Chapter 1
Returning home after a double shift, she closed her front door behind her and applied the deadbolt. Rearming her house alarm, she removed her shoes and placed her service weapon in her gun safe.
"Hello, Detective Madison," greeted the voice from behind her.
Before she could spin around to face the intruder, a damp cloth was clamped over her mouth and nose. The detective started to struggle and succumb to the sweet-smelling odour emanating from the fabric held around her mouth and nose. The unconscious detective was gently lowered to the floor.
"I like your blouse, and I even like the shade of blue. Time for bed, Detective." She smiled.
She placed the unconscious detective on her plastic-covered bed and secured her ankles and wrists to the leather cuffs she had placed under her mattress earlier while she prepared everything and waited for her to come home.
With well-practised ease, she inserted two giant bore needles into her carotid arteries, using the pressure of her blood to help drain her body. Her blood drained into two containers that contained a powder that bleached and coagulated the collected blood, forming a large black gelatinous mass.
EJ
"Hello Tracy, good of you to join us." she laughed at her pale victim.
Detective Tracy Madison was terrified as she looked up at the woman taunting her; she felt strange, confused, weak, and very dizzy.
"Don't worry, Tracy. Can I call you Tracy?" she asked her captive audience.
Her sixth victim didn't let her down. She nodded her consent to her tormentor as her previous five ladies had. It always amazed her how courteous her victims were when close to death.
"Your heart beats 132 times a minute as you have lost around 40% of your blood volume. You are in what doctors call stage 3 hypovolemic shock. I love your shade of lipstick, Tracy; I think they call it cyanotic blue." laughed her torturer
Taking a seat beside her victim, she gently ran her finger across her cold cheek; her rapid breathing and her high-speed pulse indicated that she was close to death.
"Not much longer now, detective. You're too confused to understand me now, and I don't care. Your heart is beating so fast, trying to get that life-giving blood to your essential organs but failing to. This is the fun bit. Your heart will stop beating because it hasn't got anything to pump around your body. The funny thing is that your heart is still trying. The electrical impulses are still firing, trying to initiate the heart to contract. Doctors call it Pulseless Electrical Activity." she finished telling her sixth victim as she took her final breath.
After three hours, she checked around the detective's bedroom to triple-check that she hadn't forgotten anything. The exposed body of Detective Tracy Madison lay atop her immaculate bed, her arms crossed across her chest, covering her breasts. She removed her latex glove and partially pressed her index finger onto the detective's right eyeball.
Locking the detective's house after activating her house alarm, she exited her back gate, got into her car, and parked a few streets away from her latest victim's house. Thirty minutes later, she watched as all the evidence from the crime scene melted away inside the furnace and smiled.
"Not even the FBI can get anything from that." she smugly told herself as she watched the plastic melting and the gelatinous mass disintegrating under the immense heat. Pleased, she walked off, wondering how long it would take for her colleagues to find the detective; she had killed six victims, most definitely a serial killer. It was time to ask the fabled BAU of the FBI for their help.
EJ
"Good morning, Jennifer." smiled Elizabeth Prentiss at her daughter-in-law,
"Here you go, sweetheart, your first life-giving cup of caffeine," smirked Emily, her wife of four years.
Sticking her tongue out at her wife, JJ took a satisfying sip of her first coffee of the day, and she loved the coffee beans that her mother-in-law used. Living in the guest cottage on the Prentiss family estate had its advantages. Superb coffee was one of the best.
Jennifer Jareau had chased after Emily Prentiss six years ago when she resigned from the BAU and FBI to join Interpol and run the London bureau. Confessing her attraction to Emily in her London apartment, the two women initiated a transatlantic relationship, taking every possible opportunity to cross the pond to see each other physically. One and a half years later, JJ surprised Emily one day with a marriage proposal. The two women married at the very top of the London Eye on the same day. Deciding to return to the States with her wife, Emily resigned from Interpol and rejoined her BAU family. Knowing Strauss wouldn't permit the married couple to work together on the same team, they hid their marriage from her and the team. After a heated debate, the two women agreed not to tell the team to allow them plausible deniability should their marriage be exposed.
"Brat!" laughed Emily
Grinning, JJ leaned in and kissed Emily on her lips. "Good morning dear, ready for wacky races," she asked.
To keep up appearances, the two women took separate cars and different daily routes to work. The Ambassador had offered to talk with the FBI director on behalf of her two daughters to negotiate a compromise. Emily and Jennifer forbade her interference, not wanting to work apart.
"Ready, Mrs Prentiss," asked Emily.
Secretly, JJ loved the deception; it made her imagine she was a secret agent. Unbeknown to many, JJ was as nerdy as Emily and Spencer when it came to Sci-Fi, enjoying an enthusiastic love of costume play. The two young Prentiss women had an extensive collection of costumes and props. "Let me grab my to-go coffee and remember your turn for the long route," she told her wife, grabbing her keys.
EJ
Derek looked at his watch, shook his head, and tutted as Emily walked through the glass doors of the BAU. Emily had been caught up in a traffic jam once she turned off on her long route to Quantico this morning.
"Dad is not happy with your tardiness, Princess, or should I start calling you a diva now, Prentiss?" chuckled Morgan.
"Yeah, Prentiss, I think you should be made to make the morning coffee run to get the decent stuff," JJ added.
Emily glared at Morgan without saying a word. She walked past him, dropped her purse onto her desk, and picked up her notebook, "What do you want, Derek?" She inquired
She took his order and requested Hotch's and Rossi's request before disappearing to the coffee cart outside the building. Hating that she had to exist as just a good friend to her wife at work to keep their marriage secret and protect their places on the same team, JJ rubbed the wedding ring she wore on her sister's necklace while at work.
"JJ, cheer up," announced Derek as he sat on the edge of her desk. "we need to get you a nice man to cheer you up. We should hit the clubs this weekend. We can invite baby girl and Prentiss; you can flash your baby blues at Reid." smirked a mischievous Morgan.
"Yeah, JJ, you might meet the future Mr Jareau." Emily smiled as she placed her coffee and cookie on her desk. She wishes to publicly demonstrate her love for her blonde, blue-eyed soul mate without discovering their secret. Both Prentiss ladies knew that Strauss would enforce Emily's transfer from the unit and Quantico. Erin Strauss still held Emily's refusal to be her spy against Hotch all these years later, and the opportunity to righteously remove her from the team would be like all her birthdays and Christmas presents had come all at once.
Watching her wife deliver the coffee to Hotch, she smiled as she found the extra napkin around her chocolate chip cookie with 'I love you, sweetheart;).' written on it. She crumpled the napkin with a smile and placed it in her pocket. Working with four top profilers and Penelope Garcia, who seemed to know everything, made the two ladies extremely paranoid.
'Ditto, Ditto.' she replied by text.
The two ladies were very cautious about using their cell phones for anything other than work and everyday things; Penelope tended to go snooping if her suspicions were aroused. They both adored her for her protective nature of the team. Everyone on the team knew Penelope Garcia was utterly incapable of keeping a secret. The unicorn-loving blonde seemed to advertise she possessed something secret when confronted; she seemed to panic, and the secret seemed to spill out of her mouth without her knowledge. JJ sometimes still wished she had transferred to Interpol and worked with Emily. Clyde Easter, her boss, had no issues with them being married and working together.
EJ
Penelope Garcia hurried from Hotch's office straight towards the round table room, shouting, "We have a case briefing room." as she skillfully typed on her laptop and continued forward without any collisions,
The team filled the room and took their places, waiting for Garcia to start with her briefing.
"We are going to Manchester, New York. They had six bodies, and all died from blood loss, every drop of blood. All victims are female.
Tina Clare, age 25, barista,
Emma Pond, age 27, attorney, ADA
Samantha Bright, age 31, security guard
Maude Bishop, age 21, trainee bank teller
Elias Unger, age 36, priest
They are all discovered on top of their beds. Naked with their arms crossed across their chests, covering their breasts. No blood has been found at any crime scene.
Detective Tracy Madison, age 35, found her body after her colleagues forced entry. Her naked body was found drained of all her blood. Laid out on top of her pristine bed, no blood was found at the scene." she told the team with a cringe when she looked at the pale bodies on the screen.
Emily listened as Garcia talked; she recognised the detective's name but could not recall where from.
"Spencer, how much blood are we talking about?" asked JJ with a smile. She secretly loved listening to him spout out his facts about anything you needed; she also enjoyed watching Morgan as he started getting irate at Spencer's little factoids. Her secret pleasure was pushing the boy's buttons.
"The body has around 1.2-1.5 gallons, almost 5 litres or 10.5 pints (9-12 US pints)or ten units. Blood accounts for around 10% of an adult's weight." he smiled across at JJ after finishing his little factoid.
" Five litres of blood in a human body and no trace of any at any scenes. Is the UnSub killing them somewhere else and just disposing of the bodies in their bedroom? A form of forensic countermeasure." asked the blonde profiler.
"If our UnSub kills them in their own home, they must have some form of OCD not to leave any trace for us to find. Removing ten pints of blood without spilling a drop anywhere requires excellent cleaning skills. I would guess they are killed elsewhere and dumped at home after all the blood drained, enabling them to clean up after dumping the body." Derek added
"Prentiss, are you okay?" asked Hotch after observing her faraway look.
"Sorry, Hotch, I recognise the detective's name from somewhere but can't remember where. I hate it when that happens." Emily replied absentmindedly
"Morgan, Prentis, go to the last crime scene once we land. JJ, you're with me at the morgue, Reid and Rossi; you get set up at the police station and start your geographic profile. Wheels up in 15 minutes." Announced Hotch standing up
EJ