JJ stood in the front row as the Director of the FBI held a press conference releasing information on the abductions and emphasizing the profile that Hotch's team had built. Then, everyone sat down to field tips coming into the tip hot line. As expected, there was a flood of calls. Very few of them showed promise, but all were taken seriously. None of them led to the unsub.
Two weeks later, when the case again seemed to be on the verge of going cold, Victoria Gainsville's body was discovered by the side of a dirt road outside Carlsburg, Virginia. The minute the call came in, the BAU team rushed to the location.
"What have you found?" Hotch asked the police detective in charge.
"She was lying right over there," the detective pointed towards a small embankment. "A guy from the neighborhood walking his dog found her a little over an hour ago."
Rossi and Reid walked over to the embankment and looked around. "The body wasn't concealed," Rossi observed. "Anyone passing by could have seen it."
"How much traffic is there on this road?" Hotch asked the detective.
"Not much. Mostly locals who live down here," he replied. "There are only about ten houses."
"What was the condition of the body?" Blake asked as she glanced around looking around for it.
"It has already gone to the coroner's," the detective explained. "With the heat and humidity, we felt it wise to move it to someplace cooler as soon as we finished taking pictures. It had been stripped of any clothing, but had been carefully wrapped in a clean sheet before being dumped. We didn't see any obvious indications of the cause of death."
"Carefully wrapped and laid out? Again? That definitely sounds like a sign of remorse," Morgan observed.
"Or, he may be taunting us," Rossi reminded him.
"Any way to tell how long she had been dead?" JJ asked.
"From his initial examination, the coroner estimates approximately 12 hours," was the reply.
Morgan glanced at Reid and noticed that he was beginning to tremble. "Are you okay, Kid?" he asked, placing his hand on the young agent's shoulder.
"I'll be alright," Reid replied, gritting his teeth.
"It's okay to be upset," Morgan reassured him. "Just try to stay focused. We need your genius brain on this."