Heurism | Spencer Reid¹

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE: SNAP

TW// Discussions of r*pe

—

"To live in the body of a survivor is to never be able to leave the scene of the crime. I cannot ignore the fact that I live here."

     — Blythe Baird.

—

"She tell you anything?" I ask, meeting up with Gideon, Elle and Reid right outside the station.

Gideon nods. "Alicia Jordan was trying for a baby. She was at the clinic a few days before the attack to talk about insemination."

Seeing us enter the bullpen, Morgan joins us. "Hey. I talked to the other two victims in their 30s. They'd both gone to a fertility clinic within five days of their attack."

"Same one each time?" Elle queries.

"Yep."

"Have Garcia run down employment records. We might be looking at someone who works there."

It certainly makes sense. "You got it," Elle says. "What's the significance of the five days?"

We make it into the conference room now acting as our base. I slump down on a chair, rubbing the back of my neck as I go over the new information. Standing beside me, Reid takes a glance at his file as he replies, "The most popular fertility drug is clomiphene, and the clinic would most likely have a policy not to attempt insemination until the drug regimen was complete."

"So then, getting there before they begin the insemination process would guarantee the UnSub paternity," Morgan concludes.

She scrunches her nose in disgust. "He's trying to get them pregnant."

I look up sharply. "Remember what he said in the voicemails? 'I know what you want.' 'I think we're ready.' He didn't see it as sealing the deal of a relationship, he saw it as trying to conceive."

"He hasn't changed his fantasy. He's merely found a way to perfect it."

Morgan considers it, nodding slowly. "Well, it explains the change in victimology. He's targeted young, ultra-religious girls who he assumed wouldn't want to have an abortion."

Elle builds on the idea, "So when Shelly killed herself, he decided to change it up and go after women who were desperate to have a baby."

"If the UnSub knew Shelly Norvell was pregnant, it means he's still watching his past victims," Gideon says. He turns to Elle. Her eyes have drifted, fixed on something ahead of her that we can't see. My nerves spike as I see the look of fear in her eyes. He calls her name a few times before she zones back in. "Talk to Callahan. Tell her we need patrols monitoring everyone on that victim list."

"You got it."

She leaves a little too quickly. Catching my eye, Reid seems just as concerned. But the conversation moves on without remark. "You ever seen anything like this before?" Morgan asks, eyes darting in the direction of her retreat for just a second.

"Gary Heidnik in Philadelphia," Reid answers without hesitation. "He kept women in a dungeon prisoner for years with the hopes of impregnating them." The thought is enough to make me feel uneasy, crossing my arms tightly around my middle.