Honesty - Criminal Minds || Spencer Reid Fanfiction

2. Team

"Please, everyone calls me Joy." I insisted with a small smile.
"Wonderful choice," The Italian Rossi piped up as we shook hands. "My long-lost daughter is also named Joy." He smiled warmly at me, a twinkle in his eye as he mentioned his daughter. I smiled bashfully and ducked my head, tucking my hair behind my ear as I sat down in an empty chair at the round table.

"Where's Hotch?" Reid asked as he too sat down at the table.
"He'll meet us on the plane. He's in a meeting right now." Garcia said expertly before turning to the massive screen on the wall, the controller in her hand.

"Over the past twelve months, four women have been held hostage in their own homes and been subjected to physical and sexual torture," Garcia explained, clicking photos of four women onto the screen; all extremely beautiful. "Charlotte Jenson was the first victim to be found brutally murdered and dismembered over eighty miles from her home in Northern California," Garcia clicked photos of Charlotte's dismembered body onto the screen. 

"She was found outside the home of Kathleen Wilks who had gone outside to investigate what she reported to be a bad smell after seeing a large black van parked outside earlier that morning."

"In the morning?" Reid asked curiously.

"Yes, it was still dark outside and Kathleen was awoken by a heavy thud outside. She's a light sleeper and it was record degrees outside so she had all the windows open. She'd gone to investigate the noise and saw a dark van pulling down the street. Thinking nothing of it she went back to sleep and went about her normal business the next morning before realising there was a bad smell in her house."

"A bad smell?" Morgan repeated, glancing at the files of Charlotte's dismembered body.
"Most likely the stench of the decomposing body if it was record heat outside." Rossi explained, nodding his head.
"She'd definitely smell it inside the house if she had all windows open." I piped up in agreement. It seemed like until now I'd (thankfully) been forgotten about.

Luckily though, Garcia continued with the review.
"Unfortunately it didn't stop with Charlotte. Three months later Kathleen Wilks' body was found brutally mutilated on the front porch of Wilma Harris in central California. Same scenario with Wilma as with Kathleen. Both woke up in the early morning to loud noise, both saw a dark van pulling away, both smelled the stench of a decomposing body outside, and both discovered the body. Fast forward to just under three months later, and Wilma Harris' body was discovered in the stairway of Rochelle Portman's apartment block. As of this morning, her boyfriend reported her missing after he'd gone to pick her up for a weekend holiday and she'd failed to answer the door. When he got into her apartment it was as if she'd just dropped everything and left."

"So what's different about Rochelle that wasn't the same with the other victims?" Morgan asked.
"Well with the other victims they didn't have close family or friends who would have reported them missing after a few days of contact. All victims until Rochelle had been held hostage in their own homes and were brutally raped and tortured for three days before their deaths."

"And were they killed in their homes?" Reid asked curiously.
"Yes, but it has been confirmed that they were not dismembered there."
"So there's somewhere else he takes them to horrifically tear them apart?" JJ asked in a repulsed tone.

"Actually, there are no signs of the victims being torn at all. Whoever removed the limbs and head used a highly expensive and precise tool. He's most likely had practice, this isn't just something someone can do on a whim, the slices are far too clean and neat for a trial run." Reid said matter-of-factly, observing the photos.

The whole room was silent and he looked up from the photos.
"What?" He asked defensively and I smirked, admiring his total innocence.

"Although I am repulsed by the words, our dearly ingenious Reid is right," Garcia sighed gravely and nodded her head. "Forensics confirm that whoever dismembered the bodies had intense training and experience with tools."
"So we're looking for a skilled butcher?" Morgan asked.