Quantico
Spencer Reid and Penelope Garcia stood in the elevator heading up to the BAU bullpen and offices. They spoke not a single word to each other, even though there was likely plenty to be said. The elevator door opened up, and Kevin Lynch was standing on the other side waiting for them.
"Hi, Doc, you're just the man I was hoping to see." He said. "You wanted me to look up Hannah McKay; well, florists in Argentina that closed up shop and cross reference that with shops that opened up shortly after." He adjusted his glasses.
"Yes, that's right," Reid confirmed. "I assume you found something?"
"Well, I think; maybe." Kevin replied, fumbling with a file folder to hand it to Reid. Reid took it and opened it up to look through it. "I did find a few different florists that sort of fit what you're looking for, but only one run by a white female named Amanda Williams. She managed a flower shop in Buenos Ares, raising a son named Harrison. See that picture? I think that might be your girl Hannah."
Reid studied the picture. It was taken at a bad angle; her face could only be partly seen. That said, he thought that it could be her.
Reid nodded in approval. "This is good work, Kevin," he told Kevin. "Let me ask you this; is she still there, or has she moved on?"
"That shop closed down, and I was able to find her Tijuana, Mexico," Kevin said, proud of his digging. "Or at least I think it's her. She took on an alias, changed her hair color and altered her appearance just enough to cast a shadow of doubt. If I'm right, then her new name is Jennifer Fisher, and she has recently taken over ownership of Maria's Gold Flowers."
"That's excellent, Kevin." Spencer said. "By any chance is she still in Mexico?"
"I'm not sure," Kevin admitted. "The most recent info on Maria's has the actual owner retiring and putting the place up for sale. Jennifer is, or was running the place, but I'm not sure if the shop is open or if she's still there."
"Okay," Spencer said, glancing at his watch. "We've got a briefing, so keep up the good work."
"Did Kevin just ghost me?" Garcia asked once Lynch cleared out and she and Reid resumed their way to the briefing room. Garcia had another case for them, but had not yet said anything about it. "In all the time I've known him, he's never ghosted me; I'm the ghoster...is that the right way to say that?"
"I'm not sure," Reid replied. "What do you mean by ghost?"
Garcia glanced over at Reid. "Never mind," she said. "What's really important is that you have Kevin looking for Hannah McKay. Why do you have Kevin looking for Hannah McKay?" She stopped walking, apparently deep in thought. "You don't...do you think Dexter and Hannah reunited?" She whispered, scurrying to catch up to Reid.
"They might have." Reid confirmed. "He did trust her enough to care for his son after he faked his own death. At the very least the chances are high that he'd try to track them down once he willingly broke his own cover to check in on Astor Morgan in Miami during the Jacob Elway case."
"That thought gives the warm fuzzies and the chills at the same time." Garcia commented.
"Actually, that makes perfect sense." Reid said. "They did seem to have genuine affection for each other, and the nature of their psyches seem to make for an ideal folie a deux, which can be seen as weirdly romantic; but then again it's also chilling given what both are capable of individually and their mastery of evading detection for long periods of time."
They both dropped the subject immediately as soon as they entered the conference room.
"I apologize for the delay, boys and girls." Garcia said with a candid air. She made quick work of setting up her gear. "Today I draw your attention to Burlington, Vermont. Before I go any farther, boys and girls, I want to mention that this particular case might have a ring of familiarity for some of you."
She clicked her clicker and an image of a young woman of about twenty years old appeared on the screen behind Garcia. By the way the girl was dressed, Reid would guess she was a prostitute; the only article of clothing that seemed out of place was a scarf around her neck which looked like it was probably the most expensive thing on the scene. Also of note was that her hair, dyed red, was cut – clearly by the UnSub at the scene since all the clippings were all around the girl.
"I wish it was under different circumstances, but allow me to introduce you to Katherine Cross, also known as Kacey on the streets. This was how she was found in a back alley in downtown Burlington approximately one week ago. Before any of you ask, kids, I will tell you that we are only seeing this case now because it wasn't until two days ago that Burlington Municipal Police finally sent this to us due to pressure from the Mayor herself. As for the Mayor, she only finally caved after the media made the connections to three other murders and came up with a name for a serial killer targeting the working girls."
Another click on her clicker, and Garcia revealed three more images; each of deceased prostitutes. One was stabbed, another had her throat slashed, and a third was shot in the head with a small caliber pistol; most likely a .22. All of them had their hair cut, the trimmings left on the scene. Of note, with the exception of the shooting, all of the haircuts actually looked pretty good. Garcia gave names and locations of they were found. Brenda "Bren" Williams, the stabbing, was found near a dumpster behind a local pub known as a favorite haunt for working girls downtown in early December. Amanda "Mandy" Short, the slashing, was found on a park bench near the lake in early September. Elizabeth "Sugar" Birmingham, the shooting, was found behind a bowling alley very early in the morning of April 2. Apparently there was a rather raucous party in the bowling alley the night before, and nobody heard the shot. Sugar was known as a 'Lane Lizard' a working girl that trolled the alley for tricks.
"He uses different MO's, but keeps the same signature." Rossi commented. "Either he's new at this and is trying to figure out what feels right, or he's changing things up as some kind of forensic countermeasure."
"Either way, the signature is what really matters to him." Prentiss added.
"The press has taken to calling the Barber." Garcia said.
"Hold on a second," Alvez interjected. "You said some of us might find this familiar. Why is that?"
At first glance, it looks a lot like Ronald Weems." Reid blurted. "He stabbed and cut the hair of several prostitutes here in DC. This was during a time when crime in the Capital was at an all time low, and we were under a lot of pressure to keep his case quiet."
"Well, yeah, but Weems hacked their hair as a way of symbolically destroying their femininity." JJ countered. "Other than the shooting, this guy is giving these girls a nice haircut."
"No kidding," Prentiss agreed. "If he wasn't an UnSub, I'd go to him do my hair."
"So what are we looking at here?" Alvez asked. "A Weems copycat?"
"It's possible, but not likely." Reid answered. "Weems hated prostitutes; thought of them as lower beings spreading disease and filth that deserved to die as a means of cleaning up our streets. In reality, however, he was projecting his own guilt for his own sexually deviant desires. The fact that this UnSub takes the time to give his victims a nice haircut suggests he doesn't have that kind of contempt for them."
"It could be a sign of remorse." Prentiss suggested.
"Wait," Garcia said. "So he's saying 'I killed you, but here, I'll make you look good after the fact'? That doesn't make any sense."
"It only has to make sense to him." JJ retorted.
"I have a question." Alvez broke in. "Why do all the other girls have nice haircuts, but not Birmingham? Could it be because she's African American? Could it be a race thing?"
"It could be," Rossi confirmed. "Or maybe the gunshot wound made too much of a mess. Or maybe he didn't have the kind of time he would have liked. What concerns me right now is the time frame between kills; five months between Birmingham and Short, three months between Short and Williams, and one month between Williams and Cross. That's quite the escalation between cooling off periods."
"Which means he could be getting ready for his next kill even as we speak," Prentiss agreed. "It looks like we're going to Vermont; wheels up in twenty."
Racine, Wisconsin
Shortly after agreeing to take on Lumen's darkness once again, Dexter called home to explain that he'd be held back in Wisconsin for 'a project'. Both Hannah and Harrison understood what he meant; much to Dexter's relief, Hannah did not suspect him of having any romantic inclinations towards Lumen. Harrison only said he wished he could be there to help on the project.
Since then, Dexter spent the week or so pouring over every detail of Lumen's research; which she had provided for him on a thumb drive. He started with the news articles. Most of them were vague at best; almost as if they were deliberately missing the connections between the deaths. Why so many suicides all of the sudden? Why are all the suicides with an injection of an 'undisclosed, but difficult to obtain substance'? Where are they getting this substance from? How is it that nobody seems to notice all these so called suicides are taking place in highly scenic locations throughout the state? The fact that all were either terminally ill or at the very least had a condition that would make life more of a chore than anything else accounted for a motive for suicide, as weak as taking one's own life was; even if Harry did ultimately kill himself over what he made Dexter into.
What floored Dexter more than anything was how it seemed all of the families and loved ones accepted these deaths as they were sold without question. Of course there was one exception; and in this case it appeared as if the deadly instincts of Dexter were still as sharp as ever. That one exception was none other than Linda Tenant, mother of Jeremy. In his article, Dexter noticed, mom stated that she refused to believe that her son would kill himself; she claimed that Jeremy was determined to live what little life he had as fully as possible.
To add to the Linda Tenant lead-if it was a lead-there was also a segment of a podcast from some late night talk radio show. Most of it was Linda complaining how the cops were refusing (her words, the host used the word reluctant) to investigate her son's death any farther than they did.
What the fuck is wrong with Wisconfuckingsin cops? Deb chimed in with usual color. If it was me, I would have been all over that. The mom deserves to know for sure. I bet even LaGuerta would have let me look into it.
"Not all cops are like you, Deb." Dexter replied, almost absently. "Though for the record, I agree with you on this one."
Oh, that's great. Deb argued. You'd probably try to keep me out of any investigative attempt so you could have your playmate.
"True," He admitted. There was no point in lying about it; Deb wasn't really there, anyway.
Linda did mention that Jeremy did get a little bit depressed when they had to put down the family cat, Hermie. She, the cat, was apparently named after a popular movie and book character that Dexter didn't really recognize. It seemed to Dexter that he might have to pay Linda a visit.
But first, tonight, I have one more phone call to make.
He took note of the call letters of the radio station, and the number to reach them. Maybe the host would be willing to talk about the case of Jeremy Tenant just a little more.
Approaching Burlington, Vermont
"So Reid, you said that this case has similarities to another case that you guys worked years ago." Alvez said. "That was some guy named Ronald Weems, right?"
"Actually, there's a significant amount about this one that is very different from the Weems case." Reid answered. "Really the only similarities are the victims and the signature; and even the signature is different because where Weems simply hacked off the hair with a knife in order to denigrate his victims even more, this UnSub gives them a nice haircut – it's almost like he's apologizing for killing them."
"Hold on; he's apologizing?" Alvez asked. "Like he's saying sorry I killed these girls?"
"Partly," Reid said, "but I think he might be apologizing to his victims."
"We can rule out robbery as a motive," JJ added. "All four women still had significant amounts of cash on them, and all their valuables appear to be accounted for. Maybe they refused him service, or maybe he's impotent and this is the only way he can get off."
"I remember that case," Prentiss added. "It was one of the first ones we took on after I joined the team. Weems was a political nobody and a misogynist. Hey, didn't he run some kind of anti-prostitution lobby group?"
"Yes, it was called the Decency Watch." Reid confirmed. "Through it, Weems signed off on an initiative to crack down on crimes like prostitution – treating them like a sort of gateway crime - in order to lower the overall crime rate. Apart from that, Weems and the Decency Watch had no real impact on the Hill at all. Weems's murders were in part due to his frustration; we also found pages of vitriolic discourse on the subject."
Alvez nodded and glanced over at Rossi. "You're being awfully quiet, Rossi." He said.
Rossi raised his hands, as if in surrender. "I wasn't involved in the Weems case." He announced. "That was during my very long hiatus from the BAU; when Gideon was still on board."
"Okay," Alvez said, accepting that answer. "So what if this guy has the same kind of idea as this Weems? Maybe he's got some kind of political or vigilante thing going on?" He looked at the monitor on the jet, where Garcia was looking in at them from her office. "Garcia, can find out if there's any group like this Decency Watch in Burlington?"
After a few clicks and taps on her keyboard, Garcia came up with an answer.
"Not really," she replied. "But, and there almost always is a but, you might be playing horseshoes, newbie, where close does indeed sometimes count. There is a small alternative newsletter that circulates three times a week. For the most part it just serves to criticize the Municipal Government and City Hall. There is, however, an article here in regards to how ineffective law enforcement is at handling the high rate of solicitation and prostitution. According to the article, the working girls have come up with ways to ply their trade in ways that the police don't see them on the streets as much since the mayor initiated a policy very much like the one you were just talking about. Dennis Wellington, the editor of the Alt-News and who just so happened to write the article refuses to give specific examples of their strategies, but claims the cops know about them and aren't doing anything about it."
"Well, there you go." Alvez suggested. "Maybe this guy Wellington is looking to take matters into his own hands."
Rossi appeared to consider this possibility. "It's certainly worth looking into," he agreed. "We could be looking at an UnSub that's cleaning house."
"Okay, so here's what we're going to do." Prentiss broke in. "Alvez, you and JJ check out this Alt-News and Wellington, get a feel off of them. Reid, you go to the coroners to do victimology, and Rossi and I will head to the Precinct to set up shop and review what they have so far on these murders."
Racine, Wisconsin
While waiting for the radio show to start, Dexter looked through the rest of Lumen's research. She had no luck in finding out what was specifically used to inject the victims, but did learn that each of them were found in places that were known to be favorite haunts of theirs.
Be careful, Dexter, Harry warned. You don't know for sure these are victims of murder.
"It could be whoever injected them left them in their favorite spots as some kind of remorse thing." Dexter said.
Or maybe they went to a place they liked to do it themselves. Harry countered.
She also worked out a geographic profile, apparently from some program designed by a guy in the RCMP in Canada, which apparently narrowed down the likely source of the mystery substance to somewhere right there in Racine. That actually helped a lot; at least he wouldn't have to track whoever it was behind all this all over the state. It was even better he was already in the right city.
The morning after seeing Lumen, Dexter caught a segment in the news about another suicide; this one in Quarry Lake Park. Dominic Jameson was found there on a park bench. He was known to be a homosexual and to have contracted the AIDS virus. After which, some commentary was made about the epidemic of terminally ill suicides in the State, and a hotline for support was promoted.
Finally, it got late; the radio did a quick review of some news headlines before introducing the 'The All-Nighter' with Monty Porter. Among the headlines was a bit about a guy named Philip Curtis in Buffalo who was starting a campaign to 'Free Topher'. Apparently this guy wanted people to sign a petition to foster the release of a serial killer named Christopher Larson on the grounds that now that he's done all the killing he ever meant to do – all of which were arguably justifiable as a consequence of a combination of incompetence and outright corruption of the Hall of Larson's hometown.
Right after his intro, Monty went back to that story, flushed out a few more details around the circumstances, and announced that he would have Philip Curtis on the air via telephone for an interview about his campaign.
"In the meantime, on top of everything else we have lined up for you tonight on The All-Nighter, it's time for our weekly unofficial survey! Tonight's survey, Wisconsin, is this: would you sign the petition that calls for the release of Christopher Larson now that you know some of the circumstances of his actions this past September? Yes or no, call it in right now! In case you don't know the digits..."
Dexter turned down the radio and dialed the number.
"Thanks for calling the All Nighter!" The producer greeted. "Can we get your name and where you're calling from?"
"This is Ted," Dexter answered with a put-on southern accent. "I'm calling from her in Racine, but I'm originally from Texas."
"Wow, Texas, huh? Tell me, what brings you to Racine, Ted?"
"I come up here from time to time on business," Dexter replied.
"Okay, Ted, that's cool." The producer said. "So are you calling for the survey?"
"Well, yeah, sort of." Dexter said. "The way I hear, that fella went and surrendered after he got the guys he wanted dead. The way I figure, he don't wanna be let go; maybe he accepts that he did the crime and ought to do the time."
"I guess that's fair enough." The producer said agreeably.
"But I've also been thinking about these suicides you folks have been dealing with." Dexter added hastily. "You think maybe I could touch on them, too?"
"Oh," the producer said with a spark of interest in his voice. "I think we can fit that in, Ted. Just sit tight; you'll be on in a few."
Then Dexter was on hold. During the time of his wait until his turn, a number of callers rang in their views and made their votes on the unofficial survey. Dexter was a little surprised at how many younger listeners Monty's show had, but somehow not surprised at all at how many people said they would sign that petition.
"Thank you for that, Bobby," Monty said. "Now we have Ted, who's here on business from Texas. Ted, how are you?"
"I'm good, Monty." Dexter replied. "Thanks for taking my call; much obliged."
"Not a problem, Ted. Glad to have you on board." Monty obliged. "So, the free Topher petition; would you sign it?"
"You know what? I'm going to be the minority here, but no, I wouldn't." Dexter said. "Now before any of the other listeners get all worked up about that, just hear me out. First off, whatever his reasons were – and I even kind of admire his reasons – if you do the crime, you do the time, right? Second, the way I hear, he went ahead and gave himself up, so I would think he accepts that mantra."
"That's one way to look at it," Monty allowed. "I hope you stick around to hear what Philip Curtis has to say. Hey, Ted, I understand you also wanted to talk a little about the suicide epidemic here in Wisconsin. Tell us what's on your mind."
"Alright, I will." Dexter said. "I hear there was another one earlier this week, but that's neither here nor there. See, I was thinking about the last time I was up this way you had that lady who believed her son was a victim and not a suicide at all."
"I remember," Monty confirmed. "You mean Linda Tenant, mother of Jeremy Tenant."
"That's the one. Anyways, I was thinking that maybe she's on to something. Now I'm not saying there's a killer on the loose or nothing like that; but all the suicides are by injection, right? So why ain't the cops looking for whoever's giving these people whatever it is they're sticking into their veins? Whoever that is has gotta be held accountable, right?"
Monty was quiet for a beat. "You know, I don't think I thought about it like that, Ted. That's a very good point." He said.
"Thanks," Dexter said back. "Just one last thing; I seem to recall that that Linda said something about a P.I. she hired? Did she give out a name, by any chance? I was thinking maybe they could shed some light on the matter."
"You're right; she did say she hired a Private Investigator." Monty admitted. "My producer is looking up the transcripts now... yes! She did give a name! That was Julian Bishop of Bishop Investigations; do you think we could try to get him on the show later in the week? My producer is giving that a thumb up, so we'll give it a shot. Thanks for the call Ted."
And then the line went dead. It didn't matter; Dexter got all that he needed from Monty Porter. It seemed to Dexter he might not have to talk to Linda Tenant after all; he would, however, have to see just how much Julian Bishop knew...
