𝐓𝐖𝐎 𝐆𝐇𝐎𝐒𝐓𝐒, spencer reid

⠀ three. it's always someone you know

"Not necessarily," Emily looked far more upset than smug to suggest otherwise. Even if the betrayal of someone in her life being responsible would be painful, it would certainly narrow their search, "His obsession with horror movies, specifically Slash, could have led to an obsession with you. It's entirely possible that... a stalker could have a warped sense of reality. In which the two of you know one another, but in actuality, he'd be unrecognizable to you,"

Nancy sighed. She didn't know whether to be disappointed or relieved, "And that once again lowers the suspect list to... anybody," the two agents took a step back to allow forensics to come through, rustling of their plastic blue overalls alerting Reid and Morgan that their time with the body was over. They crossed the room toward the ladies, ready to exchange information.

"No sign of a struggle..." Reid began, turning back to look at the trail of blood beside the body, "Just that the body was dragged,"

"From which direction?"

"They can't tell..."

Morgan folded his arms, glancing around at the glistening floors and ceilings, "Listen, ladies, I know you've probably never set foot in a boys' locker room in your lives but these places? These places usually stink," neither Emily nor Nancy could hide their amusement at that. It was no hidden secret that teenage boys smell bad. Along with any place pubescent boys tended to culminate.

"Oh, trust me, we know,"

Morgan narrowed his eyes, holding back the word smartass, "So where's the stink?"

That was an excellent point. Nancy had been so laser-focused on the message across the lockers she'd hardly taken the time to look around the actual room. For a locker room, "The unsub cleaned up..."

Spencer nodded, equally perplexed, "I mean, this place is spotless. Top to bottom," realizing that wasn't entirely true, he glanced between the body and his fellow agents, "Well, except for..."

"That's a deviation from the previous murders," Emily concluded, saving Reid from an awkward continuation, "both the ones from '98 and his own,"

"So why clean up after himself if he's just gonna leave the body there anyway?" questioned Nancy, glancing toward Reid, "Remorse?"

"After what he did to the kid?" scoffed Morgan, shaking his head, "I don't think so," the agent sighed, heading toward the fire doors around the corner from the main entrance of the school. Local police had already cleared the area, with tape separating law enforcement from the reporters and civilians. Morgan continued to explain as they walked, eager to get back and add to their evidence board before the 'ghost' claimed any more victims, "He's hiding something about the way he's killing these kids," continued Morgan, instinctively reaching for his sunglasses once his eyes met the light of day.

"I think we're gonna need two profiles," added Nancy, glancing behind her at Reid and Prentiss, "One for the Ghostface persona, and one for the unsub behind the mask,"

Spencer nodded, quickly taking his phone from his pocket and pressing it to his ear. It only rang a few times, and whoever was at the other end must have said something rather entertaining to earn such a wide smile, "Hey, Garcia,"

Right, the technical analyst.

They'd met before, very briefly. Not when consulting, but when she'd visited her brother at the BAU offices. Penelope Garcia was just about the coolest person she'd ever met. She said what she wanted, wore what she wanted. And she was absolutely a tech genius, "Do you think you could get me a copy of the original screenplay for Slash? Thank you," pocketing his phone once more, Nancy paused, just before they crossed the yellow tape, arms folded below her chest