Read my Lips
Chapter 13
As much as they wished it was, it wasn't uncommon for the BAU to get called into work on the weekend when they all had other plans. Catching serial killers wasn't the type of job that could be done during normal business hours. But if Prentiss was calling them in on a Sunday morning without notice, that meant something worse than usual was happening. And if this case was worse in comparison to the gruesome violence they were accustomed to dealing with, that meant it was really really bad.
Rossi hurried towards the waiting jet. He already knew he was the last to arrive. Everyone's cars were already lined up in the parking area. Even JJ was already on board. And if a working mom with two children made it there before him, he really needed to hurry up. Rossi didn't spend Saturday night alone. He was with an old girlfriend. One that he wanted to spend the night with again. And it took him some time to extract himself from the encounter gracefully. Then he had to rush home to shower and change his clothes.
When Rossi climbed into the waiting aircraft, he noticed the mood was surprisingly light. He was expecting his team to be hungover and irritated after having their weekend plans cut short. But instead, something seemed to be amusing everyone. And he hurried to stow his suitcase away so he could find out what it was. While Rossi was the last to arrive, Spencer Reid must have been the first. Because the youngest member of their team was kicked back in what everyone knew was the best seat on the plane. The recliner by the window that faced the front of the plane leaned back just a little further than the other seats. And Spencer Reid was making liberal use of this function. His long legs were stretched out, his feet resting on the table in front of him. His arms were limp at his sides. And his head was lolling against the headrest. He was snoring softly. But that wasn't why everyone was smiling and chuckling together. Long pointed fake ears were sticking out from between his tousled curls. And when Rossi moved closer, he saw there was also a line of fresh hickeys that led down under the collar of Spencer's shirt. He smelled like fruity bubble soap and pot smoke.
"What the hell has he been doing?," Rossi asked, chuckling to himself as he slid down into the seat next to his slumbering teammate.
"I don't think I want to know," Derek quipped, bringing on another round of laughter from Prentiss, who was sitting to his right. She buried her face in her hand, her body shaking as she tried to control her laughter. Hotch's sudden departure left her with big shoes to fill. She'd been trying to mimic his stoic style of leadership, but it just wasn't her. Rossi was confident that Prentiss would eventually settle into the role in a way that suited her. And until then, they all had her back.
While the pilot readied the jet for takeoff, Prentiss needed to get Penelope on screen so they could receive an update on the case. Morgan rose from his seat and swept Reid's feet off the table top, sending his long legs flopping down onto the floor. Spencer awoke with a startled grunt, blinking the sleep from his eyes as he adjusted his chair into a more upright position. He reached for an insulated cup and took a few hard swigs of coffee. The cup wasn't the neutral colored yeti he usually favored. This one was a bright purple and didn't have a handle. Rossi guessed that the cup must be the property of whoever left the hickeys all over Spencer's neck.
"Will Dr. Reid be joining us today?," Rossi joked. "Or will we be meeting with whatever elf alien you're dressed up as?"
"Huh?," Spencer said, giving him a questioning glance as he took another sip from his purple travel mug. When Rossi's only response was laughter, Spencer glanced at JJ, hoping for a clue as to what his other teammate was referring to. She gestured to her own ears, trying not to start laughing all over again herself as Spencer reached up and felt into his hair. His face turned red as he snatched the cosplay ear pieces off his ears and jammed them into his pants pocket.
"Late night?," she teased, clearly as amused as everyone else was by the situation.
"I was up late reading War and Peace," Spencer announced, bringing on another round of laughter with his obvious lie.
"Reid," Derek chided. "Seriously? War and Peace? You got hickeys all over your neck man." Derek pondered the facts for a moment before his face lit up with sudden interest. "You were with her, weren't you? Instagram bikini girl, that hot nurse. Please tell me you were with her…"
Spencer glanced around at his coworkers. For once, he attempted to keep his mouth shut. He really didn't want everyone knowing his personal business. Especially since he wasn't sure exactly what his business was. He and Elaina slept together. But Spencer wasn't prepared to answer questions about the status of their relationship. Especially since he didn't even know the answers himself. However, Derek gave incorrect information about Eliana's profession. And Spencer was unable to let that slide even though he knew the man was probably baiting him. "She's not a nurse," Spencer corrected, "...she's a CNA. And she's getting her PhD in Economic Sociology."
Derek clapped his hands together and let out a whoop. From his level of excitement, one might think he was the one that just got done bagging an attractive PhD student. He extended his arm across the table towards Spencer. "That's what I'm talking about," Derek exclaimed. Spencer sighed, reluctantly reaching over to let Derek slap his palm a few times.
"What hot nurse?," Rossi asked. "Why don't I know anything about this?" His voice was slightly higher and bordering on whiny. And it got both JJ and Prentiss laughing. Rossi not only had enough of a love life for three people half his age, he also felt the pressing need to know about everyone else's personal business. It was clearly irritating him that Morgan knew about the girl Spencer was seeing and he didn't. Since Rossi was the eldest and presumably most mature member of the team, it made his interest in all their sex lives that much funnier.
"She's not a nurse," Spencer repeated, causing everyone to start laughing all over again.
Before the conversation could go any further, Penelope appeared on the screen of Emily's open laptop. And for the moment, all the joking and talk about hot nurses and late nights ceased as they listened to the details of the case they'd been called in to solve. Reid took in everything Penelope said before he began listing all the relevant information he knew about where his team was headed. They were flying into an area of the country known as the research triangle. It was located between the three anchor cities of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The region was home to over two million people and three major universities. The intellectual capacity of the community fostered a culture of scientific advancement, hence the area's nickname. But the large transient population of college students also made the area the perfect hunting ground for a serial predator.
Over half a dozen young women had gone missing in the last few months. Two of them had already turned up dead. A pretty blonde medical intern from Duke University was reported missing by her supervising doctor when she didn't arrive for her shift at the hospital last night. And a third body had been found that morning. The women disappeared from several different counties and jurisdictions. Some had been taken from their homes. And others seemed to have vanished in broad daylight. Unfortunately, Reid knew that meant that there were likely a lot more women missing. And no one had put all the pieces together yet.
Since he had no further interest in discussing his love life, Spencer put his headphones over his ears and turned on the playlist from the flash drive that Eliana loaned him. Most of the songs weren't familiar to him. But he liked the slightly angsty feel of it. Spencer turned the volume up a little as he read. He took mental notes as he flipped through the hard copies of all the files they had. While he worked, JJ shooed Rossi away so she could take the seat next to him. She had a small zippered cosmetics case in her lap. And as Spencer memorized and computed all the case information he could, she busied herself dabbing concealer on his neck to cover the evidence of his late night War and Peace reading session.
Like so many of the cases his team got called in on, there wasn't much information to start from. Several young women were missing. And none of the local police departments seemed to have any idea of where they were or who took them. What stood out immediately to Spencer was that the missing women were of several different ethnicities. Most serial predators had a type. Often, their victims were surrogates for the one woman they were ultimately fixated on. But that wasn't the case with this one. His victims were tall and short, dark and light haired, athletic and curvy. They were of almost every ethnicity Reid could think of. It made him wonder if perhaps a few of them might be missing for reasons unrelated to this case. It wasn't impossible, but it was highly unlikely for one unsub to have such varying taste.
Reid flipped through the limited information he had on each missing girl, noting the dates they were taken and who reported them missing. By the second one, he noticed it was taking him longer than usual to get through the files. He was distracted by the weird earthy stink of the makeup JJ was smearing up the line of his neck. And by thoughts of Eliana and the night he spent with her. He was quite sure that the image of her climbing naked onto his lap and lowering herself down on his dick was going to live rent free in his mind for the rest of his life. And the way she pressed her body against his so tight that he could feel her heart beating against his chest, almost like they became one person in that moment. Thinking about it was making the heat rise in his cheeks. And he tugged on his collar, jerking away from the tips of JJ's fingers.
Reid pulled his headphones back off his ears before he spoke. "Haven't you put enough of that on me yet?," he huffed. "That stuff stinks."
"Don't be dramatic," she scolded. JJ leaned in closer to inspect her handiwork, ignoring the way he'd jerked away from her. "It's mostly covered, I just need something to set it with so it doesn't smear all over your shirt collar," she declared.
"I think I've got powder in my bag," Prentiss offered, setting down the files she was skimming through before she rose from her seat. Much to Reid's disappointment, she returned from the other end of the plane quickly. And with a small circular disk in her hands. JJ stood up, vacating her seat so Emily could take it. Prentiss flipped the small green disc open, pulling out a little round puff that was nestled inside. Spencer wrinkled up his nose. He didn't know what crap she was about to smear on his neck, but it smelled worse than the last crap. It didn't look particularly sanitary either. And Derek was laughing at him.
"You put that on your face?," Spencer asked, leaning back and away from her hands. "Smells like someone's grandma."
"We're going to investigate a case where multiple women have been kidnapped and raped. Reporters are going to be all over us. You can't walk in there with hickeys all over your neck," Prentiss chided as she tried her best to keep a straight face. "It's unprofessional."
Spencer groaned. But he did lean back over to where she could reach his neck. Emily dabbed some powder on over the concealer that JJ liberally applied. She lowered her voice before she offered Reid some helpful advice. "Next time, tell her to leave her mark somewhere it won't show."
It took Spencer a moment to catch on to what she was implying. And his face turned red as all the places he'd rather have Eliana's mouth other than his neck flashed like rapid fire through his mind. Prentiss laughed like she knew what he was thinking as she patted the small powder puff across his neck. When she finished, she cocked her head slightly to the side. Reid thought she was examining her work. But she was listening to the music drifting out of his headphones.
"What are you listening to?," she asked.
Reid shrugged as he handed her the small device he plugged Eliana's flash drive into. She tapped at the buttons on the device, her eyes scanning down over the playlist.
"This is your music?," she asked. When Reid shook his head, she fired off another question without looking up from the small screen. "Who made this playlist? Your girlfriend?"
Eliana wasn't his girlfriend. Not yet. But since he was planning to rectify that as soon as possible, Reid did not correct Pretiss's assumption. He just shook his head. "I think her dad made it for her."
"Really…," she replied, still scanning through the collection of songs. "Every song on this list is better than the last. Whoever he is, he's got great taste in music."
