BEING CO-CHIEF WITH EMILY FOR THE BAU WAS STILL NEW TERRITORY FOR US. And now, with Scratch looming over us, it's been a weird transition, to say the least.
I think Rosie is getting annoyed with us being so...overprotective, but with Scratch on the loose with every urge to attack, we've been even more hyper-vigilant. We change the alarm code to our apartment every week and it's never written down so he can't get it. We saw the pressure Scratch put on Hotch as the unit chief. We're not taking any chances now that we're in this position.
I see what Hotch meant when he said he never left the BAU. I always thought that was a choice. And it is, partly. But, I hate going to sleep knowing I have a shit ton of work the next morning. Emily and I take turns on staying at the office later. One of us always tries to be home by 10 at the latest. Sometimes, it doesn't work out like that.
Tonight was one of those instances. I peered over to her desk to see her biting her nails. She does that when she's stressed.
I stood up from my desk and walked over to hers. "Why don't you take a break?" I suggested.
She looked up from the file she was in and sighed. "No, I'm fine." She said as convincingly as she could.
"Emily, you've been in that same file for over an hour." I deadpanned.
She took a deep breath and looked at me. "I just can't focus. The only thing I can think of is Scratch. I don't want him to have that power over me. But, it's just...consuming." She went on.
I feel that one deeply. I nodded. "That rat-faced asshole is the only image in my mind. His beady eyes and buck teeth. Every single time the team has gotten within sniffing distance of him, he takes off, never to be seen until he sets up his next trap. I'm tired of it, too."
She sighed and wrapped her arms around my waist. I was still standing so she rested her head on my stomach. I rubbed her head lovingly. We stood there like that for a little while.
I looked to my watch to see it was 11. "Come on. Why don't we head out for the night? We have that class tomorrow with Rossi." I let out. She groaned and got her stuff.
We headed home to see Rosie already asleep. We followed suit and just waited to be disturbed by the sounds of our alarms.
—
The other day we welcomed a new member to the team. Emily and I met him on a case at Interpol. Stephen Walker. We're happy with this choice.
Rossi was too. He's worked with Stephen before. Said he was one of the most naturally gifted profilers he's ever seen. We needed this. Especially now.
Today is Rossi's birthday. Usually, he'd visit Tommy Yates today, but he just happens to be one of the escaped convicts. It's a touchy subject today.
Emily, Stephen and I walked over to Rossi's office, knowing we weren't gonna say anything about it. The four of us are running the class.
He soon met us down in the classroom and we had them doing a stimulation where the students call the shots on what we do in the field. One of them made a choice that would result in me getting shot.
"Congratulations. You just sent Agent Parks to the emergency room. Hopefully, she pulls through. You only take the shot if you are absolutely sure. And trust me. You are rarely absolutely sure." Rossi spoke.
"With the adrenaline, even the best can miss easy shots from time to time." I added.
"And a hail of bullets is never a good thing." Stephen added.
"The point is to control the situation, and a shootout is one of the most uncontrollable situations there are. Anyone else?" Rossi spoke.
"Maybe speak to his mother issues, get him off balance." A student suggested.
That one was not correct. The unsub would kill the victim and then himself because he thinks we're bluffing.
"Wrong answer. You just got the victim killed and lost the unsub. Not exactly a win. You're all regional coordinators with a few years on the job, and this is an advanced training seminar. You gotta do better than that. So what else?" Rossi began to shout. Emily and I shared a look before turning our attention back to the class.
"Well, the profile says he's narcissistic. I mean, you should appeal to that." Another student suggested. Now, we're talking.
"Finally, somebody's thinking. Now, I remember why I recommended you for this program, Agent Clark." Rossi praised. "The takedown as we call it, is an extremely fluid situation. You need to rely on your instincts, your training, and above all else, the profile. It could save your life, not to mention your partner's, and the victim's. That's why we work so hard to build it." Rossi paused. "Alright. That's all for today." He said and began to pack up.
Agent Clark came up with the other students and mentioned something about his birthday. Emily and I's head snapped to the interaction. They got him a really good bottle of scotch. It was thoughtful but...they didn't know.
"I don't celebrate my birthday, but thank you." Rossi spoke and walked out. That went better than I thought it would.
Everyone's face fell. Emily and I went over to them.
"I'm sorry, did I say something wrong?" Clark asked.
"It's not you." I assured.
"Have any of you heard of Tommy Yates?" Emily asked.
"The Womb Raider? Yeah, Agent Rossi put him away. He's one of the most prolific serial killers ever." Clark replied.
"He's also one of the escaped convicts from that mass prison break last year." Emily spoke. When I think about those people that are just roaming around society for too long, I want to throw up.
"He had something like 40 victims?" Another student asked. Not exactly.
"47 were recovered, but he claims to have killed over 100." Stephen replied.
"He kidnapped his female victims, starved them for days, and then cut out their reproductive organs, hence the nickname." I clarified.
"I heard he took out their vocal chords, too." A student said. Yup.
"He did, indeed. But a few years back, after he was caught, he and Rossi made a deal. Every year Yates agreed to give him another name and location of a victim he buried. But only one name a year, and only on Rossi's birthday." I started explaining.
"In exchange, Yates got transferred to the east coast, where his death sentence got commuted to life without the possibility of parole." Stephen added.
"Today is Rossi's first birthday since Yates escaped." Emily let out.
I have no idea what this means for him.
—
Late last night, Rossi called me to say Yates called him. He gave him the location of a new victim and said he was back feeling like his old self again. He's in DC.
I went to the location with Stephen, Rossi and Luke. It was bad.
"We have to wait for the coroner but clearly her genitalia and reproductive organs have been mutilated." I spoke.
"And her vocal cords, too." Stephen added.
"She looks to be about late 40s, early 50s. That tracks. All of his victims are right around his age." Luke continued.
"And he buried her, too. So if sticks to his pattern, he'll most likely go after another woman soon. He usually kills in twos, right?" I went on.
"So, nothing's changed. His M.O.'s exactly the same." Luke said. I don't know about that.
"Well, not exactly. His first victim is usually high-risk- runaways, prostitutes, but Jody Wilson is as low-risk as they come. That's new." Stephen replied.
"Assuming that this is his first victim." Luke countered.
"If it isn't, he would have told me otherwise." Rossi let out. He's barely spoke since we've been here. He was just watching them uncover his body.
"Alvez, coordinate with the Fugitive Recovery Team. I want a full-scale manhunt." I told Luke and he pulled his phone out right away. "Emily is working with the press now." I said and stepped away to talk to her about her end.
"How's it going?" I asked her.
"Press is on it. I was also thinking, what if we enlisted the help of the class. Fresh eyes might notice something we don't."
"Yeah, that's good. We'll head back now." I replied and hung up.
With that, we made our way back and taught the class. We had the class today anyway and rather than teaching them something new, they can experience life in the BAU for real. What's more hands on than an escaped convict taunting an FBI agent?
Rossi explained the phone call and we got to work.
"How is that new? I mean, one name a year on your birthday. Wasn't the whole deal a taunt?" Clark asked Rossi.
"No. That was about power and control. This is about payback." Rossi replied.
"How can you be sure?" A student asked.
"I've been tracking that guy since '92. He was aware of me then, but not once did he reach out before one of his kills." Rossi replied.
"As a matter of fact, whenever we got close, he went under." Emily added.
"So, why start taunting now?"
"That's the million-dollar question. But it definitely has to do with rapport and mutual respect built up over the years." Rossi replied.
"Mutual respect? You respect that monster?" Clark asked.
"I used to think they were all monsters, too. But they're not. They're just men, and occasionally women. And not to respect the people I hunt would be like a soldier not respecting his enemy. And that mistake costs lives." Rossi replied.
"But how do you know he felt the same way about you? This whole thing feels like disrespect." Someone asked.
"Because he said as much. Truth be told, I actually think he liked me." Rossi replied. It's interesting, really.
"Yates has no family and no friends. Agent Rossi is the only real human connection he has to the world." I clarified.
"And I took advantage of that. I wanted that rapport with him." Rossi went on but was stopped with Garcia running in.
"Sorry, sir, I know, I'm late, but I come bearing, um gifts in the form of case files. I have also sent you all digital copies, if you are of the millennial variety." Garcia said and passed around the case files to them.
"And since you're all here in official capacity, and since this seminar is considered on-the-job training, we're enlisting every one of you to help catch this guy." Rossi said to the class.
"So make sure you familiarize yourselves with all of this, and our technical analyst Penelope Garcia will help you in any way she can." Emily added.
"In the meantime, I want to ask you about next steps. What are they?" Rossi asked.
"I'd put a trace on the phone." Someone suggested.
"Way ahead of you. He's probably using prepaid cellphones, which means we have to keep him on the line long enough to triangulate the signal. What else?" Rossi asked.
"I'd like to see the official M.E. report on Jody Wilson. I'd also like to know what the crime scene techs found at the disposal site." A student said. I remember when I was a baby profiler.
"Yes. We're waiting on those reports. Go on." I spoke.
"Victimology on Jody Wilson. Phone records, email, social media." Someone else said.
"There's nothing. Jody was really analog." Garcia replied.
"I'd talk to her family and friends, get to really know who Jody Wilson was." Someone said.
"Very good. Her mother Mae will be here in an hour. In the meantime, get to work." Rossi demanded.
We had a lot of work to do, that's for sure.
—
I had JJ and Tara meet Rossi to see if he'd like help talking to Mae. I'm a little worried about him.
In the interview, we found out he was seeing Jody romantically. That's a change in M.O. He went by the name Johnny.
We all went over this.
"This man is an escaped convict. Face all over the news, cops are looking everywhere for him, what does he do? He settles down and finds a girlfriend." I went on. I don't understand that one.
"And we profiled Yates as an introvert with limited social skills. How does a guy like that find a girlfriend?" JJ went on.
"Jody Wilson was an introvert with limited social skills, too. They were perfect for each other." Stephen said. Poor choice of words but I get what he's saying.
Garcia approached us. "Jody Wilson's SUV was just discovered outside of Richmond."
"He must have abandoned it. Probably stole another one." Luke replied.
"That's actually a really good guess, because her savings account was just emptied, too." Garcia said back. Makes sense.
"Richmond. He's moving south." Emily let out.
"Is that the M.E. report?" JJ asked Garcia for the paper in her hand.
"Yeah. And the cause of death is exactly what you think it would be." Garcia muttered.
"What about stomach contents?" Rossi asked.
"Partially digested eggs, bacon, and-" JJ started to read but Garcia but her off.
"Okay, okay. If I'd want to know, I would have read it myself." Garcia muttered.
Wait a minute. He didn't stave them?
"He didn't starve them? Let me see that." Rossi said and took the paper.
"It may have been because he didn't have time. He is on the run." Stephen said.
"But he did have time. Jody Wilson was his girlfriend. He's had weeks." Emily spoke. I nodded. That didn't make sense. He'd make time.
"I'm curious why he suddenly tried to be intimate with women. He hated women." JJ pondered.
"His childhood was a living hell. And he spent the better part of his adulthood as a serial killer. What if he just wanted to be normal for once?" Rossi suggested.
"So he's trying to achieve some kind of idealized fantasy, like playing house." I said going off of Rossi. It kinda makes sense.
"And then when he realized he would never fulfill that fantasy, he killed the woman who made him think he could." JJ continued.
"So what's Yates' next move?" Stephen asked Rossi.
"He'll find another victim." He muttered.
Another night where I won't be sleeping.
—
And Rossi got another phone call that night.
Rossi, Emily, JJ and I went to the dumpsite. He's backtracking.
"First, he heads south toward Richmond, and then he bounces back up north to Baltimore. Which way is he heading?" JJ let out.
"Hopefully the roadblock will keep him hemmed in." Emily spoke.
Behind us, reporters were running here. I groaned. "Oh, damn it, how'd they find out already?"
"My gut says Yates told them." Rossi let out.
"What, you think he wants attention? He didn't profile as narcissistic." JJ replied.
"No. He wants to humiliate me. I'll handle them. You guys check out the crime scene." Rossi said to us.
We looked through the crime scene before heading back to the BAU to brief the class. We had all the information on our victim. This murder was very different than the last.
"Her name is Regina Franklin. 26 year old prostitute and meth addict." Rossi started.
"She was originally from Tampa but moved to Baltimore after she dropped out of her senior year of high school. The M.E. found 37 stab wounds to her lower genitalia and lower abdomen, 10 to her throat." I explained.
"But Yates is usually more surgical than that. Why so sloppy?" Clark asked. He's right. It is a lot messier than it usually is.
"Good catch. We think it's because he gave us an exact location, he had to move fast because he knew we were coming." Emily replied.
"She had defensive wounds." A student pointed out.
"Yes. The M.E. believes that she tried to fight back at some point, probably when he first grabbed her." I replied.
"She also had someone else's blood on her, enough to run a sample through CODIS and we were able to confirm that it belongs to Yates." Emily added.
Stephen then walked into the seminar. "Excuse me, I'm sorry. I was listening to your conversation with Yates and I heard something." He said and clicked play.
"Family's important, right? Better enjoy them while you can. You never know how much time you got left."
"Clearly he's threatening me and my family." Rossi let out.
"Thats what I thought, too, but listen again." Stephen said and played it again.
"Family's important, right? Better enjoy them while you can. You never know how much time you got left."
Wait a minute. That's weird.
"He doesn't sound very threatening." I said and looked up.
"He sounds sad." Emily added.
"Exactly." Stephen replied.
"So what are you thinking?" Rossi asked.
"'You never know how much time you got left.' Maybe he wasn't talking about you. Maybe he was talking about himself." Stephen replied.
That makes a lot of sense. Why he's not taking the time to starve his victims, the defensive wounds, why he's trying to find a girlfriend. He's sick.
"We need to talk to the M.E. And I want to see Yates' prison medical records. It might be time to deliver the profile." Rossi spoke.
—
When we got the information we needed, we moved everyone into the bullpen and Rossi started us off. "Tommy Yates removes his victims' reproductive organs because he hates the fact he was even born."
"His latest vicim is 26 years old. Now, that's a departure for him. Historically his victims have been right around the same age as he is." Luke continued.
"This shift is about availability. Regina was a prostitute, drug addict. She was an easy target, and he needs easy targets, now more than ever before." Tara said.
"Luckily, the coroner recovered a recent sample of his blood, and when he had it tested, we found out that Yates has cancer." Rossi revealed. That has the same feeling as my dad being impotent.
"We're not sure what type, but we know he's a smoker, and his grandmother died from lung cancer." Emily added.
"So now we think his victim's age no longer matters." Luke added.
"And he's definitely got transportation, probably a van or a truck and probably stolen." Stephen said.
"In the past, he typically moved from high-risk lifestyle victims to low-risk, so he maybe about to up his game somehow." Tara continued.
"He used to starve and hold his victims for days. He seems to have skipped that step with the last two." Luke said.
"We believe that because Yates is sick and feels that he's running out of time. Unfortunately, that sentiment could push him towards some kind of spree." Rossi added.
"He may want to kill as many people as he can before he goes out himself." JJ said.
"When serial killers know their death is imminent, they typically either feel the urge to confess or they try to go out with a bang, so they can go down in history." I said.
"His killing again, Yates seems to be leaning toward the latter. So we think he may try to do that somehow through me." Rossi finished.
—
Emily and I went into Rossi's office. He was on the phone with his daughter. When he hung up he let out a sigh.
"Hey." I breathed.
"Hi."
"Everything quiet on the Homefront?" Emily asked.
"No. My daughter and my grandson are sleeping in the safe house, and her mother, well, she never loved the perks of this job to begin with." Rossi spoke. Poor man.
"You should go home and get some rest." Emily urged.
"Is this you being the compassionate boss?" Rossi asked. I chuckled.
"No, this is me being the compassionate friend." Emily corrected.
"You keep burning the candle at both ends, there won't be much of you left." I added. He said that to me before.
"Wait a minute, I say that. What, are you using my sayings against me?" He asked. I smiled.
"I am. And it's true. That's why it's a good saying. Go get some rest. No case was solved in a day." I continued.
"And that's another one." He said defensively. What can I say?
"I know. What do you want? I learned from the best." I replied with a smile.
"Look, I appreciate your concern, but I'm fine. Really." He assured and set his arms on the desk. He is one stubborn man.
"Alright, then." Emily said and shared a look with me. We knew what we were going to do. I nodded.
She walked in the room and I followed. We sat down at the chairs in front of his desk.
"What's for dinner? I'm buying." Emily shrugged.
"Oh..." Rossi muttered and sat back in his desk. He may be stubborn, but so are we.
"Don't make that face. I'm starving, and I know you haven't eaten and I can hear Delia's stomach from here." Emily went on. I nodded. I was hungry.
"Okay. I'll get a meatball sandwich from Riggo's." Rossi replied.
"They don't deliver this late." I said back.
"Oh, they do for me." Rossi nodded and started to call. Sometimes I think this man has super powers.
—
I slept in my office that night. Emily went home to see Rosie. I was already asleep on the couch when she left. She left me a note but she was back before I was even up.
This is marriage.
That night was also when we got another phone call last night, too. I went to sleep after it so I was able to witness it with Rossi.
It had been 2 days since that call.
We were playing it for the class.
"This one's not carrying I.D., but she says her name is Brandi. With an i." Yates said.
"You don't need to keep doing this. You've got my attention." Rossi replied.
"You know what? I think I'll take my time with her. Old school. You deserve that. You know what else? You're never gonna find her."
The rest of the call was filled with screaming from the victim. Is it bad the screaming doesn't phase me anymore?
"Agent Rossi, it's been two days since you got that call. What do you think? Is she still alive?" Clark asked.
"I think there's a chance, yes." Rossi replied. Slim but it is a chance.
"And he did say, 'I think I'll take my time with her. Old school.' That probably means he's gonna starve her before he kills her, just like he used to." Emily pointed out.
"But why now is he just giving you the victims' name but not the location of where he's going to bury her?" Someone asked.
"We think it's a sadistic attempt to mentally torture Agent Rossi." I replied.
"It's also Yates' way of staying connected. The relationship with Agent Rossi must validate him somehow." Stephen added.
"So what's our next move?" Someone asked. That's the thing.
"We're in what I call a tweener. We've scoured every report, exhausted every resource, turned every stone." Rossi replied.
"What, so now we wait?" Clark asked.
"Well, we're on high alert. The manhunt is still active, so we're not exactly waiting. But every investigation at this point, requires patience. But most of all, focus. Most of the answers are in our head. And that's the job. That's why we get into the mind of the killer. And if you can't get into your own head, you're never going to get into someone else's. And the way we do that is we need a process, and we've all got one." Rossi said and gestured to us.
"I play the trombone." Stephen said.
"I go to the shooting range." Emily added.
"I listen to music." I spoke.
"Meditation. Jigsaw puzzles. I even know a guy who likes to box to find his zen." Rossi added.
"So what do you do?" Clark asked Rossi. It's the most Rossi thing he could do.
"Me? I cook. Always the same dish. Spaghetti ala Carbonara." Rossi replied and went on about what he loved about making the dish. He also said he imagines himself having dinner with the unsub.
We all have our own ways to decompress.
—
It's been a long night. I haven't slept in 40 hours. But on the bright side, we got Yates.
Rossi had everyone in the class come in early. He had some epiphany last night.
"Alright, have a seat everyone. Thank you for coming on such short notice. But, uh, last night, technically this morning, we've made some headway on the case and we were able to locate Tommy Yates." Rossi said. Everyone cheered. Thank god we found this son of a bitch.
"Because Agent Rossi himself became essential to Yates' M.O., we knew he wouldn't go far. In fact, quite the opposite." I added.
"Yates figured the best way to get to me was to, uh, bury a victim I knew about right under my nose." Rossi said. Literally.
"We reviewed all the transcripts of every conversation Agent Rossi ever had with Yates." Emily added.
"To build rapport and earn his trust, I told him certain things about me. Some I made up. Some were true. For example, the name of the park I like to walk in." Rossi said.
"We covered the park and the areas surrounding the base, even the playground across the street from a restaurant Agent Rossi told Yates about." I said.
"That's when I realized that none of these places are close enough. I was headed to the office when it hit me. He was trying to bury her in my backyard." He paused to see everyone's faces. "The victim ended up surviving...Yates did not. Brandi's real name is Stephanie Wetherbee. She was a runaway from Philadelphia who hadn't seen her family in over 10 years. So we found her mother and fixed that. We found Regina Franklin's parents in Tampa. I offered to fly down and talk to them personally, but apparently her mother has a cousin who lives here, so we flew them instead. Some cases end well and you can forget about them. But some become a part of who you are. This job is going to change you. And not only that, it's going to show you who you really are. And sometimes that's not easy to see. And that's why not everybody can do this job. And that's why we train like we do. Because lives depend upon it." He paused and walked away from the podium.
"Now, Agents Parks, Prentiss and Walker were kind enough to um, half on to this for me." He said and held up the scotch. "I owe you all an apology because this was a very thoughtful gift. And what I should have done was say thank you." He said and sat it down. "So to make up for it, I'm inviting you all to my home tonight for dinner. 7:30 sharp." He finished.
We ended the class before walking out. I was exhausted. When I got into my office and sat down, Emily walked over and got on her knees to be at my level.
"Why don't you go home and get some sleep? I know you haven't slept in days. I can handle this today." She said solemnly. I was too tired to even protest.
I nodded and gave her a kiss. "I love you."
"I love you, too. Don't come back until you get at least 6 hours of sleep." She said with a chuckle.
"You got it, boss." I replied and headed for the door.
Well, at least we can put Tommy Yates to rest.