ACT 3 - SCENE SET 4
INT. CHARLESTON POLICE DEPARTMENT CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY - 4.1
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Morgan: You guys, we've been looking at this case all wrong. The unsub's a woman.
Rossi: What makes you say that?
Prentiss: The unsub's stab strokes were upward, indicating that they were shorter than the victims and on his hand-
Morgan: We thought it was pen, from a bar bouncer
Prentiss: But it's eyeliner, the unsub wrote that.
Realization sets in on the team
Rossi: So this isn't a case of alpha male versus another. It's a black widow she seduces them, lures them out with the promise of sex
Prentiss: that's how she gets their clothes off- the ME said they're was evidence of sex- but not sexual assault
Morgan: So the victims had consentual sex with the unsub, and then she stabs them?
Hotch: These men are probably surrogates. But for what exactly?
Prentiss: Her father maybe?
Rossi: Probably- but I'm more focused on the signature the unsub left. What's up with that?
Morgan: At first, we thought it was A for admission-
Gears turn in Reid's head.
Reid: Adulterer.
Hotch: What?
Reid: Scarlet Letter. Hester Prynne is forced to wear an A as a punishment for having an out of wedlock child. What if the unsub is marking these men as adulterers- she sleeps with them and then kills them for cheating on their wifes?
Morgan: But how does she figure out which men will fit the bill?
Reid: Well, they all had alcohol in their system so they were probably out at a bar. She probably stakes out bars and flirts. If they have a wedding ring on and flirt back- she's decided- they're cheaters
Morgan: She profiles them.
Reid nods
Garcia: She's good at it too. Upon further research, Travis had a profile on tinder, Lawson dropped hefty cash on prostitutes, and asher hughes' wife said she fired the babysitter when she suspected her husband was having an affair with her.
Morgan: Ok, but how do we find her? THere are tons of bars in the area
Prentiss: Credit cards.
Hotch nods in agreement
Hotch: Garcia, look into the victims' credit card history the friday nights before they died. See if they were all at the same bar.
Garcia: Um.. nope. All different ones.
Hotch, sighing: We need to release the profile, she could be picking victims from anywhere.
END SCENE
INT. CHARLESTON POLICE DEPARTMENT BULLPEN - 4.2
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HOTCH: The woman we're looking for is young and attractive. She can easily seduce married men and lure them to a secondary location where she then kills them. She was recently released from some sort of institution, but do not underestimate her intelligence.
Hotch: She is able to deduce which men fit her criteria from only a few clues, and is exceedingly accurate.
Prentiss: Her victims are most likely surrogates for her father, so look for women who have records of an absent or abusive father
Reid: We haven't quite figured out what the church connection is yet, but it's definitely a key part of her psychopathology. You should have a plainclothes officer or two posted at churches within the unsub's hunting and killing zone.
Hotch: Recanvass local bars- somebody may have seen her talking to the victims or perhaps even talked to her themselves but they didn't fit her criteria so were spared. She's going to be hunting again on Friday night- so please, advise the public to be cautious in these high risk areas.
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INT. CHARLESTON POLICE DEPARTMENT CONFERENCE ROOM - EVENING - 4.3
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Hotch: Garcia, look for young women who were recently released from some sort of psych ward or prison, possibly and who have some sort of negative history with their fathers.
GARCIA: Ah daddy issues are like the top issue with young women in psych wards so unfortunately, that's a long list
Prentiss: check her recent purchases- look for excessive amounts of black eyeliner
Garcia: define excessive
Prentiss: I go through about a tube, maybe two a year so-
Garcia interrupts
Garcia: oh we have very different definitions of excessive.
Hotch interrupts Garcia
Hotch: Garcia-
Garcia: Right ok- yes found one woman! Amy Ridgeway. She purchased like six tubes of MAC eyeliner right after she was released from the psych ward three weeks ago. Oh sir, it's definitely her
HOTCH: What makes you say that?
Garcia: The notes from her therapist say she hated her father because he was a serial cheater and oh- you all might be the smancy fancy profilers, but my loves, I have figured out the church connection- Daddy dearest's a pastor.
Reid: She's putting them in front of the church to symbolically expose her father's hypocrisy. He preached the bible, but was a sinner in his personal life.
Reid looks over at Emily.
Reid: You ok?
Prentiss: just found out I buy the same eyeliner as a serial killer, so no.
The team chuckles at this. Derek is glad to see her being more lighthearted.
Hotch: Garcia, work and home address?
Garcia: Ah, no work but home address is being sent to your PDAs right now
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INT. AMY RIDGEWAY'S APARTMENT - 4.4
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Morgan kicked down the door, but when they arrived, it was completely empty. The team walked around looking, guns drawn for a few moments, but she wasn't there.
Hotch: We must have missed her. Reid, look for anything that could give us a clue of where she's headed
Reid nods and motions for Prentiss to accompany him for this task. The rest of the team heads back to the Charleston POLICE Department building.
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INT. CHARLESTON POLICE DEPARTMENT - NIGHT - 4.5
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The team (minus Reid and Prentiss) are already sitting around the conference table when Reid and Prentiss arrive back from the apartment, unfortunately empty handed. They walk into the conference room and shake their heads to inform the team that they found nothing viable about her plans
Morgan: Hotch, how are we gonna find her?
Hotch: Tomorrow, we'll set a trap.
Prentiss: What do you mean?
Hotch: It will be Friday, she'll be trolling for victims. I'll go to the bar and wait for her to approach me and as soon as I have probable cause, agents can make the arrest.
Rossi: How will we know which bar?
Reid: Well, actually the geoprofile might help us here. If we plot the points of her home, the three churches and the three bars the first victims were at, we can find a radius and look at all the bars or clubs in it, and cross of any she's already been to or wouldn't have the right crowd. She's young- she's not gonna go to a blues bar. Here, look
Reid: There are five bars in the vicinity. 3 she already went to and the one closer to her house is having a senior citizens night tonight.
Morgan: So that leaves the last one
Reid: yeah, the Charleston Charm Bar and Grill
Morgan: Hotch, you good with this?
Hotch: I've done cover work before. I'll be fine
Prentiss: You need a ring.
Hotch nods
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INT. THE CHARLESTON CHARM BAR AND GRILL - 4.6
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Amy Ridgeway was an average height young woman with long, wavy red hair. She stood in the corner of the bar, reapplying a MAC eyeliner. This was definitely her.
Hotch walked over to the bar and leaned over to the bartender, who had already been told about the situation. The bartender poured Hotch water in a shot glass and Hotch knocked it back like vodka. His eyes flickered over to Amy and they made eye contact for just a second before he looked away, and down to his wedding ring. The irony of it all struck him hard- when Prentiss reminded him he needed a ring, one of the deputies slid off his own to lend it to him, but Hotch refused.
Despite Haley and Him divorcing and Haley in fact being dead, he still carried the ring around. He fished it out of his wallet and slipped it on. It fit like it had never been taken off.
At the bar, he toyed with it as he was sure he had caught Amy's attention. Sure enough, she began to walk over to him
Amy: Hey there, Handsome
Hotch: Hello
Amy: I'm Amy,
Hotch: Aaron
Amy, smiling: Ah, look at us- Aaron and Amy. What is it you do Aaron?
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INT./EXT. INSIDE A STAKEOUT VAN - NIGHT - 4.7
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Outside the bar, the team listened to the feed coming in from the wire hidden under Hotch's tie. The phrasing of the words struck Emily. "What is it you do, Aaron?" was eerily similar to a phrase she'd heard on the night that changed her life for good.
Funny, this bar even reminded her of the Black Shamrock.
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INT. THE CHARLESTON CHARM BAR AND GRILL - 4.8
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HOTCH: I own an import company
Amy smiled at this.
Amy, brushing her fingertips on his arm: That's really interesting, Aaron. Tell me, how often do you do this?
HOTCH: Do what?
Amy: You know, come out to a bar, flirt with a woman all with the wife, maybe a kid or two, at home?
HOTCH, knowing this was progressing the way the profile had predicted it: Too often, probably
She smirked at this
Amy: Let's get out of here.
HOTCH began to get nervous. She hadn't done anything to give them cause and so far, their case was completely circumstantial. They weren't allowed to arrest on a profile alone. He needed to stall
Hotch: Oh, I don't know
While saying this, his tie shifted and Amy spotted the wire. SHIT.
Amy: What is that?
Hotch: What is what?
Amy: Don't play dumb- you're a cop!
Before Hotch could even react, She yanked a gun from her purse, grabbed a random passing woman and held the gun to her neck.
This was not how this was supposed to go. At all.
END SCENE
END ACT 3