Chapter 9 Blue Ripper
Over the past two months, the NYPD had been under attack. Eight female officers had been slaughtered, and their bodies were left in a very public place. The press had labelled him as the 'Blue Ripper' due to the uncanny resemblance to the English 'Jack the Ripper' murders in London during the 19th century. The tension was running high across all police precincts. The commissioner had called in the FBI for assistance from the NY field office and members of the BAU from Washington.
SSA Ellie Greenaway and SSA Jason Gideon had been in New York for a Month. They had delivered their profile to the NYPD, but only a few members knew they suspected the murders were being carried out by serving members of the NYPD. The commissioner had decided to keep this information restricted as if it got out, and it would cause absolute panic and distrust from the public and between his officers.
Emily and JJ found things striking too close to home. Lt Erin Strauss was reported missing early this morning. Searching her house found signs of a struggle and blood on the floor; luckily, her daughter had been away with Vanessa and Ellie camping with Elizabeth at her parent's cabin. Their hate for Strauss was put on the back burner as they helped search for Strauss. No one knew how long she had as it varied between each victim. The cutthroat razor was found on top of her police shield, so there was no doubt the 'Ripper' had her.
The whole 35 precincts were twelve hours on and six off at the moment until they could arrest the ripper. JJ and Emily sat in their usual dinner for their meal break, waiting for their food to arrive.
"Look, the feds have just come in on mass," Emily tells JJ
"That's this place going downhill for the next few hours." Sighed JJ
The federal agents didn't take a table but surrounded Emily and JJ's table, weapons drawn and pointed at the two officers. SSA Jason Gideon and SSA Ellie Greenaway moved forward to address Emily and JJ, who both looked on aghast
"Officers Jennifer Jareau and Emily Prentiss place your hands on your heads and interlock your fingers, your under arrest for the murder and torture of officers Elaine Peterson, Samantha Cox, Anne Nichols, Mary Kelly, Elizabeth Stride and Maggie Black. Sargent Paula Mitchell and Tara Wilcox, and Lt Erin Strauss and the attempted murder and false imprisonment of officer Tracey Prentiss. Stand up and sidestep away from your booth." SSA Jason Gideon ordered
Emily and JJ, totally shell shocked, complied with the order and stepped away from their table. As soon as they were clear of the table, they were both taken to the floor after their service weapons and utility belts had been removed. An FBI agent placed a knee into their backs and pulled their hands, then cuffed behind their backs.
"Take them to the 35 precincts. We promised the commissioner we would question them both there. Make sure two agents stay with both prisoners, and we don't want any street justice from their colleagues." Jason Gideon ordered
Emily and JJ were stood up and escorted to separate FBI vehicles. On the way out, the looks of their fellow officers were of utter disbelief and disgust—they were led out of the dinner to a chorus of threats.
Tears fell from both Emily and JJ's eyes. Neither officer could believe what they had just been charged with
EJ
Both FBI SUV's pulled up outside the 35 precinct and were met by a gaggle of reporters and TV cameras waiting for their arrival.
JJ was removed first after they checked; she still wore her bulletproof vest. She was helped out of the SUV and escorted to the precinct entrance. As perp walks went, this one was a doozie.
"Officer Jareau, why slaughter fellow sister officers? Is it true you were eating body parts?" Reporter's yelled at JJ
JJ was pushed through the main doors and met by Morgan and Rossi, and they looked at her with utter hatred in their eyes. It was safe to say she didn't have a single friend in her own house. She was escorted to the interview room and her cuffs secured around the eye bolt on the table.
Emily entrance was just as bad. " Officer Prentiss, do you know how many kids you and your partner orphaned in your slaughtering rein?" The reporters shouted
Emily was still shell shocked; she was struggling to put one foot in front of the other at the moment. She couldn't manage anything else. On the way down the stairs to the interrogation room, she was rammed into the wall by a husband of one of the victims. He managed to get a few punches in before the FBI agents pulled him off, Emily.
Emily was cuffed to the eye bolt in the interrogation room. Jason Gideon and Ellie Greenaway carried a file and an iPad and sat down opposite Emily.
"Can you confirm you have been read your rights and have refused council?" Ellie asked
"I don't need a lawyer, and I haven't done anything, and yes, I have been read my rights," Emily confirmed.
Morgan and Rossi sat in the observation room watching the interrogation through the one-way mirror.
"Officer Prentiss, why did you murder your fellow off officers and attempt to kill your wife because she caught you in the act of slaughtering Lt Strauss?" Ellie asked
Gideon places some crime scene pictures of Strauss in front of Emily, showing her body gutted like all other eight victims. He sets photos of a beaten and slashed Tracey. Emily gazed at the pictures.
"Wouldn't you like to know how your wife is? You don't seem to be overly concerned, Officer." Ellie asked
"How is Tracey?" A shocked Emily asked
"She lost a lot of blood, and doctors aren't sure if she will pull through. She is under protection in the ICU. She had given us a full statement before she lost consciousness that you and Jareau are the 'blue Ripper'. But this is the most damming evidence we have. Please watch." Gideon hands the iPad over and pressed play.
EJ
Morgan and Rossi can not believe what they are watching. Emily has hold of a struggling Strauss when JJ runs her straight razor across her throat; blood spurts everywhere as Strauss starts to bleed to death. Emily dropped the dying woman to the floor to watch as her life ebbed away. The blood stopped flowing after a few minutes. JJ passed over the straight razor
"Your turn, partner, let's see what the wicked witch looks like inside, shall we?" JJ smiled at Emily
Emily took the offered razor and straddled the dead Strauss legs and started cutting her blouse off until she could see her bare stomach; she slashed twice, making a large X over her skin. Satisfied with Emily's work JJ pulled the skin open to expose the organs and pulled out her intestines, and looped them around her neck.
"You are getting a bit artistic now, Jen." Smiled Emily. She reached in and pulled out a kidney with a tug pulling blood vessels with it and handing it to JJ, watching her take a scalpel to it, slashing wildly, then throwing the bits at Strauss's face. Over the next few minutes, Emily and JJ massacred the body.
"BITCH, COME HERE!" Yelled JJ to someone off-camera
Emily comes back with Tracey in a chokehold. Flinging her to the floor, she kicks her several times in the head until she loses consciousness.
"Jen, I can't kill her. You are going to have to do it for me." An emotionless Emily asked JJ
JJ is seen straddling the motionless Tracy and stabbing her multiple times in her abdomen, and then standing up.
"We're going to have to deal with these two later, and we have to get to work. They're not going anywhere, and no one is finding this place. Come on, partner, time to keep the city safe." JJ smirked.
Morgan couldn't believe what he had just witnessed.
EJ
"Whoops, it seems I've been caught with my hand in the cookie jar. What can I say but? Yes, I killed all nine officers. You'll need to take a dental impression to confirm because we loved to bite certain organs. You kept that out the press, didn't you?" Emily smiled. Confirming it was them
Across the corridor, JJ had just finished watching the same recording.
"Oh dear, I thought that bitch was dead. I take it she slithered away with all 9 of my keep sake's?"
JJ asked angrily " I suppose if I say it's my doppelgänger in them, you won't believe me?." Smirked JJ at her interrogator.
Over the next hour, dental impressions were taken of JJ and Emily's teeth to compare with the teeth marks on the nine bodies. Gideon and Ellie had found Strauss body and had it brought to the FBI morgue for autopsy
After three hours, Emily and JJ were charged with nine murders and one attempted murder.
EJ
Reid sat in the New York FBI field office with Gideon and Ellie.
"They will be taken to central booking in about two hours and then into secure confinement at Rikers. we need to keep them safe." Gideon tells the group
"Are we sure they will be safe in the holding cells at the precinct for two hours, Sir?" Strauss asked the commissioner
"They better be SIR!" Tracey Prentiss warned her ultimate boss, "I'm worried the little movie presentation we made was a little too gruesome, I believed it, and I know it's fake. They are public enemy number 1, and I don't think a single member of the NYPD want to do anything but kill them for what they think they have done." She sighed
"I agree with Tracey, Sir. We have done too good a job making them into serial killers. I hope it does draw out the real killer because they have claimed his kills." Strauss agreed
Commissioner Reid smiled "statistically speaking, and we have all bases covered, Officer. We have undercover agents in Rikers as guards and inmates. We have the FBI escorting the transport van, and they are safe in the precinct. Don't worry."
EJ
stood behind the podium commissioner Reid was holding a press conference
"I can confirm we have two police officers in custody who have confessed to the nine murders of NYPD officers. With the aid of the FBI, we were able to arrest them without incident. They were taken to the 35 precinct for questioning. After a victim escaped earlier today with video evidence of their slaughter, both Officer Emily Prentiss and Jennifer Jareau confessed. They are awaiting transport to central booking to be arranged, and then they will be transported to Riker's Island to await trial. I will not be taking questions at this juncture in time." Reid turns and enters the building.
"You did everything but give them the route." Smiled Gideon "the traps baited. We need to see if they take a nibble. Let's get the coffee brewing." Gideon smiled
EJ
"Get up, scum, time for your date with destiny." Marcel, the NYPD transport driver, ordered Emily and JJ
Emily and JJ were shackled at the ankles and wrists, then chained through a leather belt around their waist, making walking extremely difficult. Instead of taking them out the back exit to the transport, Rossi had ordered them taken out the front entrance past all the reporters. Every officer turned their back as they walked out the precinct; some even spat at them in disgust.
Marcel and Simeon secured Emily and JJ to the bench seats of the NYPD transport van. They were to meet their FBI escort around the side of the precinct. Marcel turned in the opposite direction and made several turns at speed until he parked next to a civilian van. Simeon applied. A chokehold to Emily until she passed out. She was then transferred to the truck and secured to the eye-bolts on the van floor. They repeated the same process on JJ. Once satisfied, both unconscious women were secure they pulled away from the NYPD van.
EJ
JJ woke up to find herself standing in her underwear stood on a stool in a walk-in freezer with a rope noose around her neck, shivering.
"Jen, are you ok?" Emily asked, her teeth chattering
"cold, where are we?" I don't know my partner.
Marcel and Simeon walk in with two buckets dressed in cold weather clothing. Without any warning, the two men throw the iced water over Emily and JJ, causing loud gasps.
"You two usurpers, trying to steal our life's work, you should have just done Strauss as a stand-alone murder. You two are going to pay for your lies. You will have to beg us to kill you. We will start you off slowly with some cold." Simeon smiled at the girls shivering
"W-W-why kill p-p-police o-officers?" JJ managed to stammer
Simeon started to tell Emily and JJ that when they joined the NYPD 40 years ago, gay men didn't do well; if they wanted to stay, they could only drive the prison transportation. They got disillusioned with the female usurpers getting patrol jobs because they had their reproductive organs inside.
"And look at you two lesbians excellent jobs you make me sick. You are so going to pay for it in blood and screams." Laughed Simeon. He pulled out a small length of rubber pipe and started hitting JJ's legs. The pain was excruciating due to her cold limbs. Marcel was enjoying the same, striking Emily.
"Let's see who makes the first swing?" Simeon smirked
EJ
"FBI FREEZE." Yells Ellie Greenaway
The two shocked men are quickly taken into custody without a fight, and they honestly thought they were never going to be caught. JJ and Emily taking credit for their masterpieces just knocked them off-kilter. They were not thinking straight about kidnapping Emily and JJ. They just wanted to seek retribution on the stupid pair of wannabes. If they had been thinking straight, they could have just moved away and stayed free.
Strauss and Tracey Rushed over and supported Emily and JJ while the rope noose was removed from around their necks. Warm jackets were placed around their shoulders, and the shivering pair were helped out of the freezer.
"Emily, sweetheart, are you ok?" Tracey asked, hugging her wife tightly
"F-F-Fine Just F-Freezing, K-Kiss M-Me." A shaking Emily asked
Tracey smiled and leaned in to kiss her wife, gently passing on her relief and love through a gentle and loving kiss. Strauss had JJ In a bear hug, gently rubbing her back.
"T-T-Thank Y-You, Ma'am." JJ stuttered. Enjoying her warm embrace
"Elizabeth is flying back with the girl's; she should be back by the time you get to the hospital," Strauss informed JJ with a smile.
Emily and JJ were loaded into an ambulance to be taken to the E.R to be treated for severe hypothermia and have their bruised legs looked at.
EJ
It had been decided to take Marcel and Simeon back to the 35 precinct for processing. Tracey and Strauss walked through the main entrance behind the FBI agents escorting the two men. They both walked up to Rossi and Morgan, waiting for them as instructed by the commissioner. They both had many questions for the supposedly dead Lt and severely injured Officer standing before them.
"Sir, I think we need to talk in your office," Tracey tells Rossi. He nods and indicates to follow him.
They get seated in his office, and Tracey and Strauss proceeded to tell him and Morgan about the sting operation how Emily and JJ had been asked by the commissioner to falsely take credit for the murders to draw out the real killers. They both listen intently to the two women looking flabbergasted.
"The murder video looked real. I believed they had both slaughtered you, Erin." Rossi told her, he turned to Tracey, "The pictures of you and your video statement look so real. Everyone in this house believed they had done it."
EJ
"Mummy! Mummy! Mummy!" Milly shouts as she runs to Strauss. Elizabeth hands her bag back to Strauss.
Strauss bent down and listened to her daughter as she recounted everything she had done at the cabin.
Elizabeth smiled and walked up to Tracey and hugged her "how are they doing?" She inquired
"Physically, they are fine apart from some bruised legs, mentally not very well, they are struggling with fact and fiction in their minds, having to pretend convincingly enough to fool everyone they had to believe it themselves. The whole NYPD hating them once they confessed was bad, but the verbal abuse from their friends at the precinct affected them more than they were willing to admit. They have shut themselves off, not even wanting to see each other." Tracey sighed. "I'm afraid we're going to lose them. What can we do?"
"I don't know, and I'm going in the see them." Elizabeth smiled
Walking into a darkened room, she could see JJ cuddling Ellie crying. She walked across and sat at the side of the bed, leaning in and gently brushing her blondes hair, running her thumb down the side of JJ's face
"Hi, how you doing, Jen?" She asked calmly
JJ looked into her fiancé's eyes "not good. I know I didn't kill her, but all I can see in my mind is myself slashing her open. But sometimes it's you I'm killing, or it's me being hacked to pieces by NYPD shields carrying meat cleavers. I've screwed everyone who hates me. Can you leave me for a little while?" a broken JJ asked quietly
Elizabeth leaves heartbroken, tears streaming down her face. Looking at Tracey, she sighs, " I have an idea. I need your help with some things." She told her. Tracey nodded and listened to her plan.
EJ
Tracey stood in Rossi's office with Morgan and explained the difficulties Emily and JJ were struggling with with what they had just done. They think every still hates them, especially everyone in their house after the verbal abuse they received.
"I need your help proving them wrong. I know some are stupid enough to think still they had some part in it. But I need to prove to them they are in the minority. SIR we have two officer's who need assistance. I'm calling a department-wide 10-13. We need them to know that we all care." Tracey told them.
Morgan squeezed her shoulder " leave it with me, Tracey."
EJ
Across town, Elizabeth stood in front of the commissioner's desk at 1PP, explaining the difficulties his two officers were experiencing and the plan they had formulated.
"Sir, I've spoken with Admiral Joyce. He is willing to let Commander Prentiss and newly commissioned 1st LT Jareau be seconded to my squadron for my fiancé's flight training. The admiral has two family members in the NYPD and is happy to help after they have done to keep them safe. I just need your authorisation." Elizabeth tells Reid
"I want them both back your not stealing them." Smiled Reid, "approved, is everything arranged for tomorrow?" He asked
"Yes, sir," Elizabeth answered, shaking his hand.
EJ
The next afternoon two petulant police officers sat in wheelchairs being pushed by Vanessa and Ellie after being discharged.
"We can walk, you know", Emily moaned to her wife
Tracey smiled at her complaining wife; she smiled across to Elizabeth.
"Girls, let your MUM and Aunt JJ out. I can't stand them scowling any longer." Tracey asked the girls
"Ok, Mamma." They applied the brakes and let them up
Emily and JJ didn't hesitate and rounded the corner; they both abruptly stopped when they were met by clapping. The sides of the corridor were packed four deep by applauding NYPD officers from all 77 precincts. They snaked out the door into the parking lot and on the surrounding grass verges. Rossi, Morgan and Strauss walked up to Emily and JJ
"They all wanted to show their appreciation for what you both did to catch the 'Blue Ripper's'. You are not hatted by the majority of your brothers and sisters. Like anywhere, a few still believe, but the commissioner's addressing that next week. I'm here for you both for anything you need." Rossi smiled
" Cdr Prentiss and 1st Lt Jareau, you are to report to my squadron for flight training." Elizabeth smiled. "I'll explain everything later. The commissioner and admiral signed off on it yesterday."
Emily and JJ stand holding hands, unable to believe the support their fellow officers are showing them. Perhaps they will be ok with the help of the others.
THANK YOU, YOUR SUPPORT IS MUCH APPRECIATED!" The two emotional officers tell everyone