Ghosts • Aaron Hotchner

Chapter Seventeen

Hotch got back to work quick, although none of them would let him work too hard. Fallon oftentimes stayed behind, helping Hotch with his extra paperwork that she knew he didn't have the energy to do. Together, she and Rossi did a lot of Hotch's extra things, all of which they didn't want him to stress over. 

The team had gotten called out on a case on a family annihilator, Spencer missing the jet due to a series of seminars he was attending about the brains of serial killers. They were introduced to Anne Hudson, a kind, blonde woman, who took them to the family's house. 

"Hey how was your weekend?" Emily asked as the rest of the team approached Reid out at the pool, where the daughter had been drowned. 

"Uh, scary yet informative. Was the whole family killed?" Reid asked, referring to the family that was murdered just three days ago.

"Hudson, this is Dr. Spencer Reid," Rossi introduced, and the blonde reached out to shake Reid's hand.

"Field Agent Anne Hudson," she introduced. "The, uh, father is serving in Iraq. Three nights ago the cops found his family buried over there."

"Buried?" Reid wondered aloud. Fallon glanced over her shoulder at Hotch who was standing behind them, inspecting the side of the house. 

"The neighbors hear the dog barking, came over, and he was scratching at the grave. Lucy, their oldest child, she's still in her swimsuit," Emily told him.

"What does the father know?" Hotch asked, moving to stand next to Fallon and join the rest of them. 

"Some of it. He was on patrol, so it took his unit a couple of days to reach him. He arrives today." Hudson said as they surrounded the burial site that was marked off with caution tape. 

"Last year the Williams family was killed and found exactly the same way," Rossi pointed out. "They lived in Newport News."

"The father Dan Williams was also serving overseas," Morgan added. 

"Now the police are overwhelmed and getting serious heat from the military. We need some answers fast," Hudson told them.

"As do the media. They're already calling this the work of a serial killer," JJ told them, making Fallon grimace slightly. That's the last thing they needed, the public thinking that there was a serial killer on the loose. 

"Well, they're right. It is," Hotch said. 

"But why bury them? I mean, it can't be to hide to bodies," Hudson reasoned.

"It's a sign of remorse," Rossi told her.

"And when they're done be remorseful, this will happen again," Morgan said, before Hotch, Rossi, and Fallon made their way inside the house. Hotch and Fallon walked in the back, and she could tell he was in a bit of pain because of the way he walked.

"Are you alright?" she asked quietly, and he nodded pretty unconvincingly as he held the door open for her. 

"I'm fine," he assured her, even though he knew that she could see right through the lie. They had other pressing matters on their hands so Fallon decided to drop it for now. 

"No sign of a struggle," she observed as they studied the kitchen. There were several large blood pools and drag marks littering the floor, which was never a fun sight to see. 

"Unsub holds a gun to one of her kids' head, what can she do?" Rossi asked rhetorically. 

"Footprints belong to Paul," Hotch said, motioning to the bloody footprints running out of the room. 

"Mom gets it first, then the youngest," Rossi noted.

"He hides in the master bedroom, the unsub finds him and shoots him," Hotch continued.