Chapter 4

AN: I feel like not much happened in this chapter, but I promise it will get better. This was just information that had to be given, so I'll try to give you something good next chapter.

"The fifth?" exclaimed John. "What happened to the other four?"

An uncomfortable silence hung over the team. Hotch handed Reid the file on what they had, complete with pictures. Reid held the file close to his chest so John couldn't see it, unsure himself of what was actually inside and knowing that even he didn't want to see it.

Sure, Reid was used to looking at the most graphic pictures and reading the most horrific descriptions of what human beings did to one another, but this was different. He read the file and all he could do was imagine this happening to his sister, and immediately, Reid felt like he was going to throw up.

Reid looked up and said, "Each woman was held for approximately ten days – all were taken from their homes in the middle of the night. Obvious signs of sexual assault," Reid and John both winced at that one. "Deep bruising on the wrists indicates that they were tied up probably the entire time they were held. Each woman was dumped in a secluded area of a local park, again in the middle of the night, ten days after they were taken. It looks like this Unsub has some serious rage."

Reid took a minute to really look at the pictures. Deep bruises and cuts covered the women's bodies, signs that they were beaten repeatedly.

Morgan picked up where Reid left off, "These women were just tossed like trash in the park – no signs of remorse or evidence of him posing the bodies in any way. This Unsub is not only angry with these women… He hates them. Take a look at what he did to the last victim – Jennifer Mayson. The M.E. says a lot of those bruises on her face were postmortem. This isn't just sadism anymore, this guy's beyond pissed off."

"But about what?" JJ asked.

"We'll have to figure that out," Morgan finished.

"Cause of death is manual asphyxiation. Bruises near the mouth indicate that he suffocated them using his hands," Hotch said.

"So we're looking at a power control freak," Rossi deduced. "This guy needs to feel power over these women. What better way to do that than to watch them as you literally smother the life out of them?"

"There's one more thing," JJ said. "Take a look at the women's photos. Not the crime scene photos, but the ones from before…" The damage done to the faces of these women in the crime scene photos were almost unrecognizable as women – the only thing that led them to know these were the women were their bodies. The women were also stripped naked before being unceremoniously tossed behind bushes in the parks.

Reid flipped the pages and looked at the side by side photos for a mere two seconds before he slammed the file shut.

"What is it?" John questioned.

"These women all look the same," Reid said quietly. "All in their late twenties to early thirties, long brown hair, green eyes, athletic…"

"Beautiful," Morgan finished. "Whoever this guy is angry at, I'll put my money on it being someone who looks just like that." He shook his head. "We better get started."

"I already have Garcia checking on any overlap between the women and just doing general background on them… We don't have a lot of information on them yet," Hotch said.

Rossi was already speaking with the head detective on the case, who was explaining to Rossi about how the Unsub found his way into the house. "But that doesn't make any sense," Rossi said shaking his head.

"What is it, Dave?" Hotch asked.

"The police say that the alarm is still on and that the house is still armed. There have been people walking in and out of this house the whole time, the alarm can't be on."

"Here, come with me and take a look," the detective said. The team followed Detective Lassiter to the security panel that was located in the bedroom. The light was still blinking red, which indicated that it was armed and ready. "Same thing with the other women."

The detective left the bedroom and left the team alone so that they had privacy to think.

Reid turned around to find Morgan dialing Garcia's number. "Hey Baby Girl, I need your cyber brain power on this."

"Oh of course, my love. Anything for you,"

"Thanks Mama. Can you look into this house's security system? Is it actually on? Or maybe is it dysfunctional?"

"Umm give me one second…. It says it's armed. It's one of those security systems that's connected to emergency services. As soon as the alarm trips, it automatically alerts authorities, which is becoming all the rage today…"

"Garcia, we're in the house right now, how come the alarm isn't tripping?"

"Hmm, let me check the log and see. Oh no, people were all up in her business. There's a flood of alerts on here – front door, front door, bedroom window, back door, front door… It's nonstop. But it starts with a backdoor breach at 2:37 AM."

"Then what's wrong with this thing if the alarm isn't going off?"

"I'm checking that right—"

"Garcia?" JJ asked, thinking that the call got cut off.

"Oh well this is not good," Garcia came back on the line. "Their system has a block on it – the line to authorities was disabled as well as the sound."

"How would someone manage to do that?" Hotch asked.

"Unfortunately, it's actually extremely easy to do, Sir. All one would have to do is purchase a signal jammer - they range from 50-300 bucks depending on the quality of it. Just turn it on, and you can just stroll into someone's house. But you would have to know the frequency."

"How hard would it be to do that?"

"After some serious Google searches, you could probably do it."

"But he's long gone… Why is her alarm still blocked?"

"Well, my guess would be that the jammer is still here somewhere. He must have left it behind." Garcia said.

"Thanks Garcia," Morgan said, hanging up. "It's time to find that jammer." The team split up and began searching the backyard for any signs of a device that didn't belong.

"Spence, you coming?" JJ asked softly when she realized that he hadn't moved along with everyone else. She'd come back into the room when she didn't see him outside, to find him sitting on the edge of the bed, staring at the wall. When he didn't answer her, she got closer. "We're going to find her, you know that right?"

"Yeah… I know," he said, barely audible.

"It's going to be okay," she said, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"People have always said that to me, you know? 'It's going to be okay' – after my father left, after Gideon left, after Emily left… And it was… It was okay, after a while. They were right. But what if this time… It's not okay? What if we don't find her until she ends up in a park like the others?"

"We're not going to let that happen," JJ said, pulling Reid up and into a hug. He held onto her tightly, and she could feel the warm tears on her shoulder and she knew that he couldn't hide his fear anymore – that he was finally breaking. JJ felt her eyes moisten, and with every deep breath Reid took in her arms, she felt her heart break a little bit more. "I promise."