SPENCER - spencer reid

N I N E

CHAPTER 9: SAFETY IN NUMBERS

Dr. Spencer Reid's POV

[January 26th, 2010]

My brows furrow in concentration as I look at the file that is handed to me by Garcia, who is sobered by the images despite her naturally cheerful disposition. My eyes scan over the documents inside before spreading the sheets across the table in front of me while the rest of the team views the case from their tablets. I had never taken to the new technology offered to me, and Penelope always found the time to make sure I had my own physical copy rather than digital.

"In the past two months, over 30 people from the homeless population of our general area have gone missing and are presumed to be dead-" Penelope begins to present the case, but is cut off by Hotch.

"And why are we just now hearing about this?" He demands, his gaze flicking up from the screen.

"Because nobody noticed that they were gone," Penelope offers. "Or maybe people did, but they just didn't care."

"Are there any connections between the victims?" Rossi questions.

"I have dug, and I mean dug, through what little information of their personal lives that I could find, but the only knowable information they have in common is that they are homeless," Penelope takes a deep breath before proceeding. "I was lucky enough to even be able to find names, which could even be fake names at that. I contacted every homeless shelter within a 30 mile radius and even then I only came up with 13 names out of the 34 people who have been reported missing."

"Who stepped up and reported them missing?" Prentiss asks, JJ staring at the content on her screen with a focused expression.

"Other homeless people who noticed them gone," Penelope shrugged. "Whether they knew them from a soup kitchen, a homeless shelter, or even from a neighboring alleyway, they knew that they were gone."

"But why would they come forward?" I wonder aloud, glancing around at the others. "Transients try their best to avoid the authorities. What would make them approach the police?"

"It started small, which is why no big deal was made of it," Garcia replies. "The police saw it as a good thing almost... Just a fewer homeless people in their streets to worry about," Her empathetic side flares with pity for the victims. "But after the first couple of reports, a whole wave of them came forward because they knew that it was okay to approach the authorities after they caught news that the others hadn't been penalized or incarcerated."

"Safety in numbers." I murmurs to myself, adjusting my legs to sit more comfortably in the rolling chair.

"Exactamongo, mon ami," Penelope points at me with the pink, fluffy end of the flamingo ink pen that I had gotten her for Christmas. "The people who are aware of what is happening have been buddying up with those that they trust. Even makeshift towns have been set up in alleyways and vacant lots."

"But that won't help if the killer is one of them," Morgan points out, leaning back in his chair and resting his tablet on his thigh. "That would just make things more dangerous for them. What are the chances of the UNSUB being homeless?"

"Considering the fact that none of the bodies have been found, not very high," JJ responds, scrolling further to the end of the case. "It would be impossible to hide 34 bodies without owning someplace to put them or at least having a vehicle to transport them far enough to away to dump them without being traced back to here."

"So we're looking for an able-bodied adult between the ages of 25 and 55 who owns property and a vehicle," I briefly raise my eyebrows, running my tongue across my dry lips to wet them. "So that narrows it down to nearly the entire population of Virginia."

"It's a start."