deep end, cm [ 1 ]

012. blood hungry

"I hope everyone had a restful weekend." Hotch says as everybody but Gideon is in the round table room.

"That sounds ominous." Elle comments.

"Harringtonville, Tennessee, population 5,000." JJ clicks a button on the remote, the screen changing. "64 years since they've had a homicide. They've have two in the past 48 hours."

"First victim, 57 year old widower and grandfather, Paul Thompson." Hotch informs, JJ showing a picture of him and his granddaughters on the screen. "Ambushed in his yard, 18 stab wounds to his chest and his neck. No forced entry into the house, and the only item taken was a shotgun."

"Last night, Annie Stuart, 39, was also ambushed and it appears bludgeoned to death in her home with Thompson's stolen shotgun." JJ says, showing a picture of the woman. "In this case, the unsub apparently stole CDs, DVDs, and a little jewelry."

"This is a little extreme for a burglary." Derek comments.

"That's an understatement." Elle says.

"As you can see, Annie's throat was eviscerated." Hotch says.

"Yet the first victim wasn't eviscerated, and the unsub seems to have used a different weapon at each crime scene." Spencer says.

"Two different M.O.s." Hotch says.

"Two different killers?" Jessica asks.

"Or one very psychotic individual." They all turn to Gideon who is on crutches.

"What happened to you?" Hotch asks.

"Oh, I got a list of things I want to try before it's too late." Gideon says.

"And orthopedic surgery's one of them?" Elle jokes and Jessica quietly laughs.

"No. Skydiving. Apparently it's all about the landing." Gideon says making the others laugh.

"Uh, how long on the crutches?" Hotch asks.

"Ah, just a couple days." Gideon says.

"So you can't go out on the field." Elle says.

"Not on crutches, no." Hotch says.

"Don't worry. I'll find some way to be helpful here." Gideon says, going through the photos. "Got a blitz attack. No effort to remove the body, clean up evidence."

"With organized killers, we see a pattern, we're able to predict their behavior, but with psychotic killers, they're guided by a given delusion." Hotch says.

"Okay, well, until we understand the nature of the delusion, we can't predict his next move." Jessica says.

"And that's nearly impossible to do." Hotch says.

"Actually, I think that we might have a clue." Spencer says. "These rings at the crime scene might be some kind of a signature?"

"I can work this angle. I'll see if there's any significance to the patterns." Gideon says.

"Psychotic killers are normally not that difficult to catch cause they don't try to hide." Hotch says.

"Well, does that make your job easier?" JJ asks.

"Oh, no. Because until we do locate him, he'll keep doing that." Gideon says, tossing a photo down.

~ ~ ~

As they all part off to get ready, Hotch pulls Jessica aside.

"I need you to stay back with Gideon and Garcia." Hotch orders.

"Wha-- why?" She frowns.

"Because if my profiling is correct, their personalities are going to... clash." Hotch says.