The station had barely been entered when a wave of noise was washed over the team. Continuous movements of bodies and incessant movement of jaws meant that no silence could be found. That was until the BAU entered their room.
"Ah, Elora and Dave are here. We were just about to interview Harry Flower." Hotch's dark eyes stuck to the file as he spoke.
"If he is the unsub then he will crave to be in control. Perhaps if we don't give it to him then he will crack." Spencer spoke and his voice became higher as the words left.
"But he responds to females. If this Harry guy is guilty then he will have issues with women. The men were always left alone and his anger was taken out on the wife. He blamed the victims for being powerful but not their husbands for being too weak. Perhaps it would be best if JJ and Emily go in." As Morgan spoke, JJ appeared but shook her head.
"I arrested him so he knows me. Besides, Emily and Elora both speak Spanish." The file she held was hit against her palm as she spoke and Hotch nodded along with her words.
"There is no greater control lost than when they can't even speak the language." Spencer sounded airy but soon the two women had entered the interview room.
"No he comido en todo el día. Tal vez podríamos ir por algunos chinos." The folders were placed onto the desk and neither woman looked to the man on the other side of the desk.
The other side of the glass never let their eyes fall, his micro-expressions and controlled movements never being missed.
"Aaron Hotchner?" Dark eyes had moved from the interview room and slowly the smart suit moved over to the man who had spoken.
"And you are?" Hotch found his eyes narrowing and his body slowly growing in stature before the other man. Smooth skin and shining blue eyes met Hotch's pale skin and dark eyes.
"Jacob Petersons. I have been trying to get ahold of Special Agent Elora Burton but she hasn't answered yet." A badge was then pulled and flashed at Hotch before being slipped away.
"She never mentioned anything to me and right now, she is interviewing a suspect."
"Well, ask someone else to do it. I don't have much time." Hotch had no chance to speak further as the new arrival pushed forward.
"With all due respect, she has to be in there. Interviews can't just change like this. We need women in there and there has to be a wall built up. Something that Emily has been doing with Burton since they got in there." Hotch's words dragged the team from their close up observations as they kept their ears tuned and eyes trained forward.
"Well, change the plans. There is more than one way to get the truth out of someone."
"I'm sorry. I'm Agent Jareau, and if you are suggesting what I think you are then Midnight won't be going easily. Spencer coached her and Prentiss on how to react and what to ask. She knows that we don't have the time to mess around if he is our guy." Her blonde hair swayed as JJ walked over to the pair who had been talking.
"You have five seconds before I go in there and get her myself." Two of Hotch's fingers sprung out and JJ's peripheral caught sight of the gesture before heading in.
"Burton." Slowly the agent stood and walked over to the door. A few whispers being shared before she left the room.
"Hotch, I can get it out of this guy. His body language and his words show that he meets the profile we have formed. He has no alibi and his reaction is practically a verb because I can nearly touch it." Her eyes had grown cold and her shoulders that were once hunched had straightened out.
"And I told you that you had to come out..." His sentence was barely even crammed out when her voice was heard again.
"This interview could stop the death of more women. If he is let go because of this then don't come to me when another body is found because I will only be able to tell you 'I told you so'." Arms folded and the team avoided eye contact as they switched between the floor and the interview room.
"Agent Burton, you will come with me that that is an order." As soon as the voice was heard, Elora visibly stopped in her tracks, her face dropping to a blank one and her body becoming rigid in place.
"Yes sir." Nothing else could be said and the team were left to watch her departure.
"She has put up more of a fight over what colours match or clash. Why is she just following him? And Reid, I need you to tell me what you told them. I wasn't listening to you the first time." JJ's crossed arms unfolded and she shook her head.
"When undercover, if your boss orders you to sit then you sit. If he orders you to quack then you damn well quack. I have a feeling that this Jacob is the same man she smacked with a car door. Her instincts tell her to obey without hesitation, you could see it in her face when he spoke, she was setting aside her emotions and becoming another woman who did what she was told." Morgan had taken JJ's space, however, JJ never let her ears fully tune out of the conversation.
"Is she leaving us again?" Rossi had taken the chance to walk up to the rest of the team as JJ walked into the interview room.
"No. She didn't follow any protocol and Jacob Petersons came here in person. She must have something that they want. The gang may have been taken down but their allies are still alive. Her job is done but nobody else is done." The team silenced and focused back on the interview. A sleazy man licking his lips at the pair before him.
"I know how it goes. You let me get used to Miss Spain and then you take her away and I get disorientated before finally telling you about how I strangled all those women." Spit landed on the desk as he finished speaking and two smiles met him.
"Well, you see that is wrong. One, she has Mexican parents and is from England. No Spain there, two, you have already told us that you killed those women and three, Agent Burton has been assigned to a more important case." His eyes rolled at Emily's words and both agents moved the closed folders to their sides.
"You actually rolled your eyes at us? Or was it just at Prentiss? Either way, she was right. You have told us everything that we need to know." The folders were then slowly opened, one after the other as pictures were pulled out of them.
"Tell me, how did you trick your employers into hiring you? All of the other employees had background checks done but you didn't even have one because, if you did then your previous conviction would have been seen. See, electricians are required to go into homes. This means that electricians have to enter other people's personal space, so to work in that industry, the regulations state that a background check has to be done. Or maybe, they did do a background check, only they did it on your cousin who is called Henry Flower. The successful version of you, a man who went to the best university in the area and studied electricity. Not you, a man who learnt his trade when he was in prison for sexual assault." The demeanour of the man never shifted as he looked on and his lips quirked, brown teeth showing as well as gaps.
"You can't prove nothin'." A loud laugh was begun before he wiped a tear from the side of his eye.
"Yes, we can. Mr Flower, how did you know that these women were strangled? We hadn't released that to the press yet and you hadn't seen any pictures yet. The files hadn't even been opened." His smile dropped quickly and a loud gulp filled the room.
"I want a lawyer." Both women stood as soon as he spoke and then moved to the door. Whispers being shared the whole way there and his beady eyes followed them.
"What should we do now?"
"Get him a lawyer and then turn Mr Flower against his lawyer. Talk in legal terms and confuse him. Ask the same questions over and over. Eventually, he will break this calm exterior. We have seen what happens when he loses his cool. All we need now is why he hated women like this." Hotch finished his talk before getting his phone out and putting it on speaker.
"Hello, sir, need some Penelope loving?" His eyes never flinched as she spoke, however, the team found a smile forming.
"Garcia, you're on speaker. What happened to Mr Flower before his prison sentence? Was he ever married and who are his parents?" Her typing began and she hummed quietly to herself.
"Well, he was married, however, she left him and never remarried. Lara York, two years younger than him, she got rich quick after she worked her way up a business. The reason for the divorce was a difference of opinion. She filed for it and claimed that they fought all the time."
"Thank you, Garcia." The phone was nearly hung up when her voice came through again.
"You're welcome, my little Stud Muffin." The phone call was finally ended and the team was nearly laughing before JJ and Emily had to head back in.
"Our boss is arranging a lawyer for you." The pair instantly turned to one another and spoke generously about their lives.
"So, anyway. Will is way over his head in this and he didn't even think to ask me. I told him that there was more than just him that he had to think about but no, he was so sure of himself."
An hour passed with constant gossiping before the door opened once again. A new face entering the room and shaking all of their hands.
"My client doesn't have to say another word to you." Both women sat and faced the two men and the pictures were pointed to once again. The victims' pictures, littering the table.
"Malfeasance doesn't seem to be severe enough for the crimes that you have committed. And don't pretend to be innocent. Your wife left you, you assaulted some women and got caught for it and after a couple of months of you being out of prison, deaths startup." The silence of the two men allowed for the pair to plainly talk.
"You even mentioned that they had been strangled, if you were innocent then you never would have known that. I just want to know if you will serve an indeterminate sentence or a determinate one." JJ finished speaking and leant forward at the same time as Prentiss.
"Perhaps it will be a mandatory or habitual offender. That is what he is after all." Harry turned to see a blank lawyer who was waiting for something.
"What does all that..."
"Actually JJ, did you hear what Burton said when we first came in here?" A slow nod began and JJ's lost expression egged Prentiss on.
"Well, I agree with her. There is a lovely place around the corner of here." The burning eyes of Harry were felt as he nearly dug holes into the women.
"Tell me what is going on." The lawyer placed out a hand to stop the man from sporadically acting.
"It's not nice being out of control is it Harry?" His head began to shake and slowly he cupped his face with his hands.
"No. No." His repetition and JJ's repetition of the question had filled the room.
"Did you feel really powerful when you strangled them? Did it make you feel like more of a man when you took away these women's control?" Hands smacked down and Harry tried to stand, as the others around the table leant back before the lawyer tried to settle the situation.
"Fine. Yes, I did feel powerful. Is that what you want me to say? I liked hurting them. Those women should have thought about their husbands more." Both women stood and the lawyer felt his jaw go slack and his eyes slowly close.
"No Mr Flower. You should have thought about their husbands more. Those men didn't mind their wives earning more than them and now there are four grieving men who can never feel the love of their wives again."