Criminal Minds Series Rewrite: Season Three

Children of the Dark: Part One

"In the city, crime is taken as emblematic of class and race. In the suburbs though it's intimate and psychological; resistant to generalization; a mystery of the individual's soul." - Barbara Ehrenreich

"Sorry I'm late," you pant as you rush into the briefing room. Everyone is already there, waiting on you to start. You're only five minutes late, but late nonetheless. "The hotel I'm staying at is getting sick and tired of me being there all the time. They claim they are a hotel, not a home."

"Let's get started," Hotch nods, looking to JJ to start.

You catch Spencer's eyes as you get settled into your seat, but he looks away as soon as you look at him. You don't have time to analyze him, so you focus on JJ right now.

"The Halbert family. They were murdered in their home last night in the Denver suburb of Cherry Creek. It's the third home invasion like this in the last month. They kill everyone in the household--parents, kids, and pets if they have them. Always families in nice neighborhoods."

"What do they take?" you wonder.

"Nothing they can't fit in their pockets. Cash and some jewelry."

"Hundreds of ways to get cash and jewels without killing entire families. That's why home invasions are so hard to profile. They have multiple motives."

"National statistics show an uptick in home invasions over the last few years with 18% being in Colorado," Spencer says.

"You know it's bad if they're inviting us back."

"Back?"

"Well, things went bad after the JonBenet Ramsey case when a couple of agents publicly criticized local detectives."

"Well, they didn't need us to make them look bad," Derek scoffs, "and that was in Boulder."

"Yeah, but the statewide media ran with it, and it took on a life of its own."

"Well, I talked to Lieutenant Nellis. Trust me. They want our help," JJ says. "They need it. The first two invasions were twenty days apart. This last one was just nine days later."

"They're killing faster, which means they're getting better at it every time."

"Home invasions typically involve the elderly and single females. The fact that entire families are being targeted suggests multiple unsubs. Could mean gang-related, revenge motive, or even personal business," Spencer says.

"I don't think any of these victims are running in gang circles."

"Sewing circles, more like it," Emily jokes. "PTA moms and gray-flannel dads... These guys are killing the cleavers."

Spencer holds up the case file to take a closer look at something, frowning when he sees it.

"Strange."

"What is?"

"The cleavers. Of all the names for a 1950s idyllic tv family, it's rife with violent implication. Kind of makes you wonder how the writers really felt about suburbia, huh?"

"Focus, please."

"Uh, okay, what about, um, class-based uprising? Helter skelter?" Emily theorizes.

"There's no graffiti and no messages, at least not visible ones. There's no rituals. Manson's aim was to start a race war. There's no proof of any hate crime here."

"The parent murders are brutal and messy. The instruments vary from a golf club to a kitchen knife to even an iron. Household implements symbols of family. The kids were different. They died by injection--pentobarbital," you say.