It seemed like Derek had just fallen asleep when he heard his phone ringing on the night stand.
"Seriously?" He mumbled, wanting nothing more than to ignore the call and go back to sleep. He squinted as he looked at the bright light glowing from his phone.
He answered, his voice thick from sleep.
"Garcia?"
A loud and cheery voice assaulted his ears."You're supposed to say, Good morning, Princess…and then I'm supposed to say, I'll show you a good morning hot stuff."
"It's too early…" he growled.
"Oh, my chocolate Adonis, it is never too early to profess your love…"
"Penelope, is there a reason you are calling me at 4 o'clock in the morning?"
"Nothing like dousing a girl with cold water. Duty calls, my love. Hotch wants everyone in the office ASAP. We have a new case."
"Alright, baby girl, see you soon."
"Au revoir mon amour."
Penelope had been up since Hotch had called her at 3:30. He had her contact the team and briefed her on the new case. Nothing like hitting the ground running.
As Garcia turned the corner toward the board room she almost ran right into Derek. Taking a sip of his coffee, he thought he'd try again.
"Good morning, princess."
"Good morning." She said quickly as she started to walk away from him.
He gave her a look of mock hurt. "That's it? You're gonna leave me hanging?"
She stopped, leaned in, and said in the most seductive voice she could muster, "I'll show you a good morning, handsome."
Hotch walked by at that exact moment, "It's too early, you two."
Morgan smiled and said, "Yeah, that's what I told her."
Garcia grabbed the remote and brought up the latest case information.
"Good morning my early birds, I wish I had better news for you. Sarah Roberts, 35 years old, was found stabbed and strangled in her home in Evanston, Illinois. She was found by her husband, Marcus, around 12am when he returned home from a night out with his buddies. Cook County police contacted us as this is the 3rd victim in the last month with a similar MO. Each victim is a woman in her mid-thirties, white, and blonde. Each live in affluent neighborhoods of Evanston. All three were stabbed twice in the lower left torso and then strangled. All three were killed in the early evening while their husbands were out of the house, and there was no sign of forced entry into any of the homes."
Rossi spoke up, "Well the MO is pretty specific. Although based on the crime scene photos you can tell with the first and second victims there was hesitation in the stab wounds. Nervousness, perhaps. But in the most recent murder the wounds look clean and precise. The unsub is honing their craft."
Not looking up from the photos, Derek mused, "The unsub must know the area well, all of these murders occurred within a 10 mile radius. They're territorial in their killing, confident enough to murder three women, but not quite confident enough to leave their comfort zone."
Reid looked up, "Lester Harrison had a similar MO. In the 1970's he killed 6 women. Aroused by the thought of female suffering, Harrison derived satisfaction from beating and stabbing his victims, he even once sampled cannibalism in the case of Lee Wilson. All of his kills happened in or around Grant Park in downtown Chicago. Though in this case I see no signs of sexual deviance of any kind."
Prentiss looked up and asked, "Other than being 30-something, blonde-haired, affluent white women, do any of our victims share commonalities?"
Garcia answered, "Yes. The police are investigating this as a racially motivated crime."
Everyone looked up at her with confusion on their faces.
Morgan asked, "How do they figure that the death of three white women is racially motivated?"
"Well, it seems that all three women were all married to African American men. The unsub may not be choosing the women solely based on physicality, but also their interracial marriages."
Hotch began to pack up his paperwork, "We need to head out as soon as possible. Garcia, you'll will be accompanying us this time. We will be using you mostly as our technical analyst, but know that I will pull you if we need the back up. Wheels up in 30."
The team gathered their things and headed out.
"You're awfully quiet, baby girl." Morgan stated.
"Oh no, I'm fine. Just thinking about how real this all is. This is what I wanted right? Do you think I'm ready?"
Derek grabbed her hand. "Penelope, they don't just pass people through the agent certification program for no reason. You'll be fine. Don't forget, you have all of us. We won't let anything happen to you...I wont let anything happen to you."
Penelope squeezed his hand and thanked him for the sentiment. "I uh, need to stop by my office. See you on the plane?"
"You bet."
As she walked away Derek's smile turned in to a look of worry. He didn't dare tell Penelope of his fears, as he was still trying to prove to her that he was proud of her for her accomplishments and believed in her abilities. God help him if anything happened to her on his watch. He gathered his things and headed to the plane.
As Penelope finished grabbing her things from her office her hands shook in nervousness. She took her gun out of her bag and placed it in a holster around her waist. She wore a jacket over her blouse to hide it as best she could. She really hoped they wouldn't need her in the field. Being squared away at the police station behind her computer sounded just fine to her. She wasn't ready.
As everyone settled into their seats on the plane, Penelope walked down the aisle last. She took the last seat available beside Reid and across from Morgan.
Morgan raised an eyebrow as he looked at her. "Uh-oh, Mama's packing some heat. Remind me to stay on your good side." He said as he winked at her.
Reid leaned over, "Do you feel comfortable with it yet?"
"I'm not really sure how to answer that. If you mean in the context of shooting another human being, then I guess we'll find out when it happens."
Derek gave her a sobering look. "You'll be fine. Stop worrying."
They all sat in silence as the plane began its descent. Morgan was looking out the window, lost in his own thoughts.
Penelope spoke quietly, "Are you going to call your family, let them know you're in town."
He shook his head. "No. Mom will just worry, and I don't need to have that on my mind during a case. I'll just call her when we finish up."
"You know I still haven't met her. Any woman who can put up Derek Morgan for that long must be a saint."
Derek smiled, "Well, you may have never met her, but she knows all about the great Penelope Garcia. Although the first couple years I knew you mom thought your name was baby girl."
"You talked to your mom about me? All good, I hope." She was secretly pleased about this.
"Why wouldn't I tell my mom about my best friend? You have nothing to worry about, she already loves you." Like I do, He thought.
Hotch directed everyone back to their case files. "When we land I want to hit the ground running. Rossi and J.J., I want the two of you to interview the family members of the most recent victim and get in contact with family and friends of the other two. Reid, I want you and Prentiss to head to the medical examiner's office for autopsy reports on all three victims. Garcia, I want you set up at the local precinct digging through records on all of our victims. I want to know where they work, who their friends are, if there is anything in their past we need to know about. Morgan and I will head to the last crime scene."
Penelope wasted no time settling into her makeshift office at the local precinct. She typed in the names and social security numbers of the three victims. Apparently they had a lot more in common than they originally thought. She quickly called Morgan to let him know what she found.
"Baby girl, you're on speaker."
"Okay, so these ladies have quite a bit more in common than just their looks and love life. All three of the victims were originally from Chicago. Our first victim, Shauna Wright, 33, grew up on the south side of Chicago. Her father was an abusive alcoholic, had a rap sheet a mile long. Her mother divorced her father and the two of them moved to Evanston when Shauna was 13 years old. Our second victim, Myra King, 34, is like a record on replay. Raised on the west side of Chicago, father was convicted of murder when she was 10 years old, struggled with drug and alcohol addiction, mother moved her to the suburbs after her father went to prison. And our last sweet girl, Sarah, 34, also grew up on Chicago's south side, mom left dad when she was 8 after he beat both of them to a bloody pulp. They, of course, relocated to Evanston."
Morgan looked at Hotch, "The fact that the unsub knows these personal facts about the victims means that they were close to them. How else would you know those intimate details?"
"Oh, my sweet, I wasn't finished. All three of our victims had white mothers and black fathers. Before you ask, yes, I know that all of the girls are blonde haired and blue-eyed, how could they possibly have a black father? Well, I will spare you the suspense. All of the mothers had these girls in previous relationships with white men. All of these men were abusive. They left the relationships while their girls were young and their new boy toys raised these young ladies as their own. Doesn't seem like these women did much better, they just jumped from abuser to abuser. And for the finale, my dears, all three women are graduates of Wheaton College and they all graduated with degrees in urban studies."
Hotch answered, "Great work, Garcia. If you could get us the contact information…
"For the director of the Urban Studies program? The address and phone number are being sent to your phones now. I've already called ahead and he has openings at 2 and 4pm."
"You're amazing, baby girl."
"Tell me something I don't know, handsome."
Morgan and Hotch walked through the Roberts' home until they found the police officer in charge.
The portly officer looked up at them, annoyance in his crossed arms. "You must be the Feds. We already scoured the place, haven't found much."
"Has everything been left as it was when you arrived?" Hotch questioned the officer.
"Yes, sir, but like I told you, we didn't find much."
Morgan put his hand on the door frame and felt for any rough edges. "Hotch, there is no evidence of a break-in. The victim either knew the unsub, or felt safe enough to let them into the house without her husband home."
Hotch was looking at two glasses that were lying in the sink. "Morgan, look at this. Both glasses have a little bit of wine left in them. The victim wouldn't let a stranger into her home and then share a drink with them. She had to have known them."
Hotch's cell began to ring.
"Go ahead Reid."
"Sir, we talked to the medical examiner and he deduced that all three victims died from asphyxia. It seems the unsub stabbed the victims first in an attempt to subdue them, then killed them by means of strangulation. Something interesting we found is that there is a considerable amount of bruising on the necks of all three victims. These bruises are an indication of the process of squeezing, re-gripping, and then squeezing the neck again. Also evidenced by the size and depth of the bruising is the size of the unsub's hands. They are abnormally small. I think we may be looking for a woman."