All disclaimers can be found in Chapter 1. If you like something in here, be sure to thank Silvia for her hard work. She worked tirelessly on this to develop and improve this story.

Laurel

Chapter 2:

Four days later: MPU Office. (Thursday May 10th, 2007)

"Agent Malone." Jack looked up from his desk and stared curiously at the two FBI agents standing at his door.

"Yeah, who are you?" He waved them in and indicated they should sit down.

"I'm Agent Chris Mitchell and this is Agent Tom Clark." The taller of the two men completed the introductions as both men settled into the indicated chairs. Jack leaned back from his desk, placed his glasses on top of the file he was reviewing and waited to hear what brought these two agents to his office.

"We've been tracking some murders of women across several states over the past six years or so and noticed a routine posting that your unit completed yesterday on a –" Mitchell paused and looked at his notebook to confirm the name. "– Barbara Harrison."

"Yeah, we were called in on her missing person case on Monday. Unfortunately, when we found her, she was dead."

"Yes, we know. It's the cause of her death and where she was found that leads us to believe she may be a part of the cases we've been following. When you loaded the medical examiner's findings of the victim as well as the description of the victim and where she was found into the ViCAP system, we received an alert as several factors or perhaps even signatures are similar in."

"Such as --" Jack knew when he heard a word like 'signature' that the possibility of a serial killer was coming, but he hoped this was just a coincidence.

"Well, things like the violence of the rape, the fact that the victim was left in a park and that in addition to strangulation her neck had been broken at the C3 and C4 vertebrae. She was also a brunette in her mid-30s and her disappearance appears not to have been preceded by any threats or unusual incidents and there were no witnesses."

"Those are the salient points to the case. You said you've been tracking cases across several states. What other states show similar murders?"

"So far we've identified Washington, around the Seattle area, Colorado, Pennsylvania, DC and now here. We'd like to meet with your team, go over the case and then we're heading to the medical examiner's office, and we'll meet with the local police where the victim was from."

"All right. My team is right outside. We're having a lull in missing persons right now which probably won't last long so why don't we go introduce you to them, and I'll have them review the file with you." Jack stood up and indicated for the agents to exit his office and then he lead them across the hall to the bullpen.

Friday May 11th, 2007:

Jack walked into the conference room and noticed the files spread across the table and the various white boards and portable bulletin boards that were filled with pictures and timelines, places and dates. Agents Mitchell and Clark had set up their work space quickly and with a confidence and ease that spoke of familiarity with the various victims as well as with each other's work preferences. He noted that only Agent Clark, Vivian and Martin were in the room at the moment.

"So you've been following these cases across the country for how many years now, Agent Clark?" Vivian was asking Agent Clark.

"Well, I don't do it full-time. The trail grows cold for a while and then it heats up again. The reason we came out here so quickly after Barbara Harrison is because last Friday another case with a similar profile was entered into the ViCAP system and that gave us two in this vicinity that appeared within days of each other."

Jack was more than a little interested and spoke up regarding that last comment; "Another case? Which one? Who?" He didn't remember hearing of any other murdered women shortly after they disappeared that fit the same criteria.

"This case was in reference to a disappearance in 2004, springtime. The woman's name was Elsie Thomas. Her remains were found last week when the park she was discarded in was digging a foundation for a new water pond/fountain where they would have carp swimming for the kids to feed. Anyway, during the dig they discovered a woman's skull. Local medical examiner was called and the crime scene team dug and recovered most of the skeleton including the vertebrae and lo and behold, her neck had been broken, that plus the location in addition to your case earlier this week caused us to come out and take a look."

"I remember that case." Martin spoke up quietly. When the other three agents looked at him questioningly he gave a sad smile and continued. "Elsie Thomas, the woman, went missing the same day of my Aunt Bonnie's funeral. I remember reading the paper and seeing her disappearance. We weren't called in on that one for whatever reason, I don't remember. Odd, you know, I think about her every year when the date of Bonnie's death and her funeral comes around."

Vivian smiled softly at the wistfully sad tone in Martin's voice. He shook himself subtly as he noticed her glance and realized the room had gotten quiet.

"Anyway, now that you mention it, I read the article about them finding a body last week, but I didn't know they had confirmed her identity."

Agent Clark looked at Martin as he replied, "They haven't released her identity to the paper yet. They probably will in the next couple of days since DNA has confirmed her identity and the family have now been notified. We asked them to hold off telling the press until we got a chance to review all the files and question some of the witnesses again.

We'll only get a day maybe two before it will have to hit the press once we start questioning witnesses, won't take long for people to see through our cover of just a routine follow up especially with the news already reporting a body of a woman being found, still –"Clark trailed off thoughtfully as Martin met his gaze and gave a slight nod of understanding.

"Anyway, Agent Johnson, I guess that didn't fully answer your question. Agent Mitchell and I have been following these cases for the last six years. Actually we've been together for about three. The first cases appeared in Seattle. Three women all disappeared, all found within a year, year and a half, all found in various parks near duck ponds.

Agent Mitchell worked those cases there. It wasn't until we had some cases in Colorado that we were able to link up and I came on board. We've found two bodies in Colorado and there's a chance that at least two other women who are still missing are part of this case but without the bodies, it's impossible to know.

We've had one case in DC and even some in Pennsylvania, but this is the only time we've had two surface so quickly. Of course, again, one case is from three years ago and the other earlier this week, still there's a chance the killer has remained in this area, so we're here. Usually we don't find the trail until after a significant period of time has passed. Right now the trail is hot and we're determined to find him."

"I read that even today there are bodies surfacing of missing women that were possible victims of Ted Bundy and the Green River Killer." Martin added. When he was given strange looks by Jack and Vivian he just dipped his head a bit and said: "What, I read."

Jack just sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Agent Fitzgerald is right," Clark added a bit for Martin's defense, "I don't have to tell you how many people go missing each year, any one of you could quote me the stats for how many people are missing in New York State –"

"Over 4000" Jack, Vivian and Martin all replied simultaneously.

Clark gave a small smile, "See what I mean. Some are runaways, some just up and left and changed their name, some are kidnapped and held somewhere even to this day, some are dead and the possibilities are endless. Across 50 states there are so many more and from what we can tell this guy, this killer, is not afraid to travel, already we've got four states from west, to southwest to northeast, there's no pattern other than how he kills and where he leaves the body. Some bodies are missing for years and others, like Barbara Harrison appear within a day, how many more are out there?"

Agent Clark stopped speaking and reflectively stared at the various boards in the room that depicted the faces of those victims that were known to have been murdered by this killer as well as a couple of photographs of women they suspected. Jack and Vivian and Martin were also quiet as the enormity of the undertaking was no stranger to them either.

The quiet moment of reflection was broken by the arrival of Agent Mitchell coming just inside the room. "Just got a call from the medical examiner's office, they're ready for us to come down and review the findings thus far on Barbara Harrison."

Jack and Agent Clark turned and left the room both having been previously invited for the meeting. Vivian and Martin continued to go through the files trying to provide fresh eyes to the investigation. Vivian concentrated on the Pennsylvania and DC cases while Martin worked on the Colorado files.

One week later: Friday May 18th, 2007

MPU Office 8:00 p.m.

"Martin, go home. We've done all we can right now." As usual Martin was still in the office long past the others having already left, the others except Jack that is.

"I'm almost finished." Martin raised his head distractedly from the files that were spread in front of him at the small table in the middle of the bullpen. "All these women, Jack, and now this killer, this monster is here. We've had Barbara Harrison fall prey to this animal and now Jo Anne Mills."

Martin was talking about the case that had come to the team this past Monday morning that started out similar to all their other cases, a frantic phone call, tearful, fearful friends and family, long hours of interviews, endless searches through financial records, an angry boyfriend threatening to punch the agent in the nose for inferring that either of them were cheating, bad take-out food designed to fuel the body long enough to question one more witness, follow up on one more of a hundred tips.

In the end, Vivian and Martin had had the grim task of driving to the scene with the familiar police tape, the familiar officer guarding the entrance to the scene trying to keep back the hovering bystanders who wanted to gawk unabashedly at the poor dead woman who had been stripped of all her dignity and privacy as she was thrown away to rot by a duck pond, naked, neck grotesquely angled, legs spread so there was no question of the violation.

All the agents in the MPU, along with Mitchell and Clark were counting this as the third victim of this unknown killer, or Unsub, as the FBI profilers termed him. Mitchell and Clark readily pointed out that there was an extreme escalation in the killer's behavior for him to have taken two women in as many weeks. No one knew what had caused the escalation since besides the method of kill and the location of the body dump, there was little to go on. So far no one had come forward to indicate that they'd had a similar occurrence but had managed to escape. All anyone knew was that this killer was quick, ruthless and invisible.

"What are you looking at?" Jack stood next to the table and looked at the various files that were opened and the pictures of the dead women.

"I'm looking through the files of the cases here in New York as well as the files from Seattle, and Durango. There's something about these cases that rings a bell with me, but I can't figure out what it is." Martin took a deep breath and rubbed tiredly at his eyes.

Jack picked up one of the files and read the cover summary page: Alicia Calhoun, last seen February 2004, 5'8'' 155 pounds, brown hair, green eyes, occupation dietician, Children's Hospital in Philadelphia; last seen skiing vacation with friends in Durango, Colorado. Jack put the file down and looked again at the table; there were at least seven or eight other files.

"I'm not sure why that case rings a bell with me." Martin said indicating the file Jack had just read. "I remember two of these other cases from when I was out in Seattle. Our team didn't work the investigations but once we got called in to assist with searching a site." Martin stopped for a moment and Jack saw a shadow cross the agent's face.

"It was pretty grim work as you can imagine. We found some bones, not much else. The woman had been missing about a year and a half. Actually, shortly after that I got your call offering me this job. It was eerie standing in that park and realizing that whoever had killed this woman had walked that same ground carrying that poor woman or making her walk or dragging her, by the time she was found animals had scattered what was left and it had been so long it was impossible to tell how she got to that spot."

Jack rested his hand briefly on Martin's shoulder. "Go home. It's the weekend; we finished our case. You and I know that all of this will be here on Monday. Go, take a run, climb a rock anything."

Martin gave a small grin. "Yeah, you're right. Chances are good with some rest and a little perspective I'll realize what it is about these cases that's bothering me." Martin gathered up the files. Jack stood and waited until he was sure Martin was going to leave and then he grabbed his briefcase and walked out, Martin following moments later.

The only two figures remaining on the unit were Agents Mitchell and Clark. They were too invested in these cases. They'd given up their personal lives and their personal comforts. They no longer were able to rest and find down time. This hunt had become a personal mission for them. They stayed long into the night reviewing and taking notes on the past cases as well as the current ones.

Both men read through the insights that all of Jack's team had provided in their 'fresh eyes' review of the case files and as they read into the night and over the weekend a pattern began to develop.

TBC…