Two Days Earlier . . .
Morgan's left arm swung around to stop his alarm clock from blaring. It didn't go off. It took him half a minute to realize that it wasn't his alarm. Morgan's cell phone continued to ring. He turned over and looked at the clock. It was 3:43 am. They team had just returned from a case the previous afternoon. They hadn't even finished their paperwork. He had hoped they would get some time off. He was wrong.
"Morgan, it's Hotchner. We've got a new case. Be in the office in an hour."
Aaron Hotchner made five additional calls that morning alerting the team to the new case. He hated waking them up in the middle of the night, especially because they had been working non-stop for the last month. Each time they finished a case, another one began. They had actually received a desperate request from a rural community in Alabama while working on a case in Oregon. Agent Hotchner had to inform the local PD that the case would have to wait until their current case was complete. That was a two weeks ago.
Was it because there were two full moons that month? Hotchner wondered. He smiled thinking what Reid would say. "It's a trick of the mind. There's no statistical correlation between full moons and criminal activities. We simply remember crimes more frequently during lunar cycles."
At 3:30 am, the team began to stumble into the office. Reid was carrying a large thermos of coffee, griping it as though his life depended on it. Emily and J.J. had their hair pulled up. While J.J. had spent time putting on make-up, Emily looked like she had given up trying to cover up the dark circles under her eyes. The team made their way up to the conference room. Gideon was the last to arrive.
"Sorry Hotch. I went to visit Stephen and his family for dinner last night. We started talking and it was so late by the time we finished, that I decided to spend the night there."
Hotchner couldn't help but smile. Gideon's relationship with his son had been trying. The two stopped speaking regularly when Gideon and his wife divorced. He had never meant to hurt Stephen but he was a workaholic. Family came second. It was only after a case a few years ago that Gideon had reconnected with his son. He had made a list of things he wanted to do before dying. A classic middle-aged task but one that Gideon felt was important. On the list - skydiving. Gideon sprained his ankle. He was on crutches and was forced to stay in the office with Garcia while the team tracked down their Unsub. When the team returned, Gideon confessed that he was near the end of his "to do" list and would need to start another. When Hotchner reminded him there was something he still needed to do, Gideon smiled. He thought Stephen wouldn't want to hear from him. He picked up the phone and called him anyway. He was delighted that Stephen hadn't given up hope. Since then. Gideon had spent a great deal of time getting reacquainted with his son and getting to know Stephen's wife, Rebecca. She reminded him of Stephen's mother.
"The drive from Towson took a little longer than expected. What did I miss?" Gideon asked.
"Nothing yet Gideon," Hotchner replied. We were just about to start.
"Theresa Copeland, Amanda Greives, Allison Turner and Samantha Hopener. All 17 years old. They didn't go to the same high school and apparently did not know one another." Hotchner said as he began to flash crime scene photos up onto the screen.
Hotchner informed them "All of them were raped with a foreign object, throats slit and their bodies discovered at their high schools. The first killing was a year ago. Now they've had three in the last week."
Emily voiced what they all were thinking. "Why the rapid escalation. What was the stressor?"
The team would find out soon enough. Hotchner and Prentiss would look into the first two victims while Gideon and Morgan looked into the last two victims. Reid and J.J. were going to start reviewing victimology to find a common thread between the four young women.
"Wheels up in 45 minutes" Hotchner informed them.
The team collected their file folders and grabbed their bags ready to leave for St. Louis.