A/N: Thanks to those that reviewed and for those who favoured and followed! I must warn you, I've done my best with grammar but I attended a state school so I'm using that as my excuse if you find anything ungrammarly like (notice what I did there? Lol). I should also say that I'm not American so I'm solely relying on Google Maps and Wikipedia to supply me with the geographical info.
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"Who are you texting?" Garcia tried to look over Reid's shoulder, but he scooted his wheeled chair away from her. "Does our young Dr. Reid have a girlfriend?"
Reid ignored her and finished his text message, pushing the send button before Garcia had a chance to scoot after him on her own wheeled chair. He put the phone in his pocket and used his one good leg to wheel himself back over to Garcia and the computers.
"So spill," Garcia prodded. "Who is she?"
Reid looked baffled. "What?" Realisation dawned. "Oh no, just an old friend."
Garcia chuckled. "Yeah, I bet she is." Her mischievous grin and the tone of her voice made Reid uncomfortable and he shifted slightly, feeling his neck burn.
"Haven't we connected yet?" he asked in a feeble attempt to detract from his awkwardness.
"Calm your farm," Garcia sighed. "I'm connecting now."
Reid waited patiently as Garcia ran her fingers fluidly along the keyboard. A second later, the rest of the team appeared on the computer screen, huddled together. JJ appeared for a second behind Morgan before walking off screen.
"Hello my pretties," Garcia greeted. Reid gave an awkward wave from his position beside her.
"We don't have much time," Hotch said quickly. "This is a short flight. What do we know?"
"I just pulled up the autopsy reports on the victims," Garcia said, suddenly in professional mode. She used her second screen to bring up the autopsy reports she had mentioned. "Blood was clean – no drugs or alcohol in their systems. No signs of sexual assault either. There were signs that Rachel had sex shortly before her death but it seems to have been consensual." Garcia paused and took in a breath. "The death blow was straight to the back of the head on all victims. Ben and Rachel were killed with the first blow. It took two blows to kill John."
"So Reid was right," Morgan said. "It was a blitz attack."
"Yeah, that's not all," Garcia continued. "And this gets super icky. The UnSub completely demolished the entire head. Blood, brain, bone – all mushed together like some UnSub stew."
"Well I won't get that image out of my head," Reid heard JJ mutter from somewhere off screen.
"Have you found anything else about the victims?" Rossi asked.
"I'm doing back-checking now, sir," Garcia responded promptly. "But there doesn't seem to be any connections between them. John and Ben lived in Oakland, a town of just under two thousand, but they went to different schools, had different friends, and lived in opposite sides of town. Rachel was from across the border."
"And there doesn't seem to be any physical similarities," Hotch pointed out. "Usher was black, muscular and tall. Garrett was white, blonde hair, overweight and average height. Rachel was white, black hair, slim and average height."
"Thanks Baby Girl," Morgan said.
"Garcia out," Garcia went to press a button on the keyboard but Reid stopped her.
"Garcia not out," he said, grabbing her wrist and pulling her hand back aware that the others were watching the exchange.
Garcia pulled her hand away indignantly. "How am I meant to do work if you've got the screen?"
"You have like ten computers in here," Reid gesticulated to the said computers surrounding them. "Why don't you use that one?" he pointed to the one at the furthest point away from the computer they were currently using.
"Because that's not what that computer is used for!" Garcia huffed as if this was the most blatantly obvious thing.
"But it still does the job, yes?"
"Garcia..." Hotch's commanding voice interrupted whatever response Garcia had.
Garcia glared furiously at Reid for a second before pushing herself away from the table and gliding over to the computer Reid had pointed at, muttering furiously. Reid caught 'intruding', 'workspace' and something about ripping the pages out of a science book before he returned his attention back to the rest of the team.
"You're in the dog house now Reid," Prentiss laughed.
"Focus please," Hotch cut in, his voice stern.
"If it was a blitz attack, he's probably not physically imposing," Prentiss quickly stated.
"Not necessarily," Reid jumped in. "If he used a sledgehammer on his victims, chances are his upper body and core strength are impressive. The extensive damage done to the skull and brain suggest that this UnSub used the sledgehammer more than just twice. To do the most damage he'd need to get a high swing going." Reid raised his hands above his head in an attempt to demonstrate. "Most likely he raised the sledgehammer above his head and swung downwards." He let his arms fall downwards in a whoosh-ingmotion. "We'd need to get the model of the sledgehammer to determine the weight of it, but even if it was a relatively small one, you would need a lot of stamina to continually swing a sledgehammer."
"Get Garcia onto finding the make and model," Hotch said.
Reid turned in his chair. "Garcia –"
"I heard," she snapped, clearly still affronted by Reid's takeover.
"So then why the blitz?" JJ asked.
Reid turned back around. "Maybe he didn't want to look them in the eyes?"
"I'm more concerned with the way he kills them," Rossi said. "It's clearly overkill but why is he focusing on the head?"
"The heads mean something to him," Hotch stated.
"Maybe it's the faces he's attacking," JJ mused. "Might explain the blitz attack: he sees something in the faces that disturbs him, so he takes the victims from behind."
"Whatever the reason, we don't have much time," Morgan pointed out. "John and Ben were found two days apart but Rachel was found only a day after Ben."
Hotch looked at his watch. "We land in ten minutes. Morgan and Prentiss," he looked up at the two agents. "I want you to go to Oakland and update the sheriff's station on the new victim. Go to the two crime scenes – see what you can find." Prentiss and Morgan each nodded and Hotch continued. "Reid," he turned to face the screen again. "Work on victimology with Garcia and start on a geographical profile. The rest of us will stay in Preston County. The crime scene there will be the freshest."
Reid nodded, confident in his ability to complete the given task. He switched the connection between himself and the team off and relinquished his hold on Garcia's prized computer. Predictably, the technician's mood lightened considerably.
Xxx
The highschool was situated in the northern part of Oakland and on the main street connecting the town to the state highway. It was closed for the rest of the week due to the ongoing police investigation, but it wouldn't have mattered either way – the crime scene was more than a day old and the forensics team had come and gone through it, eliminating any hope of keeping it untainted for the BAU.
"This is where the body was found," Sheriff Tate indicated to a point on the concrete just outside the front school gates. Tate was a nice enough man, but he was visibly dismayed when Morgan and Prentiss had informed them that main body of their team would be setting up in West Virginia.
Morgan consulted with the crime scene photos in his hands to corroborate Tate's statement. In each photo, Ben Garrett laid face first on the concrete, his skull completely demolished. Blood, brain and bone mangled in with chunks of hair. Morgan studied a close-up image of the head. The immediate area surrounding the head in this photo gave Morgan pause.
"Prentiss," he called. "Take a look at this." Prentiss moved closer to him and Morgan pointed to the concrete surrounding the fragmented head. "Does something look odd to you?"
Prentiss moved her face closer to the photo, squinting and frowning in concentration.
"There's no blood splatter," she said, looking quizzically up at her colleague.
"What are you talking about?" Tate asked as he watched the two agents flick through the various images.
Morgan showed Tate the photos. "Look at the concrete around his head," Morgan pointed to the concrete within a metre radius of the victim's head. "There's blood pooling out of the skull, but there's no splatter."
"What does that mean?"
"It means that this wasn't where the UnSub killed Ben Garrett," Prentiss explained. "This is where the UnSub dumped Ben Garrett."
"You mean to say that he did all this," Tate waved at the crime scene photos, "somewhere else and then dumped the body here?"
"It would be impossible to transfer the head in this state without the proper equipment," Morgan said. "Most likely he killed Ben with the first blow, transferred him here and then did all this."
"How could you possibly know that?" Tate demanded.
"Look here," Prentiss flicked through the stack of photos before she came to a wider shot of the crime scene. "See here, how there's no blood splatter within the immediate area of the victim's head?" She paused and Tate nodded. "Well, look further out. There's blood splatter on the gate and on the gutter lining the road," she pointed to the areas she had mentioned. "That's with force. The harder the blow, the further the blood travels away from the body."
"What's traffic like here?" Morgan had turned away from Prentiss' explanation and looked out onto the road. For a small town, there was a considerable bit of traffic going through.
"Pretty busy," the Sheriff turned away from Prentiss, looking disgusted. "This is the main road through town. It's one of the major roads that connects Maryland and West Virginia."
"And there were no witnesses?" Prentiss waited for Tate to shake his head before continuing. "How is that possible?"
Morgan turned back around and walked closer the school gate, peering inside into the school grounds.
"He smashed Ben once over the head with a sledgehammer at an unknown location," Morgan muttered under his breath, deep in thought. "Transferred him here and continued to smash his head in plain view of the main road."
"Why would he risk getting caught?" Tate asked, clearly shocked by the conclusions the agents were coming up with in their very short time at the crime scene.
"Because this place means something," Prentiss supplied.
Morgan nodded and turned away from the school, glaring ominously at the sheriff.
"Take us to the other crime scene."
Xxx
A/N: So it is going a little slow, but that is because it is a casefic and I'm trying to build a bit of a mystery. It will pick up soon. Thanks!