nine; abby sciuto
I walked under the yellow crime tape, wearing my CSI windbreaker jacket, my FUJIFILM X-T1 IR Mirrorless Camera was hooked onto a lanyard as I placed the black latex gloves on my hands. I tried not to step in the water, with my fear of drowning and my most recent problem.
I stood above the body, examining the bruising on his body and pulled out the camera taking my close ups. Calvert stood above me and he spoke. "It's Patrick Walker." He said and I sighed. I heard footsteps and I looked up and saw Emily walking to the tape. I stood up and Calvert got in front of me, to hold up the tape. I almost slipped on the mud, but he caught me and I smiled, thanking him for the help.
Calvert looked at Emily. "Local police Id'd the body. It's Patrick Walker." He said and Emily shook her head looking at Derek. I looked down at my camera and the pictures I took and remember what I saw on his body.
"He's got deep abrasions and bruising on the neck and shoulders, some around his feet as well." I said walking under the tape. Derek went to go see if the found anything else in the water and I watched as the team carelessly picked up the body.
"Hey! Would you mind not shaking his body around? I need to get a clean report, and if he falls because you guys are being reckless I won't be able to do my job right." I said yelling to the guys and they moved slower and nodded.
"Well, they found a rope at the bottom of the river, but that's probably been there for years. But a couple feet out, they found this." He said holding up a blue Shepherd's Crook.
"Lifeguards and Rescue Workers use that. Can you send the rope and the crook into the lab for DNA testing? Have them send it over to me, so I can go over it?" I said and Derek smirked. "No problem. Here officer, can you send this to the lab for DNA testing and the rope too?" Derek asked and the officer took it. Emily and Derek went to call Hotch as I stood there with Calvert.
I looked at the glimmering water, and I swallowed hard.
Water. All around me the dark liquid I feel the small waves lapping over, and over, and over my frantically waving hands. It tires, and drops helplessly under, next to my burning body. It feels as though my lungs are filled with acid. The worst part is, whenever I think that this is my limit, this is my end, I hold on that bit longer. Clenched fist. Eyes wide. Mouth...still shut. I push one last time for the surface, I then gulp as much as I can, wanting this nightmare to be over. It fills my mouth, looking for any pathway it can find to finish me, but it doesn't because-
I was cut out of my own thoughts as Calvert looked at me. "Are you okay?" He asked and I nodded. "Yeah, yeah. Sorry." I said and he chuckled. "Not a big fan of water huh?" He asked and I shrugged.
"Everyone's afraid of something." I said and then it hit me. Afraid. Fear.
This UnSub's MO was feeding off the fear of his victims. I jumped over the ledge and onto the street and looked at Emily and Derek. "It's fear. Hanging, Asphyxiation, Drowning, Being burned alive. He's feeding off of their fears." I said and Emily looked at me with shock.
"What?" I asked, feeling embarrassed and she shook her head smiling. "You and Spencer just thought of the same thing at the same exact time." She said and I breathed out nervously.
"Okay, we'll meet you back there-" Derek said but I cut him off. "Actually, I'm going to the lab, see what other evidence I can get." I said and he nodded.
I read the sign that said: Forensic Biology and DNA Unit and opened the doors. I rode to the crime lab with the officer who had the rope and the crook. He walked to the back as I placed my gun in a bin and put on my disposable gloves, protective clothing, the disposable hygiene face mask, disposable shoe covers, the hair cover and safety eye glasses.
I started to swab the rope around the edges to see if I got any DNA and to see if I could potentially start DNA profiling. I wanted to begin to look for fingerprints on the crook. I noticed that there was some sort of ink on the crook and I smirked, grabbing the powder and the duster.
I grabbed the white brush and coated it with the white fingerprint powder. For the white powder, there was titanium dioxide, with some sort of wetting agents. I began to spin off the excess powder. While dusting I began to look at the surface and I grabbed the oblique flaslight,
I squinted and couldn't decide if the fingerprint was loopy or circly, so I put it under the magnifier and saw that it was defiantly more in a circle motion. I began moving the duster in that motion and saw the fingerprint, I chuckled and ran it through the scanner.
I heard a beep from behind me and I went to go read the DNA fro the rope but got nothing, indicating that it was there from before. I felt like I was being watched and I looked up and saw a girl with black hair that was in two pigtails. She wore latex gloves and a NCIS jacket.
"Uh, can I help you?" I asked and she laughed. "I'm Abby Sciuto." She said and I nodded slowly still trying to figure out why she was in here...just watching me.
"Right. " I said and when she was going to speak up my phone cut her off. I pulled it out without looking at the contact ID.
"LaMontagne." I said and I heard Derek's voice. "We found another body. You need to see this." He said and I turned off the phone. I knew another forensic scientist was going to collect the rope and crook so I left it there and walked out the room, leaving Abby by herself.
I walked down on the trial and where I saw 12 other body bags. I walked pass Calvert and to where Emily was. "Is this every one the UnSub killed?" I asked looking at the bags and she nodded. "How could we have missed this before?" She asked and I shook my head.
"Well the trail is 40 miles long." Derek said and then looked at me."Got any news back?" He asked and I shook my head. "No. The rope didn't have anything on it. It was there from years before. I ran some fingerprints on the crook, but I'm not sure we'll get the news back in time. " I said and he nodded.
I walked behind Emily and to the forensics team leader and started to talk to her. "Can you possibly get fingerprints and DNA from each of the victims, so we can notify each of their families?" I asked and she nodded, going to talk to her team.
FBI Field Office.
I stood with a box of fried rice in my hand as I looked at the bulletin board that had the dead bodies on them.
"Look at this guys he calls them phobias." Spencer said and I turned around to see him writing on the whiteboard. "Instead of anxiety disorders." He said circling a word. I ate a big spoon of rice that was drenched in duck sauce.
"His phrasing of the questions are clinical. This guys a professional." Derek said and Hotch started speaking and I turned towards the board with the dead body pictures and continued to look at them hoping an answer would just pop out at me. My phone buzzed which scared me and I pulled it out, seeing the name of the forensics crime lab on the contact.
"Hello?" I asked and I heard the familiar voice of the girl- Abby who was in the room. "Yeah, the fingerprints you asked for, I gotta name." She said and I looked at the table, putting my container of rice down. I snapped my fingers and they all looked at me.
"What's his name?" I asked and Hotch looked at me waiting for an answer. "43 year old Dr. Stanley Howard." She said and I pulled the phone away looking at them. "His name is Dr. Stanley Howard. " I said and Derek spoke.
"Garcia you got that?" He asked and Garcia chuckled. "The creep award goes to him that's for sure." I heard her say, I pulled the phone back to my ear. "Thanks." I said and shut it off.
The team started to get up and Derek looked at me. "You wanna come?" He asked and I shook my head. "I'm good. You guys go." I said and he nodded leaving the room.
The lights were lit dimly on the jet, as everyone had fallen asleep. Well almost everyone. Hotch and Derek were up, but I tuned them out, using my headphones. After about 30 minutes I ripped the headphones off of my head and I heard Hotch's voice.
"Are you okay?" He asked and I jumped, thinking he had fallen asleep. I breathed out, shaking my head and shook my head at myself. "Uh, yeah. I'm fine." I said and he raised he eyebrows.
"You're still awake." He pointed out and I laughed. "It's the meds. It's hard for me to go to bed." I said and he nodded. "How did you enjoy your first case?" He asked and I shrugged. "It was fine. It was sad, to be honest." I said and he nodded, agreeing with me. After moments of silence I spoke up, about something that was lingering on the back of my mind.
" I got a call the other day. It was about a cold case." I said, looking at Hotch, and he shot his head up. "What's it about?" He asked and I closed my eyes thinking back to what Blackwolf said.
"A girl, whose body was found 2 months ago in Alaska. They just closed the case about 3 weeks ago." I said and he tilted his head. "What do you think?" He asked and I snorted.
"I don't know. I feel like it's worth digging into, but at the same time, I have no idea." I said and he nodded slightly.
"Take it. I can send out two agents with you in about two months, so you can gather what you need." He said and I shot my eyebrows up in surprise and nodded. "Okay."
I breathed out and looked out the window of the jet and smiled to myself.