Chapter 4
It was 11:30pm when we got the call to meet the jet on the tarmac in 15 minutes. To drop everything and come, no matter what we were doing. Which is why I'm sitting on the jet in a set of imported italian silk baby pink pajamas, my hair braids, my contacts all but forgotten about.
"Black widow, it's a Friday night," Derek said walking into the plane, dressed like he had just left a date. "and you were at home in your pajamas."
"As opposed to what?" I asked him while pushing up my glasses. He shrugged and went to take a seat.
Emily and JJ walked onto the jet next, dressed up, having come from ladies night. They had invited me but I told them I already had plans.
"Plans get cancelled?" Emily asked sitting across from me and noticing my pajamas.
"Not until 15 minutes ago." I smirked.
"So you turned down ladies night to stay home and do nothing?" JJ asked.
"Precisely," I said, noticing Spencer stumble onto the plane. He had a black long sleeve shirt on and a pair red and black checkered pajama pants. "My plans were to do nothing."
"I see we had the same plans," Spencer said, taking the seat beside me.
"Sorry to interrupt your evenings," Hotch said, walking onto the plane with Rossi following. "We just got called in by Nashville police."
"Nashville, home of my least favorite music." I mumbled under my breath.
Hotch turned his tablet around and Garcia was pulled up, ready to give us the briefing.
"The bodies of Joslyn Richardson age 25, McKena McKenith age 26, and Hannah Pierce age 25 were all found within the city limits of Nashville over the past three weeks. The most recent, Hannah, was tonight."
The picture on the screen switched to a close up on Hannah's body. Her hair looked like it was freshly colored, almost an auburn color, and her eyes were glued open to reveal green eyes. All three girls had fair skin.
"The day that Joslyn's body was found, McKena went missing. And the night that McKena was found, Hannah went missing."
"So our unsub probably has his new victim already." Emily started.
"Right you are," Garcia said. "Maggie Matthews was supposed to clock in for the night shift at Nashville Regional Hospital at 7:30pm and she never made it."
"But she's blonde." Morgan said, leaning against the back of my chair.
"Well you can clearly tell that the other three victims' hair had been recently dyed."JJ stated.
"85% of women color their hair at least once in a 8 week period," Reid and I said at the same time, causing everyone to turn to look at us.
"Of that, 37% will do it at home rather than a salon." I added. "It's not unlikely that our unsub could have just walked into a Walmart and bought mul-multiple packs of the same color."
"There's another thing, Joslyn and Hannah were wearing green contacts, their eyes were originally blue." Penelope added.
"The first thing we need to figure out is who the unsub is trying to imitate with his victims and then go from there."
......
The answer came to me in the car on the way to the hotel. The radio was playing the news, and it happened to mention something about Dollywood.
"Flaming locks of auburn hair." I blurted, pulling my phone out of my pocket to call Emily who was in the other car.
"I'm sorry, what?" Rossi asked, turning around to look at me in the back seat, squished between Reid and Morgan.
"Our unsub is making the victims in the image of Jolene."
"Who's Jolene?" Spencer asked, proving just how out of touch he was with pop culture.
"Like Dolly Parton Jolene?" JJ asked over the phone.
"Her beauty is beyond compare, with flaming locks of auburn hair, with ivory skin and eyes of emerald green." I said, reciting the full lyric. "Whoever our unsub is, is either killing out of admiration or jealousy."
"So you're saying that this unsub is killing because Dolly Parton told them to?" Morgan asked.
"We'll talk about this more at the hotel, nice work doctor," Hotch said and I hung up the phone.
..........
"They don't have enough rooms for us to have our own." Rossi said walking up with a handful of keys. "This is the fairest way to do this, reach in and grab a key, maybe you'll get lucky enough to be on your own."
But it didn't take a profiler to figure out that Rossi and Hotch were the only ones that would be rooming alone. I reached into the pile, my only hope was that it wasn't on a floor higher than three.
Room 212, nice. I grabbed my bag off the ground and made my way down the hall towards the staircase, climbing the short flight to the second floor.
The room was right beside the staircase, double nice. I used the key to unlock the door and threw my bag on the bed furthest from the window, claiming it at mine.
Since I came straight from my night in, I was technically already ready for bed, so I just sat on the edge and took my hair out of the bun, running my fingers through it.
The door clicked, signaling that someone else was walking in and I sighed, I was half hoping that I'd be alone.
Spencer appeared around the corner and smiled, laying his bag on the other bed.
"I don't think I snore, but if I do, I apologize in advance." I laughed before taking off my glasses and laying them on the bedside table.
.........
I didn't bring any contacts with me, thanks to leaving in a rush, so I'm stuck with my glasses this entire case.
"Have you considered lasik?" Emily asked, probably after watching me push my glasses up for the fifteenth time.
"And risk dry eyes, over correction, under correction, glares, halos, double vision, astigmatism, flap problems, or vision loss? Not to mention the chance of regression. No thank you," I snapped. "I think I'll stick to the contacts."
"Sorry I asked." She said, standing back defensively.
"I didn't have coffee this morning, sorry." I sighed, today is going to be a long day.
We all sat around the conference room at the police station, trying to figure out a profile for the unsub.
"The victims don't have any connections, they didn't frequent the same yoga studios, their jobs don't ever overlap, not even the same hairdresser or dry cleaners." Garcia explained.
"Maybe our Jolenes were sleeping with someone else's man ." I suggested. "Like Jolene in the song."
"So revenge killing." Derek said, "So is our unsub a woman?"
"More than likely, yes." I said standing up and walking toward the board. "And she's definitely a professional hairdresser."
"What makes you think that?" The police chief asked.
"The chemicals found in the victims' hair by the ME: phenylenediamines, oluenediamines, resorcinol, and ammonium hydroxide are all ingredients found in hair dyes roar you have to have a professional license to purchase. So either the unsub is a professional or at least knows someone who is and has access to their salon card."
"I'm going to call Garcia, see if she can get us a list of everyone in Nashville with a salon license." Hotch saud, taking his phone out of his pocket.
"All she's going to find is a list of roughly 10,000 names," I chimed in. "Have her narrow it down to those that have lost their job in the last six weeks or are between shops."
He nodded and walked out of the conference room.
"You know, salons are a hotspot for gossip, some people even call their hairdressers their therapist." I said, twiddling my pen in my hand. "Maybe our victims were confiding to our unsub about their midnight endevours and it reminded her of her own personal experience with homewreckers."
"But Garcia said the victims had no connection, that they didn't frequent the same salons." Emily said, her eyebrows pinched together in frustration.
"They don't have to go to the same salon if the salon comes to them." I said before standing up and running after Hotch.
He had Garcia on speaker phone and I, maybe rudely interrupted.
"Are there any traveling hairdressers on the list?" I asked.
"110."
"Are any of them recently divorced?" I asked, "or recently called off an engagement."
"Down to 25."
"If she's painting the victims to be Jolene, she probably thinks herself as Dolly. Blonde hair, hazel eyes. Maybe some minor cosmetic surgery."
"Catlyn Jones. 32. She's been between jobs since March when she spent a week in the psychiatric ward after finding her fiancé in bed with her maid of honor, two days before the wedding."
"That could be her," I said looking up at Hotch. "Do you have a name for the maid of honor?"
"Just a sec-oh God!" Garcia gasped. "Her maid of honor was Maggie Matthews."
"Garcia we need an address now." Hotch commended.
"Sending it now boss." She said before hanging up the phone.
...........
"Catlyn Jones?" JJ yelled, walking into Catlyn's house, Morgan and I behind her.
We heard muffled screams coming from upstairs and took off running. Morgan busted open the door and we saw Catlyn about to inject Maggie with something.
"Drop it!" Morgan yelled, startling Catlyn.
"Come any closer and I inject this right into the vein, killing her instantly."
"Catlyn, I can't begin to understand what you're feeling right now," I said, holstering my gun and holding my hands in the air. "But, this can't be the only answer to release your pain."
"Don't. Don't talk to me about pain. You don't know what this... this whore did to me."
"She betrayed you, she took the one thing from you that she can never earn back, she took your trust." I said cautiously, taking a step closer to her.
"Let me tell you what I wanted to hear when I found my best friend in bed with my boyfriend, in my bed." I took a deep breath. "It's not your fault, you did everything right. You gave your all to that man and in return he gave you nothing but heartbreak. And your friend? She's nothing but an insecure little girl who can't find her own man so she has to take what's yours. You are so much better off without either of them in your life. This upset is nothing more than a door opening, allowing you to take a step into fresh air."
"Really?" She asked, lowering her hand.
"Yes really." I said, touching her shoulder gently with one hand and taking the needle out of her hand with the other. "It's going to be okay, you're going to come out of this experience a much stronger and more independent woman Catlyn."
"I am?" She asked, almost as if she was dazed.
"Yes," I said grabbing my handcuffs slowly off my belt. "These are just a formality, just until we get to the station."
She nodded and I put the cuffs on her, reciting her right as we walked down the stairs.
"Good job in there, kid." Hotch said walking up behind me and grabbing my shoulder, giving it a supportive squeeze. "Wheels up at 9am."
"Anyone down for a good old fashion Nashville bar hop?" Morgan asked, clapping his hands together and doing a little shimmy.
Oh lord.
Hope you enjoy! Please let me know what y'all think!