Teaching jj

Chapter 11

It didn't matter that Emily's desire for JJ had grown exponentially now that she'd actually kissed her, touched her, tasted her. All that mattered was the impossibility of ever being more than just a fling, just an experiment. Because if it hurt to hear JJ say these words now, it would hurt far more when Emily had contrived some kind of "happily-ever-after" ending for them, only to watch her dreams implode right in front of her face, like they always did.

Like they always would.

At work on Monday, JJ and Emily awkwardly tried to avoid any and all contact with each other. There were a few unavoidable moments: when, for instance, they both reached for the Splenda simultaneously and their fingers sparked against one another or when Morgan began to describe his weekend fling with some girl who 'couldn't get enough oral, it felt like his tongue had completed a triathlon and their arms brushed accidentally, tingling - and then was the ultimate moment when they both listened to Garcia present a profile of a 'self-hating, closeted lesbian' in Missouri suspected of killing open lesbian couples and Emily pointedly stared at JJ, whose eyes were fixed solidly on the round mahogany desk below.

Emily was only half-listening when Hotch announced, "This is going to be an undercover operation. The unsub stalks his victims for weeks, carefully watching them as they go out on dates to the movies or to gay-friendly bars and, over time, befriends them in some capacity. According to neighbors, the victims felt safe enough in their environment to leave the curtains open and windows unlocked, as all residents of the surrounding neighborhoods do, so local law enforcement believe that she watches them vicariously through the windows on multiple occasions as they engage in sexual activities. Death occurs by direct gunshot wound to the head while the women are engaged in what the unsub believes to be the ultimate act of degradation and heterosexual betrayal: the use of a strap-on to simulate penetration. We believe that the unsub herself sends the victims this penetration harness because, by the time the couple receives it, they do not call the police to report a potential hate crime or a strange gift received in the mail. Moreover, the packages are always hand-delivered and the boxes removed afterward, most likely to protect the unsub's identity. Because the victims were all relatively new to the area and spent substantial time socializing, we've tried to cross-reference lists of social contacts but there are far too many names to sort through."

"That's small town life for you," JJ muttered to herself.

Emily chewed on her pencil thoughtfully. "But we're talking about a small town in the Midwest. Surely there had to be some backlash about openly lesbian couples moving into town?"

"Surprisingly not," Spencer responded, brushing his hair out of his face. "Since the foreclosure crisis, the number of same-sex couples looking for real estate in small towns has skyrocketed. Actually, gay men far outnumber gay women in this particular town and while church protests, along with minor vandalism and threatening letters and phone calls are common when gay men move in, the same doesn't seem to apply to lesbian couples. This is perhaps related to the myth of the predatory gay male, which hasn't really been associated with gay women, thereby rendering them generally less threatening to the religious community as a whole."

"... Except to this unsub," Rossi added. "Now, we're not sure of the underlying motivation behind these murders. Perhaps she was seduced into a same-sex relationship and is projecting her sense of shame or guilt onto these couples. Perhaps she is a closeted lesbian raised in this town who has never been afforded the opportunity to act on her feelings due to the gossipy mentality that would almost certainly label her and her family as outsiders, despite their hypocritical acceptance of those 'from away' who choose to settle down there. Or perhaps she was betrayed by a female lover who chose to leave her for a man - hence the concept of penetration between women serving as the ultimate reminder of her hidden heartbreak. A heartbreak she could never speak of, at the risk of being outed and ostracized by the community."

"And it should also be noted that it was not the traditionally dominant partner wearing the harness; it was the more submissive one," Spencer noted. "This indicates both a sense of helplessness and of rage: the dominant partner is, for once, rendered submissive, perhaps fulfilling a revenge fantasy that the unsub was unable to achieve in her personal life."

Visibly uncomfortable, JJ coughed and asked, "So how are we going to play this? Increased surveillance on lesbian households? Encouraging these couples to enhance security measures like closing their curtains and having locks installed on the windows, along with an alarm system?"

Hotch shook his head. "There are too many couples in the town to provide the kind of surveillance we'd need and the FBI is unwilling to pay for those measures until it has been established as a hate crime. If the unsub had written threatening letters or made threatening phone calls directly linking the murders to the sexual orientation of the victims, it would fall under the hate crimes statute. Because we can only provide a behavioral profile that these crimes are related to discrimination, the hate crimes task force has refused to cooperate. Moreover, any lesbian couple - whether or not they draw their shades or install window guards and high-tech alarms - is at risk, merely by their presence in the community. The last couple killed, Maureen Downey and Alyssa Forest, did take such measures and yet still either had a package left on their doorstep containing the harness or accepted it directly as a gift from someone they trusted."

"Besides," Reid added, his leg restlessly moving up and down, "one of the most popular stores in town sells X-ray binoculars that can easily see through curtains. They also sell guns, alarm-disabling software, and hidden wireless video cameras that are activated by motion and shut off either automatically when motion ceases, such as, for example, when a couple has gone to sleep, or manually, such as when sexual activity has ceased. The area is so remote that every phone and wireless connection operates on the same frequency, making it impossible to trace these cameras by an individual IP address."

"But there has to be data on the number of purchases of this kind of surveillance," Emily said, frowning. "I mean, how many people really need X-ray binoculars?"

"Um, try just about everyone who lives in this town, sweetheart?" Garcia sighed, her fingers clicking against the keyboard. "This is a hunting town, where X-ray binoculars are apparently invaluable when hunting in a dense forest. And the motion detector video cameras are often used on some of the more isolated properties to chase away grazing deer and wild boar. A lot of homes have several of these cameras pointed in different directions to capture the entirety of the property. So we're not going to find her through their little Boy Scouts R Us store, I can tell you that."

"What about arrests for peeping in windows?" JJ asked. "With all that technology, there have to be people using it for more than just hunting and protection of property."

"When I spoke to the Chief of D's, he informed me that while there was a spike in the number of adolescent boys looking into bedroom windows after the goggles were introduced, he decided to speak to their parents directly rather than tarnish their records with a juvenile sex offense, since they were, in his words, just boys being boys," Hotch remarked, frowning.

"Providing a new breeding ground for sex offenders." Emily rolled her eyes. "Well, that's just great."

"So what's the plan, then?" JJ wanted to know, furrowing her brow. "It seems like we can't really be of much help to them."

"We can if we send in two undercover agents posing as lesbians," Hotch said quietly.

"Wait, but the only female agents on this team are -" JJ began to object, visibly panicked.