CHAPTER 58

RUB MY BOTTLE GENTLY, BABY

"Welcome to Bellevue, Agents!" The Chief Officer personally accompanied the BAU team inside the police station.

"Oh, good. They have coffee!" Reid stated as soon as they walked in and he spotted a big coffee machine hanging around in the main hall. After that, he was ready to face the world.

"Thank you. I am SSA Prentiss…" Emily introduced herself and then so did everyone else on her team.

"Wow, that is a lot of names to remember. Pardon me if I get confused." The Police Chief blushed a little bit.

"Yeah, too many people for just one team, huh?" Matt waked by him, commenting cheerfully.

"And yet, not enough…" Emily muttered to herself.

"Huh?" JJ asked her, now glued to her side ever since the announcement that she was supposed to be Emily's assistant.

"Nothing." Emily smiled weakly. There was something on her mind.

They were given their own room where they could work in private. Reid and Luke set up the whiteboard while JJ went out to print photos of the victims.

Emily divided the team into groups and gave them their tasks. JJ and her would go see the family of the girl who just got kidnapped two days ago, while the others had to go visit the dump sites and talk to the medical examiner who had examined all three bodies so far.

"Uhm, excuse me, Agent Prentiss?" The Police Chief knocked on the door right when they were all about to split up and go their separate ways.

"We have just been informed that a body has been found…" The man said with sadness in his voice.

Emily tensed up, but before she could freak out, JJ's hand rested on her back. Nobody saw that gesture. Emily felt it.

"Her purse was right beside her and we found her ID inside. She's the girl that got kidnapped recently." He informed them.

"Oh…" Emily sighed, mentally freaking out over the news that yet another young female life had been taken away.

"I'm right here." JJ whispered to her, making sure nobody else would overhear.

Emily nodded.

The Police Chief left the room and everyone was now looking at Emily, waiting for a new plan of action, since these news changed just about everything.

Emily opened her mouth, but no sound came out of it.

"Rossi and I are going to inform the parents." JJ stepped in, overshadowing Emily, without a hint of regret.

"Tara and Luke, you can still go check the dumpsites. Emily and Reid, I need you working on victimology here. Matt, you're going to talk to the medical examiner and see if you can find anything interesting that can help us out. After that, you're working on victimology with Emily and Reid. We'll see you in a couple of hours, tops." JJ spoke, sure of herself, like a true leader.

But on the inside, she was screaming, just like Emily.

"Can't believe you benched Prentiss like that." Rossi said to JJ when they got in the car.

"Well, she knew it was coming when she made me her shadow. I am not about to sit around and watch yet another case destroy her mentally." JJ said, still acting tough and decisive.

"And you?" Rossi had all the right questions. "What about you?"

JJ breathed in sharply, keeping her eyes on the road, now behind the steering wheel.

"I'll be fine…" She double checked her mirrors before starting the engine, which was not something she had ever done before. It was a sign of doubt, in Rossi's eyes.

"Only after she gets back to being fine." She then added, her voice slightly cracking before she pulled out of the parking lot and drove off.


"How did it go?" Emily asked, as soon as Rossi and JJ joined them back at the police station.

"As expected – the parents are in shock. They kept denying it, they just couldn't wrap their heads around it." Rossi replied.

"Anything new on victimology?" JJ then asked, noticing new things written on the whiteboard.

"Uh, yes. We figured out that all four girls had good grades in school. They were different ages – the first one was sixteen, second one was seventeen, the third one was eighteen and this latest one was a freshman in college, so eighteen as well." Reid pointed out the first obvious thing about the victims.

"If he added one year to each victim, why did the last two have the same age? So age is not how he selects his victims. And neither is social status. We already knew that the first three victims were living a normal life, but this fourth one had a lavish home, two cars and a butler." Rossi added.

"Yeah, none of them share any particular visible similarity either – they all have different body types, hair color, facial structure…" Tara commented while looking at the photos.

Emily had spaced out, but in the chaos of pitching in, nobody had noticed that until the moment she walked over to the board and snatched the fourth girl's photo from it, where it had been put as a kidnapped victim.

Everyone's eyes turned to Emily.

She licked her lips, studying the girl's smile on the photo before she put it on the side of the board where the other deceased victims were placed.

For some reason, Emily could not take her eyes off of this girl's photo.

They all knew the reason.

JJ walked over to her, physically rotating her shoulders until Emily was now facing the team and away from the board.

"The UnSub has no idea we are in town, so let's keep a low profile." JJ spoke.

"No. Keeping it quiet would only give him the chance to grab another girl…" Emily disagreed vocally.

The team shrugged, most of them were looking at JJ, as if they were now siding with her.

Emily sighed. She had brought that upon herself.

"Fine. Low profile it is." Emily put her hands in the air in mock surrender.

"But don't let the possible future fifth girl's face haunt you in your dreams." She added, sending chills down everyone's spine.

"Well, if we stay quiet, we have more time to strategize. But that only means that there will be another kidnapping…and that one would be on us." JJ commented.

"Yeah, but what if it is a necessary means to an end?" Reid hated to admit it, but it wasn't such a bad idea. "If the UnSub knows we're here, he might stop altogether. And then when we leave, he will keep doing what he was doing. Now, if we play this smart, we can give him the chance to grab another girl, we can learn from his behavior, as we will be watching this time, and we can get the girl and the UnSub."

"And if we fail, I'll simply make space for another photo up here." Emily pointed to the corner of the board, with the four victims.

JJ gave her a stern look.

"I'm sorry." Emily apologized immediately. "I hate to say this, but I have to agree. Our best chance now is letting him hunt." She finally agreed with JJ's plan.

"It is risky, though…" Rossi pointed out. "Are we all sure that we can handle the negative blowback of having gambled with a young girl's life?"

Not a single soul dared to give him an answer.

"We are looking at it from the wrong angle. We can keep this idea, as a backup plan. But for now we have five more days." Reid grabbed a pen and started working on a timeline.

"Four victims in four weeks. Each girl got kidnapped on a Tuesday night and ended up being tossed in a remote area six days later. On the seventh day, Tuesday night, another girl got kidnapped. This cycle repeated perfectly for the first three victims. But something changed with the fourth one. Why? She only got kidnapped this last Tuesday and now, Monday afternoon, she has already been found and she has been dead for a while. What's the urge to kill earlier now? Why not stick to the original timeline?" Reid commented while typing out his theory and making it more visual and understandable.

"Actually, the examiner who did her autopsy placed the time of death at around Saturday morning, which means she was already dead way before we even got called in…" He shot a glance at Emily, hoping that this piece of news, as distressing as it was, would help with her conscious a little bit.

And it did help.

"So, why kill her almost immediately? What is so different about her, then the other three girls?" Rossi said while staring at the board and not seeing anything that connected the first three, a thing that this fourth girl was missing.

"What if it isn't something she was missing? What if it was something she had in addition?" Emily pointed out. "You guys said she had a lavish home. What if the Unsub only needs middle-class girls to fulfill his fantasy, whatever it might be? What if this girl was superior than what he needed, hence he felt dominated, in a way?"

"That is a very good observation." Rossi declared. "But the urge to inflict pain is the only thing that gets him off. There are no reports on sexual abuse on any of the four victims, yet this last girl had been beaten up worse than the previous three. So, something about her made him tick. My guess is that the previous three were his experiments and now he is slowly building the confidence to go after his original target. He might intentionally be grabbing older girls, with each abduction. He probably feels insecure of his ability to take on his one true target, so he's gradually gaining more confidence by upping the age and the social status of his victims."

"We need Garcia on this." Emily pointed out and JJ was already putting on the loudspeaker.

"I'm here and I am ready and able and willing, my Kitty-Cats. Hit me with it!" Garcia's voice lightened the room up a bit.

"Garcia, I need you to check for any social media overlap between the girls. Were they friends? Did they have a friend in common? Did they have lunch at the same place? Have they dated the same boy? Anything that can connect them to one another or to someone else." Emily requested.

"Oh…" Garcia could be heard taking a loud sip of tea. "Uhm, I cherish your immense trust and ungrounded belief in me, but I am, sadly, not a magician. I cannot find a needle in a hay stack and this is bringing it to a whole new level. Whole lotta hay to search…"

"Now, Garcia!" Emily said before cutting the call short.

Yes, of course Garcia was a magician. If she could have Unit Chief Emily Prentiss rolling in the mud and laughing like a crazy person, right before an official disciplinary Hearing that could strip her from her gun and badge, then she could do just about anything in life.

Ten minutes later, Garcia was calling them back.

"I found something!" She stated, not really surprising anyone.

They all knew that when Garcia had to come through, Garcia always came through for the team.

"Listen to that. Victim number one went to some sort of a field trip with her school, a couple of months ago. Victim number three was there as well, but I have no data pointing to them knowing each other. Now, victim number two was a volunteer at a rescue mission for the woods around the city, while victim number four did the same, but for the river, at right about the same time." Garcia spoke quickly.

"This is giving me nothing to work with, Garcia." Emily claimed.

"No, I know. Which is why I dug deeper before daring to call you back, my Master." Garcia smirked.

Emily cringed. The last person who had called her his Master, had ended up blindfolded, gagged and handcuffed against the bed in a shady hotel, somewhere in Vegas, while Emily was on the first flight back home, not feeling the weekend, at all.

"All of these activities were supervised by the Mayor of the city." Garcia added, finally giving them a link between all four victims.

"I'm gonna need a name and an add-…" Emily started off, but Garcia was quicker.

"Name and address, license plate, make and model of his car, his wife's car and his elder son's car, along with the cat food he keeps buying every Wednesday at the local shop, has already been transferred to your accounts, three minutes and forty-five seconds ago. You are welcome. And if you shall need anything else, just rub my bottle gently, baby!" Garcia blew a kiss on the phone.

"Awh, it was so much more fun when Morgan was around to laugh at it!" She whined when nobody questioned her choice of words. And then she simply hung up.

"JJ, you and I are following up on the Mayor. Everyone else, I need you to keep an eye out for any new abductions. If we rub this guy the wrong way and if he is our UnSub, the power given to him as a city Mayor may give him the courage to strike one more time before being caught. Round up the police officers and instruct them to stay vigilant on the streets. Our victimology is now any girl between 19 and 20 years of age. Possibly one with higher social standing, if we follow Rossi's logic that he is upgrading slowly." Emily's suggestion met everyone's approval and this time JJ had nothing to say against it.

JJ then found herself in the car for the second time, but now she was in the passenger's seat. Emily had insisted on driving.

"Why would the Mayor of a city kill four people in cold blood?" JJ shook her head. This did not sit right with her.

"For the same reason he became Mayor – power, dominance." Emily commented, hitting the speed pedal like it was a feather.

"Woah, slow down!" JJ said, nearly freaking out.

Emily had always been a very stable driver. She would choose a pace and then stay with it along the journey. Sadly, it was only true when she was behind the wheel of a car and not of her own life. In life, Emily Prentiss was a rollercoaster of surprises. That was why JJ loved her so much.

"I just want to get this case over and done with." Emily said, still going hard on the gas pedal.

"Well, it won't get closed when you kill both of us, so would you, please, just freaking slow down!?" JJ's heart was racing, as this scene took her back in her memories, to a moment of her life that she was not too keen on remembering.

Emily eased down a little bit.

"Thank you!" JJ said, feeling all sweaty now "I remind you I have two young kids to go back home to!"

JJ quickly realized how hurtful her words could be, if taken out of context. And she was right – she noticed Emily's jaw clench.

"Em, I didn't mean to…" She offered half of an apology, knowing that kids were a touchy topic with Emily.

"It's okay." Emily said, acting absolutely calm. "I have nobody to go back home to. And it is my own fault." She added, sounding oddly pessimistic. It scared JJ a little bit, but then she decided to think of it as a repercussion of that case from last month.


"He's not our guy." Emily affirmed when her and JJ came back from the Mayor's office.

"Just like that? He's off the hook?" Reid challenged her.

"He had a solid alibi for two of the murders. He was on a business trip with plenty of people able to corroborate that. He admitted to being at all four events, where Garcia pointed his connection to the girls, but we have nothing other than that. He's a busy man, we took a glimpse of his schedule and it is safe to say he has been everywhere and can be linked to just about anyone in this city. But that doesn't make him a murderer." JJ clarified.

"Although, if looks could kill, poor Prentiss over here." JJ nudged Emily, who was still sporting that black dress and her curls were just as gorgeous as this morning, even though they were now a bit more natural and less defined.

"Oh? Do tell!" Tara jumped in quickly.

"Well, Mr. Mayor here was quite the fan of Miss Prentiss." JJ chuckled.

"Stop…" Emily rolled her eyes.

"He offered her a private tour of the city…how romantic." JJ smiled innocently.

"No, come on. He offered the BAU a tour around the city." Emily pointed out, since JJ was now making a huge deal out of this.

"And then he offered you a drink when the case is closed." JJ raised an eyebrow challengingly. Emily wouldn't be able to deny that simple fact.

"Well…yeah." Emily laughed. "It figures, the only time when a guy seems interested in me is when I'm investigating hiss ass for murder."

"I miss working in an all-male environment…" Rossi muttered to himself, although he knew those words were not even true. He cherished every woman he had ever worked with. Well, most of them, anyway. But these specific women in his life right now, they had a special place in his heart.

"Back on topic. We got nothing from him. He was openly willing to assist in any way he can and he even offered to fund the investigation." Emily told them.

"Oh, can he actually do that?" Reid squirmed happily at the idea of being able to sleep in a single room for the duration of the trip.

"No. I remind you that we are FBI Agents, so we cannot take any financial aid from anyone outside the Bureau or that shall be considered a bribe. And we are not in the position to be investigated again…" Emily reminded him and he just retreated off to a corner of the room where he would stay quiet for the rest of the day, awaiting his inevitable final destiny – sleeping in a room with three other people.

Two hours later, Emily realized they were going nowhere. Victimology was still all over the place and their only link between the girls was as clean as Garcia's conscious…on most days.

"We should go get some rest. Tomorrow we can look at it with fresh eyes and clean heads." Emily suggested, rubbing her temples as this day was giving her a headache.

The case had first been handled by the local police as single, non-connected kidnappings, until bodies started to pop up. The only thing linking the bodies was the MO, the extremely sadistic way they were all killed. The case had then been offered to a different FBI field office, closer to Bellevue, but it got bounced between Units that did not want to sign up on it, before it ended up on Emily's desk.

It was dark, it was twisted, it seemed impossible to crack and obviously nobody would want to put their name on what was set to be a failure from the get go. But Emily would not back down. This was the first case she was handed after a certain other one she believed she had handled very carelessly, and she would be damned if she turned it down. Whatever the odds.