A Long Way From The Playground

CHAPTER 26

The next morning Aaron and I get set up at the station and get on a conference call with the rest of the team who were already on their way on the jet.

The phone beeps on the table and I pick it up, immediately placing it on speaker phone before hanging the handset up in the cradle.

"Good morning!" I chirp, slipping into the seat at the table as Aaron grumbles and drops into the seat next to me. A chorus of good mornings echo over the phone and we begin going over what we know so far.

"Anyone have anything to input? You lot are awfully quiet over there?" I tease, resting my head in my hand.

"Female serial killers are a fascinating field. We don't have much information on them, but what we do know involves throwing the rules completely out the window. For instance, they don't take trophies." Spencer rambles innocently.

"They also dont use torture as a method of killing. They are quick, clean and efficient." I added, writing down Spencer's monologue.

"There's no sexual gratification for them, murder is the be all end all." Derek comments, building off of what Spencer and I had mentioned.

"Exactly.." Spencer and I chime in unison.

"So basically women are more efficient at killing because they have body counts in the hundreds.." Spencer adds as I glance over at Aaron who's twirling his pen in his fingers.

"So assuming that the job is the stressor, what are some of the reasons prostitutes kill their customers?" Aaron poses, writing down the question on his notepad.

"Don't forget escorts as well, this woman could be a call girl.." I remind, leaning over the table to get closer to the phone.

"The big three. Money, drugs, ptsd." Morgan replies.

"At some point every call girl, no matter how well paid, gets coerced into an activity she didn't consent to.." Dave notes, as I nod and write down the potential theories.

"Aileen Wuornos used to purposefully stage paid sexual encounters as an excuse to murder men she thought would rape her.." Emily pipes up after Dave finishes his sentence.

"Yeah but she was also psychotic and completely disorganized guys. This girl is possibly poisoning them before she has sex with them.." I comment, flipping through the autopsy results.

"She's using tetra-methylene-disulfotetramine, it's a popular rat poison in china that can be easily soluble in alcohol." Spencer explains, breaking down the chemicals into layman's terms for us non genius folk.

"They never see it coming because they think they're getting lucky.." I remark, earning an elbow to the rib from Aaron.

"HEY! That fucking hurt, anyway, at $10,000 a night these girls are getting paid to be discrete and to have sex with these big wigs. It's likely she already has prior history with them, she probably gets hired repeatedly by the same people over and over again.." I huff, only slightly annoyed.

"Whatever the case may be, this was premeditated, this wasn't a on the whim, in the moment kill and she does it before she sleeps with them." Aaron replies, writing something on his notepad and underlining it. We continue to brainstorm on potential theories for a while before switching gears to talk about the lawyers for the victims.

"I had some luck there, Hoyt Ashford's wife isn't too happy with how he died." JJ mentions and I turn to Aaron in shock who looks just as surprised as me.

"Wait wait wait, you got her to agree to talk to us Jay?" I gasp

"Yeah but here's the thing, every silver lining has a dark cloud, and apparently the hedge fund released a statement. 'Ashford died peacefully in his home according to lawyer David Madison' they're already trying to close ranks, dot their I's and cross their T's." JJ replies and I can hear her flipping through the file she has in her hands.