Taking Our Work Home with Us:

Chapter 1: A Killer of Women

Emily was exhausted Monday morning when she walked in the FBI building for work. She spent the night before out dancing with her boyfriend, and was fighting off a major hangover. She made a straight shot for the coffee station in the bullpen, pouring a whopping six packets of Splenda in her dark roast. Please just let this be a quiet day in the office, she silently prayed. She really needed a normal day to work on her growing stack of consults and other paperwork.

"Good morning Emily," his voice was close behind her, barely a whisper in her ear, "Looks like you had a little too much fun last night." He was teasing her. They had agreed not to discuss their relationship at work, but he just couldn't help it, and the rest of the team wouldn't be in for at least a half an hour.

You would know. You're the one who kept me out until three in the morning. "I had a fine night out, and you? Did you enjoy your weekend?" She was smiling at the memory, but she wanted to make sure he remembered to be subtle here, at work. He didn't seem to be getting the message, sliding up behind her and placing both his hands gently on her hips, leaning in close to her ear before responding in a breathy whisper.

"Yes, I had a wonderful weekend." He emphasized the word, clearly praising her. She was still uncomfortable with how familiar he was being in the office so she slid out from under his hands and turned to face him, leaning against the counter. There was only about a foot between them now, but at least if one of the team members, or God forbid, Strauss, walked in and saw them there it would not be perceived as anything unusual. Despite her concerns, she did have to smile at his reply, remembering again their night together. He returned her smile with a full one of his own, which of course was when Derek Morgan made his entrance.

"Wow, a smile from the boss man? On a Monday morning? That has got to be a first," he called across the bullpen before joining them at the coffee station, which was now becoming quite crowded. "What'd Prentiss say to get you to crack a smile?"

Hotch suddenly returned to the emotionless, stern Unit Chief they were all used to working with. Emily knew that he was laughing internally at Morgan's comment, but that he was recreating what he saw as a necessary layer of professionalism and distance. "Prentiss felt the need to use all of the Splenda, again," he answered, "I simply found it amusing." And with that he left her and Morgan standing at the counter awkwardly.

"What was that?" Derek asked her quietly. He looked almost concerned about the sudden switch in Hotch's demeanor. Is he angry with me for some reason? He seemed so happy just a second ago.

"I don't know. It's Monday morning and I think he is just tired. And I did monopolize the last of the sweetener, so he has to endure stale, bitter coffee." She knew this line of conversation would both cover neatly for anything that Derek might have seen between them and distract him entirely from pursuing the matter further.

"Wait, you used all of the Splenda?!" He was suddenly fumbling through the cabinets searching for more of the morning necessity in a panic. He had already poured a cup of coffee for himself and realized that he too would have to survive a Monday at work on burnt coffee. Damn it Emily! Don't you know better than to mess with a man and his coffee? No wonder Hotch is so grumpy all of a sudden.

She laughed as he reacted exactly the way she knew he would and the interest in Aaron was entirely forgotten for now. Men were so easily distracted. She took her perfectly sweetened coffee back to her desk, setting her things down and taking a long swig from the cup for emphasis. Morgan just scowled at her, but she was truly pleased with herself. Hangover forgotten. Aaron's strange behavior and reckless display of closeness forgotten. Maybe today had promise after all.

JJ, Reid, Rossi, and Garcia all exited the elevator then and came into the bullpen area. They were chatting amongst themselves about their weekends, laughing and smiling. Morgan walked alongside them, filling them in on the coffee drama of the morning as if it was a news points bulletin. They all laughed as he whined about her "Splenda heist", as he was calling it.

"Hotch was actually smiling, on a Monday, and you managed to spoil it, over coffee?" JJ asked Emily in mock horror before laughing hysterically. Em joined in. That's right JJ. Morgan is such an adorable little drama King isn't he?

"Hey," Morgan whined, playfully swatting at JJ's shoulder, "This is serious. I was so excited that the boss man was smiling and now he is back to his dour self, AND I am choking on burnt coffee." This elicited another round of laughter from the whole group as Spencer and JJ set their things down on their desks and Rossi and Garcia made their way up the stairs to their offices.

"Well technically speaking, coffee grounds are only considered burnt or stale after…" Reid began rattling off his morning quota of statistics and Emily found her mind wandering, thoroughly pleased with herself for diverting an entire group of profilers from any topic about Aaron or herself with something as trivial as coffee.

She began thumbing through her files, determined to actually get some work done today and take full advantage of the distracted state of her coworkers. Maybe if she and Aaron both finished their work early today, they could actually spend some time together tonight. She smiled at that thought and doubled her efforts, burying her nose in the case file in front of her.

Unfortunately, her hopes were dashed when Hotch called them into the briefing room two hours later, with his usual, "We've got a case."

They all filed into the room and took their usual seats. Garcia passed out case files, surprisingly thick ones and began her presentation as soon as everyone was situated.

"Over the last six months, five women have been killed in the DC area. Kelly Armens, a 20-year-old college student from Pennsylvania was first, disappearing from campus six months ago. Her body was dumped in DC six weeks after she was reported missing. Two weeks before her body was found, another college student, Laura Emerson, 24-years-old from West Virginia was abducted and her body was also dumped in the DC area exactly six weeks after she went missing. Chloe King, a 29-year-old single mother from North Carolina. Amanda Richards, a 32-year-old nurse from Virginia. Sara Conelly, a 35-year-old mother of three from Delaware. All of their bodies were dumped in DC exactly six weeks after their disappearance. They each showed signs of rape and torture, as well as malnutrition and dehydration consistent with being held prisoner in poor conditions for weeks. And they each died after having every bone in their body broken, and those pictures I have sent to each of you because I cannot bear to see them up here on the screen again. Almost a month ago, Katie Summers, a 36-year-old dentist from Maryland was abducted, and has yet to be found."

"Well it certainly looks like she could be one of his victims," Morgan says, peering at her picture closely, "In fact, all of these victims looks exactly alike. Hell, they could be sisters they look so similar."

All of the victims were fair-skinned, with medium length, dark brown hair, styled to curve their face. They all had brown eyes. Flipping through the file, he also noted that they were all between 5'7" and 5'9" and had similar curvy, but athletic builds. And each victim was slightly older than the last. He's honing in on what he wants. The college students were easier targets when he first started, but the ideal victim is significantly older, perhaps closer to his own age?

Emily couldn't help feeling a small twinge of discomfort looking at these photos. Not the ones of the bodies or the mutilation. Those she was used to, given the nature of this job. It was their ID photos. Morgan was right, they all looked so similar. They look just like me… She realized that was what was bothering her, and she was about to shake off the thought when she looked up and noticed everyone in the room was staring at her. What? Had someone asked her something? I haven't been zoned out that long have I?

"You're right," Aaron admitted, clearly responding to a comment she had missed, "Emily does bare an uncanny resemblance to the victims." So, they had been voicing the same thoughts she had been pondering silently.

"Anyway," JJ piped in, trying to regain the momentum of the discussion, "If the unsub keeps to his timeline, another woman is about to be taken, and Katie only has two weeks left before he kills her. So, we have a lot of work to do, and a lot of ground to cover."

"Since the woman were all from different states, where should the investigation be centered?" Reid asked.

Hotch pondered this for a moment before replying, "All of the bodies were dumped in the same five-mile radius, here in DC so that is the only real commonality we have for now. I will arrange for the families of the six woman to be brought here for interviews, and we can video conference in any other persons of interest as they appear. We have to assume that the unsub is in the DC area, and we can't afford to travel between six different states on this one."

"Makes sense," Emily chimed in, "When will the families be getting here?"

"By the end of today. JJ, Rossi and I will handle the interviews when they arrive. Until then, we are going to go through all of the victims' files and see if we can find the common thread between them. Garcia, I want you to start combing through all White men in their thirties or forties, living in the DC area, with a criminal history and see if anything pops. I know that's not much to work with at this point, but we will send you more parameters as we get them. Morgan, Reid, Prentiss, I want you to go to the dump sites and see what insight they might give us." When Hotch was finished doling out tasks, everyone stood and went to get to work. They all knew they were under a time crunch and they all wanted to find the unsub and his latest victim, Katie Summers, before another woman was taken, or worse, Katie was killed.

Three hours later, Emily was standing in the park where the last body had been found. The unsub had set her on a park bench, where she would be found rather quickly. All of the dump sites had been like this. Bodies posed. Public places. And places woman and families should feel safe. Playgrounds, parks, and benches in front of nice shops. The five-mile radius they were searching was all relatively up-scale. It was the sort of place a young woman would feel safe walking home at night alone. Was that the point of all this? To spread fear?

"What are you thinking Prentiss?" Morgan asked, pulling her out of her thoughtful pacing.

"I go jogging in this park almost every morning," she said slowly, "And JJ and I take Henry to the playground where Chloe was found every Sunday when we go for coffee together. All of these dumpsites are in nice areas, places frequented by young women and children. I'm just trying to figure out why he would choose these places to display his kills."

"Display them?" Reid asked.

"Well yeah. He certainly isn't trying to hide their bodies. In fact, it almost feels like he is bragging about what he's done by leaving them somewhere where others like them will find the body."

"Others like them?"

"Both mothers were found in places frequented by other mothers and their children. The three other young women were all found in places frequented by young, fit people. You saw their pictures, right? Every one of them was an athlete of some sort. I could actually see them running in a place like this." They remind me of me, and I go running here. It's just weird.

"You might be on to something Em," Morgan agreed, "Let's get back to the office and see what the others have come up with."

As they walked into the bullpen twenty minutes later, they heard Rossi and Hotch arguing about victimology.

"Three of the six victims were formerly in the armed forces, and the first victim was an ROTC student. That cannot be a coincidence." Aaron pointed out, clearly not for the first time.

"That's true, but I'm not sure it is actually because they were former military," Rossi explained, "Laura Emerson had no affiliation with the armed forces, but she was a Women's Self-Defense Instructor, and Sara Conelly taught Karate. In fact, Katie is an avid Taekwondo fighter, and Kelly took Jiu-Jitsu lessons on campus. The fact that some of the victims were associated with the military is just a bi-product of his desired type: strong, athletic women who know how to defend themselves. None of them were active duty and we have no reason to believe that he would have known about their veteran status."

"That fits with what we found," Morgan added, explaining Emily's theory about them all being avid runners, and the dumpsites being some sort of message to other women like them.

"Ok, I'll buy that," JJ said. She didn't like thinking about Chloe King's body being dumped in the same place she took her son to play at least once a week. It felt so wrong. Maybe that was the point, to scare her and mothers like her. Emily was definitely on to something. They just didn't know what it all meant yet. "But what does all this mean for our unsub?"

Reid began listing off everything they knew so far, "The victims were abducted from different states, with no witnesses or solid leads, and it took months for the cops to connect the cases. So he is definitely mobile, and he probably has a working knowledge of law enforcement and/or a serious criminal record."

"He sticks to a very regimented timetable, which involves holding two women at a time with each cycle and never having any time without a captive," Morgan commented, continuing with Reid's train of thought, "So he is very organized, planning everything down to the last detail, and he clearly has somewhere very isolated and private where he is keeping them. We should look into abandoned properties and farms or cabins with large landholdings."

"Agreed. Also, all of the victims were young and physically fit, and all of them had some sort of hand-to-hand combat training so they were very low-risk," Hotch noted, seeming to accept Rossi's theory, "So he needs to be large enough and strong enough to subdue and contain these women, often more than one at once. We may need to consider that he has a similar military background to them."

"All of his dumpsites were public and held some significance to him, further affirming that he is from the DC area, and possibly that he gets off on spreading fear with his kills," Emily throws the final touches on their growing profile, "But his kills are too well planned, too extensive and personal to be simply out of a desire to spread fear. There is something else at play here as well. Perhaps, he keeps them for so long because they fill a specific void for him, the place of a loved one he lost?"

"And the six-week timeline is incredibly important to him, so perhaps a girlfriend that died or left him after six weeks, and now he is trying to recreate what they had, but he always ends it after six weeks," Rossi adds, puzzled by this part of the unsub's behavior.

Hotchner stood and went to let Garcia know what new information they had to aid her search. The families would be here very soon and he wanted to have as much to work with as possible before then. "Keep going over everything, and let me know when the families arrive," he instructed before he left.

And they did. They went through every page of the files twice. They brainstormed possible abduction sights and discussed the details of the statements the local detectives had taken for each victim. They delved into the psyche of each and every woman on that board, and tried to figure out what their unsub saw in them that made him want to kill them.

"They're model citizens," Emily griped, "Every one of them was well liked, successful, strong and independent. They all volunteered in their communities, and most of them were very involved with their families, had children of their own and/or worked in the capacity of a caregiver of some sort. I just don't get it. Why them?" Was he jealous of them? Threatened by them? Or was Rossi right; could they be the ideal woman he was trying to replace, or maybe his perfect match he was trying to find? That's it. Six weeks…

"You look like you've just had an idea." Reid stated, not really a question, but clearly wanting her to share her insight as he was growing frustrated with all the what if scenarios.

"The very specific physical appearance, the clearly defined personality, the steady increase in age settling in around the same age we think he is, the violent sexual nature of the assaults, it all makes sense…" she chose her words carefully, thinking each one through, "It all makes sense if he is searching for a perfect mate." Everyone looks incredulous at this. "Think about it. He has a specific type from the beginning: attractive, young brunettes with strong, capable personalities and bright futures. We thought that the change in age was a move from easier targets to more difficult ones, but now we know that even his very first kill was a well-trained fighter. He didn't start taking older women because it was a challenge, but instead because they were better suited to his needs. We believe he has a similar background, personality, body type, age, all of it. He is searching for his equal, his perfect match. And the six-week timetable is a test run of a relationship." The other profilers are nodding as she continues speaking, agreeing with her assessments and impressed with her conclusions, but there is one question that Morgan has to address.

"So, why the torture then? Why beat them and burn them and cut them? Because they failed his test? If that were the case, all of the violence would be immediately before death, but you've seen the ME's reports, they were all hurt at several different instances over the time they were in captivity."

"Punishment," she answers simply before continuing, "Every relationship has its ups and downs and every couple has their fights. But we profiled that he would plan everything down to the last detail, that he would be controlling and obsessive, right? So when something goes off script, he reacts explosively. And after six weeks, if he isn't thoroughly pleased with them, he kills them and moves on to the next trial run. But eventually, he will find the one he is looking for and the timeline will go out the window completely." None of them liked the sound of that, but they were all fairly convinced that she was right.

That was when the families of the victims started coming in. Emily called Aaron and had him come up to meet them since she was sure he would want to take the lead on the interviews.

He came out to the bullpen and introduced himself to all of them, and had each of them brought to an interview space and all of the profilers split up to talk with them, learning as much as they could from each of them. Most of the families had already given so many statements to so many detectives and agents that they couldn't add very much to what they already knew, but Emily's conversation with Katie's mother proved fruitful.

"And you said you were on the phone with your daughter the night she disappeared?" Emily asked.

"Yes, we talk almost every day, but that night she was distracted."

"How so?"

"There was someone else in the apartment with her and she kept stopping mid-sentence to answer their question or add something to their conversation. It wasn't unusual for her to have friends over; she has lots of friends and she goes out with her coworkers and old army buddies all the time, but she wasn't usually the type to bring a man home, so it was memorable."

"How do you know it was a man? Did she mention his name? Whoever she was with that night might be able to tell us something about what happened to her." Or he might actually be our unsub…

"She didn't say his name, but I heard his voice through the phone a couple of times."

"Did you recognize it? One of her friends that you had met before?"

"No, no I didn't recognize it."

"Is there anything else you can remember about it. Did he sound comfortable with Katie? Were they drinking? Anything helps."

"They seemed friendly, and I suppose he could have been drinking, but Katie was sober. She was a firm believer in sobriety at all times."

"Why is that?"

"She always needed to feel in control. I think the idea of getting drunk scared her a little." Just like our unsub…

"Thank you, ma'am. You have been very helpful. If you think of anything else, please let me know."

"Wait, Agent Prentiss, there is something else. The man she was with, he had a very thick Irish accent."

"Good, good. We may be able to use that to narrow down the list of possibilities, thank you."

She rejoined the rest of the team and filled them in on everything she had learned, and Garcia added the new information to her search parameters and got a list of 12 possible suspects who fit all of the parameters and could have been present for all of the abductions and disposals. It was still a lot of ground to cover, but they were considerably closer than they had been when this all started.

Hold on Katie, Emily thought it like a prayer, Hold on. We are coming for you.