After my talk with Reid, I somehow managed to fall asleep and didn't wake up until we landed. When we exited the plane, the lead detective on the case was waiting for us, and he looked flustered.
"We found a body." Was the first thing he said to us and my heart sank. "Kate Jackson. Two early morning joggers basically tripped over her body. We positively identified her no more than ten minutes ago"
"No attempt to hide the body?" Asked Prentiss.
The Detective shook his head. "None. It was placed in plain sight, directly in the middle of the jogging path. The ME puts the time of death at around five thirty."
"Have you notified the family?" I asked. I highly doubted it, considering how recently the body was found.
"No. I was waiting for you to get here. I haven't actually ever notified a family before." He sounded shy, almost embarrassed. "I'm Detective Newman, by the way." He said as he shook hands with each one of us.
"I'm SSA Hotchner; these are SSA's Prentiss, Morgan, Rossi, Jareau, and Doctor Reid." Hotch was usually the one to introduce us. "JJ, will you go with Detective Newman to notify Kate's Family. Prentiss, go to the Larman Home, Morgan, the Mars, and Rossi go interview the Brooks. Reid and I will go to the station to set up. "
I nodded and followed him to the car. I loved my job, but I always hated notifying families. It was always so sad, looking at the pictures on the mantle, and seeing a happy family torn apart.
Detective Newman pulled me out of my dark thoughts as we bounced along the road. "So, Agent, do you have any plans for your first night in Denver? There's a really good bar in town that we could-"
"Stop." I said before he could invite me on a date. "First of all I'm married. Second, I do have plans tonight; catching the guys that are killing girls in your town."
He looked surprised, but didn't say anything else. I had always despised Detectives that put their own personal lives or career success before the case. Before I had taken the classes to become a Profiler, I had dealt with a lot of them. Reporters were often the same way, wanting the story more than the killer. Now it was Hotch's problem, but I would still call people out on it.
When we arrived at the Jackson house, it was six fifteen. I took the lead, knocking on the door. I wasn't at all surprised when it didn't take more than thirty seconds for Mr. Jackson to open the door. His wife was behind them. Their faces showed a mix of hope, and fear.
"Mr. and Mrs. Jackson?" I asked, like I didn't already know.
"That's us." Said Mrs. Jackson.
"I'm Agent Jareau, this is Detective Newman. May we come in?" I asked. They nodded, and we walked in. They sat down on a couch, and we sat across from them in dining room chairs that they had pulled out. "Your daughter was found this morning."
"Is she alright?" they asked, almost in unison.
My stomach fell seeing the joy on their faces. "She was found dead."
"W-what?" Stuttered Mr. Jackson. "That, that can't be."
"We are very sorry for your loss."
I waited a few moments before asking, "Do you mind if we look in your daughter's room?"
They shook their heads, and we walked up the stairs too Kate's room. The walls were plastered with posters and pictures of her and her friends, all smiling and looking happy. Her computer didn't have a password on it, and nothing seemed out of place. I leaned down and pulled a large box out from under her bed, looking for anything that clashed with the happy scenes on the walls. The box was filled with more pictures and school momentous, that she wanted to keep, just not openly display. I went through the box and nothing really jumped, so I placed the box back under the bed, and continued searching.
"There aren't going to be any clues here are there?" Asked Mr. Jackson, who was now standing in the doorway. "These guys took her from the mall, not here."
"I'm not looking for physical evidence. My team and I study behavior, and other things like victimology; why this particular victim at this particular place at this particular time." I picked up a certificate that hanging on the wall. It was from a martial arts studio, saying that she was classified for her black belt in Karate. I turned to Mr. Jackson. "Your daughter had a black belt?"
He nodded. "That was why we originally thought that there was some mistake. She could take down men that were twice her size, easily." Seeing my interest, he asked, "Does that give you some idea of who the man that did this is?"
I nodded. "It definitely changes things." Then I handed him my card. "If you think of anything in addition to what you told the police last night, please give me a call.
He stared at the card for a moment before murmuring, "Thank you Agent Jareau." Then he walked silently into his daughter's room and walked around slowly.
I gestured downstairs and Detective Newman and I walked down quickly, not wanting to impose on his private moment. Mrs. Jackson still hadn't moved from the couch, so we showed ourselves out. My brain was spinning a million miles an hour as we headed back to the police station. She could have been targeted because of her abilities, but became a hassle when she started fighting for her friends. It was equally likely that they had no idea she could fight.
When we returned to the station, Hotch and Reid were the only ones there. Reid looked up from the papers that he was looking at when we walked in, and seemed very relieved that I was alive and well. Hotch was putting the final touches on the murder boards that he had set up.
"Did you find out anything that could be useful?" Asked Reid.
"Very." I sat down beside him and tried to figure out what he was reading. "Kate had a black belt in Karate. Her dad said that she could easily take down grown men." I hesitated, thinking. "She wouldn't have gone down without a fight."
Without turning around Hotch said, "So these Unsubs are confident. They knew they could overpower her. But what was there reasoning behind it."
"You think they targeted her specifically?" Detective Newman was pacing and sounded agitated. "They could have just waited for her."
"No," Said Hotch rifling through some papers. "This was premeditated. They knew these girls were going to be at the mall last night, and they waited for them to leave. This wasn't a crime of opportunity." Then he turned to me. "JJ, when Prentiss gets back, I want you to go the morgue, see what the coroner found."
"Oh, and JJ, take a look at this." Said Reid as he pushed the stack of papers that he was reading towards me. "It's a list of family and friends of Unsubs that we've caught who Garcia thought looked like good suspects."
I flipped through it, looking for cases that I had worked done a lot of work on. Nothing caught my attention, and I gave it back to Reid just as Prentiss came in.
"Hotch said we were going to the morgue together." I said and stood, walking to the door with her.
We shared our findings with each other on the drive. Nothing had come from the Larman home, and she reacted about the same as Hotch after learning about her fighting skills. Then, she totally caught me off guard.
"Are you worried about us?" I was too stunned to reply for a moment, and so she continued. "I'm surprised that nothing like this has happened yet anyway. We put ourselves in harm's way every day that we come to work and yet, Reid's the only one who's been kidnapped. Well, I have, but I don't count Doyle."
"Will's more worried about me than I am." I laughed. "Reid is too. He made me promise him I'd be extra careful, like I can't protect myself."
Emily pulled into a parking spot and turned the car off. "He just cares about you. Better than him not giving a damn."
I didn't say anything else as we walked into the morgue. We only had to flash our badges to get in, and the corner was waiting for us. Kate's body was stretched out on the table, a pure white sheet covering her body.
"Agents?" She asked, and we nodded.
"What can you tell us?" Asked Prentiss, grabbing us each a pair of gloves.
"Cause of death is a .44 to the neck." She pulled down the sheet enough to reveal her face. "They used Chloroform to knock her out, and she had pain killers in her stomach that were taken after she was kidnapped. She was badly beaten, her jaw was broken in three places, and it appears that she had a concussion. Three fractured ribs, and her arm had a spiral fracture." She lifted her wrist to reveal deep ligature marks, and broken fingers. "My guess is that she was hung by handcuffs or some other metal restraint, and that she punched someone so hard, that it broke three of her fingers."
"Any signs of sexual assault?"
"Yes, although I think she was unconscious when it happened." The coroner paused, then turned and grabbed a slip of paper off the table behind her. "I found this in her shirt."
The note was small, with typed letters covering the entire surface. It read;
I hope you can catch us soon, or we promise this will happen again. She fought to save them, and look what it got her; a bullet in the throat. We will see you soon Agents. Maybe we can have the same fun with you as we did with them.
Before I had even finished processed what I had read or what the symbols at the bottom could mean, my phone rang. It was Hotch.
I answered slowly. "Hey Hotch. What's up?"
"Another girl was taken."