Natural Born Killer- 1:8
Harita's POV
Don't you love when right as you take your first sip from your first iced coffee from Starbucks, you get a call saying that we have a case. Like, give me a few minutes Derek, I just got up 30 minutes ago. And, no, it's not the morning. It was around 4 pm. I was taking a nap with my girlfriend, who just came back from London a few days ago. Fortunately, we didn't have to go too far for the case, just Baltimore. We got out of the SUV and I had my second iced coffee in one hand and the case file in another. Some people, and when I mean some people I mean Morgan, say I have a coffee addiction. I mean, it does come with the job.
"He's teaching and in service at the Baltimore Field Office when this came in. Baltimore PD's seen greasy stuff but never anything like this. We got two bodies ID, William and Helen Dimarco, retired, 57 years old, no kids. A neighbor reports a white male, 20 to 40 years old fleeing the scene and I quote, 'hopped-up on those damn drugs.'" Morgan read, as we were checking the crime scene, which was the house of the Dimarcos.
"That witness is a kind of notoriously unreliable." Gideon said.
"So far it sounds like a standard double homicide. Why are we here?" Hotch asked as we climbed the stairs to the second floor. We walked into the bathroom and saw the answer. There was blood everywhere. And I mean it. Blood on the ceiling, desk, shower, tub, the walls, the sink, even the toilet.
"Massive overkill. Helen Dimarco was found here. Tied to the chair in front of the vanity. No defensive wounds. Ligature marks on the wrists. One clean laceration from here to here." Morgan pointed from one ear to the other.
"Looks arterial, probably carotid. Think she went quickly." Elle stated.
"The husband was found in the shower. But he wasn't quite as lucky. Ligature marks on the wrists and ankles and one long laceration up the abdomen through both layers and muscles." Morgan read.
"Evisceration, that's typical of disorganised behavior." Reid said.
"Besides the blood, the crime scene shows method, order, control. It's pretty organized." I said, taking a sip out of my coffee.
"There's also evidence of torture with the husband. Burns, contusions, lacerations, you name it this guy tried it." Morgan said.
"The torture is the unsub signature, the methodology is usually unique. A person who burns someone doesn't normally use a knife." Reid stated.
"Maybe we have more than one killer or we have one killer with more than one personality." Hotch suggested.
"We also have three victims. One on the vanity where the wife's body was found, her husband was in the shower. For the looks of the level of the ring in this tub, whoever was in it lost their entire blood volume." Gideon said.
"Around 10.6 pints." Reid said.
"Which means the victim was dismembered." Elle added.
"Looks like our guy took all the parts with him." Morgan said.
...
*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.)
...
"Okay, so I've got Helen Dimarco tied to the chair." Morgan started. It was time for 'Putting Milk First Then Cereal'. "He probably killed her first."
"Proved to the others that he had no mercy. Psychological torture before the physical pain." Gideon said.
"But there was no satisfaction from her death. It was too brief and quick. With the husband, he took his time." I stated.
"There doesn't seem to be any wasted effort, no hesitation on the unsub's part. I mean, look around. What he did. It's a lot of work. We're either dealing with a professional or a-"
"A pure psychopath." Gideon finished. "Nothing more we can do here until the third victim turns up. I'm guessing there's a connection to him."
"He doesn't want that victim identified." I said, slurping the last bits of my coffee.
"Have Garcia go through open files in Maryland, see if any of them involve this level of torture. Have her check the surrounding states as well, if the guy's a pro, why do jobs only close to home?" Gideon ordered Morgan.
"How far back do you want her to go?" He asked.
"At least 10 years. The guy's no rookie."
...
I picked up my skateboard and opened the doors to the FBI office. It was the next day, and we all went back to Quantico because we got nothing. But today we had something. It was a gloomy day. It had rained in the night, but, sadly, there were no puddles. I was wearing a navy blue shirt, black pants, and navy blue high-top converses. I was also wearing mix-match socks, but you couldn't see them. My hair was in a high ponytail and for once, I finally wore my contacts. I got into the elevator, which thankfully no one was in, and pushed the '6' button. I didn't want someone to ask me why I skateboard to work if they were with me in the elevator. The simple answer is because I can. The elevator doors opened and I walked to the BAU office. I put my stuff at my desk and my skateboard underneath. I saw everyone gathered in the conference room, so I headed up there. I was greeted by Elle, Spencer, and Gideon. Just as I sat down, Derek came into the room.
"Third victim was positively ID'd as a low-level mob guy. Frederick "Freddy" Condore. He was the nephew of the older couple. Body parts were found in 7 different trash cans 2 blocks from the crime scene."
"Were they able to completely reassemble the body?" Spencer asked.
"Killer didn't keep any trophies."
"Is there any evidence that he got off?" Elle asked.
"No."
"Garcia has a number of unsolved murders in D. C., Virginia and Maryland over the past 15 years. Many of them have ties to organized crime. All different MO's" Spencer said.
"What's the connection?" I catechized.
"Torture." Morgans answered. "Marks on the bones are consistent with the same cutting tool."
"Tortured victims, most tied to organized crime. No signs of sexual sadism." Gideon said.
"We're looking for a hit man." Elle stated.
"Nah, torture is not on a hit man's list." I said, as JJ walked into the room.
"Two things : Baltimore just forwarded a sketch of the man running from the scene and, uh, you've got some agents out there who think that you're poaching on their turf."
"I'll handle it." Gideon said as he walked out of the room. Spencer handed me the sketch and I looked at it. It was pretty detailed.
...
Jason came back into the room, and of course, we overhead the conversation he and Aaron had with the other agents in the Organized Crimes unit. Apparently they are going to take over and we can drop the case. Jason came back into the room and picked up a marker. He went over to the whiteboard and wrote something.
"So we're just gonna drop it?" Derek asked.
"These guys don't know what they're dealing with." Elle added.
"Our unsub is male, intelligent, organized and methodical. He has the confidence of a man who's been killing for a long time. Only victim removed from the scene is Freddy Condore indicating some tie to him. Elle, you and Reid stay on Condore's background with Garcia. Dig deep, see what turns up." Jason said.
"Condore worked as a supervisor at a scrap metal yard in Baltimore. It's owned by a guy named Michael Russo, boss of a small mob crew. I'm gonna grab Hotch and go check him out. Let's go Harita." Morgan said. I got out of my seat and followed him.
...
We finally got to the scrap yard. The car ride included fights about who would get the aux cord and who called shotgun, mainly between Morgan and I.
"Michael Russo?" Aaron called out. Two guys stepped out and looked at us. "Agents Hotchner, Morgan and Harita, FBI."
"What do you want?" Russo asked.
"Freddy Condore."
"He didn't show up for work today. He didn't call, nothin'."
"Probably because he and his aunt and uncle were murdered last night." I said.
"Really? It's too bad."
"Yeah?" Morgan asked. "I can tell you're all busted up about it."
"Look, I don't speak smart-ass so you got something to say to me."
"It was a professional hit. Either you're in charge of your business or you're not." Aaron said.
"What kind of business do you think I'm in? Look around. I'm in scrap metal. All about recycling. That's where the money is, my friend. Saving the earth."
"You've got a big problem. You know, the mob isn't what it used to be." I said. Morgan stepped closer to Russo.
"Ain't easy always fighting for respect, is it? You always gotta fight for what's yours. One of your boys steps out of line, you hit him hard, you make it count, right? Is that what happened to Freddy?"
"Look. You got a case to make, run along, get your papers and come back with the bracelets. Otherwise, I got a business to run." Russo and the other guy walked off.
...
"Clear." Aaron shouted after busting the door. Elle called us and told us an address to the suspect, so Morgan, Hotch and I went, with guns pointed in front and vests on. I turned the left and went down the hall. I checked the hall, while hearing 'clears' from both Morgan and Hotch.
"Clear." I yelled.
"This is weird. There's nothing here. It's like nobody lives here." Hotch pointed out. We all looked around, through the cabinets and closets. "I guess he wasn't expecting company."
"Something's wrong. Look at this place. It's an artificial dwelling, to match an artificial past." I started walking around the place, trying to figure what he, Jimmy Baker, was hiding.
"Hotch! Harita!" Morgan called out.
"Yeah?" We called back.
"We got a hot weapon." I walked back to the kitchen where Morgan was. "Oh, no. It's a Glock 19. And this round is a standard law enforcement issue."
"So you're saying Baker's an undercover cop." Hotch said.
"I'm saying I did 18 months deep cover and this place has got all the makings of a crash pad." Morgan replied.
...
It was early morning, and we were all tired. Luckily, before we got back to the BAU, Hotch let us stop for some coffee and snacks, due to my condition and that the bureau's coffee sucks.
"You're gonna need a bigger board." Penelope said as she dropped off some boxes. Morgan was putting up pictures of victims from past unsolved murder cases on the board. I was helping too, while eating a bagel with blueberry cream cheese, and I have to say, it is good. Morgan was drinking some coffee, claiming that he wasn't hungry, but now he is complaining about being hungry.
"Please tell me you brought some breakfast."
"Trust me, sugar, you are not going to want to eat when you see what's in here."
"This is why I am a pro at this." I said, chewing a bite. "How many more are there?"
"Well, I've gone back 15 years and there's over 100." Garcia answers.
"100 unsolved murders!?" Morgan exclaimed.
"Yeah, that we know of. And then there's more coming in."
"Well, the torture's consistent." Morgan said, looking through a file. "You know, we thought this guy might have been at it a while but this many victims? John Wayne Gacy killed at least 30 people. This guy's more than tripled that."
"Yeah but this guy gets paid for it. He's a hit man."
"No. He's more than that." I said.
"Not all these victims were mob hits. My guess is he probably started hunting when he was really young. Perfected his craft, moved on to bigger prey. Hey, look at this." Morgan pointed to a picture in the file he was holding. "There's no hesitation wounds on the body. One clean cut through flesh and bone." Garcia looked away from the picture.
"Ok, so what does that tell us?"
"Most people wouldn't imagine doing something like this to another human being, but this guy, he doesn't even flinch. He's got no conscience. We've got ourselves a serial killer with the perfect career." I said.
"Russo has no idea what he's dealing with. I think we can shake him. Keep looking. Come on Harita." Morgan said, as I followed him out the door.
...
Sure, I've only been to a bar a couple of times, but that doesn't mean I'm comfortable with it. But at least I have gotten better. Like what I mean is that I can go into a bar and stay for a certain amount of time, have one drink, but then that's it. No more than 45 minutes and 2 drinks. But this bar was quite, rich even. We walked in and immediately found Russo.
"How can I help you, agents?" Russo asked.
"We're worried about you." Hotch answered.
"What's causing you to lose sleep?"
"We hear you didn't order that hit on Freddy." Morgan said.
"I told you I had nothing to do with that." I dropped a file onto the table.
"Why don't you have a look at that?"
"It looks like you must have a problem within your organization." Morgan said after Russo inhaled through his teeth.
"Is that right?"
"So your hitter doesn't just kill for a paycheck. He kills for pleasure." Hotch said. "It's what makes him good at what he does. He's paranoid, he's a psychopath, and he's free-lancing. He's killing civilians now and he's drawing a lot of attention. And you can't control him. That's what he did to Freddy's uncle."
"Russo, if he's not a problem for you now, he will be soon, before you can blink your eye." I taunted.
"What if you let me worry about that?" Russo handed the file to Aaron. We started to walk off, when I stopped and turned around.
"Russo. I just got a question for you. How do you think your paranoid little killer's gonna feel about you being friendly with the FBI? Just a thought." I walked off and got back to the boys.
...
The other thing I hate is parking garages. Tons of women get kidnapped in them, then they either get raped or trafficked. We went to where Jimmy was being held, the parking garage, which we found due to the call Russo made. We split up, had our vests on and guns drawn.
"Remember, we need this man alive." Gideon said through the mic.
"It's all clear." Hotch said.
"Nothing." Cramer said, the Agent that Hotch and Gideon talked to earlier.
"I'm clear here." I said. Suddenly, I heard some banging and grunting from Hotch. I immediately ran, with Morgan, to where he last was. I saw the unsub, strangling Hotch. Morgan and I had our guns pointed to his head.
"Gideon, we got a headshot at that sick bastard." I said.
"Don't take it. We need him alive." He replied. Gideon showed up, behind Hotch and the unsub, and he tased him. They both fell to the ground. Cramer handcuffed the unsub, while I ran to Aaron. I crouched down and patted his back. He was coughing up blood.
"Take your tie off for once in your life." I said, loosening his tie, which he ties extremely tight. "It's all right."
"There's a van around the corner. Looks like blood all over." Cramer said.
"It's being processed right now. Whatever they find they're going to send it over to Quantico." Morgan replied.
"They got Jimmy's jacket."
…
We brought the unsub to the interrogation room, where all he did was lock him up and left. Our trick was to make him uncomfortable.
"Go home, both of you." Gideon said. I scoffed.
"Yeah, right. I'm coming in there with you."
"I'm fine." Hotch said. "He's got a little slack."
"If Morgan says he's secure, he's secure." Gideon said, as we stripped off all of our weapons.
"Jason, Harita." Hotch called out.
"Yes?"
"Let's not give him a weapon. He's kind of strong." Hotch took the pen from Gideon's shirt pocket. "Harita, tuck in your necklace." I did as told. I was just glad he didn't tell me to take it off due to its significance.
"Hey, Hotch." Gideon called out.
"Yeah?"
"We'll be ok." Gideon and I walked into the interrogation room. Gideon sat on the side bench and I leaned against the wall next to him.
"I'm Supervisory Special Agent Jason Gideon. This is Doctor Harita. Federal Bureau of Investigation."
"You're afraid of me, Harita?" Vincent asked, staring into my soul.
"You were advised of your rights?" I asked.
"Take these off and we'll really talk." Vincent demanded.
"Were you advised of your rights?" Gideon asked.
"I know my rights."
"You want to talk?"
"I got nothing to hide."
"Good." Gideon started to pace the room, while I took his seat. He then stood behind the chair facing Vincent.
"You're not organized crime."
"Nope. We're part of the behavioral analysis unit." I said.
"What's that mean?"
"We study how you think, why you do what you do." I answered.
"No kidding?"
"We have a word for you." Gideon said.
"You got a word for me?" Vincent answered.
"Oh, yeah. Actually, we have a few. Psychopath. Paranoid personality disorder."
"That's quite a mouthful, Jason."
"Yes, it is." Vincent leaned closer.
"Michael Russo set me up, didn't he?"
"Do you recognize this man?" Gideon showed him a picture of Jimmy.
"No."
"How about them?" I said, pointing to the board with the Dimarco family pictures. "Anyone look familiar?"
"Wait a minute. The third guy over. I think he does those late night commercials for the dead worms. You know, softies." Gideon chuckled. "That's funny to you?"
"It's just interesting that you'd choose that expression. You have problems performing?"
"Not me."
"Does murder excite you? Is it the only thing that can give you a sexual release?" Gideon walked over to the board and flipped it over, showing him a whole bunch of victims from unsolved murders, the same ones Morgan and I hung up. "Vincent, I believe you're an extremely impotent man."
"Take these off we'll see." Suddenly, Josh came into the room and grabbed onto Vincent.
"Where's Jimmy, you son of a bitch? He's a federal agent! I will personally execute you! Personally!" Josh kept on yelling as Gideon and I dragged him out and handed him to Hotch and Morgan, who was watching us. I got back to my seat and Gideon went to his chair.
"Baker is a federal agent. I knew it."
"Where is he, Vincent?" I asked.
"Hey, Jason. Is it still called paranoid, if I'm right?" Vincent asked. Gideon walked out of the room and I followed him.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Gideon yelled at Cramer, who was sitting at a desk.
"We don't have time for this, all right? My friend might still be alive out there somewhere." Josh argued back.
"You just told him Baker was a federal agent. He may never tell us now." I said.
"I told him to hang tough."
"What?" Gideon asked.
"Jimmy. When he called me, I told him to stick with the assignment that we didn't need to bring him in right away. Hey, I had too much invested, all right? Too much time. And I wanted Russo. So we waited 24 hours to go in for him. By the time we got there, that maniac-" "There's a chance Agent Baker's being tortured and I think I know how." Reid said, walking out of Penelope's room, interrupting Josh, Gideon, and I's argument. He gave us pictures of the frames from the video tape.
"These are faces of new victims off the videotapes we found." Hotch told JJ after he called her in. "Check with local PDs. See if they have any open homicides or missings that might correspond."
"Are those rats?" JJ asked.
"Yeah."
"What are we gonna do?" Cramer asked.
"Well, we looked at all the stuff in the van and beside the videotapes there's nothing that interesting." Elle answered.
"I got Garcia going over the sound on the tapes trying to isolate the background noise. Maybe something there will help." Morgan said.
"The good news is it seems like they were all filmed in the same space. It could be some sort of home base for him?" Reid stated.
"Yeah, but where is it?" Josh asked.
"What do we know about Vincent Perotta?" Gideon questioned.
"He's off the grid." Morgan said. "Garcia can't find a registered phone, utility bill, or home address on this hump."
"Come on, everybody lives somewhere. There's gotta be a paper trail." Hotch said.
"If there is, we can't find it." Reid argued.
"In this day and age you can't live without leaving some sort of trace."
"Unless someone pays your bills for you." I suggested.
"What about Russo?" Morgan asked. "Could he be taking care of him?"
"No. No, no, no. Russo's not paying anybody's bills but his own." Cramer insisted.
"Well, he has to have a weakness. It's in his crime. It's in his behavior." Gideon said.
"You know, something's just been bugging me." Morgan complained. "Freddy. Wasn't he easy to find? He cut up the body. He removed it from the crime scene. But then he leaves it a couple of blocks away where he's gotta know we're gonna find it. It's the whole reason we were able to connect Perotta to the crime."
"He made a mistake." Elle said.
"Yeah, he did. He went off script."
"What does that mean?" Cramer asked.
"Something knocked him off his game. His behavior. Well, what does he do? Gideon asked
"He tortures." Cramer answered.
"Always?"
"The difference is Mrs. Dimarco." Hotch said.
"Right. Want to finish this?"
"Yeah."
"Let's get into it." I said, grabbing my bag of pistachios. We went back to the interrogation room, where Vincent was. Only this time, Hotch went in and Gideon and I stood outside and watched. Mostly Hotch did the talking, until he brought up the abuse Vincent's father gave him and his mother.
"Come on." Gideon said, as he left and I followed. We went to where the others were, surrounded by Morgan's desk.
"Gideon, Harita. I think we got something here." Morgan called out.
"He's got a bunch of pizza boxes from Frenetti's pizza. It's in Glen Burnie. A suburb that backs up right to the airport." Elle said.
"Which makes sense, since we can hear airplanes in the background of the video." Reid added.
"Check property records for Frank Perotta." Gideon said.
"Who?" Morgan asked.
"His father." I answered.
"Why?"
"He still lives in his father's house."
"I'll get Garcia on it." Morgan said.
"That's why nothing is in his name." Gideon said, as Morgan left to get the address.
...
We got to the house. SWAT went in first, checking the house. After hearing a 'Clear!' We went inside. A few SWAT members went up stairs, around the house, and down the basement to check for anything. After hearing a bunch of 'Clear!'s, a SWAT member said. "We got a friendly! It's Baker!" Gideon, Morgan Elle, and I went downstairs and saw Jimmy, who was bloody and strapped to a chair, and a bunch of filthy rats crawling over him. We kicked the rats away and checked if Jimmy had a pulse.
"Is he okay?" Cramer asked.
"He's gonna live." Elle answered.
...
"You said some people grow up to become killers." Vincent said. I went back to the interrogation room after we got Jimmy. A few agents were uncuffing him from the chair and re-cuffing him. Hotch stood up from his chair.
"And some people grow up to catch them." Hotch left the room and came over to me.
"And us two are the ones that catch them." I said, smiling. Hotch smiled back and wrapped his arm around my shoulders and we walked back to the BAU office.
I hate how the writers just left out the fact that Hotch was abused. Like in one episode, they just mentioned it the slightest bit, but never mention it again. Like, come on!
Toodles,
HernameisBurrito