Caution to the Wind

Chapter 26

Chapter Summary: In Tennessee, the team encounters an unsub who will continue to haunt them for a long time. Follows S14E13, "Chameleon," and S14E14, "Sick and Evil."

The case began like any other. Disturbing, gruesome, but that was par for the course. The team gathered around the table as Garcia handed out files, and they looked through police reports and crime scene photos as she briefed them on what they had so far.

"A single homicide in Nashville, Tennessee," Penelope said, "That is, firefighters responded to a house fire in the Green Hills neighborhood and were able to put out the fire before it destroyed everything, but they discovered the body of Monica Feinstein, with a complete face lift—and I'm not talking about the kind that you need a weekend and a bottle of aspirin to get over; I'm talking cheek-to-cheek, neck to noggin, her whole face was lifted, like, removed from her—"

"Alright, well, burns on the body were limited to the legs and feet, but knife marks went all the way down to the skull," Tara said.

"Possibly symbolic," Luke said, "Were the cuts postmortem?"

"They were. Cause of death was strangulation," Penelope replied.

"So the face is a trophy," Emily said, "He took it with him to relive what he did."

"As with Jeffrey Dahmer, killers often collect body parts to combat a feeling of inadequacy," Reid pointed out, "They see the trophy as an extension of their own identity—something they'd rather die than give up."

"How did the unsub set the fire?" Rossi asked.

"Firefighters sourced the flames to a lit stove and then discovered evidence of corroded gas pipes," Penelope said.

"The gas pipes were made of galvanized steel," Matt said, "And the house is only a few years old. The unsub could have used sulfuric acid to mimic the effects of corrosion."

"Yeah, he's gone to great lengths to make the fire look like an accident," JJ said.

"Could be a forensic countermeasure," Tara suggested, "Burning the house down would be a perfect way to cover your tracks."

"The sophistication suggests this isn't his first, and he's probably planning more," Emily said, "Wheels up in 20."

Monica Feinstein was a low-risk victim: a preschool teacher in her early fifties, and a single mother of a 19-year-old son, Carl. Even with the fire damage, there was no evidence of forced entry, meaning she likely let the unsub into her house. Monica's son had no doubts about who was responsible: her boyfriend, Paul McIntyre. They'd met on a dating site, and had only been dating two months before Mac proposed, and Carl said he'd been acting suspicious the day before the fire. But when Garcia ran a background check on Paul McIntyre, she discovered that he didn't exist. Paul McIntyre was an alias, tailor-made to lure a lonely, middle-aged woman like Monica. His financial records told a similar story: He'd opened an offshore bank account under his false name, and had been draining Monica's money the whole time they were dating.

"And then, the low-down, lying sleazeball closed said account, and we all know what that means, don't we, my pretties?" Garcia said.

"He's a conman," Matt replied.

"Yeah, but conmen resort to violence only out of necessity," Tara pointed out, "If he had a false identity, it would have been easier just to skip town than murder Monica."

"Maybe after the proposal, Monica discovered that he wasn't who he said he was, and then he killed her to protect his anonymity," Matt suggested.