A/N: This is my first fanfiction, so I hope you enjoy it! Whether or not there is a pairing depends on your exact definition of 'pairing', I suppose. Let's just say it involves stalking. Don't worry; I don't portray it as perfectly acceptable. Even I have my own standards of evil. At any rate, read, review and I hope you enjoy it! Constructive criticism is always welcome. The rating may or may not change to M later on.
In this chapter, after a rather mind-screwy prologue, our Behavioral Analysis Unit team appears!
Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds or any of its characters. The only things I own here are this specific story's plot, UnSubs and witnesses.
As with the beginning of any case, the members of Aaron Hotchner's Behavioral Analysis team had just met in the briefing room. Consequently, they still had to wait for a few more minutes to actually go over this new case, since Garcia seemed to be late in joining the rest of them. Aside from her, all of the other team members were already there: Aaron Hotchner, David Rossi, Spencer Reid, Jennifer Jareau, Derek Morgan and Alex Blake.
As if on the unspoken cue of everyone else wondering where she was, the colorfully clad technical analyst herself ran into the room, her heels making clicking sounds in rapid secession as she did so. It wasn't exactly normal for her to rush, but she already should have been there in this case.
"I know what you're going to say, and I'm sorry. But this is your lucky moment, my pretties. You're beloved fountain of knowledge has returned," she said before looking at Hotch. Yeah, now was the time to start presenting the case and try not to think too much of the images that would now flash across the large screen at the front of the room. The poor victims, not to mention their families… no matter how long she spent working for the FBI, she never did get used to these things.
Hotch stared at her silently for a moment, wondering again whether or not he really should have her drug-tested some time. Anyway, she had probably been double-checking her computers again, just to make sure everything was running smoothly. Still, it wasn't normal for her to do that right before they were to present another case.
As Hotch turned the screen on to begin presenting the case, he nodded in response to the apology that doubled as a sort of false reassurance. "Just don't let it happen again," he said before turning his attention back to the screen. "Four victims have been found dead in their homes in northwestern New Hampshire and northeastern Vermont. The buildings had been doused with kerosene and set on fire, so it took a while to determine the exact cause of death. There is reason to believe that the cause is exsanguination through a wound in the throat. They seemed to have been cut with some sharp object so that it would just nick the carotid artery so that they would bleed out slowly."
Reid took a sip of his coffee before speaking up. "Normally, just barely missing a major blood vessel would be viewed as a mistake, but in this case, since all of the victims had neck wounds in the same place, it's most likely intentional. So the UnSub most likely has prior knowledge of the human anatomy, possibly with a medical background of some sort. You know, there was one previous serial killer-"
"Reid." Hotch cut off his statement sternly in order to prevent him from going into a full-on ramble again and received the response of Reid shutting his mouth and looking down. Okay, back to presenting the case.
Garcia risked a glance at the screen to make sure she was on topic and almost regretted it afterwards. There were images of each victim's charred remains, next to what were most likely identification photos. "Anyway, the first victim was Edmond Merritt, male, age sixty-two. He has a record of extortion, but managed to pay bail- probably with the stolen money. I guess those guys have it easy. Or not so much, since… yeah, on to the second victim. Nicole Thatcher, female, age twenty-six. She doesn't have a criminal record, but seems to have a thing for bad boys. Her ex-fiancée, Jackson Sorel, was apparently involved in organized crime. She broke off the engagement only when the investigations on him started in hopes that she wouldn't be questioned. Yeah, that was unlikely."
From there, Hotch took over to present the next two victims. "Our third victim is Abel Davison, male, age thirty-one and already a wealthy entrepreneur. He doesn't have a criminal record either. He was, however, having marital problems at the time. She wanted a divorce but he didn't want to pay the alimony or give up custody of their son."
"Not wanting to pay alimony… I know how that is," Rossi muttered under his breath as Hotch continued.
"Finally, we have the fourth victim. His name is Victor Richardson, male, age forty-five. His wife and children were on a vacation when he was killed. Despite his lack of any criminal record, there have been complaints about him, claiming that he has been using illegal or unethical business practices. Of all the victims, there is no real connection to them aside from their deaths and the events leading up to them."
It was Morgan who asked the inevitable question first. "Exactly what were these 'events'?" He figured that everyone else must have wondered the same thing.
"This is where it gets really freaky. Like, 'are you sure it isn't Halloween yet?' freaky," Garcia interjected as the screen changed to show several notes that must have been typed on a computer. "For up to a month before their deaths, each victim reported having a feeling that they were being watched. Their descriptions were really vague, but they all seem to be of the same person- white female, red hair, white coat, gas mask and… that's it. Apparently, they didn't get a good look at her. They also received these notes among several others. Upon analysis, they were revealed to have used the same exact types of ink and paper- also the most commonly used types. It's weird; it's almost like the UnSub knew what he was doing, right from the first murder."
Blake looked at the screen and then to Garcia. "Do you think we could take a look at the notes themselves? We may be able to get some ideas from those. Also, you referred to the UnSub as a 'he', but the victims had reported seeing a woman," she observed.
"That is odd," Reid agreed. "They saw a woman, but the method of murder seems more likely to have been committed by a male suspect. In addition to that, the murders and the fires may have been two different suspects. I mean, killers will sometimes use fires to cover up their murders but our UnSub or UnSubs appear to be experienced enough to realize that setting fire to the entire home would be more likely to draw attention to the crime, especially if the house itself was doused in an accelerator rather than the actual victim."
"So we'd have a killer working in tandem with an arsonist, and possibly even a third suspect?" JJ summarized. "What are the odds of that happening?"
That was a good question. It definitely wasn't common. "It's unusual, but there might not be a third suspect," Reid said. "Didn't the victims say that they had seen the woman wearing a gas mask?"
"It sounds like that would be useful if someone was to set fires, but from what we know most arsonists don't bother with them anyway," added Morgan, leaning back in his chair.
As interesting- and useful- as the precise number of UnSubs was, they had no conclusive evidence that would help narrow it down more specifically as of yet. So now it was time to move on in their discussion. "Alright, so it may be two or three UnSubs. Going from this, if we're going with a killing team, we would typically have a dominant and a submissive partner. As for which one is which, that's something we need to decide on. Even though the lack of a more specific victimology would normally point toward our UnSubs being organized, we have reason to believe that we'll dealing with organized, experienced killers," Hotch said. "At any rate, we'll be able to make more detailed decisions regarding our profile when we're closer to the crime scenes. Wheels up in thirty."
With that statement, Hotchner walked out of the briefing room as the others stood up and started toward the door as well, leaving Garcia in the room to go back and get ready to do her own job as a tech analyst. "Goodbye, my loves!" She called after them, waving. "Be safe."
'Be safe'… such warnings almost always seemed pointless nowadays. She was fully aware of the fact that their job put them at constant risk of danger. That was unquestionable. Overall, she was really just glad that they always came back alive. Just that was lucky in and of itself.
A/N: I know, it probably wasn't quite as exciting as the previous one. It is nice to have a slight breather though, right? Chapter two is coming up within this week, assuming that school doesn't murder my creativity.