Hotch's frustration was rising, his patience waning. It was twenty past seven and no progress had been made. He had instructed JJ to hold out on the press conference until they had more information, but at that point, Hotch was starting to concede that there wasn't going to be any more information. If a body hadn't been found by now anywhere in Preston County, with the sun now out, morning joggers doing their rounds and a still heavy police presence on the streets, the likelihood that a body was going to be found was pretty slim. To Hotch, this could only mean that the UnSub had once again crossed state lines. Yet he had not received any frantic calls from West Virginia's neighbouring states. For the first time in a long time, Hotch was beginning to doubt the profile his team had formulated and was beginning to grow concerned that this case, like so many others, was growing cold.
"Hotch, you got to hear this." Morgan had called Garcia as Hotch had instructed, preferring to take the call outside the conference room. Now as he walked back in, his announcement had elicited hopeful looks on the faces of his teammates. "Garcia, you're on speaker." He put the phone down on the conference table so that everyone could hear.
"Have you found another body?" Hotch quickly asked, fully expecting Garcia to reply in the affirmative.
"No sir, but I ran the M.O and profile through ViCap," Garcia started. "And I found nothing. Zilch." She took in a breath. "But then I remembered what you said about this guy's obsession with schools and education systems and whatnot and I dug a little deeper."
"And what did you find?" Prentiss asked, hopeful.
"Nothing," Garcia dashed their hopes only to reignite them seconds later. "But then I read over the profile again and started thinking: this creep is fascinated with brains. He smashed up Rachel's and Ben's and John's right? But Reid said that's because he wanted to show the education system that they had failed. Which means this UnSub mightn't think very highly of his victims' intelligence, but what would he do to the brains of people he thought were intelligent or intelligent-er...is that a word?"
"Garcia," Hotch prodded. "What did you find?"
"Every year for the past twenty, a body has turned up – somewhere in the country –badly beaten and brain missing," Garcia rushed.
There was silence in the conference room for a minute before Rossi spoke up.
"But that's a completely different M.O," he said.
"Garcia," Hotch began. "Send me a list of the victims' details, their occupations and addresses, autopsy reports," he instructed.
"Way ahead of you," Garcia chimed proudly and the computer that was sitting on the conference room table ding -ed upon the arrival of Garcia's information loaded email.
"Most of the victims were pretty successful," Garcia provided as JJ and Prentiss scrolled through the list of victims and their details. "Lawyers, doctors, businessmen. But there are a couple of surprises."
"Three to be exact," Prentiss said. "A homeless man, a stay-at-home wife and mother, and an up-and-coming model."
"Look at this," JJ pointed at the screen, "the UnSub makes sure not to take a victim in a state bordering the one he's taken a victim from the year before."
"He's making sure to distance the kills by time and place," Morgan said. "He's making sure no one connects them."
"It's all about the brain," Prentiss reminded everyone. "Most of these victims are successful career oriented members of a high social class. But the homeless man, the mum and the model don't fit the victimology."
"Doesn't mean they're not intelligent," Rossi pointed out. "Could be that they chose different paths."
"Garcia, look at IQ scores," Hotch instructed. "See if any of them are members of MENSA, if they've formally been tested to determine IQ level."
"On it," Garcia said, and once again the team heard the patter of her fingers as they raced across the keyboard.
"What do the autopsy reports say?" Hotch queried, directing his question at Prentiss and JJ.
"There were ligature marks on all the victims," Prentiss said. "Looks like they were held for at least a day."
"They were badly beaten too," JJ read from the screen. "But just their bodies. All victims were missing the top of their skulls, but other than that the faces were left untouched."
"Overkill," Rossi muttered.
JJ nodded and then continued, "The later victims were drugged."
"What with?" Rossi asked.
"Modafinil," JJ answered.
"Garcia..."
"On that too," she breathed through the phone.
Rossi circled round behind Prentiss and JJ to read the reports over their backs. His brow was furrowed and he looked concerned.
"What is it Dave?" Hotch asked.
"This doesn't make any sense," Rossi admitted, looking up. "If this is the same UnSub, his M.O has completely changed. Look at this," he waved his hand at the computer screen. "This guy is careful. He's been doing this for twenty years and he hasn't been caught. He takes victims from different states, once a year – he's patient . He never takes victims from the neighbouring states of the state he took a victim from the previous year – he's paranoid. " He waved his hand again, but this time at the whiteboard holding up all the crime scene photos of the three most recent victims. "This guy is careful, but not careful enough to escape detection. He kills three victims in less than a week, crossing state lines and murdering in towns less than hour away from each other. The only things the two sets of murders have in common are the targeting of the brain and excessive rage and overkill."
"So what are you saying?" Hotch couldn't deny Rossi's logic, but without a new body and crime scene, this was the only lead they had left.
"I'm saying either these are two different UnSubs," Rossi clarified. "Or this is just one UnSub and he deliberately changed his M.O."
"Why would he do that?" JJ asked.
"Something changed," Morgan supplied. "A stressor."
"We profiled that this UnSub is mission oriented," Rossi said. "What if this is a part of his mission?"
"But now he's exposed himself," Prentiss countered. "That can't be a part of his mission."
"Maybe he never thought we'd make the connection between the two sets of murders," Hotch chimed in.
"He wanted us here," Rossi said. "That would explain why another body hasn't turned up yet. He wants to distract us."
"From what Rossi?" Morgan sounded annoyed, although if Hotch had to guess, he would say Morgan's annoyance was more at the confusing nature of the situation than at Rossi and his theories. "He could have gotten away with another twenty years and another twenty victims. His distraction only alerted us to the fact that he's been killing for so long and killing at all!"
"We're missing something," Hotch said simply.
"Guys," Garcia cut in, apparently unaware that she had interrupted a particularly startling revelation. "All the victims had IQ tests done. I've sent the results to Morgan's PDA." Everyone looked towards Morgan as he opened up the device. "Also, Jaje was right. Ten of the victims were drugged with Modafinil. It's usually taken for sleeping disorders like narcolepsy, but it has been known to enhance cognitive ability."
"He's trying to make them smarter?" Prentiss sounded confused and judging by the looks on her colleagues faces, they were too.
"I'm out," Garcia said. "Let me know if you need anything else." She hung up.
"Guys," Morgan sounded startled as he looked up from the PDA. "I've found the connection." His team looked at him expectantly and he continued. "The first victim had an IQ score of 166. The second victim had a score of 167. The third – 168. Every year he takes a victim, the IQ score goes up by one."
"So the last victim had an IQ of 186?" Prentiss asked no one in particular.
The team was quiet, processing this new information. And then quite suddenly and unexpectedly, JJ let out a mangled gasp.
"Hotch!" she stood up, face flushed and panicked. "Reid. His IQ is 187."
"He wanted us here," Rossi's voice floated through Hotch's head. "He wants to distract us."
"Oh my God," Prentiss was out of her seat, pulling out her phone and banging on the keypad.
Suddenly the room was panicked. The atmosphere heightened with anxiety. Morgan had taken out his phone too and JJ flew out of the room.
"Aaron!" Rossi was by his side. "Did you speak to him this morning?" he asked. "Did you get the geographical profile from him?"
Hotch didn't answer and instead pulled out his own phone. His first instinct was to dial Reid's number, but instead he rang Garcia, making sure to put her on speaker.
She picked up on the second ring just as Morgan and Prentiss both shouted that Reid had failed to answer their own calls.
"Mysterious and wonde-"
"Garcia, where's Reid?" Hotch didn't have time for pleasantries or politeness.
"He's not in yet," Garcia sounded nervous.
"What time did he say he was going to come in?" Hotch asked.
"Seven," she replied.
Hotch looked down at his watch – it was five to eight.
"Garcia, what did he say last night?" Hotch asked, all too aware that the entire team, besides JJ, was watching and listening intently.
"He...he went home..." she stuttered. "He ate...he ate Thai."
"Garcia," Hotch tried to keep his voice level, but a panic was rising within him. "I need to know right now why Reid left early last night." There was a slight pause and Hotch felt the panic get the better of him. "Garcia, now!"
"He got a message last night," Garcia squeaked, sounding scared and close to tears as she suddenly realised this was not just a friendly check-in call – something bigger, something scarier, was happening here. "He didn't tell me who it was from, but once he got it, he told me had to leave. He said it was important."
"Have you spoken to him since?" Hotch asked quickly.
"No," Garcia admitted. "I tried calling him this morning, but his phone is off."
"I need to know who he was messaging."
"Yeah, okay, right. I'm on that," there was now a determination in her voice. "Okay, I've got his phone records up," she announced. "Oh wow, he's been texting this one number a lot. It is the last number he received a text from last night."
"Who does the number belong to?"
There was a slight pause. "It's prepaid," she said.
"Can you trace it?"
"It's turned off."
"How often does Reid text the number?" Hotch asked.
"A lot," Garcia said. "In the past six months, it looks like hundreds of texts have been exchanged."
"Have they spoken at all?"
"It looks like Reid tried calling a couple of times, but it's just gone through voicemail."
"Patch us through," Hotch commanded.
"Sir?"
"Now Garcia."
There was another pause and then a dial tone echoed from Hotch's phone. The tone came to a stop and voicemail picked up.
"You've called Jason Gideon. Leave your name and number."
Hotch's blood ran cold.
Xxx
A/N: I'm going to start naming and shaming reviewers (that sounds awful, but I mean it in a 'thankyou, thankyou, thankyou!' sort of way). So THANKYOU to Annber03, , Sniper (I hope this answered your question) and RU12 who sent me a PM.
As always, reviews are much appreciated.