Picture Perfect

Chapter 28

    It had been three hours since Hayley had left the station with John Hotchner the crime scenes and she was bored as hell. They had just arrived at the Daniel's house having spent over two hours walking around the Olsen's house. Seeing that the two houses were not even five minutes apart it was crazy to Hayley how long this FBI guy took looking at an abandoned house.
    "Nice neighborhood." John commented as he looked around.
    "It was," Hayley replied sadly. "Two multiple murders kinda taints the place a little."
    "Yeah, I could see how that might happen." He replied with a nod. "But people move past horrors like this, eventually."
    "Maybe." Hayley said with a shrug as she led John into the house.

    "What a jerk?" The killer commented as she sat between the garage and the Daniel's house eavesdropping on Hayley and the man with her.
    Before heading over to the Collins house she decided to take a drive past Ashlee's house. She wanted to know just how many eyes were on the detectives house. She knew it was risky to pass by her house too many times but she could not help herself.
    In order to get there she had to go past the Olsen's house where she had noticed Hayley's car in the driveway. With her curiosity peaked she quickly parked a couple blocks away and walked back.
    After watching them for a few moments the killer determined two things for sure. First, Ashlee was not here with Hayley which was disappointing. Secondly, she did not recognize the man with Hayley but he seemed to be studying the house inch by inch which she found comical. He wouldn't find anything, it had been months since she had been in that house besides the fact that she was too good to leave behind any clues to her identity.
    Now that they were at the Daniel's house the killer figured this guy must be new to the case. Maybe he was one of the cops investigating her other masterpiece from New Berlin or Muskego checking out the scenes to find similarities. Amazing her desire to identify this man was greater than her desire to swing by Ashlee's house or to observe the Collins family so she continued to lurk.
    Two hours later the killer was following Hayley's car down Beloit Road. She wasn't sure where they were heading because the road lead to both New Berlin and Muskego. When they got to the intersection of Beloit and National she realized they must be heading to the Garcia's home on Overlook drive.
    "They guy must be one of those idiots from Muskego." The killer said with a laugh as she drove past the Garcia's house. She turned onto Inez, a dead end three  houses away from the Garcia's house. She parked in the driveway of an empty house where her carwas hidden from the road by trees and bushes. She walked through the farmers field and snuck up to the house where the cops were looking around.
    She listened intently to the bits of the conversation she could hear.

    "Another nice neighborhood, I'm sensing a pattern." John commented as they walked around the house.
    "Most in New Berlin are but especially out here. Nice and quiet with large yards." Hayley replied.
    "I imagine our unsub probably grew up in a fairly nice area. Probably still lives in a similar neighborhood if not the same one they grew up in."
"Do they tend to stick with what they know?" Hayley asked. Although she was bored an had solved plenty of single murders, serial killers were not a normal occurrence. She wasn't stupid, she knew she could learn some valuable information from him.
"Not always but when the crimes are personally motivated like these seem to be it tends to be the case."
"Do they teach you FBI guys to speak so noncommittally all the time?" Hayley joked.
"It's one of the most popular classes at Quantico actually." John joked back.

The killer could barely catch her breath when she got back to her car. She ran like hell, hamster than she could ever remember, from the Garcia home.
"Holy shit the FBI is in on this?" She cried aloud as she gasped for breath. Normally the killer excelled at staying calm but at this moment she felt anything but calm.
The feeling coming over her was completely unfamiliar, totally foreign in fact. She figured she was panicking. What else could it be?" She figured the most important thing now was to regain her composure.
After a few moments the killer regained her breath and began to analyze the situation.
"The FBI is aiding the MPD with their investigation. I knew this would probably happen eventually. It's sooner than I thought obviously but it will be okay. I've been extremely careful every step of the way. The FBI won't find anything; just like Ashlee, Hayley and their peers have found nothing."
The killer felt in control enough to drive so she pulled out on to Overlook but instead of passing the house again she went over the hill. Her question about the an with Hayley was answered so she decided to return to her original plan, sort of anyways. She had planned to observe the Collins family for three days then create her masterpiece on the fourth day. Given the new development in investigative personnel she felt an acceleration in her time table was appropriate. She'd observe today then tomorrow would be the day.
With a smirk the killer thought aloud, "I can't look at the addition of the FBI as a deterrent. No, it just gives me another challenge to overcome, just like the police surveillance at Ashlee's house. And I definitely love a challenge!"