Sorry for the delay. I was busy with work!
4
"Birds sing after a storm; why shouldn't people feel as free to delight in whatever sunlight remains to them?"- Rose Kennedy
Charlotte quickly buttoned up her teal dress shirt before tucking it into her black pencil skirt. She had finally gotten her own place, right as Spencer's birthday came up. She looked at the wrapped gift and hoped he liked mind puzzles that kept the hands busy. She had gotten him a few and had baked him a tray of sugar cookies. Her Jamaican auntie's recipe that had been passed down through the generations. She grabbed her Slipknot jacket and pulled it on before pulling her messenger bag on her shoulder. Keys had been grabbed, getting her drivers license had been relatively easy buying the clunker of a car she had had been more difficult, and the gift was tucked into her bag. She grabbed the cookies, put on her heeled dress shoes, and headed out of her sparse apartment. She missed having breakfast with Jason.
"Hey Spencer!" She called as she entered the bullpen, her badge swinging wildly from her bag.
"You're early," Spencer commented.
"I wanted to give you your birthday gift and cookies before anyone else got here," she stated, and his expression perked up. "Don't tell Oracle I brought them in, she loves them."
Penelope had come to visit her at her apartment more than once. It always happened when she was trying new recipes or the sugar cookies. So far, Penelope had gone home with Cinnamon rolls, eclairs, and different types of cookies. She handed over the gift and cookies and Spencer quickly squirreled the cookies away in his bag, taking one out and biting into it. He paused and looked at her as though he couldn't figure her out.
"You've been holding out on us," Spencer commented.
"Has Jason said nothing about my cooking skills?" she asked in surprise. "When he let me stay with him, I used to make breakfast every day."
"Please make baked goods for us?" Spencer requested.
"All right, Birthday boy has a special request," she teased. "No problem, I can see about bringing more baked goods more often."
"I'll hold you to that," Hotch's voice made Charlotte jump.
"Do I need to get you a bell for your birthday, sir?" Charlotte questioned and Spencer coughed in disbelief. "You all right, Spencer?"
Hotch had an amused glint in his eyes, and she knew he hadn't taken offense to it. Spencer nodded his head and quickly took a drink of some water. He had several complaints from Erin about how his team members dressed, Charlotte being the biggest of her complaints. The jacket was the only thing out of regulations, and said jacket was being put on the back of her chair.
"If you can find one that matches any tie," Hotch stated.
"…I can do that," she stated, and he paused slightly, that was a promise.
Spencer was kind enough to share one of the cookies, and Hotch gave him a nod. He took one bite and knew one thing; she should definitely bring baked goods to the office more often. He wouldn't say anything, watching as Penelope came up and joined the two agents already there. Charlotte relaxed around the blonde and smiled at something she said, winking as she said something back. Their friendship was oddly worrying. The rest of the team slowly trickled in, JJ being the first.
"That's a good colour," JJ complimented Charlotte.
"Thank you," Charlotte smiled, her cheeks turning a light pink in embarrassment. "Today is Spencer's Day."
"I've got an even better picture of her flustered," Penelope whispered to JJ as Charlotte was thanked for her gifts of puzzles and a book on religion and the occult.
"Email it to me," JJ requested.
"Do you ever get the feeling that they are conspiring against us?" Spencer asked Charlotte.
"All the time," she admitted.
She clapped his shoulder before heading to her desk and sitting down. She had some paperwork to do. Her computer was booted up and she grabbed a pen. She would do that until everyone was there and they could properly celebrate Spencer's birthday. Someone placed a red bull down in front of her and she looked up. She sent JJ a suspicious look, narrowing her eyes slightly.
"Is this an attempt to get me to bring baked goods to work, or gossip on my nonexistent love life?" Charlotte asked.
"Both," JJ shrugged, before looking around the bullpen. "Penelope told me, about your type."
"Not you too," Charlotte stated putting her head in her hands, much to JJ's amusement. "No one else please."
"It's all right, we've all had that thought before," JJ admitted.
"It's the voice," Charlotte muttered.
"It is," JJ agreed.
"And the ass," Penelope quietly added, not wanting Hotch to hear them.
"Mrs. Hotchner is a lucky lady," JJ finished with a slight smile. "Elle and Morgan are here; we can fully celebrate Spencer."
"On this day of Spencer, we celebrate our favourite genius," Charlotte stated, and Penelope snickered as a cake hat was placed on Spencer's head and a cake placed in front of him. "Begin your wish making."
"Come on, man," Derek stated as Spencer tried to blow the candles out. "Blow baby, blow."
"I thought you were full of hot air, Reid," Elle joked.
"Come one, Reid!" Derek said, Spencer giving the candles another go.
"They're trick candles, Spence," JJ informed him, taking pity on the doctor. "Okay? They…they're going to come back on every time."
"Mommy to the rescue," Derek teased.
"Mommy?" Spencer and Charlotte asked, Charlotte shooting him a concerned look.
"Ignore him," Elle stated. "Let's get you cake.
Jason watched from afar with Hotch. It was amusing to see their teammates smiling and joking with one another. They finally had trust amongst their ranks, well, as much trust as a hunter and ex-cop could have. Spencer got a pat to the shoulder and a slight smile from Charlotte. She chuckled at his annoyed look.
"We're the same age for another month or so," Charlotte informed him, and the rest of the team turned towards her. "Y'all can guess."
Jason let out a low chuckle at that. She knew what was going to happen when they learned it and she sent Penelope a look. The blonde gave a wide grin in response. A slight flash of fear went through Charlottes eyes at the chaos that the woman could inflict given the right motivation.
"Hope you like chocolate," Elle said.
"Man, you blew wax on the cake," Derek stated noting the small flecks.
"It's good fibre," Charlotte dryly stated, Spencer gained a small smile as she ducked some frosting to the hair by the taller man. "Go ahead and talk to Jason, we'll wait for you to come back."
Spencer was thankful one of his co-workers realized that he wanted to talk to Jason. He got up and awkwardly walked over, the hat making him stand out. Charlotte sat at her desk and watched as JJ leaned against it, a plate of cake in her hands. She watched as Jason talked to Spencer, her expression patient. Charlotte found it funny how JJ took care of all of them, but she appreciated the other woman for it. She chuckled when a plate of cake was placed in front of her. She truly was the team mom. Charlotte turned her attention to a news report of a car bombing. The story being familiar, but not overly so. She didn't want to deal with more fire for a while. A part of her wanted a normal murderer, that dealt with normal means of killing. No more bombs.
"You are the only one that calls him Spence," Charlotte informed JJ, taking a bite out of the cake and raising her brows.
"Everyone deserves a nickname," JJ shrugged, holding the plate out to Spencer. "Did everyone get some?"
"JJ, why don't you feed it to him?" Derek sarcastically questioned, enjoying the annoyed look on the blonde's face.
"Thank you," Spencer quietly thanked, enjoying his birthday surrounded by the team was wonderful.
"Sorry, guys, party's over," Hotch informed them, a serious expression on his face. "We're going to San Diego."
"But not for surfing, huh?" Derek asked.
"The San Diego beaches are also fun to search for seashells," Charlotte wistfully stated. "Silver Strand State Beach had a lot of sand dollars last time I went."
"Sand dollars used to be living creatures," Spencer informed her, and she gave him a fond smile.
They headed to the small briefing room and Jason noted how close Spencer and Charlotte had gotten. They were months apart, her birthday being in December right as winter began, so it made sense that they'd gravitate towards one another. He sat down next to them, and they gave him slightly relieved looks. Spencer's because he still didn't truly understand social cues, and Charlotte because it was a tiny room. Tiny rooms seemed to bother her quite a bit. JJ brought them all the case folders and Charlotte slowly opened her's. She wanted to shut it immediately, disgust rising up in her.
"They're calling him the "Tommy killer"," JJ informed them.
"Six women raped and murdered in their homes in the last three weeks," Hotch stated.
"Six in three weeks?" Elle asked, Charlotte looked a little startled.
"That's a short fuse," Jason commented.
"That's more than short," Charlotte said, running a hand through her hair in thought.
"And it's getting shorter," Hotch confirmed. "First two were eight days apart, then the next four in two weeks."
"Rapid escalation," Spencer said, frowning slightly. "You think he's regressing to a psychopathic frenzy?"
"No, he's too controlled for that," Hotch denied. "See you on the plane."
The group looked through their folders. Charlotte looked over the bodies of the women. She squinted; they were on their stomachs, but their heads were turned to the side. As though looking at something. Derek frowned as he thought about the killer's title.
"Why the "Tommy Killer"?" He asked.
"You know the rock opera?" Hotch asked, stopping in his tracks to answer.
"See me, feel me, touch me," Charlotte stated. "It's the song Tommy by the Who, right?"
"The unsub glues his victims' eyes wide open," Hotch said nodding at her.
"He wants them to see him," Spencer said.
"And feel him," Jason added.
"Odd positioning though," Charlotte stated, sitting forward a bit to get more light on the picture. "I wonder what they were looking at."
"Good question," Jason murmured.
Derek looked between the two, nodding. There was something off in the way the women were positioned. No one knew what, and it was a glaring detail. Perhaps it was important, perhaps it wasn't. It was still something they'd keep an eye on, or in the back of their thoughts. They all closed their folders before standing up. They had to head to the jet. It was going to be a long flight. Jason motioned for Charlotte, and she tilted her head as she picked up the duffel bag that worked as her travel bag.
"What's wrong?" she quietly asked.
"Any dreams lately?" Jason softly asked and she was taken aback by his question before gently smiling.
"It's all fuzzy, and I think that might be because of the victim's eyes being glued shut," she admitted before frowning a bit. "I can keep trying, anything is better than nothing."
He could see the wisdom in that train of thought, and the downfall it could take her. He watched as she took a few quick strides and picked up Spencer's go-bag before he did, a slight teasing grin on her face. He gained the barest of smiles. The team was livelier than it used to be. He couldn't help but think further on that thought as the two young adults played Wei-Chi against one another on the jet.
"Brenda Samms was found yesterday by her children when they got home from school," Hotch informed them, slowly moving through the jet isle before sitting down next to the two wei-chi players. "She had been strangled with a thin ligature, possibly a wire."
"No weapon left at the scene," Elle commented as she looked at the photographs of the body.
"Residue on the wrists and mouth indicate that duct tape was used, and then removed," Spencer stated, looking down at the photos as Charlotte contemplated her next move.
"Also not found at the scene," Hotch informed him.
"So, the unsub brings it with him?" Charlotte questioned, picking up a piece and placing it down.
"And takes it with him," Elle agreed.
"He also started leaving messages at the fourth scene," Hotch said, holding up the picture of the message. "This was on the mirrors. "Fair lady, throw those costly robes aside.""
"No longer may you glory in your pride, right?" Charlotte asked, looking over at him with a blank expression.
"You know this poem?" Hotch asked.
"So does Spencer," she admitted. "It's the ballad from the 1600s."
"A Dialogue Betwixt Death and a Lady," Spencer stated, remembering they had been talking about it a few days before.
"A seventeenth-century ballad?" Elle asked the two in disbelief.
"Yeah, it's essentially a woman begging death to live," Spencer stated.
"And it shows up a lot more than you think it does, it's been in a few of my occult books," Charlotte stated with a shrug, missing the slight smile that Jason gained at the two-causing disbelief amongst the team.
"What kind of person knows this ballad?" Elle questioned, taking their strange behavior in stride. "Are we looking for a literature professor?"
"Anyone with an internet connection, actually," Spencer said as he sat up straighter to be heard a bit better. "You should see what comes in when you type the word "death" into a search engine."
"Reid, no wonder you can't get a date," Derek commented, his amusement showing on his face.
"Reid, stay on the messages," Jason ordered. "See if there's a deeper meaning."
"Well, it definitely looks like he ransacked the crime scene pretty well," Derek dryly stated, looking at the different crime scene photos.
"A lot of damage, nothing taken," Hotch told him.
"The eyes are the thing," Jason stated. "The signature. The behavior that isn't necessary for the murder, but necessary for the emotional release. That's what he's there for."
"There used to be a widely held belief that the eyes record a snapshot of the last thing a person sees before they die," Spencer stated.
"Yeah, that's right," Derek stated, getting slightly excited. "People used to write poems about talking to death."
"Ballads," Spencer corrected.
"Whatever," Derek sighed.
"Death is also a large influence in art as well, it's one of the few things we can't escape so it's biggest inspirations we have as humans," Charlotte stated, looking at a few pictures and frowning just the slightest. "We're an oddly morbid species if you think about it."
"Do you think they'll ever run out of new things to do to their victims?" Elle asked Jason.
"Well, finding new ways to hurt each other is what we're good at," Jason answered.
The jet went quiet as they all moved to study the crime, or play their game. Jason would continue to draw eyes on his yellow pad of paper and looked up over at the two young adults every so often. Charlotte would've joked that he was a bit of a better father figure to Spencer and her than his own son, but she knew it would be in bad taste and incredibly hurtful. It made her miss the man she called dad. She hoped that Penelope could find him, even if it wasn't for a few years. Just one second to see him again would be worth it.
"My win in one," Charlotte informed Spencer and he let out a strange sound from the back of his throat. "Just because it's your birthday doesn't mean I won't kick your ass in Wei-chi."
Elle let out a slight laugh before coughing. It had been unexpected, but judging by Spencer's sudden concentration he didn't mind. Derek watched as Spencer made his move only to have Charlotte make one and end the game. Another win in her book. They went through turbulence and Charlotte took a calm breath before collecting the pieces of their game. It needed to be put away anyway. She decided to delve into the case, hopefully triggering some kind of vision. She'd take hallucinatory, and that was saying something. She stared at the picture of Brenda and tilted her head. Just what was she staring at? Face down on the bed, but her head was tilted to the side? She felt her ears ringing and brought a hand up to rub at her neck. That wasn't vision noise. No, that was Angel noises. Why now? She heard the choir singing, the choral music that the angels loved to sing. Her phone quietly vibrated in her pocket, and she frowned, putting the case folder down and removing it. She found a single message.
You will reconnect if you keep strengthening it. Music is your friend. -R
So, Ramiel was watching. He was warning her, telling her that she'd reconnect to the Angel waves if she truly delved into the gift, he'd given her. She'd have to. It helped in the cases, and it might help save more lives. Omnipotence was going to be difficult to live with, even more to use it the way she was going to. Her fingers hesitated on the keyboard.
That's fine, thank you for the heads up. -C
Her phone went into her bag, and she picked up the picture again. She would have to really concentrate to make a connection. It would be difficult, with her lack of wanting to truly do so. Jason got up from his seat and moved to the back to grab a small glass of water. He paused slightly when Charlotte gained an expression that showed she wanted to slam her head against the table. Hotch would most likely stop her if she started to, but they didn't want to chance it.
"Where did you learn to cook?" he asked, and the sudden question made her blink in surprise.
"Auntie," Charlotte answered, and the Jamaican twang attached to the word caused Spencer to frown. "She liked help when making meals and I was the only one tall enough to do it."
"No wonder you made jerk chicken," he muttered, and she chuckled.
"Can't help it, she made good food," Charlotte shrugged.
Jason clapped her shoulder and continued on his way to get his water. It stopped that expression from being on her face. That was all that mattered. Hotch looked up from the case file at the strange occurrence. She grabbed her music player and put in one of the headphones, rubbing at her temples as though she had a headache. Wasn't me by Shaggy was playing, and he could hear it a bit.
San Diego had pleasant weather; the air hid a slight hint of the nearby ocean. The task headquarters was a relatively nice building, but packed inside. Charlotte gathered that the current case was making them work a lot of overtime. She ran a hand through her curly hair and thoughtfully tugged on a few strands. There was a hunter in their midsts, she knew that by the small symbol next to the elevator. So, this world didn't seem to hate hunters at all. They worked for the government, or local offices. She narrowed her eyes in thought, it was interesting to say the least. She surveyed the crowded building as she walked with her team, and her eyes met the other hunter. She slowly moved her gaze to settle on Hotch's backside. It was safer to look at that than the other hunter.
"Captain Griffith, task force commander," a dark haired man in a grey suit greeted them, shaking hands with Hotch.
"Sorry, we all get tunnel vision," Hotch apologised with a pleasant expression. "I'm special agent Hotchner and this is Agent Jareau our liaison."
"Hi," JJ greeted, a smile on her face as they shook hands.
"I appreciate you coming out," Griffith informed them, Elle and Charlotte shared a look.
"Thanks, I hope we can help," Hotch said.
Charlotte helped Spencer and Jason set up a white board with the information they needed for the case. She handed photos out of her file, and they put them up. Soon, it became a morbid collage of all the information they had. Charlotte looked away from the board for a few seconds. It felt like she was being watched by Brenda.
"My name is Death, have you not heard of me," Charlotte read, noting that they had put up more of the ballads found at the crime scenes.
"It's creepy," JJ commented.
"Actually, conversations between death and his victims were a fairly popular literary and artistic theme throughout the renaissance," Spencer told her, then noticing that she seemed a little unimpressed and still creeped out. "Yeah. Creepy."
"So, this guy is striking during the day?" Charlotte asked, looking at a different board with Jason.
"Yeah, in upper-middle-class neighbourhoods," Derek confirmed, and she nodded at that.
"Extremely high-risk victims at high-risk times," Jason stated. "He's confident in his ability."
"Either that or he blends into the area," Charlotte stated, crossing her arms across her chest in thought.
"Looks like a five-square-mile radius," Derek stated, joining them as they looked over the case itself. "So, he probably has a vehicle."
"Do you want to see that crime scene?" A detective asked them, startling the two men while Charlotte smiled in slight amusement.
"It's still taped off," Derek pointed out.
"The husband won't go back inside," the detective stated.
"Let's go," Jason said with a slight smile.
Charlotte found herself in the backseat with Jason, her music player out and her earbuds in. She was looking out the window, noting all the nice new houses mixed in with the older ones. Things didn't change much from world to world, did it? Derek was up front with a photograph in his hands, still trying to figure out what the crime scene could tell him.
"This profiling really works?" the detective asked, stopping the car at a stop sign.
"It's a tool," Derek stated.
"You can tell everything about a guy from looking at the scene?" the detective seemed intrigued by the idea of profiling people.
"Well, the scene's only part of it, we also use victimology for precedent," Derek answered. "We can usually get a very clear picture of the guy."
"Our guys went over it pretty well," the detective defended his staff.
"I'm sure they did," Derek said.
"Local officers aren't trained to look for the things we look for," Jason stated.
Charlotte took out one of her earbuds and looked at the three men in the car before rolling her eyes. They were insulting each other; it was like being in high school again. She put her earbud back in and turned her music up a bit more. She couldn't help but listen to some Metallica as she watched as they turned onto a street that was filled with upper-lower-class housing. She pulled out her notebook and pencil. She started to sketch a face, one that she'd never seen before. Her ears began ringing as she slowly began to use her gift. The face of a woman began to take place, but it was blurry, the pencil smudging as she drew. Jason looked over her shoulder before looking at her eyes, they were unfocused. Her expression was normal, but she wasn't there mentally. She stopped drawing for a few seconds before slowly adding something else to it. It looked like straight, thick, lines. Things that needed to be attached to things. Her hand stilled and she blinked. She lost whatever connection she had. The car came to a stop outside of a very nice house, inside a nice neighborhood with large houses. They all got out of the car, and Jason looked around at all the cop cars roaming the streets.
"You increased patrols in these neighborhoods," Jason observed. "Was it when the pattern was identified?"
"It happened after the fourth victim," the detective informed them. "Boss has canceled days off, vacations, neighborhood full of cruisers, as he still struck two more times."
"He blends, Gideon," Jason said, picking up his ringing cellphone.
"If he blends, he can be anyone that can freely enter and leave the neighborhood," Charlotte stated. "Anyone that works and does a trade."
"Like a plumber," Derek elaborated to the confused detective. "Trust me, it doesn't get any easier to understand her."
"I'll take that as a compliment," Charlotte snorted.
"Attempt?" Jason's question caused them all to look at him. "Well, we're already at the last crime scene. Let us know if you identify a suspect."
"Suspect?" the detective asked as the three agents continued towards the house.
"Might have been another attack not far from your station," Jason explained.
"Where are you going?" Derek asked as the detective started to leave.
"Over there," the detective answered as though it was obvious.
"Well, units are already heading that way," Jason stated. "We can get more accomplished here."
"You're kidding me, right?" the detective asked, and Charlotte let out a sigh before moving towards a window to look inside the house.
Derek watched as the slightly shorter woman started to look around with a keen eye. He'd stay and help Jason with the detective. He wanted to get inside just as much as she wanted to. When they finally got the keys, the detective wanting to join his co-workers, Jason whistled to get Charlottes attention. They'd enter through the front of the house while Derek went through the back.
"It's a nice home, if not a little unlived in," Charlotte stated, looking around at the pale walls in thought.
"Your apartment is far more unlived in," Jason pointed out, causing her to smile a little.
"I have a plant," she defended.
"That Garcia gave you," he countered as they headed up the stairs.
Charlotte's answering laugh caused him to chuckle a bit. The room where the woman was found was bare of everything but the furniture. The bed no longer had sheets or a cover on it. Charlotte lost her good mood fairly quickly and let out a soft sigh before moving in further so Jason could close the door. He looked around in thought, just as she did. She looked at the picture where the items were on the floor. Nothing had been taken, and instead destroyed. Perhaps the unsub was angry that she had such nice items? She didn't understand it. She truly didn't.
"I know I used to go after some of the biggest horrors that can exist, but I think humans scare me the most," Charlotte softly said, and Jason looked over at her. "I don't understand why someone would do this… well, I do, but seeing as I wouldn't do this to someone it baffles me a bit."
The more he was around her, the more he saw her. He saw the small child that had been forced into a way of life that she didn't want but still excelled in because if she didn't then she'd die. The young woman that could've easily graduated from college with a few degrees but was unable to do so. Charlotte moved to look in the mirror and began to read the excerpt that had been left behind.
"You may as well be mute, there is no time at all for vain dispute, your riches, gold and garments, jewels bright," Jason read aloud. "Your house and land, must on new owners light."
"The unsub doesn't know that poem too well, it should be Your house and land, must on the owner's light," Charlotte stated. "He might be twisting it to fit his outlook of the world."
She looked to see that Jason was looking at the TV, noting what video had been in the player at the time. Charlotte was taken aback by the sight of the VHS player, having not seen one since she was very little. Right, too much time had passed for her to really think of things being normal like this. The door opened and a glint of silver appeared out of her sleeve. Derek walked in, and it vanished before he could see it.
"She had a workout video on," Jason commented to the two. "Step aerobics."
"Step aerobics?" Derek asked. "With the platforms? Step up, step down, step up, step down?"
"Where's the platform?" Jason asked and he watched as Charlotte went over to the bed and slowly nudged it with her converse. "He spent a lot of time here."
"What, so he vacuumed?" Derek asked.
"He got rid of the platform marks," Charlotte observed. "How much time did he spend in this house without someone noticing that something had happened? He even broke a whole bunch of items."
"She had to have been dead or incapacitated when he did that," Derek stated, opening his folder, and looking at the list of items. "Cappuccino maker from the kitchen, dishes, vases, broken jewelry."
"Symbols," Jason stated. "Your riches, gold, garments, jewels bright. Your house and land must on the owner's light."
"Her riches," Derek connected.
"There's something obvious that we're missing here," Charlotte stated with a frown.
"It's right in front of us, but we just can't see it," Derek agreed. "I usually see it right before a woman dumps me."
Jason and Charlotte both look at him, matching expressions showing that they'd spent a lot of time together. Derek raised a brow at both of them before they slowly looked away. There was nothing said, but he knew that they had quietly judged him in unison. Charlotte put her hands into her pockets, looking around in thought. It wasn't until they were heading back that she realized she had drawn something, and she pulled out her notebook to find the blurry face. That was…incredibly unhelpful. She made a face before putting it away. They headed back to the task headquarters, and she waved to Spencer as he hurried towards them.
"The verses," he stated.
"Found something?" Jason asked.
"Not an answer, a question," Spencer stated, frowning at the papers in his hand. "I found the full text; he's pretty much following it to a tee. At least, the Death side of the conversation."
Charlotte gave a small smile of thanks as she accepted the papers from Spencer to look through them. He was right. The woman's dialogue was completely missing. The whole ballad was ten verses long, and yet he wasn't using them. Why? She ran a finger against her lower lip in thought. Was it not a part of his signature? Spencer made that observation out loud, and she lowered the papers.
"JJ, find out when the press ran the first story on this unsub," Jason ordered.
"When?" JJ asked.
"After which victim," Jason clarified.
"Yeah, you got it," JJ stated, reaching for the landline and dialing a number.
"What are you thinking?" Derek asked.
"He wasn't getting enough attention," Jason answered.
Ah, that was why it seemed strange. Charlotte placed the papers against her thigh and had a sad thought. How many of her own cases had been ignored because it wasn't noticeable as a killing? How many graveyards were filled with people she couldn't save? She let out a soft sound before wiping her head of such thoughts. It was incredibly counterproductive.
"The first story ran the morning after the fourth victim was found," JJ informed them.
"The increased patrols didn't begin until after the fourth victim either," Derek agreed.
"The police didn't realize what was happening, he writes his verse, and now everyone knows he was there," Jason explained.
"Then, the person that just did the new attempt isn't the same one," Charlotte stated. "This unsub is too methodical, the man that did their attempt doesn't follow the same pattern."
"The offender in this new attempt is a black male," Hotch informed them as he approached the group with Elle.
"Black male? Cross racial?" Derek asked. "That doesn't happen."
"How about Herbert Mullin?" Spencer countered. "He killed fourteen different people of completely varying ages, races, and creeds."
"But there was no sexual component to his crimes," Elle pointed out. "And he wore a ski mask. This attacker wore a ski mask."
"Tell them we're ready," Jason said.
Charlotte got her notebook ready and pulled out her usual pencil. She stood in the front next to Spencer, taking notes on the profile, hoping to get something out of her…gift. She listened to the profile. Someone who brings their own equipment, a killing kit of all things, a skilled job that was most likely technology related, and he needed a vehicle to get around all the different crime scenes. Her eyes slowly glazed over as her hand stilled for a few seconds. Spencer took a sip of the coffee in his hands and slowly frowned as he noticed how still his co-worker had gone. It startled him slightly when she began to draw, and in a way that was completely unlike her usual techniques. A telephone pole slowly took form on the page with the notes on the profile. He perked up when the ballads came up, and began to inform the officers before them of what he found.
Charlotte heard the angels' songs start up and continued to push the gift a bit further. The scene before her was blurry, but not overly so. She could hear a child crying for their mother, but far away. Her concentration was broken when Hotch pulled the main detective into his office to put up a trap. She mentally cursed before looking at what she had drawn. A telephone pole? How odd. Maybe it was a clue as to what the unsub did as a job. She was stationed with JJ as they waited for their unsub to call. She was twirling a pencil in her fingers and stared at the phone in disinterest. Yeah, she couldn't do JJ's job without getting bored. JJ got up to do her job by informing the media that they had caught someone they believed to have partaken in the crimes. The man in question was dragged through the station, and she raised a brow. He definitely wasn't their true unsub, no his posture informed her of that.
"I hate waiting," Charlotte muttered as she watched their live footage of the news report.
Spencer looked up from his rubrics cube as Elle said the same thing. He raised his brows and Charlotte rolled her eyes in amusement. It wasn't her fault that Elle was of the same mind as her. It was nice. Elle would've made a wonderful hunter, and that was saying something coming from her.
"Anything?" Jason asked, stopping by Charlottes table with a cup of coffee for her.
"Nothing yet, just the image of a telephone pole," Charlotte answered, accepting the cup. "And the significance of it is lost on me."
Jason held out a hand and she handed him the notebook. She started to sip on her coffee and welcomed the caffeine into her system. Hotch paused as he came upon the two and watched as Jason studied something in the little black notebook. There was something off about their newest agent. He just didn't know what. The phone in front of Detective Martin rang and he answered it. His eyes widened slightly, and he quickly got up. Motioning and getting everyone's attention.
"Hey, hey! Pick it up, pick it up," he quickly stated, and they all got into action.
"Line six, Penelope, line six," JJ informed the blonde over the phone.
"You stupid incompetent sons of bitches!" Came out of the phone as Elle put it on speaker for all to hear. "I don't make mistakes! I am Death! You hear me? I am Death! You'll see now. Tomorrow, mark my words, you will see. And while I'm taking her, I'm going to be thinking of you!"
"She said she got nothing," JJ informed them, relaying the information from Penelope.
"Nothing?" Derek asked.
"We missed him?" Hotch questioned.
"How's that even possible?" Charlotte asked, frowning. "He was on for longer than most unsubs would be."
Charlotte came out of the restroom while pulling on her Slipknot jacket. They weren't to wear anything that outed them as FBI agents. They were going undercover to find the unsub and try and stop him before he hurt anyone. She needed one good connection, just one. It wouldn't give it away who it was, no that would be too easy, and the angels didn't care about making their games easy, but she could piece together information. She knew that Jason was making connections with her drawings of telephone poles. She wished that she could make a connection, but nothing made sense. She needed to rethink the case; she could do a case with occult backings but not this? This was too much like a vampiric case, so maybe she needed to categorize it like she would a hunt? Did she need to make a new notebook for "hunting" people? That…that could actually work. It might help her in the long run.
"With me," Hotch told her, and she blinked before nodding.
"Yes, sir," she stated.
The neighborhood was going about business as usual, and it made her frown. It was so strange seeing people act as though everything was normal. Their car didn't stand out, the high end vehicle made sense in the neighborhood. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat and went back to surveying the people around them. Her sunglasses were doing nothing to help with the slight headache she was getting. Hotch noted the police in the street and turned towards the strange agent. She had turned her attention towards the telephone poles and was looking at the birds on them.
"Grosbeak," she muttered in amusement.
"Jason?" Hotch asked.
"Jason," she confirmed, a frown then appeared on her face as she realized something. "How close are Elle and Jason to one of the victim's houses?'
"They aren't too far from the house of Brenda," Hotch answered, and she quickly pulled out her phone and dialed a number.
"Is there a telephone pole outside of Brenda Samms house?" she asked, and she made a face. "Yeah, there's one here as well. Let us know what you find."
Hotch looked up at the telephone pole and his brows raised. So that's how the unsub was able to keep an eye on his victims. She put her phone away and began to look at the telephone lines, seeing where the cables went and where they connected to which pole. She narrowed her eyes in thought. They didn't truly congregate in the neighborhood, but some of them weren't close enough to houses. She immediately removed them from suspicion. She needed a whole map of the line system to even figure out what house was next. She heard the angels singing and quickly pushed it from her mind as harshly as she could. It would look bad if she started to listen to her music right next to her boss.
"He's a phone technician," Hotch stated, following their line of thought.
"That explains why Penelope couldn't get a read on his position," Charlotte stated.
Hotch's phone went off and she knew then it was game time. She held onto the door handle as Hotch quickly pulled the car out of their spot and started to head to 875 Orange. She thought that she had been a reckless driver, but the FBI had more on her. She was white knuckling the door handle, and hoping that they didn't crash into anything. He came to a screeching halt, and she happily got out of the car as fast as she could. She hurried to regroup with Jason.
"Fan out, go through yards, look at telephone poles," he ordered. "He's around here."
"Jason, the only other thing that stood out while I was in that trance was a child crying," she murmured as she stopped behind her friend. "The woman most likely has a young child; I'll keep an ear out."
He gave a nod and she quicky jumped a fence and looked in the back yards to find where a telephone pole lined up correctly. She didn't find it in the first backyard and kept jumping fences to find it. Eventually, she came across one that had the gate wide open, and a screaming child inside. Jason was already there, and she noted that he gently shushed the child. The crying calmed a bit, but not enough. He turned back and saw her, she nodded, and he motioned towards the child. He wanted her to get the child out of the house. They weren't too sure that the unsub wouldn't hurt it. She kept her gun tucked into the back of her pants and gently picked the child up out of his highchair.
"I've got you sweetie," she softly told the child, allowing him to tug on her hair. "Your mama will be back soon, don't you worry. Hotch, Elle he's upstairs, Jason's talking him down."
Hotch and Elle went up the stairs and helped Jason. It was quiet as Charlotte calmed the child down. A woman with dirty blonde hair came down the stairs and welcomed her child back into her arms. It was a tear filled reunion and Charlotte uncomfortably moved away from it as the rest of her team came back town with the killer in tow. He was tall, and everything about him put her on edge. He seemed proud of himself. If she wasn't so sure he was going to jail she would've punched him at least once. Hotch's jaw was clenched as he glared at the man, and she was glad to see that the whole team agreed on her sentiment. He was put into a police car, and she knew she was never going to see him again.
The jet was quiet, everyone doing their own things. JJ and Hotch were reading the reports and signing off on what they needed to do. Charlotte was listening to her music while making a shopping list, eventually she switched to reading a book. Harry Potter, it was something she knew, and knew well. She'd already read Inkspell and Never Let Me Go, and she just wanted something she knew. She read the familiar story of the boy who lived and smiled slightly. It truly was comforting. Her smile grew just the slightest when Spencer went up to JJ with a pair of football tickets. Well, it seemed that he was finally getting a date. Good, they balanced each other out nicely. It wasn't lost to her that he just won a game of chess against Jason. Good, he needed to be humbled, because so did she.