Gentle Epiphany // Criminal Minds

Chapter Six - Be Someone

♜ Spencer ♜

"There's a form of OCD called scrupulosity." I began to explain to Hotch and Gideon after Daphne and I ran to tell them what we found.

"Religious obsession and compulsion." Daphne clarifies.

"An obsessive fear of committing sin, which creates so much anxiety that he's compelled to do something to ease that anxiety." I further explain while Daphne gets our laptop open to the video.

"Like setting fires." Hotch states, I nod my head before looking towards Gideon who had his face in his hands.

"Where's the behavioral evidence?" He questions, I turn to face Daphne her smile already making that feeling in my stomach spiral as she pushes the laptop towards me.

"Right here." I move to push play on the zoomed in version of the video showing the door knob. "All right, remember the night of the 3 fires? We saw the doorknob turning against the lock." We watch as the doorknob turns three times. "But he's not trying to get in. He's compelled to turn the doorknob 3 times."

"Well, what about the fires?" Gideon speaks up stealing my attention from the screen. "The first ones were single fires. If the unsub was OCD, shouldn't they have all been in 3's?"

Daphne's soft melodic voice sends a jolt to my heart, "They were in 3's, actually a trinity of 3's. You see the first fire occurred on March third at 3 pm on the third day of the third month."

"It's that convergence of 3's that causes the overwhelming anxiety. Obsessive compulsives ease the anxiety by performing the compulsion." I tell the men.

Hotch leans forward looking at the computer screen, "What about the other fires? Professor Wallace?"

"Office number 3." I answer him, "We checked for more patterns of 3s. His class was on tuesdays."

"Third day of the week." Hotch interrupts.

"Matthew Rowland was in that class. It was his third class of the day. If we looked into each of the fires we'd find a lot of patterns having to do with 3s. Because our minds are incredibly adept at seeking out patterns. But to the unsub, once that pattern hits, bam..." I snap. "He sets a fire."
Hotch gets out of his chair hovering around us.

"But if the target was always people, why did no one die in the first few fires?" Gideon questions.

"Because they were failures." Daphne says, "Up until Matthew Rowland." She looks over to Hotch who is still standing, a look on his face I wouldn't have been able to deduce but she does. They share a thought, "Hotch...I think I know who it might be." He nods his head in agreement.

Gideons eyebrows pinch together as we both look at them, "It's not a he, it's a she. There was this girl when we went to talk with the students in the science department, the one that talked about molotov cocktails." Daphne explains.

"I'm calling the Dean.." Gideon announces pulling out his pocket and listing off the description Hotch gives him of the girl. Once we get her name and address, Hotch calls Morgan to take Elle with him to her house.

"How did you both realize it was her?" I question them, Daphne meets my gaze with a shy smile.

"When you were talking to her classmates, I noticed something, a ring on her finger and she kept turning it." Hotch states turning to look at me. How did I not notice this.

"At intervals?" I ask.

"Of 3." He nods his head.

"She counted off the ingredients, she held up three fingers when listing them off and repeated the word...."