Chapter 7

Jack the ripper

Gideon and Hotch were talking about what Garcia told him earlier. She had resumed him what kind of abuse Reid went through when he was a kid: food and sleep deprivation, physical abuse, he went to the hospital multiple times and apparently his father had also taken the habit to punish him by submerging him into cold water. His father had been sent in jail for some years, and now he was living in Las Vegas. After that, he had asked her to make some researches on Jordan Todd and Emily Prentiss too. They had endured similar abuse too. No sexual abuses was reported, mainly physical and emotional. Now Hotch wondered what he should tell to the rest of the team.

"I know we have to share information within the team, but I don't know if this is really necessary."

"For now I don't think it is. Plus they learned enough for today, no need to go further for now."

The dark-haired man nodded. He also wished that he or Gideon could have a talk with Reid; it was obvious that the day had been difficult for him already.

"Can you talk to him? I think he'll feel better with you."

"I will. You should talk to agent Prentiss and Jordan Todd."

Hotch nodded and left, he went outside and saw Reid, Prentiss and Todd together.

"Come inside, Reid, Gideon want to see you, and Misses Todd and Prentiss, I wish to talk to you."

None of them protested and followed Hotch inside, Reid went to Gideon and Prentiss and Jordan stayed with Hotch. The chief asked them many questions about Gary, and what they remembered. Jordan and Emily only told him that Gary Michaels had disappeared the night of the sixth June and they all had been told the morning at school. They tried to search for him in the forest along with Spencer, but never found him. His mother had told the police that someone had broken into her house and knocked her out, and when she had regained consciousness her child wasn't here anymore. Hotch asked if they remembered anyone who had a strange behaviour toward Gary or them before he disappeared, but they didn't remember anything. They hadn't noticed anyone watching them recently either. Then, he asked something different:

"Are you two okay?"

The sisters knew he would ask them this, and they couldn't really find the answer. Emily spoke first:

"Well, personally I am fine but this is just all so strange and disturbing. I want to know the truth but I wonder if it will be worse than not knowing."

"I understand, what about you, Miss Todd?"

"Well, I wished to never see this town again, the Sherriff especially, but I'll be fine."

"Alright. We are gonna gather and share our information, and after that we will go to the motel, if you want Miss Todd you can hear us, but you can also go to the motel already."

"I'll stay, I am fine."

Hotch nodded and gave her a slight smile, she was doing well for a civilian, especially when the matter was so personal.

Five minutes later, the whole team plus Jordan and Emily were gathered to make a point.

"Okay, victimology first, we have Gary Michaels, who disappeared eleven years ago. Then Marc Potter who disappeared three days ago and whose head was sent to Spencer Reid. Now, there are you three, Emily Prentiss, Jordan Todd and Spencer Reid who are obviously involved in the killer's scheme one way or another."

"Both Gary and Potter were aggressed during night, they were both high-risk victims," remarked Elle.

"Potter was violent with children and Gary was abused by his mother," said Morgan. "If the killer is the same who kidnapped Gary, maybe he has an obsession with child abusers."

"You think he kidnapped Gary to protect him?"

"It's something we can consider."

"I highly doubt it," Emily replied, "or else he could have kidnapped me, Jordan or Reid, or any other kids ill-treated, we weren't the only ones."

"What kind of little boy was he?" Asked Gideon

"Quite introverted," Reid answered, "and fascinated with horror stories. He liked animals and he tended to be worried when something happened to one of us."

"He liked to write," Jordan added, "it's him who proposed us to tell each others horror stories. He always said he wanted to be a writer later."

"So he was still innocent in spite of what his mother did."

"He had a strange imagination, but he still had hopes and he wasn't violent," Reid confirmed.

"And he loved you all?"

"Yes."

"Then maybe it's that: the common point between Potter and you three is Gary and nothing else. The killer had kidnapped Gary, kept him all this time, and your friend died recently," resumed Gideon. "He misses Gary and decided then to focus on you three, the people he loved the most in the world. He also decided to punish everyone who hurt you four."

Reid closed his eyes, all these years he had envisaged Gary's death but now that Gideon was saying it out loud, it was as if he had been announced his friend was dead for good. Prentiss was worried for her friends, hoping they wouldn't die and at the same time, she felt incredibly sad at the idea that Gary had been prisoner all this time. For Jordan she did her best to hold down her tears, she was feeling so tired and somehow it was unbearable to hear this agent talk so calmly about Gary's death, even if it was his job.

"We must work on Gary," concluded Elle, "he is the key. Do you remember anyone particular who showed an attachment to him?"

"No, sorry, we were already asked that," answered Emily.

"People didn't really pay attention to us," replied Reid.

Hotch looked at the three friends and saw how tired they looked, and wished this to end up quickly.

"Okay, we will do our own research separated. Let's go to the hotel, we'll continue to work here."

They all nodded, the rest of the team was also tired. They went to the hotel where Hotch announced something:

"Okay guys, I have to tell you we didn't have enough rooms for everyone, you'll have to share. I'll go with Gideon, JJ and Elle together, Morgan and Reid you share, as well as Prentiss and Miss Todd."

Usually, Morgan would have protested, but it wasn't the moment. When they were in their room, Derek wondered if he should tell Reid something.

"Hey…You're okay?"

"I'm fine."

The genius didn't give any other answer before going back to his files. Morgan knew it was useless to try again and worked too. The next day, the team was back to the police station, JJ immediately got to handle the calls of reporters and curious people who wanted information about Marc Potter's death. As for the rest of the team, they began to work again, when the Sherriff came to find Gideon, he looked pale like death.

"There had been another murder…You have to see it."

Jason sensed immediately something very wrong and urgent happened.

"Where is that?" Asked Gideon

When the Sherriff gave him the address, Gideon reunited the team, minus JJ who was still handling reporters and Jordan who couldn't go to a crime scene. When they reached the place, a young man was yelling like crazy

"She is dead, there is blood everywhere! Why aren't you searching her killer already!"

An ambulance was here and wanted to lead him away but he was resisting. Prentiss went to an officer:

"What's wrong?"

"He is the one who discovered the victim, he is the boyfriend. I barely saw it, I couldn't watch. The mother had seen it, she fainted, and she went to the hospital."

Emily wondered if it was really that bad. The team entered the house and went to the room where the corpse was. When he saw it, Gideon was glad he hadn't brought Jordan here. The scene was just horrific, and they understood now why the young man made such a ruckus when he saw this. It was a bloodbath, the victim had been eviscerated, massacred, there was no real word to describe it. Strangely what stomached Reid and Emily the most was what was written on the wall:

FOR MY DEAR EMILY PRENTISS.

"It's him again…" Morgan breathed out.

They stayed silent at first and Hotch advanced to the corpse. It wasn't looking human anymore. Elle felt quite faint, yet she managed to keep her composure. Reid was nauseous, it was worse than everything he saw in the morgue. When he succeeded in taking off his eyes from the corpse, Hotch noticed something on the night table: it looked like a letter and on it was written: to the FBI. He took it; it was obviously from the killer.

"He left something:

Dear police and my dear friends,

After Marc Potter, this is my second present. I think this should be all you have to know about Trisha's death, I respected the initial model, maybe there will be some little differences, I hope you'll forgive me, I did my best:

The body was lying naked in the middle of the bed, the shoulders flat but the axis of the body inclined to the left side of the bed. The head was turned on the left cheek. The left arm was close to the body with the forearm flexed at a right angle and lying across the abdomen. The right arm was slightly abducted from the body and rested on the mattress. The elbow was bent, the forearm supine with the fingers clenched. The legs were wide apart, the left thigh at right angles to the trunk and the right forming an obtuse angle with the pubes.
The whole of the surface of the abdomen and thighs was removed and the abdominal cavity emptied of its viscera. The breasts were cut off, the arms mutilated by several jagged wounds and the face hacked beyond recognition of the features. The tissues of the neck were severed all round down to the bone.

Reid paled and turned to Emily, they both knew what it was:

"It's the fifth victim…"

"What?"

"It's the autopsy of Jack the Ripper's fifth victim, Mary Jane Kelly," said Reid in a breath.

Hotch continued to read:

The viscera were found in various parts viz: the uterus and kidneys with one breast under the head, the other breast by the right foot, the liver between the feet, the intestines by the right side and the spleen by the left side of the body. The flaps removed from the abdomen and thighs were on a table.
The bed clothing at the right corner was saturated with blood, and on the floor beneath was a pool of blood covering about two feet square. The wall by the right side of the bed and in a line with the neck was marked by blood which had struck it in several places.
The face was gashed in all directions, the nose, cheeks, eyebrows, and ears being partly removed. The lips were blanched and cut by several incisions running obliquely down to the chin. There were also numerous cuts extending irregularly across all the features.

Hotch took a breath, this was just so horrible, even for an experienced agent. Elle, Morgan, Emily, Reid and Gideon were silent.

The neck was cut through the skin and other tissues right down to the vertebrae, the fifth and sixth being deeply notched. The skin cuts in the front of the neck showed distinct ecchymosis. The air passage was cut at the lower part of the larynx through the cricoid cartilage.
Both breasts were more or less removed by circular incisions, the muscle down to the ribs being attached to the breasts. The intercostals between the fourth, fifth, and sixth ribs were cut through and the contents of the thorax visible through the openings.
The skin and tissues of the abdomen from the costal arch to the pubes were removed in three large flaps. The right thigh was denuded in front to the bone, the flap of skin, including the external organs of generation, and part of the right buttock. The left thigh was stripped of skin fascia, and muscles as far as the knee.
The left calf showed a long gash through skin and tissues to the deep muscles and reaching from the knee to five inches above the ankle. Both arms and forearms had extensive jagged wounds.
The right thumb showed a small superficial incision about one inch long, with extravasation of blood in the skin, and there were several abrasions on the back of the hand moreover showing the same condition.
On opening the thorax it was found that the right lung was minimally adherent by old firm adhesions. The lower part of the lung was broken and torn away. The left lung was intact. It was adherent at the apex and there were a few adhesions over the side. In the substances of the lung there were several nodules of consolidation.
The pericardium was open below and the heart absent. In the abdominal cavity there was some partly digested food of fish and potatoes, and similar food was found in the remains of the stomach attached to the intestines.

When he was done, Hotch looked at the corpse again. God this poor girl had been completely butchered. Emily was paler than ever. Spencer opened his mouth as he remembered who Trisha was to them:

"She was a bully, I remember her, she was often mocking us when we were kids..."

"It's my fault," murmured she.

"What?"

Everyone looked at her in disbelief.

"When I was a kid I…I had a fascination over Jack the Ripper. I know it's weird but I did. It's not that I liked what he did, but I was fascinated by the fact he was never discovered, and we…We played that game when we were kids. One of us would be Jack, the others would be detectives. That's why she died like this…"

"No, Emily it's not your fault," uttered Spencer. "It's not because we disliked her as kids that she died, she died because some psycho decided to kill her."

She wasn't listening anymore. It was the first time since this investigation that she realised fully this had been all made for them, and even if they had never asked for anything, it was somehow their fault. A part of her knew it was wrong, that if someone was crazy enough, it wasn't her fault, yet she couldn't help. It was all because of their games, their stories…Did someone spy on them or make Gary spill all of it? She remembered it all, playing Jack the Ripper in the woods, telling their stories here…

Suddenly, she realised something, why hadn't she thought about it sooner?

"The woods, Spencer, we need to go there!"

"What?"

"We always played in the woods, if the Unsub is so…Obsessed with us, maybe he knows about the cave."

"Which cave?" Asked Hotch

"The one where we used to go to tell each other horror stories," she explained, "I don't know, maybe he went there, it's very isolated."

"Okay. "

Okay, if someone wonders, I didn't invent the autopsy report, it's what Jack the Ripper really did to his fifth victim, you can find this on Wikipedia. RIP Mary Jane Kelly.