Resident Genius 2.0 (Spencer Reid)

9. Possible lead

AJ
Within 30 minutes, Reid had come back to the police station, and Penelope had found something.

"Talk to us, Penelope." I asked, Reid and JJ sitting next to me as we waited for Penelope to speak.

"As requested, I searched the school staff records for each school. One person stood out." Penelope sent a photo through to us.

"This is Phoebe Thompson. She worked at all three of the victims schools. She was an Art teacher for 6 months at Mr Webster's school. She was also the Science technical assistant at the other schools." Penelope exhaled.

"What did Mrs Scott and Mrs Webster have to say?" JJ asked, glancing at Reid.

"Weirdly enough, as soon as I asked them about strangers, they all mentioned a woman, mid 30s. I had a sketch artist come and get a description, and this is what the woman must look like." Reid handed JJ a white piece of paper with a very detailed picture of a woman.

"Garcia, does this woman have any similarity to Phoebe Thompson?" JJ asked as she took a photo of the image and sent it through to Penelope.

"Holy moly. It's a match." Penelope gasped.

"Oh! And, JJ, you asked me to dig into the victims payments and GPS systems. From what I've found, over the past 12 months, all three victims visited a hotel that rests just over an hour from the school districts. The GPS systems inform me that each victim visited that exact hotel over 15 times within a 6 month period. As for the payments, Mr Miller once purchased a $500 necklace, Mr Scott rented a private villa for $2,500 and Mr Webster paid $450 for a trip to Bali." Penelope scoffed.

"Penelope, can you send us a picture of the necklace that Mr Miller purchased?" I questioned, curious.

"Sure can!" She chuckled before hanging up.

"Reid, when you talked to Mrs Scott and Mrs Webster, did either of them mentioning any trips within the past year, maybe an anniversary gift or something?" JJ looked at Reid, who shook his head.

"No, they-" Reid spoke, until the conference room door opened, revealing Prentiss, Morgan and Rossi.

"-They just found another body. A woman, mid 30s." Prentiss exhaled.

"You don't think?" JJ looked between me and Reid, suspicious.

"Penelope just sent the photo." I nodded before all of us left the precinct, heading toward the crime scene.

———

I carefully inspected the photo of the necklace and looked at Reid, who sat next to me in the SUV.

"You didn't see Mrs Miller wearing that necklace, did you?" I showed him the photo.

"No. I didn't." Reid shook his head.

Before we knew it, we were flashing our badges and entering the crime scene.

"What have we got here?" JJ asked as Prentiss and Morgan bent down, inspecting the body.

"We haven't yet identified her yet, but from the initial look, she seems to be mid 30s. We found this just a few feet away." The detective handed me a small evidence bag, with what seemed to be a necklace.

"You've got to be kidding." I rolled my eyes, comparing the picture of the necklace to the necklace I held in my hand.

"What is it?" Rossi asked, inspecting both.