TR: Once again, if you recognize it I don't own it. To all of my wonderful reviewers, I love you all and yet I'm annoyed. You all make me want to keep working on this story when I have two other stories to write and lots of homework to do. Now I won't be doing this all the time but I do want to send a shout out to one of my reviewers, The wife of Dr. Spencer Reid. I am going to do everything in my power to avoid writing a Gary-sue here. I'm trying to model my portrayal of the adorable genius on how Starofoberon wrote him in her stories Home Demonstration and Structure of His Spontaneity. I highly recommend those stories. I apologize for that error. That said, on with the story!
Flipping the folder open and sitting up just a little bit straighter in her chair, JJ slipped into work mode and got down to business. "So far we have nine victims. Clarissa Willows, our first victim, was taken four years ago. Family and friends described her as very quiet and shy to an extreme. She was found less than a month later. The second victim was Serena Noxon; she was missing for almost two months before being found less than one mile from where Clarissa Willows was discovered. There was a full two months between discovery times. No defensive wounds were found on Clarissa, but there were a few on Serena."
Frowning thoughtfully, Reid noted a trend. "There seems to be a correlation between the number of defensive wounds, the severity of the torture, and the length of time that the girls were missing. Based on the time in between abductions, we can assume that the unsub puts all of his focus on just one victim at a time."
"But the time span between the disposal of one victim and the abduction of the next indicates a severe lack of remorse. Also, notice what the family and friends said about the personalities of the victims. Clarissa was described as being painfully shy, while the most recent victim, Elizabeth Keyes, was very outgoing and into several sports." Emily stated clinical detachment evident in her voice.
Gideon had removed his glasses and was chewing on the earpiece as he contemplated the information in the file before him. "We're dealing with a sexual sadist here. So far all of the victims show signs of sexual assault and the use of spermicide. That tells us that he isn't impotent. Victims seven and eight, Samantha Arner and Elaina Wong, also showed signs of sodomy. Emily noticed the personality differences in the victims, and look at the file you can see an escalation of personality types. He starts with the shy types who won't fight back much if at all; then as his confidence builds, he moves up to stronger and tougher girls who will fight with everything they have."
David Rossi was leaning forward in his seat, looking to all the world like a very contemplative bulldog. "What if you're wrong Jason? You say you don't think the unsub is impotent based on the presence of spermicide, but you could be wrong. For all we know the unsub put a condom on just about anything shaped like a phallus and used that to perform the sexual assault. By that logic the unsub our unsub could be a woman."
For a moment no one moved, they hadn't considered that possibility. Morgan rubbed his chin absently as he began to think out loud. "There is a good chance that our unsub is a woman if you take that into consideration. But judging by the level of violence shown, I really think we're still looking for a man. Some of these girls are tall or a little on the bigger side of things, not many women are going to be strong enough to control all of these girls. The only thing I can think of that would point back to a female unsub is victimology. Victims three and nine, Mariah North and Elizabeth Keyes are black, Samantha Arner and Clarissa Willows are both blondes but with completely different body types. Serena Noxon and Cassandra Mercer are Latinas, Amelia Summers is a red head and Leah Carter is a brunette."
At that moment, Hotch's phone buzzed. He had gotten a text message from the LEOs in Long Beach. "Elizabeth Keyes was just found an hour ago and we already have a report of another girl being abducted. Paula Wells is of Asian descent, just like Elaina Wong. She is a cheerleader, a gymnast, and a martial artist as well. We now have ten victims from this man, he must be stopped."
Garcia chewed her lip as she sat with her eyes closed. She wasn't used to knowing about the horrors the victims were subjected to. It was almost impossible to think of poor Paula Wells, knowing what she was going to be subjected to. That poor girl would be beaten, stabbed, burned, raped, starved, you name it. Choking back a sob, Garcia jumped slightly when she felt a hand come to rest on her arm. Glancing up into the eyes of her junior G-man, she saw such a deep level of concern and empathy that Garcia couldn't help but be stunned. They all thought that he was just a walking computer, but the young doctor was much more intuitive than the team usually gave him credit for. Then again he was also a fair bit more manipulative too. On more than one occasion Garcia had seen Reid use puppy eyes that would put Jack Hotchner to shame in order to get his way. And each time he would be smirking in victory the second he thought no one was watching. 'If he ever gets tired of working for the FBI, that boy could make it big as an actor.'
After making sure that one of his surrogate sisters was going to be alright, Reid turned to Hotch with a scowl on his face. "I thought he only grabbed girls while school is in session, but we're in to week five of summer break. It seems strange that the unsub would break pattern like this without further evidence of evolution of his psychopathy."
As he was talking, Garcia had pulled up her laptop and accessed what information was available on Paula Wells so far. Reviewing the information quickly she looked up at the profilers and shared the details with them. "Alright my heroes, here's the scoop. Jon and Sakura Wells have been on a two month trip through Europe while Paula stayed behind to finish the school year. Her parents were under the impression that she was staying behind to take her finals and work, while her friends and boss thought that she was going off to join her parents on their trip."
"Ok, so then what proof do we have that she's been taken by the unsub? How do we know that she didn't just take off on a trip of her own?" Emily sounded skeptical, and for good reason. How could they prove that Paula was the tenth victim on this case and not just an average teen displaying a rebellious streak?
"Oh god!" Garcia choked out, one hand flying up to cover her mouth. Morgan's focus flew to the bubbly blonde almost immediately.
"What's wrong Mama? What did you find?" By now everyone on the jet had turned to look at the computer guru.
Flashing everyone a watery smile, Garcia turned back to her screen. "Well my mocha muffin, this is one seriously sick puppy. They know that he grabbed Paula Wells because he… he nailed a photo of her to the back of Elizabeth Keyes' head. In the photo, Paula already looks like she's been beaten pretty badly. Preliminary report from the coroner's office suggests that that was the cause of death."
Rossi frowned thoughtfully, the unsub had broken pattern but not in the way they had thought. It seemed that he had probably grabbed Paula just before school got out for the year rather than waiting until fall to choose a new victim. Looking around the cabin, he noticed that both Emily and JJ looked like they were resisting the urge to vomit. Even the other men looked more than just a little green around the gills. Checking his watch, Rossi noticed that they would be landing in Vegas soon. He wasn't looking forward to the shopping portion of this trip one bit.