The Perfect Storm- 2:3
Harita's POV
"This was sent to the family?" Hotch asked. We were in the conference room, watching a video that was sent to the victim's family, tied to a series of rapes and murders in Jacksonville Florida. In the video, the girl was getting raped, but there was music in the background, so we couldn't hear much.
"Father had a heart condition, died while watching it." JJ said. "The music's not added like a regular soundtrack. It's in the background, so if you turn it down, you also turn down the voices."
"Can we get Garcia to separate the audio tracks?" Morgan asked.
"She's working on it now." Hotch replied.
"The sooner we hear how they talk to the victim, the sooner we'll know what kind of person we're dealing with." I added.
"Tell us about Laura Clemensen." Gideon ordered.
"20 years old. Sophomore at Jacksonville University in Florida. Assumed to be the fifth in a series of rapes and murders over the past two years. Some women were abducted in parking lots, others while they were running." JJ stated.
"And when was she reported missing?" Hotch questioned.
"Technically she wasn't. Roommate thought she was visiting family. Family thought she was at school."
"Close to her family?"
"Very. She had dinner with them on sunday."
"That was 5 days ago, and nobody's seen her until now."
"She wasn't killed on the tape. And given forensics, other victims were tortured for weeks before they were killed, so I think we should operate as if she's still alive." Morgan advised.
"Not for long, if the bastard gets his way." Elle countered.
"Okay, am I the only one that's confused. This is the fifth abduction and now the second DVD. Why'd they wait a couple of years and then call us in now?" I asked.
"The last victim's family received this DVD two months ago. Jacksonville PD thought maybe they'd get some more clues instead of just raising more questions." JJ answered.
"Turn that down, please." Gideon pleaded, pointing to the video that was still playing.
"There seems to be a natural escalation to the murders. It began as brutal attacks against the victims, and now it's psychological attacks to the families." Spencer pointed out.
"So if the thrill of the kill isn't enough to satisfy his sadistic needs, he needs to spread panic, and he thrives on that." Hotch added.
"Sadistic killers are typically strangers to their victims. It's easier for the offender to torture and kill someone that they don't know."
"Offenders." Gideon corrected. I looked up in confusion. "Man on the tape isn't doing this just for himself. He's playing to an audience, not her family. Someone watching who can appreciate what he's doing, admire his sadistic skills."
"It is a characteristic of partners to record their crimes so they can relive the fantasy later." Spencer recalled from the books.
"How can we be sure?" Elle asked.
"Right there. The camera moves." Hotch pointed to the TV that was still playing the video.
"One guy tortures while the other records it. Master and servant." Gideon mumbled.
"Jacksonville P. D.'s been looking for this killer for years. How long is it gonna take them to find a team?" Hotch asked. "We leave soon, get your bags ready." I got out of my chair and started heading to my desk when Morgan stopped me.
"What Morgan?" I questioned.
"I got you some coffee." Morgan held up a cup of my usual Starbucks drink. I was confused.
"Ok, did you do something to it. I know last time I got you in trouble, but that was your fault."
"Nope!" Morgan innocently said. "Just trying to be nice." I grabbed the cup and took a sip out of it. My tongue felt bitter. Then it hit me, Morgan dumped a few packs of salt into my coffee, but I wasn't complaining. I used to drink like this when I was in college not too long ago, just a few years back. Looks like the taste hasn't left my tongue.
"Mhm thanks. Tastes like normal." I turned around, not before seeing Morgan's flabbergasted face.
"You know I poured a few packs of salt in there!" Morgan yelled after me as I walked down the stairs.
"I know!" I yelled back.
"Seven packs to be exact!"
…
*CUE INTRO*
(For one of the 'pictures' in the intro, imagine Harita fidgeting with a pen, looking at a map with her left eyebrow raised.)
…
"Mark Twain wrote, 'Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it.'" - SSA Jason Gideon
...
"Again. That's the third time he's looked back at the camera." Morgan pointed to the laptop, which was playing the video. We were on the jet, heading to Jacksonville, Florida.
"He's looking back at his partner." Gideon stated.
"These two are clearly deranged and acting out their worst sadistic fantasies." Hotch muttered.
"Folie à deux." Spencer stated in what I think is French.
"Rare psychological phenomenon in which two or more people share the same psychotic delusion." Gideon translated.
"In its literal translation, yes, but it often refers to the bond that exists between two people that bring out the worst in each other." Spencer corrected.
"Most killing teams have a dominant personality that instigates and plans and a submissive one who's the eager accomplice." Elle stated.
"So how do they decide who gets to kill?" JJ asked.
"Well, the dominant one will usually insist on doing it." I answered, chewing on my Clif Bar.
"So what's the psychology behind making these DVDs?" JJ questioned.
"It's a shared souvenir, allows the dominant to keep the submissive one motivated, loyal, and aroused. It's also about control. Built-in insurance policy for blackmail, just in case somebody gets cold feet."
"It makes you wonder what might have happened if these 2 people never had met." Elle pondered.
"Chances are the women would still be alive." Gideon answered.
"Jacksonville PD just located Laura Clemensen's body." Garcia announced, popping into the computer screen. "Some hikers found her under a bridge."
"They never hide them. They're always easy to find." Hotch stated.
"Laura Clemensen wasn't missing for more than a week. The time spent torturing is getting shorter." Reid observed.
"Has her mother been notified?" JJ asked.
"No. Not yet." Garcia sympathized.
"We can cover more ground if we split up." Hotch ordered.
"Harita, Morgan, and I'll meet local PD at the scene." Gideon announced, drawing my attention.
"I'll talk to Laura Clemensen's mother, and since she just lost her husband..." Hotch looked towards Elle.
"I'll go with you."
"I'll start with the victimology, maybe find the reason why these women were targeted." Spencer announced.
...
"Special Agents Gideon, Morgan, and Harita." Gideon introduced to the detective.
"Detective Robert Portillo. This is the fifth girl on my watch in the past two years, and we still don't have a viable suspect."
"We think you're looking for two men." Morgan said, as I started to climb down the bridge to get a closer look at the victim. I was being cautious in where I stepped, so I didn't ruin my pink Converse in the dirt, which paired well with my black jeans and pink tank-top. Morgan followed right behind me
"Really? Based upon what evidence?" Detective Robert Portillo asked.
"Well, given the level of sadistic torture and desire to document their crimes, we're confident this was done by a killing team." I answered as I got a closer look at the victim.
"She's got deep lacerations on her neck, chest, and thighs. From the color of the bruising, torture went on for several days." Morgan observed. I snapped on my gloves and touched, not in a creepy way, the victim.
"CSI believes the cause of death was ligature strangulation, and it is consistent with the other victims." I added.
"In the video, she's wearing a pearl ring on her left hand." Gideon recalled.
"No other evidence has turned up. They've combed the area, quarter-mile radius." Detective Robert Portillo stated.
"Why would they need more trophies, Gideon?" I asked, looking up at him.
"Maybe passed it along as a gift." GIdeon responded.
"Like the green river killer?" Morgan asked.
"Yeah." Gideon nodded.
"After everything they do to these girls, why do they leave them in these horrible positions? Haven't they suffered enough?" Detective Robert Portillo sympathized.
"Apparently not." Gideon muttered.
"This is the ultimate degradation to the victim and her family." Morgan concluded.
"Shock value for whoever finds them. And it sends a message to the police." I added.
"What's that?" Detective Robert Portillo questioned.
"'Look what we can do. You can't stop us.'" Gideon replied.
...
3rd POV
"Are there new victims?" Elle asked, walking, alongside Hotch, into the room the cops have set the BAU team up. Reid was over at a board, hanging up more victim's crime scene pictures, while JJ was looking over the mail sent to the Clemensons.
"Garcia just sent a list of all the unsolved rapes and murders in the past three years. There are two that are particularly interesting." Reid responded.
"They look the type. Anything else?" Hotch asked.
"Well, aside from sharing similar physical traits, they were also posed. The only difference is they were manually strangled, which I think is why Jacksonville PD didn't find a connection."
"We find DNA on the first two?" Elle questioned.
"That's the thing. It didn't match the recent kills, but check this out. What if the dominant one allowed the submissive one to rape the first 2 victims in order to sort of draw him in, and then once he's hooked, he began keeping the prize all for himself?" Spencer suggested.
"You tell Morgan, Harita, and Gideon about this yet?" Hotch queeried.
"They're still at the crime scene." Spencer replied.
"We confirmed that Laura Clemensen had good relationships with her family and friends. She got good grades and stayed out of trouble." Hotch announced.
"Just like all the other victims."
"Did you guys notice that the package sent to the Clemensen family was only sent to Mary?" JJ asked.
"What about the first DVD?" Hotch replied.
"Right here too." JJ answered.
"Why are they targeting the mothers?" Elle questioned.
"The mother asked God to forgive the people responsible." Spencer recalled. "The family that received the first DVD went on TV pleading for their daughter's life. That must have made the unsubs angry."
"So sending the DVD to the mother is a message in itself." Hotch added.
"A very clear one. They don't want or need forgiveness." Spencer stated.
…
Harita's POV
…
Spencer caught the three of us up on what he found once we got back to the station. The three of us went to help the others look through the files to see if any other cases match.
"We're up to 7 victims now." Ell sighed.
"The humiliating posing of the body can't be a coincidence. It's just too unique." Spencer stated.
"The bruising on the necks. Looks to me like the first victim struggled. I'd say the killer probably lost his grip a couple times and really had to fight these women." Morgan suggested.
"That's why he switched from bare hands to a ligature." I added. "It's more efficient, controlled, and it doesn't sacrifice his sadistic need for a slow death."
"Because the DNA didn't match, Jacksonville PD just didn't put it together." Spencer muttered.
"Yeah, and since they weren't looking for 2 offenders." Elle adjoined.
"Signature indicates these women had the same killers. We just need to figure out who the hell they are." Hotch said.
"Well, Jacksonville PD searched everywhere, even swamps, and still didn't find the victims vehicles. I got Garcia tracing VINs, but my guess is they dispose of the cars just like they do the women." Morgan suspected.
"Yeah, but bodies are easy to find. Why go through so much trouble just to hide the cars?" I asked. But unfortunately, the question didn't get answered, but we did deliver the profile.
"What we have here is a team, a duo, submissive and dominant. The dominant deals with the girls and their brutal beatings, the submissive deals with everything else. That's not to say that the submissive partner is in any way pure or innocent in this exchange." Elle started.
"If their criminal desire wasn't present, their partnership wouldn't work." Gideon added.
"The offenders share a common delusion. It's one that you and I would never accept, but it's this bond that justifies their actions." Morgan stated.
"So we're looking for two sick minds who complete each other." I added.
"It's kind of like the perfect storm. Once these deviant personalities collide, they're deadly and unstoppable." Reid said.
"Like the DC snipers or the Columbine assassins. Sometimes they've met in childhood. Other times, they can be related, like the Hillside Stranglers, Angelo Buono and Kenneth Bianchi, psychopathic cousins who terrorized women in Los Angeles. The dominant partner makes the submissive one feel invincible. That's his reward for doing as he's told. Unfortunately there are countless opportunities for these twisted minds to meet, and once they've pulled off their vicious acts, the two accept this as common behavior and become bored with normal activity. They live only for their new reality. They're obsessed with it, addicted to it. And there's a fierce loyalty between the two. The submissive one, however, is usually less intelligent and easier to catch, and once caught, he is easier to turn." Hotch recalled.
"Lack of remorse increases their aggressiveness." Gideon paced. "Sexual sadists will stop when they're caught."
"And the need to psychologically torture the families-" Hotch got cut off by JJ.
"Sorry to interrupt." JJ led us to a TV and showed us an interview that was happening live.
"If you've seen my daughter, please, Tiffany's all I have. She went for a run last night, and she never came home. She's my baby." The woman on the TV sobbed.
"Why weren't we told about this before she went on the news?" Gideon asked.
"Because we didn't know about it. Tiffany was abducted from Middleberg." JJ answered.
"That's nearly an hour away, and it's outside of Jacksonville's jurisdiction. Are you sure these are the same offenders?" Detective Robert Portillo questioned.
"She's their type. Grabbed her while jogging, just like their third victim. Middleberg's only an hour from here?" Gideon responded.
"If they see this, it's just a matter of time before they send a DVD." Hotch reminded as JJ left to make a phone call.
"These guys are impatient. They just dumped Laura Clemensen's body 24 hours ago." Morgan recalled.
"Which means they're more dangerous than they were yesterday, and Tiffany Spears is running out of time." I said.
…
"The car parts were found in Georgia." Morgan announced to Gideon and I. "Sales were traced to a Joey Davin, who lives right here in Jacksonville."
"Joseph P. Davin, 27. In and out of jail since he was 17." Gideon read the papers given to him.
"Number of charges, including car theft with a partner." I finished.
"Maybe he likes to team up. Either way, he hasn't learned his lesson." Morgan suggested. "Doesn't sound too smart to me."
"Exactly why he needs a good leader." GIdeon left, and we followed him.
...
We arrived at Joseph Davin's house, Gideon, Morgan, Detective Robert Portillo, and I. We walked towards the front door, where an old guy in a wheelchair showed up.
"FBI." Gideon showed his badge to him.
"And what can I do for you?" The guy asked.
"We're looking for Joseph Davin." Gideon questioned.
"What did Joey do now?" The guy sighed, letting us in.
"Sir, we really need to talk to Joey." Morgan insisted as another young dude showed up. "You Joseph Davin?"
"Get out of my way." The young dude pulled out a gun, as we took out our and pointed it at him.
"Joey, don't be stupid!" The old guy yelled.
"I saw it on TV. Three strikes, and I'm out. I'm not going back. I'm not going down for this." Joey pleaded.
"Put the weapon down. Put it down now!" I yelled. Joey raised his arm, pointing the gun at us, but before he could shoot, Detective Robert Portillo shot at him three times, making him fall through the glass window out the back. We ran over to him, to see if he was alive, but he wasn't. There was no pulse.
"Why didn't he put down the gun?" Detective Robert Portillo asked.
"He didn't want that third strike." I answered.
"I didn't have a choice." Detective Robert Portillo defended.
"And he was our closest link to finding Tiffany Spears." Gideon replied.
...
We gave Joey to the MEs and went to question Mr. Davin.
"Can't this wait?" Mr. Davin pleaded.
"Mr. Davin, there have been seven women raped and murdered in the Jacksonville area. We can tie Joe to three of them." I replied.
"I thought by forcing him to move back in here, it would keep him out of trouble." Mr. Davin answered.
"How long had your son been living here?" Gideon asked.
"Two years. After the MS put me in a chair."
"Was he still running with his boys from prison?" Morgan questioned.
"He works at a garage with a bunch of ex-cons. I tried so hard. I just couldn't get him out of that world. I kept telling him, 'You're better than all this.'"
"Agent Gideon, we just found this." Detective Robert Portillo handed him an evidence bag. In it was a piece of long, blond, hair.
"Your son have a friend or girlfriend with long, blond hair?" Gideon asked.
"Not that I know of, no." Mr. Davin shook his head.
"Is it possible that you wouldn't know if you did?" I questioned.
"After today, nothing would surprise me." Mr. Davin answered honestly.
…
"The dominant one wouldn't have panicked like that." Morgan said, once the four of us went outside. "He would have come at us shooting and gone down in a blaze of glory."
"So where's the other half of this partnership?" Detective Robert Portillo asked.
"Witnesses saw a white minivan, correct?" Gideon asked.
"That one's Henry's. It's got handicapped plates." Detective Robert Portillo pointed to the van in the driveway.
"Do you see any signs in Henry's behavior that he could be part of this?" Gideon asked as I shook my head.
"But if Joey drives the van, then he can drive while his partner snatches the girls." Detective Robert Portillo suggested.
"Have your men process the van. If there's anything in there that doesn't belong to Joe or Henry Davin, I wanna know about it." Gideon ordered, as Detective Robert Portillo left.
"The real question is, how does Joe meet his partner?" I asked.
"Well, his father said he hangs with a bunch of ex-cons at the garage." Gideon replied.
"Yeah. It's in Springfield. I'll have Hotch check it out." Morgan said.
'If he's still hanging with ex-cons, he probably talks to his old cellmate." Gideon said. He pulled out his phone, presumably to call Garcia which he never does though.
...
We found Joey's old cellmate, Tony Canardo, and decided to take a trip to his house.
"Who are you guys?" Mrs. Canardo asked.
"Mrs. Canardo, can we come in?" Gideon questioned, as we showed her our badges. She let us inside as we followed.
"Everything okay?" I queeried.
"You tell me." Mrs. Canardo replied.
"We're looking for your husband." Morgan said.
"He's not home." Mrs. Canardo answered.
"Well, he spent time in prison with a man named Joseph Davin. Do you know him?" Gideon asked.
"Yeah, I know Joey."
"Joey's dead." Morgan replied.
"Oh, my God. What happened?" Mrs. Canardo gasped.
"He pulled a gun when we were trying to question him." Detective Robert Portillo answered.
"About what?" Mrs. Canardo asked.
"Seven young women in the Jacksonville area who've been raped and killed. Did you know him well?" I questioned.
"He and my husband did time together. When Tony got out on good behavior, he tried to turn his life around, stay clean."
"How's he doing?" Gideon asked, pointing to the beer bottles on the table.
"Okay. Some of those are mine." Mrs. Canardo answered honestly.
"Tony ever gets into trouble or does anything that scares you when he drinks?" Morgan asked.
"Only when he's around Joey. Those two get together, I'm afraid of what could happen."
"Do you know where we can find Tony now?" I queeried.
"He's getting off work. He should be home soon."
"Is there anyplace you can go? Because we're gonna need to talk to him." Morgan advised.
"I can call my friend Kim." Mrs. Canardo left.
"You wanna drive me down to the station?" Gideon asked Detective Robert Portillo. "Can you two wait here for Tony? No fooling around." We both nodded.
...
Morgan and I waited in the car for Tony to show up, and which he did in no more than 5 minutes. His pick-up truck drove into the driveway, cueing the two of us to go after him. We jogged out of the car, to the driveway, looking for him, but he disappeared. Morgan signaled me to go to the back while he took the front. I ran to the back, my hand on my gun holster. I turned around and saw nothing. I was about to turn around, and I felt something hard hit me in the back of my head. I fell to the ground, a bit hazy, but my adrenaline was pumping, ready to fight whoever attacked me. I turned around and saw Tony standing there with a bat in his hands. I was about to get up, but he kicked me to the ground again.
"Big mistake messing with the woman." I muttered as I got up and tackled him to the ground. I tried to get the upper hand, but it was hard when your opponent had a bat in his hand. Fortunately, I soon got that out of his hand, and I kneed him in the stomach and punched him in the face, knocking him out. I handcuffed him, hearing him groan.
"Harita!" A voice yelled.
"I'm right here!" I shouted back. Hotch, Morgan, and a few officers showed up. I grabbed Tony by his shirt, dragged him up and handed him to Morgan. "What took you so long?" I asked Morgan. He handed Tony to the closest officer, and I hissed in pain. Unfortunately, my adrenaline rush ran out, and my head felt like it was about to explode. I rest my hand against the back of my head, massaging it, as I noticed the concerned looks on everyone's faces.
"Are you alright Harita?" Hotch asked.
"Yeah. I'm fine. That bitch should have never thought about messing with a woman." I sighed.
"Let me call an ambulance, just to make sure you're okay." Hotch pulled out his phone, but I stopped him.
"Hotch, I'm fine. Just got a light hit to the head, nothing worse." I reassured him.
"Then let's bring you inside and find you an ice bag." Morgan insisted. I sighed, knowing that fighting would lead me to nowhere with these two over-protected pieces of shit. We headed inside. Morgan found me an ice pack, and I placed it on the back of my head.
"Does anybody watch this stuff?" Hotch asked from the living room. The two of us walked over there, and found out he was talking about the DVDs.
"We were never in this room. We never saw them." Morgan admitted. Hotch inserted one of the DVDs in and started the video. It was Tiffany Spears getting raped.
"It's Tiffany Spears." Hotch exclaimed.
...
We got back to the station and put Tony into one of the interrogation rooms. We then went into the room with our stuff in it. Gideon, Spencer, Elle, and JJ were in there, and once they noticed my icepack, I was bombarded with questions.
"Look! I'm fine." I reassured them, but it wasn't enough.
"Here, sit down and relax." Elle pulled out a chair, but I refused it.
"Look, I'm alright. Just got a light hit to my head. Let's focus on Tony for now. Please." I knew trying to convince the others that I was fine would be hard, but I still managed to do that, well, for the most part. Hotch turned on the TV, where Tony was being filmed in the interrogation room.
"If we're gonna get anything out of Tony, we gotta praise him. He's the dominant. He thinks he deserves it." Hotch advised.
"Confirm instead of undermine his expectations. Make him think he's smarter than us because he saw it coming." I added.
"We don't have much time." Gideon warned, as Hotch left the room to interrogate Tony. Elle pulled out the chair again, insisting that I sit on it. I finally gave in, and sat down. Elle kindly handed me my bag of almonds and my water bottle, in which I took a big chug of it. I started to munch on my almonds, sharing a few with Elle.
"Special Agent Aaron Hotchner." Hotch introduced himself to Tony. "I'm supervising this task force. I just wanna say that this case, your case, is remarkable. You've got people at the BAU shaking their heads."
"What about you?" Tony asked. "Are you shaking your head?"
"Absolutely. Seven victims in three years. You've got every woman in Jacksonville living in fear. That's pretty much what you wanted, isn't it?"
"I'm sure whoever's responsible for it is enjoying it." Tony innocently said.
"The BAU would like to study you, interview you, with your permission, of course."
"Show me what's in the boxes." Tony pointed to the boxes next to Hotch.
"This. They're all full. It's all you. We can open all the boxes if you want."
"No. I wanna see my lawyer." Tony demanded.
"Well, Tony sure lawyered up quick." I muttered, popping an almond into my mouth.
"He's playing games." Gideon observed. "This guy's been to jail before. He knows how to keep his mouth shut."
"Florida state wants to make a deal if you tell us where Tiffany Spears is." Hotch proposed.
"What do you think, I'm stupid?" Tony asked.
"Far from it." Hotch left the room, when Tony looked to our evidence board.
"Look at that. Notice how he's focused on those two pictures." Morgan observed.
"We can't forensically tie him to those victims, but we're certain that he posed those bodies after death." Spencer said.
"Well, that's certainly not working. I'm not getting anywhere with him." Hotch defeatly said.
"Is the wife still here?" Gideon asked.
"You wanna put her in a room with him?" Elle asked.
"We need to humanize him. I think she could do that."
"How? He abuses her." JJ argued.
"And she takes it. She's subservient to him." Gideon stated.
"You think she'd do it?" Elle asked.
"If we wanna find Tiffany Spears, she'll have to." Gideon insisted.
"It's worth a shot." Hotch agreed. Gideon left the room to go and put Mrs. Canardo in with Tony.
"Honey, I need to know where... where the girl is." Mrs. Canardo started.
"Don't you mean... they need to know?" Tony questioned. "Why should I tell them anything? What have I got to gain? They're pinning us for seven murders, Amber."
"I can't believe you and Joey killed them all." Mrs. Canardo said in denial
"Seven!" Tony yelled, in which Amber flinched.
"None of this would have happened if Joey had stayed away. We were on our way to better things. Joey messed that up for us. I need you to tell me, Tony. Where'd Joey take the girl?" Mrs. Canardo pleaded.
"I can't."
"I'm begging you to end this. Tell me now. Where's the girl?" There was something off about Mrs. Canardo behavior, but I couldn't quite pin it.
"There's this... storage unit. Joe's dad is the only one who has the key." Tony admits. Mrs. Canardo left the room, and Gideon went back to talk to her.
"Joe's dad?" Spencer asked once Gideon came back. "Isn't he in a wheelchair, though?"
"Only for the last 2 years. Henry Davin could have raped and killed the first two women three years ago, then brought in Joe and Tony to continue his work." Gideon answered.
"Maybe it's the only satisfaction he can get. Now they record it, and he lives it through them." Hotch added.
"So it was a team of three." I muttered.
"We found Laura Clemensen's hair at Henry's house. It makes sense. Let's take a ride. Let's go." Morgan said to Hotch, clearly not taking me along with them, which I don't blame. I've had enough action for one day.
...
"He's really playing a tough guy with that officer, huh?" Spencer observed, as Tony was talking to another officer.
"He played the tough guy with Hotch." Gideon said.
"It wasn't antagonistic. It was defensive." I added.
"False bravado? You think he's wearing a mask?" Spencer asked.
"Let me see Amber's tape." Spencer pulled up Mrs. Canardo's tape and played it.
"Why isn't she scared?" Gideon asked.
"She looks scared to me." Spencer argued.
"No. Look. She initiated eye contact, right there." Gideon pointed to the part where he stopped the video.
"If she were afraid, she'd look anywhere but his face, and especially not make any eye contact." I added.
"She's looking at the victims, and she doesn't really... she doesn't seem that repulsed. She actually... looks surprisingly calm." Spencer observed. Gideon played the recording.
"He's studying her, waiting for her lead." Gideon muttered.
"'Where'd Joey take the girl?'" Amber asked in the recording. Gideon paused the video.
"She just gave him an order." Spencer said.
"He's protecting her. He's giving her an out." Gideon ran out of the room to find Amber.
"Where is she? Where's the girl?! Where is she?!" Gideon yelled in frustration. "Told you to watch her." Amber was gone, and now we had to find the dominant one.
…
"We analyzed what we recorded of Tony and Amber. Turns out she's the dominant one." Gideon said into the phone, Hotch and Morgan on the other side.
"Garcia finally isolated the soundtrack on that DVD. Turns out it was Amber giving the orders." Spencer added.
"That means she's the one doing the killing. Where is Amber now?" Hotch asked.
"She told the cop she was going out for a smoke and walked out the back door." I answered.
"We're running out of time. You've gotta find out where they're holding Tiffany." Hotch demanded.
"I'll change the approach." Gideon ended the phone call.
"You're gonna wanna look at this." JJ handed the papers to Spencer.
"Joey Davin's DNA didn't match the first 2 victims." Reid read. "That means neither could Henry's."
"So who raped the first two girls?" Elle asked. Gideon stormed out of the room to the interrogation room where Tony was.
"Lucky man, you know that? You have something really special. I mean, she had to know what you were doing to all those women and stayed with you anyway. Must feel great to be appreciated by the woman you love." Gideon said.
"It does." Tony agreed.
"I bet. I know you and Amber would do anything for each other. But why would you confess to killing these two women when you had no idea who they are?" Gideon questioned.
"Joey and I killed all of them."
"Really? Well, whose DNA did we find at the scene?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Well, it's not yours. It's not Joe's. That poor guy probably had no idea these cars belonged to the women you killed. Makes you wonder if you and Joe hadn't shared a cell together, maybe he'd still be alive."
"You got the wrong idea."
"No, I think you've got the wrong idea, Tony. Joe wasn't your partner. Tiffany Spears isn't at the storage unit. You wanna know what else? We can hear Amber's voice on the videos telling you what to do. We know Amber's your partner. Come on. Why? Why are you protecting her?"
"She's my wife." Tony defended.
"It's more than that."
"Look, nothing would ever come between us. Not you. Not nothing. Besides, Amber would never do anything to hurt me." Reid's phone rang, and he put it on speaker.
"Reid here, you're on speaker."
"No time for pleasantries. I was able to unseal a file regarding Amber Canardo." Garcia announced.
"What does it say?" I asked.
"When Amber was 15, she walked into a Tallahassee hospital, raped and beaten something awful. Doctors deduced she was being abused by her father and her brother. Eventually they convinced her to go to the police. But when she did, mom showed up and told them that Amber was lying."
"She obviously did nothing to protect Amber from the abuse." Spencer speculated. "She feels betrayed by her mother and now receives extreme sadistic pleasure in watching the same thing that happened to her. Strange. In this case the abused actually became the abuser."
"That doesn't happen a lot?" Garcia asked.
"One in eight."
"We found the one." Spencer ended the phone call and we went back to watching the interview.
"You ask Amber how the first two women died? She's done it before, Tony." Gideon said.
"No, she hasn't." Tony scoffed.
"Yes, she has, with other men. You're not so special. Men mean nothing to her. She used you, just like the other guy."
"Shut up." Tony grumbled.
'She set you up, Tony. She had you do everything. Whose DNA do you think that was at the scene? Come on. Think about it. Amber beat herself up, she walked in here, she handed me Laura Clemensen's ring, and she told us you gave it to her as a gift. You know it's true, and that's why you're upset." Spencer picked up the walkie-talkie and told him everything Garcia told us, which Gideon was hearing through his earplug. "She betrayed you, Tony. There's only one way to get her back. Because if you don't, she'll forget about you, just like this other guy. Tell us where she's keeping the girl. I know Amber's father kept her in the woods so no one would hear her scream. Was it Amber's idea to leave the girls in the woods?" Tony was now crying at this point. "Where's Tiffany?"
"There's a cabin." Tony admitted.
...
We were waiting for the results, if Hotch and Morgan found them. I hated waiting. It always brewed up my anxiety.
"We got Amber. Tiffany Spears is alive." Detective Robert Portillo said through the walkie-talkie. We all sighed out of relief.
...
"Jacksonville PD found the remains of a body on the grounds of the cabin." JJ announced. We were on the jet, on the way back home. "They think it's Amber Canardo's old boyfriend."
"And 10'll get you 20 that DNA will match the first 2 victims." Gideon betted.
"At least the families will finally have closure." Spencer sighed.
"And we did save Tiffany Spears." Morgan added.
"Yes we did. Oh, Morgan I remember this old saying a good, old, dear friend told me. Do you want to hear it?" I asked. That good, old, dear friend was the one and only Emily Prentiss. We had a good laugh after I heard this.
"Sure?" Morgan hesitantly said.
"Ok, it goes something like this, 'When God created women, he gave her not two breasts but three. When the middle one got in the way, God performed a surgery. The woman stood before God, with the middle breast in hand, said, 'What do we do with the useless boob' and God created man.'" Elle, who sat in front of me, chuckled and raised her glass of water. I raised my metal water bottle and we clinked utensils.
"Keyword 'useless'." Elle replied, and I laughed.
"Okay, come on, that wasn't nice. Gideon, tell her." Morgan argued.
"She's right. I mean, you did pour salt into her coffee." We all died of laughter, besides Morgan, who was pouting.
"Okay, that's not fair."
…
"Philosopher Khalil Gibran wrote, "Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls. The most massive characters are seared with scars."- SSA Aaron Hotchner
Credits- zoewickstorm1 on TikTok
Okay, I'm not dead. I took a two week break because my mental health was killing me, but I'm back. The other day, I crocheted a bumble bee, like the ones on TikTok, and it was HUGE. I still haven't finished, but it is larger than my face, and that's pretty huge. Reviews/Comments and votes would be appreciated.
Toodles,
HernameisBurrito