~Chapter 4~
Catherine had changed for bed while waiting on J.J. to return. She sat with her laptop in bed typing on a paper for her future doctorate thesis.
During her fast typing, J.J. reentered the room carrying her bags and set them on the other bed and Catherine never looked up.
"Welcome back," Catherine said to J.J.
"Thanks," J.J. replied. "You're working hard over there. What are you working on?"
"My future doctorate thesis paper."
"So you're in school now for your doctorate and you decide to come along when you could be back at your home writing your thesis on…what exactly?"
Catherine smirked, "technically that's two questions but I'll answer the second one first. My thesis is on The Evolution of the Vampire through Literature and its Reflection on Society."
J.J. went silent a moment before coming over to sit on the bed next to Catherine.
"Well, I've heard more than enough times from the rest of the team that you are smart enough so a doctorate shouldn't be a surprise. Being one of Reid's closest friends."
Catherine smiled at that as she replied with a happy tone, "Yes, yes I'd say I am. We've known each other for a long time.'
"How long?" a new voice chimed in from the direction of Catherine's laptop that made her jump and nearby dump the laptop in the floor.
She looked down to the screen to see a woman with blond hair held back by some colorful barrettes, a pair of black vintage black glasses framed around brown eyes.
"Who are you and how are you on my webcam on my laptop?" Catherine questioned with a slight tone of hostility.
J.J. chuckled and leaned in, "Hey Penelope." She looked to Catherine. "Catherine, meet Penelope Garcia. She's our technical analyst for the B.A.U."
"Hi," said Penelope with a smile.
Catherine quirked a brow over the rim of her glasses.
"Um, hi. Again…how are you on the webcam of my laptop?" she asked.
"Long story short…I hacked my way in," Penelope replied.
"I don't think that's legal by the way. Just a little FYI."
"Well don't blame me blame Reid."
"And…why would I do that?"
"Because I get these half baked stories about you over the past months when I know there is much more to the story because who else other than a close friend would Reid know to call in on a case?"
Catherine smirked. "True enough."
"Sooo…give me the details. I want to know everything," Garcia stated quickly.
"Everything? There isn't enough time for that if I want to get some sleep tonight," Catherine replied with a chuckle.
"I'll settle for cliff notes then."
"Long story short then with a promise for more details when we meet face to face. Agreed?"
Garcia smiled. "I think I'm going to like you."
"Basically, we met when we were both in college. Not sure what time it was for him but it was my first. I helped him with a problem and then we made a trade that became a friendship. We had to split ways because that's the way our lives were going. We didn't meet again till the case you guys had in Arkansas. The one with the dude killing off homeless people to cleanse them of their sins. Well, everything went well of course considering I'm still alive. He helped me find a job, a place to live, and get back into college. And now, here I am."
"Yeah, I read up on the case. That was a doozy. But, he suggested you for this case. Not only as someone to call on for help but to come along and be part of the team."
Catherine nodded. "True. But what you didn't know is that, during conversations I've had with Spencer over the past months, I'd expressed interest in helping out with a case for you guys. While I do love being a teacher, I also wanted to see what it was like on the other end of the investigation."
Garcia gave a knowing smile. "But I heard you came with a bag packed when you came to the office.
"Do you have no limits Penelope?" Catherine asked laughing.
"I am the queen of information," she replied with mock haughtiness.
"It's true enough but I figured I needed to be prepared in the event I had to leave right away. I left word with my teachers about what was going on and got cleared for a few days."
"So…back story aside…you spend a lot of time with Spenser?"
Catherine shrugged. "Sometimes when I have the free time…then sometimes when he has to drag me away from my work because I haven't gotten out of the house in a while."
J.J. chuckled and looked to Catherine. "Reid has to drag you out into public?"
"Yeah sometimes. We head off to get something to eat, take a walk in a park, or check out a book store. Admittedly, the last doesn't really help a chronic reader," she admitted with a smile. "But it is fun to talk with him about books and our jobs and such."
"Awh, that's sweet," Garcia gushed.
Catherine smiled almost shyly. "Yeah, it is. I enjoy it a lot."
"You like him…don't you?" J.J. questioned.
She thought about that for a moment before a smile crossed her lips. "Yeah, I think I do. I usually don't say anything though. I enjoy it a bit too much to mess this up. It's nice to have someone around that I can talk to with similar interests."
"Like what?" J.J. asked.
"Well, we enjoy reading to each other. We usually trade off and read some from a current book we are reading."
"Catherine, you really should say something to Spencer," Garcia stated matter-of-factly.
"Really?" she spoke with confusion. "Has he said anything?"
"Honey, the boy is clueless when it comes to women but he slips up sometimes and mentions a book you suggested to him or something you told him that either made him laugh or something. You guys just need to get on the same page."
"I don't know. I guess I could try…"
"J.J. while I would normally do this, I entrust you with this task in my absence. I'll talk with the boy myself when I get a chance," Garcia said by way of jokingly giving orders.
J.J chuckled. "Sure Penelope. 'Night."
"Good night Penelope," Catherine said politely.
"'Night my loves," said Garcia before she shut the link down.
In the early hours of the morning, Jennifer Jareau was awoken by her phone. She picked up her phone and answered it without a hint of tiredness in her voice.
"Special Agent Jareau speaking."
"J.J., we've been called in by the police. Looks as though the timeline has been shortened. Monica Vorenburg's body was just discovered in MidwayPark," Hotch spoke firmly.
"Yes, sir. I'll get in contact with the police chief. Do you need me to contact the others?"
"I'll contact Morgan and Rossi while you wake Catherine and contact Reid."
"I'm on it, sir."
J.J. hung up her phone and looked over to Catherine where she had woken during the phone conversation.
"Get dressed. We have to head down to the station."
Catherine sat up in bed looking serious and a bit grave.
"Monica…she's dead…isn't she?" she asked but sounded as if she knew the response.
"How could you tell?"
"Your body language. You stiffened during the conversation. Considering the reason we are all here and the time of morning it is…it could only be something dire."
J.J. nodded.
"I'll call Reid while you get ready, then I'll do the same. Reid will come over and ride with us to the station," she replied as she made the call to Reid.
Catherine quickly rose out of bed and went to get ready for what was sure to be an intense and stressful day.
A section of a local park was lit up in the early morning to a level that made it seem like it was mid-day. The red and blue lights of the police cars lit up the area in its strobes of light. All the sirens had been silenced leaving on the occasional squawk of sound from the police radios.
The area had been cordoned off with yellow police tape with the official vehicles on the perimeter.
Slowly, a pair of black SUVs pulled up to the yellow police tape and stopped. Their headlights turning off as three people emerged from the two cars.
Hotchner led the way with Rossi and Morgan nearby. Just behind them Reid, J.J, and Catherine followed. Although, Catherine followed a bit farther behind not at all eager to view a freshly dead body.
The police chief herself had arrived earlier and looked over to the team from the BAU as they came near the body.
"Seems like you guy are out of luck. With the last woman abducted now dead, looks like it'll be another year before this one resurfaces," Chief Landry stated somewhat dejected.
"Even then, we need to look at the body and the evidence that could be here. If there is evidence to find, it may lead us to the unsub behind these murders. Eventually they all slip up in one way or another," Hotch stated.
Chief Landry shrugged.
"All right then. Well, come over and take a look then," she motioned over to the body of the woman lying on the ground.
The body of Monica Vorenburg wasn't sprawled out of the ground but carefully placed. Her clothing was neat and oddly clean for someone laid out on the grass.
However, her professionally dyed red hair had been hacked off. This time there were definite cuts on her scalp where the unsub's rage had driven him to show signs of the tool used.
"Seems the unsub didn't use scissors at all to cut the victim's hair but some form of knife by the way it cut into her skin during the process," Hotch began as he knelt near the body.
"His rage goes deeper this time," Rossi pointed out as he pointed to her scalp. "You can see where he even pulled her hair out instead of cutting it. But by the lack of blood flow, it suggests this was done after she was killed."
Morgan looked down over the woman from where he stood opposite Hotch.
"But she's still clean and neatly dressed. As if he felt bad about what he had to do. He still left the note propped up against the body," he added. "Yet, the method of killing here is more straightforward. A sharp blows to the back of her head. He let his rage get away from him."
Hotch looked over his shoulder to where Catherine was standing near Reid. J.J. having gone off to speak with the officers that had found the body.
"Catherine, see if the position of this note means anything or if it's just placed there without thought," Hotch ordered softly.
She took a slow but shallow breath not wanting to take in the smell of blood as she nodded. Catherine slowly came forward and knelt down next to Hotch before looking to the woman. Her eyes took in the position of the note where it was leant up against her hip.
"I don't know if it means anything as I don't know if the other notes were placed in the same place on the body. However, the note is leant up against her hip, as close as one could get to her pocket without actually putting the note in the pocket.
"The possibility that the woman he lost was likely carrying a note for him when she passed seems likely to me but that's just an assumption. Otherwise, why place it there? It's placed on her left side…it would be interesting to know if she is left handed or if it's the unsub or even the person he lost. Considering he is trying to fill in a role; however, I would say it's more likely that the person he is trying to replace was left handed," Catherine softly relayed to the members of the team even though some of it was simply guess work or questions that came to mind.
"At the very least, we have a pattern. Three women, in their 30s, who the unsub believed to have red hair and blue eyes that were placed in a park," Morgan pointed out.
"A park must mean something to our unsub. The first time they met…when he proposed…" Rossi thought aloud.
"In any case, this unsub is back out looking for another woman. With the decreased timeline, he could strike sooner," Hotch stated looking out over the park.
Back at the police station, the BAU team had gathered and were going over the various bits of information they had gathered while they waited on the coroner's report.
Catherine sat at the table with the previous typed verses and now the newest typed note.
"What's the quote this time?" Reid asked as he looked over Catherine's shoulder.
"It's from a Keats work called Endymion: A Poetic Romance; Book 1; 'A Thing of Beauty'. The quote reads: 'A thing of beauty is a joy forever / Its loveliness increases; it will never / Pass into nothingness; but still will keep / A bower quiet for us.' This quote, taken out of context only shows the love he has not what's under the surface. Taken into context with the other quotes, the writer is getting more obsessed.
"In studying forms of writing, one tends to hear a bit about the psychological side of things. The first quote is expressive of the attraction phase; the second shows the anxious phase, and this third one embodies the obsessive phase. The poem this quote is taken from is the man in the story talking about how in love he is with this woman to the point of obsession," she recounted softly as she looked over the three typed letters.
"This unsub isn't done then," Reid stated as he took a seat next to Catherine. "He still has one more phase to go…the destructive phase where the object of obsession will either be had by him or destroyed."
Catherine nodded and looked to Reid. "I know I'm no trained profiler…but no matter what the police say we can't leave. He will strike again and…I honestly don't think he's going to wait for a year before taking the next woman."
"Unfortunately, that's not up to us, Catherine. If the police chief tells us to leave we have to leave."
She sighed. "I get that but that doesn't mean it's right."
The rest of the team came in from talking with the police and giving a more detailed profile of the unsub now that they knew some things for certain.
"We have to move quickly on this information. The police are getting upset over the circumstances. We were here and we couldn't stop him. If we don't get a break in this case, we might be taken off it," Hotch relayed to the members of the team. "So what do we have?"
"Right now the coroner is working on the autopsy. He will call us the moment he knows for certain the time of death and if there is any evidence left on the vic's body," Rossi stated.
"What about the letter?" Hotch asked looking to Catherine.
She repeated to Hotchner what she had told to Reid and then added, "and it is to be noted that the paper and typewriter used are the exact same as in the previous letters."
"Have we heard from Garcia?" Hotch asked.
Morgan dialed the number of Garcia and put her on speaker.
"Hey baby girl, tell me you got somethin'," Morgan joked with the edge of seriousness.
"Hello my loves. You'd be surprised at how many deaths have happened in Texas. But narrowing down the search for professors or their facsimile that have lost a loved one in the past 10 years with the factoids you told me gave me 5 possible men," Garcia replied.
"We need to narrow that list down. Weed out older men that aren't physically capable to take a woman and those who aren't current professors at a university," Rossi ordered.
"Although...," Catherine thought aloud.
"What is it?" Hotch asked.
"Considering the level of education needed to be comfortable with this sort of literature, I would think that this isn't something an undergrad would come across. I didn't come across things like this till I focused my literary degree on this time period of writers. It's more likely that this isn't just any professor but one that specializes in the time frame these writers are known for," she suggested.
"You got that Garcia?" Morgan asked.
"Yes, my loves. I'm on it," Garcia chirped happily before hanging up.