Sorry for the delaying in posting. I have been busy and I have found myself doing a lot of background research for these early chapters. Just a note that when Reid is talking in front of the map it's not supposed to mean anything :P Also I promise a lot more unsub in the next chapter if you just bare with me. I just needed to get a lot of information disseminated to make the story work.

Disclaimer: As always I do not own Criminal Minds nor the Criminal Minds Characters.

The case was already starting to get to people and they hadn't even made it to the crime scene yet. Despite the 30 minutes Hotch had given them before wheel's up, the entire team was gathered in the cabin of the BAU's Gulfstream IV jet a mere 15 minutes later.

Seeing that everyone was on-board Hotch made his way to the cockpit to tell the pilots they were ready. It took another 10 minutes for air craft control to clear the Jet for take-off and within minutes they were in the air.

Hotch opened the case file in front of him. "Let's go over what we know about the case" he said when they had been in the air about 30 minutes. Hotch and Morgan were seated on opposite sides of the aircraft near the front of the cabin while Elle lounged closer to the back, where JJ sat off to the side. Reid stood alone at the very back of the cabin filling his mug from the onboard coffee maker.

When Hotch spoke Reid made his way up the aisle and sat next to Elle while JJ got up and walked forward to stand next to Morgan. "The room was registered to a guest by the name of James Bower." JJ recounted. "Housekeeping entered the room at about 8:30 yesterday morning to clean. When she saw the blood the housekeeper called the manager and the manager called the local police department. Local department sent 2 Unis down to investigate. Seems local police originally thought it might have been a prank."

Hotch glanced down at the file in front of him for a second before looking back at JJ. "Do we know how long Mr. Bower was registered as a guest for?"

"The hotel reported that Mr. Bower was registered to stay for a week. He had requested no housekeeping for the first two days but apparently requested early service yesterday morning." The liaison hesitated a moment before continuing. "It seems none of his belongings were found in the room so locals don't expect him to return."

Hotch frowned at this latest bit of news. "We need background on James Bower as soon as possible, though if he is our Unsub it wouldn't suprise me if he checked in under a false name. Moving along though, we have the blood of at least 3 potential murder victims. It looks like the state crime lab is currently performing a detailed analysis of the blood which will most likely reveal more victims."

Reid took over from Hotch. "It says here that preliminary analysis of the sample indicates a lack of the characteristic changes associated with preserved storage".

"Meaning?" Morgan butted in.

"Meaning the blood is all fresh."

Just then the team heard a sound from the laptop sitting on the table between them. Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia's smiling face had appeared on the screen and she greeted them with a cheery "Good morning crime fighters."

"Morning sweetheart ", Morgan was quick to reply, "What have you got for us."

"Well I ran a background search on the man the hotel room was registered to and so far I've got zilch, nada, bupkiss. As far as I can tell this James Bower doesn't exist. Turns out the credit card he used when checking into the hotel was counterfeit." The whole team could see the eccentric blond typing away rapidly at her computer as she spoke."Also some of the blood work has come back from the state lab, I'm sending it to you now."

"Thanks babygirl" was all Morgan managed to get out before the technical analyst was gone and the familiar FBI background reappeared on the screen. JJ walked to the front of the cabin and grabbed the report that was coming off the printer. She barely glanced at it before handing it to Hotch.

The rest of the team sat silent giving their team leader a chance to read through the report. "It seems the state lab has managed to isolate samples contributed by 7 different people so far, 4 males and 3 females. They ran the DNA and got hits on 2 of the samples which they have identified as belonging to Jimmy Farland and Sam Jones."

-PTTR-PTTR-PTTR-

When the team landed at the Knox County Regional Airport there was an agent from the local field office waiting for them next to a couple of black SUVs. After introducing himself as Agent Carbrooke from the Boston field office the man handed a set of keys each to Hotch and Morgan and took off.

"That's a long drive just for SUVs" Morgan commented as the other agent drove off. "It's a 3 hour and 20 minute drive from the field office in Boston assuming traffic on the I-95 and Route-1 is good. We were in the air for 2 hours and 50 minutes. Assuming he left as soon as they knew we were coming he must have arrived just before we did" explained Reid.

Morgan shot his teammate an all-too-familiar look when he finished giving them the facts. "Like I said Kid, that's a long drive just to drop off SUVs". Grinning at the exchange the team split themselves between the two vehicles. JJ hopped into the passenger seat next to Morgan while Elle took the seat next to Hotch. Reid folded his lanky form into the back seat of the SUV carrying Elle and their team leader and the group set off on the 20 minute drive to Camden PD.

-PTTR-PTTR-PTTR-

"Camden Police were on scene this morning at the Donovan Hotel along with crime scene investigators. There are no details yet as to what officers found inside the hotel but sources inside the department say that the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit has been called in to help with the investigation."

The man wandered into the room just in time to catch shots of 3 men and 2 woman as they emerged from a pair of parked SUVs and headed towards the local police station. Reporters crowded around as the group entered the building all eager for news on what had transpired at the hotel. He smiled to himself as he stroked his guest's hair. "Now the real fun begins".

-PTTR-PTTR-PTTR-

The team finally made it to the front door of the station, the profilers pushing through with a "No Comment" quick at hand. JJ stopped on the steps to the building to make a short statement. "The Camden PD will be holding a press conference as soon as details are ready to be released to the public. That's all I can give you for now." Her intervention allowed her team to make it out of the spotlight and safely behind closed doors. JJ followed them into the building just over a minute later having finished with the press.

The team were greeted inside the station by a tall, robust looking man with a detective's shield hanging from his belt. "You must be Detective Stanfield. I'm Jennifer Jareau. We spoke on the phone. This is my team." The communications liaison quickly stepped up and shook hands with the man. "This is Supervisory Special Agent Aaron Hotchner along with Agents Greenaway, Morgan and Dr. Spencer Reid."

Detective Stanfield shook hands with all the agents except for Reid who gave him a funny little wave. With the introductions done the detective quickly got down to business. "Thank you guys for coming. You've got to understand we have no idea what we are dealing with here. The last murder we had was 5 years ago and it was a pretty cut and dry murder-suicide. This is a small town and folks don't really know how to deal with violence, you know?"

"Well we're here to help" Hotch assured him, "Now is there somewhere we can set up? Preferably with a table and evidence board."

"Yah sure follow me." The detective led them through the station to a small conference room at the very back. "I know it's not much but we aren't a big department so it will have to do." The conference room was set up with both an evidence board and a white board along with a long rectangular table set in the middle. A television mounted high on the wall was tuned to the local news though the sound had been muted.

"Don't worry about it. We've worked with far less." Hotch told the man. Turning towards his team Hotch quickly began handing out the assignments. "Reid, you and Elle stay here and work on victimology. Morgan we'll go to the crime scene."

"How do we want to handle the press on this one?" JJ asked, looking to her boss to make the decision.

"I think we should try to keep the details out of the press as long as possible" Hotch decided. "Since we profiled that he is trying to send a message with the scene we don't want him to think he has an outlet."

"All right," JJ replied, "I'll brief the locals on how to handle the media attention."'

Once everyone knew what they were supposed to be doing Hotch turned back to Detective Stanfield who still stood in the room with them. "Can you get one of your officers to take us over to the hotel crime scene?"

"I'll take you over myself" volunteered the detective.

Shortly after Hotch and Morgan left with Detective Stanfield, Reid finished setting up a laptop on the table in the conference room. After a few taps of the keys he and Elle found themselves once again staring at the familiar face of their technical analyst.

"Garcia you have me and Elle here, what do we have on Jimmy Farland and Sam Jones so far."

"Jimmy Farland has been arrested numerous times, mostly on minor offences. Petty theft, shop lifting, that sort of thing. He was recently released after finishing 2 years at the Bare Hill Correctional Faciility as a guest of the state of New York for Burglary. Last known address was a halfway house in Malone. "

"What about Sam Jones?" asked Elle.

"He was arrested in 2008 for a sexual assault charge but never convicted. Seems the victim changed her story claiming it was consensual. They had enough to compel a DNA sample but without the victims testimony they couldn't prove a crime had been commited so the charges were dropped. And here's where it gets really icky, his last known address has him residing with the victim in Dayton, Ohio. I've faxed more complete information on both victims to the station."

Reid quickly thanked the tech analyst for her help. "One last thing. Did you get a chance to run missing person's for the area?"

"Do you even have to ask?" she jabbed. "My search brought up only one person reported missing within the county in the past 3 weeks, a teenager who was found 2 days later. Turns out she had decided to crash at a friend's place and forgot to tell her parents. But somehow you don't look surprised by these results Doctor."

Reid frowned in thought. "Both men were from out of state. Given his criminal history Jimmy's not likely to hold down a regular job so after being released from prison he may have become transient. We could be looking at someone targeting transients."

While Reid and Garcia talked Elle wandered over to the fax machine and picked up the reports Garcia had faxed over. After perusing Jimmy Farland's file she joined in the conversation. "Reid you may have a point. Not only has he been arrested for property crimes in several different states but it seems he was fired from his only job as a janitor because they suspected he was stealing from school he worked at."

"And what about Sam Jones? Anything in his file other than the sexual assault charge?" Reid asked.

Elle handed him the file. "Nothing in his criminal history but it seems like he has moved around a lot, living with friends, girlfriends, that sort of thing. Evidently he worked in construction and took jobs all over the country."

Elle watched silently as Reid read through the entire file in less than a minute. "If he's targeting transient individuals that could make it a lot harder to track down the other victims. No-one notices them missing or if they do it takes a while for it to be reported. Garcia see if you can track down what Sam Jones may have been working on in the area. Also it may not do any good but try expanding the missing person's search to the entire state."

"On it." Garcia replied before cutting the connection.

-PTTR-PTTR-PTTR-

Morgan paced slowly across the hotel room, careful to stick to the path the crime scene techs had marked, while Hotch stood in the corner staring at the Unsubs work. "Well we know he didn't kill the victims here so he must have brought the blood with him." Morgan said, stopping in front of a particularly bloody pattern.

"How do we know that?" Detective Stanfield asked.

'Well for one thing we know he only used the room for two days. It takes time to drain all the blood from a body, time which our Unsub clearly didn't have. Secondly, how do you get 7 people into a hotel room, kill them and get their bodies out without someone noticing. No they were killed somewhere else. Not to mention the fact that none of these patterns is natural." While Hotch explained this to the detective Morgan wandered over to the opposite corner of the room and bent down. He reached out a blue gloved finger as if to touch the blood but stopped his hand a hair's breadth away.

"Morgan you got something?" Hotch asked when he noticed what his younger colleague was doing.

"Maybe. I don't know Hotch. There is just something off about this section of the wall." Morgan was still staring at the section of wall when all three men started at the sound of the door opening. The two profilers had their service weapons draw and pointed at the door lightning fast but relaxed when they saw a young man sporting an ID badge that identified him as a crime scene tech. "S-s-sorry" the young man stuttered when confronted by the weapons, "I just came by to take a few more samples."

The profilers lowered their weapons and watched as the tech walked over to an area already sporting multiple markers and set down his kit. When he pulled out a small pen knife and started scraping at the wall they turned back to their own investigation.

"Hotch I think we should have Reid take a look at these designs in the blood. They look random to me but he might see a pattern we missed." suggested Morgan.

"Good idea" replied Hotch, "Grab a camera from the car and see if you can get more detailed pictures of these patterns specifically." Just as Morgan was leaving to carry out his boss's orders the crime scene tech spoke up.

"Would it be helpful to know that the blood was applied in layers?" he asked. The profilers moved silently over to where he was working and the tech gestured at the wall. At the center of where he pointed was a small discoloured patch of blue. Marching outwards from the wall the colour started off brown and became progressively redder. "I think this section in the middle here is the original colour of the wall, or close enough. you can see here how I've scraped off different layers of the blood."

"I was careful not to touch any of the designs" the tech was quick to add when he saw the frown forming on the team leader's face.

Hotch thanked the young man for the information. "Morgan you focus on getting those pictures. I'm going to call the rest of the team and fill them in. This might be nothing but it might be something."

-PTTR-PTTR-PTTR-

Morgan and Hotch had returned from the crime scene some time ago and most of the team was gathered around the table at the center of the conference room. The evidence board in front of them was covered with close up photographs of the designs the unsub had left in the blood along with a large detailed town map of Camden. Reid stood in front of the map gesticulating wildly. "... and after substituting the values for the coefficient the pattern became obvious."

"Hold on kid" Morgan interrupted Reid's ramblings, "Slow down and start from the beginning. In English please." Just minutes before Reid had run into the room, pinned up the map and started ranting about geographical overlays.

"Sam Jones worked construction jobs all over the country while Jimmy Farland had just been released from prison so they were fairly transient and hard to track. However when Elle talked to the girlfriend Sam Jones had been living with we found out that even when the employer provided living allowances he preferred to "couch surf" so to speak. After doing some snooping around online Garcia found out that both Sam and Jimmy belonged to a hospitality exchange website called FreeStay." Reid stopped for a moment to take a sip of his coffee and catch his breath.

"Now Garcia was able to identify the host Sam had been staying with recently but not Jimmy. Jimmy hasn't had contact with anyone through the site in over a month. But I got Garcia to create a geographic overlay based on all the hosts within the town and a large cluster of them fall directly within this geographic area." Reid pointed to a circle he had marked on the map. "Our best bet on tracking down the missing victims would be to canvas this area."

"Good work Reid now..." Hotch trailed off as his phone began to ring. "Agent Hotchner." he barked out as he snapped open his phone. "Your sure? All right we'll be there". Snapping his phone closed again Hotch turned to the rest of the team, "Reid take Elle and some local officers and go check out the area. The rest of you with me."

"What happened?" asked JJ.

"They found another crime scene."

Thanks for reading, as always please review!