Criminal Minds: Danika

Ice

Aaron Hotchner's POV:
Agent Morgan walks into the conference room first and sits down in his usual seat. He leans back stretching and I hear a distinct crackle sound emit from his body.

"Damn, that's exactly what I needed." He chuckles as I raise a brow.

"Long night?" I question in quiet voice.

"You know how it is." He answers with a smirk and I just shake my head.

A minute later the others arrive and we get ready for the briefing.

"What do we know?" I ask as Garcia arrives wearing a colorful outfit.

Her outfits are usually interesting in nature, definitely makes heads turn. She's not afraid to be herself, which I respect.

"The unsub cuts up the body of the victims after they're deceased. All 5 bodies were found this way, in multiple ice filled coolers. Which means he wants them to be found." Morgan starts us out.

"So if he wants the bodies to be found, why does he cut them up? Isn't that just more work on his part?" Elle asks as she leans with her elbows on the table.

"It could possibly be a sign of OCD. The unsub could have a compulsion to cut the bodies up the way he does. The ice filled coolers, suggest he wants them to be preserved, which can point towards a need to control." Reid suggests.

"Five women within six months is a faster progression than most serial killers." Elle adds.

"People with OCD often have a set schedule that can't be interrupted. With such short time in between kills, suggests that they can't help themselves and won't stop until someone stops them." Reid explains his theory further.

"And the fact that the bodies were all found somewhere nice and clean, suggests that they were killed and dismembered in a different area. Possibly the same area for all five." Gideon adds and I think it over before commenting my thoughts.

"So we're looking for an organized killer, who's on a set schedule, possibly wants his bodies found. Wheels up in thirty." I state and get up from the table to head to the jet.

———

"Morgan, get her out of here!" I shout to Morgan about the girl who the unsub kidnapped.

Morgan takes the girl out of the barn and puts her in the SUV, while I go check the next room. Walking down some steps, I come to the end of a dark hall and walk through an open thick steel door leading towards a basement like area. Turning on the flashlight on my gun, I turn the corner only to be met with a gruesome scene.

I'm in a small room that can't be more than 15X20. It's all concrete, there's a drain with blood pooling down it. Multiple layers of dried blood is sprayed on the walls, ceiling and floor.

There's black tarp covering a metal table that's drilled into the floor, in the middle of the room. I slowly walk over, and carefully make my way over towards a couple of large coolers sitting on the table. They're stacked like a pyramid.

Quickly, I open the top one only to see the decapitated head of our unsub, sitting on top of ice. His dead eyes are wide open and his mouth is agape. It's exactly the same way his victim's were found, except this is obviously his kill room.

Looking across the room to where the head is looking, I see the ID's of the five women he killed, taped to the wall. They all have dark brown hair and brown eyes. All of them have names underneath and dates of death. On each picture there's a small hole drilled into the pupils of their eyes, almost as if they're looking right back at their killer.