Chapter Four
Criminal
August 21, 2006
Aaliyah woke up in her bedroom, her eyes fluttered open. Her black curtains had blocked out most of the sunlight seeping through the window, but some sunlight still managed to get through some of the cracks. Aaliyah looked up at her phone, six am.
She went through her phone and saw that there were no texts from Voight, saying that she had a case. Leah grabbed her phone and went to sit up when she saw someone else in her bed. Holy shit! Someone broke in! Was her first thought, but then saw the blonde hair peeking up through the covers. It's just Shay. She thought remembering all the events from last night.
Going to club, dancing with Shay, Amanda and Charlotte approving of Shay, Shay wanting to stay the night, and Aaliyah letting her.
Getting up out of bed slowly, not to disturb Shay. Leah pulled on some purple fuzzy socks that were on the floor right next to her bed. Standing up in a light, pink, loose long sleeved shirt, and grey shorts; Aaliyah left the room closing the door gently.
She walked to her kitchen, pulling out a medium sized mixing bowl from one of her kitchen cabinets. Next she walked to the fridge and got out milk and eggs. Opening the styrofoam container of eggs Aaliyah thought for a moment on how much she should make. I can make more French toast and then freeze it so it can be an easy breakfast during the week, and plus I have Shay here so she might want more French toast.
Aaliyah settled on her decision to make more French toast than the usual one day breakfast thing. Aaliyah grabbed an egg, cracked it with one hand over the bowl, she then did it six more times. Then she grabbed her measuring cup and added two and a half cups of milk. Leah then got her whisk from one of the drawers and began mixing the two ingredients together.
Taking off the fifteenth piece of French toast off of the griddle, she set it on a plate containing a stack of French toasts. Aaliyah then got two French toasts and cut them diagonally equally. Setting them on a white, glass plate in a row, she added fruits on the side: strawberries, blueberries, and bananas.
She did the exact same thing to a second plate and set them both on the table, as she did this Shay walked in.
"Hey" Leah said as Shay walked in "Good Morning"
"Hey" Shay replied her voice scratchy still coming out of sleep. She rubbed her eyes and sat down at the kitchen table where Aaliyah had placed a plate of breakfast.
"What is it?" Shay asked as Aaliyah went back into the kitchen.
"It is French toast, with fruit; and you can add syrup, powdered sugar, whipped cream or jelly" Aaliyah said coming out of the kitchen carrying the condiments in her arms and silverware in her hands. Setting them down on the table, Leah handed Shay a fork and a knife to eat her breakfast.
"Oh...I like waffles" Shay muttered. Leah stopped cutting her toast when she heard Shay say that. Really!? I just made this breakfast, the least you could do is say thank you. Aaliyah also felt a little hurt that her work wasn't appreciated. But she just shrugged it off. "Well I'll make you waffles next time, I just didn't know what you liked, and the French toast is really good. Trust me"
"Okay" Shay muttered like a child whose mother is forcing them to eat their vegetables. They ate the rest of their breakfast in silence. Maybe Shay isn't a morning person, so she couldn't hold her bad attitude against her. Nonetheless it still hurt her feelings. Hey, people be bitches, get over it. She scolded herself.
After Leah ate her breakfast she looked at the time on her phone and saw that it was seven, she had to be at work in an hour, better get ready now. She realized Shay had eaten the whole thing. "You're right this was really good" Shay said shoveling the last bite in her mouth.
Aaliyah nodded while she stood up to clear the table, she walked back into the kitchen rinsing off the plates before putting them in the dishwasher. "Well I have to be at work at eight so, I'm going to get ready" Leah said
"Alright well I better go home to get changed and be off myself" Shay said "thanks for the breakfast"
"You're welcome" Leah replied, and she walked into her bedroom to go into her bathroom. Once inside the safety of her bathroom she sighed in relief. Aaliyah wasn't exactly sure what she wanted. Did she want to date Shay? Did she not? But Shay seemed like a total bitch this morning. Maybe she's not like that all time.
November 7, 1991
Aaliyah sat on her window seat strumming her new guitar that her father had got her for birthday. She already had a ukulele but her father wanted her to get a guitar, and she agreed that she definitely needed the guitar.
Her father appeared in the doorway of her room, his brown hair, looking lighter in the sunlight. "Hey Scout, got an idea come with me" he said. Her father enjoyed calling her Scout—based off of his favorite book How To Kill a Mockingbird. In fact he enjoyed the book so much that he named his daughter off of one of the characters from the book.
Aaliyah's middle name is Scout. At first she didn't like it very much, because people who found out at school, made fun of her for it. But once her father told her the origins of her middle name, she loved it. So after that he started calling her Scout more and more often. And she didn't mind.
"What is it dad?" Leah asked as she hopped down off the window seat bringing the guitar with her.
"Follow me" he said excitedly and led her downstairs and into the basement. Aaliyah hardly ever went into the basement. There was no reason to, and it was dark and scary if you went alone. However this time was different as she had her father with her and he turned the light on by pulling the light string that Leah could never reach because she was still too short.
The light illuminated the room to reveal a drum set and two electric guitars. "Woah" Leah said in awe. "Where did you get this"
"Well remember when I told you last week when I came back from Atlanta that I won big?"
Aaliyah thought back for a moment and nodded her head yes when she remembered that conversation. Her father had come into her room late at night and told her that he had won, and that he would get a surprise for her.
"Well Scout this is your surprise!" Leah's eyes got even larger "we can start a band and you will be the next biggest star of America!"
Once Aaliyah wrote her first song when she was four, her father thought it was the best thing her had ever heard. And she only continued to get better. Her father thought that she would be this big super star when she grows up, but in order for that to happen she did need to know how to practice in a band.
"Go get your sister, we can make a band" her father said
"Okay" Leah said excitedly and ran upstairs, to fetch her sister.
Aaliyah walked into work wearing a red shirt, with a black blazer and black work pants; her hair down in its natural silver waves.
Erin's head immediately shot up and smiled at Aaliyah when she sat down at her desk. "Hey missed you last night" Leah said.
"Yeah had other plans," Erin said "had to go see Justin, got out of prison last night"
"Oh yeah" Aaliyah said remembering "How did that go?" She asked
"Umm as well as can be expected, took him over to Antonio's gym and he gave him and Halstead attitude"
Leah nodded her head understandingly "I mean yeah I get that, just got out of prison and now you're talking to two cops"
"See that's what I said" Erin replied "but a little birdie told me something"
Leah took a long sip of her coffee before replaying "what?"
"You and Shay" Erin whispered like they were all the sudden back in high school talking about relationships.
"Yeah, I don't know"
"What do you mean" Erin immediately shot back "I thought she asked you out and you said yes"
"Well she did and I did say yes but...I don't know, she was kinda rude to me when I made breakfast and she's kinda pushy"
Erin nodded her head "well she's not a morning person, but still no reason to be rude; especially since you made breakfast."
Leah nodded her head. "And keep me posted" Erin added "last thing you need is a toxic relationship"
"Okay I'll def—" Leah started but was interrupted when Voight came into the room. "We have a case. Erin, Antonio will head to the hospital to talk with the victim, to see what is going on"
"We'll talk later" Erin said getting and grabbing her black jacket. Leah nodded her head and lightly smiled.
Once Erin gave Aaliyah the call on their way back to the hospital that their victim had invested thirty condoms filled with cocaine, it was all hands on deck to find out who the supplier was.
"Alright so our girl in ER is Amber Morris, Amber and her three friends are undergrads at Chicago University, so this is who we're looking for" Halstead said standing up in front of the board pointing to pictures of the girls.
"Checked Amber's facebook page, they are living it up in Cobo, but not just from this trip. Amber has been down there twice in last three months" Leah said sitting on her desk.
"First time she did the runners up, this time she recruited friends" Antonio said
"Now we gotta assume that all these girls are meals that ingested the same type of coke" Voight said
"Guys, I found those girls' address' they all live on campus" Jin said with his computer in hand.
"We gotta move" Dawson said, Leah hopped off her desk grabbing her black jacket and heading out with Erin when she slowed down her pace when she she heard Voight tell Halstead something.
"Look I'm gonna end this here and tell you to keep it in your pants."
"I didn't know it was out" Halstead replied
"Erin's off limits end of discussion"
Yikes. Leah thought. She knew Halstead had a thing for Erin but she didn't think he pursued. She knew there was friendly flirting between them, but She guessed Voight didn't like that.
She strode out to the car with Erin, getting into the passenger's seat. "Did you hear what Voight said to Halstead?" Leah asked, seeing if Erin heard him or not.
"No" Erin said shaking her head "what did he say?"
"Oh I don't know, that's why I asked you" Leah replied. Deciding not to tell Erin what she overheard, because she didn't want Erin to give Halstead a hard time about it; and if she didn't know how he feels about her, it could be awkward.
"Oh" Erin said while continuing to drive.
Once they reached the campus, Erin went with Jay while, Aaliyah went with Antonio. One of the campus security officers led them both up, to one of the girl's room.
"Hello Chicago PD, anyone in there?" Leah asked through the door, with her gun in hand. She gave a look to Dawson when no one answered, opening the door slowly, both searched the dorm to find nothing.
Leah went over to the big black suitcase and looked at the baggage tag. "Well they made it home" Leah said reading the tag.
Dawson phone went off and he picked up. Leah read his face while he listened to the caller and it wasn't good. Once the phone call ended she asked what was wrong.
"Girls have been kidnapped by two white males" Dawson said
"So they might still be on campus" Leah replied
Dawson nodded his head. "They probably would have gone down to the parking garage" Leah said.
"Let's move" Dawson said, getting out if the room. The duo took the stairs down to the parking garage, their guns in hand. Once they were down, they saw a black van hastily make its way out of the parking garage.
Sawyer and Dawson had their glocks ready to shoot but immediately put their guns down when students entered the garage.
"I'll call Voight" Leah said while putting her gun back into its holster. She pulled out her phone from her butt pocket and called Voight"
"Yes"
"Dawson and I saw a black van make its way out of the parking garage in a hurry. We think those are the people that took the girls"
"Alright, look more into that van. Did you get a plate number"
"Yeah I remember the first four digits."
"Alright and the girl just woke up at the hospital Halstead and Lindsay are on their way now, meet us up there" Voight said and hung up.
"What did he say?" Dawson asked
"We have to meet Lindsay and Halstead at the hospital, Amber woke up. And wehave to look into that van"
"Let's go" Dawson said and the two made their way back to the car and left for the hospital.
Voight walked them in, "we're putting out an investigative alerts on Sean and Brendon Collins" Erin said waking up to rest of squad, with Halstead in tow.
"Sean is the boyfriend. She said him and his brother hang out at an underground tattoo parlor" Halstead said
"Good work" Voight said
"I'll get a list and send it to Al" Dawson said when Erin walked straight past Voight. Maybe Jay did tell her after all.
Back at the station Erin, Dawson, and Sawyer were looking more into the girls' past when Sargent Platt walked up. "Hey, Amber Morris' mother is downstairs" she said
"All right bring her up" Dawson said
Platt turned around, and Aaliyah already knew that look from anywhere. The pissed off face look. You idiot you never tell Sergeant Platt to do anything! Aaliyah thought wanting to scream at Dawson.
"I'm assuming that's Spanish for go do it yourself" Platt said and walked back downstairs.
Dawson gave Sawyer a look and she just shrugged her shoulders. "How did you work with that for three years?" He asked
"I honestly have no idea" Leah replied. "But I can go talk to the mother if you want me too"
Dawson nodded his head "Yeah, how about you go do that"
"Así amigo" Leah replied getting up from her chair
Dawson laughed and shook his head "still can't get over that a girl as white as you knows Spanish"
"I know a lot of languages, I'm very linguistic" Aaliyah smiled while going downstairs. She opened the gate, and continued going the rest of the way downstairs. She saw Platt barking at some other traffic cop about not being responsible enough or something of the sort.
Leah saw a woman in the interview room, the door was ajar. That must be Mrs. Morris. She thought walking into the room. "Mrs. Morris" Leah said. The woman looked up at her, with her tear stained face and red eyes. "I'm Detective Sawyer with the Intelligence Unit"
The woman nodded her head, so Aaliyah sat down at the table across from her.
"You have to tell them that Amber had nothing to do with this!" Mrs. Morris demanded
"Ma'am, the doctors pumped out thirty balloons of cocaine out of her stomach" Leah paused for a second before adding more to her answer "I'm pretty sure she has something to do with this"
"No, no that's not true she must have been forced…" Mrs. Morris trialed off not wanting to believe that her daughter would do such a thing.
"By the way it looks right now, your daughter did this voluntarily" Sawyer said "she said she did it for money"
"But, it can't be! She just made the Dean's list as school. She's a good student!" The mother cried, continuing to wipe tears from her cheeks with a tissue. Really, Aaliyah felt bad for the woman. She couldn't even fathom what this poor mother must be going through.
"And I have no doubt that she is a good student, and a good daughter." Leah replied, trying to ease the mother. She wasn't lying, she knew kids sometimes just made stupid mistakes when they leave home from the first time.
"What's going to happen to her?" The mother whispered, sniffing.
"Well right now she is cooperating with our DA, so they might cut her a deal."
The mother nodded her head and continued to cry. "Mrs. Morris, this isn't your fault" Leah said looking straight at the mother. "Sometimes when kids leave home without their parents, they do stupid stuff. But you can't always have eyes on them all the time."
The mother nodded "at least your daughter is alive" Aaliyah finished before getting up from her seat across the table. Leah left the door open again and walked back upstairs to Lindsay and Dawson.
September 11, 2003
Aaliyah sat in the front row of the large college classroom. The desks went up in levels, luckily she didn't sit in the back, cause she would have to climb stairs everyday to get to her desk. Of course sitting in the front also had some downsides. She was always called on. Most of the students in the front were, which was why they hated sitting in the front. But Aaliyah actually didn't mind, because most of the time she knew the answer; and her college professor Mrs. Bowen really liked Aaliyah.
"Alright class do not forget we have a guest speaker tomorrow, and you will be tested on what he talks about on Monday" she said
The bell rang signaling for class to be over. Leah packed up her notebook and pens and pencils into her black backpack. She took her time since she wanted to talk with the professor about the guest speaker and what exactly the test will be over.
Her professor was on her computer setting up for her next class when Aaliyah walked up to her, "Mrs. Bowen" the professor stopped what she was doing and looked up at Aaliyah and smiled when she saw her. "Yes, Aaliyah"
"I was wondering who our guest speaker is tomorrow?" Leah asked "and what they will be talking about and what exactly the test will be over"
"All you need to know, is that you will like him. And the test should be rather easy if you take good notes and study them."
"Him?" Leah questioned
Mrs. Bowen laughed "relax, Aaliyah. You will do fine. You have the highest grade in this behavioral science class, don't stress"
"Okay" Aaliyah said
"And I want you to be just as active in giving answers and raising your hand, when the speaker comes"
"Will do" Leah replied
"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow" Mrs. Bowen said
"Have a good day" Leah replied and walked out of the classroom.
The next day Leah walked into the classroom, sitting down at the desk. Reaching into her backpack to grab her notebook and pencil bag that was full of pens and pencils. By the time she sat back up the classroom was already almost full.
Opening her notebook to a fresh new page, she titled the page 'Profiling' since that was what was on the whiteboard; she also dated the page—9/12/03.
Once everyone was settled in their seats. Mrs. Bowen called role. After she was done counting who was absent she started talking "Alright everyone, I need you to give your full attention to the guest speaker. It is a privilege to have him come talk with us today." Mrs. Bowen paused, "please welcome Mr. David Rossi"
Everyone automatically started clapping, including Aaliyah. She had to maintain her straight face or otherwise she would look incredibly ridiculous with her big smile. Biting the inside of her cheek to keep her from smiling like an idiot.
Mr. Rossi held up his hand in the air to get everyone to settle down. The classroom died down of its noise almost immediately. Leah was at the edge of her seat, pen in hand ready to take some intense notes. She was ready to what this man had to say. He was an icon. Starting the BAU with Jason Gideon, being a decorated agent, and writing books about it. Aaliyah owned all the books that had come out and read all of them the day they came out. Unable to sleep or do anything until she read the whole thing.
"It's good to see future agents" he said, scanning the crowd. "Now, simple terms. At the BAU we use behavioral science, research, casework, and training. To hunt down monsters: rapists, terrorists, pedophiles, and our specialty...serial killers" Leah's hand moved fast jotting down important notes, not wanting to miss any important information.
"Does anyone know exactly what a serial killer is?" Rossi asked. Aaliyah's right hand shot straight up into the air, as her left hand was still finishing up her sentence.
Rossi immediately took notice of the girl whose hand shot straight up into the air without hesitation. "Yes, you in the front"
"Someone who commits at least three murders over more than a month with an emotional cooling off period in between." Leah answered, hoping she didn't let Mr. Rossi down, because that would be very embarrassing.
"Yes that is exactly right" he said, already very impressed with this girl's answer. "Today we are going to talk about how some serial killers get made. Because if you can understand that, then you can figure out a way to catch them"
Leah jotted down a note, summing up that you must understand the serial killer to catch it.
Rossi scanned the class again and saw only a few students jotting down notes. He looked to the girl in the front who answered his first question and saw she was indeed taking down notes. She kind of reminded him of himself long ago. Young and eager to learn.
"Now we're going to look at some cases, some have been solved and some have not" Rossi said. "You guys are going to help me"
Leah sat up even straighter than before. She couldn't help but feel excited to help out, and look at some cases.
"Here pass these out" Rossi said to Mrs. Bowen handing her a stack of case files. "Now I don't know if that's enough for everyone so you might have to share" he said
Leah got handed a case file, "here I'll share with you" she said to Ethan who sat next to her. "Alright but if this is a partner thing, you're on your own, I'm too dumb for this" he said
"Whatever" Aaliyah replied, opening up the file. The first thing she saw was a picture of a man paper clipped in the top right hand corner. He was white maybe late thirties early forties, he had blue eyes and sandy blonde hair.
Leah read through the file, stabbed his victims to death with a twelve inch knife, mutilated the woman's genitals, and dumped them wherever. Naked.
Aaliyah's first thought was that she felt bad for these women. What they must've been through, and then be dumped like trash.
"Oh god, I regret eating breakfast" Ethan said covering his mouth, while putting the crime scene photos face down.
"There's a trash can over there" Leah said pointing by the door.
"Are you serious if I can't stomach this, how on earth will I do my job"
Leah shrugged, "maybe you'll get jaded—"
"Alright we ready to go?" Rossi asked
Leah nodded her head yes. "Alright so the first one, I passed out is Miles Jonas. He stabbed and mutilated women, killed forty" Rossi said.
Leah looked at the file again, there was no evidence sexual assault on the victims, so maybe he was impotent.
"Now what is the first thing you think of when looking at the file?"
Leah looked around and saw that no one was raising their hands, so she raised hers. "Yes" Rossi said
"Well there is no evidence of sexual assault so, maybe he is impotent and stabbing is his release" she said starting to question herself midway through her theory
Rossi nodded his head, and gestured with his hand to keep going "what else?"
Leah flipped through the file again and looked at the crime scene photos. "He disposes the bodies near ally's and dumpsters. Probably because he thinks of them like garbage." Leah said but then got another theory "and the overkill on some of these victims is extreme, so maybe he was hurt by a woman in the past, because only a woman can make him hate women so much"
"Yes, that is correct. Miles hated women. That was what he said to me in an interview"
David Rossi flipped the light switch and opened the projector. It revealed a video of the man and Rossi sitting across from each other at a metal table. With Miles Jonas' hands cuffed.
"I killed all of them because I'm the best there ever was, they deserved what they got!" He yelled at Rossi.
"I would not say you're the best" Rossi states
The man looked like he was about to explode when Rossi said that. His face getting red with anger, his jaw clenched, and eyes glaring at Rossi.
"Yes. I. am. I killed forty woman!" He shouted spit flying out of his mouth at every word.
Rossi paused the video "Okay so what did I do here to get him to confess to even more women that he killed?"
Leah decided to give someone else a chance to answer the question, but no one raised their hand. So Rossi chose "you in the front, blue shirt" he said pointing to Aaliyah. "What's your name?"
"Aaliyah Sawyer"
Rossi nodded his head "Agent Sawyer, What did I do here to get him to confess to more victims?"
Aaliyah took a deep breath, her heart was pounding, she could not get this wrong. "You…" she trailed off "Umm could you play the video again?" She asked
Rossi gave a face she could not quite read, so she justified her answer "just the first fifteen seconds"
Rossi rewinded the video to the beginning and played.
"I killed all of them because I'm the best there ever was, they deserved what they got!" He yelled at Rossi.
"I would not say you're the best" Rossi states
The man looked like he was about to explode when Rossi said that. His face getting red with anger, his jaw clenched, and eyes glaring at Rossi.
As soon as Rossi stopped the video, Aaliyah thought she found what she was looking for. "Well?" He asked
"You used his narcissistic behavior against him, making him angry and confessing to even more victims so he could one up you"
"Yes" Rossi said "that is what I was looking for"
"Collins' brother is a known thugs from Bridgeport, both have records from armed robbery and aggravated battery" Voight said, standing up in front of the board
"So they've graduated to drug smuggling using naive college girls" Jay said
"Uniforms checked their LK's, they're in the wind" Erin said
"DMV came back, Brendon Collins owns a black ford van" Sawyer said
"I'm assuming that these brothers are using throw away phones now that Amber has been arrested" Jin said
Voight nodded his head, with his arms crossed. "Okay, keep digging, give me any known associates" he said.
Aaliyah went to her computer and tried to search more on the brothers. Hoping that maybe their family owns something to where they could have taken the girls.
When Aaliyah looked up from her computer she saw Erin storm out of Voight's office. The door slamming made everyone look up for a second. Leah got up out of her desk, and followed Erin down.
When they made it to the garage in the back Leah asked Erin "Hey what happened up there?" She asked pointing back up at the stairs.
"Ugh don't wanna talk about it" Erin said
"Okay" Leah replied doing reverse psychology and going back upstairs. As she walked she counted down in her head. Three, two, one.
"It's just that Voight is being way too overprotective" Erin said and Aaliyah turned around, ready to listen to what her friend had to say. "He just being so fucking annoy—"
Erin was cut off by Jin walking up "Hey got a ping on Brendon's phone"
"Do you have a location?"Erin asked
"Yeah, but they might not—"
"Send it" Aaliyah said
"Let's go Sawyer" Erin said and the two made their way to one of the cars.
As soon as they both got in, Erin started to speed off without much second thought. Speeding past cars and intersections, Leah was slightly worried she would hit someone; but these girls' lives are in danger.
"Okay which way!?"
"Take a right on 77th and 9th" Leah said. Erin took a hard right turn stopping a black van in the ally. They both stepped out of the car, with their guns in hand "stop! Chicago PD!" Leah yelled.
No one moved for a second, then the van started to reverse. Leah pulled out her phone and hit Dawson's number.
"The van is heading your way. North on 44th" Sawyer said
"Alright" he replied and hung up.
Erin and Aaliyah went back into the car to follow the van.
Metal against metal screeching was the sound when the truck hit the van. Luckily the truck driver was okay. Brendon Collins, however was not as his head was through the windshield. Opening the back of the van only revealed more emptiness. The girls were nowhere to be found.
*A/N so we have David Rossi in this chapter, the BAU will come in a few chapters*