veuve | cm x mcu

4 | catching out

walking to my apartment, i notice a box sitting by my front door. i grab my scissors and open it, seeing a note that reads:

i figured you'd want these -nat<3

'these' being my taser cuffs, batons, and my leather suit. "fuck yeah." i whisper under my breath before getting a call.
"reams." i fiddle with the round buckle on the belt.
"hey kate, i know you just got back home, but hotch wants you on this one." jj tells me and hangs up. "ugh." i look back at the suit once more before i slowly drag myself to my room to change to head to the office.

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"so, wait, she knew your name?" emily handed me a coffee.
"i don't know how i could forget a face like hers.."
"you've been with so many girls that you can't remember all their names?"
"oh come on, are you surprised?" i ask reid while throwing my go bag on the floor next to my desk.
"this has never happened to me before." derek looks at emily and me with a hurt look on his face.
"it hasn't happened to me before either."
"it's happened to me." i sipped on my coffee and emily choked up.
"well it can't happen to you, you have an eidetic memory." she points at reid.
"besides, you've only got one name to remember." derek laughs as we walk into the round table room.

"ok. six victims have been killed in a series of burglar/homicides all over central california. in order... bakersfield, fresno, chico, and two nights ago, alan and brenda paisley in sacramento."
"big area. are we sure it's the same unsub?"
"his DNA was found in all the homes."
"they hadn't connected it because he crossed jurisdictional lines."
"the head of the sacramento field office has established a multi-agency task force, and he wants us to run point."
"looks like we've got a lot of investigators on this one."
"we'll streamline it if we need to."
"you should know they've already named him the 'highway 99 killer'"
"we'll deal with that when we get there."
"he targets 1 to 2 person households. he kills the victims while they sleep."
"blunt force trauma with objects found at the home. multiple bashes to the head."
"after he kills the victims he ransacks the house for valuables."
"which is not unusual for a nighttime burglary homicide. what's unique about this unsub is that after he kills them, apparently he sits down to dinner in their homes. they found his DNA all over the food and the table."
"that's not weird at all." i look up from the files.
"are these burglaries that turned homicides or homicides that turned burglaries?"
"between the two offenses, it's seems the primary motivation is homicide. i mean, otherwise he would have just stolen the items and fled."
"but he stays there for hours? he eats their food, he tries on their clothes, he showers, he even sleeps in their beds."
"it's like goldilocks became a serial killer."
"they've got plenty of DNA, but they found no fingerprints."
"he doesn't take their cars. so how does he get there?"
"no witness reports of strange cars on the street."
"no prints. no gun. no noise. no car. no witnesses. this all adds up to prior experience."
"there's a record on him somewhere."
"and until we find it, he's moved on to another town."
"which could be anywhere."

——————————————

"so four homes in about five weeks. the first one at the beginning of september, in bakersfield. then fresno a week later. chico eight days after that."
"then he changes direction, heads south to sacramento at the end of september."
"these crime scenes are spread out over 400 miles. i mean, how many serial killers move around like that?" i ask, specifically to reid because he could probably give me a number.
"not many."
"the ones who do we categorize into two subgroups. in one model, he's an itinerant homeless person, someone who's been displaced."
"with the second type, their occupation allows them to travel. he could be killing while on business."
"a truck driver make sense?"
"long-haul truck driver bruce medenhall shot his victims and disposed of their bodies at truck stops, across at least 4 different states."
"yeah but medenhall targeted mostly high-risk victims. prostitutes and hitchhikers he picked up right off the highway."
"a truck drivers m.o. he'd use his rig for a getaway. somebody would have noticed a tractor trailer parked in the neighborhood."
"how about someone in corporate sales? they still travel."
"or computer professionals. they travel to install software."
"or someone in real estate like a land assessor."
jj cuts off our brain storming, "they just discovered a new murder. in modesto."
"he went south again."
"right, when we land, reid, jj, and i will go to task force headquarters. the 4 of you..."
"modesto."
"we're going to log some miles on this one."

——————————

"i'm detective daniels."
"how are you doing? agent morgan. agent rossi. agent prentiss. agent reams." we all shake his hand.
"this way." he starts to walk until he notices we aren't following, "you see something?"
"it's what i don't see. what i don't hear. there's no dogs barking."
"no sign for an alarm system."
"no system."
"they have outdoor lights."
"neighbors said they weren't on."
"this house has the three basic things that a burglar looks for."
"no dog, no alarm, and definitely no lights."
"tells us that the unsub's patient enough to find a house that's vulnerable."
"there's the neighbor."
"i'll talk to her." emily walks off.

"nail polish remover?" i ask the detective as i sniff the bottle.
"i think so."
"he get under the sink?"
"how'd you know?"
"i've seen this kind of thing before with burglaries when the criminal is a substance abuser. oftentimes they huff household cleaners, just so they can get high."
"what was his point of entry?" derek walks up to us.
"laundry room through an unlocked window."
"explains where he found the murder weapon."
"serious overkill. he's killing with rage."
"how does a man with such rage calm himself down enough to make coffee and eggs?"
"he's disorganized. picks an opportunistic weapon at a crime scene, strikes with rage."
"organized enough though, to follow a ritual after he kills."
"cools off, cleans up, goes through their things, eats."
"intense rage followed by a long period of calmness spent inside the house."
"is that unusual?"
"very."
"can you explain what he does with his clothes?"
"his clothes?"

"when we found the deceased, the shirt was placed over his chest. the pants over his legs."
"this is the first time we're hearing of this."
"look at his clothes, rossi, the dirt stain. why would he cover up the body?"
"he wears their clean clothes, sleeps in their nice bed, then puts his dirty clothes on the male victim's body."
"this might be some form of transference."
"transfer of what?"
"by symbolically dressing mr. sullivan in his clothes, he's equalizing their status. mr. sullivan has all these things, and he doesn't."
"this guy's got a problem with his station in life."
"he can't bring himself up on his own, so he makes himself feel better by destroying others and living their lives. that might be why he stays so long. he needs that time just so he can feel at home. and pretend all this is his."
"he's playing out his fantasy."
"given this behavior, the dirty clothes, the cheap drug choice, i'd say we're looking for someone who's homeless."
"so how does a homeless man move around the state like this?"
"i have one idea," i call reid, figuring he's most likely working on the geographic profile by now.
"yeah, kate?"
"spence, are you in front of a map?"
"yeah, i am now."
"i think i know how the unsub's getting around. do you see the tracks linking bakersfield to sacramento? he's hopping trains."

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the ride home from the airstrip was silent. i could hear myself breathing, my heart beating, and my thoughts running around my head. my issue isn't the case, it's my anxiety telling me something bad is going to happen, but i don't know what.
i get home, kick my boots off, and lay my keys on the counter. taking my coat off, i have an uneasy feeling, but i brush it off. then i see it: an envelope on top of the box i opened days prior.