timeless, spencer reid [ 1 ]

025. house on fire

"The last thing we want is for this to turn into a witch hunt." Rossi says.

"It's exactly what this is." Hotch says. "We're just gonna have to keep the locals from realizing it. Garcia, I want you to find out everything that you can about the 31 victims, and I don't mean just their paper trail. I need to know everyone related to them, everybody they owed money to, everybody they had an argument with."

"Sir, if I'm hearing you right, you're saying I'm the witch hunter." Penelope says.

"That's exactly what I'm saying." Hotch says.

"Godspeed, my love." Bedelia comments.

+++

"I have been through every piece of footage I could find. No one sticks out at the fires." JJ says. "No one appears to be inappropriately voyeuristic. No one with bandages."

"Garcia?" Hotch asks.

"Yeah. No firebug firefighter, no flammable juvie records, however, of the 128 reported instances of petty larceny and vandalism in the last year, there are a few names that sort of stick out, so I'm emailing you those photos. I also have a pattern of small gasoline fires about 300 miles away. A town called Franklin. Got a, uh, trash can fire, a Christmas tree, and an abandoned shed. And I sent you that file."

"Given the 500 mile search radius, there's boudn to be a certain percentage of nuisance fires." JJ says. "We can't necessarily tribute that to our unsub."

"That's true, but only 7% of arsonists use wooden matches with a gasoline accelerant -- our unsub and this guy. Nice work, Garcia." Spencer tells her. She smiles in thanks and nods.

"What about the victims?" Hotch asks. 

"Well... given that I've had less than 8 hours, I can't really--"

"I appreciate the time constraint. What have you found?" Hotch asks.

"Uh, a mixture of ages and genders." Penelope says. "Mostly local. A cousin visiting from a nearby town."

"Is there any crossover between the victims and the two towns, Garcia?" Spencer asks.

"Hey, it's a little teeny tiny town." Penelope says. "There's nothing but crossover. Um... Alex Nagel -- he was killed in the rec center. Now, not only was Nagel an upstanding member of the local church, he also owned quite a bite of real estate in Royal, including the movie theater. Windy Kennedy was killed at the movie theater. She was a single mom. She worked a double shift at the local discount store and she still managed to find time to volunteer at the rec center. I also have a third grade teacher, third cousins, and at least 3 potential affairs."

"You're gonna have to start weeding out some of these, Garcia." Hotch says. "Third cousins and religious affiliations are probably not gonna help us. I need to know who had enemies, who had secrets, who was a target."

"Oh, with all due respect, sir, my brain muscles are comfortable with being intuitive with information, not people. Looking at people like that is not part of my job description. I'm not a profiler."

"Well, you're gonna have to be. We don't have much time. You three look into the nuisance fires." He tells Spencer, Bedelia, and JJ. "Garcia, stay on the radio." He orders as he leaves.

+++

"So tell us about the bar victims." Emily says.

"All right. Hilda and Roger Drake." Spencer says.

"She was a teacher, he sold insurance." Penelope informs.

"Friends, enemies?" Bedelia asks.

"Oh, no, nothing like that. They seemed sweet." Penelope says. "Their biggest problem was finding baby names. Hilda was pregnant."