Chapter 7 –

4:20pm Monday 13th November 2011

Emily stepped out of the vehicle and nodded to the police officer who was standing guard.

"Special Agent Emily Prentiss and Special Agent David Rossi."

The two of them waited patiently as the officer wrote their details down.

"If you follow the track up the hill you'll find the site, plenty of yellow tape around to give the game away."

The officer grinned as Emily nodded and walked quickly up the hill while Dave stopped and shook the officer's hand before following Emily. Emily put her sunglasses on the top of her head as she stood by the four dirt pits, silent as Dave stood next to her, both surveying the scene.

"Although this is a public trail, this isn't an easy spot to find."

Dave spoke quietly as Emily nodded her head before she replied.

"We'll need the results from the ME, to know how long the bodies have been left for, how long he has been hunting for."

"He won't stop though."

Dave wandered around the site and looked at the trees before turning his attention back to Emily.

"No I agree, if he is targeting prostitutes then he is picking easy prey and he won't stop."

"But he will need to find a new dump site."

"This will have angered him, he may well kill again soon."

Emily waved her hand around as she spoke, gesturing to the four dirt pits.

"And he'll make mistakes."

"Hopefully."

Emily sighed as she started to walk down the hill, determined to keep the conversation on the case, she had compartmentalised Milly to the back of her mind for the time being and she was grateful that Dave did not seem interested in any idle chat.

"Ok let's go and see if Morgan and Reid can help us with the time line."

Dave jogged down the hill as he caught up with Emily and climbed into the SUV.

Derek stood at the back of the room as the morgue assistant finished positioning the last of the four women in the room, Reid by contrast was already peering over the first body, his hands gloved as he focused in on their faces.

"I can see why you've had trouble identifying the victims."

Reid straightened up and looked at the ME as he strode in.

"Yes, shot gun blast to the face, from a close distance."

Derek winced slightly as he looked at the remains.

"The unsub would have got blood on him."

Reid stated it as a fact rather than a question as the ME nodded in agreement.

"Yes and they were moved after they were killed, the trail was definitely a dump site."

"The two that you have identified, do you know how long they have been dead for?"

Derek stayed at the back of the room, he could see for himself the damage the bugs and time had done and he had no interest in getting any closer.

"They were the two that had been in the ground the shortest amount of time. I'm waiting for an Entomologist to confirm time of death, sorry it may take a couple of days."

"Any progress on the other identities?"

"No but I've sent DNA samples off."

"Ok I'll get our analyst at Quantico to run them through our databases, we may well stand a better chance of getting a hit that way."

The ME nodded as Derek spoke before Reid finished looking at the bodies and rejoined them.

"As soon as I have a firm time and date of death I'll let you know."

"Thank you Doctor."

Reid smiled as Derek nodded, the two of them had gotten all they could out of the meeting and needed to rejoin the others to figure out what the next step was going to be.

2:02am Tuesday 14th November 2011

Emily stood in her hotel room and stared out of the window, the day had flown by and Hotch had told them all to get a good night's rest before they regrouped in the morning but no matter how hard she tried Emily could not relax. Without thinking Emily picked up her purse and keys, locking her weapon and FBI credentials, along with Milly's file, in the room safe before she walked out and headed in an all too familiar direction. The night had a chill to it as Emily pulled her gloved tighter onto her hands but her pace was brisk and although it took her a good thirty minutes Emily knew that her cheeks were red as she slowed down and started to scour the streets for Sally. Although the diner was open Emily didn't want to go in, she wanted to keep this short, put her fears at ease before she returned to the hotel. Emily stopped in her tracks as a car slowed down, the passenger door opened and a pair of long skinny legs appeared, almost lighting up the night sky.

"Well hello there sugar, I wasn't expecting to see you tonight!"

Emily couldn't help but smile as Sally walked towards her, pushing the car door shut and completely ignoring it as it sped away, instead she embraced Emily warmly.

"Yes well I wasn't expecting to be here either, have you seen the news today?"

"No, I've been kind of busy."

Sally shook her head and slowly lost her smile as she saw the seriousness etched onto Emily's face.

"I'm here for work, four bodies were found this, sorry yesterday morning, four women."

"Oh I'm sorry sugar, is one of them Milly?"

"No I don't think so but we've only managed to identify tow of them and they were both known prostitutes."

Emily reached and took a hold of Sally's hands but the woman showed no reaction to the news.

"I've lost a lot of friends over the years."

"This guy is serious Sally, he's not going to stop until we catch him."

"Who were they?"

"Alison Lawrence and Nicola Perkins."

Emily took a breath and watched Sally nod her head in agreement.

"I knew both girls, they haven't been around for a couple of weeks but they are young, I assumed that they had moved a little bit more upmarket."

"I'm worried about you Sally, he's going to be annoyed that we've found the girls, he's going to take his anger out on someone."

Sally smiled as Emily squeezed her fingers.

"Yeah but sugar I'm a little bit too old for his tastes."

Emily went to protest but Sally shook her head firmly.

"I've been at this for too long sugar, I know how to keep myself safe, if you want someone to worry about then worry about that sister of yours. Maybe you ought to think about letting you friends know about her, things are different now."

It was Emily's turn to shake her head as she opened her purse and placed three fifty dollar bills into Sally's hand.

"Please be careful, I don't want to lose a friend."

"Ok sugar I will, but you think about what I said too."

Sally reached up and put her hands on Emily's shoulders, looking into her eyes she could see the confusion and sadness in them as she leant across and kissed Emily softly on the cheek.

"Now don't you go leaving without saying goodbye Emily."

"Wouldn't dream of it Sally."

Emily smiled as she turned and tucked her hands into her coat pockets, the long walk back to the hotel was just what she needed to clear her jumbled up mind.