"Civilized society is perpetually menaced with disintegration through this primary hostility of men towards one another." - Sigmund Freud.
First thing the next morning Spencer and I had a metting with Hotch to discuss the results of our psychological evaluations. At exactly eight he called us into his office and we climbed the stairs nervously. We were silent as we sat in the slightly uncomfortable chairs across from his desk and he opened a folder.
"I have the results of your evaluations here." he started as stone faced as ever giving us no indication as to the outcome. "You both passed."
"That's great." I said relieved.
"Yes, however, it has come to my attention that the two of you are now intimately involved."
"We know you have a strict rule Hotch but - " Spencer jumped in but was cut off.
"I wasn't finished. Under normal circumstances one of you would be transferred to another unit but I believe that you can be rational and professional about this. For now I am going to allow you both to be fully reinstated but should your relationship effect your work in any way one of you will be leaving. Is that clear?"
"Yes sir." we both answered. Hotch nodded and handed us our badges and informed us that we had a case.
At nine o'clock we met the rest of the team in the briefing room to hear about the case. Everyone congradulated us on both our relationship and reinstatements. It seemed that news travels fast here in the BAU because agents that I had never even seen before were staring at Spencer and I suspiciously. I was definately not thrilled by all of the attention and just wanted to jump into the case.
"Pittsburg, Pennsylvania has a large crime rate but they're convinced that they're dealing with a serial killer." J.J. started putting crime scene photos up on the monitor. "They've got eleven bodies all discovered whithin the last month. All of the victims were male between the ages of twenty five and thirty and extremely physically fit."
"Each of them were severely beaten and shot in the back of the head execution style with a forty five caliber hand gun." Hotch continued.
"The bodies were all dumped at construction sites and they've asked for our help with this case."
"The shot to the back of the head is usually the mark of a professional, it's impersonal so then why would he take the time and effort to beat them so badly?" Emily asked.
"She's right, it makes no sense." I agreed.
"Maybe the UnSub is projecting a personal experience before killing them." Morgan chimed in.
"We can go over the details on the jet. Wheels up in thirty." Hotch ordered.
Forty minutes later we were in the air, each of us looking over our own copies of the case file. The autopsy reports all showed defensive wounds and over half of the victims suffered wounds that had already begun to heal. I had a theory but the cause of death, being the gun shot wounds, didn't fit into that. Besides it was such a ludicrous theory that I didn't feel comfortable sharing it.
Another two hours passed before we landed in Pittsburg. We were met by the head of the local FBI field office and led to the office itself where they had a conference room set up for us. Agent Boyd, the agent in charge of the investigation, filled us in on the case and their leads before he got the call for another body.
"J.J. I want you to talk to the media, see if we can keep a lid on this. Reid do a geographical profile. Chloe you assist Reid and the rest of us will go to the new scene." Hotch barked out orders and we all agreed.
Everyone left the station while Spencer requested a street map of the city from an agent designated to stay behind and help us. The agent by the name of Sykes looked questioningly at him but agreed none the less and left, returning shortly with the map.
"So tell me, what is a geographical profile?" Sykes asked.
"Geographical profiling is a criminal investigative methodology that analyzes the locations of a connected series of crimes to determine the most probable area of offender residence." Spencer responded.
"Right." he said clearly not understanding but also not wanting to ask again. "Does he always talk like that?" he asked me.
"When asked to explain something, yes he does tend to speak rather analytically." I replied purposefully in the same manner Spencer had with a smirk.
"Okay now I know you're messing with me." he accused.
"Maybe a little." I admitted.
"How do you manage to keep your healthy sense of humor when you face this every day?" he questioned gesturing to the crime scene photos.
"I'm just awesome."
My reply was simple and a bold faced lie. Spencer caught my gaze and smiled. He knew the truth, that if I didn't keep up the jokes that I would let the cases get to me, that sometimes those jokes came forcefully. I wasn't going to admit that to a complete stranger though, hell it should have been blatantly obvious. It was common sense or at least I thought it was.
"You know agent Macklin I was wondering if maybe after the case is closed you would let me take you out for dinner." Sykes asked causing Spencer to stop what he was doing and stare at the back of his head threateningly. It was all I could do not to laugh.
"I would love to take you up on that offer but I can't." I replied.
"Why is that?"
"She's involved." Spencer said now back to memorizing the map.
"Oh."
I sat on the edge of a desk rattling off addresses to Spencer. The victims home and work addresses and the location where each body was found. He marked them all off on the map, color coding them by category and stepped back when he was finished. I immediately noticed the empty section on the map.
"Do you see that?" he asked.
"Yeah, agent Sykes what's in that area?" I quiestioned.
"It's a warehouse district, there are no residences in that area." he stated amazed.
"Our UnSub either works or is squatting in that area." Spencer said confidently.
"Or both." I suggested.
"Or both." he repeated while dialing Hotch's phone to update him on what we found.
(Rossi P.O.V.)
This latest crime scene had been just like the others. A single male victim, twenty six years old, severely beaten, a single gun shot wound to the back of his head. Hotch stepped away to take a call from Reid while Emily interviewed the construction worker who discovered the body. Morgan and I were examining the body when I noticed something on his forearm.
"What is that?" I questioned more to myself.
"Some kind of residue. Do you have a black light?" Morgan asked the medical examiner.
He ran out to his van and returned moments later with a pocket sized black light which he handed to Morgan who thanked him. He turned on the light and held it over the spot on the victim's forearm where we had seen the residue to reveal a four digit number.
"5218?" I stated as more of a question. "What do you suppose that means?"
"I have no idea but I'm willing to bet the other victims have them as well." he replied just as puzzled as I was.