(An Update within half a year. I'm sorry about the abstinence but my a levels keep me rather busy these days. Nonetheless I really want to continue this story, so I'll try to update more frequently. However, I also have a small request for everyone who takes the time to read this story. One of the reasons I even started posting this was to improve my English, since I'm actually from Germany and thus English is not my first language. So if you spot any grammar mistakes or you come across a passage where you think one would say that differently in English, don't hesitate to tell me! I appreciate every advise you have for me!)
"Is this the woman?" Hotch asked once he and Emily arrived at the police station of Vail, Colorado. Together with the rest of the BAU Team he stood in front of a glass wall separating the FBI Agents from one of their murder's possible surviving targets.
The brunette woman behind the glass window sat uncomfortably in a worn-out chair in one of the interrogations room of the police station. She held her arms crossed in front of her stomach as if she was sick and had a stomachache while staring blankly on the iron grey table in front of her.
"Yes. Her name's Carol DaRonch, 18 years-old. She reported to the local police officers that a man in a sheriff's uniform approached her and told her to follow him to the station, saying that her car has been towed away. She condescended at first but when she noticed some utensils in the back of his car she got suspicious and fled."
JJ stepped forward to stand before her colleagues. She put her hand defensively in front of her body.
"Should we really ask her so soon? I mean she just barley escaped and now we're forcing her to relive the moment again without a break? Isn't that a bit har-"
"Look at her." Emily suddenly spoke up, "She matches the other girls almost exactly. We don't know if we dealing with a serial killer here but we don't have much time to waste."
JJ still didn't look fully convinced. She debated with herself if she should argue further, but kept her mouth shut. The blonde agent instead focused on the woman in the interrogation room, eying her with a pitiful look in her eyes.
Hotch watched JJ silently, waiting for another reaction but when none followed he reached for the doorknob and motioned for Spencer to come with him. The observant team chief took a brief look around and scanned the room, even though there wasn't much that peeked Hotch's interest. Most of the interrogation room he had seen looked just the same. Grey colored walls, intense blinding lights that shone down directly from the ceiling and an all around intimidating atmosphere. At least for the respondent.
The brunette woman sitting in a uncomfortable metal chair in the middle of the room either didn't notice Hotch and Spencer entering the room or just didn't care enough to shift her gaze towards the two men.
"Miss DaRonch?" Hotch started out more harshly than he intended to.
The young woman hesitantly looked up form her arms. Her dark, brown eyes were surrounded by big, red puffs that clearly indicated that she had been crying earlier. Even her cheeks looked somewhat swollen as if someone had hit or just violently grabbed her by it. Messy and seemingly unkempt brown hair hang loose around her petite face. Hotch could easily imagine that she looked like a beautiful young student under normal conditions, despite her red, puffy eyes, messy hair and distraught expression. One thing however was clearly visible for the experienced team chief and he noticed it instantly. Her brown hair, as messy as it was, was still slightly parted in the middle at the top of her head.
Carol's voice sounded equally stressed. She sobbed slightly as she cracked out a quiet "Yes?"
"This is Doctor Reid," Hotch answered more softly this time remembering JJ's previous concerns while pointing towards the youngest team member, "and I'm special Agent Aaron Hotchner. We'd like to ask you some questions about your incident."
While Hotch and Spencer seated themselves opposite of the petite youth, Carol took the time to take a deep breath. "W-what do you want to know?" she asked with a shaky voice.
Spencer looked over to his supervisor as if he was asking for permission, which he was granted by a short nod from Hotch.
"Miss DaRonch, could you please describe exactly what happened what caused you to report the incident here at the police station?" Spencer inquired while trying to make eye-contact with Carol. It was one of the first things he learned when he started his career. Always making eye-contact, whether you're trying to grill a suspect or trying to find out if a potential witness is telling the truth. Every movement can betray one's actual words, but no movement is as revealing as a simple, treacherous look from the eyes. Carol, however, made it fairly difficult to make eye-contact, seeing as she was just focusing on her clasped hands that lay trembling in her lap. She didn't even looked up while answering.
"I was at the mall. Shopping for- uhh that's not important. A man wearing a policeman's uniform approached me and told me that someone attempted to break into my car and he wanted me to accompany him to the police station to file a report. And I..." Carol gave a noise that sounded like the mixture of her sobs and a snort, "I was stupid enough to believe him. We drove a while until I finally noticed that we weren't even on the road that lead to the police station. I knew because I work as a telephone operator and the firm is only a few miles from the station away. After I asked him about that he... he grabbed my by the cheeks and tried to handcuff me. I tried to fight back and during the struggle and he accidentally fastened the handcuffs to the same wrist, he was still driving after all. I used my chance and jumped out of the car as soon as I could and just ran away. As fast as I could."
Carol still sobbed every now and then in between her words which made it hard to understand her sometimes, but Spencer managed to get what she was trying to get across. He could clearly see why JJ was so concerned about the young adult earlier. Spencer pressed his lips together tightly.
"We're sorry if this is hard for you, Miss DaRonch." the young agent said trying to relate to Carol, but he had to admit it was still rather challenging for him even after quite some years within the BAU.
"It- it's okay." she answered dejectedly as her voice cracked again. Carol heaved her head up high to prevent some slowly forming tears from running down her face. Under normal conditions she might had added that it was okay to call her by her first name instead of the formal 'Miss DaRonch' but at the moment her mind was occupied with different, much more horrendous thoughts.
Spencer appeared to be taken aback for a moment as if he didn't know what to do or say. A situation like this was nothing new to any of the team member per se, but for Spencer it didn't make it any easier to deal with. Hotch, who of course noticed his younger colleague reaction, stepped in to prevent a breakdown from Carol. And from Spencer.
"Can you describe the man? Did he mention his name?"
Carol took another deep breath to make sure she could manage what lay ahead of her. "'Officer Roseland'. That's what he said his name was. And he, well," she stopped for a moment to remember her encounter with the potential serial killer and what he looked like, "he was rather handsome. Brown, somewhat curly hair, average height. His voice was somehow, well, it was...I'm sorry. I can't or maybe I just don't want to remember. I'm sorry."
Hotch nodded sympathetically. He rose from his chair and motioned for Carol to do the same. "It's alright Miss DaRonch. We really appreciate your help. I think you can go now. If you want us to inform you when something comes up, we'll be glad to do so."
Carol only ended the conversation with a mumbled 'Thank you' and quickly left the interrogation room. In the end the tears were streaming down her face, even though she had tried hard to oppress them, but to no avail.
Spencer followed his supervisor's example and also rose from his seat. Together they left the interrogation room and met with their team colleagues outside on the floor. However, only JJ and Morgan stood there and waited for them. "Where are the others?" Hotch asked. He didn't remembered tasking them with something else.
JJ seemed prepared for the question and responded swiftly. "There came a call from another woman who also claimed to have some information about our guy."
"Seems to be quite the ladies man, huh?" Morgan joked in between.
"Prentiss and Rossi answered the call."
Morgan apparently managed to regain his seriousness in the meantime and turned to Hotch. "Is she a reliable source?"
"I don't think she was lying. She seemed very sincere." Spencer concluded, remembering her watery eyes.
"Yes, I agree with-"
"Aaron! We were called away by some of the police officers. A woman named Elizabeth Kloepfer called the police station and claimed she knew the guy who has been killing some of the girls around this area. Unfortunately she lives far away in Washington state but she wants to come down here as soon as possible." Rossi interrupted Hotch even though the team chief didn't even seem to mind. A new piece of information was always welcome, no matter when it came.
Rossi and Emily almost jogged to the rest of their team with the older agent holding some papers, that seemed to be the scripted recordings of the phone call with Elizabeth Kloepfer. Once he reached Hotch Rossi handed him over the papers while straightening his jacket absentmindedly.
"Apparently some media reports about the murders already made it out to Washington and the neighboring states and she firmly believes the culprit to be one of her ex-boyfriends named uh, Bundy. Theodore Robert Bundy." Emily started to explain while Hotchner skimmed through the pages in his hands with both Morgan and Spencer reading over his shoulders. "Kloepfer told us that Bundy was a law student back when he lived in Washington. Apparently he was quite jealous even possessive. At some point she got so scared off him and broke up. And guess what her hair looks like." Emily asked rhetorically with a slight triumphing smile.
"Long, brown hair. Parted in the middle." Morgan described as Rossi held up a picture of a curly brown headed young man who had his arm thrown over a girl on his right, with Morgan's exact description.
At the same time Carol DaRonch chose this moment to be escorted outside of the police station with an officer accompanying her. She saw the group of FBI agents and in the corner of her eye also the small picture of a seemingly familiar face. "That's him! That's-THAT'S HIM!"
The young woman left the police officer's side and went over to the BAU team while still frantically yelling and pointing at the picture in front of her. The agents looked on as Carol's body shook with excitement and fear. JJ was the first to regain her composure and react to Carol's sudden outburst.
"That's him? The man who tried to kidnap you?"
"YES! I tell you that's HIM! Officer Roseland. THAT'S HIM!"
"Are you definitely sure of that?" Emily asked again to clarify the situation, but Carol barley noticed her.
"What do you say, Hotch, do we declare him our number one suspect?" Morgan asked the team chief after they stepped away a few feet to talk privately to each other.
Hotchner nodded, at first hesitantly then with more determination, while still flipping through the scripted recordings of the phone call with Elizabeth Kloepfer. "They all matched optically. Even the way they described our suspect fits in some degrees.
We've already classified him as a necrophilia. Mostly because he wants to demonstrate his powers. It would also fit as to why he wanted to handcuff DaRonch." Hotch started creating the profile for their current case.
"And just look at Kloepfer, DaRonch, Cunningham. Even all the other victims. The hairstyle definitely plays a major role for him. Either he's just attracted to this very type or he had a incident with someone who looked like this. Whenever he now meets an attractive woman with this hairstyle she reminds him of that certain someone and he takes his anger out on her. He isn't gentle either, neither while his victims are alive nor when their dead." Rossi added as he joined his colleagues discussing their profile.
"As a law students he must have some smarts to him. That added with some good looks and not only does he appeal charming towards his victims, but also does he stay hidden and low-profile. One wouldn't think of a handsome, obedient law-student to rape and murder multiple girls. He's smart, he knows that and he uses it." Morgan concluded.
Hotch seemed to debate with himself. It all made sense, but publishing a profile to early could ruin a whole case. And they couldn't afford to create a mass panic. How would the public population react when they announced there was a serial killer particular hunting down brown headed girls with slightly parted hair? The wig shops would probably make a fortune.
"If he is as smart as we think he is, he has probably fled the state by now. Especially since his last victim managed to escape. That would mean we have no idea where he currently is and he could attack anyplace and at any given time. Then we'd have to wait again until he kills enough people to locate him." Hotch explained while holding his chin in his hand. "Dave? We should publish our profile now, shouldn't we?"
Rossi studied his colleague and friend for a moment before nodding his head in approval. "Let's hunt Ted Bundy."