Chapter 5

By the time the guys returned with Rusty and lunch Lauren stapled together copies of the information she had put together from the internet with Buzz's help. She had pulled her hair up into a loose bun and looked less perfect, less grown up and way more cute in Flynn's opinion than that morning. Rusty eyed the profiler suspiciously. His experience with good looking young women was strained since he'd met Emma Rios. Sharon appeared in the door of her office sending a smile his way, while Sanchez exclaimed "Lunch's ready", and headed for the break room with bags of food and several pizza boxes. Everyone followed him and soon food was passed around.

Lauren had ordered a salad too and just pecked at hers which didn't go unnoticed by her mother. Sharon cleared her throat and got everyone's attention immediately.

"I think I have yet to introduce our guest. Some of you have met Lauren. She studied psychology in Boston and got her doctor in spring. Her studies focused on behavioral analysis and thus her professor recommended her to Captain Taylor, who accepted not knowing Prof. Phillips would send my daughter."

"Daughter?" Rusty repeated, while Flynn's ears turned crimson much to Provenza's amusement. Sharon sensed the defensive posture her foster child took, since she represented him with yet another unannounced change. Lauren covered her insecurity with a smile. "Is everyone in your family in legal business?" Flynn managed to grumble. Nobody really knew what to say. It was Sykes who broke the spell by offering her hand to Lauren "Well, welcome then Dr. Raydor." The young woman took the hand and said "Lauren's enough I don't feel comfortable with the title yet." The other's she hadn't met, introduced themselves while Rusty sat brooding in a corner chewing on his pizza. Sharon walked over and sat next to him while Lauren maneuvered through small talk.

"Is she staying with us?" he asked without preamble. Sharon hummed. His voice sounded like he was going to have one of his fits but he simply got up and marched away before she could say anything else. Sharon ran a hand through her hair; this was one of these days. She decided to allow Rusty to cool down.

After lunch they stayed in the conference room so Lauren could tell them about her theory.

She started by telling she believed it was a serial killer and that he was a copy cat.

"It's my strong opinion this killer is copying a series of murders from a killer called Jack the Ripper. He was active in 1888 in London", she stated and paced, hands folded over her chest. "Our unsub is copying the Ripper murders exactly. After reading Dr. Morales reports and watching the videos I'm quite certain."

"So you say we hunt a killer who think's he's the fucking incarnation of Jack the Ripper?" came from Flynn, who compensated his earlier embarrassment by cursing, as usual.

"Not necessarily", Lauren gave back. That only got a raised brow form Flynn "There's no evidence the killer believes he's the real ripper", she explained. "And how do we find him."

"Will you let me finish Lieutenant? That's very distracting and I'm very nervous, ok?" she shot back in a clipped tone the team had heard before. Flynn mumbled an apology and Lauren continued to point out the similarities between the historic murders and the fresh ones. Apparently the killer had copied the crimes in gruesome detail which Lauren explained in a flat voice as if she was giving a lecture. She needed to distance herself from the fact she was talking about recently dead women. Being reminded of how their bodies had been mutilated their intestines removed and draped over their dead bodies or missing. Melinda Owens uterus and its appendages and the upper portion of her Vagina, as well as most of her bladder were missing. "Eyspecially this detail that these intestines are missing in combination with the last victim wearing an exact replica of the ripper victims clothing is proof to my theory. The problem here is I can't give you a profile based on victimology. Normally I'd go from the victim to the unsub. Sadly that's not possible here because the need to follow the ripper murders overrides everything else." That earned her a collective groan. She quickly continued "But so far I'd say it's safe to assume the unsub is wealthy. He couldn't afford the costume or the services of his victims if he didn't earn a lot of money. And here is the difference to the original Ripper murders. The original victims were poor women on the bottom of society, while Melinda Owens and Elca Eastwick did quite well albeit their age. With Buzz's help I put a brief overview from the original Ripper murders together."

"I hope you paid for the copies", grumbled Provenza counting the copies. "I wasn't sure if I was a friend or not Lieutenant", Lauren gave back. The old man shook his head amused. He found it interesting that Lauren mimicked cop attitudes so well. They needed the humor to function. You couldn't do this job if you couldn't joke in the middle of a gruesome case like this. Sharon overflew the file and her eyes widened at the dates of death "If your theory is correct there'll be two victims on September 30th."

Lauren hummed and Sharon stated the obvious "That's only four days from now!" She got up. "Ok so, Lt. Flynn did you get anything from the escort service Melinda worked for?"

He shook his head "Nope they won't give away their costumer list."

"Detective Sanchez would you get a warrant for those names please?

Sanchez got up and grunted a "Got it", while leaving the room. "Detective Sykes you go and help Lieutenant Provenza interview the colleagues of Melinda. Perhaps they're more talkative than the escort service. Lt. Tao I'd like to know if this bloodspray on the wall we assumed was fresh blood from the crime itself is for real or if it's artificial. Then I need you and Buzz search for similar Crimes within this time pattern" she held up the file Lauren had given her for emphasis. "If he's copying the Ripper murders who say's this is his first cycle?" Her gaze turned to Flynn "Lieutenant Flynn I want you to check all the threatening letters the papers sent over since this started. There might be one of our killer amongst it."

When Flynn sighed Lauren chipped in "Check only the red ones the Ripper letters were written in human blood."

"Yuck just yuck!" he grunted knowing this task was the Captain's way of getting back at him for flirting with her daughter. Within moments both women were alone in the break room. "And what do we do?"

"I want you to check with scientists specialized to this subject if they had received any special attention or threats or something else out of the normal recently."