JJ and Garcia were last to arrive in the conference room, which surprised JJ because she was convinced Rossi would not be able to rip himself away from writing his novel. Apparently her profiling skills weren't as sharp as she thought. As Garcia took her seat next to Morgan, JJ handed each of the agents a folder filled with documents, pictures, and maps that were relevant to their current case.
"Officials from Lake Charles, Louisiana have asked for our help on a case involving a series of murders." JJ said as she walked towards the front of the room. With a click of a remote, JJ brought up 8 pictures of smiling young people. JJ always liked the before pictures…she would always linger a little and would let the shining faces stare at them a little longer.
"Over the past five months, 4 couples have been brutally murdered…the local police believe that this is a serial killer targeting young couples. All victims have been in their late teens or early twenties. The youngest and the most recent were both 18 years old, Matthew Cranner and Ashley Simmons. They were high school seniors, within 2 weeks of graduating…" JJ's voice trailed off a little.
"What is the unsub's MO?" Morgan asked, trying to keep the meeting moving forward.
"The local officials are not completely sure, but they believe that the unsub uses a gun to coerce the couple in order to take them to a different location and then tortures the female with several different types of devices; what finally kills her apparently is blood loss. The male victim is shot at point blank range in the forehead." JJ describes as she brings up pictures of the bodies of the victims in the morgue.
"well, the unsub obviously has women issues" Emily states blankly.
"who doesn't?" Rossi jokes, in his usual attempt to keep the team detached from their own emotions.
"it is assumed that both the male and female victims were taken at the same time, usually from secluded places, where local couples go to have some privacy, such as near the local lake or the local fields" JJ continued. "Their cars were found usually the next day."
"Where were the bodies found?" Reid questioned.
"The bodies of the victims were found two weeks later, in relatively public area. All were found on the edge of the local woods, near the trails that hikers frequently use. And each time the bodies were found with the male and the female victims positioned next to each other and always with their hands placed together." JJ informed.
"Were the bodies found nude?" Emily asked.
"Actually, no. all four pairs were found in the clothes that they were last seen wearing. Why do you ask?"
"Usually when an unsub leaves the bodies out in public places, the victims will be nude and mutilated as to further humiliate them. however, by redressing the victims, the unsub has differed the usual pattern." Rossi answered.
"So do we think that he is remorseful? He redresses them and puts the bodies in a place where they will be found, which gives the family closure… And then the hand holding? That is new." Emily remarked.
Reid responded to her comment, "it might be his way of putting the couple back together even after they are dead. There has to be a reason he takes both the male and female. Its obvious that he has more aggression towards women as he tortures the female."
"we can't rule out that he has aggression towards the male as well, making him watch his girl be tortured and killed and not being able to do anything is just as much torture" Hotch stated flatly, and the team knew he was thinking of Haley.
"there is one more thing" JJ chimed into the conversation, "postmortem , all of the female victims had their uterus and vagina cut out. Basically, their bottom half was eviscerated. This act has kept the local medical examiners from knowing if the female victims were raped."
JJ didn't pull up pictures of this last horrifying detail, as each agent had a copy in their folder, and she knew that Garcia hated seeing gore.
Hotch took command of the meeting, "OK, Garcia, I want you to dig up all you can on each of the victims along with local sex offenders and any other facts about the town. The unsub is definitely from the area. And some serious event must have triggered his psychotic break."
"Yes, Sir" Garcia said as she jumped to her feet and headed towards the door, "I will call you as soon as I have something."
Before exiting the conference room, Garcia took her usual last look back at her family. The profilers were deep in thought, flipping through their folders and making intelligent observations about the positions of the bodies. After sufficiently taking in the sight of her loves hard at work, Garcia retreated to her office where her babies were waiting.
"Okay wheels up in an hour" Hotch declared. And with that the members of the team dispersed, with the exception of JJ, to gather their to-go bags. JJ just kept staring at the smiling faces, which she had brought back up on the projection. The job had gotten increasingly harder for her after Foyet had destroyed Hotch's family.
"I love you momma" Henry said as she left for work this morning. This statement caught JJ off guard.
"I love you too, Hen. I love you so much!" she declared as she picked the young boy up into her arms. "You are my little angel! My entire world." JJ nuzzled her nose against Henrys'.
A sudden noise snapped JJ back to reality.
"Sorry…I didn't mean to startle you." Reid nervously explained as he walked back into the conference room to grab the folder he had forgotten.
"Oh, Spence, no. I was just daydreaming. Everything is fine." JJ stammered.
JJ's demeanor and the way she was quick to claim that everything was fine signaled a red flag in Reid's mind.
"…JJ, is something wrong?" Reid asked calmly.
"Of course not, why do you ask?"
"Because I apologized for startling you and you immediately claim everything is fine." Reid explained
"It's really nothing, Spence. I'm just a little tired, but I will get some sleep on the plane."
"Okay." Reid was somewhat satisfied with the answer, but he knew something was wrong. "But, JJ," he started as he grabbed her arm and some what forced her to face him, "You know that you can always come to me…no matter what. I will be there for you."
The statement seemed to calm JJ in an unexpected way, and she blushed a little. She was smiling until Reid continued..
"the whole team is always there for you. we all are here for each other." Reid was trying his best to be supportive, yet this time he went too far.
JJ realized that he was really just reaching out to her for the sake of the team, not for any other reason. The sincere smile quickly disappeared from her face, and was replaced with a complacent smile, the smile she learned to have as a professional.
"Thanks, but seriously everything is ok" JJ stated somewhat coldly as she turned off the projector and walked towards the door. "I'll see you on the plane."
Reid stood there a little longer, thinking about what he should have said, but resigning to his usual self.
