(Yooo So heres another update for those that stuck around hope you enjoy)
On the jet they had come up with a small preliminary profile. College student, athletic build, most likely an athlete considering the victimology. Male, and the fact that he dragged his victims to the woods and killed them elsewhere. Classic overkill as well. Seven stab wounds. He was angry. They had a good amount going into this case and were ready to meet with the local police on campus.
The team had flown into Pine Bluff, Arkansas and drove the rest of the way to Monticello. It was a thirty minute drive, but the closest airport to the town.
Hotch drove Rossi and DeBruin while the rest of the team piled in Morgans SUV. Hotch and Rossi rode up front, leaving DeBruin in the back. Rossi already knew about them, so this left them time to discuss. "What did Reid ask you again?" The team lead asked, glancing in the rearview mirror before focusing back on the road.
She had mentioned for a brief moment what had happened back in the bullpen where Reid questioned her, but wasn't able to go into much detail before they were called out on the case. She looked between Rossi and Hotch and shrugged. "He asked why you were hugging me, when I told you about…that." She glanced to Rossi again, the older man not knowing of what her nightmare had been. She didn't plan on telling him or anyone else anytime soon. "Said you looked angry, and then hugged me. I didn't know what to say, so I just said my dad passed away."
Rossi's face fell. He looked over his shoulder, turning his body to get a better look at her. "You're kidding!" He shook his head. "That's a hard lie to keep kiddo." She talked highly of her dad, always had and did. If she planned on keeping up with a lie like that she'd have to change her attitude.
Hotch's frown was clear in his voice, she didn't even need to see it. "It's fine. It's what we have to stick with for now. They know you'll push through anything." He looked into the mirror again and saw the worry in her eyes.
In the other SUV, the rest of the team was having a similar discussion.
"Did you guys know Kara's father passed away not too long ago?" Reid piped up, looking around the three others with him.
"What?" Morgan's eyes shot up from the road. They had been following behind Hotch's vehicle. "You're kidding right?" The brainiac shook his head. Morgan huffed, his eyes falling on the road, fingers tapping on the wheel. "That's unbelievable, is she okay?"
"Her father was her mentor, yeah?" JJ asked. Her arms crossed tightly over her chest. "She seemed okay." Her voice trailed off. She assumed Kara was okay, but she also hadn't really seen her in awhile. "Is she okay? Do you know when he passed away?" Reid responded with a shake of her head and a heavy silence settled over the four of them.
"Wouldn't she have taken more time?" Prentiss spoke now, tilting her head.
"She didn't really take any time off." Morgan returned. "She just stayed at Quantico." They fell quiet once more, finishing the drive to Monticello.
Monticello was a tiny town of only six thousand, the University making up five thousand of that. The only thing the town had was a Walmart and a couple fast food places. It was gorgeous, all the woods around it, but small towns weren't the best. Murders like this, especially at a college shook everyone because everyone knows almost everyone.
Hotch pulled up to the field house. Considering the two victims were athletes, that's where they'd work out of. There was no real police station on campus with interrogation rooms and conference rooms. The only police building was a place to get parking passes and pay for parking violations.
He stepped into the building, not waiting for the team. The head of the athletic department stood in the center of the room, waiting for their arrival. Officers stood around him. Most of them from Pine Bluff coming over to help out. Some were from Little Rock as well. The department head offered his hand to the agent. "Patrick Long. I work the Athletic Department."
Hotch took his hand and nodded. "Aaron Hotchner, my teams behind me. Someone will be with you in a moment to explain everything." He stepped around the man and headed for the group of officers. "I need everything you've got on an evidence board." The officers nodded and split.
The rest of the team entered the building. JJ took Patrick into his office to go over what would be happening and answering his questions.
A small table had been placed in the biggest room they had, the locker room. It reeked if body odor, boys, old shoes, and just about anything else disgusting. Hotch's nose crinkled. He hadn't smelled a locker room in years and he didn't want to relive it. He huffed, a poor effort to try to rid his nose of the smell. He looked at the team behind him, a similar expression on their faces, aside from Morgan's. He seemed unphased.
"Why couldn't they give us a women's locker room." DeBruin started, looking around the room. The lockers were more like cubbies, but they were still full of dirty uniforms and muddy cleats. Footballs littered all around, a mountain of them in the corner. She shook her head. "They smell like perfume. And have better vibes than this."
"It isn't that bad." Morgan rolled his eyes. "Don't be dramatic."
She sniffed again and shook her head. "It is that bad. This smell for ten years probably killed all the sense of smell you had." She teased lightly.
He shook his head, glancing over his shoulder at Reid. She seemed lighthearted for someone who just lost her father.
They quickly set everything up. It was midday by the time they were finished.
Sure it was the biggest room in the field house, considering the only other rooms were small offices and bathrooms, but it would've been nice if they had sprayed it with Febreeze or something.
Hotch looked around his team. "The families of the victims are coming in. JJ and Prentiss I want you with them. Reid and Rossi, Garcia's sending files over of the basketball and football team." Neither teams were gigantic, but it would still be a lot of names to dig through. However, that was most likely what their unsub played considering the victims. "Morgan and DeBruin, both of the victims lived in Bankston. It's the first building we passed on the way in. Go talk to the RA's and students that are still here. Somebody had to see something." The team split without another word.
"You'd think they'd use these cameras, but apparently they're broken." DeBruin said. The building had been recently remodeled, but the cameras were fake, an attempt to trick the college students. The students living in bankston weren't allowed to have people over unless they checked into the front desk, but according to the RA on staff, who was a student himself, no one checked in, the cameras didn't work, and none of the RA's cared who came in and out of the building. Everybody always just propped up the back door and let whoever in whenever.
Morgan shrugged. "Colleges like this are laid back, I get it. Small town, small University." He was mostly quiet. It was only a thirty second drive between the field house and the dormitory, but he didn't speak and instead took to studying DeBruin's demeanor, which she noticed and focused her attention on the window.
The pair stood inside of the RA's office. The RA on staff, Desmond Brown, had left to gather a couple students who had stayed behind. Several students went home. If their unsub was smart, he would have left as well, but there was a good chance he was still here. He lived for the high he felt after his murders.
"Can we not ask the basketball and football players to stay behind?" DeBruin thought aloud. She stood by the small table in the room, leaning her hip against it.
Morgan shook his head. "Some of them had already gone home before we were even called in. A lot of kids left after the first murder. This shakes a town forever."
She nodded in agreement.
"You okay?" He asked quietly, lifting his eyes from his shoes to look at her. She seemed okay, normal even, especially for just coming back after getting shot. "I heard about your dad."
She swallowed, feeling her ears heat up, thankful her hair covered them. Her eyes fell to the floor. "Uh..yeah, thanks. I'm doing okay." She offered him a tiny smile. He wasn't convinced, but couldn't talk anymore about it.
The door opened and one of the students stepped in. He offered them a small wave. "Jordan Thomas." He said quietly. "I saw Blakely the last day he uh….yeah."
"Take a seat Jordan." DeBruin said. She stood up straight and crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm Agent DeBruin, this is Agent Morgan. Can you tell us what you two were doing that day?"
"Algebra homework." He said with an easy shrug. "We always did it together. Or I did it by myself and he came in the day it was due asking for help." He smiled sadly at the memory. "We finished around noon and then he said he was hanging with his friends."
"Who are his friends?" Morgan tilted his head.
"Just about everybody. Mostly athletes, but he was just a friendly guy." He looked down at the table, sorrow in his eyes.
DeBruin sighed quietly. She nodded. "Okay, thank you for your time."
That was how the next three interviews went. Nobody saw anything on the night of the disappearances, just that they victims were going to hang out with friends, but who was the question and was most likely who they were looking for.
Morgan and DeBruin returned to the field house empty handed. Rossi and Reid had sifted through most of the files, setting aside which sounded the best. They had about four or five files from the football team and three from the basketball team. This school was so small they didn't even have a track or cross country team, only a club.
"There's nothing else that can be done tonight." Hotch said, looking at the clock. It was almost ten p.m. They had a stack of possible suspects, the hope was that they were still on campus. He would have Garcia look up the names and see which residents checked out of their dorms and have the information in the morning. They couldn't go knocking down doors with the moon high in the sky.
"He shouldn't strike for a couple days, but we still need our game faces on. Meet back here at eight." He finished, looking around the group.
Everyone piled into the same cars they had driven down in. Their hotel was a five minute drive down the one street that ran through the whole town. "I hate this." DeBruin mumbled once she was in the safety of the SUV.
"Hmm?" Hotch mumbled, not even bothering a glance. He was distracted by the case, which was expected.
"Lying." She clarified.
Rossi shrugged. "I think you guys should just tell them."
That broke his trance. "What? Dave?" Hotch looked away from the road, brow furrowed. "Are you serious?"
Rossi shrugged, peeking over his shoulder and taking note of Kara's dropped jaw. "Lying makes things worse. I told both of you that. No lie is a good lie."
"We'd lose our jobs." Hotch's lips were set in a straight line, confusion clear on his face. "There's no way we could." He pulled into a parking spot at the hotel.
The older man shrugged again. "Maybe not Strauss and above her, but the team at least. They deserve to know. I think they'll be happy for you. I was and am. You've smiled more now than in years, and every time I bring you up with Kara she smiles ear to ear. You both are happy, be proud of it." And with that, he was out the door, duffle in hand.
In the lobby, Morgan, Reid, Prentiss, and JJ sat around a table, sharing information over Chinese food. "There's no way her dad passed away." Morgan started, looking around the circle. "When my dad passed away, I was a wreck for months. It still gives me chills."
Reid's brow furrowed. "You were ten." He added.
"But from the sounds of it, they adored their dads the same." JJ added.
Morgan nodded in agreement.
"But what would she have to lie about? Has anyone asked Hotch?" Prentiss looked around the group and everyone shrugged and shook their heads.
"I don't like it. He's been off lately. And now this." Morgan leaned back in his chair, box of food in his lap.
Hotch sat up in his room, sitting on the edge of his bed. Rossi was right, they needed to tell the team, but it was hard to because he wasn't sure how they would respond. He had a bad feeling about it and that they would be accused of favoritism or other possibilities. And once something got out, it was out for good and everybody knew. It wouldn't be long still Strauss knew if the team knew. People slipped up, gossip stirred.
He swallowed. He wanted to be able to grab her hand in public, in the bullpen when he needed reassurance. Hug her in his office without people gossiping, which was most likely what the rest of the team would be doing until they found out the truth. They were profilers they would get there eventually. He wanted to be able to have that physical reassurance without doubt. Hiding a relationship was harder than it seemed at first and they had only been together for a couple weeks. It was easier when Kara was stuck back at Quantico due to her shoulder injury.
His phone rang and brought him out of his mind. It was Kara, wanting to FaceTime. He rolled his eyes, but an amused smile was on his face. He answered and set his phone up on the desk. "What's up?"
She shrugged. "I've been thinking a lot."
"About what?"
She shrugged again, looking away from the camera. "About my dad. They're going to figure out that he's alive you know. They could have Garcia look or…" She sighed and shook her head. "I don't know. I know they'll figure it out and we'll have to tell them, but I don't know."
"First, breathe." He started, holding up a hand to stop her. "Second, what's really on your mind?" He knew the team would find out eventually, and if they didn't try to use their profiling skills to figure it out, they'd have an answer already. But he had a feeling Garcia wouldn't like digging into Kara's background without her consent either.
"My dad." She said again. "I haven't thought about him in years and now its all I can think about." Her eyes fell to her lap, tears welling behind her glasses.
He sucked in a breath. "I'll be right there."
He ended the call and stepped out of his room. He looked both ways before continuing to Kara's room. She was the furthest away from everyone else. He knocked on the door and pushed it open, thankful she hadn't locked it for the night.
She remained sitting at the hotel desk, legs crossed in the chair, phone still propped against the wall.
"I'm here baby I'm right here." He breathed, shutting the door behind him. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his chest. "I'm not leaving you, you're never going to have to suffer by yourself again, I promise."
(Whats up guyssss Happy new year! I was thinking bout this story awhile back and had so much written down for it, but never got the chance to put it into chapters, so I'm gonna start trying to get back into it! Leave a review I love y'all :))