IT'S BEEN NICE LEADING THE BAU HOW EMILY AND I WERE SUPPOSED TO. You know, without going back and forth from the jail for Spencer. Without Scratch in the back of our brains.
We still had a lot of work to do, but it was way more manageable. Rosie appreciated it a lot more, too.
But of course, nothing stays too good for long. Penelope was explaining our latest case and I was having severe deja vu.
"We got a call from Bridgewater, Florida, PD. The body of Rebecca Strong was found last night in a rest stop women's room with and without things." She said and put pictures up of Rebecca. She had an upside down pentagram carved on to her chest and all of her fingers were missing. Her legs were also taken.
My mind went to the Floyd Feylinn Ferrel. He was our cannibal case over ten years ago.
"Whoa." Luke muttered.
"All of the tell tale signs are here." JJ let out. You think? I thought Garcia was kidding when she handed us this case file. This isn't a case you forget easily.
"Pentagram, legs and fingers gone." Rossi added.
I pointed to the board. "And we have one neat aspect. Her earrings and jewelry are laid out equidistant on the floor."
"Sure as hell looks like him." Rossi replied.
"Looks like who?" Matt asked.
"Floyd Feylinn Ferrel." JJ answered. Penelope put his picture on the board.
"A psychotic cannibal who'd been killing under the radar for years." Spencer explained.
"He killed multiple prostitutes and then moved on to low-risk victims." Emily added.
"He kept slipping through the cracks and avoiding justice so people referred to him as lucky." JJ continued.
"The worst part was he owned a barbecue joint, and he fed one of the victims to the search party." Rossi added. I will never forget that moment. I will also never forget when he told me I'd make a good meal.
I do not want to deal with this psycho all over again.
"That is very-" Tara started but Garcia slammed her tablet down and walked out.
Emily and I looked at each other before we realized when this case was. This was the case that led up to her getting shot.
"Was it something I said?" Tara asked.
"No, it's not you. Um, we were working on Ferrel's case when she was shot." I replied to her.
"Garcia was shot?" Luke asked. I forget they haven't been on the team as long as us.
"10 years ago. It happened right in front of her apartment building." JJ replied.
"Was it a random act of violence?" Matt asked.
"No. He lured her into dating him before she I.D.ed him. Turns out, he was a dirty cop named Colby Baylor and she was getting close to exposing him." JJ explained.
"So he shot her. Where is he now?" Luke asked.
"He's dead." JJ answered. I will also never forget that. JJ shot him. That was the first time she had to kill someone.
"Good." Luke nodded.
"Let's just give her a few minutes. Tara, what were you saying?" Emily asked.
"Projected cannibalism. The act of inducing others to consume human flesh unknowingly. You do not see that very often." Tara said. Ferrell was the only unsub I've ever seen do that.
"Well projection seems to be a thing for Ferrell. He fed the fingers of 10 previous victims to a later one." I replied.
"His way of telling us he was 10 victims deep before we even knew he existed." Rossi said.
"You think he's back?" Luke asked. I certainly hope not.
"Not unless he really lives up to his nickname. He's been locked up in the Hazelwood Psychiatric Hospital for the past 10 years." Emily replied.
"Well, then it's a copycat wanting to ride the wave of horror left in Ferrell's wake." Matt spoke. All we need is another Ferrell.
"Statistically, copycat killers tend to be vulnerable narcissists. Thought overtly boastful, they harbor deep-seated feeling of inadequacy. Emulating notorious crimes makes them feel powerful." Spencer explained.
"Ferrell was found to be mentally incapable of assisting his own defense, so he skated without a trial." Rossi said. He really is lucky.
"If this unsub is anything like Ferrell, he's got a taste for it. And copycats typically don't stop after one victim. Wheels up in 20." I said and stood up.
We have a lot of work to do.
—
On the jet, we went over this more.
"The rest stop victim, Rebecca Strong was a sex trade worker." Garcia spoke. Emily and I had JJ stay back with her to work from the BAU. I know this case brings up a lot of hard feelings. We didn't want her to be alone.
"High risk, like the early victims Ferrell prayed on back in 2007." Emily replied.
"After that, he graduated to low-risk victims like Sheryl Timmons, who's also the only known survivor." Rossi added.
"Garcia, track down Sheryl." I spoke to her.
"On it."
"What was Rebecca like as a person?" Luke asked.
"She's described as strong-willed, determined. Working to support her two kids." Tara replied.
"When was Rebecca last seen?" Matt asked.
"Well, her boyfriend, and when I say boyfriend I mean pimp, Jason Carlsbad, reported her missing when she didn't show up and donate to his college fund. I'm sending you deets right now." Garcia replied. Oh, he sounds like a joy.
"Normally, I'd want to look at him. Pimps hurt women they exploit to gain control, but an M.O. this complex doesn't add up." Rossi replied. I agree.
"Yeah, the cannibalism angle wouldn't make sense either." Luke added.
"Eroticizing the consumption of human flesh is a pretty specific fetish. Are we sure that he's copying Ferrell?" Spencer asked. It's better than the alternative.
"We need to narrow that down. Dave, Tara, go to the M.E.'s office. Matt, and Spencer, head to Hazelwood State. Notorious criminals have fans who might want to copy their work. Luke, you, Emily and I will head to the PD and set up a base of operations with Detective Russ." I instructed. They all nodded.
—
As soon as we landed, Emily, Luke and I went to the station and we were met with Alex Russ. He used to work at the Bureau. It's been a while.
Detective Russ greeted us off the elevator. "Thanks for coming Delia, Emily."
We smiled and shook his hand. "Alex, this is Agent Luke Alvez." I introduced.
"You guys know each other?" Luke asked.
"Alex left the Bureau a few years ago to take this job." Emily answered.
"Tough call but when my dad passed, I wanted the kids to spend some meaningful time with Grandma down here." He replied.
"I heard Detective Jordan retired early and you replaced him." Emily said.
"Yeah, he couldn't shake the stink of this case. It's taken the community a decade to recover from Ferrell. Now we have a damn copycat." Alex huffed. I bet. This case has always haunted me for years.
"Well, they thrive on media attention. That wouldn't be good for anybody." Luke replied.
"Agreed. We rob him of his 15 minutes and work under the radar." Emily spoke. I nodded. The last thing we want is for this town to shutter with fear that Ferrell is back.
"I'd like to shut him down quietly before the town loses all hope." Alex said.
Time to catch this son of a bitch.
—
All of this is feeling way too familiar. There were fingers found in Rebecca's stomach contents.
"All of the fingers found in Rebecca's stomach are from the same victim, but they aren't hers. So we have one other unknown victim." Rossi said.
"Well, JJ and Garcia are searching for other missing women who fit his victimology." Tara spoke.
"You know, the fact that the killer forced Rebecca to swallow the fingers of a prior victim means he must have had inside knowledge of the old cases." Luke said. That's what's stumping me. We never included that in the reports to the media. Only Ferrell and law enforcement knew that.
Spencer and Matt stormed into the room. "Ferrell's been out on weekend home visits so it is possible he's killing again." Spencer said.
Oh, you've got to be kidding me.
I threw my head back. We made sure to personally tell this facility to never let him out of there. He's too much of a danger to be outside of those four walls.
"I can't believe they'd be that reckless. How did this happen?" I exclaimed. Emily and I were pissed.
"Well, it happened with Hinkley and Vince Li, the cannibal who killed and beheaded a guy on a bus." Rossi replied.
"And what's worse is this is a mental health issue, not a criminal case, so they had no duty to tell us or the public." Matt added.
Alex came in. "Sorry to interrupt but Ferrell's lawyer, Billie Williams is here. You're gonna wanna hear what she has to say."
This keeps getting better.
"You wanna take care of this or do you want me to?" Emily asked me.
"Let's both go because I can't promise I won't punch her in the face." I deadpanned. She nodded and we walked out. I was preparing myself for what this lawyer had to say.
We walked out and we were met with the bitchiest looking woman. Here we go.
"It's fortunate that you're here, Agents. I was just telling Detective Russ about our lawsuit against the FBI." She said. You and everyone else. You won't win when your client is a cannibal.
"Don't waste our time with threats. We have work to do." I replied.
"As a courtesy, I wanted to let you know that I just filed a motion to drop all charges against my client. I'm petitioning for his unconditional release." She replied. I looked at her like she was the dumbest person on the planet. She is if she thinks Floyd is capable of being a respectable human being.
"On what grounds?" Emily asked.
"It's clear from the current murder that Ferrell is actually innocent. He was set up by the real killer 10 years ago and that guys killing again." She replied. Delusional.
"The murders stopped as soon as Ferrell was locked up. And they've started again now that he's on home release." I deadpanned.
"Supervised home release. And it's further proof that the killer is setting my client up. He only kills when he can blame it on Ferrell." Billie spoke. I couldn't believe my ears.
"They caught him red-handed with one of the victims." Alex spoke.
"All that proves is that my client was under the influence of the real killer. He was clearly suffering from mental illness at the time." She replied. Yeah, the same thing he's suffering from now when he's killing Rebecca Strong and eating her fingers.
"I'll say. He had human recipes, said he ate the victims, said he'd eat me, and he had a satanic shrine." I told her.
"He was manipulated by the real killer to say those things. There was never any actual evidence tying him to these murders." She spoke. Is that so?
I raised my eyebrows at her.
"Okay, well we're confident that the facts speak for themselves. Now, if you'll excuse us." Emily said and we walked away.
"How delusional can you be to think he didn't commit those murders?" I whispered to her.
"As delusional as the man committing them." Emily deadpanned.
We walked back into the conference room and I grimaced.
"Well, we've got our work cut out for us now. We need to attack this on two fronts. One, find out if Ferrell is killing. Two, look into his lawyers 'he was set up' theory." Emily said. I rolled my eyes as she talked. He was not set up.
"Are we really buying that Ferrell had an accomplice and the team missed it before?" Matt asked.
"No matter how confident we are in our past work, we need to look at all possibilities. Let the profile decide." Rossi spoke.
"And let's find out if some phantom manipulative killer exists." I let out.
—
Luke, Spencer, and Matt were going to Floyd's sisters. Emily and I took the time to check in on Rosie.
"How's Florida?" She asked.
"Disgusting." Emily grimaced.
"That bad?"
"Rosie, never become a lawyer." I deadpanned.
"I won't. That sounds bad anyway."
"It is." Emily let out.
"Tell me about the case. I wanna know how bad it is."
"Are you eating right now?" I asked her.
"Yeah, why?"
"We'll tell you when you're not eating." I replied.
"Oh, god, okay. I'm gonna let you go because I'm watching Jersey Shore." She replied. I laughed.
"Okay, enjoy. Love you." Emily chuckled.
"Love you too." She replied.
Meanwhile, Matt went to bible study with Floyd while Luke and Spencer inspected his room at his sisters' to find a satanic shrine.
Garcia and JJ were able to find Sheryl Timmons. She was not happy to be back here.
Matt and Luke brought Floyd in to interview him. It got cut short when his lawyer showed up. Floyd just claimed his friend was telling him to do everything. We needed to confirm his story.
"Okay, I found an isolated warehouse on Shelby Lane midway between the search site where Sheryl was taken and Ferrell's house." Garcia told us.
"Any freight lines nearby?" Matt asked.
"One runs right alongside." JJ spoke.
"Sheryl confirmed Ferrell's story." Luke said. This can't be real.
"Is it possible we were actually wrong about him from the start?" I spoke.
"Well, there has to be some truth to it. He's not as innocent as his lawyer seems to think, that's for sure." Matt replied. I nodded.
"Thanks, guys." I said and hung up the phone.
—
Matt and Spencer went to the warehouse in question. They found a body. Emily, Luke, Matt, and I were in the conference room going over things when Alex came in.
"We identified the body in the warehouse. Evonne Westfield. She went missing 6 weeks ago on a weekday when Ferrell was still locked up." Alex told us.
"So there's definitely another killer out there." I let out. Great.
"I find it hard to believe that there's a master manipulator killer pulling Ferrell's strings." Luke spoke.
"Everything seems to be pointing that way." Matt spoke. I just refuse to believe we've been wrong about this for ten years.
"Let's get Evonne's next of kin here. Find out everything we can about her." Emily instructed.
Rossi called me from the M.E.
"Go ahead, Dave." I spoke.
"It looks like Evonne Westfield is this unsub's first kill. He's new at it, experimenting with the taste of human flesh and behaviorally, we know that it's not Ferrell."
"Okay, let's play this out. If this killer's responsible for all of the kills attributed to Ferrell, he's be experienced. He wouldn't be starting from scratch." I said. There's no way that this killer could have been around 10 years ago.
"Yeah, and there'd be no reason for tentative bite or hesitation marks."
"He also wouldn't have done such a poor job hiding Evonne's body. I mean, that feels like a newbie mistake."
"You know, I agree. All of that rules out the theory that the current unsub was operating 10 years ago."
"Let's look at this from the other way around. What if Ferrell isn't the patsy? What if Ferrell has a patsy? Meaning, he's had a plan all along to get out of Hazelwood State." I suggested. That's the only logical thought that makes sense in this case.
"So he trains a new unsub to kill using his exact same signature so we think that this new guy was killing 10 years ago. It stands to reason this new unsub is gonna make more boneheaded mistakes."
"First timers hunt where they live, work, and play. He probably new the first victim. I'll have detective Russ bring in her family." I said and hung up. I knew we weren't wrong about this for this long.
—
Alex called in her family and Emily and I sat down with her fiancee. She was engaged to a woman.
"Evonne and I were gonna get married next fall. My god, what she must have gone through." She cried.
"Johanna, it's best if you try to remember Evonne they way she was when she was with you." I said softly.
"Was there anyone who made her uncomfortable or paid her unwanted attention?" Emily then asked.
She thought for a moment. "Uh, no. We were always busy with work. We hardly ever went out and....we only have a few friends and kind of became homebodies, I guess."
"There must be someone who she interacted with." I said.
She thought for a moment. "Just my little brother, Marcus." We made a face at her. "He's harmless."
"Why the hesitation, Johanna?" Emily asked softly. There's a reason she couldn't answer right away. Something off about him.
"He's really cleaned up his act. He had some issues in the past, but he would never hurt Evonne." She replied. Oh god.
"What kind of issues?" I asked.
"I-I don't know. Just...he was different." She spoke. I've heard that before.
"In what way?" Emily asked.
"Just...he's a loner."
"You said he cleaned up. What? AA? Therapy?" I suggested. We need to know more.
"Yeah, he goes to church every week. It really grounds him." She replied.
Uh oh.
Emily and I excused ourselves. I am willing to bet it's Marcus.
"What if her little brother met Ferrell at the church?" Emily let out once we were out of the room.
"That's possible." I cocked my head.
We stepped back into the conference room and called Garcia.
"Woman of Wonder. How may I assist thee?" Penelope answered.
"I just sent you a name, Marcus Manning. I need everything." I replied.
"Hot on his trail. Okay, let's see. Marcus. He's in his 30's. He's a lifetime area resident. He's had a long history of therapy. Yikes, he scores very high on the Neo suggestibility scale."
"That would make him easy to manipulate." Spencer spoke.
"Looks like he was bullied a lot in high school. He's got a sealed juvie record. That's gonna take some time."
"We need addresses, home, work." Emily said.
"The only address that comes up is a temporary one at an SRO." JJ spoke.
"He wouldn't be keeping them there." Spencer let out.
"Nevertheless, I'm sending you his DL and address." Garcia replied. I thanked her and hung up.
Matt looked at the picture of Marcus. "Wait a second. Yeah, I've seen this guy before. He was at Ferrell's bible study and he was sitting right next to him. He seemed incensed when Lee-Ann tried attacking Ferrell, but he didn't intercede."
"No, if he's the killer he would wait for his best opportunity to strike." Emily replied.
"He may have transferred his rage onto Lee-Ann. I'm gonna check in on her." Spencer said and left the room.
"Now that I'm thinking back, Marcus had a brown paper lunch bag on the floor between him and Ferrell. Amongst all the commotion, I lost the bag, but I was with Ferrell the entire time at the church, except for...when he went to the men's room. I don't think that bag was there when he left. Rebecca's fingers could have been inside." Matt spoke.
Fuck.
"Lee-Ann is not answering her cellphone. Evidently her husband got drunk, fell asleep on the couch, woke up as soon as she went to work, but she never went in." Spencer spoke.
"Marcus must have taken her." I let out. We need to act fast.
And then, Garcia called us back with the juvenile record. It was bad. Marcus Manning got in a fight with a classmate and bit a chunk out of his ear.
He's definitely our guy.
We began to go over the profile to figure out where the hell Marcus would go now. We compromised the warehouse so he knows that's not safe.
—
We landed on Ferrel's old house. Dave and Luke were closer so they went. They found Lee-Ann alive. Marcus gave a full confession before killing himself.
That's all Ferrell needs to get off scot free.
We were fucking pissed cleaning up the room. We know that confession was bullshit.
"We know behaviorally that Marcus was lying." Tara huffed and ripped a picture off the board.
"Regardless, we have turn over his dying declaration to Ferrell's defense counsel." Rossi let out.
"She'll use it to get him out." Luke spoke.
"That's what Ferrell wanted all along." Matt huffed.
"Manipulated the mental health system to get out again by coercing Marcus into taking credit for his crimes." Spencer said.
"And I'm left with a cannibal about to be released back into my community. How do I protect them?" Alex said. Well, if he does get out, he'll kill again and we'll be back shortly, I'm sure.
"None of us wants to risk waiting for Ferrell to kill again, and we all believe he will. But there's simply nothing we can do legally at this time." Emily let out. I can't believe it's come to this.
"Well, I can't leave without doing nothing. I'll try to get the hospital board to understand Ferrell's hand in all this." Rossi said. I nodded.
"I appreciate that and everything you've done for us. Thank you." Alex said and walked out.
JJ and Garcia went over this at home to see if we missed something.
And we did.
Marcus' M.E. report showed 5 of Rebecca's fingers in his stomach. She was missing all ten. Care to guess where the other 5 are?
—
We went into the hearing to see Rossi sitting in the back and gave him the file. They were just saying how they were going to release Floyd.
Guess again, bitch.
"Ms. Chairwoman, I apologize for the interruption but I have an issue that I need to discuss with the board." Rossi said and walked to the front with the file.
"If it is absolutely necessary." She huffed.
"My colleague has just handed me Marcus Manning's autopsy report. The M.E. discovered 5 of the last victims fingers in his stomach." He started. I saw Floyd swallow hard.
"What relevance does that have to do for the matter before this court?"
"Well, the remaining fingers were never found. And so I have here a search warrant to serve Mr. Ferrell." He said and handed it over.
"I object to this obvious attempt to punish my client." The lawyer said. Can it, bitch.
"You can search my room, my sister's house, even my old place. You won't find anything." Floyd said. Oh, I can do you one better.
"Oh, did I neglect to say the warrant isn't to search a location. It's for an x-ray of Floyd Feylinn Ferrell's digestive tract. You see, we're gonna find Rebecca's 5 other fingers in your stomach...Floyd." Rossi said right in his face.
Emily, Luke and I went right behind him.
Floyd freaked out.
"No! I'll kill you!" He said and tried to dive for Rossi.
I cuffed him before he had the chance.
"And since the board has just given you a clean bill of mental health, we can now try you for these recent murders as an accessory as well as first degree murder for all the murders you committed 10 years ago." Rossi continued.
We brought Floyd out screaming.
We won today. Fuck you, Floyd.