It never gets easier.
Whenever the team had a new case, JJ usually was responsible for dealing with the media or consulting the victim's families, but no matter how many times she sat down with one of the family members of the victims to ask them questions, she always saw the pain in their eyes which hunted her for the rest of the day. Or the week. She still remembered the first time she had to talk to a man whose wife had been brutally killed by a killer in Maryland. She had been so nervous and scared that she would make some kind of mistake when it came to handling the families, that she almost completely ignored what the man was telling her. After that she was so embarrassed of herself, that she never wanted to talk to one of the family members again, but when she noticed that not one of the policemen or agents thought it important enough to comfort the families at their next case, she made it her task. Since then she had been the one who had to calm them down when they cried and yelled and she had to bear the stories, that made her sick to her stomach when she thought about what happened to these innocent souls. And although it effected her more than she showed, she didn't mind, knowing that these people could find some relief by talking to her.
"Hey, Spence," JJ stopped her partner who walked in front of her towards the driveway of the Cunningham's house. Spencer turned back to JJ and raised his eyebrows in a questioning manner. "Leave the talking to me, alright?" The blonde agent put her hand on Spencer's shoulder while she spoke, but withdrew it immediately when she felt the itchy wool of Spencer's cardigan.
It didn't take long for a woman in her late 50s with gray hair to open the door. She seemed rather calm and prepared for their arrival, but both JJ and Spencer clearly saw that she had been crying earlier this day. "Are you more of those police officers?"
"Actually we're from the BAU. It's a sub-organization of the FBI and we're here to ask some questions about Julie and her... murder." Spencer answered. The woman – Mrs. Cunningham - opened the door and signaled for JJ and Spencer to come in. She led them to the small living room and pointed to a brown leather couch at the back of the room. As JJ settled on the couch she took a moment to look around. The living room was well lit because of the big window, which covered almost the whole wall to the left. Looking through the window, JJ saw a garden full of children toys, a red slide and a tree house in one of the big oak trees. She easily imagined how a younger Julie would climb up to the tree house and play there with her friends. Apart from the rather simple furniture there hung many pictures of the small Cunningham family on the walls and on the shelves. All showing smiling faces, but how should it be any different? Who would display a picture of their own children crying in the living room or even make a photo of that?
"Mrs. Cunningham, I know this isn't easy, but we have to ask these questions. We've been informed that the night Julie was murdered she had a phone conversation with you. What did you talk about?" JJ started their interview with a soft voice as if to avoid scaring Julie's mother.
Mrs. Cunningham closed her eyes and took a deep breath before she began to speak. " Well, she just came back from a short vacation from Sun Valley, Idaho. She was there with some guy, but apparently they parted ways. While she was driving back home she called me and she really seemed upset. I told her to come right here, but she denied and wanted to go to Tavern on the Gore. That's a pub on 4215 East Street- or no it's on 421- I'm sorry I don't know exactly."
The older woman looked down as if she was ashamed that she couldn't remember the street and could help the agents trying to find her daughter's killer. She sobbed quietly, but loud enough for JJ to hear, who shifted from the couch to sit right next to Julie's mother and put her hand on her knee to calm her down.
"It's fine, Mrs. Cunningham. Did Julie say if she wanted to meet someone there?"
Mrs. Cunningham thought about JJ's question, but shock her head no. " Julie said, she wanted to be alone for the rest of the day. You know, this isn't the first time something like this happened. My daughter isn't the most luckiest when it comes to men, but she sounded really distraught, almost depressed. I was so worried about her and wanted her to come home, but once she made a decision she won't change her mind, but she's also very caring."
"Is it possible that she went with a stranger she met at the pub?" JJ inquired.
"It's possible. Julie is- was rather spontaneous, even a little naive when it came to men. I thought this last breakup though wold have made her realized..." Mrs Cunningham began to sob again, as she waved her hand in font of her face to signal that she would need a break.
Smiling sympathetically, JJ got up from the couch. "It's fine, Mrs. Cunningham, we're finished anyway. I'm sorry about your loss."
"Just find him," the elder woman said while sniffling, "find the man who did this to my baby girl."
"We will." Spencer assured her.
"Have you ever been skiing?" Derek Morgan asked nonchalant as he and his partner David Rossi entered a bar in the small town of Vail, Colorado. Although it was in the middle of the day, the pub was filled to overflowing mostly because of the many tourists. Despite all he heat in the stuffy pub some people were still wearing their thick snowsuits and balaclavas. The walls were decorated with pictures of the snowy Colorado mountains and some old skis which were crossed to form an 'X'.
David Rossi tried to push his way through some of the already drunken customers, while silently praying that his tailored, Italian suit would still smell somewhat normal once they left the bar. "When I was younger, my family dragged me along to a vacation in Switzerland. I don't want to tell that much, just that it didn't end that well."
Morgan chuckled lightly. He stopped at the counter of the pub when he spotted one barkeeper mixing another drink. The barkeeper's black hair was covered in sweat either from the heat in the room or the stress of serving so many people.
"Excuse me, sir," Morgan tried to get the keeper's attention as he leaned against the counter, "We'd like t-"
"Get in the line or something, there are other customers here and I'm a bit busy right now, alright." the middle aged bartender rudely interrupted and accidentally spilled some of the drinks he had just mixed on Derek's black t-shirt.
A bit annoyed, Derek produced his FBI badge from his pocket and shoved it the barkeeper's face while rubbing the wet spot on his shirt. The man behind the counter still poured alcohol, when he finally looked up and saw Derek's badge in front of him. "What? Oh, Oh my! I'm sorry 'bout that, I'll get you a towel. It was an accident, you know that, right?"
Derek smirked a bit at the bartender's reaction. It always amazed him how much authority you could get such because of a piece of metal. "We're here to ask some questions about a murder that occurred around here some days ago. Were you on shift these last couple of days?"
"A murder? You're talking about that Cunningham girl? Yeah, no, I wasn't here last night. Wait, I'll go get Tony. And a towel."
A few minutes passed by when a tall, fair-haired man in his early twenties wearing a black vest came out of the back room of the tavern. He looked a bit confused as he approached the two FBI agents. "John said you were asking for me? And I should bring a towel? Oh, I guess that's for you"
Derek thankfully accepted the towel Tony offered him and began drying his shirt. Rossi stepped over and showed Tony his badge. "You were here on shift some nights ago?"
The younger bartender nodded his head in confirmation.
"Have you seen this girl, Julie Cunningham, here at that time?" Rossi showed Tony a picture of Julie, even though he assumed Tony already knew who Julie was.
"Yeah, she came here late that night and seemed pretty down. Ordered some drinks and wanted to be alone." Tony answered honestly, but Rossi sensed he was not saying something that bothered him.
Rossi tilted his head slightly. "Did you notice when she left that night?"
Tony was silent for a moment before he nodded again. He look to the right to avoid eye contact with Rossi while he spoke. "She left with some guy."
Derek noticed his partners skepticism towards the young barkeeper after he dried his shirt the best he could. "Some guy? Can you describe him?"
"If I'm being honest," Tony began as he took a deep breath, "I've seen this guy here quite some time. He had crutches with him and came to Julie. They spoke a bit and then they went away together. But this wasn't the fist time he was here. Some days ago he first came in here and talked to some girls. He always wore either crutches or some kind of arm bracelet, but which surprised me was that sometimes he came back here without the crutches and walked perfectly normal. I should have known something was up with this guy, but I just thought he was trying to pick up some girls. And now this happened."
Tony looked down at his feet in shame and shook his head a bit. Derek saw how much it pained Tony and how he though he was partly responsible for what happened. "Listen, Tony, you can help now. Can you describe that guy?"
"Well, he had brown hair, I think. A bit curled or wavy. Not that tall, maybe a bit smaller that you," Tony stopped his description and pointed towards Rossi, "but I can't tell you much about his face, though."
"Alright, thanks." Rossi said and dismissed Tony who quickly went back to the back room of the pub.
Derek turned around to face Rossi as they slowly made their way out of the tavern. "If our man tried to convince women to come with him under the pretext of being injured it would fit to our profile of a necrophilia. It is much more unlikely someone would turn down somebody who is injured and dependent on the help of others. They wouldn't reject him."
"Maybe that wouldn't even have been necessary. JJ told me before that Julie's mother said, that she was apparently a bit too gullible concerning men." Rossi added.
"You'd say we can publish our profile?" Derek asked once they exited the pub and made their way to the black Chevrolet in the parking lot.
"I'd say we see what Aaron and Prentiss found out so far."
Emily Prentiss hated morgues. Cold atmosphere, white walls and of course many dead bodies. Although she always tried to somehow hide her true feelings and thoughts from others, she was convinced that her team chef Aaron Hotchner sensed her uneasiness. It was almost a bit ironic. The two must stoic members of the team together at a cold and lifeless morgue and both sat silently next to each other desperately waiting for the coroner to show up and lead them to the body.
Unfortunately, it took quite some time for Dr. Kramer to appear, which forced Emily and Hotch to spent the time in an awkward silence. When the elderly doctor finally showed up he could have sworn he heard Emily quietly sighed in relief. He led them to room 213 where the dead body of Julie Cunningham was stored and signaled the nurses to bring the body to them.
"Poor girl, she probably didn't even saw it coming." Dr. Kramer began as he lifted the blanket to reveal Julie's body, "She was hit in the back of the head with a blunt object, then stabbed in the chest a few time with a knife and raped. After she was dead. What is rather strange though, are these bruises on her body. You see these on the sides here? Those are from bumps and the like, but these on her chest and butt-"
"Those are bit marks." Emily interrupted and pointed towards one of the ugly red bruises with her gloved hand.
"Exactly. Apparently the killer bit her as well after he already killer her."
Emily turned towards Hotchner who had been quiet so far. "Could this mean he wanted to show his dominance over her?"
"Possible. Maybe it just errec-" Hotch couldn't finish his sentence as his mobile rang in his pocket.
"Excuse me."
Hotch left Emily and Dr. Kramer for a moment to answer his phone. He closed the door behind him just in time to hear Dr. Kramer explain that the killer also tried to strangle her, despite her already being dead.
"Hotchner?" he answered his phone.
"Aaron?" Rossi returned on the other side of the line, "We've got some news. A women reported at the local police station that a man tried to kidnap her. Her description vaguely fitted which what a bartender at the tavern, Julie Cunningham was last seen, told us. She is currently at the police station."
Hotch left the excitement rise in him. A possible new witness was exactly what they needed.
"Do you go and interview her or should we come there?"
"We're finished here, I'd say we all go to the police station and publish our profile afterward."