𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐎𝐖 ━━ 𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐤 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐧

『6』

"Hope everyone had a restful weekend." Aaron greeted us.

"That sounds ominous." Elle squinted her eyes at him.

"It was too short." I groaned tiredly.

"Harrington, Tennessee, population 5,000. 64 years since they had a homicide. They've had two in the past 48 hours." JJ pulled up a couple of pictures of the area.

"First victim, 57–year–old widower and grandfather Paul Thompson. Ambushed in his yard. Eighteen stab wounds to his chest and his neck. No forced entry into the house, and the only item taken was a shotgun." Aaron identified the man in the picture.

"Last night, Annie Stuart, 39, was also ambushed and was bludgeoned to death in her home with Thompson's stolen shotgun. In this case, the UnSub apparently stole CDs, DVDs, and a little jewelry." JJ mentioned.

"This is a little extreme for a burglary." Derek pointed out.

"That's an understatement." Elle backed him up.

"As you can see, Annie's throat was eviscerated." Aaron added.

"Yet the firsts wasn't eviscerated, and the UnSub seems to have used a different weapon at each crime scene." We looked through the different pictures.

"Two different MOs." Aaron confirmed.

"How about two different killers?" Elle tilted her head to the side inquisitively.

"Or one very psychotic individual." Gideon came in through the door on a pair of crutches.

"What happened to you?" Aaron glanced between Gideon and his leg.

"I got a list of things I want to try before it's too late." He stepped further into the room.

"Since when was orthopedic surgery on your lists?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

"No, skydiving." He correctly. "Apparently, it's all about the landing." He sat down in the last remaining chair and stated, making us laugh.

"How long on the crutches?" Aaron asked him.

"Just a couple days." Gideon waved it off.

"Or you could pull a Suparna and take it off early." Derek gave me a look.

"Perfectly healed, Morgan. Perfectly healed." I rolled my shoulders back and forth, nothing aching or throbbing.

"So you can't go out in the field?" Elle glanced over at him.

"Not on crutches, no." Aaron rejected.

"Don't worry. I'll find a way to be helpful here." He scanned the various photos from the crime scenes. "Got a blitz attack. No effort to remove the body, clean up the evidence." He listed out the qualities.

"With organized killers, we see a pattern, we're able to predict their behavior. But with psychotic killers, they're guided by a given delusion." Aaron differentiated the two types of killers.

"Until we understand the nature of the delusion, we can't predict his next move." Derek looked up at my brother.

"And that's nearly impossible to do." Aaron sighed.

"I think we might have a clue actually." Spencer countered. "These rings at that crime scene. Might be some kind of signature?" He set down the pictures.

"I can work this angle. I'll see if there's any significance to the patterns." Gideon assigned to himself.

"Psychotic killers are not that difficult to catch because they don't try to hide." Aaron added.