"With that being said, within the residence, there's enough space and ventilation to accommodate an embalming suite." Rowan added.
"He's awkward with people, especially women. An inability to relate socially is common in homicidal necrophiles." Hotch continued.
"Because of the alterations to the bodies, we believe the unsub is attempting to recreate a woman he once loved." Derek said.
"Like a girlfriend?" A detective questioned.
"Or a wife, a mother. Someone who left or died suddenly." Derek answered.
"This projection of the loved one coupled with his need to preserve the victims through embalming is similar to the psychopathology of serial murderer Ed Gein. Gein had an oedipal complex which developed in the years he nursed his paralyzed mother back from a stroke. After she died, his obsession compelled him to dig up corpses of women who resembled his mother. So persistent was his desire to resurrect his dead mother that He actually dressed in female suits fashioned from human skin. Eventually, gein grew unhappy with the flesh of dead bodies, Which had a tendency to dry and crack, So he shifted his focus to live victims whose bodies he could better preserve." Spencer informed the group from beside Rowan.
"The evolution from dead to live victims will also be mirrored in our unsub's maturation." Hotch crossed his arms.
"We've put together a list of incident reports prior to 2006. You're going to want to follow up on these.
Now, they are inappropriate postmortem conduct, cadaver theft, and graveyard disturbances." Emily handed a file to the lead investigator.
"60% of necrophiliacs are in the death business, so be sure to canvass local cemeteries, mortuaries, and morgues." Spencer added.
"And since we have the killer's dna, we're gonna be sending you out with kits to swab potential suspects." Morgan held up swab kits.
"The odds of finding Brooke Lombardini alive are slim, But the quicker we identify the killer, the better her chances are. For her sake, let's work fast." Hotch said just before he dismissed the group.
The investigation took an odd turn after a distressed 911 call from Brooke Lombardini came in. Brooke's mother confirmed the voice. Garcia narrowed the location down, but not by much.
"Dave, I agree with you about psychics, But the fact is Sandra Lombardini positively identified her daughter's voice. We have to assume that that call was genuine." Hotch said.
"So what do we think? Why is the unsub keeping brooke alive? And how long do we think she has until he kills her?" Hotch began questioning the group to get some brainstorming involved.
"Maybe he needs them alive to effect their transformation." Spencer suggested.
"The change in the hair, the makeup, piercing the ears, that would only take a few hours.
He's had her for almost 5 days." Derek said, knitting his eyebrows together.
"Ok, so maybe it's about something more than just appearance. Maybe it's something deeper.' Emily pointed out.
"On the phone she made it sound li she was being locked up, and she sounded drugged. These are control mechanisms used in cases of sexual slavery, mind control." Spencer said.
"They're being brainwashed." Rowan said.
"So he's trying to break her down, make her surrender her identity." Hotch said.
"That's what he's waiting for. That's the version of them he wants to hold onto." Rossi sighed.
"The longer she holds out, the longer she stays alive. And as soon as she accepts her new role, her fate is sealed." Hotch crossed his arms.
After a bit of digging from Garcia and some notes from Spencer's graveyard visit, a woman named Abigail Hanson popped up at the top of the 'Possible surrogate' list.
Rowan was assigned to go to the Gless family home, where Abby last worked before her sudden death, with Hotch and Rossi.
"I think about Abigail from time time. She was such a nice girl." Mrs. Gless said as the couple had a butler pour the agents some tea. Rowan sat between Rossi and Hotch.
"She was like one of the family." Mr. Gless added.
"Was that why you paid for the funeral?" Hotch questioned.
"She didn't have anyone else. She was from Holland."
"What kind of work did she do for you?" Rowan asked, taking a sip of the tea that was poured for her.
"She was the Au Pair. And there was some cooking and cleaning." Mrs. Gless said.
"She took care of the children? Rossi questioned.
"Just the one. Our son roderick."
"Here." Mr. Gless moved to a glass cabinet and pulled out a picture frame. "This is the two of them together. They were close." The father handed the photo to Hotch.
"She basically raised the boy." Mrs. Gless confessed.
"Well, I wouldn't go quite that far."
"No? What would you call it? Patrick likes to think he was a good father." Mrs. Gless jabbed.
"So, why do you want to know about Abigail?" Mr. Gless questioned, crossing his arms and ignoring his wife's statement.
"We believe that there may be a connection to some recent murders. Someone she knew."Hotch informed.
"How old was your son when Abigail died?" Rowan asked.
"He was 9. We weren't here when it happened. We were on a cruise." Mr. Gless took a seat.
"But Roderick was here with Abigail?" Hotch asked.
"When we returned, we knew something was wrong. The smell. They were in his room on the floor." Mrs. Gless started.
"He was Curled up next to her, with her arms around him. It's how he got to sleep."
"How long had she been dead?" Rossi inquired.
"The coroner said 2, maybe 3 days. I didn't have the stomach for the details."
"We'd like to speak to Roderick." Hotch requested.
"Well, if I knew where he was I'd be happy to tell you. But we haven't spoken for years. When he turned 21, he dropped out of medical school, liquidated his trust fund." Mr. Gless spoke.
"We knew he was troubled. But I had no idea he would ever hurt someone."
"They don't know for sure that he's- y-you don't know for sure?" Mr. Gless asked, almost frantic.
"When was your last communication?" Rossi asked.
"We got a letter about a year ago." Mrs. Gless moved to retrieve the letter and handed it to Rossi.
"Can we borrow this?" Rossi wondered.
"You can have it. And while you're at it, take this, too." Mrs. Gless handed Rossi the photo of Abigail and Roderick.
Further questioning lead the team to the location that Roderick was holding Brooke Lombardini. JJ had taken the letter given to Rossi by the Gless parents, to the Psychic. The psychic said that he'd be near a rocky shoreline.
That rocky shoreline turned out to be a brewery mural painting, within line of sight from Roderick's embalming room.
Brooke was found alive and taken to the hospital with her mother.
Back at the station, Rowan packed up the evidence board into a file box, to take back to Quantico once the department had gotten copies of everything. As she was unpinning papers, she felt someone move to stand behind her.
Spencer was careful to make sure they were the only ones in the room. He slipped an arm around her waist and rested his head on her shoulder, letting out a sigh.
"This was one of the happy endings." Rowan smiled at Brooke's picture as she unpinned it.
"I hear that Brooke is going to need cognitive therapy due to the drugs and being brainwashed into thinking she was Abigail, but physically, she'll be okay once the drugs have made their way out of the system." Spencer smiled.
"Hey, Hotch said the-" Rossi walked into the room, to find a slight display of affection between the two doctors. At his sudden words, they jumped and stepped apart. Rossi took in the sight of the two of them. Red cheeks and awkward stances. He huffed a laugh to himself.
"Anyway," Rossi began. "Hotch said the cars are ready to take us to the jet. You two almost done, uh, packing up the evidence board?" Rossi decided to poke a little fun.
"Yeah, just finished up." Rowan nodded, awkwardly. Spencer stayed quiet and avoided eye contact with Rossi. Rossi nodded and went to walk out but paused and faced the doctors again.
"You two are great together." Rossi flashed them both a smile before exiting the room.
"We've definitely been caught." Rowan tried to hold back laughter.
"At least it wasn't Hotch himself." Spencer shrugged and grabbed the file box as Rowan closed the lid.
Spencer and Rowan sat next to each other on the jet ride back to Quantico. Rowan, however, dozed off and curled herself into a ball on the seat. Spencer looked over to his girlfriend and found himself smiling at her like an idiot.
He saw her go bag sitting next to her and opened it to find her blanket that she always brought on cases. He let the blanket fall unfolded and covered Rowan's sleeping body with it.
He decided it was time for a cup of sugar with some coffee added. He stood to go to the drink counter and pour himself a cup. Out of his peripheral view, he saw a blonde blob headed toward him. He turned his head to see JJ, a big smile on her face.
"I'm gone for a little over three weeks and you get yourself a girlfriend while I'm gone." JJ folded her arms and leaned against the counter while smiling up at Spencer. He smiled as he stirred his coffee.
"Did a birdy named Rossi tell you that?" Spencer hid his smile.
"Actually, 3 little birdies named Rossi, Morgan and Prentiss." JJ confessed, earning a look from Spencer. "Morgan and Prentiss told me that you two were smitten the other night after the gypsy case."
Spencer sighed, "I knew they were watching us." He chuckled.
"I'm really happy for you, Spence. You seem happy already."
He nodded, looking past JJ's shoulder and grinning widely.
"She's everything I could ever ask and hope for."
I just wanted to thank all of you and apologize. I'm not really good at sticking to a schedule. Thank you for being so patient. I have done a lot of thinking and reading since I last updated, and I believe my next move is to rebuild this story, make it more of a slow burn. I do have one more chapter of this version completely written, if you'd like me to post the 'last' chapter, leave me a review and let me know! xoxo