My Life Had Stood
Chapter Two: A Small Domain
Garcia sighed as she entered her space at Quantico. The hassle of the airport flight back had been galling. Somehow her return flight ticket hadn't shown up in the airport's system, and by the time it'd been resolved she had missed her planned flight.
Thus she was just now getting into work, while the rest of her team were off on a case. It gnawed at her that such a small thing had postponed her helping out her team. She had almost been tempted to hack into the airport's system and solve the blip herself.
She sighed again, sitting down on her comfy chair. The sight of her computers awaiting her every whim, relieved the stress that had tensed up her back muscles. The spice chai latte she'd bought on the way in also helped.
"Now, let's see…." She started up her system, feeling more of her tensed muscles relax. Garcia sipped some of her latte, keen on forgetting about the hassle at the airport. As though on cue, her phone rang. She answered it, giving one of her witty greetings.
"Garcia, I need you to look up some stuff." Hotch said, after greeting the tech analyst and mentioning that he was glad her flight delay was taken care of.
"Whatever you need, my liege." Garcia replied, her fingers readied above the keyboard.
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"All right. Garcia is finding out what she can on our victims, including the two most recently discovered ones." Hotch said as he returned his cell phone to his pocket. None of them had wanted the search to discover more bodies but it didn't surprise them when the Pennsylvania police had greeted their arrival with that very news. Shortly after that, he had sent Rossi and Lewis to interview the victims' families, and JJ and Morgan to search the dump sites. "How's the geographic profile coming along, Reid?"
"It's coming along fine. Though not knowing where the first victim was taken as well as there possibly being more victims yet to be unearthed, it's a very rough sketch of the unsub's comfort zone." Spencer replied while placing a pin on the map reflecting where the most recently uncovered victim was found.
"Keep at it. And if more victims are found…." Hotch spoke, only to be interrupted by Andrew Myers, the chief lieutenant in charge of the Pennsylvania side of the local investigation.
"There's been another victim discovered." Myers said almost as soon as he approached. "About two miles from the construction site where the little girl was found."
"Does the M.E have an estimate how long this victim was buried….." Hotch paused when the officer shook his head.
"This victim was killed only a hour and a half ago, and left in the house she shared with her sister."
"…what about this victim makes you think it's connected to our unsub?" Hotch asked after a few moments.
"Preliminary forensics matches the type of wounds suffered by the other victims as well as the head wound being made by the same type of weapon as the most recent victims." Myers replied.
"If this is the same unsub, it reflects a great change in his MO." Spencer said, his body partly turned toward the two men. "It's possible he knows his dump site has been discovered and that the police are combing the area for more bodies."
"I don't see how that's possible. There's been a gag on the media dealing with this case." Myers said.
"It might not be the same unsub – we need to go to the crime scene and investigate."
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The cozy bungalow was neatly ordered, but overcrowded with knickknacks. The shelves were full of them, ninety percent of them the DIY kind that required the buyer to paint them. They ranged in size but were all some sort of squirrel or robin.
"You have quite a collection. Did you paint all of these yourself?" Rossi asked Brie's grandmother, Celia James, after noting the table loaded with brushes and craft paint.
"Oh, no. Many of them, yes. But those…." Celia gestured toward the three largest shelves across the room. "…those were done by my daughter Margaret, Brie's mother." The elderly lady, with streaks of gray in her hair looked sadly at those shelves.
"Brie's mother Margaret died in an accident a few years before Brie went missing, correct?" Rossi questioned, getting a nod as a response. Noting the moisture in Celia's eyes he proffered her a box of tissues from the coffee table beside him. "I can't imagine what you must be going through. Outliving both your daughter and granddaughter….I'd imagine that's the worst thing a parent and grandparent can go through."
Celia dabbed her eyes, and turned towards Rossi. "It is terrible. Not knowing was just as terrible." She sighed, her lips quivering. "At least Margaret didn't have to go through losing a child."
Rossi spoke more words of condolence, doing what he could to not overwhelm the poor woman. "I know you've been through a lot, but I need to ask you some questions about Brie."
"All right." Celia said, her posture that of someone determined not to give into grief despite her obviously moist eyes. "What do you need to know?"
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"It appears Michelle Kramer was struck while walking up the stairs, after which she fell to the bottom." Spencer said, looking over the body. He crouched down, noticing something off about the blood splatter. The edge of one of the splotches was shaped like part of a square. He further spotted another similar shape heading away from the body. "Hotch."
"Did you find something, Reid?" Hotch asked, pausing his questioning the neighbor who'd called the murder in. It hadn't been long, but the authorities were still trying to get in touch with the victim's sister.
"I think a woman was here when the victim was killed." Spencer said, pointing out the marks. "Someone in high heels stepped in the victim's blood before leaving."
"Could this mean the culprit's a woman?" Myers asked.
"It's unlikely. Considering the force behind the deathblow, it's most likely our unsub is male." Hotch paused. "Even if the killer is female, striking the victim at the top of the stairs while wearing high heels would risk the unsub losing his or her balance."
"It's likely the person wearing the heels is the victim's sister." Spencer said while looking over the shoe-rack beside the door. "There are size 7 and size 5 shoes here. The size 7 shoes are mostly sneakers and low-heeled ones, while the size 5 shoes are all various high heels. The victim wore size 7, so presumably her sister wears the size 5."
Hotch took out his cell, his expression stoic except for his eyes.
"What…."
"It's likely the unsub took the victim's sister, and is holding her somewhere." Hotch explained to Myers. "You should issue a APB, I'll call Garcia, our tech analyst, to track Giselle Kramer's cell phone. Reid, you should go back to the station with Myers and continue the geographic profile."
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"This is quite a large area. The perfect place to bury a body and not have it discovered." JJ commented, her gaze taking in their surroundings. The area where the first victim had been found, before the construction project started, must have been beautiful and solitary.
"…Yeah." Morgan glanced around himself, at the construction machinery and the evergreens just outside the perimeter. It was a very isolated spot, same as the road leading up to it. "Does something about this seem off to you?"
"…." JJ paused, considering their surroundings and the photographs of the other dump sites. "I don't know. It's isolated enough….more than some of the others."
"Exactly. Until this housing development project got green lit it was isolated enough that the unsub could've come out and moved the body."
"Maybe the unsub thought the project wouldn't go through?" JJ offered, though she too had felt confused by how ignored this victim had been by the unsub. "The reports of the other sites said that at least one of the other bodies had been moved previously by the unsub, correct?"
Morgan nodded, recalling how upon arriving at the investigation headquarters at the precinct they were apprised of that fact; as well as notified that two more bodies had been found. "Soil samples were found that suggest Brie Adams had been buried elsewhere first, then reburied where the police found her."
"…." JJ gave a brief shake of her head, her lips pressed together in contemplation. "It's strange that our unsub didn't try to move this victim's body when news of the project was released after being green lit. It's almost like the unsub forgot or didn't care about this victim."
"Or maybe this victim was killed by a different unsub."
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A/N: End chapter, thanks for reading and I hope you like this so far. Reviews are highly appreciated.
I have much planned for this fic, but my brain seems to be rebelling against me for this part of it, so I may end up sort of rushing through this case to get on with the rest of the story.