This is the necessary disclaimer for chapter three of 'Racing the Clock'. I don't own'Criminal Minds' and I make no money from this story. Please don't sue me because I have nothing but my laptop and video games.
Let me say to every one of my reviewers that I love you all and your response so far has been amazing. Everyone who hasn't gotten a reply back from their review will get one and if you have already gotten one and receive another please disregard the second one. I kinda lost count of who I got back to and who I didn't. Just bear with me and I promise to be a little quicker with the next chapter of the story. Keep reviewing and you will make me a very happy writer.
Now on to the newest chapter of my slowing growing plot. Things will really pick up in the next couple of chapters so stay with me. Thanks in advance to all who review.
Quick Note: Several of you mentioned that Hotch is the leader of the team, not Gideon, I realized that mistake after I wrote chapter 2 and rather than go back and change what I had already written I just incorporated my mistake and made them sorta like co-leaders of the team. Hotch does have a new baby afterall and I think he would welcome some help with running the team. Just for the record though I know that Hotch is the leader while Gideon is the senior profiler so I hope I address that issue to the extent that everyone is happy.
Reid didn't sleep for as long as Gideon had hoped he would. Within an hour he was awake. He immediately noticed that the others were still sleeping and decided to do what he always did when the others were asleep and he was not. He leaned his seat back and started staring at the ceiling of the plane. It was a habit he had developed as a child. As far back as he could remember he would lie and stare at the ceiling whenever he needed to think.
Currently he could not stop thinking about their newest case. It was too personal and hit too close to home. He was 24 and if he hadn't been as intelligent as he was he would still most likely be in grad school, just like the students who were being killed. A chill passed down his spine and he rubbed his eyes in agitation. Gideon's words from earlier still hung fresh in his mind but they brought him little comfort. He knew that he could turn to Gideon if he needed to and he trusted Gideon. The man was his mentor and the person he tried the most to impress. In many ways, however, it was harder to talk to the older profiler because of that relationship. He wanted Gideon to see him as capable and intelligent not as emotionally unable to do his job.
It was during times like this that Reid hated being the youngest member of the team. He didn't have he experience that the others did which would allow him to numb his emotions to a point. He knew that Gideon was right about not pushing his feelings too far away. Throughout his life Reid had dealt with his inability to interact socially. His intelligence had always set him apart from the kids he went to school with and he had been on the receiving end of more beatings than he could count. His fellow students had constantly picked on him and for many years he had hated them. Things had gotten slightly better when he started college but he was still the youngest in his year and despite his best attempts to ignore them he still heard the whispers from the other students when they thought he wasn't listening.
Being accepted into the FBI had been a dream come true. He had spent his first year working in the lab before his supervisor had recommended that he interview for a position within the BAU. He had never expected for Hotch to actually hire him but he had gladly accepted the offer when it came. When he had found out that he would get to work with Gideon he had been elated. Reid had followed the older agent's career since grad school and he was more than happy to hang on the man's every word. Gideon had noticed and was impressed enough with him that he had taken him under his wing.
Reid yawned and stretched as best he could without moving from his seat. He was getting sleepy again but he wasn't sure that trying to sleep would do him much good. Despite having been on the team for a while he had still not fully adjusted to sleeping on the plane. He expected that the ability would come with time but he hadn't mastered it yet. Even though he probably wouldn't sleep long he committed himself to at least attempting sleep and moved his seat back into a reclining position. It took a while but he did eventually manage to drift back to sleep.
He did not awaken again until Hotch gently shook him awake to tell him that the pilot was ready to begin their descent.
Less than an hour later Agent Aaron Hotchner stepped out of one of the cars that had been provided to his team when they arrived at the airport. The FBI had provided him with 2 cars for the time being with more promised should they be necessary. The team had packed their supplies into one of the cars which left the other to transport the majority of the team to the police station nearest the Berkeley campus.
He and Gideon had opted to ride in the car with the supplies while the younger members of the team piled into the other car. The ride to the station had given he and Gideon the opportunity to talk privately about the case. Despite being the leader of the team Hotch gave Gideon an almost equal role in running the team, especially since Haley had given birth a couple of months before. He hated leaving his wife alone to raise their son and Jason had seemed to catch on to his desire to spend as much time as possible with his wife and son.
Despite the freedom he gave Gideon Hotch was still the team leader. It was his responsibility to make sure that things ran as smoothly as possible. That was why the first thing he asked Jason when they were alone was about Reid. The recount of the events on the plane put him on edge a bit but he trusted Gideon to understand Reid better than he did. When he had brought Reid onto the team he had never expected that Gideon would take Reid under his wing as he had done. The two of them worked well together and Gideon seemed to have a decent understanding of how Reid's mind worked so Hotch decided to trust that Gideon would keep an eye on his young protege and report to him if there were any problems.
From that point their conversation had turned from Reid to the case and the possible motivations of the unsub. They really couldn't form a detailed profile until they reached the station and inspected the evidence that the officers had collected but they could theorize on what they did know. Hotch had realized through years of experience that it never hurt to explore many options as quickly as possible.
When they finally reached the station Hotch was the first out of the car. As he waited for the rest of the team to assemble he looked around the parking lot towards the station. It was the dead of winter and it was unusually cold for California weather. The cold was probably due to the overcast rainy weather and he guessed the temperature to be somewhere in the mid to high 40s. If he remembered correctly from the weather report he and Gideon had heard while they were driving it was supposed to stay like this for the next week.
Seeing that the others were ready Hotch took point and led the group into the station. As they entered the girl behind the desk stood and stopped them. Hotch held up his badge and introduced himself and the young woman called her boss. Seconds later she waved them into the actual station where they were met by the station's chief. Hotch held up his badge once again and introduced himself.
"I'm Special Agent Hotchner from the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit. These are the members of my team. Special Agent Gideon, our senior profiler, Special Agents Greenway and Morgan, Special Agent Dr. Spencer Reid, and Special Agent Jennifer Jareau." The chief stepped forward.
"I'm Officer Jonathan Anton. I'm the senior officer here. I wish we could have met under different circumstances Agent Hotchner." He extended his hand and Hotch gripped it briefly. "I've got all the men I can spare working on this case. We doubled our patrols around the campus after the third victim disappeared. We don't have many leads though. If you will follow me I'll show you what we do have."
He turned and led the team into an investigation room where the crime scene photos had been set up. He pointed out which photos corresponded to what case and walked over to a table where a stack of files was located.
"I have a list of suspects that we started complying. We've started doing background checks but nothing has turned up yet. My officers have also questioned witnesses who found the bodies as well as some school administrators. We didn't get much from the interviews but you are welcome to talk to everyone again. No one we interviewed seemed reluctant to talk and they all told us if we needed anything further to contact them again." Hotch nodded as the others began inspecting the photos that were hanging from the various boards.
"Thanks for your briefing Officer Anton. Give us some time to go over what we have here and I will let you know when we are ready to move on." The officer nodded and left the team to their work.
Hotch turned back to his team to see that they had already gone to work. Gideon and Reid were studying a thick packet of photos collected by the school that featured each of the students. Hotch knew that they were looking for any factor that might link the students together. The major factors in that department that they had so far were the obvious factors of intelligence, and their choice of school. Gideon was hoping that there was another connecting factor that might lead them to a definite group of possible victims. Each of the members of his team knew that if you knew where the unsub was going to strike than it was easier to catch him or her in the act.
Hotch seriously doubted that the attacker they were looking for was a woman. It was his experience that most serial killers were white men, somewhere in their 20s or 30s and they usually attacked women, not men, as the case was here. From the preliminary evidence Hotch was willing to bet that their unsub was older than the typical profile suggested. All the victims, to date, had been no older than 26 which suggested to him that their attacker was probably several years older than his victims. The unsub would need access to detailed information on his intended victims. It was obvious to Hotch that whoever they were dealing with planned his abductions very carefully and knew the routines of his victims by heart. The guy would have to in order to abduct his victims and leave no trace that an abduction had occurred.
The unsub also took his time with his victims once he abducted them. Hotch knew that the unsub kept his victims alive and to be truthful, relatively unharmed. He picked up a copy of the autopsy report for the second victim and paged through it. The fact that the victims were left alive suggested that the unsub wanted to prove that he was powerful and in control of the situation. He wanted to prove to his victims that he controlled their ability to live and die. In such cases the victims that did survive often faced deep emotional and psychological problems during their recovery.
To date their unsub had kidnapped three victims over a three week period. There was about a week between each abduction and if the pattern continued than the body of the third victim would be found soon. Hotch prayed that they would find the student before the unsub killed him but they were working within a narrow window of time and he was doubtful about their chances. He knew that his team would do their best though and that was really mattered. The goal was to catch the unsub and if they could do it before the third student turned up dead than that much the better.
Thanks for reading. As you can see I tried to make this chapter longer and I hope everyone enjoyed it. I tried to move the plot along a little but I mainly wanted to focus on developing the profile for my unsub in this chapter. I hope I did a good job. Things should really get moving in the next chapter, I hope they will anyway but I make no promises. I let my stories write themselves so we will just see where my fingers take me as I type.
Review and let me know how I did. I appreciate all the fan input I can get. Thanks in advance to all who review.