After chitchatting with her mother JJ went to see Smith, Smitty she always used to call the retired detective.
"JJ!" he said when he saw her approaching.
"Smitty" both their faces broke down in a smile.
"It is so good to see you!" the old man gave her a firm hug.
"Right back at you" she said.
"So what can I do for you?" he spoke directly, skipping the small talk. One of the reasons she'd always liked him.
"I need some information, concerning some murders and disappearances in the surrounding area's" she said.
His smile faded and wrinkles appeared in his forehead.
"Well I don't want to state the obvious but can't you better ask the local police stations of the concerning towns for information?"
She felt how her cheeks turned a bit red, but she had prepared herself for this question.
"Well actually I'm not working on an official case yet. I'm doing some preliminary research, it is the other part of the job" she said hasty. "And c'mon Smitty, we all know you follow every case in our jurisdiction. I'm sure that by now you've collected more and more accurate information than those cops over there" she flattered him.
"Can't deny that" he joked.
"Besides I like to have some information before contacting those agents" she added. She couldn't really tell whether or not he bought her story but he didn't ask any more questions and for that she was grateful.
"Just let me grab my information" he said.
The old man came back a couple of shoeboxes filled with papers, news articles and notes.
"I don't know which of the cases you were aiming for so I brought all ongoing and finished cases of murders and disappearances within the last 3 years."
"That's great Smitty, thank you. If you don't mind I like to take a look to all of them" she knew he didn't mind. Whenever you talked with him about a case he got so driven and enthusiastic that he could hardly be stopped.
JJ grabbed a shoebox and opened it. Inside was a photo of an attractive young blonde woman.
"That's Clarissa" Smitty said "she was only 20 years old when they found her body a couple of months ago. She was half buried in the woods. Bastard raped her first and then shot her a couple of time. It is still an ongoing case but the investigation seemed to already have reached a dead end."
"Half-buried?'
"Yes, looks like the unsub didn't really tried to keep the murder a secret."
"How about this one?" JJ grabbed another box.
"That's Mandy, she was only eleven. She was strangled and dumped in the woods. Different town, different woods."
They were both a moment silent in which JJ processed the horrible information.
"Any sexual assault?" JJ asked, praying that the answer would be no.
"They couldn't tell. The wild animals had already mutilated the body... pretty severely... More than six months went by, before they finally discovered her body.."
"Must have been a large forest than" JJ said.
"It is" he confirmed "so what are you exactly looking for?"
"I don't know yet... but I know it once I'll see it.." she mumbled, speaking more to herself than to Smitty.
Smitty raised an eyebrow.
"We try to look for certain patterns in behaviour or victimology and see if there's a link to certain geographic information. For instance you'll find many woods in the surrounding area. Well with the first two murders we discussed the woods already played a big role" she improvised.
Smitty grinned.
"What?" JJ asked.
"Oh nothing, it's just you and the woods" Smitty gave her a wink.
' Me and the woods' JJ thought with a deep sigh.
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Hotch had a pretty hard time concentrating. Even though he was pretty reassured JJ was okay, his mind kept wandering off to what was going on with her and what she exactly meant by family matter. Did she need some time off to figure out her marriage with Will? Could it be that Will only told him half of the truth... could it be the violence was more extensive. Lying, covering up it was out of character for Will, but then again so was hitting.. that scared him...
They could make perfect profiles by which they could predict and catch an UnSub, but when people do things that are out of character they become unpredictable.. And Hotch couldn't control it, or prevent it.
"So.. uhm.. what do you think?" he was vaguely aware that someone was talking to him.
"Hotch?" Garcia looked a bit insecure at him with her blonde hair in two ponytails.
"I am sorry Garcia, you need to repeat that to me one more time" he said.
"Ohw okay" it was unusual for Hotch to be distracted "so I asked you what do you think about the murders in Manhattan. Do you think it's a case for the BAU?"
Right, Manhattan.
"I don't think we're dealing with a serial killer. The first two seem to be familicides to me" he explained.
"They do?" Garcia frowned.
"Yes but from different subtypes. The first one seemed to be committed out of jealousy. The wife was about to leave him for another man. Also the murder by proxy type. The second one however seems to be a suicide by proxy type, the husband lost his job and his sense to be able to protect his family."
"Ah okay.." Garcia didn't really got it but she took a little note.
"The murders 3 and 4 don't seem to fit in. Let Morgan have a look at them and sent them back with our remarks."
"Yes, sir. Well if we don't have a case then I guess we've got a couple days off" she said with a smirk.
"You wish" Hotch gave her his rarely smile, the corners of his mouth curled a little bit. "Time for the administration, rapports, giving information to students, arrange for interviews with serial killers, make sure that the procedures for the court..."
"Alright stop! I get it. All work, no play" she joked "on the on hand it's a good thing that we don't have a new case, now that JJ is on vacation."
Hotch nodded.
"So is everything okay?" Garcia dared to ask.
"Yes, I'm just a little tired. I was thinking about taken some vacation days as well" he answered.
"So what's stopping you? Get some free time!" Garcia said plainly, ignorant to his enormous sense of responsibility.
Hotch took a deep breath, ready to protest. But then he seemed to change his mind.
"I just might" he muttered.
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They'd spent all day sorting out the boxes. Separating the male from the female victims, the finished cases from the ongoing cases, and searching for some pattern in the modus operandi. There wasn't really any one, except for those damn woods. With a lot of pain and effort she had convinced Smitty to take some of the boxes, returning them in a couple of days. She wanted to go over them again when she was alone, but Smitty didn't like to give his carefully collected information away.
It was dark when she stepped in her car. She was exhausted and was looking forward to finally a good night's rest.
She didn't know whether to be happy or not that on first sight there wasn't any pattern jumping out. Maybe it was all just one sick joke. She thought about the phone calls. The first three calls he didn't say anything. She just assumed that she had a bad connection, never once suspecting that it could be something entirely different. Then there was that night that she was all alone. Will was working late and Henry was staying with a playmate. The phone went but when she answered it, it was all quiet. She'd almost hung up when suddenly a deep male voice spoke.
"Jennifer... Remember me...?" he said, taking his time.
"Who is this?" JJ said aggressively. She was more angry then scared at that point. Ready to fight this creep.
The man just laughed.
She hung up. She wouldn't give this son of a bitch any more of her time.
But the phone went again. She hesitated. Then she answered.
"What?!" she said.
"Don't hang up on me!" the man was angry as well "that is, unless you want to lose your mother as well."
That had shut her up, she was stunned that her mother came in the picture.
The man seem to relax a little bit, knowing that he was in control again.
"Now I know what you want to do.. but I'll promise you Jenny.. you really don't want to do that.." she could hear him laughing "you can't run this time..." and then he hung up.
She was planning on calling Garcia, asking her if she could trace the man. But as soon as he'd said 'Jenny' she had flinched.. cramped...
Her heart started to pound harder.. she almost gasped for air..
She didn't know why she got scared, but she did. It happened automatically, as if her body was telling her something her mind couldn't remember. She didn't want to tell anyone. To her own surprise she felt very defensive about the thought of anyone knowing about this. She just needed to get to her mom.
That was a week ago. And now she was here.
She took a deep breath and started the car when her phone went. Her first thought was of Hotch. She grabbed her phone and stopped breathing for a moment when she saw an unkown caller ID. She brought the phone slowly to her ear.
"I see you followed my bread crumbs..."