Picture Perfect

Chapter 38

    After most everyone left for work or school Aaron, Hayley, Kayla, Bash and I decided to watch a movie. We all got comfy in the living room to watch Lilo and Stitch, my absolute favorite Disney movie. About half way through the movie there was a knock at the door which made all the adults jump.
    "I'll get it." I quickly said jumping up from the couch. Hayley followed me to the door. Logically we both knew whoever it was couldn't be a threat because the cops outside would have checked who this person was before they got half way to the door.
    When I opened the door I was greeted by the smiling face of John Hotchner, the FBI profiler, "Detective Morris, Detective Williams, your captain said I would find you here."
    "SSA Hotchner, to what do we owe the pleasure of a home visit?" I asked as nicely as I could muster. He was interrupting one of my favorite movies after all.
    "Is there somewhere we could talk privately?" He asked, then added. "I've got some new information you guys might find interesting."
I thought for a moment and replied, "We can go upstairs. Wait a moment."
He nodded and I shut the door in his face.
When I came back into the living room the movie had been paused and all eyes were on me. "Bash, you and your dad can keep watching the movie. Hayley, Kayla and I have to talk to somebody about work stuff up in my apartment."
"Who's here mommy?"
"A man from the FBI who's working some cases with us." I replied.
"Cool!" Bash said excitedly, "Can I meet him?"
"Maybe after we're done little man. But right now we gotta talk with him."
Bash just nodded and started the movie back up. I stood and smiled for a moment, I was so lucky to have such a good kid. I looked over at Aaron, who looked worried, and gave him what I hoped was a reassuring nod before I headed for the door.

As we all settled in upstairs I said to John, "First off after we talk my son wants to meet you. He thinks the fact that you're FBI is really cool."
This made him smile, "No problem, I've heard you have a wonderful son. I'd be delighted to meet him as well."
"I do have a good kid." I said proudly with a smile. But that quickly faded. "So what is so urgent SSA Hotchner?"
"Please Detective, it's John." He said with a smile. "I thought you'd want to know we have come up with some cases similar to the ones here."
Hayley chimed in, "I thought you said you hadn't found any cases with the same MO?"
"True, but upon further digging we have found six unsolved cases where a family was murdered and staged."
"Why didn't you find these earlier?" I asked.
"Well the cause of deaths were all across the board and the locations were in different parts of the country so they didn't jump out to us at first. The first happened in 1996 in San Diego, California. A family: mother, father and twelve year old son. Their cause of death are arsenic poisoning but they were found around their dining room table like they were about to have dinner."
"That sounds familiar." I said thinking about the Olsen family.
"Exactly." John said then continued. "The next one was in 2000. This family was in San Francisco: two mothers and a son. They were again poisoned and found sitting around a coffee table with Trivial Pursuit laid out in front of them."
"And the Garcia family was posed playing Clue." Kayla replied.
"Let me guess," I started sounding more sarcastic than I meant to. "You found a family poisoned and staged in their backyard next."
"Actually their throats were slit but that is how they were staged." John said. "That was in 2008 in Chicago. And before you jump in we found a family shot and found around a Christmas tree that same year, also in Chicago."
"Even I have to admit this is a little eerie. What else you got?" Hayley asked.
"Three more: two in Madison and one in Lake Geneva." John stated. When none of us responded he continued. "All of these happened in 2009. In Lake Geneva a family was found strangled and staged in front of a portrait of themselves, in February. Then in July a family in Madison was shot and staged in their dining room around what looked like a science fair project, testing batteries longevity in flashlights. The final one was in September. Again in Madison a family was stabbed to death and positioned around a TV with video game controllers in their hands."
I took in all the information he had thrown at us. Obviously there were similarities in the staging but not completely on the methods. "You think it might be the same killer, they're just evolving in their methods."
John nodded, "I think it's quite possible."
"So is there anything from these previous cases that could help us now?" I asked.
"Well the first family had a sixteen year old daughter that no one has been able to track down since." John said.
"Meaning?" I asked, not sure where he was going with that statement.
"Either we haven't found her body yet or she may be our killer." John plainly stated.
Kayla spoke up then, "Do you have any pictures of the missing daughter?"
John shook his head, "No pictures were found in the house. She hadn't gone for her drivers license yet and no school pictures we could find. No pictures in any of the houses minus the one the victims were staged in front of anyways. Sound familiar?"
I thought while Kayla and John spoke. Hayley and I had thrown around the idea but I'm not sure either of us actually believed the killer could be a woman. "What's your best educated guess about the killer?"
John seemed to thing for a moment, though I sensed he already had his answer. "The daughter was trained in kickboxing and martial arts so she could probably be plenty strong enough to overpower full grown adults and move around dead bodies."
    "You really think our killer is a woman?" Kayla chimed in.
    "It's a distinct possibility. And if it is, my rough theory is from some reason she can't have kids. Maybe something having to do with her father that she killed, or brother." John stated matter of factly.
    "Great." I said kind of sarcastically. "All we need to do is find a woman who has moved around a lot and has family issues. That should be easy enough."
    Hayley spoke up tentatively, "Ash I hate to point this out but Jenna moved around a lot before she settled here. And you told me she never liked to talk about her family."
    "So?" I said not wanting what Hayley was saying to be true, even if it was.
    Kayla chimed in, "Didn't you say she was working at a portrait studio? That big portrait you guys found in Greenfield had to come from somewhere."
    "So?" I said defensively. Jenna was fucked up but she was a killer, right?