the great war, spencer reid [ 2 ]

007. the forever people

"Where are we flying to this time, mama?" Derek asks.

"Boulder City, Nevada, my vision, home of the Hoover Dam, because police there found the body of a woman, wrapped and weighed down in the water." Penelope says. "He apparently likes to freeze."

"I.D. yet?" Rossi asks.

"No, unfortunately." Penelope answers.

"How long was she in the water?" Kate asks.

"Unclear. Her popsicleness made it hard to determine an M.O." Penelope says.

"Are we sure this is the unsub and not the exposure?" Derek asks.

"Her blood was frozen in her veins. Temperatures in the area don't get cold enough for that." Hotch says.

"Hoover Dam is not that far from Vegas." Rossi says. "Could this be a hitman?"

"No marks on her, though. Hitmen usually leave evidence of an efficient kill." Kate says.

"No, he did leave a mark." JJ argues.

"Where?" Kate asks.

"Breastbone, above the heart." JJ points out. "It's not frostbite. That's an electrical burn."

"Why introduce electroshock to the M.O.?" Derek asks.

"Believe it or not, hypothermia is a rather pleasant way to die. The cold just kind of--" He snaps his fingers. "--puts you to sleep." Spencer says.

"He wants to prolong what he's doing, so he jolts her back awake." JJ says.

"How did you catch all that?" Kate asks.

"I've seen it before." JJ says.

+++

"Still no I.D. of the victim?" Rossi asks.

"Garcia's running her markers through ViCAP." Hotch says.

"This unsub went through a lot of trouble wrapping and weighing down the body down." Spencer says. "Usually it's postmortem gas production that brings a body to the surface, but if you freeze it, it'll rise to the top like ice cubes in a drink."

"So he's smart enough to consider the possibility, but not experienced enough to effectively execute the disposal." Derek says. "It's probably his first kill."

"If he went through this much trouble to hide the body, he knows it can be tied back to him." Bedelia says.

"Should be easy to find him once we learn who she is." Kate says.

"That'll be our first objective when we land. We should also build a suspect pool based on boat ownership. How many boats are there on Lake Mead?" Hotch asks Spencer.

"1,908." Spencer answers.

"Come on. You just know that?" Kate asks.

"Yeah. There are 1,908 boats on Lake Mead." Spencer states.

"Where did you get that number?" Kate asks.

"Based on the population density of the area, I... estimated." Spencer says.

"You guessed. I mean, is this guy really a genius, or does he just say things with authority and we all believe him?" Kate questions.

"Oh, wow. Thank you. Ten years." Derek says, fist bumping Kate. "It took ten years for someone to finally have my back."

"Okay, has he ever been wrong?" Bedelia questions Derek. The man opens his mouth to answer, though he just becomes a fish out of the water. "Exactly." She smiles.