Racing the Clock Chapter 4: three suspects, a criminal minds fanfic

Disclaimer: I don't own any part of "Criminal Minds" The situations, and characters belong to CBS.

Disclaimer 2: This story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any real world person is strictly coincidental. I've never been to Berkley University, let alone California so I am writing my story with no knowledge of the campus or the people who work there. I know no one who goes there and this story is in no way meant to tarnish that school's reputation. This story is not meant to slander the school in any way, shape, or form. I repeat it is a work of utter fiction and fantasy.

ANs: First off let me apologize to every single one of my readers. I know I left you guys hanging for months and I'm sooooooooooo sorry. I have been so busy it hasn't even been funny.

I need to say one MAJOR thing about clarification. There have been three bodies found when the BAU team arrives in California. The third body has just been found so the team is waiting for the killer to move against his fourth victim. They don't know who it will be.

I love everyone who reviewed, I've gotten a whopping 71 reviews to date! That is incredible considering that this fic has only had 3 chapters. I'm so pleased. Over the next couple of days everyone who reviewed and who hasn't recieved a personal response and thank you from me will get one. I will answer any specific questions which were asked in those reviewer reply mailers.

Keep reviewing, I love each review. Now on with the story.

Last Time

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 unsub would make his move against his fourth victim soon. Hotch prayed that they would find the unsub before he killed again but they were working within a narrow window of time. He knew that his team would do their best though and that was what really mattered. The goal was to catch the unsub and if they could do it before he killed again than all the better.

Now:

When the team finished going over the evidence and photos that had been collected by the police they got back together to compare notes. Hotch was pleased to note that his agents had come to much the same conclusions that he had as they developed their ideas about the unsub.

White male, probably mid to late forties, solid build so he could overpower his victims easily, access to the students he killed, a private individual but one that wouldn't be immediately suspected. The list went on along those veins and they decided to break into pairs to cover the most ground as quickly as possible.

JJ would stay with the police and work with their media coordinators as they began to prepare press briefings. Reid and Gideon would go the the campus to speak with Berkley administrators, and Morgan and Elle were going to the crime scene where the body of the third victim had been found. Hotch hoped that their investigation of the scene would give them some clue or who and what they were dealing with but the crime scene was starting to age and their chances of finding viable evidence was reducing by the second.

This arrangement left Hotch solo for the time being and he intended to use the time to familiarize himself with the areas around the homes of the victims and the areas where their bodies were found.

Once the decisions of who was going where had been decided they split up. The drive to the campus in the car that the police had provided was silent. Gideon was behind the wheel and Reid was sitting next to him. Whenever they stopped Gideon would cast quick glances at the younger profiler.

He could tell that the young man was working and reworking the facts of the case in his head and that he clearly did not want to talk while they drove. Normally he would pry Reid for information during times like this but for the time being Gideon decided to leave Reid to his thoughts. He figured that Reid would talk when he was ready and he did not want to push him.

As they finally neared the campus Gideon decided that he had left Reid alone for long enough.

"What are you thinking?"

"Huh?" Spencer had clearly not expected him to speak and was caught off guard by the sudden question.

"Do you have any ideas on what we should be looking for? Gideon had his own ideas but he wanted to hear his younger partner's opinions on the case before voicing his own thoughts.

"I think it is someone working at the university. The unsub needs to have access to information about the students he kills, and he needs to know their patterns. One thing I noticed about all the victims was that they tended to stay late working on projects or using the labs on campus. That was most likely when they were abducted as well."

"That's a good point. It also gives us a point of reference so we can start identifying other possible targets. We just need to cross-reference the study habits of students that match the physical descriptions of our victims. I'll be sure to ask the people we talk to about that when we have our meetings. Who is the first person we are supposed to talk to?" Reid flipped through the thick folder that had been sitting on his lap.

"Maxwell Jacobs, the Dean of the university's graduate division. If I understand correctly from the interviews he did with the police he knew each of the students personally. Anton doesn't seem to think that he is a possible suspect but he would have access to the information about the students and if he knew them personally they would trust him making it easier for him to get close enough to capture them."

"Makes sense. Refresh my mind on the victims and their fields of study please." Gideon already knew this information by heart and he knew that Reid did as well but he wanted to keep the younger agent talking. It allowed him to guage how Reid was handling the situation.

"The first victim was 23 year old Timothy Wexler. He was working on a PhD in neuroscience. The second victim was 26 year old Thomas Canon, the top of his class in the school's linguistics program. He was one of the few students in the country to have fully mastered Arabic. The third victim was 22 year old Nicolas Robertson. He had just been accepted into the business college."

"So there was no connection in their fields of study. At least one that is not immediately evident." Reid nodded. "Did they share a common group of friends?" Reid flipped through some of the files for a moment and shook his head. The three of them were pretty much loners and really didn't associate with many people outside their fields. Thomas was the most socially active of the three but than he also worked with languages so he would have to be." Reid would have continued but at that moment they reached the parking lot outside the school's administration building.

Within minutes Gideon had pulled their car into one of the empty spaces and the two agents were making their way into the building. As they entered Gideon noticed that Reid was trailing slightly behind him but he ignored the young man and approached the reception desk. The young woman behind the desk smiled politely at him until he flashed his FBI badge.

"I am Special Agent Gideon with the FBI. I am here to speak with Dean Jacobs. We have an appointment." The young woman picked up her phone and quickly dialed a number. Reid could hear the soft conversation with who ever it was on the other end of the line and waited patiently until she finished the call. The young woman hung the phone back on its cradle and waved them towards the elevator.

"Dean Jacobs' office is on the fifth floor. Speak to the department secretary and she will direct you from there. Mr. Jacobs is waiting for you." Gideon thanked her and motioned for Reid to follow him. They found the secretary, a woman named Mandy, easily enough and she led them down the hall to the Dean's office.

When they arrived outside the door she knocked softly and was immediately granted permission to enter. As Gideon and Reid followed her inside Dean Jacobs stood and walked around his desk to great them personally. He was not the short mousy book worm that Reid had expected to meet. Instead he was quite the opposite. He was tall and rather broad for a dean but his personality quickly made up for his size.

"You must be Special Agent Gideon. Mandy informed me that you had arrived. I didn't realize there were two of you though. Please excuse my rudeness young man but I'm afraid they didn't tell me your name."

"This is Special Agent Dr. Reid." Jacobs smiled widely at Spencer and extended his hand. Reid shook it politely and couldn't help but feel relaxed by the man's presence.

"I've worked with a lot of bright students while working at this school. It is a pleasure to meet you." He sighed and fell silent for moment before continuing. "I'm very glad you are here gentlemen. These killings are terrible. I knew each of the students personally and loosing them has been extremely hard."

"We understand how you must feel and we are sorry to inconvenience you but we need to ask you a few questions. We know the police have already spoken to you once but we need to do so again for our own records. Are you willing to answer questions for us?" Gideon fell silent as he waited for an answer from the man who had taken a seat across from them.

"Oh course. Ask me anything you would like. I already told the police I would cooperate by any means possible and I meant it."

From that point on the interview continued as so many other interviews had gone. Gideon did most of the questioning and Reid sat back and took notes, both physical and mental about the man before him. Gideon concluded the questioning within an hour and they took their leave.

Once they were back in the car Gideon turned to Reid.

"What did you think of him?" Reid took a second to collect his thoughts before speaking.

"He seems to really care about his students and he seems like a person who is easy to get along with. From his interview it sounds like he has nothing to hide, either he was telling us the truth or he is highly capable of keeping his voice inflection and eye movement normal when he is lying."

Gideon nodded in agreement. He had noticed the same things that Spencer had. The man was innocent or he was an exceptional liar.

"Who are we meeting with next?" Reid flipped through the folder as they waited for the elevator.

"Patrick Barnes, head of the campus police and chief security officer. Our best bet is to try and find him at the campus police station." Gideon stepped into the elevator as it arrived and Reid followed him.

"Okay let's go talk to him then." Gideon said as the doors slid shut and he reached over to hit the button which would take them to the ground floor. As they exited the elevator and walked past the reception desk Reid looked back at the young woman who spoke up as they passed.

"Did you find the dean's office gentleman?" Reid nodded.

"Yes, thank you for your help." She smiled.

"Good, if you ever need anything else just let me know."

"We will, thank you." With that said he followed Gideon out he door and to their car. They reached the building which housed the campus police offices a few minutes later and a process similar to what had occurred in the other building presented itself. The two of them flashed their badges to the building secretary, she called the secretary for Chief Barnes and they were told where to go. The chief had been expecting them because he was waiting for them when they reached his outer office. He immediately came forward and shook Gideon's hand.

"Welcome to my office gentlemen. My name is Patrick Barnes. I have been the chief security officer on this campus for about three years. " He waved towards the office behind him. "Please follow me. We can speak in private in here." As they walked he kept up a steady stream of conversation. "I'm glad you are here. These killings have been simply terrible. I've been busting my tail trying to figure out some connection or predictable pattern that we can use to keep more innocent students from getting hurt but it has been slow going." Once they were all inside he closed the door and gestured to them to take a sit. They did so and Gideon spoke.

"My name is Special Agent Gideon with the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit. This is another of our agents Special Agent Dr. Reid. We were if your office has gathered any new evidence since you last spoke with the city police?" Barnes shook his head.

"If we had it would have been immediately sent to Chief Anton." Gideon nodded and leaned forward slightly.

"Who has been questioned by your office so far? We were led to understand that you were handling many of the on campus interviews while the city police handled searches and other possible witnesses." The man sitting across from him nodded.

"We have spoke with most of the faculty in the graduate administration offices. They would know the students best. We have also begun talking to faculty who have had the students in the last year and a half. So far we have put together rather extensive files of each victim. Things such as their study habits, their work loads, what research they participated in collecting and who they collected it with, things like that. We are trying to find any connection that will lead us to a possible list of victims or even better the killer himself, or herself. I try not to be gender biased." Gideon nodded.

"We would like to see those files as soon as possible. Don't feel insulted but our unit is trained to look for details that other departments might miss." The officer across from him held up his hands in mock surrender.

"Let me assure you gentlemen that I am in no way offended. To be truthful I'm glad that my unit isn't trained to look for patterns like this. It would make our job so much more difficult if we had to track down serial killers on a regular basis." He reached over and pressed a button on his intercom. After a couple of seconds the device crackled to life and the voice of a young woman could be heard on the other end.

"Yes Mr. Barnes how can I help you?"

"Melissa please contact officer Vryce. Have him bring the files we complied on the recent victims to my office."

"Yes sir." The intercom fell silent once again. Officer Barnes looked over at Reid and Gideon.

"Can I get you gentlemen anything to drink? Coffee, water?" The two agents shook their heads and a silence lapsed between them. Reid used the time to flip through the information they had already gathered and Gideon took the time to study the office they sat in. Officer Barnes for his part, studied the two profilers sitting in his office.

He had expected to meet someone like Gideon. A man who had been on the job for several years and obviously knew his stuff. The younger man confounded him though. He had not expected to be presented with a profiler in his mid twenties. It was quite a shock to see someone so young who wasn't a student sitting across from him, and the young man had been introduced as a doctor to boot. He couldn't have been more than 26 or 27. He was about to question Reid as to where he had attended school when his intercom crackled to life again and Melissa's voice could be heard.

"Officer Vryce has arrived sir. Should I send him in or have him wait until you are ready for him?" Barnes looked over to Gideon who indicated that he should have the man bring the files in now and Barnes relayed the message to his secretary. A few seconds later the handle on the door twisted and the door swung open to admit a muscular, young man in his mid thirties. He was carrying a cardboard box which he almost dropped upon seeing the agents sitting before him.

"I didn't mean to interrupt chief. I didn't know you had visitors. Melissa told me to come on in so I assumed that you were in here alone." The officer's eyes flicked between Gideon, Reid, and his boss quickly and neither Gideon nor Reid noticed when his eyes flicked back to Reid as Barnes spoke.

"It's alright Ethan. Come in. I would like to introduce you to Special Agent Gideon and Special Agent Dr. Reid of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit. They are here to help us review the case and hopefully find the guy who attacked those students before he can kill again."

"That's great." Ethan set the box he had been carrying down on a side table and extended his hand to Gideon and Reid. "Hopefully you can catch whoever is doing this. I knew a couple of the students who were attacked." His words peaked Gideon's curiosity and he spoke up.

"How so? You are several years older than the eldest victim." The young man shrugged.

"I work a lot of late night shifts and late night patrols." They stuck around on campus a lot after most students had either gone back their dorms or headed home. You notice people like that when you do late nights checks on the lab buildings and they are still there." Gideon nodded in understanding and filed the information away so it would be there for later use. It might come in handy to have someone who knew the campus nightlife so well.

"You seemed surprised when you walked in and found us. Is everything all right?" The young man nodded again.

"Yeah everything is fine. I honestly thought the office would be empty except for the chief." He turned to officer Barnes. "If this is all you need me for Chief I should get back to work. I'm part of the increased patrol shift you ordered and we are supposed to start our shift shortly." Barnes nodded.

"If we need you for anything I'll have Melissa page you." With a quick nod of respect the younger officer turned and took his leave of the three men. Reid was the first to break the silence.

"He seemed a bit jittery, is he always like that?" Barnes considered his response for a moment before answering.

"Not very often. He was kind of nervous when he was first hired. He is good at what he does though and extremely helpful. He was hired by the university about six months after I started here and he has been my best officer ever since. I works the night shift with Officer Malon. I've never heard him complain once about doing it and as soon as the first student turned up missing he offered to do extra patrols when he wasn't technically on duty. We are sort of stretched for personnel since we have heightened security and I figured a few hours of overtime was a small price to pay if we could keep other students from getting hurt."

The reasoning seemed logical to Gideon who stood and walked over to the box that had been placed on the table. He removed a thick folder and paged through it briefly. He then placed it on the table and proceeded to do the same with the next two folders. Eventually he turned back to Reid and held up the thickest of the three.

"These will be of great help Officer Barnes. Do you mind if we take them back to the station with us?" The man shook his head immediately.

"Do whatever you need with them. I believe we have a duplicate set of copies for our own personal use. If anything turns up we will be sure to let you know." With that Gideon began placing the folders back in the box and when he had finished he picked the box up. Reid stood about the same time and with a nod of farewell to Barnes the two of them left his office.

As they exited into the outer office they could see that Officer Vryce was chatting with the secretary. When he noticed the two of them he immediately approached.

"I just wanted to thank you for coming all the way from Washington to help us out. I hope you can catch the guy. If you need anything at all just give me a call and I'll do whatever I can to help." He held out a piece of paper with a number scribbled on it. "This is my cell phone number. Just call me if you need anything." Reid looked over at Gideon who indicated that he should take the slip of paper. Reid reached out and as he did so Vryce shook his hand, leaving the paper in Reid's hand as he did so. The gesture was definitely odd but man's attitude did nothing to mark him as anything but helpful and polite. Once he had given Reid the paper he excused himself.

Gideon cast a quick glance at Reid to see how his younger counterpart was interpreting the gesture. Reid seemed slightly confused but brushed off his confusion. He would consider the man's actions later when he didn't have so many new details to look over.

"We should head back to the station." Reid nodded as Gideon spoke and the two profilers made their way back to the their car and back to the police station to see what the others had come up with.

Well that is the chapter. I hope everyone enjoyed it. I introduced three people who could be the unsub. One of them is the unsub but I'm not saying who yet. I would love to hear your thoughts onwhich of the three you think it is. Just type your thoughts into a little review.

Let me repeat my earlier disclaimer:

A new chapter should be up soon. Right now however I'm going to bed. It is 3:00 am here in Ohio andI have class at 10:00 am.

Night all,

Coldfire