Chapter 3: Solving a case

Hotch walked back into the conference room just in time to see Prentiss throw a hateful look at the new member of the team, Hephaistion Winters. Reid was working on the geographical profile and, like always when he was thinking, he was completely oblivious to the things that happened around him so he did not notice the hateful interaction. Morgan, Gideon and JJ though did notice Prentiss' spiteful look and turned to Hotch with questioning expressions; with a glance at Prentiss to make sure that she wasn't looking, he gave a little shake of the head to indicate that she would not listen to reason.

Hephaistion was still looking through the files of the women, looking for a connection between the victims. So far he had not found anything beside the fact that they were all roughly the same age and that they all had a family and a nice childhood.

"Everything alright, Hephaistion?" Hotch questioned when he saw the frustrated look on the youths face.

For the second time Hephaistions head shot up with surprise: normally people wouldn't try to initiate a conversation with him, they would either feel stupid because they could not understand everything he said or they would think he was trying too hard, heaven forbid that a teenager would actually have a decent vocabulary!

"What?! Yes, everything's fine, I'm looking for a connection between the victims we might have missed." Then he remembered his job description as assistant so he added reluctantly: "Is there anything I can do for you, sir?"

Hotch too remembered that the letter said he could let the boy do whatever they wanted him to do and quickly answered, not wanting the boy to believe that he had to be some kind of slave: "No, of course not Hephaistion, let me know if you find anything."

"Of course, sir." Hephaistion replied, relieved that he would not be treated as a slave and he quickly turned back to the files before Agent Hotchner changed his mind.

"Gideon, Morgan and Prentiss, each pick a victim, go talk to their families, friends, neighbors, any connection you can find."

At these words Hephaistion hesitantly spoke up: "According to this, they all follow university evening classes, they attend three different kind of universities, but ask if they perhaps visited other universities recently, attended any lectures concerning Islam or Elam culture." Gideon and Morgan nodded in acknowledgment of his words but Prentiss just glared at him again.

"Prentiss! Do it!" Hotch ordered, suspecting that she would not just because it was Hephaistion's suggestion.

"Yes, sir." Prentiss said grudgingly and they were off.

"Reid, anything with the geographical profile yet?" Hotch asked turning to Reid who was looking at it pensively.



"It may be a coincidence but if you connect the places where the victims were found, it forms an almost perfect equilateral triangle." Reid replied thoughtfully.

"The unsub might be trying to form a sign of significance." Hephaistion added, he too was now looking at the map.

"He's forming a pentagram!" Hephaistion exclaimed suddenly and he rushed to his laptop at his desk.

Hotch and Reid, now beyond curious about how the youth came to that conclusion, quickly followed him, Hephaistion was typing something in like a madman, looking through all sorts of files.

"There," he exclaimed, "two months ago there was a case, not a BAU case, that was never solved. The FBI gave me access to most case files so I could study them and I remembered this one: it were two woman, killed and dressed up but they were wearing nun outfits and there were Hebrew signs on them; really, they didn't make sense, they were all signs for death and religion. They never found out who did it." Hephaistion said excited.

"How are you so convinced that they are connected to these murders?" Hotch asked beginning to see the similarities but wasn't quite sure how Hephaistion was so.

"If you put these two dumping sites on the map, you get a pentagram. And I know for a fact that this symbol right here means dead." Hephaistion said while pointing at one of the symbols.

"I thought you didn't knew Elamite?" Hotch asked, impressed with the fact that Hephaistion had noticed the connection.

Hephaistion couldn't stop himself from blushing, "Jeesh...! Hephaistion, what are you doing?! Blushing?! What happened with your cool and collected attitude?!" he thought. "I… I just re… rec… recognized it sir, I… I'm s... sorry, s… s… sir." He mumbled, cursing himself for not seeing it before. "I o… on… only know a ha… handful of s… signs, sir."

"You did nothing wrong, Hephaistion, it was good of you to see it at all" Hotch said gently.

"Yes, sir." Hephaistion mumbled looking down at the floor, not wanting to look at his supervisor in the eye, afraid of what he might see.

"Let's call the detective who handled this case to see if he knows anything more. You don't happen to know who he was, Hephaistion..." Hotch trailed, looking at the youth.

"Uhm… yes, sir, detective Serry, from the Virginia Police Department. Do you need his phone number, sir?" Hephaistion answered quickly.

"You remember?"Hotch asked incredulously.

"Yes, I do." He said distractedly while writing it down: "Here you go, sir."

"Thank you, I'll call him now." With that Hotch disappeared into his office and Hephaistion was left alone with SA Dr. Spencer Reid.

"Sooo, why did they decide you should work here?" Reid asked.



"I don't know, sir. I suppose to help solve cases..." Hephaistion could not help but state with a slight smile.

"Of course, of course." Reid replied, totally missing the joke. "Do you like it so far?"

"Well, it has only been a day but it is quite satisfying, sir." Hephaistion replied dutiful.

"You don't have to call me sir, nobody around here does."

"You're my superior, sir, it would be appropriate not to do so." Hephaistion stated carefully.

"It's strange to be called sir.., Aren't you a bit overqualified to be an assistant?" Reid inquired.

"I do not decide what my position is, Dr. Reid, assistant is just my current title, I'm a partial ward of the state. It's… complicated. No matter what exactly I do or what my title or rank is, I have the same regulations, they can assign me somewhere else whenever they want to." Hephaistion answered, trying to explain that it didn't matter where he was or what he did, they controlled him just as much.

Hotch walked out of his office: "I called the detective, he's coming and bringing all the files and notes." Hotch announced.

--

Gideon came back first. While he was reporting to Hotch what he found out, Morgan and Prentiss arrived. Apparently both, the first and the third victim, went to a lecture about anti-religion in U.Va. two weeks ago, the family of the second victim didn't know if she went to any lecture but confirmed that the third victim was away for that weekend.

When everyone was back in the conference room Hotch explained the new development in the case: "We found another two victims who were killed two months ago, they are linked to these three victims." Hotch then proceeded to explain the similarities between the cases and the pentagram they formed together. "I've already contacted the detective who was on that case and he'll be here in a few hours, he's gathering up the files and evidence." Hotch continued.

"I suppose our resident wonder came up with this theory?" Prentiss sneered.

"It's not just a theory, Prentiss, you can't deny the facts, it's clear that they are connected." Morgan responded to the mockery.

Prentiss snorted: "So, wonder boy, you don't happen to know who did it too?"

"You will have to check with the families of the other two victims but it is likely that they too attended that lecture, the killings are an obvious sign that the unsub is mocking religion. The Elamite culture in polytheistic religion, the Hebrew, the nun outfit, the Islam dress from these three victims are mockeries of monotheistic religions and the pentagram mocks witchcraft, the paranormal or superstition, which are also considered a religion to some people. Since we know at least two victims attended the anti-religion lecture and the other one is more than likely to have attended it, the unsub is probably someone who attended the lecture or even perhaps the lecturer himself." Hephaistion deduced coldly.



"Reid, go to Garcia, ask her if she has a list of people who attended that lecture and the name and address of the lecturer." Hotch ordered.

Reid disappeared, on his way to the lair of the tech Goddess.

"Morgan, Hephaistion, go ask the families of the other two victims some questions. I trust you know their names and addresses, Hephaistion." Hotch said, remembering that the kid seemed to retain everything like Reid.

"Me, sir?!" Hephaistion asked surprised. "I mean… yes, sir, I know them." And with that Morgan and Hephaistion went on their way as well.

Reid walked in with a bunch of files: "The name of the lecturer is Professor Marin Leeves, here's a list of people who attended, all five victims are on it, sir." Reid stated.

"The professor, does he match our profile?" Hotch asked immediately.

"No, sir, she does not, her assistant, Jack Meyers, however does completely."

"Let's go." Hotch decided.

--

"Mr. Meyers, FBI open up!" Gideon warned

"Gideon, he's going out the back, let's go." Hotch whispered forcefully.

Meyers was clearly a scholar, Gideon and Hotch caught up with him in no time.

"Mr. Meyers you're under arrest for the homicide of 5 women, you have the right to remain silent, everything you say can and will be hold against you. You have the right to an attorney, if you can't afford one, one will be appointed to you by the state." Hotch read him his rights while cuffing him.

-- "Well, that was surprisingly quick." Gideon stated when they were all filling in paperwork, or where supposed to, after catching the unsub.

Seeing Reid and Hephaistion reading books at rapid speed, Gideon could not help but snort in amusement at the picture, it looked like some kind of competition, though he was aware that they didn't even notice each other. Emily and JJ where arguing, Gideon couldn't hear what about but he could guess that it was about the new team member; he too didn't quite know what to make of him, he was clearly brilliant and was a good asset to the team, but he could not help but wonder why he had been asigned to the BAU or what the deal with all those restrictions that nobody seem to be willing to talk about was.

Hotch too was staring at the new member wondering what was with the kid and the FBI.

--

"Garcia, what have you found about Hephaistion?" Hotch asked when he entered her lair.



Garcia's smile fell immediately, she clearly wasn't comfortable with her task.

"We're only trying to help him, Garcia. There's obviously something about him, I just want to understand him." Hotch said soothingly.

"Yes, I realize that but still… It didn't feel right to go snooping around his privacy." Garcia said mournfully. "I did find some stuff, but the kid's history is very shrouded…"

"Just tell me what you know." Hotch said gently.

"Well…"

--

What do you think? REVIEW!!
This is one case solved, it's surprisingly hard to come up with original cases, but what did you think? Hated it or Loved it?
Anyway again forgive me for my spelling or grammar and constructive criticism is always welcome.
If you're wondering how I imagine Hephaistion looks like; I think he looks like Hotohori from the anime series Fushigi Yūgi but then real and smaller/shorter. Here for picture: /efrenee/images/hotohori.jpg
With thanks to my beta: Victoria ( fanfiction nick: mvpl )

And remember to vote about which pairing you would prefer: Hephaistion/Reid, Hephaistion/Morgan, Hephaistion/Reid/Morgan or other paring, be sure to specify which then.