Killer Queen

Chapter 4

     "Let me just tell you, having a private jet is like the coolest thing ever," Logan ranted as they got in the large F.B.I. car with Hotch and Derek in front. "Do you guys always use it?"

JJ nodded. "Every time we have to go somewhere out of state. It's easier to travel."

"Back to the case at hand," Derek spoke up. "When we got off the plane, I got a call from Garcia. I had asked her to do a special background check on all of our victims. No connections between any of them, no faults, perfect records. It's like our unsub is killing them because of how perfect they were."

"Does anyone know of Christianity beliefs?" Spencer asked. "It's actually very interesting how they believe in so many things even though they don't have solid proof."

Logan nodded. "Yeah, it's called faith."

"Anyway, they believe in a higher power called God. He was almighty and created everything and everyone in the universe. But His son, Jesus, was the one where I think this might connect to.

"Jesus was like a God in human flesh. Perfect in every way, he worshipped his father and brought more people into Christianity faith. But, he was crucified by the Romans, who thought he was trying to take their king's place. Then, he rose from the dead three days later," he explained.

"So you think that our killer is crucifying them because they thought that if they were truly perfect, they'd rise from the dead?" wondered Morgan, very much confused.

Spencer sighed. "No, I think they're doing this because they're making sure that they're not Jesus in human form."

~~~

As soon as the team walked into the police station, all the attention was put on Logan. She ignored them with an eye roll and followed Hotch to the Chief of Police, Hank Jenkins. He was an older man with a white beard.

Hotchner and Jenkins shook hands. "Thank you for having us, Mr Jenkins. This is Agents Morgan, Jareau, Prentiss, Dr. Reid, and I'm Agent Hotchner with the BAU."

"Yes, yes, I'm aware of who you are," Jenkins dismissed. He eyed Logan, but didn't make any remarks about the teenager in his station. "We can give you everything we have on the cases, but there isn't a lot to go off on. The crime scenes are just the victim and the cross."

Spencer picked up something on top of the main evidence table. "What's this?" He held up a cassette tape.

Jenkins looked back at the agent. "We found that at the last crime scene. It's a load of crap, is what I'll tell you."

He left after a swift nod to Hotchner, and the Unit Chief turned to his team. "Spencer and Logan, I want you to look at every piece of evidence they have on these crucifixions. Morgan and Prentiss, go check out the most recent crime scene. I'll go with JJ to talk to the family."

Logan turned to the evidence table, where Spencer was examining the cassette tape. She went straight to the photos of the victims that were laid out. All four of them had been hung up on a cross with nails in their wrists and ankles holding them there. Their ages ranged from mid-twenties to a man in his late seventies, and they all looked different. The only thing that connected them was their almost flawless records.

Music started playing from Logan's right. She looked over to see Spencer listening to the tape. It was a song that she knew she had heard before, but didn't recognize it. When it was over, Spencer rewound it and played the song again to listen.

"God rest ye merry gentlemen, let nothing you dismay; Remember Jesus Christ our Saviour was born on Christmas Day; To save us all from Satan's pow'r, when we were gone astray; O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy; O tidings of comfort and joy."

Spencer looked up. "Why was our killer listening to Christmas music in November? And it doesn't even sound like the jolly, happy 'God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen' that I know. Like a remixed song made to sound somber and ominous."

Logan shrugged. "To get in the holiday spirit?" she guessed. "Is this a popular Christmas song?"

"It depends on who you ask," he replied as he bit his lip, deep in thought. "If we're sure that our unsub is religious, then it would be much more common in someone who believes in God. That still doesn't answer the question as to why? They could have been listening to any other song while they're watching their victims die, why a Christmas song?"

"Psychopath?" Spencer gave her a look. "Alright, sorry. Delusional psychopath, then?"

He clicked the tape player to listen again. "I don't think they're delusional, or a psychopath. They're probably just misguided to think that they have a higher power, or they are the higher power."

Logan looked up at the doctor and special agent. "How do you know that?"

"Think about it. If you were to crucify someone, why would you do it?"

"I'd have to be religious to know about that, first of all. But probably to punish them. That's what the Romans did. It was a slow and painful death, perfect for torture and discipline."

Spencer nodded. "Exactly. What I want to know is: what did the victims do for our unsub to think they needed to punish them?"

The two geniuses, one definitely smarter than the other, sat in silence, mulling over their problem. All they knew was that there was a possible religious maniac going around crucifying people for some unknown reason, probably believing that they were some ultimate being that chose who lived or who died.

All Logan wanted to do was to find her dad. Instead, she was thrown right in the middle of some shifty criminal case where the unknown was practically everything. She wasn't exactly complaining, though. Almost everything was better than going back to where she grew up.

Spencer had brought up a good point. Why listen to a Christmas song early in November while you're crucifying somebody? What was the point in slowing it down and making it sound a lot darker than it actually was?

Logan stretched forward to grab the tape player. She started it and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath to get in the right mindset. The song stopped and Logan played it to listen. She never really got to celebrate Christmas, one of the many things she hated about her childhood.

She was about to shut it off, when a thought popped into her mind. What if the unsub didn't think they were a higher power, but the higher power? What if they thought that they had been reincarnated as a human being, just like Jesus, to bring justice on the Earth?

The last lyrics of the song echoed in Logan's mind. Comfort and joy. "Comfort and joy, comfort and joy, comfort and joy." She looked up suddenly from her mumbling. "Spence. I think I figured it out."