Sally POV
"Garcia and Matthews, you can go with JJ to the precinct to set up, Morgan and Reid go to the hospital and speak to the latest victim, Me, Rossi and Prentiss will go and speak to four previous victims" Hotch instructed. Me, Garcia and JJ climbed into an SUV and drove to the precinct.
"That was a good call about the pattern Sal" JJ said quietly, she was driving so most of her attention was on the road.
"It was just a theory I had. When you spend a large amount of time with a serial killer you get to know their behaviour and the time frame seemed to stand out. Watching for triggers and patterns in Larson's behaviour was what kept me alive for so long, so I guess it stayed with me" I explained quickly and unemotionally. I watched JJ for a moment, she seemed to be processing what I'd just said and agreeing with it silently. She turned the wheel left and the SUV turned with it.
"How can you talk about it without it getting to you?" Garcia asked.
"I compartmentalise. You shouldn't be surprised. You see Hotch do it every day" I looked out the window and saw we were approaching the precinct "Oh, would you look at that, we're here" I announced. Nobody seemed to have noticed my swift subject change, they just stared at me as JJ put the car in park. I hopped out of the car and went to the trunk to retrieve Garcia's mobile system and my laptop while the others were getting out. We walked towards the entrance with JJ leading the way. Finally, we arrived at the front desk and were greeted be the sheriff.
"Sheriff Dawson, I'm Agent Jennifer Jareau with the FBI and this is Penelope Garcia our technical analyst and her assistant Agent Sally Matthews" JJ introduced us. The sheriff looked perplexed by the fact a qualified field agent was a technical assistant.
"Come on through, your tech team can set up over there" he pointed towards two empty desks at the back of the room and me and Garcia went straight over to set up. As we were unpacking the last of our things a strange thought occurred to me.
"Garcia?" she looked up "Does it make sense to you? How organised these crimes are?" I asked her. She looked resigned as she finished setting up and booted her system up.
"I don't know Sally, I'm not a profiler" she replied, slightly confused by my question. We both sat down in front of our monitors as I mulled over her reply.
"Maybe not Garcia but you've been with the team a long time. Let's check whether there have been any incidents like this within the past ten years. We better go nationwide and look into medical records for women who got pregnant at 18 and then mysteriously lost their babies in case it wasn't reported. I'll do medical records if you want to check police reports?" I said hurriedly as I started typing as fast as I could. She began to do the same. I started the search locally to see if there were any instant hits but there was no luck, so I widened the search. No hits again.
"Got anything Garcia?" I asked, I was a little deflated by the fact my search had come up empty.
"Two. This case must be hitting JJ and Hotch where it hurts" she replied sadly.
"Two doesn't make sense. What about looking into open homicides where a pregnant woman died but no foetus was recovered. I hope to god I'm wrong because if we get any hits on this then it's going to be a whole lot worse" I reeled off, warning her of the probability of the stakes being raised. My phone began to ring, slightly embarrassed by the geeky doctor who ring tone I answered quickly.
"Matthews" I said as a greeting.
"Are you set up? We've just spoken to Lily Donavan and she seems incredibly disturbed as you'd expect but there seems like there's something off. These girls were cared for by the unsub. They went to great lengths to keep them comfortable and safe despite what they were doing to them" Hotch replied but it just left more questions in the air.
"Yeah we're set up. We checked VICAP for crimes with a similar MO and got two but that doesn't fit so Garcia is checking open homicide cases to see if we get another result. I really hope we don't." I rambled.
Reid POV
"I'd like to do a cognitive interview with you if that's okay" I told her, hoping she was up to it. She sat up in her hospital bed and wringing her hands together.
"What's the use? I was drugged?" She replied, her voice cracking in anger and distress.
"Anything you can tell us may be instrumental in us catching the person who did this" Morgan answered, he gave her a reassuring nod and looked at me to continue.
"If you can just close your eyes and take a deep breath" she followed my instructions "What's the last thing you remember?" I asked gently.
"I was at the library, I liked to go and read to myself, I was hoping the baby would pick up on my voice early on you know?" she paused as she absorbed her grief "It was late, around 7. I'd fallen asleep and the librarian had found me as she was putting a book back. She sent me home. I walked out and into the parking lot. It was empty and dark, one of the lights wasn't working. I made my way to my car, but I felt a sharp pain in my neck and my vision went blurry and I was falling. Someone caught me, a woman and told me everything was going to be alright and then it all went dark" She shuddered and then seemed to realise something horrible.
"Did she do this? Did a woman do this to me?" She demanded to know. She looked us both in the eye and I knew that she already knew the truth.
"We think there may be a possibility of that" Morgan said, resigned.
"Do you remember anything after that? Any flashes of your surroundings even a smell?" I continued, hoping that she may give us a clue.
"Bleach and Iodine. It stank, my nostrils still burned when I woke up at home. I remember white tiles and beeping, but not like this" she gestured at the heart monitor "It wasn't like a heart monitor it was like computers. Lots of computers" she explained, her words ran together as exhaustion overtook her.
"We'll leave you to get some rest" Morgan said quietly, getting up and making his way to the door, I followed him quickly.
Sally POV
"So, I guess it's even more likely that the hack the clinics experienced was the unsub scoping out new victims" I called, we were on speaker to Morgan and Reid who had just spoken to the last victim.
"Well if this is an experienced hacker then she may have left a signature I'll look into that" Garcia said as normally as she could.
"Matthews, see if you can find the location" Morgan asked. I nodded despite the fact he couldn't see me and got typing as fast as my fingers would let me.
"We'll hit you back" we chimed in unison as Garcia hit the end button. I was looking through the endless lines of code for any trace of a location, but I was coming up empty and getting more frustrated. This girl was annoyingly good with computers, but I had to try harder.
"Are your ears burning? because I have a feeling, they're talking about us" I asked Garcia as the niggling sensation grew stronger.
"Only good things sweetie. My Morgan is a sweetheart and it looks as if the good doctor has gone a little gooey eyed over you my darling" she rambled as her fingers tapped the keyboard at a mile a minute. I was shocked for a moment and poured myself into the backhack for fear of saying something silly.
"I doubt it Penny. He's known me all of two minutes and from the looks of it, he's pretty smitten with someone else" I replied eventually, my eyes never leaving the screen.
"He's profiled you remember. He knows more about you than you do" She quipped and left me speechless once again. I lashed out in frustration. I couldn't find anything, and it had started to piss me off. Going with the pattern this woman was going to take another life in the next two days and it was maddening to know.
"I've got nothing" I spat, I clenched my fists and took a deep breath. Breath, relax, compartmentalise.
"Me neither" she sighed. A ping sounded from Garcia's computer and we finally had something.
"We've got a result. Unidentified remains aged between seventeen and twenty found in the desert ten years ago, there were signs of trauma in the uterus and a freshly sutured wound. COD was internal bleeding there was a hair found at the scene but nothing turned up at the time. You call Hotch and I'll run it through the database again.
"No need to call" I looked up and saw Hotch standing near us with Prentiss and Rossi.
"Good work you two. You make quite the team" Rossi praised us. Garcia had started the search and I got up to make some tea before I crashed from my caffeine high.
"Thanks" I replied as I walked towards the break room. When I got there, I walked towards the kettle and grabbed two cups from the shelf on my way past. I threw a bag in each cup and switched the kettle on. I saw someone enter the room from the corner of my eye and turned to see Dr Reid.
"We always seem to have the same idea" He remarked casually as he strode over with a cup clasped between his hands. He put the cup down in front of the coffee maker and went to pick up the jug. His hands were thin and his fingers dexterous and long. They were fascinating. He poured his coffee and then proceeded to add a dangerous amount of sugar to it. The kettle finished boiling and I added the water to the cups.
"You do know you just increased the likelihood of you developing diabetes in later life by 0.09% right?" I asked, seriously concerned by his abnormal sugar consumption. I poured a little milk into each of the cups and finished off the tea before I looked at him. He was staring at me blankly which I found rather creepy.
"What?" I questioned as I got ready to leave the room.
"I thought only I knew that" He breathed finally.
"Guess you're not the only smart one Spencer" he smiled a little and I turned and took mine and Garcia's tea back to where we were working. I was careful to set her cup a safe distance from her hardware and she smiled gratefully. I sat down with mine and took a sip, staring angrily at my computer and silently berating it for its lack of positive results so far when I noticed Morgan meandering closer to us. He finally stopped beside Garcia and looked at us both.
"How are the dynamic duo doing?" He asked, a moronic smile on his face. I refused to answer.
"Just fine, how about you hunkalicious?" Garcia replied quickly. I fake gagged at the word hunkalicious
"Pissed but otherwise I'm just dandy baby girl" he ran his hand over the back of Garcia's chair "Say Matthews, what did you do to Reid? He came out of the break room grinning like an idiot" he inquired.
"I told him that he'd just increased the likelihood of him developing diabetes in later life by 0.09% and I've told everyone, it's Sally" I responded, hiding a small smile behind a scowl.
"Oh lord there's two of them" he gasped in mock horror before shaking his head and walking away.
"What are you smiling at?" Garcia pried. I just smiled at her and shook my head before looking back at the screen of my laptop.
The next morning, we were all stood around the case boards in an arch, nobody said anything for a long while before Hotch finally cracked.
"We're on the clock here. The unsub will strike again in the next two days, she probably already has another victim, so we need to act fast. Let's start with victimology." He stood next to the boards and stared at us intently.
"Each victim was white, eighteen and in their second trimester of pregnancy but beyond that I don't see anything that could connect them. Some were blue collar some were better off, they all lived in different neighbourhoods" Prentis replied but it sparked something in my grey matter. I stared at the victim's information willing it to reveal something to me. I tuned out everybody else as they shared their insight. I finally saw it. The clue was there in the records and statements of each victim.
"It's commitment" They all stared at me and then looked at the boards, realisation dawning on their faces" They'd all just given something up. School, job, college. What if the unsub thinks she's giving them their lives and freedom back by doing this? Each victim had visited the clinic a day before they were taken, and any change of circumstance is recorded with each visit. The unsub would know this from the hack" I finished. I stood, a little breathless and hoping for a reaction that wasn't laughter. Finally, it came.
"We're ready to give the profile" Hotch said as he quickly walked to the door.
Everyone was gathered in the meeting room of the precinct, ready to receive the profile. Hotch took the floor, ready to begin.
"The unsub we're looking for is a woman, we know this from the report from the latest victim as well the care each victim receives and the use of a needle rather than a blitz attack as a means of subduing the victim" He announced, the officers seemed sceptical. Rossi came forward to address everyone next.
"This woman may be trained medically or have a job that allows her to perfect her MO like a mortician or a morgue assistant. She will have picked up an extraordinary amount of extra shifts to make sure she had the time to hone her skills although she may have left in the last month or so as the obsession with taking these unborn children overcame her" He added. Reid took his place next, his posture straight and rigid.
"She also has an incredible knowledge of computers; she was able to hack into the systems of several clinics to gain information about her victims. She works using patterns and codes, most of which revolve around the number 3. The unsub is creating a countdown and if she sticks to pattern, she will dump another in the next day or so" Reid finished, standing back and letting JJ take his place.
"This doesn't help. How are we meant to catch her if we don't know anything about her other than her personality traits?" A female officer piped up. She was angry, taking it personally.
"We're getting to that, this woman is aged between thirty and forty, she is white, and incredibly approachable. Unlike most unsubs she hasn't begun to devolve under the stress of a federal investigation which means she is incredibly calm under pressure" JJ said. Prentiss turned to look at me before she took the floor.
"This woman vehemently believes she is helping these young women. She looks for girls who have recently given up jobs and other obligations in order to prepare for their child this sparks a need to 'help' these girls within the unsub. She wants to give these girls their lives back. Lives free from the obligation of looking after a child" Blake stopped and stood back allowing Hotch to instruct the officers further.
"I would like you to canvas hospital morgues to see if anyone in the employment records fits the profile. Pay close attention to any hospitals where theft could easily go unreported ask if medical supplies such as iodine and surgical equipment has gone missing, even small quantities. The unsub has to be getting them from somewhere. Thank you"