111:1- Extreme Aggressor
Harita's POV
Step 1: Getting the old boss man.
"Excuse me." Gideon said to his students as we interrupted his class. We had a case today. Wasn't a bright one. Then again, when is it? Gideon was on leave for the past six months, so we tried to not disturb him, but today's case was bad. Hotch ordered Reid and I to go and get him. I mean, we do need our old boss man. Don't tell him I said that.
"They're calling him the Seattle strangler. 4 victims in 4 months. He keeps them alive 7 days. The handle serves as a crank." Reid explained as he showed Gideon the picture of the latest crime scene. We were walking down the hallway, presumably to Gideon's office.
"Allowing him to control the rate of suffocation." Gideon stated. I nodded.
"To prolong it?" Reid asked.
"To enjoy it." Gideon answers. "Seattle's hit a wall?" I shook my head.
"No evidence, no leads."
"And another girl is missing." Gideon took the picture out of Reid's hand and opened the door to his office. We stepped inside.
"Step one, done." I muttered.
"I'll look the case file over. I'll get some thoughts to you ASAP." Gideon said as he scanned the pages.
"You're gonna be with us in Seattle ASAP." Hotch said as he walked into the room, Morgan following him.
"22-year-old Heather Woodland." Morgan said as he showed Gideon a picture of her.
"Glad you could finally join us." I whispered sarcastically to Morgan as he smirked.
"Before she left for lunch, she downloaded an email with a time-delayed virus attached.
The killer's virus wiped her hard drive and left this on the screen." Hotch explained as he handed Gideon a screenshot of the message.
"'For heaven's sake, catch me before I kill more. I cannot control myself.'" Gideon read
"He never keeps them for more than 7 days, which means we have fewer than 36 hours to find her." Hotch said.
"They want you back in the saddle. You ready?" Morgan asked.
"Looks like medical leave's over, boss." Reid added.
"They sure they want me?" Gideon asked as he looked back at a picture frame he hung on the wall. It had the same words sent to Heather's laptop.
"We wouldn't be here if they didn't." I said.
"The order came from the director." Hotch added.
"Well, we'd better get started." Gideon said.
"Get your stuff." I said. "Oh, you might wanna bring a raincoat."
"Is it raining?" Gideon asked.
"No, Harita was jumping in the rain puddles earlier, and is gonna do it again." Reid said as Gideon smirked.
Step 2: Going over the case.
We were on the plane going over the previous murders. I was knitting while munching on some Junior Mints.
"His first victim was 26-year-old Melissa Kirsh. Stab wounds, strangulation." Reid read off the paper.
"Wait, wait. Back up. Back up." Morgan interrupted. "He stabbed her and then strangled her to finish her off?"
"Other way." I said.
"Why do you think he started using the belt with the second murder?" Gideon asked. Reid looked up.
"Strangulation with your bare hands is not as easy as one would believe. He tried, probably found that it took too long"
"So he stabbed her instead." Morgan finished
"And realized it would be hours cleaning up the blood." Hotch added.
"Next time, our boy's got a method- the belt." Morgan said.
"He's learning, perfecting his scenario. Becoming a better killer." Gideon said as I sighed.
"This is going to be a long case." I said, continuing to knit.
After 4 hours of being stuck on the plane with boys, we finally landed. The SUVs drove us to the Northwest F.B.I. Field Office where we would set our stuff up. We passed security when Morgan observed Gideon, who was a few feet ahead of us.
"He never stands with his back to a window. When I was between him and a doorway, he asked me to move." Morgan said to Reid and I.
"PTSD?" I suggested.
"It's hyper vigilance. It's not uncommon in post traumatic stress disorder." Reid corrected.
"Just how much disorder are we talking about?" Morgan asked, clearly worried.
"Morgan, it's been 6 months. Everything's ok." Hotch assured. We kept walking to where we were supposed to be.
"This is special agent Gideon, special agent Morgan, special agent Harita, both our experts on obsessional crimes, special agent Reid."
"Dr. Reid." Gideon yelled, correcting Hotch.
"Dr. Reid, our expert on... well, everything. And after 2 years busting my butt in this office, I hope you all remember me." Hotch says to the other agents in the room. I took off my coat, put my stuff down on a chair, and grabbed a granola bar and started munching. I walked to the board and started looking over it.
"He's willing to travel with the body." Gideon stated
"Then he drives a vehicle capable of concealing one." Hotch added.
"1 in 7.4 drivers in Seattle owns an SUV." Reid said.
"Explorer with tinted windows?" Morgan suggested.
"Explorers rate higher with women." Reid said.
"But how do we know it's his car? Ted Bundy drove a VW Bug." Morgan asked.
"What about a Jeep Cherokee?" Hotch considered.
"Nahh, females don't prefer Jeeps, their more masculine, and we all know how an unsub feels
about asserting his masculinity." I said.
"When did the bureau become involved in the case?" Hotch asked.
"After the fourth body. He dumped that one out of state." The agent said.
"On purpose." Hotch added.
"If so, knowledge of law enforcement does suggest a criminal record." Reid says. I nodded with him, still munching on my granola bar. I can feel eyes on me, but I don't look at them. I know they are wondering 'Why is this stupid girl eating when she could be solving the case.' If only they knew my past.
"Or that he watches television. May I?" Derek asks the agent, who then hands the file to him.
"So you wanna see our suspect list?" The agent asked.
"No, we won't look at a suspect list until after we come up with a profile. It keeps our perspective unbiased." Hotch explained. I walked over to Derek and snatched the file from him and started reading it. He responded by grabbing my granola bar and taking a bite from it. I gasped. He then made his 'grabby hands' and I gave the file back to him, pouting. He gave the bar back to me and held the file in the middle so both of us could see it.
"When do we sit down with your task force?" Gideon asked.
"4:00." The agent responded. Morgan lowered the file and looked at him.
"An accurate profile by 4:00 today?"
"That's not a problem." Gideon replied as he walked over the board about the second victim, Anne Cushing.
"Agent Gideon, where would you like to start?" Hotch asked.
"Let's start at the site of the last murder." Gideon responded.
Step 3: Visiting the victim's house.
Derek and Gideon went to the burial site while Aaron, Spencer, and I went to Heather's house. It was a nice day. A bit of sun, a bit of clouds. A few puddles were on the ground, so I sacrificed my shoes, but it was for a good cause. There was a nice breeze, it blew my black rain coat a bit, which paired nicely with my light blue high-top converse, black pants, and light blue shirt. My hair was in a loose ponytail, which a few strands that were framing my face did sway a bit. Though that wasn't the only nice thing that happened today.
"Sandy, no, no, no. I'm so sorry." David said as he held back Sandy. Reid got startled by her barking which made me chuckle.
"No, it's ok." Hotch said.
"What you just witnessed is called the 'Reid effect'. Happens to most children." I reassured.
"I'm agent Hotchner. This is special agent Harita and special agent Dr. Reid." Aaron introduced.
"You look too young to have gone to medical school." David said to Spencer.
"They're PhD's. 3 of them." Reid corrects. I scan around the room, trying to find signs of how Heather might have met the unsub.
"Are you a genius or something?" David asked.
"I don't believe that intelligence can be accurately quantified, but I do have an I.Q. of 187 and an eidetic memory and can read 20,000 words per minute." Spencer says.
"Yes, he's a genius." I add.
"Sandy, you get a lot of attention, don't you?" Hotch coos to the dog. I start to walk around the room, noticing the little things she has. I went to the bookcase and started looking at the book titles.
"She does have good books, I can give her a plus on that." I thought to myself.
"Yeah, Heather loves this dog. I feed her when Heather's away. Usually, she's fine, but lately, she won't eat. It's almost like she can sense something's wrong." David said, concerned..
"Not sense. Smell." Reid corrected as we all turned to him. "Our apocrine sweat gland releases secretions in response to emotional stress."
"Sandy's worried because she knows you are." Hotch translates.
"David, does your sister drive a Datsun Z?" Reid asked over by shelves, examining the articles.
"No, but she's in the market for one. How'd you know?" David asked. Reid held up an ad for the car. Sandy started barking so David brought her outside, leaving the genius, the serious, and the girl, as I like to call it, in the room.
"There's an immediate relationship established between a buyer and a seller, a level of trust. If I want to coax a young woman into my car..."
"Offer her a test drive." Hotch finished for Reid.
"This is why I don't buy cars from strangers."
"Says the person who bought a skateboard from a person, even though the ad was very sketchy." Aaron said as we left the house, not before telling David.
"Okay, look, I was an idiot. Besides, I learned my lesson." I defended myself.
"Only because you twisted your ankle." Spencer added.
Step 4: Arguing over the profile.
"Okay, then how about the fact that on one hand, we have paranoid psychosis, but the autopsy protocol says what?" Derek asked.
"Adhesive residue shows he put layer after layer of duct tape over his victims' eyes." Reid answered. The only two people that were acting 'professional' were Hotch and Gideon. Reid was spinning in his chair, Derek was throwing a ball in the air and catching it, and I was knitting, like usual.
"He knows he wants to kill them, but he still covers their eyes. He doesn't want 'em looking at him, apparently. Okay, but then he takes the body and dumps it right out in the open, murder weapon nearby." Morgan rants.
"Not the M.O. of a paranoid convinced he's being watched or surveilled." Reid added.
"Paranoid psychosis, but behavior that's not paranoid." Morgan argued.
"Maybe he's schizophrenic." Hotch suggested.
"Or he just doesn't want the victims to identify his face just in case they escape." I added.
"Maybe we don't have enough for a complete profile" Derek argued
"Maybe we have enough to narrow down our suspect list." Hotch asserted.
"All right, enough. Let's tell them we're ready." Gideon said as he walked out of the room.
"We're ready? You're all good with this? We've got a woman who's only got a few hours left to live, an incomplete profile, and a unit chief on the verge of a nervous breakdown." Morgan ranted.
"They don't call them nervous breakdowns anymore." Gideon said as he reentered the room, grabbed something, and left.
"It's called a major depressive episode." Reid says.
"I know, Reid."
Step 5: Gideon saves the day with his profile.
"The unidentified subject is white and in his late 20's. He's someone you wouldn't notice at first. He's someone who'd blend into any crowd. The violent nature of the crime suggests a previous criminal record- petty crimes. Maybe auto theft. We've classified him as an organized killer, careful. Psychopathic as opposed to psychotic. He follows the news, has good hygiene. He's smart. 'Cause he's smart, the only physical evidence you'll find is what he wants you to find. He's mobile and his car is in good condition. Our guess- Jeep Cherokee, tinted windows. The murders have all involved rapes. But rape without penetration is a form of piquerism, and that tells us he's sexually inadequate. Psychiatric evaluations will show a history of paranoia stemming from a childhood trauma- death of a parent or family member. And now he feels persecuted and watched. Murder gives him a sense of power. Organized killers have a fascination with law enforcement. They will inject themselves into the investigation. They will even come forward as witnesses to see just how much the police really know. That makes them feel powerful, in control. Which is why I also think... in fact, I know... you have already interviewed him." Gideon said.
"Dam. All that just after a six month break. Jesus, what type of drugs is he on?" I say, in shock.
Step 6: Action.
We were waiting in the house, waiting for Elle, a good friend of mine, to bring Richard into the house so we could arrest him. This was easy. Too easy. After this we had to find the girl, put him to jail, go back and home and sleep. Simple, right? Wrong. There was no sign of the girl, so Hotch and I checked outside. All we found was...
"Well, we got the jeep right." Hotch said.
"And everything else is wrong. The bodies had defensive wounds. Richard doesn't have a mark on him. We're missing something." Gideon added.
"Ima go find Morgan and help him." I said to Hotch.
"Something's not right about this." I heard Morgan say as I entered Richard's room.
"You're right. It's a boy's room, not a man's" I said. I looked over and saw his laptop. I nudged Morgan's side and pointed to it. Some officers came and tried to unlock the laptop.
"Login password." One of them said, as he was about to click enter. Morgan tried to stop him but it was too late. The laptop turned off.
"It's not turning back on." The officer announced.
"Yeah. And it won't. It was a false password." I said.
Step 7: Trying to unlock the computer.
Took some time, but I was finally able to restart the computer, originating back to its home screen, with the help of Derek.
"What's the number 6 at the bottom of the screen?" Elle asked as she, Reid, and Gideon walked into the room.
"Number of password attempts" Derekd answered.
"Use them all, the program wipes the hard drive clean." I explained.
"There could be an email, or a journal in the computer, something that tells us where Heather is. Do you think you can break in?" Elle asked.
"In 6 tries?" Derek asked.
"Try again. Fail again. Fail better." Gideon quoted.
"Samuel Beckett." Reid said, naming the quote's quoter.
"Try not. Do or do not." Derek also quoted.
"Yoda." Reid said, naming the quote's quoter.
Step 8: Calling the tech genius
"You've reached Penelope Garcia in the FBI's office of supreme genius." We called Garcia because, well, neither of us were tech experts. When it comes to tech, we both wither into a stick of spaghetti, but just so you know, Morgan is the more dumber one.
"Hey, it's Morgan. Need you to work me some magic here. I got a program called Deadbolt Defense and a girl with only a couple of hours to live, so what do you know?"
"That you've got a problem. Deadbolt's the number one password crack-resistant software out there. You're gonna have to get inside this guy's head to get the password." Garcia answered. I shook my head and started pacing the room.
"I thought I was calling the office of supreme genius." Morgan said.
"Well, gorgeous, you've been rerouted to the office of too friggin' bad." Garcia answered.
"Thanks anyway." Morgan hung up the phone.
"Look around and see if there is anything that could be used as Richard's password." I said.
"What if it's not in the room?"
"It has to be."
Step 9: Becoming Richard Slessman.
"My name is Richard Slessman, and I have trouble sleeping." Morgan said.
"Okay, trouble sleeping. What does he do when he wants to sleep." I say, while sitting on the bed, throwing grapes into my mouth. Morgan came out of the bathroom and sood next to the bed. I chucked a grape at him and he caught it. He then pointed to the headrest. I slide it open and find tons of CD's. Morgan walks over to where Richard kept all of his CD's. He looks at me and I nod.
"Guys, a little help." Morgan calls out to the other agents. "We're going through every one of these CD's- scratches, wear and tear. I wanna know which CD he plays the most. Let's go."
Reid came in some time later to help us, but it was no use. No CD's fit. I was lying on the ground, thinking. Morgan was pacing the room, fast. If we don't find the password fast, I will have to deal with an angry Morgan, and that's not fun.
"Oh, come on! I need a password. I need a password. What am I looking for? What could I possibly be looking for?
"I've been thinking about the CD's." Reid said as he came into the room. Morgan and Reid sat down on the chairs, while I got from my lying position.
"Oh, Reid, come on. We tried the CD's. We searched, sifted, and sorted through every one of this guy's head-banging heavy metal collection. We gotta find something, or this girl is dead." Morgan sighed.
"Think we may have missed the obvious." Reid said, as he got out a paper clip.
"What are you doing?" Morgan asked. Reid took the paper clip and pushed it against where you would insert your CD. Another CD popped out.
"Jesus Reid, what made your wild, fantastic brain think of this?" I asked.
"It was the only empty case." Reid answered.
"All right. I'm an insomniac who listens to Metallica to go to sleep at night. What song could possibly speak to me?" Morgan asked, as he picked up the CD.
"I only listen to metal so I can stay awake, not fall asleep. What quiet song is on there?" I asked.
"Enter Sandman." Ried said. Morgan typed in the password and we got in. There was a file, the only one, so he clicked. A feed came up, and there was a girl whose eyes were taped and was in a cage.
"Reid, get the other officers and agents, Morgan call Gideon." I say. Reid goes and gets them while Morgan pulls out his phone.
Step 10: Locating Heather.
Time was ticking, and all I was doing was staring at Heather, trying to find out where in the hell she is.
"Morgan, can you show me the last 12 images lined up next to each other?" Reid asked.
"Yeah." Morgan does what Reid tells him.
"Right there. Right there. You see that? The light bulb hanging from the wire?" Reid asks, pointing to it.
"Yeah, what about it?" Morgan asks.
"It's shifting positions like it's swaying like the earth is tilting." Reid says.
"Not the earth, doc. The ocean." Morgan says.
"A boat." I correct as Morgan pulls out his phone and calls Hotch. As soon as he's finished talking to him, I start to look at the next few frames. Suddenly, there's a shadow. It looks like a man."Guys, he's inside. Morgan, get Elle on the phone." I say.
"Listen to me. You need to wait for backup." Morgan says, as he puts his phone on speaker.
"If we wait, the girl is dead." Elle said.
"But Elle-" I start to say, but get cut off by Morgan.
"And if we had waited in Boston-" Elle cuts him off.
"I can't. You told me to trust my instincts."
"Alright, stay safe." I say.
"Got it." Morgan hangs up. "And now we wait."
Step 12: The aftermath.
It was around 4, when Gideon called us saying they saved the girl. We drove over to where they were. Hotch, Derek and I were standing in one corner.
"So what kind of report do they want on him?" Morgan asked.
"I suppose whether he's fit to be a field agent." Aaron says. "You know, Haley and I were looking at a baby names book. Guess what Gideon means in hebrew?"
"Mighty warrior." Spencer answers, as he walks past us.
"What a coincidence." I say.
"So what are you gonna tell them?" Derek asks.
"What would you say?" Aaron asks back.
"Gideon saved her life. That's good enough for me." Derek answered.
Step 13: The plane ride home.
I usually like the plane ride home. It's quiet, no cases on your mind. The only thing that was on my mind though, was paperwork, but I am a really good procrastinator. Derek and Spencer were sleeping, Gideon was reading, Aaron was getting coffee, though he should be getting some sleep, and I was knitting while snacking on some pretzels.
"Hey." Aaron said, as he came over to where Gideon and I were. He snatched one of my pretzels though.
"You and Haley pick the baby's name yet?" Gideon asked Hotch.
"It's funny, Haley liked the name Charles, but, you know all I could think of"
"Manson." Gideon finished for Hotch.
"Then there was Henry."
"Lee Lucas." I said.
"Uh... Jeffrey."
"Dahmer." Gideon added.
"There's just too many of them." Aaron sighed.
"Kind of hard to feel good about catching one when you know there are 50 more still out there." Gideon said, turning his head to the window. I sighed.
"How's your report going?" Gideon asked, earning a weird look from Aaron. "Didn't think you could hide that from an old profiler, now, did ya?"
"You just got busted." I said. Aaron chuckled, stealing another pretzel.
"You know, you saved that girl today. You can feel good about that." Aaron said.
"It is good. It's a good thing." Gideon said.
"You wanna know what's not a good thing?" I asked "Stealing my pretzels." I grabbed my bag of pretzels and put it closer to me. Aaron chuckled and ruffled my hair, which I immediately fixed. He went back to the mini kitchen, as I like to call it, and got his own bag of pretzels. I stopped knitting and reached into my bag and got my box of cards.
"What game are we playing today?"
Well, that's a wrap. To be honest, I didn't know how to end it, so this is the best I got. I had to rewatch the episode, and when I saw what Garcia looked like, I was shocked. She looked... normal. That's not in her dictionary.
Toodles,
HernameisBurrito