Elle woke up refreshed. She showered and thought seriously about Agent Rossi's offer. The team may need her help. She did want to be back on the field and technically she was still qualified. She knew it would be a mistake not to take the offer, but she felt like if she did she would be putting herself back in the same position. She didn't want to deal with that stress again.
It was your own fault, she reasoned. You separated yourself from the rest of the team. Reid did try to talk to you.
Finally she caved in.
"Hello, Garcia speaking, I am here to make your wildest dreams come true." Elle almost laughed.
"Hello Garcia, can you tell the team I am on board. It's Elle, Elle Greenaway."
"Elle!" Penelope shouted. "Oh, everyone is going to be so excited. I… I will tell them right away, bye!"
The call ended. Then moments later she received a message with an address. Elle left the hotel, and using the GPS in her phone, she found her way out to the team. She spotted Reid who waved her over. Elle jogged towards him.
"Hey Elle," He smiled. Morgan turned and saw her. He simply nodded.
"Hello Reid. Hey Morgan, where is everyone else?" Elle kept pace with Morgan and Reid as they led the way.
"Jay-Jay and Rossi are in the middle of the press conference right now. Agent Prentiss is just up ahead speaking with one of the members of the staff at the hotel." Reid said. He seemed to be really chatty, which was a little out of character.
"I see." She said in reply. "How have things been with Gideon gone?" Reid shrugged before answering.
"It is defiantly different. I had no doubt that Rossi could do the job, but Morgan and the others were worried about his performance. He had been retired for some years, you know." Reid stuck his hands in his pockets and continued on.
"What about Agent Prentiss?" Elle pried.
"She is a good agent; she fits in well with the team. Though there are some things that she keeps from us. But we all do that don't we." Reid gave her a meaningful look. Elle said nothing in return.
Agent Prentiss was finishing up with an employee. She was shaking hands with the woman.
"Thank you for your time ma'am." She said smiling. The woman nodded and hurried off back into her home. "Hello Elle, she said.
"Hello," Elle replied nodding her head. "What do we know about our un-sub?"
"Well, the manager checked the records, he paid in cash. They were able to give the same description as you did. They don't recall him bringing a girl with him when he checked in. We are going to look at the security cameras back at the hotel now. Would you like to join me? Or would you rather go with Prentiss and Reid to meet up with some more employees?" Morgan said.
"I would like to look at the videos." Elle said crossing her arms.
The others nodded, and then separated. Morgan and Elle drove to the Hotel once more.
"What made you move here?" Morgan asked as they walked toward the entrance.
"Well, I am still trying to find that peaceful place. Nowhere is good enough." Elle confessed. Morgan only nodded and held the door for her.
Inside the hotel they waited at the front desk for assistance. Within a few moments a middle aged woman came and settled at the desk in front of them.
"Hello, how may I help you two?" She said smiling. Morgan pulled out his badge and showed it to the woman.
"I am agent Derek Morgan and this is Elle Greenaway, we are her from the BAU, we wish to look over your security tapes, and registration files." The woman nodded and frantically began looking around. She lifted the divider and allowed them to step in behind the desk.
"All the registration files are here on this computer. Is there any room you are looking for in particular?" She said while accessing the records.
"Yes, the crime scene." Morgan said simply. Elle looked at the woman. Her hair was pulled into a tight bun. She tapped her fingers impatiently on the keyboard as the files loaded.
"Ah, here we go. Room Four-twenty," she turned the computer screen so Elle and Morgan could see it. "Well, ring the bell if you need anything else." She said smiling, and then she walked off into the office area.
"Well our un-sub paid in cash, it looks like." Morgan took out his phone and dialed a number. "Hey, sweet cakes, can you give me anything on the name, Hans Joachim?" He smiled. Elle figured that Garcia was flirting in the way she does. "Thanks anyway." Then he hung up the phone. "The name was phony." He said turning to Elle.
"Typical," Elle said. She rang the bell for the attendant to return. The next minute she was in the room once more.
"Did you find what you were looking for?" She asked.
"Not yet, we need to look at your security tapes." Elle said firmly. The woman turned around and walked into the office once more.
"One second let me get our head of security." She said before she closed the door.
She returned minutes later with an older man. He was a larger man with greying hair.
"How may I help ya'll?" He said in a thick southern accent.
"They are from the BAU Dan; they need to look at the security tapes." The woman answered. She settled at her desk once more.
"Well, come on to the office." He said. Elle and Morgan followed him into the large office. There were several monitors sitting on a long table. There was one that was off; next to it were several tapes.
"Which tapes are you interested in?" The man said
"Well, our un-sub checked in to this hotel a week ago." Morgan said.
"Videos from the sixth then," the man said rummaging through a large box on the ground. "Here are the tapes from the sixth all the way until yesterday." The man said handing then several tapes.
"Thank you. We will be taking these as evidence." Morgan said and turned to leave.
"Thank you." Elle said. She followed Morgan out of the room.
Elle followed Morgan back to the station. They waited for Reid and Prentiss to join them. Then they began to watch the tapes together. They began early in the morning.
"He doesn't clock in until later in the afternoon, go ahead and fast forward." Morgan said.
For some time they reviewed the videos on the special computer. Elle spotted the man as he checked into the hotel.
"Him," she said softly pointing to a tall man wearing a dark coat.
They cut out the footage of the man, separating it from everything else. The man had arrived alone, and he was careful not to show his face in the cameras. He came and went as he please always returning alone. On the third night however, he returned with a young woman, the victim. She leaned on him drunkenly.
"There is our victim." Morgan said, pausing the tape. "Do we have an ID on her yet?"
"Garcia sent us the name; Dahlia Cadent. She was local; some of her family still lives in the area. Her sister lives with her mother just outside of town. They have already been called in." Agent Prentiss said.
Morgan nodded and started the tapes once more. They watched carefully, the man later left alone once more, and returned with a large bag. He was still concealing his face from the cameras.
"He is being very careful." Prentiss said. Reid nodded, his eyes squinted.
"Look at his right hand." Reid said. Everyone directed their eyes toward the man's hand.
"What are we looking at?" Elle asked. Reid took control of the computer and rewound the tape slightly. Then he had the tape move forward slowly. The man constantly tapped his hand in a rhythmic fashion.
"What is that supposed to mean Reid?" Morgan asked.
"Do you remember the case in Arizona?" He asked.
"Yes, you think it is something similar." Elle said. Reid nodded. Prentiss look a little confused.
"If it is the same thing, where is the pattern in the killings?" Morgan said. "It could just be some form of OCD or OCP."
Anything is possible. Elle thought.
"We can't rule anything out." She said finally.