Ghosts • Aaron Hotchner

Chapter Ten

Hotch pressed play on a grainy video and the team watched as the unsub, dressed entirely in black, shot a bald man looking at a map. Fallon sighed sadly, that man had no idea.

"That's the best image they have?" JJ asked referring to the bad image of the unsub Hotch showed them. There was no skin on show at all, and not even the tiniest glimpse of his face.

"They're all the same. He wears a hood, and keeps his head down," Hotch informed, showing them the other two videos that were captured. Both the same as the first, the unsub with absolutely nothing identifying visible.

"This guy's bold. Crowded areas, broad daylight," Emily pointed out.

"So they're completely random?" Rossi asked.

"It seems that way," Hotch answered.  The case just kept getting better and better. No witnesses, no connections, not mob related. Random victims at random places.

"Son of Sam all over again," Spencer commented, and Fallon was sure that they were all thinking the exact same thing.

They all quickly grab their go bags, and then met on the jet thirty minutes later, so that they could get to New York as soon as possible.

"How come I only get to travel with you guys like once every two years?" Garcia asked as she walked onto the jet with Morgan, and Emily behind her.

"Trust me Mama, it can get old," Morgan told her.

"Oh, right, like the way that spa treatments in five star hotels can get old," Garcia retorted as Morgan handed her the bedazzled bag she had brought with.

"Remember the time we got on board and they hadn't chilled the Cristal?" Emily asked Morgan mockingly, and Fallon laughed lightly from her spot across from Spencer, and next to Hotch.

"Oh, I almost quit the BAU that day," Morgan responded.

"Okay, you know what? You guys can joke all you want but I am never leaving this plane," Garcia announced as she moved behind them to relax.

"The victims?" Rossi asked once everyone was settled in.

"Each killed in a completely different neighborhood. Hell's Kitchen, Murray Hill, Lower East Side, Chinatown, East Harlem," Hotch listed.

"It doesn't make any sense. There's no common victimology, no sexual component, no robbery, no geographical connection. Do the police have any leads?" Spencer asked.

"He's killing roughly every two days. The press is having a field day, and it sounds like the mood on the street's getting pretty edgy," Hotch responded, the lack of answer an obvious no. There were no leads.

"Do you blame them?" Fallon asked. Everyone was silent for a moment, and then Rossi spoke up.

"It's a joint FBI-NYPD task force?"

"Kate Joyner heads up the New York field office. She's running point on the case and called me directly," Hotch said. "JJ would you let them know that we're ready to go?"

"Right," JJ responded, looking a little out of it.

"Kate's starting to butt heads with the lead detectives and wanted a fresh set of eyes," Hotch continued, finishing his explanation of Kate Joyner.

"Joyner, I know her. She's a Brit right?" Morgan asked.

"Well, dual citizenship. Her father's British, her mother's American," Hotch corrected. "She was a big deal at Scotland Yard before coming to the Bureau."

"I heard she can be a little bit of a pain in the ass," Morgan commented, which made Fallon press her lips together to keep from making a disgruntled noise in reaction to the statement.