~Chapter 1~
"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind." ~William Shakespeare
Agent Hotchner led Doctor Reid, J.J, and Catherine, into the police station in Euless, TX. Their arrival brought all the eyes in the station upon them. Catherine had been given a clip on ID badge stating her link to the BAU for the case.
The Chief of police walked over from where she had been speaking to one of her officers. She held out her hand to Agent Hotcher as she smiled.
"Welcome, I'm Chief Landry. I'm happy you got here so quickly," she said as she shook Agent Hotchner's hand.
"I'm Agent Hotchner of the B.A.U. This is Doctor Reid, Jennifer Jareau and Catherine Harmon who will be consulting on this case," Hotch said as he introduced the pair behind him. "Agents Morgan and Rossi are en route to the abduction site."
Reid only nodded with a slight wave to the Chief while Catherine smiled and spoke a soft greeting.
J.J. smiled and shook the hand offered to her. "A pleasure ma'am."
"Well, I have the board set up like you asked," the Chief motioned to a board off to the side of the main room they stood in.
"Thank you very much Chief Landry," Hotch replied as he led the group off towards the standing white board and table that had been cleared for them.
Catherine looked about the police station as they passed through it. She absently placed her black computer bag in one of the available chairs as she looked over to the board with the current information. Her eyes looked over the crime scene photos and information about the woman who had just gone missing as well as the other two women that had been abducted.
"Excuse me for asking, but what exactly do you need a consultant for on this case?" Chief Landry asked.
Catherine glanced from the police chief to Hotch. He simply nodded to her and then looked to Chief Landry.
"Why don't you ask her yourself?" he suggested.
Landry looked to Catherine who was all ready looking at her steadily.
"Just what sort of consulting are you doing here?" the chief asked suspiciously.
"You mean to ask just what is my purpose here?" Catherine queried in response.
"Exactly."
Catherine smiled softly. "Judging by the poetry left behind with each victim I can all ready tell you that you are not looking for some homeless or deranged person. This man is highly intelligent and capable.
"And yes, I do say man. The nature of these poems is romantic. While women are romantic in sending poetry they tend towards a more personal touch and would have hand written these letters; however, these were typed on an old fashioned typewriter. Since this perpetrator has decided to use a typewriter to spell out these messages, once you find the typewriter you will find the man behind this. No other typewriter will have the same off sets of letters that this typewriter does.
"I've also all ready judged this man has had some formal studies at a university in the field of English. No one just quotes something like Bryon or Coleridge by accident or stumbling onto the passage in passing. They knew these passages and might have studied these writers specifically during their schooling."
She paused a moment to let the things she had stated so confidently sink in with Chief Landry before resuming.
"I can assure you Chief Landry, my field of study will bring necessary insight into this particular field as it has been my life and will save valuable time in locating and stopping this man from taking any more women."
Chief Landry seemed a little flustered as Catherine finished her speech. She nodded briefly before slowly turning to the rest of the team.
"Well, I'll…let you guys get to work then," Landry stated rather meekly before walking away.
Catherine watched her walk away before looking back to the team herself.
"Well, that got my brain cells working," she chimed with a smile.
Reid chuckled softly before looking to Hotch.
"I'm thinking maybe we should give her title as doctor for now considering she is working on a doctorate. It might smooth the way a bit easier for us," Reid suggested.
Hotch nodded, "Yes, that seems like the best thing considering the circumstances."
He glanced to Catherine. "You spoke about the unsub with great clarity there. Are you sure about your theories?" Hotch inquired.
She nodded as she responded, "I know I'm right about the type writer and the education. The gender is the only thing I'm not 100 percent sure on. The only reason I have to believe that this is a man besides the things I mentioned is based on the heights of the women that are missing. Each of them is 5'5" or over and they all physically fit.
"If a woman was strong enough to subdue these women then she would have to have to strength to hold these women while they fought her. For a woman that would be difficult unless they are just that strong but for a man it would be easier to control the struggles of a woman."
"So, if it is a woman or a man how would they be abducting these women?" Hotch questioned aloud as he looked to the board.
Reid gave an encouraging smile to Catherine as he set his own bag down and replied, "Whether it was a woman or a man, considering they are being taken in very public places, despite the time of day they are being taken at, they would have to move quickly. Even something as common as chloroform would do the trick but it would take time to take effect; as Catherine stated a woman might have a hard time holding them for that long."
"So the probability that this is a male unsub is much higher than that of a female at this point," J.J. stated.
"I have a question actually. While this woman was taken from here in Euless, where the other two women taken?" Catherine questioned.
"According to the reports sent in by the police following these cases, the second victim was a resident in Irving, TX where she was taken from outside a dry cleaners and the first victim was from Dallas, TX and abducted from outside a post office," J.J. replied having looked over the files.
"So…the unsub then…seems to be working outward from Dallas slowly considering these women were taken one year apart from each other and held for three days a piece," Catherine began as she tried to voice her thoughts.
Reid looked to Catherine, "I see what you mean." He looked to Hotch and J.J. "With the way this unsub is acting, they might be living in one of the cities that these women are being taken from or they have to travel from Dallas to go to work."
"That narrows down the population somewhat but there are a large amount of people in that last category," Hotch responded.
"I have to say, the way this looks that the cities are all in line with each other heading west," Catherine noted absently.
Hotch glanced at the map and spoke mostly to himself, "So the unsub is following a path. In this pattern, it would lead him out towards Bedford next but only in a year from now. If we don't catch this guy now, he may go underground and we'll have to wait another year before he surfaces."
Morgan and Rossi pulled up outside the hair salon where the latest victim had been abducted.
Police 'do not cross' tape surrounded the scene in a large circumference around the victim's car where it still sat in the parking lot waiting for an owner that might not return.
As they exited their black SUV, they easily noted the absence of blood stains at the abduction sight and the presence of the woman's purse lying on the ground nearby.
"Well, seems like the unsub didn't care whether we knew who the woman was or not," Morgan stated calmly.
"So either he's overconfident or there's no previous connection between them that would leave a trail for the police to follow," Morgan explained in a matter-of-fact tone.
A police sergeant strolled towards Rossi and Morgan.
"Welcome to Texas, agents. I'm Sergeant Mitchell," the officer stated.
"I'm Agent Rossi. This is Agent Morgan. What can you tell us about the scene?" Rossi asked.
"The vic's car was found here this morning by her husband. When she didn't come home last night, he headed out to check the places she had been the previous day and found it here. He called the police and reported her missing after confirming with the hair salon that she had been here for her appointment.
"We haven't moved anything from where it was when we arrived. Figured it was best to get your opinion before disturbing the scene," Mitchell stated before heading off to speak with one of the other officers.
Morgan looked over the scene. "Doesn't seem to be much to disturb. The car looks to be locked still. So the unsub must have come at her from behind while she was about to unlock her car door. During the struggle, she drops her purse and the unsub carries her off."
"He must have had a means of transport parked nearby to carry her too. There don't seem to be any signs of struggle or skid marks behind her car. That supports the idea that she didn't see him coming or see anything suspicious nearby," Rossi added.
"Then the unsub must have used chloroform to subdue her quickly. This happened fast," Morgan stated as he turned to Rossi.
"The guy has confidence enough I'll give him that."
Monica slowly came to. She blinked her blue eyes a few times to dispel the haze. What she saw around her appeared to be a room in a large basement. The room was set up like a nice bistro style restaurant.
As she tried to move, she found she couldn't. Her hands were tied to the arms of the chair. She struggled against the tight black ropes feeling frantic.
Just as she was about to scream out for help, a pair of hands gently but firmly grasped the sides of her face. These hands forced her to look up towards the owner of those strong hands.
The person before her was a man. His nicely styled and short brown hair was slowly graying. Hazel eyes looked upon her kindly and a smile turned the man's lips upward.
"Don't be scared, my love," the man's oddly gentle voice soothed. "Soon, everything will be back to the way it was always supposed to be."