Dating Disaster Chapter 7
Authors note: Sorry it took me so long to update this time. I had originally planned to update a lot sooner, but somehow time seems to have rushed away from me…
To make up for it, we have a special guest from another popular show in this chapter - I hope you enjoy her short visit & the little gift she has for our geniuses.
Our special guest also belongs to a CBS / ViacomCBS show and all rights to this character belong to them - I am just borrowing her for my and your personal entertainment. I am purposely not naming the special guest star up here to not spoil the surprise - but when you spot her, I am sure anyone following that other show will recognize her.
The only characters in this story that belong to me are Detective Krueger, CSI Baker and the serial killer unfortunate enough to cross ways with Scorpion.
Chapter 7
Then she exhaled sharply. "It looks like you just helped me identify a serial killer."
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Detective Krueger turned her tablet around and showed them a sketch that looked like Chad Cunningham, alias Edward Dillinger, even though it was a crude drawing.
"The police forces of three states as well as the FBI have been looking for this man for the past four years. He has raped and killed nineteen women in Washington, Oregon and Northern California and apparently he has made his way down to Los Angeles now."
"Oh boy!" Sylvester mumbled as everyone looked at Paige with dread, realising just how close they had come to loosing Paige.
All colour drained from Paige's face at the new information.
Nineteen women. Sheer luck had allowed her to escape a man who had violated and killed nineteen women and Paige would have been number twenty.
Paige's breathing accelerated and she could feel herself starting to tremble when she felt warm arms wrap around her. She quickly leaned into the embrace and pressed her face against Walter's chest as shivers shook her body.
Walter felt unsure on how to comfort Paige properly. He looked to Toby and Cabe with a questioning look.
/Just hold her!/ both men mouthed at him simultaneously. Walter nodded and tightened his arms around Paige a bit more. He inwardly sighed with relief as his action was rewarded with her snuggling closer against him.
The detective watched as Paige sought comfort from Walter.
"The media have dubbed him the First Date Killer." She said, causing Cabe to nod.
"That sounds familiar." Cabe realized. "There has been a briefing at Homeland back when the FBI finally got involved and shared their profile across agencies. The FBI's BAU team was called in after the eleventh murder, the third known victim in Oregon. It took a while to realise that there was a serial killer on the loose due the First Date Killer only striking once in one area before moving on and the long time periods and distance in-between the homicides. He also hasn't moved down towards Los Angeles in a straight line, but gone back and forth within each state before moving on to the next. There was no visible pattern to follow and identify the actual direction he has been heading."
"For the same reason he didn't get as much media attention as serial killers hitting several times in the same area or city." Detective Krueger took over. "Basically all they had so far was this admittedly not very good sketch and the profile they made based on witness statements and statements from families and friends."
She laughed without humour. "I can't believe that a show like Mystery Diners being revived gives us his identity."
She looked at Ralph and Sylvester. "Unfortunately the sketch was not good enough to identify him via database searches. In what database did you find him?"
"The DMV!" Ralph supplied.
Barbara barked out another laugh. "That scumbag escapes identification for almost four years and then gets caught because he registered at the DMV like a good citizen?"
"Of course." Toby nodded. "He escapes identification by playing by the rules in the rest of his life. An out of state licence plate or drivers license is much more memorable than a local one. A lot of people would dismiss him as a criminal going through several states if he appears local." He looked at Paige. "I am sure he also emulated a local dialect and speech patterns."
Paige nodded. "He did. Now that I think about it, I couldn't exactly pinpoint which region, but he did sound like what one would consider typically Californian."
Toby looked pleased with his own deduction. "Of course he kept it undefined, but familiar enough to sound local, lull his victims into a false sense of familiarity and security. It also allows him to move through a state with a minimum of effort, instead of emulating the exact dialect of each area he hunts in, he just covers the whole state at once. That combined with only hitting once in a police jurisdiction and maybe skipping a few in-between, plus hunting with a bit of a downtime, he can stay securely in one state for a while before he has to move on."
"But Mom escaping him must have spooked him." Ralph pointed out. "He's probably not going to stay in California much longer. He has to assume that Mom might decide to go to the police. A victim that fights back effectively is also very likely to go to the police."
"We can't let him get away again!" Detective Krueger was alarmed and a bit embarrassed that she needed a thirteen year old to point out the flight risk.
"I'll call Homeland." Cabe said, his phone already in his hand. "He has attacked a private contractor of Homeland, that's reason enough to get involved, let alone the fact that several agencies are on the lookout for that pervert."
"Well, technically Paige isn't a contractor of Homeland anymore!" Sylvester pointed out, but immediately regretted his words at the twin glares of Walter and Cabe aimed his way.
"Okay, not the time to point out facts, understood!" Sylvester quickly back pedalled.
"And I'm calling my boss so he can reach out to the FBI that we have the identity of the First Date Killer." Detective Krueger ignored the little exchange before her.
All that mattered was that they were close to catching that bastard. She couldn't believe that this case, a case she had only been heading out for at the request of her old friend Cabe, might lead to catching a serial killer.
She had thought she was heading out to a simple case of date gone wrong, but instead she had found a long searched for serial killer and his identity had been presented to her on a silver platter.
It shouldn't have come as a surprise. Cabe Gallo was no ordinary man - and he sure had some more than ordinary friends. The teenager alone had just accomplished what several agencies had failed to do for a long time.
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A few hours later:
Cabe sauntered into the garage, the satisfied look of a case having a happy end on his face.
He didn't need to tell the assembled geniuses that the squad team Homeland had dispatched at his phone call had arrested the First Date Killer an hour ago.
They had been following the chase and subsequent arrest live via the comm in Cabe's ear and knowing his chosen family, they had hacked into the body cams of one of the the police officers on the scene.
While Cabe and Detective Krueger had called their bosses, Ralph and Sylvester had hacked the traffic cameras surrounding Dillinger's apartment and followed his path out of town.
Just as Ralph had feared, the man had packed up his things and hit the road around the time Paige had sat upstairs with Walter and given her statement to Barbara.
As a Homeland team set out, accompanied by Cabe who wanted to catch the scumbag who had hurt his surrogate daughter, personally, Ralph and Sylvester had followed him via the traffic cameras and security cameras along the route. Ralph had hacked into them at amazing speed, his face fixed on the screen with an almost scary look of determination.
That man had almost raped and killed his mother. There was no other outcome than him being taken down as long as Ralph had his hands on the keyboard.
Uncharacteristically for him, Walter had stayed in the background, contenting himself with holding Paige and comforting her as he watched Ralph with growing pride.
Walter had remained ready to jump into action if need be, but there was no necessity for Walter to get his hands even near the keyboard. Ralph more than had this covered.
Just before he was leaving the greater Los Angeles area, Dillinger had made the mistake of deciding to switch cars.
Using a fake identity, he had rented a car at a rental car firm.
A dark grin had appeared on Ralph's face as he hacked the rental firm's records and announced with barely hidden glee that the car Dillinger had rented was equipped with a UConnect System.
He waited until Dillinger was on a strip of highway the highway police had closed off on Homeland's order and Homeland and LAPD had caught up, then took over the control of the car he had already hacked into minutes after Dillinger had driven it off the rental car agency's parking lot.
He first slowed it down until he was sure Dillinger would not get killed, then stopped the car abruptly, causing the air bag to go off and knock Dillinger out as his head impacted with it.
Dazed, but not fully knocked out, Dillinger had easily been pulled from his rental car, unable to put up much resistance.
Cabe hand't seen any reason for undue care, though, and the team had been treated to the satisfying sight of Dillinger being slammed down hard on the hood of the car as Cabe and Detective Krueger slapped cuffs on him, then handed him over to two agents to take him into a cell.
xxxXXXxxx
Cabe's satisfied grin turned into a curious look as he noticed the reunited team gathered in front of the monitor on Walter's desk.
"…I can't believe you caught the First Date Killer, WOB! Do you have any idea how long we have been trying to catch that pervert? No! Don't answer that! It's enough that our own resident genius will tell me down to the minute later."
Cabe had reached Walter's desk in the midst of the rapid speech and peered over Toby's shoulder. Now he was finally able to see the owner of the voice.
For a second, he had doubts if his mind was able to process the visual overload he saw on the screen. He wasn't sure what was worse - the very colourful woman or her equally colourful and excessively decorated surroundings, contrasting with the otherwise darkened background of the room she was in. She was obviously sitting in front of a computer screen, her image transmitted via webcam. She was leaning towards the screen and her cheeks were slightly flushed with excitement.
She quickly snapped her eyes upwards to look at Cabe. "Oh… hello…Sir!" She obviously reacted to his suit and the way he was holding himself, screaming Law Enforcement.
"Penelope, this is Cabe Gallo." Sylvester motioned to Cabe as if the woman on the other side hadn't already noticed Cabe. "He is our Homeland Handler. Cabe, this is Penelope Garcia. She's the BAU's technical analyst. She's been following the chase and arrest online and will report back to her team how you caught Dillinger."
"Nice to meet you." Cabe gave her a nod.
Her appearance was unique, but Cabe had long ago learned not to judge a book by it's cover. She seemed to know Walter and also at least Sylvester.
Sylvester's voice had sounded affectionate during the introduction, so Cabe made the educated guess that they were acquaintances. Judging by her job, probably a fellow hacker.
He knew the FBI liked to recruit hackers in an attempt to get at them from the inside. Seeing the urgent nature of the kind of cases the BAU handled, them having their very own hacker made sense.
"The honour is all mine, Mr. Gallo, Sir!" Garcia beamed brightly at him. "I heard you were at the front line catching the First Date Killer. Thank you! He has been a thorn in our side for a while now."
Cabe grinned darkly. "It has been a personal pleasure!" His eyes flitted over to Paige, who was leaning comfortably against Walter. The tension of the past hours seemed to have dropped off of her. Her attacker had been caught, now she could move on to enjoy her newly reunited relationship with Walter.
Cabe frowned as Garcia hit a few keys on her keyboard, then looked up at them again.
"You helped us, but I can also help you!" She suddenly seemed more serious.
"Walter, I ran the checks you asked me in your letter. Very bland letter, by the way, you could have at least invested in some washi tape - touch it up a bit, you know - humour a girl a bit if you're asking for favours from her?"
Toby snorted at the mental image of Walter decorating letters with colourful tape.
"Anyway. I have traced the outside access to your security cameras and traced it back to the source. I am sending the coordinates to you, but right at this moment, an FBI team is swooping down on Mark Collins's hideout. I have verified that he's been on site - he has been very interested in what has been going on in your building in the past few hours. At the moment he's distracted by a little power outage in the three blocks around his hide out, so he hasn't been able to listen in on the last three minutes of our conversation."
The smug grin on her face left no doubt how that power outage had come to pass.
"Oh - and I could not resist to add a little bonus…" her grin turned into one of evil glee. "I don't like it when my second and third favourite geniuses get messed with - not by evil geniuses and not by evil non-geniuses. Agent Gallo, I believe you will soon get ani important call."
"Second and third?" Sylvester asked indignantly.
"Sorry, El Guapo, but the first place of the genius ranking in my heart will always belong to Dr. Spencer Reid. And now you will have to excuse me, I have a team to debrief! Paige, please teach that lot the value of keeping in touch outside of imminent catastrophes. Don't be strangers!" She waved at them before she hit a key.
The screen went black and Cabe almost jumped when his phone rang.
"What the…?" He looked at the others in bewilderment.
"Pick it up!" Happy told him. "We're as curious as you are!"
Cabe shot her a mild glare while fishing his phone out of his pocket.
The others watched him with keen interest, but his curt responses didn't give any indication.
"That was Homeland." He looked at them, the confusion evident in his face.
"I have been summoned to Headquarters - apparently the whole office is being summoned."
to be continued...