Sorry I haven't updated in ages, I've been through a difficult time lately. Thank you to happysunshine01 for her support and help now and always. I owe her everything x
The agents arrived at the police department in Kansas City where all of the disposal sites were discovered. They were greeted by a broad shouldered older man called Detective Moore and another younger male with jet black hair called Detective Rushden. They shook hands and split off.
Prentiss went with Harry Rushden to go to the bank that fired Patrick while Rossi and Reid went to visit the morgue where all 10 bodies were being stored. Reid stayed behind to start building a profile and Hotch and Morgan, with Brian Moore, took a trip to the most recent disposal site.
After the recent video call, Hotch was concerned for the safety of his team. He didn't want anyone to go anywhere alone. He sat in the back seat of the black SUV while Morgan drove and Brian took the passenger seat. They were on their way to the Kansas River where the bodies of the Winter family were dumped. Matthew and his wife Claire had two boys, James, 8, and Peter, 4. Cases were always so much harder when there were kids involved.
The car turned down a dirt track and Brian instructed Morgan to pull over, "It's safer if we go on foot from here," he explained.
"Alrighty then," Morgan said as he stopped the car and cut the engine,"
They all climbed out the car and Hotch went round to the back to grab three water bottles. He handed one to Moore and then chucked one to Morgan who caught it with one hand. Hotch managed a little chuckle as Morgan smiled smugly at his proud catch.
They set out walking along the river; the heat blazing down on them. The humidity was high and within minutes all three men had broken into a sweat. Luckily they didn't have far to travel and once they neared the river, the wind picked up.
The bodies of the Winter family had been removed but there was still an evident blood pool where they had laid. Hotch had a file in his hand and he opened it. Inside we're photos of the crime scene, the first one showing the scene in front of them but with four lifeless bodies strewn along the river bed. In the photo Matthew looked as if he had merely been thrown out the back of a car, followed by Claire. But the agents were interested in the children. The kids were delicately placed side by side, their hands on their chest and their eyes closed.
Morgan walked forwards and bent down among the reeds.
"Hey guys, I think CSI missed something. Check it out," he called as he stood back to let Hotch and Moore take a look.
Hotch pulled out a tissue from his pocket and covered the object before picking it up. He held it to the sky. In the light they could all clearly see what Hotch was holding. A glass eye.
"These things have serial numbers," Moore recalled.
Hotch wrapped the eye in the tissue and placed it in his pocket, "Let's hope we can track it's owner,"
The men continued their browse, fingering around in the grass for any other unnoticed evidence.
The heat was brutal and when nothing else was found, the guys decided to call it a day. From their excursion they had come across quite a few walkers. That meant that the unsub must have dumped the bodies at night or when there was little foot traffic. To fit all four bodies in one vehicle, he must have had a large car or van and must have taken the dirt track all the way down to the river bed.
"He must know the area," Morgan guessed as they headed back to the car.
"Everyone who lives here knows the river and, with the internet, a tourist can easily navigate their way so that doesn't really narrow it down," Moore said.
"Yes, unfortunately our suspect pool is rather large," Hotch stated.
"Well for the meantime we've got the eye," said Morgan.
"We sure do. I'll get techs to run fingerprints, DNA and the serial code," Moore said.
"That gives us something," Morgan muttered as he jumped into the driver's side of the SUV.
What none of the men saw at the river was a body. A live one. Lurking in the shadows and hiding in the forest. Recording the whole scene in front of him. Snapping pictures of the agents and the detective as they rifled around the crime scene. Waiting. And watching.
"It's weird. Cause of death for the mother was clearly the explosion from the bomb but there is evidence that suggested the children had been injected with something before the explosion. However all the bodies are intact; I've only seen this when bodies were blown up in boxes and there was no room for the parts to split. I won't know until I do further tests. All three men were killed by blunt force trauma to the head. I've taken splinters of wood from the skulls to send to CSU. The fathers also were all stabbed in their face and hands multiple times. The mothers only in their face, post mortem. One particularly in their eyes. I don't know what that means," the coroner finished.
"What about these marks here?" Reid asked as he traced the victim's abdomen.
"Those seem to be from the bomb strapping as only the mother and the children have them,"
"What sort of drug was in the children?" Rossi asked.
"I don't know yet I've sent blood samples to the lab. It seems to be a very severe medical drug to induce unconsciousness, maybe even comas? I'll know more when the tests come back,"
"So he didn't want the children to feel pain?" Reid mused.
"Thank you for your time doctor," Rossi said as he shook hands.
The coroner offered his hand to Reid and then remembered from when they met that he didn't shake. He put it up as an apology, "No problem agents. Do me a favour and catch this guy?"
Reid walked out of the building and turned to Rossi as they walked to the car, "So the unsub puts the children to sleep so they don't suffer yet the parents have multiple signs of abuse. This doesn't make sense. His MO is all over the place,"
"Well maybe he hasn't found himself yet?"
"No I think it's more than that. If he's using a barbiturate drug then he must have access to it. He's skilled. Everything he does, he does it for a reason. He wants to protect these kids but he doesn't care about the parents,"
"Maybe he was abused as a child? Or he lost his own children due to something and he blames himself?"
"I think so... We need to speak to Garcia,"
"Let's get back and discuss with the others first. We could have found our profile,"