the great war, spencer reid [ 2 ]

024. the sandman

They're in the round table room and wait for the door to open. When it does, Rossi and Derek step in, all of the others letting out cheers and greetings.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, no, you didn't." Derek denies.

"Not my idea, babe. I was outnumbered." Savannah tells him.

"How long has this been in the works?" Derek asks.

"Oh, two weeks. You didn't suspect?" Savannah asks as Derek walks over.

"I, uh, had no idea." Derek says.

"That's good. A certain amount of cluelessness is nice in a husband." Penelope says.

"Oh, yeah." Bedelia agrees. Spencer frowns at her and she sweetly smiles at him. "Love you." She blows him a kiss, Spencer still looking like a lost puppy dog.

"Okay, hush up." Derek says, wrapping an arm around the blonde woman's shoulders.

"Amen to that. A woman is entitled to her secrets, especially from a profiler." Tara states.

"Well, this profiler may not be changing any diapers, but I will tear up some diaper cake." Derek says.

"Oh, you look like a diaper changer to me." Rossi comments.

"Yes, you will be changing some diapers." Savannah states.

Derek immediately gets protests and arguments from the five women.

"Ladies, I was joking, I was joking." Derek says. "Look, baby, I was joking. It was a joke." He kisses Savannah.

+++

"Thank you." Hotch hangs his phone up. "Ronnie Brewer is still missing. Both parents' eyes were filled with sand and glued shut."

"Mr. Sandman, bring me a nightmare." Rossi comments.

"This is a well organized unsub. He managed to kill both parents, perform a complicated ritual, and successfully abduct the boy." JJ says.

"JJ's right. It's a lot of moving parts for one person to orchestrate." Derek says. "Could we be looking at a team?"

"This is reminiscent of the killing of the Clutter family in 1959, also in Kansas. That crime was perpetrated by two ex-cons working together." Spencer states.

"The "in cold blood" murders. But that was a robbery gone bad." Rossi says. "It doesn't seem to be the case here."

"Well, assuming Ronnie Brewer was the ultimate target, why risk entering the home at all?" Tara questions. "I mean, wouldn't it be simpler just to grab the kid on the way to school?"

"Well, the abduction of the child from a place of presumed safety must be an essential part of his ritual." Hotch says.

"Who knows? Maybe the killer had a score to settle with mom and dad, too." Rossi says.

"The sealing of the eyes could indicate remorse." Bedelia says. "He didn't want them to see what he was doing to their kid."

"Then why not just kill them immediately?" Derek asks. "I mean, he must have a reason for rendering the parents functionally blind first."

"You know, the sand in the eyes could be a purely symbolic gesture. The Sandman was a mythical character who would sprinkle magic dust in the eyes of children while they slept." Spencer explains.

"Yeah, but I thought he was a benevolent figure, a bringer of good dreams." Tara says.

"Not always. In one version of the myth, he would actually pop the eyeballs out of kids to use as food for his own offspring." Spencer informs.