A/N: A big thank you to everyone who is following or who favorited my story! Please R&R, I'd love to know your thoughts about how the story is progressing. Thanks!
Warning! This chapter contains references and descriptions of violent acts!
Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds, just my OCs.
Spencer rocked on his feet and put his hands in his pockets as Prentiss knocked on the midsized suburban home of the victim's family. A dark haired woman, dressed in a slightly rumpled looking dress, in her mid fifties appeared and opened the wooden door.
"Hi, Mrs. Monroe? I'm Agent Prentiss and this is Dr. Reid from the FBI. Would it be alright if we came in to talk?"
The tired looking woman opened the door wider for them to walk through, "Yes, Detective Davis called me and told me that you would be coming by to ask about Ashley. Please, call me Laura though." She started to sniff as her eyes welled with tears.
"We're sorry for your loss ma'am." Prentiss said gently as they sat down in the living room.
"Henry! The FBI are here." Mrs. Monroe called. A slightly overweight and balding man wearing a casual sweater walked into the living room. He sat down beside his wife and took her hand.
"We are already told the police everything we know," he began.
Prentiss interrupted him, "I know sir, but we might ask you other questions. We look for other details that will help us to create a profile on the person who did this to your daughter. That way we will have a better chance at catching him."
"Shh, Henry. If it helps to catch this awful person I'd answer their questions a hundred times over."
Spencer gave her a sympathetic smile, "Once should be enough. We won't take up anymore of your time than we have to. Can you tell us a bit about your daughter?"
Mrs. Monroe dabbed at her eyes with a tissue, "She was a good girl. She was in her last year of college, studying computer technology. She lived at home with us so that she wouldn't go into debt for school. She got excellent grades, had lots of friends, and volunteered at the animal shelter." Mrs. Monroe started to sob quietly. Mr. Monroe wrapped his arm around his wife and she buried her head in his shoulder.
Mr. Monroe picked up where his wife left off, "That's where she was taken from, the animal shelter. She had just called us to let us know that she was on her way home. She normally didn't go there so late, but there was a sick dog that she wanted to check on after her evening lecture."
"Had she gone there that late before?" Spencer questioned.
Mr. Monroe took a breath and nodded, "She had stopped by the previous two nights, but those other times were around 9 or 10pm rather than 11pm. We insisted she take the car so that she wouldn't be on public transportation so late at night."
"Did she ever mention anyone following or watching her? Did she ever receive any strange gifts, phone calls, or anything else out of the ordinary?" Prentiss asked.
"No, not to my knowledge," Mr. Monroe answered sadly.
Mrs. Monroe lifted her head up, "Wait a second. Ashley did mention a couple months before that she had a strange man come into the shelter. She said he looked at only one or two dogs and then spent the next twenty minutes trying to chat her up. Once she realized he wasn't going to adopt an animal she asked him to leave because there were other people who needed assistance."
Spencer started to scribble the details down in his notepad, "Did she describe what he looked like or talk about whether she saw him again?"
"No, that was the only time she ever brought it up. You could try talking to her friend Rachel. They are…were best friends. If she spoke to anyone about it, it would have been her," Mrs. Monroe finished in a choked voice.
"Thank you so much for speaking with us Mr. and Mrs. Monroe. Would it be possible to take a look in Ashley's room?" Prentiss calmly asked.
Mr. Monroe nodded and said, "Up the stairs, second door on your left."
Spencer and Prentiss stood and made their way up the stairs. Inside Ashley's bedroom they found the remnants of a promising young woman with a bright future. A few awards were hung on the wall, along with a cork board displaying several photos of Ashley and her friends.
"No boyfriend," Prentiss noted.
"No sign of anything unusual on her computer," Spencer added. They gave the room a quick sweep and discovered nothing out of the ordinary. They made their way back downstairs and thanked Ashley's parents before heading back outside to their black SUV.
Spencer pulled out his phone and dialed Garcia, "This is Eagle 6, queen of all knowledge. Speak and be heard."
"Hi, Garcia. Could you check and see if there is any video surveillance from traffic cameras or other storefronts for the animal shelter in downtown Baltimore, or if they have any computer logs of people who visit the shelter?"
"Pfft, and I thought you were going to challenge me. Give me one second…" Spencer could hear Garcia typing rapidly through his phone.
"Sorry sweetie. Nada. They only keep logs of who adopts animals and who works at the shelter. There are no traffic cameras or any other source of video for that building entrance."
"Thanks Garcia." Spencer ended the call and looked at Prentiss who was also putting her phone down.
"I called the animal shelter. They don't have any security cameras, but they did have one person working with Ashley on the date the man visited her. It was her friend Rachel." Prentiss informed him.
"Well, at least that cuts down our driving a bit," Spencer remarked. "I'll call Hotch and give him an update while we head over to Rachel's."
Spencer and Prentiss pulled up outside of a rundown looking house. After they knocked a red-headed, heavyset girl opened the door, "Hello? May I help you?"
Prentiss smiled and began the interview process over again. A short time later they exited the house with not much more than they started with.
"That bastard is smart. He knew not to make any sort of contact with anyone other than the victim," Prentiss said with frustration.
"At least we have confirmation that the UnSub is white, dark haired, strong physique and about 6' tall. We're lucky that Rachel remembered anything after two and a half months," Spencer soothed. "We also know that he must be good looking, but not overly so, because he doesn't stand out in the crowd much."
"He must have been watching Ashley from a distance after that meeting, since she never mentioned seeing him again. He would have stood out too much if he had gone back into the shelter." Prentiss considered as she pulled into the police station. They waited a moment outside when they saw Morgan and Rossi pulling up behind them.
Once they were inside the conference room of the police station Hotch asked for updates on what they had learned. Prentiss filled them in on their interviews.
Spencer shifted his attention to Morgan as he described the secluded area where the body had been found.
"It was like the others, the body was placed about 100 feet off a hiking trail beneath a tree. If the hiker hadn't been a photographer after a picture of some rare bird, that poor girl might never have been found." Morgan related.
Rossi picked up the explanation, "The UnSub didn't try to hide the body other than placing it off the path, nor did he spend any time positioning it. He simply dumped the body. That tells me he doesn't feel remorse for any of these killings. Leaving the victim outside naked also shows that he's still torturing her. One final indignity for her to endure at his hands."
Hotch nodded, "I went to the coroner's office and saw the victim. This UnSub is patient and determined. He spent several days torturing the victim." He laid out several photographs, "As you can see, he whipped her repeatedly, most likely with a belt and beat her with his hands and feet. She had a severe concussion and hairline fractures in her wrist and ankle, most likely caused by her trying to escape the restraints he used. He also bastinadoed her feet, that is he hit the bottom of her feet with a wooden paddle to the point where she couldn't have walked anywhere without excruciating pain. She shows signs of repeated rape, and then he used the same belt to strangle her."
Spencer grimaced at the mention of the bastinado. He remembered the pain from when Tobias Henkel had beaten his foot, and that had only been a couple of blows.
"So the UnSub followed the same pattern with this victim as with the previous victims," Rossi considered. "The only difference with this one is that he introduced himself to her first. Do we know if any of the other victims met him prior to their abduction?"
Hotch shook his head in the negative, "That's what we need to find out. The rest of the details all follow the same pattern." He took a deep breath, "There's not much else we can do here, since it's unlikely the UnSub will strike here again. We'll tie up loose ends in the morning and head back home in the afternoon. Go get some sleep."
Spencer made his way to the SUV with Morgan in silence; they were both too weary to discuss the case any further. Once they reached their motel, Spencer bid Morgan goodnight and went to his room. As soon as he closed the door he pulled out his phone and dialed Amelia.
"Hey sweetie. How are you?" Amelia cheerfully greeted him.
Spencer let the warmth in Amelia's voice rush over him and wash away the coldness of the case he was working. "Hello. I'm…I'm alright." Spencer forced out.
Amelia felt a sense of alarm rising in her, "Spence, you're a terrible liar. I can tell you aren't telling me the truth. What's wrong?"
"It's just this case. It's…It's pretty bad. I let myself get too involved in it and I just needed to hear your voice to help clear it all out," Spencer closed his eyes and massaged the bridge of his nose with his free hand.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Amelia gently asked Spencer as she got up from her computer chair and sat down on her bed, "I'm here for you."
"I appreciate the offer, but all I've done today is discuss the case. I don't even know why this case is particular is bothering me so much, I've dealt with worse. I'd rather hear how your day went." Spencer replied as he idly picked at a loose thread on the cheap motel bedspread.
Amelia tilted her head thoughtfully, "My day was pretty slow. I managed to shake whatever minor bug was trying to invade my system through a weird herbal concoction my mom used to force me to drink as a child. I worked a short morning shift at Poppy's and did some grocery shopping. Then I worked on my thesis in the campus library for of the afternoon before fencing practice," she paused to take a breath, "I actually won two out of three matches today, so that was a pretty big highlight! Oh, and I was wondering if you could edit my thesis for me whenever you have some time. I'm a little more than halfway through and I'd love some feedback."
Spencer perked up at the thought of reading Amelia's thesis; her topic was a discussion of how Julius Caesar changed warfare strategies on the continent. "Congratulations on the wins! I'd love to edit your paper, I'm sure your analysis will be captivating and persuasive," Spencer enthused. "We are coming back tomorrow so I can start after I get off work if you like."
Smiling, Amelia replied, "I have morning lectures, and then I'm working the afternoon shift, but I'm off around 6pm. Your place or mine?"
"I should be out of the office by 7pm," Spencer began.
"Then why don't you come and stay with me since I live closer to your work. I can have dinner waiting for you," Amelia suggested cheerily. "Is there anything you'd like for dinner in particular?"
"You," the thought came unbidden to Spencer. He cleared his throat, "Um, no! Nothing specific. I'm sure I'll like whatever you make."
"Well, what about dessert? I can make something sweet with chocolate in it." Amelia offered as she went through her mental list of recipes.
"I'd like you dipped in chocolate," once again the thought slipped through Spencer's mind. "Um, whatever you decide is good with me," he managed to squeak out.
Amelia laughed, "Well you sure are easy to please. I'll figure something out. Are you coming down with a cold? Your voice sounds off."
Spencer tried to redirect his thoughts but failed miserably, "I'm fine...I'm just thinking about you."
"Mmm, hmm. I see. Well, in that case, I will definitely be seeing you tomorrow night. Love you," Amelia chuckled.
"I love you too," Spencer finished his call and decided to take a cold shower to help clear his head before getting some sleep.