A/N: I own nothing. Thanks for reading, you guys are awesome!
Chapter 10: The porcelain doll.
Time: Wednesday the 19th of January 2005
Location: Comfort Inn Hotel, Knoxville, around 04.00 A.M.
In a dark hotel room the scilence was broken by the sound of a phone ringing. A high, consistent noise combined with a vibrating sound. In a couple of moments Hotch was wide awake and answered the phone with a single word.
"Hotchner."
The voice of Niels Donaldson came through the phone, "Sorry to wake you up like this, but we might have another victim, belonging to our copy-cat killer."
Hotch got up from the bed and began dressing himself while talking to Niels, "Where was she found?"
"The body was dumped in an ally, close to a bar. Besides that fact, the MO seems to fit to the smallest detail", Niels answered him.
"Okay, I´ll wake up my team. We´ll be there in half an hour." Hotch answered.
Niels seemed relieved at those words, as he answered, "Thanks, I´ll text you the address. I´ll meet you all there."
Time: Wednesday the 19th of January 2005
Location: The alley behind the bar Fancy This!, Knoxville.
Reid took in the scene around him. The alley was littered with indescribable amounts of garbage. It was long, narrow and poor lighted. It was still pitch-black, as the sun hadn't set yet. The crime scene team had set up some extra lamps, as to better see the scene. The victim seemed bathed in the sharp, artificial light. Her face resembled that of a porcelain doll with her pale, white skin and deep red lips. Her head rested upon her raven black hair which lay spread on the ground around her head almost like a halo. She was dressed for a night in town with her semi-short dress, big necklace and black coat. She seemed fast asleep except for the wide open blue eyes and the big pool of blood that had formed around her head. Her arms were twisted in a weird form, like she had been struggling to the very end. The whole scene seemed dominated with black and white colors, except from the red colors from her lipstick, her red lips and the dark red pool of blood on the ground.
Morgan, Hotch, Emily and Reid had driven directly to the crime scene, while Gideon and JJ had driven to the police station. JJ and Gideon were planning to compare the case files from the old murders by Ned Thompson in the 1980´ties with the case files from the three newly unearthed female individuals. In addition they were going to compare those case files with the new victims from the copy cat. Hopefully they would dig something useful up, Reid thought. Time was beginning to be more and more of the essence with this case. The fact that the killer was now dumping a body near the town center was a serious thing. The UnSub was escalating his violent behavior and was now outside of his former comfort zone, the woods.
"So, what we dealing with here is a clear escalation in behavior from what we have previously seen from this UnSub." Morgan thought aloud. "He is escalating, and there´s no way he is just going to stop by himself." Morgan continued.
"That's right", Reid answered. "He´s most possibly going to continue this killing spree until we stop him. And he´s going to kill again soon, if he´s going to stick to his new pattern."
"So time is of the essence then", Niels said determinedly. "I´ll go talk to some of the bar guests. One of them might have seen our UnSub.", Niels continued.
"I´ll join you.", Emily said.
In the meantime, Morgan was walking by himself around the alley, trying to think like the UnSub. This alley was a strategically good place to ambush somebody. It was narrow, poor lighted and stuffed with obstructions.
"I´m the UnSub. I hide in the shadows of this alley and ambush her as she walks past me." Morgan thought aloud.
"Not to bring you down, Morgan", Reid's voice sounded from behind him "But it looks to me like this girl was hit with a blunt instrument in the front of her head.", Reid clarified, as he saw Morgan´s puzzled look.
Morgan hurried over to Reid and took a closer look himself. "Yeah, you´re right.", he said absentmindedly for a second, and then moved back on track "So this girl wasn't attacked from behind, but was most likely facing her killer. That means this killer doesn't feel inferior to women. He likes to watch them die." Morgan said.
"And that is an important difference as to the original murders by Ned Thompson, where his victims was hit from behind. He didn't face them." Reid said excitedly. "We´ll need to call JJ and Gideon so they can compare our UnSub's murders with Ned Thompson´s murders. Perhaps this is a repeating pattern in the UnSub's MO – which would set him apart from the original murders." Reid said.
"Yeah, I´ll call JJ right away." Morgan said as he found his phone and started dialing JJ´s number.
Time: Wednesday the 19th of January 2005, around noon.
Place: Knoxville police station.
Around noon the whole BAU team was gathered at the policestation to inform eachother on the progress made so far.
As the team and Niels was settled in the small meeting room, Emily spoke up "Niels and I interviewed the bar guests from last night. A couple of girls told us they had spotted what they described as a "creepy old guy" with short, grayish-brown hair, blue eyes and a brown coat. He was carrying some kind of bag too. They both felt scared by the fact he kept on starring at them the whole time they were there. When they decided to leave for the night, they spotted him getting ready to leave too. But at that time, Lilly Adams walked in, and he decided to stay instead."
"We´ll need those girls to talk to a sketch artist", Hotch said.
"Already on it." Emily responded.
"JJ and I went through the case files. Reid´s assumption was correct. This UnSub doesn't kill from behind like Ned Thompson did. That is an important change from the original MO." Gideon explained.
"Actually, it isn't the only one." Reid said. As everyone now looked at him he quickly continued explaining his thoughts "Ned Thompson had a complex and organized method he would always stick to. The original profile of him described him as a highly organized and disciplined killer. I think it's weird that a copycat wouldn't try to copy that aspect of the crimes also. From distance the copycat's killings seems to fit the MO of Ned Thompson's killings to the letter. But there are these small differences I can't help but think is important."
Reid stood up and walked to the board where the case photos was hanging, and continued speaking, "Ned Thompson would dumb his victims in the woods. This UnSub copies the MO, but not entirely. The first five victims were indeed dumped in the woods around Knoxville, but they were dumped close to waste containers. This might give us an idea about how he perceives women."
"Like garbage." Emily said.
"Exactly. And if we adopt this view to the new crime scene, the dumpsite in the alley doesn't seem so out of his pattern after all. It is closer to the town, but the symbolic value of women as trash is amplified." Reid said.
"Good work everybody. We´ll need to talk to Ned Thompson ourselves. I´ve scheduled an interview time with him this afternoon. Gideon and I will go talk to him. JJ, please set up a press conference and give them the profile. Reid, Emily and Morgan; please release the profile to the rest of the police station." Hotch said, as he gave out the assignments for the rest of the day.
"We´ll meet up again around 6.00 PM to discuss our progress again." Hotch quickly added, as the team was getting ready to leave.
As Hotch spotted Reid, he quickly spoke up again, "Oh, and Reid - remember to talk to Dr. Milford about the tests from yesterday. We need to know his professional opinion about Ned Thompson's murders and the UnSub's murders. Also, try to get your hands on his original material from the case."
"Okay" Reid answered, as he walked out the door with the rest of the team.