"Our media specialist, Agent Jareau, and our technical expert, Miss Garcia, have compiled the case files from the previous murders along with the two new cases."
Danny muffled a snicker as Spencer tried to attach his field laptop to the oversized monitor in the conference room. He could see Spencer getting rattled. Poor guy was trying to come off all cool and calm, but he was clearly on the verge of some serious panic. Reminded Danny of the first time Mac very put him on lead. It was a multiple homicide at a coffee shop. If Aiden hadn't been watching his back --
"I got this." Danny quickly got everything hooked up. "Deep breaths." He whispered to Spencer as he went back to his seat.
"Our first step is establish the key elements of the crime. The signature behavior of our unsub. This and the victimology tell us the most about his profile."
Over the next four hours, they reviewed every file, noting the details of the killings and everything they knew about the victims. When they started to run out of steam, Mac ordered a stack of pizzas. They were devoured quickly.
"So now that we got the pieces, we put together the puzzle right. See what the picture looks like." Danny grabbed the last slice of pizza.
"Exactly." Spencer laughed.
"Okay. Break over." Mac said firmly, ushering them back to the table.
"Chief must have called him again." Danny said under his breath.
"As a matter of fact, he did." Mac replied.
"Then let's get him an answer." Spencer finished off his bottle of water and tossed the empty container in the trash. "Now that we know the details, we look for patterns. What's the same, what's different. And what do the patterns tell us. Starting with the victims."
"There's nothing the same about them." Stella sighed. "Two males, three females. Two victims in New York, one in Dallas, one in Chicago, one in St Louis."
"A college student, a real estate broker," Lindsay added. "A computer programmer, a housewife and a house painter"
"totally different ages, social standing."
"No common towns of residence, no financial connections, no family connections. Nothing."
"Which tells us that the choice of victims is either totally random, or very under the surface."
"How do you figure it out?" Danny asked, growing more and more interested in the whole process. They had done some minor profiling over the years but never so systematically.
"Sometimes we can't. Until we finish the process."
"What's step two?" Sheldon asked.
"The crime. In particular the nature of the crime. Which I believe would fall into your realm of expertise."
"What do you want to know?"
"What do you know about the killings and what does it tell you?"
Sheldon smiled. "Every victim was found with the same organs removed -- the heart, eyes, kidneys, liver -- and the skin on their torsos, arms to the wrist and legs to the ankles removed. The cuts were informed, although the first two victims, especially the first, show signs of hesistancy as if the -- what did you call it --"
"The unsub."
"Right. As if the unsub didn't have a lot of practice in organ removal. But the remaining three victims had cuts that were much more confident."
"There is a gap of several months between the second and third murders." Flack injected. "Maybe the guy was practicing while he was hunting for the next victim."
"Very possible." Spencer nodded. "What other details stand out?"
"The ME from the Clark autopsy believed that the victim was still alive when the organs were removed."
"Pretty sadistic." Lindsay shook her head.
"Yes it is." Spencer pulled the laptop closer and opened a clean document. He began to type notes as he talked. "We have a clear sadist. A planner, who researched his crime, which was complex in nature. Even though the first two killings show signs of hesitation, it seems he found a way to practice and the last three killings were expert and confidently accomplished."
"Are we certain they were done by the same person?" The room went silence, all eyes on Flack. "I'm just saying. Two seem like it's amateur hour and the rest . . ."
"Very good question, detective." Spencer grinned. "I was wondering if someone would think of that."
"So you know the answer."
Spencer nodded. He leaned back in his chair, his face challenging them. Danny grabbed the files, determined to be the one with the answer.
"Here it is." Danny said with a grin. "Local police and Federal investigators withheld the exact nature of the mutilations to eliminate false confessions and copycats."
"And I guess sadistic killers don't usually have partners."
"They tend to be control freaks and partners can be very unpredictable."
"None of this seems like it's telling us anything." Flack said, his voice almost a little disappointed. "We knew the guy was a sicko before you got here. Now you're going to give us the canned white male, ya-da, ya-da."
"Don't forget," Spencer jumped in, "Smart, methodical, researched what he was doing. There were no signs that they were taken from their homes so he watched them. He knew enough to cover his tracks forensically. My teammate Morgan would say that he planned the work and then worked the plan. There's a logic to what he's doing, even if only in his mind. A reason for why he killed those particular people, in those places. The clues are--" Spencer stopped short, his gaze on one of the autopsy photos.
There was a long silence as Spencer laid several photos on the table, staring at them intensely.
"Yo, G-man." Danny nudged him. "You see something."
"Of course." Spencer said, half to himself. "it's right there."
