Author's note: Greetings! I have completed another chapter. It was a fairly quick update, I think. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. Review! and as always thank you!
~Ray-Ray
Prentiss and El arrived at the suspect's home in about fifteen minutes.
"Do you think he would have any reason to run?" El asked as she opened the car door.
"Not if he is innocent." She said simply, shrugging her shoulders. They walked to the front door casually and El knocked firmly.
"Mr. Dantoni, open up." She said. Prentiss finished with.
"FBI, we have some questions for you." They waited for a moment and as Prentiss was ready to kick the door in they heard a loud thud and the clanging of a fence. To their right a scrawny man wearing ill fitted jeans had attempted to leap over the fence into the neighbor's yard.
"He must be guilty… of something." El said as she ran towards the gate. Prentiss kept at her side the whole way. They leapt over the fence at the same time and surrounded the man, who had made no attempt to stand.
"I didn't do it I swear!" He screamed covering his face.
"Mr. Dantoni, we want to ask you some questions. Come with us." Prentiss said pulling the man up by his arm. He stood, but staggered slightly.
"He smells like cocaine." El said as she scrunched her nose. The smell was repulsive. "God, how much did you smoke?" The man laughed, though El was sure he didn't understand a word she had said.
"We will have to wait until his high is over." Prentiss said as they walked him to the car. She shoved him in the back seat, his hands cuffed behind his back. She locked the door and turned to El.
"He is disgusting." His smell still lingered in the air. "I suggest we call the police. They can search his house, for the drugs."
"But we may lose the only evidence we might have. I think we should do a quick search. Then call the police. I think his condition is enough reason to obtain a warrant." It was clear that Prentiss was still unsure about the action but she agreed either way. She sent a message to Hotch and followed El inside. Despite the man's manner, the house was perfectly clean. The stench of cocaine did hang in the air, but it was only in the kitchen.
They walked into the other rooms of the house and found his phone and a laptop. Other than that there wasn't much to take. They placed the objects into a bad and walked back to the car. Jared Dantoni had passed out in the back seat.
"Figures," El muttered. "Next he is going to piss himself." She rolled her eyes and Prentiss laughed.
"Hotch tells me you were a good agent." She said lightly. She must have known it would be a ruff subject because she didn't press any further when El didn't respond.
"Do you think he saw anything?" El asked.
"Maybe, if he wasn't as high as a kite on his shift." Prentiss sighed. El nodded. "I hope this gets us somewhere in the case, I hate it when we can find a breakthrough." El understood completely. She laughed softly to herself.
They pulled up to the station and met Morgan and Reed outside. Morgan glanced back at the man.
"I am guessing he ran," he said chuckling. "Oh I wish I could have been there, watching the two of you run would have been priceless." He winked jokingly. Prentiss ignored him, and El gawked.
"You really haven't changed." She said with laughter.
"You still haven't shown enough leg I see." He laughed walked over to the car to pull the suspect out.
"Woo," he said wiping his hand across his face. "Man you must have had some trip earlier." He laughed bitterly. Then he muttered, "Disgusting."
Derek shoved the man, none too gently into the interrogation room.
"Hey man, watch it." He said straightening up." He sat into the chair and placed his head against the table. "I am hungry, do you have any food?"
"Munchies," Derek muttered to Reed. He smiled wryly and shut the interrogation room door.
"Are we going to give him any food?" Reed asked. Morgan shrugged. He seemed unconcerned.
"I am guessing that your suspect talked to you calmly." Prentiss said to Reed.
"Yes, he didn't take anything up to our un-sub's room all week. I suspect Hotch will be back with more news. For now that leaves us with Mr. Dantoni." Spencer said.
Derek reentered the room and spoke.
"Rossi called. It looks like we have a girl in the hospital; she overpowered a man who was trying to rape her. She ran a few miles until she collapsed. She fits the profile we made for the victims." He jingled his car keys. "I am going to take this one." He said before leaving the room once more.
Hotch
They had pulled up to the home of the third suspect. Rossi nocked on the door and called inside. There was no answer. Rossi shrugged. He tried the knob and saw that it was unlocked.
"This is either a bad sign, or the man is careless." Hotch said. He gave the door a small kick and it opened the rest of the way. They walked throughout the house searching for their suspect.
"Clear," Hotch shouted. After a long moment he heard Rossi call out the word as well.
"Hotch. Call the police, he is dead." Hotch set down his gun; replacing it in his holster.
"How long," he asked. Rossi looked and the man and shrugged.
"A few hours at best," he pulled out his cell and called Morgan once more. "Hey, our suspect is dead." He listened briefly. "Ask her when she comes around. We will speak more at the station. Call the others and tell them."
Hotch had his phone out and was taking a picture of the scene.
"I am going to send this to Reed, and I will send a photo of our victim to Garcia." He then called 911. Once the police arrived they spoke with the chief officer and handed the case over.
"You are sure that this isn't the work of your killer?" He asked concerned. Hotch nodded.
"Nothing in his behavior suggests that he would mess with someone who had little to do with him. The MO's are completely different anyway. I highly doubt that he would go out of his way to kill a witness. One of our agents say the man, she hasn't reencountered him."
The man nodded, more confident now. But not all the weight was lifted off his shoulders. He still had a murder to solve.
"If anything more happens call us. We will help where we can." He gave the man his card and then returned to his car.
They made their way back to the station once more. Hotch was growing increasingly tired. He needed another coffee; though he knew that the true remedy was a good night's sleep. He also knew that that would be unlikely to happen until the case was over.
"Penelope has background on our vic." Prentiss said. "He didn't have and previous record. But that doesn't mean anything. He just could have been one of the lucky ones, who never got caught. It's rare, but it can happen."
"We have his cell and his laptop, Reed; we want you to look at those." Rossi handed Reed the bag and walked over to the white board to examine the evidence they had. There still wasn't very much.
"Is Morgan still at the hospital?" He asked not looking away from the victims.
"Yes, he is." El said. "Our suspect was beyond high when we met up with him. He is sitting in the interrogation room with a bad case of the munchies." She smiled thinking of Morgan's humor.
"I will speak with him." David said. Hotch turned to El.
"Let's go to the hospital with Morgan." He said firmly. El followed silently bidding farewell to Reed and Prentiss with a nod.
In moments the arrived at the hospital, everything in this town was so close together, El wasn't sure if she liked that or not. They walked into the hospital, and were directed to the third floor.
"She is stable," the doctor was saying to Agent Morgan. He spotted Hotch and El, and called them over.
"She was awake for about five minutes; I didn't bother trying to waste her energy. She suffers from the same wounds we find on our victims, the MO is the same, but she wasn't drugged on anything."
That was new, El made a mental note.
"Maybe he couldn't get his hands on any of it." She suggested.
"Or she didn't give him enough time to drug her." Morgan countered.
"Either way we will have to wait until she wakes up. El I think you should stay; she will be more comfortable speaking with a woman about what happened. It is possible she will have hard feelings towards a male." El agreed and Hotch returned to the station.
"Do you think it is possible that he will come back to find her?" El said suddenly. Morgan pondered over the thought.
"He had the habit of calling at the same time every night. He kept the girls for the exact same amount of time before getting rid of them. He never once changed his style of killing or MO." El continued. "What if once he had started something, he can't stop? It's compulsive to him, he can't help it."
"Then if that is true, he will come back for her. He will probably visit the hospital, but be discreet about it; visiting another patient. Then try and attack her when she goes home." He spoke softly so no one would over hear their conversation. "Did you tell anyone else of your theory?" He asked. El shook her head. "Call Reed," he said simply.
El dialed his number.