Gentle Epiphany // Criminal Minds

Chapter Eight - Moonlight

🪐 Daphne 🪐

Chairs were scattered throughout the room while detectives sit with notepads open and pens at the ready to write whatever they deemed important enough to remember. I take small sips of my tea staying tucked between Derek and Spencer while we listen to Gideon go over the profile in front of the evidence boards.

"The unsub brought his weapons with him. Tape, glue, wire." He looks around the room with an air of drama. "He did not leave them at the scene. He took them when he left. He has a kind of killing kit that he carries."

Hotch has his arms crossed over his chest as he takes over, "Organized killers usually have a skilled job, like technology related, which may involve the use of the hands."

Gideon takes a seat in one of the front row seats while Hotch continues to present. "The crime scenes are far enough apart that he needs a vehicle. This will be well kept, obsessively clean, as will be his home. He's diurnal, the attacks occurred during the day, so the vehicle may be related to his work, possibly a company car or truck."

"We believe he watches the victims for a time, learns the rhythms of the home, knows his time frame." Derek adds next to me.

"You're not gonna catch him accidentally." I speak up, my voice comes out softer than I intended.

Gideon gets up from his chair slowly walking towards the boards as he speaks, "He destroys symbols of wealth in the victim's homes. He harbors envy of and hatred toward people of a higher social class." He turns around to look back at the crowd of detectives. "He feels invisible around them."

"Class is the theme of the poem which he left at the various crime scenes." Spencer speaks up, moving his coffee cup from hand to hand. "At one point in the poem, the women attempts to bribe death, but he doesn't accept it. He says this is the one moment when riches mean nothing, when death comes, the poor and the rich are exactly alike."

"So he's poor?" Captain Griffith questions sitting on a desk behind Gideon who was back to sitting in the chair.

"Probably middle class. A decidedly lower class person would stick out in a highly patrolled neighborhood. This guy appears to belong there. He blends in." Hotch answers him.

Detective Martin who took Gideon and Derek to the crime scene earlier points toward the board as he asks his question. "Why does he glue the eyes open?"

Elle takes over to answer his question, "The unsub is an exploitative rapist. Most rape victims close their eyes during the attack, turn their heads. For some rapists, this ruins the fantasy. For this type of rapist, the goal is more related to the victim watching him than the act itself."

I quickly take a sip of my tea before clearing my throat, "The verses, the staging, the aggressive language, "I am death," this is a guy who, while being in control of the crime scene, almost certainly feels inadequate in the rest of his life." I mention my voice stronger this time.

"That's why he couldn't wait for you to figure out what he'd done." Gideon stands up once more, "why he needed to make sure all his crimes were counted. His victims, they represent whatever it is that's controlling him, and he wants that control back. He is under the thumb of a powerful woman who frightens him. And a final point. He is white."

Captain Griffith speaks up, "We have witnesses that identify him as a black male." He sounds surprised by our profile of the unsubs race.

"The attacker was black. He is not the Tommy killer." Gideon informs him.