Chapter Twelve

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"So what's Jess going to be for Halloween?" JJ asked as she and Emily refilled their coffee cups at the station in the small town in Idaho they found themselves in.

"She's going to be a lady bug. I found the most adorable costume for her when I was shopping a couple weeks ago. I can't wait to see her in it," the excited mother commented.

"Neither can I, you're still bringing her to all our houses for trick-or-treating even though she can't eat the candy?" the blonde checked. Emily nodded she knew everyone wanted to see Jessie and Spencer's favorite holiday was Halloween so she knew he'd have more fun than all of them combined.

"It's so hard to believe she's already four months old. Where did the time go?" Emily mused.

"I don't know, but I really can't believe mine and Morgan's wedding is in two months," JJ said beaming.

"Neither can I, you're going to knock his socks off in that dress," the brunette stated. JJ smiled, the girls of the BAU had gone dress shopping a couple of months ago and JJ had found the perfect dress as well as brides maids dresses for both Emily and Garcia. "When's your alteration appointment?"

"Next week assuming we don't have a case, which I really hope we don't. Speaking of the case, we really need to get back so we can see where they guys are now and hopefully catch this unsub soon so you and Spence can get back to Jessie," JJ said as she opened the door to the break room and began making her way back to the conference room the team had been given, Emily following in her footsteps.

XXXX

"Okay, what do we have so far?" Hotch asked as they sat around the table.

"Unfortunately not much, the unsub strangles the women then leaves them on park benches to be found. Obviously he's dropping them their at night otherwise they would be found before the next morning and he would have been caught before now. Rossi and I talked to the first two victim's families and they said they didn't have any enemies and they couldn't tell us who would want to hurt them," Morgan began.

"Emily and I had the same luck," Hotch answered.

"The geographic profile doesn't have enough yet to really help me narrow down the zone. I think we'll need at least one more body before I can do that, unfortunately," Reid explained regretfully.

"I'm ready to give a press conference with the profile as soon as we can establish it," JJ added.

"Garcia, have you found any connections between the victims yet?" Hotch asked the tech who was skyped in.

"None that I can find so far, the victims don't live near the park they're dumped at. The only connection I've found is the one you already know which is the unsub dumps them at the same park. So maybe that park is significant to him instead?" she suggested. She wasn't a profiler, but that was the only thing that made sense to her.

"You could be on to something, baby girl," Morgan commented.

"Yes, you could be, please search police records for problems at that park. Focus on violent occurrences and harming of animals. Go back for an entire year and I might have you go back farther if necessary," Hotch informed the colorful tech.

"I'll get right on that, and hit you back when I get something, Garcia out," she said hanging up the phone and beginning to type as fast as her fingers could type.

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Everyone continued to go over everything they had on the case but felt like they were getting no where. They'd been on the case for two days now and they knew that if the unsub stuck to pattern they'd find another young woman strangled and left on a park bench tomorrow morning. None of them liked it, but they knew there was nothing they could do to prevent it. Watching Emily rub her eyes and yawn for the third time in fifteen minutes, Hotch made a decision. It was now 7:00 A.M. and they'd been at this and interviewing the families of the victims since 8:00 that morning.

"It's time to call it a night, let's grab dinner then had back to the hotel. We'll get back at this in the morning. We're all tired and when we're tired, we miss things," the unit chief said as he gathered up the files he'd been reading and after packing them into his briefcase, headed out of the conference room, knowing the rest of the team would be right behind him.

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"I hate the feeling of spinning our wheels," Reid commented as he and Emily walked into the hotel room they shared.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. I feel like we take one step forward and two steps back. Hopefully we'll get lucky and there won't be a body tomorrow morning."

"As much as I'd like to hope for that, I'm afraid we won't get so lucky," the genius replied. Emily shook her head sadly, she knew he was right, but it didn't mean she had to like it. She said as much to him.

"I know you're right, but I don't have to like it," she grumbled.

"No, you don't have to like it, I don't like it. What do you say we call and check on our girl? That's bound to make you feel better and help you forget about this for a while," he suggested.

"Okay, I like that idea," Emily said sitting on the bed next to Spencer as he pulled out his phone and dialed Elizabeth's number so they could check on their sweet baby girl.