Heurism | Spencer Reid¹

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR: THE PERFECT STORM

"Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it."

     — Mark Twain.

—

I wince as I glance up, seeing the footage on the screen. It shows the torture of a Laura Clemensen. All that can be seen behind her is a dark room, sunlight creeping through holes in the slatted walls — likely a shed of some kind. Music blasts over the top, almost drowning out her screams of pain and terror. "So this was sent to her family?"

"Her father had a heart condition, died while watching it," JJ says.

Hotch pauses it. "So the music's not added like a regular soundtrack. It's in the background, so if you turn it down, you also turn down the voices."

"Well, can't we get Garcia to separate the audio tracks?" Morgan suggests hopefully.

"She's working on it now."

Removing my pen from the corner of my mouth, I muse partly to myself, "Hey, I know that song. That's, uh... 'Only the Good Die Young', Billy Joel. Bit on the nose, isn't it?"

"It's likely part of the taunt."

Morgan sighs, flicking through his file. "Well, the sooner we hear how he talks to the victim, the sooner we'll know what kind of man we're dealing with."

Seated on the couch at the side, Gideon requests, "Tell us about Laura Clemensen."

JJ quickly obliges. "She's 20 years old, sophomore at Jacksonville University in Florida, assumed to be the fifth in a series of rapes and murders over the past two years. Some women were abducted in parking lots, others while they were running."

"And when was she reported missing?"

"Technically, she wasn't. Her roommate thought she was visiting family. Family thought she was at school."

Hotch listens, frowning a little. "Close with her family?"

"Very. She had dinner with them on Sunday."

"That was five days ago, and nobody's seen her until now," he notes in a concerned tone.

Morgan glances back at the paused footage. "She wasn't killed on the tape and, given forensics, other victims were tortured for weeks before they were killed, so I think we should operate as if she's still alive."

Elle keeps her head down as she mutters, "Not for long if the bastard gets his way."

Still, something seems strange. I go through my notes before speaking up, "But why send the DVD now? To me, that feels like he's had all the fun he can with her, so he's trying to string it out by hurting the family, too. That seems like something he'd do once she's dead or close to it."

He tilts his head in partial agreement. "Maybe. But, honestly, I don't get it. This is the fifth abduction and now the second DVD. Why'd they wait to call us in?"

Picking up the remote, JJ switches another video. "The last victim's family received this DVD two months ago. Jacksonville PD thought maybe they'd get some more clues. Instead, it just raised more questions."

Gideon's eyes squeeze shut and he rubs his temple, clearly deep in thought. "Turn that down, please."

"I think you're onto something, Sully, but there's more to it. There seems to be a natural escalation to the murders," Reid notes, approaching the screen. "It began as brutal attacks against the victims, and now it's psychological attacks to the families."

Hotch continues to build on it, "So if the thrill of the kill isn't enough to satisfy his sadistic needs, he needs to spread panic, and he thrives on that."