❛ 𝑪𝑶𝑳𝑫 𝑨𝑺 𝑰𝑪𝑬 ❜
════════◅∘≼≽∘▻════════
•☽.⭒✻❙ 𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐀𝐋 𝐁𝐎𝐑𝐍 𝐊𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐑 ❙✻⭒.☾•
𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒂𝒖 𝒔𝒖𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒔 𝒂 𝒌𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒂 𝒄𝒐𝒑'𝒔 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆
❝ 𝐢'𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡. ❞
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
𝑩𝑨𝑪𝑲 𝑻𝑶 𝑩𝑳𝑨𝑪𝑲
𝒂𝒎𝒚 𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒆
❛ i love you ❜
𝑇𝐻𝐸 𝐵𝐴𝑈 𝑇𝐸𝐴𝑀 𝐷𝐼𝐷𝑁'𝑇 exactly get all that much time off between the last case and this one. They had about a day filled with just filing paperwork when Morgan had discovered a new case. It was a complicated one with a lot of violence, so they needed to get this figured out quickly.
They were already in Baltimore and walking around the house with the crime scene and as they headed up to it, Morgan was explaining the case. "I was teaching an in-service at the Baltimore Field Office when this came in. Baltimore PD's seen some grisly stuff, but never anything like this. We're got two bodies ID'd as William and Helen DiMarco. Retired, lived here for thirty-seven years. No kids. Neighbor reports a white male, twenty to forty yeas old fleeing the scene. And I quote, 'hopped up on those damn drugs'."
"Aren't eyewitness accounts notoriously unreliable?" Valentina pointed out as they began to all walk upstairs, Hotch adding on with his own questions. "So far, sounds like a standard double homicide. Why are we here?"
"Massive overkill." Morgan informed just as he opened the door to the bathroom. Everyone stepped in and saw blood splattered from the floor to the wall. The shower was drenched in red and practically everything had some sort of remains on it. "Helen DiMarco was found here tied to the chair in front of the vanity. No defensive wounds. Ligature marks around the wrists. One clean laceration from ear to ear."
"Looks arterial. Probably the carotid. She went quickly." Elle observed, while Morgan added on with some more description. "The husband, William, was found in the shower, but he wasn't quite as lucky. Ligature marks on the wrists and ankles and one long laceration up the abdomen though both layers of muscle."
"Evisceration? That's typical of disorganized behavior." Spencer pointed out, but Valentina contradicted his idea. "Despite the blood being...well...everywhere, this crime scene does show method, order and control. It's actually pretty organized."
"There was also evidence of torture with the husband. Burns, contusions, lacerations. You name it, this guy tried it." Morgan explained. Spencer did find something quite odd about this, however. "If torture is the unsub's signature, the methodology's usually unique. A person who burns someone doesn't normally use a knife."
"So maybe we have more than one killer, or we have one killer with more than one personality." Hotch made the possibility come to light, the unfortunate possibility. Gideon had something else that needed to be known. "We also have three victims. Blood on the vanity, wife's body was found there. The husband was in the shower. From the looks of the level of the ring in this tub, whoever was in it lost their entire blood volume."
"Approximately 10.6 pints." Valentina voiced. Everyone looked over at her with confused glances. Yes, Valentina is considering highly intelligent in human psychology and behavior, she was miles ahead anyone else in the BAU, but she wasn't the 'Spencer Reid' type genius. Valentina averted her gaze. "Oh my god, I've been hanging out with Spence too much."
"So that means the victim was dismembered." Elle explained, getting back on topic. "It looks like our guy took all the parts with him."
"Gideon, you, Elle and Morgan stay up here and go over the crime scene. Valentina, Spencer, come with me downstairs." Hotch ordered, everyone followed it. Spencer, Hotch and Valentina all went downstairs to the living room. They needed to brainstorm a little and just get some ideas and theories made. Hotch was noticing that Spencer had been working much better over these past two months or so, he figured that had something to do with Valentina. With someone challenging Spencer, he was forced and pleased to work harder. Hotch was trying to get their minds working together since they seemed to bounce ideas off each other fairly well.
"Okay, what do we know about the unsub based on the two bodies we do have?" Hotch asked, Spencer beginning the train of thought. "Typically, torture falls into two categories, sadistic and functional. Functional torture is used to extract information or to punish. It's measured, impersonal, completely disinterested."
"Like a military tactic." Hotch connected together with an analogy. This time, it was Valentina who continued the train of thought. "Exactly. There's also the sadistic torture which is used to extract some sort of emotional need, but sadists are sexually deviant, yet there's no evidence of sexual contact."
"That we know of." Hotch corrected, earning a confused glance from Spencer. "What do you mean?"
"Well, we don't have a third body yet."
The BAU team didn't have much left to do in Baltimore. They had all the clues they needed, but now they just had to put them together. It was taking a lot of work to think this up, but Hotch had a small plan. He's still been experimenting with where Valentina would work best so he could tell who's she's best to partner with. It would be beneficial for the entire BAU if Valentina was with the right people, but it was just figuring out where this incredibly unique personality could fit.
"Third victim was positively ID'd as a low-level mob guy, Frederick 'Freddy' Condore." Morgan informed. The BAU unit had gone back to Quantico to think everything over. "He was the nephew of the older couple. Body parts were found in seven different trash cans two blocks from the crime scene."
"Were they able to completely reassemble the body?" Spencer asked, Morgan having a response. "The killer didn't keep any trophies."
"Is there any evidence that he got off?" Elle questioned, but Morgan only shook his head. Valentina proceeded to point something out she had learned once they got back that she figured would be helpful. "Garcia found a bunch of unsolved murders in DC, Virginia and Maryland over the past fifteen years. A lot of them have ties to organized crime. All different MOs."
"What's the connection?" Elle queried, Morgan responding once more. "Torture. Marks on the bones are consistent with the same cutting tool."
"Tortured victims, most tied to organized crime, no signs of sexual sadism." Gideon observed from the file in his hands, earning a sign from Elle. "We're looking for a hit man."
"No, a hit man doesn't need to torture to get the job done." Morgan explained just as JJ walked in with her own information to share with the team. "Two things. Baltimore just forwarded a sketch of the man running from the scene and you've got some agents out there who think that you're poaching on their turf."
"I'll handle it." Gideon spoke with an exasperated sigh. Gideon walked out to talk with the major crimes agents while everyone else stayed in the room, waiting for him to come back.
In the meantime, Valentina had sat down next to Spencer since he had the sketch in his hand and she wanted to see it as well. "What I wouldn't give to have that kind of sketching talent."
"Just specifically sketching?" Spencer questioned, slightly confused by how specific her desire was. "Well, I paint sometimes. They're not fantastic, but you can tell what they are."
"Do you have any pictures of them?" Spencer asked, finally looking away from the sketch in front of him. Valentina was slightly surprised that he was genuinely interested, no one usually is. It's not even a passion of Valentina's, just a hobby.
"Uh, yeah, I do." Valentina quickly pulled up a picture of one of them on her phone and handed it to Spencer. He kept moving it closer and farther from his face, like he was trying to analyze it. Valentina was starting to get slightly nervous by his reaction, so she was subconsciously fiddling with the ring on her finger.
"You said they're not fantastic?" Spencer questioned as he looked up at the girl. "Yeah, I mean, it's just a hobby I have."
"Well, this is another reason why I'm smarter than you. That painting is beautiful." Spencer complimented as he handed the girl her phone back. A small smile made its way to Valentina's lips as she looked down at her painting. "You're a nice guy, Spence."
Spencer was lucky that the ghost of his smile about to make way to his lips was interrupted by Gideon walking back into the room. Morgan immediately wanted to know what was going on with their case. "So, we're just going to drop it?"
"These guys don't know what they're dealing with." Elle pointed out, having a completely valid point, but Gideon had plans to sort this out. It was just ignore the other agents until they literally couldn't. "Our unsub is male, intelligent, organized and methodical. He has the confidence of a man who's been killing for a long time. The only victim removed from the scene is Freddy Condore, indicating some tie to him. Elle, Valentina and Reid, you stay on Condore's background with Garcia, dig deep, see what turns up."
"Condore worked as a supervisor at a scrap metal yard in Baltimore. It's owned by a guy named Michael Russo, boss of a small mob crew. I'm going to grab Hotch and go check him out." Morgan informed just before leaving the room to go find Hotch. Elle, Valentina and Spencer went to go join Garcia in her technological cave that she's constantly in.
Valentina had sat down in another chair that was in that room, but she had her legs crossed in the chair while Spencer was leaning on the back of it. Elle was currently getting herself and Valentina coffee.
Because Spencer was watching what Garcia was doing, he was insanely focused, which caused him to accidentally lean closer to Valentina. "Spence, my darling, my star, you're breathing on my neck"
"Sorry." Spencer apologized, but Valentina just tapped his hand as reassurance. That was when Elle had come back into the room with the two cups of coffee. "You guys having fun?"
"Oh yeah, sifting through the life and times of Freddy Condore with Mr and Mrs. Dr. Lovebirds over here is a party I wouldn't want to miss." Garcia spoke sarcastically as she motioned to the two younger doctors. Conveniently, the two weren't actually paying attention. Valentina was letting Spencer take a sip of her coffee before she did since she knew he hated germs.
Elle smiled and shook her head at the two because of how ironic Garcia's comment was in this situation. Garcia did, however, bring the attention back to the case. "Credit card receipts show Freddy loved crab cakes, preferred lite beer and used to spend his Thursday nights with a woman in Fells Point. An expensive woman."
"What about his associates?" Elle questioned, Garcia almost instantly having the answer. "Most of them have criminal records."
"That much I guessed." Elle commented with Spencer adding in something of note. "But one of them is particularly interesting. Pull up James Baker's rap sheet."
"Oh, this guy!" Valentina exclaimed, both she and Spencer having found this man together. Elle furrowed her eyebrows a little at her reaction, but this was the first time that Elle was working closely with Valentina and Spencer. She hadn't exactly gotten used to their dynamic yet.
"He spent time in juvenile detention for attempted murder, was released at age twenty-one. And then subsequently arrested for, and this is in order, armed robbery, petty theft, burglary, narcotics sales and rape." Spencer explained, but here was still something off that Elle had noticed. "But there's no other sexual assault complaints in his file."
"Absolutely nothing. I told you it was interesting." Spencer defended himself, but for the more regular people in the room, such as Garcia, had questions. "What's so interesting about that?"
This time it was Valentina who went on a tangent since both she and Spencer noticed the off nature of this associate. "When is comes to psychological behavior, anything is possible, but James's criminal history is completely improbably. As a minor, he began with attempted murder and the devolved into pettier crimes. It's the criminal history of a fractured schizophrenic with multiple personality disorder. It just doesn't make sense."
"Unless someone made that rap sheet up. And they weren't thinking about the behavior, they just plugged in whatever sounded good." Elle rationalized before she cut herself off. "His mug shot's coming up."
As soon as they saw the man's face and Garcia pulled up some personal details, Elle went to call Hotch and Morgan, who were in Baltimore, and could go investigate the suspect's house in hopes of finding their unsub.
•☽.⭒✻════◅∘≼↜.◦◦.↝≽∘▻════✻⭒.☾•
It was the morning after their first day on the case. Everyone was really tired due to the fact that they got it so incredibly fast, but they still had to work hard. Valentina was meeting Spencer in the briefing room, but she was bringing all of the unsolved cases in Baltimore with her.
Just as Valentina walked in, she noticed something familiar about Spencer. He was wearing the sweater vest she had made for him. It brought a smile to Valentina's lips. "Nice sweater."
"Thanks. I really like it. The yarn is very soft." Spencer complimented, which only made Valentina's smile grow more. "I'm glad you like it."
Knitting was something that helped her get through her trauma. It helped distract her and move her mind away from thinking about the horrible memories of her kidnapping while painting was just something she picked up. Valentina became very avid in finding new hobbies to keep her mind busy. It helped her heal.
"Please tell me you brought breakfast." Spencer pleaded as he walked over to the table where Valentina put the box of files. Valentina took the tote bag off her shoulder and handed it to Spencer, who took a container with eggs and bacon in it. "Don't worry, I made sure to make deviled eggs and not scrambled."
"When did I tell you I don't like scrambled eggs?" Spencer asked as he took a bite out of one of the eggs. "And how are you so good at cooking?"
"You told me a few weeks ago and deviled eggs aren't that hard to make." Valentina informed with a small laugh. Spencer mumbled under his breath, "Still."
Valentina stepped out of the room for a second since she saw another agent with yet another box of files of unsolved murders. She put it next to the one they already had which concerned Spencer. "How many more are there?"
"Garcia went back fifteen years and there's over a hundred." That comment genuinely surprised Spencer, who had begun to look through some of the files. "There's a hundred unsolved murders?"
"Oh, look. There's something the great Spencer Reid doesn't know." Valentina teased him, which only earned a shake of his head from Spencer. "There is more coming in, by the way. This is only what we know of."
Spencer was looking through one of the cases, which set off an idea in his mind. "Well, the torture's consistent. We thought this guy might have been at it for a while, but with this many victims, it's incredibly improbable."
"Yeah, I mean, John Wayne Gacy killed at least thirty people and this guy's more than tripled that." Valentina added on with her own little fact that usually Spencer adds in. He did, however, contradict her idea with a genuine reason. "But this guy gets paid for it. He's a hit man, isn't he?"
Valentina shook her head. She hadn't been believing this theory since it was brought up; it just didn't seem right. "He has to be more than that. It's just not right."
Spencer tilted his head slightly, taking into account what she said. He moved back to the evidence board where there was a picture of every victim. "Not all of these victims were mob hits. My guess is he probably started hunting when he was really young, perfected his craft and moved on to bigger prey."
"Spence, look at this." Valentina called to him. She moved over to the boy and showed him the file of the case they had now and a picture of the bodies. "There's no hesitation wounds on the body. It's just one clean cut through flesh and bone."
"So what does that tell us?" Spencer questioned.
"Most people wouldn't ever imagine doing something like this to another human being. This guy, he doesn't even flinch." Spencer finished her thought just after, "He's got no conscience. He's a serial killer with a perfect career."
"Russo has no idea what he's dealing with. We should get Hotch and Morgan to go talk to Russo, shake him up a bit." Valentina suggested, Spencer nodding in agreement. "I'll call Hotch."
It didn't take long for Spencer to get in touch with Hotch and Morgan and for them to devise a plan. All that the rest of the BAU could do in the meantime was wait for them to get back. Spencer and Valentina had been working together fairly well and a lot on this case, which people were taking notice of.
It's not that Spencer was difficult to work with before, but they knew that he had been much more tolerable and easygoing ever since Valentina joined the BAU. Everyone could tell that the two of them had a special relationship, what with them being the youngest and having incredibly advanced and specific expertise. Theses two continued to work better and faster as a team.
Whilst Valentina was organizing Spencer's coloured paperclips and he was at his desk, Elle was right by them just waiting for word from Hotch and Morgan. Luckily enough, Gideon had just exited his office with some news. "Success. Hotch and Morgan just shook Russo's confidence in his hit man."
"Well, he'll want to bring him in and get a read on him." Elle pointed out which Gideon immediately agreed with. "Yes, ma'am."
"What if by playing them against each other, we've made Russo as paranoid as his hit man? What would stop them from trying to kill each other?" Spencer made light of his concerns, which was completely valid. Valentina continued his thought, even though getting Hotch and Morgan involved was her idea. "Well, if that happens, then we're never gonna find Jimmy Baker alive."
"We've got a surveillance team outside of Russo's office. Stay on it." Gideon ordered. The three agents proceeded to head right back to where they were yesterday. Garcia's office.
They were just there to help Garcia spot things she may miss or attach it to the case in some way. As soon as they walked in the door, Valentina went straight for Garcia and wrapped her arms around the girl. "Garcia, my lovely dove, we have returned."
"Welcome back, my treasure." Garcia played along as she kissed Valentina's hand. Valentina proceeded to move to sit on the desk next to Spencer while Elle informed Garcia on what they were doing. "Gideon wants us to watch the surveillance outside of Russo's office."
"I'll do you one better, we can hear what they're saying." Garcia informed just as she pulled up the radio transmissions from the car parked outside the scene. As she pulled it up, Elle was still slightly skeptical. "How is it you can do that?"
"The beam is reflected from the windowpane according to the law of optics. The angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection." Valentina explained, which earned a side glance from Spencer, he was shocked she knew that. She caught the look and furrowed her eyebrows with offence. "Don't look at me like that, I passed eighth grade science."
All of a sudden, a voice from the radio frequency began to talk. It was Russo. "Hey, it's me. I need to see you tonight. I'll call you from a secure line...Hey."
Listen, you brought a lot of heat taking down Freddy like that. I'm dealing with the Feds." Another voice responded, but Russo spoke again. "They don't know nothing. I'm dealing with them. Stop being paranoid, Vinnie."
"Bingo. Vinnie." Garcia said with a small smile, them finally having a good lead. The three of them immediately started to research and go through Russo's file to see if they could find anyone named Vinnie or Vincent.
Spencer had an odd skill that he could read inhumanely quickly and still retain all the information. Valentina had been wanting to learn how to do that, but Spencer was taunting her by refusing to help her do it. By doing so, he was subtly helping her since Valentina's competitiveness was subconsciously training her to read faster.
"Russo's got eleven associates named Vincent, or ten if you count Vincent Cellito, who died last summer." Valentina informed before turning to Spencer. "Who needs your speedy reading now, boy genius?"
"Congratulations, you can count to ten." Spencer spoke with sarcasm. This is something he would never do before, or would even know how to do before, but Valentina has been quite the influence on him.
"Here's something." Elle brought them back on track. "What can you tell me about Vincent Sartori?"
Elle had put her coffee cup down on the desk, to which Garcia immediately threw out. Elle's face contorted into an offended one and held her hands up in disbelief. "I was still drinking that."
"Not only is this equipment expensive, it's also extremely sensitive." Garcia informed without taking her eyes off of her computer screens. Elle looked back at the two younger doctors, who were doing everything in their power to not meet Elle's gaze. They did not want to get in the way of Garcia's wrath.
"Vincent Sartori." Elle spoke through gritted teeth. Garcia actually went to work. "Currently doing six at Dannemora for racketeering."
"How about this Perotta? There's not much on him?" Spencer asked from his seated spot on the desk. Elle, who hadn't taken the time to actually get to know Garcia that well, wasn't sure if her skills were up to date. She was also angry that Garcia threw out her drink. "Can you get into those records?"
"Despite the fact that they were probably expunged, she can find the faintest echo of deletion, successfully recreate the file, thereby sending us all to prison for computer felony fraud counts." Spencer explained whilst his paranoia was still there.
"Don't worry, Spence. My family's rich, we can make bail." Valentina comforted as she patted the boy's knee comfortingly. Garcia, who, not shockingly, was already on the right track, spoke up. "Well, lucky us because I'm already in. Alcohol addiction at fourteen. Violent outbursts, assaults, once threw a molotov cocktail at someone sitting in their car."
"There's also many signs of aggression. He once scheduled a visit to an infirmary to attack a boy who looked at him for too long." Valentina pointed out something she had read in his file. Elle added on with her own assessment. "No fear, so remorse, quick temper. And he was smart enough to stay off the radar as an adult. Paranoid personality. Could be our guy."
"Yeah, but there's nothing on him as an adult. No driver's license, no utility bills, nothing. He became a ghost." Valentina pointed out, Spencer hoping next to her. "Let's just hope they can catch him."
•☽.⭒✻════◅∘≼↜.◦◦.↝≽∘▻════✻⭒.☾•
There wasn't much Elle, Garcia, Spencer or Valentina could do to help while the team was looking for Vincent. They were waiting back at Quantico for the rest of the team, which took some time, but it was worth it.
Hotch had gotten roughed up a little while he was there, but he was fine now. Gideon, Morgan and Hotch had gotten back not long ago. Gideon and Hotch were taking care of the interrogation with Vincent while Morgan had brought the evidence from Vincent's van to the rest of the team.
Spencer, Garcia and Valentina were all looking through the evidence, to which they were shocked by the quantity. "This was all in his van?"
"Yeah, the guy wasn't exactly neat." Morgan pointed out, to which Spencer muttered under his breath, "Classic antisocial personality."
"What are these tapes?" Valentina questioned as she pulled them out of the box. Morgan shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. Why don't you, Reid and Garcia go take a look? Let us know, alright?"
"Yeah, movie night. I'll make popcorn!" Garcia exclaimed with excitement before Valentina did the same thing. "And I will bring the eye candy! Spence, let's go."
Spencer looked over at Morgan for help, but he only smirked and sent the genius a wave. Morgan had been getting way too much of a kick from Spencer and Valentina's friendship. To be fair, any torment towards Spencer brought a smile to his face.
The two younger agents and Garcia all met in her office, Garcia actually having popcorn. As Valentina began to set up the tape, Garcia had a guess as to what they were about to see, so she turned to Spencer. "Ten bucks says this involves naked co-eds and a plumber."
"What?" Spencer furrowed his eyebrows along with his incredibly confused expression. Valentina sat back down next to him and laughed slightly when she saw Garcia's dumbfounded look. "Spence, you're so incredibly innocent. It's one of the infinite things I love about you."
"How can there be infinite things you love about me if there's a limit to-" Spencer was quickly cut off when she put a finger to his lips and shushed him. "Don't overthink it, just say it back."
"I'm not saying I love you." Spencer argued, however, he underestimated how irritating his friend could be. "But you just did."
Spencer went to retaliate, but he couldn't think of anything. There was a first for everything.
Garcia only shook her head at the two. She had been getting to witness their friendship much more, which was entertaining for her. Garcia was glad that Spencer finally had someone to relate to and also have someone around to translate for him.
As the video began to play, they all winced slightly at the sight of a man being tortured. Garcia couldn't even look at the screen, but she's much less used to seeing these things as the rest of the BAU is. "Okay, who is that?"
"No idea." Valentina informed before switching the tape. They knew that it was just going to be more torture over and over again, so they were hoping that some other tape would have something. As the second one played, it was just more of someone being tortured, which Garcia was seriously starting to really get sick of. "Oh my god."
"Spence, you're seeing what I'm seeing, right?" Valentina asked, having noticed something in the background that caught her eye. Luckily enough, Spencer saw it too. "Yeah, I see it."
"Garcia, we'll be right back." Valentina informed as grabbed the file for Vincent and the tapes they had. Both the doctors left Garcia's technical analysis room and to find the rest of the team. They had pinpointed exactly what was happening and a theory that they were both on the same page about, and they never once had to speak a word to each other.
"Guys, we found something." Valentina caught the BAU's attention as they got out to the bullpen. Everyone turned to the two, Spencer going on to explain what they found very briefly. "There's a chance Agent Baker's being tortured. And we think we know how."
Gideon motioned for them to continue on. Valentina took the lead on that. "When we were watching the tapes, there was a tray of teeth next to someone tied to a chair. We believe that as a form of long-lasting torture, he's ripping out their teeth, but then releasing rats on them to inflict more fear."
"We can't identify anyone in the videos, but we can see their faces. They might correspond with open homicides or missing persons cases." Spencer pointed out, their theory having validity. Hotch quickly got a hold of JJ so that she could crosscheck any of the faces with Vincent or even find out who they are. As soon as she arrived in the bullpen, she made her presence known. "You needed me?"
"Yeah. We've got some faces of new victims off the videotapes we found, Garcia's got them. Check with local, see if they have any open homicides or missings that might correspond." Hotch ordered, JJ nodded. "You got it."
She walked off to go find Garcia to get her job done before the pushy agent from Major Crimes decided to question, yet again, everything they're doing. "What are we going to do?"
"Well, we looked at all the stuff from the van. And besides the videotapes, there's nothing that interesting." Elle pointed out just before Morgan spoke up abut something he knew. "I know Garcia wanted to go over the sound on the tapes, you know, isolate the background noise. Something there might help."
"The good news is it seems like they were all filmed in the same space. It could be some sort of home base for him." Spencer commented, but this was only irritating the Major Crimes agent. "Yeah, but where is it?"
Obviously, this was a question that none of them knew the answer to because if they had, the unsub would've already been arrested. Gideon brought a more productive question to the table. "What do we know about Vincent Perotta?"
"He's off the grid. Garcia couldn't find a registered phone, utility bill, home address, nothing." Valentina informed, but Hotch seemed to be much more optimistic. "Come on, everybody lives somewhere. There's got to be a paper trail."
"If there is, we can't find it." Spencer argued, but Hotch was trying his best to see the positive side and hope for the best. "In this day and age, you can't live without leaving some sort of trace."
"Unless someone pays your bills for you." Elle pointed out, an idea suddenly coming to her. Morgan followed that train of thought. "What about Russo? Could he be taking care of him?"
"No, no, no, no. Russo's not paying anybody's bills but his own." The Major Crimes agent rebutted, not wanting the BAU to be right or admitting that this could possibly lead somewhere. Gideon, however, had faith in his team. "Well, he has to have a weakness. It's in his crime. It's in his behavior."
"You know, something's just been bugging me." Morgan voiced. "Freddy. Wasn't he easy to find? He cut up the body, he removed it from the crime scene, but then he leaves it a couple of blocks away, where he's got to know we're going to find it. It's the whole reason we were able to connect Perotta to the crime."
"He made a mistake. He went off script." Elle simplified, which was still confusing the Major Crimes agent. "What does that mean?"
"Something knocked him off his game." Valentina explained, Gideon confirming that. "That's right. His behavior. Well, what does he do?"
"He tortures." The agent responded, but he wasn't quite right. "Always?"
The agent narrowed his eyes at Gideon before Hotch pointed out, "The difference is Mrs. DiMarco."
"Hotch, you finish this. Valentina, Reid, you go analyze the sounds with Garcia." Gideon ordered the group. Everyone else was just going to go through the evidence once more to see if something could spark up an idea while Valentina and Spencer went back to see Garcia.
Once they had arrived in the technical analysis office, JJ was already gone. Garcia had everything set up already and was just waiting for people to help her, which is what Spencer and Valentina were there for. As soon as they walked in the door, Garcia was more than happy to see them. "The beautiful minds are back, welcome my darlings."
"Hi, Garcia." Spencer very simply greeted. Valentina was much more eccentric. "We're here to help you, my love."
"Oh, I love you too, Valentina." Garcia responded with a small smile. Valentina immediately turned to Spencer and brought up a taunt from before. "See? She can say it back."
"I don't love you like that, Val." Spencer reiterated. "Give it time, Spence, give it time."
The three of them got to work pretty quickly. They went over the isolated sounds from the tapes and radio signals they could get, but there wasn't much. It was just the same sounds over and over of people talking, the sounds of rats and torture. That was until Garcia could pinpoint something. "There. Do you hear that?"
The other two listened closer and they could find it as well. It sounded like an engine buzzing. "What is that?"
"I don't know." Garcia said with a shrug of her shoulders. They kept listening, trying to figure out what this sound was, until suddenly, it hit Valentina. "That's an airplane. They're by an airport."
•☽.⭒✻════◅∘≼↜.◦◦.↝≽∘▻════✻⭒.☾•
The BAU had met up in the bullpen once more. Elle and Morgan had found something in the evidence, Garcia, Spencer and Valentina had figured out an area of where the torture was taking place and Gideon had just gotten back from the interrogation that Hotch was still in.
Morgan called the older agent over. "Gideon, I think we got something here."
"He's got a bunch of pizza boxes from Franetti's. It's in Glen Burnie, a suburb that backs up right to the airport." Elle explained, Spencer adding on with his own information that the trio had found. "Which makes sense since we can hear airplanes in the background of the video."
"Check property records for Frank Perotta." Gideon ordered, earning a question from Valentina. "Who's that?"
"His father." Gideon informed, but Valentina was still confused. "Why do we need to find his father?"
"He still lives in his father's house." Gideon informed and didn't even need to explain any further. Everyone could already tell that most likely meant abuse, but it also meant something incredibly twisted.
It turned out that Frank Perotta and his son had died during a fishing accident. It was awfully convenient that Vincent could've used this fake death to stay hidden for as long as possible, but with an abusive father who hurt both him and his mother, once Vincent killed a woman, he was thrown off. That was when he made a mistake.
It was always complicated to determine how someone may turn out based on an abusive home. There are people like Vincent. Abused at a young age and turned out to be a killer. There are people like Hotch. Abused at a young age and turned out to catch killers. And there are people like Valentina. Abused at a young age and turned out to push past any limit that may dare to be set in front of her.
❝ 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨 𝐡𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐡𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐞𝐧 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐭 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞. ❞
- 𝒉𝒆𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒘𝒂𝒚
❘ ❙ ❚ ❚ ❙ ❘