Chapter thirteen! Hope you guys are still liking the story!
Morgan and Rossi stood shoulder to shoulder, staring into the interrogation room. The UnSub sat, handcuffed to the table, an officer behind him. He sat peacefully, at least for the moment, though he did keep sporadically flying into fits of rage.
"That is one messed up dude," Prentiss said as she walked over, looking through the glass with them.
"Of course he is. How could anyone sane do anything like what he's done?" Rossi said. She cocked her head to the side as if to say 'good point'.
Prentiss looked over to JJ, who was sitting at the table in their back room. She was on the phone, filling Reid in on the brief hostage situation they'd encountered. She could tell that JJ was trying to keep him calm, she was moving her hand in a soothing manner even though he wasn't around to see it.
Prentiss could feel her anger rising up. If it hadn't been for the man sitting before them, whistling to himself, Reid would be standing there and able to see JJ's hand motions, and she wouldn't grimace when she moved her arm in the wrong way and it agitated the gash on her shoulder. Not to mention there would be thirty five people still walking around, and two women wouldn't be traumatized.
As of right now, they knew nothing about him. Not his real name, or his age. All they knew was that he was called 'The Gentleman', he was a pretty average looking guy, and he was most definitely a psychopath.
"So, how are we going to crack him?" Prentiss asked, unable to keep the irritation out of her voice.
"I think our best change to get it out of him who he was working for is if he flies into a rage again," Hotch said, walking up to them. "He's much more apt to letting something slip. Otherwise, he wouldn't outright tell us anything."
"True. And we need to find out as much as we can. This doesn't just involve this town," Rossi said. "There are thirty one other murders that need to be accounted for."
"In thirty one different states," Morgan said, shaking his head. "Because this is the first time he's been hired by someone wacked out enough to have him kill more than once."
"Alright. Morgan and Prentiss, why don't you two go in? He's bound to react strongly to authority figures. Especially a woman," Hotch said, crossing his arms as he watched the two enter.
"Hello, Agents," the UnSub said cheerfully. "I'd shake your hands, but unfortunately, I'm a bid constricted at the moment."
Morgan remained stony face as he went to stand next to the mirror. Prentiss sat down across from him, setting a few files down on the table between them. The officer who had been watching him shifted slightly, but kept his arms behind his back and his tall posture. "Why don't we start with you telling us your name," Prentiss said coolly, making it clear that it wasn't a question.
"But surely you know who I am? I am called the Gentleman," he said calmly.
"Yeah, we got that part. We're asking for your real name," Morgan said.
"You Agents. You just want to suck the fun out of everything, don't you?"
"Your name. Now." Prentiss said.
The UnSub sighed. "Alright, alright. You won't find it of much help, though, I'm afraid. Your lovely technical analyst can run it through her fancy computer as many times and different ways as she wants. She won't find anything." He looked extremely smug, obviously taking pride in being totally off the grid. "My name," he said finally, in response to the harsh stares he received, "is Nikolas. N-I-K-O-L-A-S."
"Do you have a last name, Nikolas?" Prentiss asked.
"No," he said simply.
Outside, Hotch immediately picked up his phone, hitting the speed dial to Garcia. "Hotch?" she asked, foregoing her usual quirky answer. "How is everyone doing? All Derek told me was that there was a situation."
"We're all fine. JJ and I are a little banged up, but it's nothing serious," Hotch said, still keeping an ear on the conversation going on in front of him. "We just got a first name for our UnSub."
"Good. I'll take anything I can get. I'm going mad here without anything to do," she said quickly.
"His name, at least what he told us, is Nikolas," Hotch said. "He was even kind enough to spell it out for us. N-I-K-O-L-A-S. He mentioned that you wouldn't be able to find anything on him."
"Oh, no Sir. If there is anything out there, the smallest scrap of information, like what colour underwear he was wearing twelve years ago to the day, I promise you I will find it," she said firmly, making him smile a bit.
"Look for records in Wisconsin. That was his first documented kill, so it was probably close to where he grew up."
"I'm already on it, sir."
"Great. Thanks, Garcia," he said, hanging up and stuffing his phone back in his pocket. He rubbed his eyes for a second before crossing his arms again. This case was impacting everyone. Even Garcia sounded tired, stressed and worried, the opposite of what Garcia was. Then there was Reid, and JJ. They were hurt, and the rest of them were frustrated and tired from working such long hours and not making much headway. They had the killer in custody, so the murders would stop. But where was the closure for any of the victims? Unless they broke this Nikolas, the person who had hired him might just keep on killing themselves.
"Alright, Nikolas," Prentiss said, snapping his focus back on them. "We know about your lengthy rap sheet. All over the country."
"You killed thirty five people," Morgan stated angrily, walking over to stand at the table.
"Yes. Yes I did," Nikolas said, grinning proudly.
Rossi made a disgusted noise, shaking his head. "I've never seen anyone so proud of the fact that they'd killed before."
"This guy is a real whack job," JJ said, walking over to join them.
"How's Reid?" Hotch asked, turning to her.
"He's doing better. Asking when he can leave," JJ said. "He wants to be here with us."
Rossi chuckled. "When is he clear to leave?"
"A few days, give or take. It depends on how well he's doing."
"Hopefully this will all be over by then," Hotch said.
"I should hope so. He got so upset when I was telling him what happened that the nurse ran in and took the phone away from him. Twice," JJ said.
A sudden shout from the interrogation room caught their attention, and they turned to see Nikolas looking like he did before he flew into his last rage.
"No! It was me, don't you doubt that. How dare you suggest it wasn't!"
"I don't know if I believe that," Prentiss said casually. "You have no proof right now. You could just be talking big. How would I know?"
"What would make you believe it wasn't?" Nikolas snarled. "I'm telling you that I did it, you have to believe me."
"Then prove it," Prentiss said simply. "Prove you did it. Tell us who you killed, how and where. And who hired you."
"Unless, of course, you don't remember," Morgan said. "I bet he doesn't," he said, speaking to Prentiss over Nikolas's head. "He probably can't remember anything."
"Yes I do!" Nikolas shouted, pulling at the handcuffs that kept him sitting at the table.
"Then prove it," Prentiss repeated.
Nikolas looked furious, like he was thinking hard, trying to make up his mind.
"Now he can't even make a simple decision," Morgan said scathingly. "The more we see of this guy, the more I doubt he's actually competent."
"Shut up!" Nikolas screamed, attempting to stand up again. Morgan moved forward and put a hand on his shoulder, forcing him back down.
"Then just tell us," he said quietly.
"I'll… I'll tell you some of them," Nikolas said uncertainly.
"You will tell us all of them, otherwise we don't believe you."
Nikolas fell silent again, thinking and glaring over at them. "Incompetent," Morgan muttered.
"No!" Nikolas roared.
"It's all or nothing. You'd better pick fast," Prentiss said, starting to pick up the files like she was preparing to leave.
"Alright fine! Fine. I'll tell you," Nikolas snapped, looking furious.
"Brilliant," Rossi mumbled outside the room to the other two. "He's so proud that he couldn't stand not taking credit for what he'd done."
Nikolas talked for the next hour, starting with the first person he'd killed in Wisconsin, all the way up to the last person before he'd shown up in Maryland. He talked through them all in excruciating detail, making them all feel more and more uneasy as the smirk on his face grew larger and larger.
They managed to convince him to give up the names of those who had hired him, which kept Hotch, Rossi, JJ and Detective Skinner busy with calling the police stations of the cities where the murders had taken place. Nikolas had been like one giant lynch pin. He fell, and all over the country, so did thirty others.
Nikolas finally got to the murder of William Evans, the first Maryland murder, and Hotch and JJ, who were both off the phone at that point, watched anxiously as he spoke. He explained how he'd watched him and noticed his habits, seeing that every day when he got home, without fail, he'd poured himself a sizable amout of alcohol. So he'd snuck in, poisoned the bottle, and watched as the man came home and poured himself another drink.
"And who hired you to do that?" Prentiss asked.
"Patience, Agents. I'll get there," he said, grinning. He went on to explain how he'd hidden in an unused office across from the bar the officers had been in, waiting for Joey McAllen to come out and executing a perfect shot.
Then came Alicia Jensen. He'd snuck into her 'lab' and rigged up an explosion before she'd gotten home, then waited until her husband had checked on her before he snuck back in and stabbed her once so that she wouldn't escape, then set off the explosion.
Norman Jenkins was next. He's snuck in through the window and poisoned a glass of water his wife had been telling him to drink.
"And then," Nikolas said, obviously relishing the words, "came your friend. It was so remarkably easy to just put on a disguise and walk right into this station. Just finding a random officer to ask about some petty parking dispute. And then, to my delight, Spencer walked right into the bathroom. It couldn't have gone any more perfectly."
"Except for the fact that you failed that one," Morgan said. "He wasn't killed. And neither was Tess."
"No. But I did have a whole hell of a lot of fun," Nikolas said.
"Tell us who you were working for now," Prentiss said flatly.
"You seem so eager to end this nice chat we've been having. Why is that?"
JJ shook her head. "It's amazing how quickly this guy goes from being in a rage to taunting us." Hotch nodded in agreement, not taking his eyes off of him.
"Just tell us who you were working for," Morgan said, slamming his hands down on the table.
"Oh, alright. His name is Pazel. He lives in the apartment building on Hope street. Third floor. You might want to be careful with him, though. He's got a couple of screws loose in his head."
Morgan and Prentiss immediately gathered up all the papers they'd been taking notes on, hastily moving towards the door.
"You're not even going to say goodbye, Agents? How rude of you," Nikolas said scoldingly.
Morgan stopped and looked back, saying, "Good riddance."
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