Nothing to Everything

15. Colorado

We got called in for a case the next morning. Females were going missing and ending up dead in a medium sized town in Colorado. The unsub was stalking their victims and sending them gifts. It seems that the unsub then would sleep with the victim and kill them afterwards. The way he sends gifts and stalks makes me think he is hyper fixating on the victim. Then once he finally sleeps with them, all the dopamine he was getting from the chase disappears and he kills.

We arrived in town and went right to the police department. We set up in the conference room and then Hotch gave out initial assignments. I was going with Spencer to the local jewelry store where some gifts have been purchased. As we were walking I realized I never thanked him for the message the other day.

"Hey, thanks for the text the other day. It was nice having someone not ask if I was ok." I tell him as we walk.

"No problem. I don't know how much you've learned about me, but to say I've suffered trauma because of this job would be the understatement of the century. I know adjacently what you're going through. People asking me if I was ok never helped." He replied. We walked in to the jewelry store and began looking around. I stopped at a necklace that was beautiful. It was simple enough to be worn everyday, but it gave off "put together" vibes. Like if you wear it, no matter what else you would look like you had your life together. I look at the price and must not have masked my reaction.

"What is it?" Spencer asked me.

"This necklace, which is one of the more simpler ones in this whole store, is five thousand dollars. This store isn't cheap."

At this point a worker comes up to us who had just finished helping a man. She is around my age, fair skinned and drop dead gorgeous, she looks exactly like you would imagine a high end jewelry sales person. Spencer and I flash our badges.

"Hi, we are with the FBI. Do you keep a record of sales?" I ask the lady.

"We keep receipts, but unless they pay with credit card or get custom engraving we don't ask for a name. Even with the custom engraving some men are shady and give the name of the gift recipient instead of their own." I nod and Spencer takes out the pictures of the jewelry.

"Do any of these look familiar?" Spencer asks while showing her the pictures.

"Why yes, all of them do. They all got custom engraving which I oversee." The worker replies and guides us to the counter.

She looks something up on the computer. "It looks like the buyer gave us the recipient's name for all of them and paid in cash." The worker says.

"Can you tell us what was engraved on each necklace? We didn't find anything out of the ordinary on them." I reply.

"He had numbers engraved very small on the back of the pendants. Starting with one and then counting up for each one." Spencer and I look at each other.

"Thank you." We say in unison and head for the door. I look wishfully at the necklace one more time before exiting. Technically with the money Frank left me I could afford it, but I just can't stop the part of my brain that says it's a waste of so much money.

We stop at a cafe to get coffee. While we are waiting for our drinks So It Goes... by Taylor Swift plays and I sing along quietly while dancing. Once Spencer and I get back to the police department we fill in the team, especially the fact that the unsub has money.

"Izzy was practically drooling over a necklace until she saw the price." Spencer says and I nodded wistfully.

"It was such a beautiful necklace, but it was five thousand dollars." I add, "the sales person also told us he pays in cash for each one." Spencer fills them in on the engravings.