"Scott, what do you have?" Hotchner asked icily.
I could tell that people skills weren't his thing.
"Well," I tried not to stammer, "Reid and Prentiss talked to Sarah Palmer's boyfriend at her apartment to see if anything was out of place. Garcia found a minor link involving grocery stores. I'm having her cross-check store workers and suppliers now."
"Alright, we need to keep moving. We haven't timed this yet to see how much longer we have before we have another body," Hotchner said briskly.
"Yes, sir," I said. I itched to ask him if they figured out how the unsub's getting into the homes so easily but I didn't want to be questioning Hotchner about what he had. That was his place, not mine.
Hotchner hung up without a farewell and I pulled out more files, again.
My phone buzzed on the table next to me. Garcia. Please have something!
Zip. Apparently there were employees that were at all the stores the victims shopped at, but were only there at the same time as one. The deliveries didn't correlate to shopping habits. Deliveries only happened on Wednesday nights.
Damn. So grocery stores were out. I made a face at my phone, willing it to suddenly have something useful.
Grocery stores weren't it but we may have something else going on… I pulled out contact files and made quick calls to the surviving spouses, maybe they had something about their families' habits that would get us something else…
Once I had ensured they could all come in, I called JJ, who was out quelling the media. She was going to finish up and come back in to interview the families.
I texted Garcia back with the plan, hoping she would dig a little deeper and possibly find something else. These families were connected and chosen... but how was our guy doing it?
Setting my phone down, I felt a sense of accomplishment. I smiled to myself, taking a moment to sit back and look around me. Willington was probably kicking himself that I was actually doing a good job on this.
Garcia texted me back with a list of hobbies and extracurriculars the families had been involved in: gyms, little leagues, soccer teams, schools, ice cream shops, everything. Damn she was good!
Grabbing my phone, I marched off to get this printed out. I wasn't sure about the team, but I liked having everything on paper and being able to actually manipulate it.
Marching down the hallway, I knew everyone was looking at me. It was the first time since we'd come back that I'd emerged from that room. I tried not to think about how tired I was. It was going on seven o'clock. I usually only worked until five. At this time, I'd just be finished dinner, lounging on the couch watching the news and relaxing with a glass of wine.
I shook my head slightly, I'd rather be here right now. Punching numbers into the printer, it sprang to life, connecting wirelessly to my phone, and printing out Garcia's list. I copied enough for the team, plus one for the evidence board, and headed back to the office.
Glancing at the list as I walked, I wondered what we could find in the different hobbies… I knew Garcia had already cross-checked everyone listed in every habit, but I wondered who might slip through the cracks… who wouldn't be an official employee or be on a manifest?
I frowned as I stared at the list, walking into our make-shift command center.
"Lauren," a female voice said. It was JJ. SHIT!
I looked up. The entire team had come back and was in the office and I hadn't realized it. I suddenly felt embarrassed and awkward. I felt like I needed to explain why I hadn't been working when they came back. Well, I was working, I just wasn't glued to the files.
"The families didn't have anything helpful. The families all had normal routines and habits and none of them overlap…" JJ said, sounding defeated.
Crap… we were coming up with nothing. The team looked at me to see if I had any answers. I stood frozen, I know I didn't.
"Garcia checked routines as well… she didn't find any links… she did, however, get a list of all the locations and places they visited regularly…"
I handed each of them the list. I kept my eyes down, not wanting to seem too hopeful. On the last person, my eyes did look up. At Spencer Reid. His stoic face melted into a soft smile, his eyes widening somewhat. He tiled his head towards me slightly, almost like he didn't want anyone else to see.
I mirrored his action. I felt my hair against my shoulder. SHIT! My hair was still down! How unprofessional! I felt a look of terror fall across my face. Was I destined to mess up at every opportunity?
Reid's smile stayed, his eyes always figuring out the puzzle.
"But Garcia already checked employees and bank statements and there's no overlap?" Prentiss asked.
"No…" I said depressed. Why did I even bring this up if there was nothing to it…. shit…
"Right…" Hotchner said, dismissing me, "We need to-"
His phone rang. Then JJ's. Then Rossi's. Oh no…
Hotch looked down. "There's been another."
My stomach dropped. Crap. I wasn't able to find anything and now our body count went up.
"Let's go," Hotch said, leading the team out. Their faces were disappointed. Morgan looked determined. I knew, deep down, he was hopeful that they would find the missing link we needed.
"Reid, you stay here. Look at the evidence and find something," Hotch said, looking back slightly.
I felt like I'd been kicked in the stomach. I had failed in finding something so Hotchner needed Reid to go back through it. Damn. I felt defeated and disappointed in myself.
I sighed, flipping my hair over to the right side. My suit jacket had become dislodged again. Goddamn this thing! It was always riding up and driving me crazy. I pulled it off and hung it on the back of a chair. If Willington came in now and saw me, he'd be mortified. He'd think I was practically naked in front of the BAU in just slacks and a button up, especially with my hair down.
Reid hadn't noticed. He was inches away from the evidence board, looking at it all.
"I got the pictures you'd asked for," I told him, pulling the stack off the table.
He turned, "Great, I have mine as well."
"Here," I said, taking a step towards him, "Let me get a picture for each crime scene and put them up."
He sorted through his pile and found an appropriate picture for each scene, handing them to me so I could hang them up under the pictures of the bodies.
Once they were up, we just stared. Nothing had clicked into place like I'd hoped.
"Oh," Reid said suddenly, "I spoke to Sarah Palmer's boyfriend. He said she had the normal habits of running in the morning, going to get a smoothie after, working on papers, and nothing much else. She kept to herself and there was no way she'd open her door to a total stranger…"
I frowned. That didn't help at all.
"Was anything out of place?" I asked, turning to the crime scene photos that Reid had taken.
"Yeah," he said frowning, shuffling the stack to find the picture, "He said that this book wasn't in its place."
Reid showed me a picture of a bookshelf. The books were all organized and put away neatly. One book remained on top of the shelf alone.
"He said she never left books out. She was very particular about her things and how they were put away…" Reid said.
"Reid…look… it's not put away because it's a library book… was that the only one she took out?" I asked, not tearing my eyes away from the picture.
Reid closed his eyes, thinking. "No, she had a stack by her laptop like she was writing a paper and doing research."
"What was this book that was left out over here?" I asked, straining my eyes to see. I saw colors but couldn't make out the title.
"It's Goodnight, Moon, a children's book…most of her books where. She was doing her graduate degree in Elementary Education. She'd need all these for her papers…" he said.
"No…" I said, thinking, "You said her boyfriend told you she was very particular. All her other books are put away neatly and her library books were in the same place…"
I looked harder at the picture. Above the bookshelf I could see Sarah Palmer's keys hung on her key ring where she'd placed them the last time she came home. She was organized.
"Reid, what was on her key chain…" I could see cards, the small kind used for rewards at different stores.
Reid rattled them off like he had them in front of him. "A smoothing place, tanning salon, grocery store, and a library card."
"A library card…" I repeated, already reaching at the stack of pictures from the other crime scenes.
"Garcia would've checked library cards… she doesn't miss anything… the families never said anything about libraries… Garcia would have found it…library systems are extremely categorized and difficult. You have to show ID and prove your residence to get a library card. Garcia would have tracked names and found connections if it was the library cards…" Reid rattled.
It didn't matter. I'd found the pictures. I slapped the pictures down on the table in front of us.
Jane Kelly's keys, Margaret Thatcher's keys, and Michael Andrew's keys: library cards on every one.
Reid stared at them.
"Reid…that's it… it's the library!"