I don't own Criminal Minds! Hope you enjoy!
Chapter 21
Louisiana welcomed them with a sky full of storm clouds and turbulence during the landing. To JJ it seemed fitting, fitting of her mood and fitting of her life. She had barely spoken on the flight and was very aware of the concerned looks directed at her. I'm not a victim, she kept repeating in her mind, her thoughts wandered back to her earlier panic attack, what if I have one again? She wondered immediately searching for the comfort of Emily's hand.
The brunette looked at their intertwined fingers and despite the circumstances she smiled, holding on a little tighter.
"Hotch we aren't going to the New Orleans PD are we? He could have supporters there," mentioned Morgan closing the door of the SUV.
"No, we're going to the FBI field office, Garcia already briefed them on the case," said the older man pulling out of the tarmac.
"Speaking of Garcia she'll be joining us here later today, said something about one of her trackers going off," mentioned Hotch, "she has been putting false leads in the system trying to tip off Crawfish's informants."
JJ was sitting, as close as humanly possible to Emily, the tension seemed to radiate off her. Emily was starting to get concerned, JJ wasn't talking and that wasn't normal. The older woman exchanged a look with Hotch through the rearview mirror silently assuring him that she had everything under control.
The similarities the New Orleans field office had with Quantico was reassuring. The same horrible off white walls, the same government issued stale coffee. It seemed as if the busy office came to a stop as soon as they walked in.
"Aaron," greeted a detective.
"Chuck, how is everything," responded the team leader, stepping back to introduce his team.
"Agent Charles Raneaux, these are SSA's Rossi, Morgan, Prentiss, Jareau, and Doctor Reid," he said allowing the agents to shake hands. With pleasantries out of the way they got down to business. Their assigned conference room already had their staple evidence board, victim information and a large map for a geographical profile. It didn't get any easier to see the faces of the severely beaten women; but at least they had had the common sense to not put JJ's picture up.
"Agent we need to start conducting interview's with LaMontage's family, the quicker we find him the quicker we can go home," mentioned Morgan grimacing after taking a sip of the standard FBI coffee.
"Yes, we have compiled a list and already have conducted preliminary interviews, out of rather long list we were able to narrow it down to ten potential people who might either help or know the location of the suspect," finished Raneaux.
"Morgan, you and Rossi start making house calls, try to find anything you can on our unsub," order Hotch.
"It'd be better if they took a couple of our local agents with them, in this neck of woods things work a little differently," said Agent Raneaux pointing at to agents to follow along.
Not really happy with the idea, Hotch nodded in acceptance. "Prentiss, Reid, you start working on victimology, JJ I need you to put together a press release…" Hotch was interrupted by a angry Emily.
"What the hell Hotch? JJ shouldn't be doing that," she said hotly.
"Agent Prentiss, Agent Jareau is our media liaison," started the Unit Chief, falling back to formalities, seeing the hurt in Emily's eyes he softened his tone, "Emily a word?"
Emily walked closer to the agent her disbelief evident in her stance, "Hotch, JJ is barely holding herself together, do you really think this is a good idea?"
"Will is monitoring our every move, and while Garcia might've been able to stall him we need him to show, we have no idea where he might be right now, it's our only choice plus she won't be alone, we'll all be there," he tried to reassure her.
"Also, I know the 'dynamics' between you two have changed but I need to know you'll be able to keep a leveled head during this case, if that's not the case let me know now," he said putting a comforting hand on Emily's shoulder.
"Of course I'll keep a leveled head, I have to Hotch, we need to catch this son of bitch," she said slightly taken aback by Hotch's care.
"That's what I thought," he confirmed, "I'll try to keep both of you here but I have a feeling we'll all be in the field soon enough."
With a curt nod Emily headed back to Reid and started to diligently working on victimology.
Hotch felt a small hand on his shoulder, turning around he was met with grateful blue eyes, "thank you Hotch, for giving me something to do," whispered JJ. The older agent managed a soft smile before taking off to meet with Agent Raneaux.
"He's all over the map, he crosses age and ethnicity," said a clearly frustrated Emily, "the only time he showed any type of consistency is with Jay and his last victim."
"I think we're not seeing something important," said the young doctor standing up to look at the evidence board, "it isn't about a physical type," he mused, "it's what these women represent to him. The ones that got the most physical injuries were suspects or victims, while the ones that allegedly got raped were women in positions of power. These women in power seemed to be his mark, he only takes time to stalk them, to build relationships with them."
"The other women just happened to be there when he snaps," added Emily following on Reid's train of thought.
"Well he clearly has a deep seeded hate and resentment towards females, but in particular women in positions of power: a lawyer, a doctor, two police officers, JJ is an FBI agent and the last victim was a junior partner in a law firm," before Emily could ask him why he'd put JJ on that list he continued, "I know she said she wasn't raped this time, but she also said that it had been going on for a while, it might have happened before," he concluded sadly, the pit in Emily's stomach started to grow with that thought.
-o-
"Will, they're here, four agents just left my house, they're asking about you," said a man.
"What did you tell them?" asked Will.
"I told them what you said, I told them about your cabin, I told them that you were probably there," said the man sounding pleased with himself.
"Good, you did good Billy," praised the detective, "now we wait for them to come to me," with a sudden click the phone call ended.
Soon JJ, it's only a matter of time now, Will thought to himself as he polished his recently acquired set of knives. Still chuckling he made one last phone call to his FBI informant in New Orleans, double-checking that the plan was still in order he retired for the night. Tomorrow my Cher, I'll see you tomorrow.
Please R&R!