Hotch glances at his watch and sighs. So far they had a whole lot of nothing but as team leader he had to make it sound better. "Okay, it's 6:30. JJ, how many names have you sent to Garcia for backgrounds?"
"From bail companies 8 and from court and police 27."
"Okay. Tomorrow get with her first thing and start working on whatever ones she has finished. Reid, help JJ with that."
The two agents nod. He looks at Morgan, who had been collating the financial leads culled by himself, Rossi and Emily.
"Morgan, what do you have?"
"A whole lot of nothing. Minor overlaps in some convenience stores. Probably the same bail companies JJ found. That's about it."
"Utility companies? Phone?"
Morgan shakes his head. "Tildes and Stiles lived in apartments where utilities were handled as part of their rent. The complexes are owned by different companies. Peroles lived with his mother but we don't have cause to pull her financials."
Hotch nods. "Tomorrow we'll approach her to see if we can- -"
"Uh, agents, hate to interrupt," Detective Ortiz says from the doorway.
"No problem," Hotch says. "What's wrong?"
"Couple of kids found Tildes' body. Sick fuck left it in their clubhouse in the woods behind their house."
Hotch frowns. "Is there any significance to that location in regards to Tildes or his victims?"
Ortiz shakes his head. "Not that I can tell."
"Okay." Hotch looks back at his team. His first instinct is to send Morgan and Emily but since they never had gotten away for a nap they've been going way too long. "Rossi, JJ, Reid, go check it out. We need to know what the unsub saw in regards to that location. Also, was it the kill site or just the dump site."
The three agents nod and stand. JJ glances at Emily and gives her a nod. Emily winks. Morgan smiles at the unspoken show of love as the trio follows Ortiz from the room. Morgan nudges his best friend.
"Glad to see you two doing so much better, Em. Almost like the early days of your relationship."
Emily nods. "It almost feels like just that, Derek. Only now we have the two cutest kids in the world to make it even better."
"Well, two of the cutest kids in the world," Hotch corrects with a grin.
Emily chuckles and nods. "Right, Bossman, that's just what I meant."
"As I was saying before Ortiz came in, unless you all have anything more you need to look at, let's call it a night. Tomorrow we talk to the family and friends of Tildes and- -"
"Uh, Agent Hotchner?"
Hotch rolls his eyes and turns to see a young officer standing at the door. "Yes?"
"Sir, this was delivered to you all earlier and placed on my desk by accident."
Hotch reaches for the envelope as he reads the officer's name badge. He nods in understanding. "Easy mistake to make, Officer Hatcher."
The officer nods. "Yeah, if you read it too fast. Just glad I caught that the first name was wrong before I opened it." He nods. "Evening, sir."
Hotch nods. "Thanks again, Officer. Be safe out there."
Hotch closes the door as Morgan and Emily step over to him. He carefully slits open the envelope with his pocket knife and slides out the paper inside. So many people had handled it at this point he is not overly concerned with pulling fingerprints.
"Dear Agent Hotchner,
I am sorry you were called out here for no reason. I am simply doing the job the courts have not been able to do. The people I have eliminated are multiple offenders. They get arrested, get a slap on the wrist, and get out to offend again. I am closing the revolving door that wastes the money of taxpayers, not to mention endangers the lives of my brothers on the force."
"Holy shit…he's a cop?" Emily blurts.
"Maybe. Seems too…easy a clue," Hotch replies suspiciously. They continue to read.
"I understand you will have to continue to investigate if only to justify your trip all the way here from Maryland. I am sure it will just take a couple of days for you to see I am performing a public service. Do not pursue me with your usual vigor and my message to the media will not include you. Continue to try to stop me and I will be forced to show the media that you all are hindering true justice.
"I look forward to working with you, not against you.
Sincerely,
Officer Joe Q. Public"
Hotch has to fight the urge to crumple the paper and throw it away. "Joe Q. Public my ass," he states. "He doesn't even know Quantico is in Virginia so that screams to me he's not a cop. Tomorrow I'll talk to the press about this letter and the threat he has levied. He's going to demand they praise him. I'll have to do what I can to convince them not to do that."
"Good luck with that one," Morgan says. "They'll run with whatever they think will sell papers and ads."
Hotch nods. "I know. Look, let's get the hell out of here before someone else stops in. Breakfast at the hotel at 7 and we'll decide the orders for the day."
"Won't argue with any of that," Emily says as she starts to pack up her computer.
As they walk out the door, they are stopped by yet another person. "Uh, Agents? They just found the body of Stiles in an alley she used to, uh, you know, work."
Hotch rolls his eyes. "Of course they did." He looks at his tired agents. "Sorry. Let's go."
Emily and Morgan just nod. It won't be the first time they've been running on empty and, sadly, it won't be the last.
As the agents approach the rickety clubhouse they can't help but wince at the smell of decomposition.
"Something tells me he's been here since he died," Reid mutters.
JJ rolls her eyes. "Gee, you really are a genius."
Reid just gives her a look as Rossi chuckles and follows JJ up to the door. They can immediately see this is both the kill and dump site all in one.
"Anyone know why the kids didn't find him sooner?" JJ wonders.
"They are only allowed to play out here on the weekends and last weekend we had some pretty bad storms so they stayed close to home," Ortiz explains. "By the way, on our way here I got a call that Stiles' body was found in one of her haunts."
"Hotch know?" Rossi asks.
"Yeah, I had the desk sergeant send word to them," he replies.
"So much for Emily and Morgan getting to bed early," Reid says with concern.
"After we get done here I'll go join them," Ortiz offers.
"No need unless you just want to. They'll make sure the scene is processed properly and the techs get pics of everything as well as every scrap of evidence," Rossi lets him know.
Ortiz smiles. "Thanks. I'll still go but now I won't feel the need to race. It's times like this it sucks not to have a partner."
JJ nods. "I bet it does."
The three agents turn their attention back to the hut. It is not very tall so Rossi and Reid allow JJ the…uh, honour…of being the only one that goes all the way in.
"Gee…thanks, guys," she mutters when she realizes what they expect her to do.
She steps in and starts to picture how the unsub had killed the man, who lies under a tarp. She has no desire to pull it back but knows she needs to see how he is lying to get an idea how the attack happened. Muttering a few choice curses in other languages (thank you, Emily) she pulls on her latex gloves and eases back the tarp.
It is even worse than she imagined.
She steps away from the putrid smell and ghastly scene before her. After taking a second to gather herself she looks at the position of the body.
"Can't tell what killed him but I'm guessing stabbed based on blood splatter."
Though she knows she should kneel, she instead squats down to guess the angle of attack. It takes some adjusting before she is confident of her report.
"He had to have been straddling Tildes and stabbing him. Tildes is a good-sized man so our unsub is either a big man or had Tildes so incapacitated he couldn't fight back."
"What the hell would make Tildes come all the way out here with the unsub?" Rossi asks. "Why would he trust enough to come to a rundown shack in the woods?"
Reid raises an eyebrow. "He knew the unsub. Otherwise a man like Tildes wouldn't come here. And there's no sign that he was dragged here. He walked in on his own, was blitzed, then killed."
Rossi nods. "Right. JJ, any sign of struggle?"
JJ recovers the corpse and looks around. "Hard to say. This is all just sort of junk only kids could love. Not sure if it always looks like this or not." She looks up sharply at Ortiz. "And don't you dare think about bringing those kids over here until the body is gone and this place has aired out. No need for them to see or smell all this shit again."
Ortiz nods. "Right. Of course." He looks at the male agents. "I'll have cops stay with it tonight and bring the kids back in the afternoon."
Rossi nods. "Good call."
"When the techs are working, make sure they take measurements of the height of the ceiling," Reid tells Ortiz as he studies the interior. "Even given the fact that Tildes was down, the unsub couldn't have been very tall to get the splatter patterns we see. Or, at the least, he had short arms."
JJ looks around one last time and shakes her head. "If anything in here is from the unsub it's impossible to tell. Again, the kids would have to say if anything is new to them. And you don't know how much I hate that they will have to be asked."
Ortiz smiles. "I have 3 kids, Agent Jareau. I promise I hate it as much as you."
JJ gives him a grin. "I believe you. So, can I get out of here now?"
Rossi and Reid glance at each other and shrug.
"Sure…but you're riding on the luggage rack on the way to the hotel," Rossi tells her.
"Yeah, right."
The two male agents start to hurry away.
"Uh, guys? Guys? HEY! You lock me out and I'll remind you of my prowess with a gun," she warns them.
When she finally catches up to them she does agree to just throw the shoes she wears away. There would be no getting the detritus of rotting human off of them.
"Thank goodness for Prentiss funds," she murmurs, knowing she'll need to get her sneakers and drive to the store for new dress boots.
Hotch, Morgan and Emily slowly approach the body in the alley. Though she is covered they can see the splatter patterns on the wall beyond the body.
"Killed here," Emily notes.
Morgan nods. "And why not? Plenty of privacy. That's why she used the alley for work."
"So the unsub poses as a John, she brings him back here, he kills her and no one is the wiser until one of the other girls notices the body," Hotch surmises.
"Sounds about right."
"Why didn't she scream? If he pulls a knife on her she might be shocked but I can't imagine she wouldn't scream," Emily points out.
"Did the M.E. note marks that could be a tazer on Peroles?" Hotch asks.
Emily shakes her head. "Not that he noted in his reports. We can ask him to double-check tomorrow."
"Tox screen?"
"Wasn't back yet," Morgan said. "May have it tomorrow."
"Okay, he's your first call in the morning, Morgan. Make sure he checks these victims for those two things and if he doesn't think he can get a rushed tox screen see if he'd be willing to send it to one of our labs."
Morgan nods. "Will do."
Emily had walked over the victim and slowly pulled back the tarp. She studies her carefully and shakes her head. There are no visible signs of tazer marks but the stab wounds are very visible. She frowns as she studies them.
"Morgan…come look at this." He walks over. "Look at the wound patterns."
He studies them a second and nods. "Exactly like the ones on Peroles."
Hotch raises an eyebrow. "Exactly?"
Morgan nods. "Exactly. Five wounds. I thought…thought of the side of dice when I saw it because it's in that 2-1-2 pattern."
"If the pattern holds for Tildes we have a major part of the unsub's m.o. Rossi sent me a text. Based on that location they think the unsub may have known his victim beforehand. If that's the case somewhere in all the names we've culled is the name of our unsub," Hotch tells them.
Emily slowly stands. "Have we located her next of kin yet?"
Hotch shakes his head. "There's a grandmother somewhere but it doesn't seem like they were close. Even if we talk to her there's no guarantee she'll have information that can help us."
Emily shrugs. "It's not like we're swimming in so many good leads we can ignore anything."
Hotch chuckles. "True. So if we find her you get to speak with her."
Emily nods and grins. "Yeah, guess that's fair." She stands up and looks up and down the alley again. "I count four condom wrappers. This place is going to be a mass of forensic evidence most of which will have nothing to do with our case."
Morgan blows out a breath. "You can say that again. Let's get out of their way so they can get started. Who knows? Maybe the unsub got a quickie before killing and then tossed the condom."
"Right because we're always so lucky like that," Emily teases.
As they get in the SUV, Hotch looks at them. "Breakfast still at 7. Let's hit the ground running tomorrow. If the unsub really does go to the media condemning us we'll be inundated with leads, most of which will be false. Let's try to stop him before we have to deal with that onslaught."
The other two agents nod their agreement. Emily reaches into her pocket and pulls out her phone. She'd felt it vibrate while she was examining the body but ignored it. She chuckles as she reads the text from JJ.
"Care to share, Prentiss?" Morgan asks.
"Jen had to go shopping. Reid and Rossi made her enter the crime scene and her shoes are covered with, to quote her, 'rotting human grossness.' She threw her boots away."
Morgan and Hotch laugh. Morgan shakes his head.
"Don't blame her a bit for tossing them. Not enough cleanser in the world to clean that shit off most times," Morgan agrees.
"She did say that based on the height of that building our unsub can't be very tall or he has very short arms for a tall man. She had to stoop to get inside and even squatting to simulate the attack the splash patterns from the blood indicate someone in the 5'3" to 5'7" range."
Hotch nods. "That could help explain why men like Peroles and Tildes wouldn't feel threatened."
"Same with Stiles. She's been working the streets long enough to develop that sense of fear regarding certain John's. But the unsub didn't give her that pause. He has to know the victims. They recognize him and they don't fear him. His size isn't intimidating and he can convince them to go with him to someplace as remote as that clubhouse. The size gives them comfort but that familiarity is the fatal ingredient."
JJ opens the door to the hotel room and sees the lights are still on.
"Hey, baby, I thought you'd be asleep by now," she starts then stops.
JJ smiles at the bed. Emily is laying there, her reading glasses askew on her face, pages of financial information spread out in front of her and on the floor where they'd slipped from her hands. She had tried to stay awake to greet her wife but failed.
JJ quietly places her bags (yes, bags, since she'd found some cute clothes on sale to go with her new shoes) down beside the dresser. She carefully gathers up the papers, trying to keep them in some sort of order though she knows Emily will probably have to fix them in the morning. She carefully slips the glasses from Emily's face and puts them in the brunette's briefcase with the paperwork. She then kisses Emily's forehead.
"I love you, sweetheart," she whispers.
Her only response is a quiet little snore. Chuckling JJ turns off the lights, makes sure Emily's phone is plugged in, and goes into the bathroom to change into her pajamas. When she crawls into bed Emily immediately shifts and pulls her wife close. JJ's heart is warmed by the movement.
Yes, they had been through hell in the past month but they had definitely come out stronger for the journey. JJ kisses her wife once more.
"I love you, Emily Elizabeth Prentiss," she whispers.
This time she gets a response.
"Lub oo."
JJ just smiles. It really is the thought that counts.