"Is it just me or did that vacation feel like it lasted about five minutes?" JJ breathes, as they settle into their chairs around the table.
"Not just you," Penelope informs her, looking uncomfortable as she wraps her cardigan around her swollen belly. "I wish this pregnancy felt like it lasted five minutes."
Emily and JJ smile empathetically.
"It will," JJ assures her. "As soon as that baby is out, it feels so…surreal."
"Still not going to tell us what it is?" Spencer asks.
Penelope smiles, the keeper of her own special secret.
"I almost let it out, a few times," she tells them. "But no. I just…"
She looks lost for words.
"You don't have to explain," JJ tells her, squeezing her hand. "We get it."
Penelope smiles gratefully.
"Well, what kind of baby clothes are we supposed to buy?" Derek raises his palms.
Emily rolls her eyes.
"Oh, come on, Morgan," she says dryly. "Get creative."
Derek frowns, confused, before JJ slides a folder in front of each of them.
"What do we got?" Hotch asks.
"Weird one," JJ exhales, standing up and going over to the tv. "Scottsdale. Three victims in the last three weeks."
A few images appear on the screen, garnering a more emphatic response than usual.
"Jesus," Penelope breathes, as she looks away, down at the paper in front of her.
"All very different," JJ goes on. "Local police are having a hard time finding the link, but they're almost certain it's the same unsub."
"Is he…wearing a choke-collar?" Emily frowns, studying the screen.
"Yep," JJ replies, focusing on the papers she's holding. "First victim, Bryce Williams, 34-year-old male. He was found naked, covered in his own filth, wearing a choke-collar. He had multiple wounds to his body: cigarette burns, bruising, and what looks like a mark from being struck with a heavy chain."
"Cause of death?" Emily asks.
JJ sighs, clicking to go to the next image.
"Well, he was dehydrated, he was covered in sunburns, as well as the cigarette burns; he'd been strangled with the collar, but ME said that's not what killed him. Technically, he died of 'natural causes'."
"Natural?" Derek raises his brow.
"He succumbed to his torture," JJ explains. "No food, no water, left out in direct sunlight, frequent beatings and strangulation to the point of passing out."
The group alternates between staring at the photos and reading the information.
"That would take…days," Penelope mumbles.
"No one reported him missing?" Emily frowns.
"Nope," JJ answers. "When they found his next of kin, they were pretty blasé about it. Said not hearing from him for a week or so at a time was 'normal'. Not married. No kids. An ex-girlfriend was contacted but she said they broke up over a month ago."
"She checks out?" Derek asks.
"Far as we can tell," JJ nods. "No contact between them since early last month."
She gives the group a minute before going to the next image.
"Our second victim is Daniel Cole."
Penelope looks away first.
"Nineteen-year-old male. Found in the desert. The unsub drove him out there and left him. ME says he was still alive at that point. Couldn't do anything, though."
She changes the images. The man's body is bent at certain sickening angles.
"Both arms were broken; both legs; left ankle was – well. You can see."
The sole of the man's foot is sideways; the ankle grossly broken.
"Broken ribs. Skull fracture."
JJ exhales, reading the list. She shakes her head slowly.
"Unsub dumped him like that. He died within a few hours, from internal bleeding and exposure."
Each member of the team has a whirring brain, trying to find a connection; a reason; a link.
"And third victim," JJ clicks a new image. "Debra Callingwood, 46-year-old female. Dumped in the desert in…a cage."
The image is grotesque in its own, less gory way.
"Covered in her own filth, but otherwise wasn't tortured the same way as the other two. Cause of death was dehydration and exposure. ME says she was probably out there for over a week."
"A week?" Penelope stares. "In that cage?"
"Yeah," JJ looks away from the image. "She wasn't tall. About 5'3". But she was locked in that cage, unable to really move."
Penelope shudders.
"Where was the first victim found?" Emily asks.
"Desert," JJ confirms. "All three were found in the Salt River Reservation, but not near each other. Crime scenes weren't crossed."
Emily stares, lost in thought.
"There's a connection somewhere," she murmurs.
"Only Bryce Williams was known to police," JJ tells her. "Domestic abuse charge, four years ago. Nothing since."
"So, a real winner," Derek mutters, studying the information.
"What about the last two; no one noticed them missing either?" Hotch asks.
"Debra Callingwood lived alone. Not a lot of friends. No family. Apparently, her house was a hoarding nightmare. And Daniel Cole's brother did call the police, but after five days. I guess the brothers weren't exactly unfamiliar to police. No charges, but known around their neighbourhood as being…well. Assholes."
JJ shrugs, finding no better way to describe them.
"Well, three less-than-upright citizens," Derek shrugs. "That's a link."
"Yeah, but there's more to it," Emily murmurs, reading. "They know we're coming?"
"Jet's ready," JJ replies.
They visit Bryce Williams' home first. A shabby trailer on the outskirts of Scottsdale, it appeared that Bryce's life revolved around beer, tv, and an unstable job at a local junkyard.
"Wasn't uncommon not to hear from him for awhile," the owner of the junkyard shrugs, upon being questioned. "Just figured he was drunk on his couch."
"He have any enemies? People who might want to hurt him?" Derek asks.
The man scoffs a dry laugh.
"Better question is if he had any friends. And the answer is no. No real enemies, exactly. But you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who liked Bryce. Specially round the area he lived."
"Why's that?" Emily asks.
"Not exactly a kindly neighbour," the man barks a laugh. "Used to have dogs. Think one of 'em put a kid in the hospital once."
They leave the junkyard without much information.
Emily calls Spencer in the car.
"Guy seems like a wallflower," Spencer replies, sitting passenger as Hotch drives.
"His brother is known better in the neighbourhood," JJ says from the backseat, leaning forward to be heard better by the phone. "I mean, neither of them is someone to take home to your parents, but Daniel was more of a sidekick to his brother. Eric's gotten into fights around the neighbourhood, and Daniel would back him up, but neighbours described him as the quiet one."
"Those ones are usually the scarier ones," Emily mutters, as Morgan drives towards their last stop.
"You guys headed to Callingwood's?" Hotch asks.
"Yeah," Emily replies. "We'll let you know what we get."
JJ wasn't wrong in her description of Debra's home.
Newspapers and boxes fill the hallways and rooms. There's barely any furniture. A few kennels around the living room.
"She had pets," Derek nods towards a stack of three kennels.
"Quite a few," says Sheriff Mackey, the man accompanying them on their visits to the victim's homes. "Humane Society took 'em."
"And no family?" Derek confirms.
"Not nearby," Mackey shrugs. "Sister up near Flagstaff, but they weren't close."
Emily and Derek look around a bit, but don't find much.
Debra never locked her doors, so whoever killed her got in easily and the small woman, apparently unhealthy and rather frail, couldn't fight anyone off.
Bryce was the same, finding it unnecessary to lock the doors of his trailer, out in its rural area.
And Daniel had just failed to return home from a friend's house one night. His brother said he went to go have a few beers, but didn't come back. He'd assumed he was still with the friend.
JJ, Spencer, and Hotch hadn't gotten much from the friend, either. Daniel had left his house around 2 am. His dead cell phone was found in his pocket, unable to tell them what time he was dumped or where in Scottsdale he was driven from.
"Some sort of vigilante killing off idiots?" Derek mutters, as he and Emily drive back into Scottsdale.
"Not the worst kind of unsub," she replies dryly.
Derek laughs.
"How's your girl?" he asks, glancing at her. "She was quieter than usual the day I left Ireland."
Derek had gone home, with the others, a few days before them.
"She's good," Emily replies, finding a text from Violet on her phone. "It was a busy trip. She was exhausted. Slept 14 hours the night we got home."
Derek laughs.
"Yeah, it was a big trip, for sure," he agrees. "How's married life?"
Emily gives him a dry glance, and he just laughs.
"Like some sort of switch just flicks and changes everything," Emily mutters.
She knows Derek's teasing, but her mind is stuck on this case. She wants to find the connection, find the MO, and find the unsub.
"We need to find people who knew Bryce," she says then. "The family of the kid his dog hurt?"
"Shouldn't be hard," Derek replies.
Emily responds to Violet's text before calling JJ.