Chapter 14

Dr. Spencer Reid and Dr. George Huang were sitting in the conference room of their temporary home. The two had been brought in to develop a profile on whoever was killing crime lab personnel in three states. A majority of the victims were from the NYPD Crime Lab but there was now one from New Jersey as well. The two had spent hours scowerring through the evidence that had been collected over the past several months. They weren't amused over the fact that there were gaps in all the evidence collected due to either the theft or destruction of the evidence from each of the crime scenes. That piece of information alone told them that there was a great possibility that it was an inside job.

They had started with the first case which had the only known survivor, Lindsay Monroe. George read through the medical records that had been provided and he had told himself that it had been a miracle that she was still alive. If two of her co-workers hadn't walked into the lab that night when they did her body would have been discovered instead. He continued reading summarizing everything in his head: multiple stab wounds, massive blood loss, injuries to several major organs, one major artery cut, broken arm, broken ribs, skull fracture resulting in a traumatic brain injury, three week gap in memory. By all rights she should have been dead but she's not and she is still undergoing therapy for her injuries especially the TBI. Huang had to smile to himself. She was determined to get her life back and return to work. That said a lot about her.

Reid was looking over the photos of all the crimes scenes the brutality was unbelievable. This person was demonstrating a lot of rage based on what he saw. The numerous stab woulnds told him that whoever the unsub was, he had no control at all. It's as if he was lashing out at someone who works in a crime lab and that the anger and viciousness demonstrated indicated a large hatred of female lab techs and investigators. But Why?

After going through everything ending with the autopsy reports the two began putting a profile together. What they found was that the unsub is most likely familiar with crime scene investigations and procedures. The thefts of evident out of the NYPD Crime Lab alone told them that it had to be someone familiar with the lab and its procedures. But the viciousness of the attacks was enough to tell them that the women were the targets meaning that whoever the unsub is had had a major breakup in a relationship he thought was going well.

"I hate to say this, George but we are going to have to go back and interview anyone in these women's lives especially anyone with law enforcement and crime scene backgrounds."

"I have an idea where to start," pulling out Lindsay's file. "According to this, she had broken up with a Daniel Messer six weeks before the attack and after the breakup it had turned ugly."

"Look according to this, he used to work in the crime lab." Reid pointed out. "They were co-workers. We need to get the team to start with him first and run a full background check on him."

"There's a note here that says he had been considered a suspect in her attack," Huang pointed out. "But they haven't been able to find any evidence linking him to the attack or the theft of the evidence in that case."

"Yes, and the theft has hampered the investigation."

That had to be the most frustrating part of the whole thing in all of the cases, lack of evidence. The entire team had seen it right away and they had a computer expert that had been borrowed from NCIS looking into how the security at the NYPD Crime Lab had been compromised.

"But let's don't discount other suspects."

"You're right George. We're going to have to look at everyone in these victims lives."

"Is Garcia in on helping us streamline the background checks?"

"Yeah, I cleared it with Hodgner. She's available to us if we need her."

"Good I got the feeling we're going to need her skills."

Later that day the full team met and both Reid and Huang gave their profile.

"So you're saying that this person has police and crime lab knowledge," asked Horatio Caine who is the head of Miami-Dade's Crime Lab. He had been brought in to lead the forensics investigation in this case. He had said yes the moment he had been asked. The fact that his friend Mac Taylor's people have been attacked and killed had led him to take on this task in order to help his crime lab colleagues in New York find closure. "I'd suspected as much from what Mac had told me."

"Yes and now it's looking like a very likely possibility," spoke up Huang. "But what complicates things is that all these victims know and work with people with such backgrounds."

"Not to mention the thefts," spoke up Ron Sacks from the FBI.

Everyone in the room nodded in agreement.

"What about the viciousness of the attacks," asked Dr. Donald Mallard . "It's obvious that whoever the attacker is, is demonstrating a lot of rage towards these victims. The autopsy reports had horrified the M.E. in terms of the violence of the attacks. The victim who had died in the fire had been a most difficult challenge since the body was nearly cremated in the fire and so determining a cause of death had been impossible.

"Yes, you're right," spoke up Reid. "The unsub is demonstrating a large amount of rage towards these women in a way that indicates he has something against crime lab personnel. Also he had escalated fairly quickly to the point that he doesn't care what happens to them as long as he is certain they're dead."

"I'd hate to find out the guy's a cop," muttered Sacks.

"Same here," agreed McGee.

"So what we have then is a white male, in his late twenties or early thirties with a background in law enforcement and crime lab procedures who recently had been in a stable relationship that had a sudden and unexpected breakup," spoke Horatio.

"You might want to add technologically savvy to that," suggested Tim McGee. If it's the same guy committing the murders, then it's safe to say that he's also erasing his electronic footprints as well."

"Noted, he's intelligent and clever and as McGee said tech savvy."

"Yes and that's a bad combination," Huang spoke.

As the meeting went on the gathered group had been assigned tasks to begin background checks and re-interview everyone in the victims lives. Horatio would be working with the forensics team to go back over everything they DID have with a fresh new look hoping to find something to help them solve all these cases. The computer experts were already working on how security had been compromised at the NYPD Crime Lab and how he'd been able to delete crital information to the cases.

The meeting broke up an hour later all realizing that solving these crimes wasn't going to be easy.

TBC ...