Shattered Secrets

Chapter 16: Back to normal

There was only so much wallowing I could do. We hadn't had an active case in a two weeks and Arron was still taking time off. I went to work did meaningless paperwork and came home to sit in my pajamas and replay what he had said over and over again. All I could hear in my head was him telling me that I break everything I touch. I had accepted at this point that he was right. My self deprecating spiral was put on hold as my phone buzzed on the couch cushion next to me. A simple text from Penelope, "Avengers Assemble". Code for we have a case and it's time to get my ass in gear. Arron was coming back and I couldn't let him think the entire time he was gone I spent it depressed thinking about him. Even if that was exactly what I had been doing.

I wanted to put  together an outfit not to caring about what Arron would think of it. I had been doing so well not letting him or his reactions control my choices. It's so much easier to do that when I don't have to see him every day. I stared at my closet for far too long and sighed at myself for letting a man who would say such horrible things to me control me so much. I picked out my favorite red tank top, black slacks, and grabbed a black blazer just in case. I loved wearing red, especially when I needed a confidence boost. Today I needed all of the boosts I could get. I grabbed some coffee and there on my black boots before running out the door. I was not about to be late on his first day back and give him something to yell at me about in front of the team. No matter what had happened between us he was still my boss and I hoped he wouldn't use our situation against me in that regard.

When I sat down at the round table I could tell by Penelopes face this was about to be a weird case.
"Strap in crime fighters cause this one is rough one. The LA field office has requested our expertise on an unsub the media has nicknamed Medusa."
"Great a media nickname already." JJ sighed and rolled her eyes, her and I both hated when the new did this like this. The media liaison training went deep for us both.
"My feelings exactly when we get there we need to put a stop to this as quickly as possible." It was the first time I had heard Arrons voice in weeks. Chills went down my spine. I tried to make it look as if I was just sitting up straighter but there was no way someone didn't notice my behavior corresponding with Arrons words.
"What is she doing that earning her all this fame from the media?" Tilula chimed in, she had the same thoughts I did. How did the media get a hold of this story before we did.
"I'm glad you asked beautiful innocent Tilula who has yet to witness the horrors that I have. Our unsub is killing our victims with a single gunshot to the he'd but leaving their bodies covered in large amounts of snakes." Penelope clicked through the slides showing three victims all completely covered in long green snakes. Sometimes I wonder why I even have this job, I could work a nice cozy state department office job but no I had to work for the BAU.
"Snakes, why did it have to be snakes." I chimed in as the we all stood ready to leave to head toward bright and sunny Los Angeles.

We sat on the plane all of us flipping through the frustratingly long case file. The LA field office waiting until there was already four victims to call us in. They claimed they could handle it without our help, clearly they couldn't. The unsub was killing men between thirty five and fifty but that was the only notable connection. He crossed race and socioeconomic lines meaning that the age range had to be the most important part of the delusion.
"So why the snakes? I know that's what we're all thinking but does anyone have a possibilities?" Emily put her questions out to the group, she was right the snakes were the one thing I was stuck on.
"Well obviously the unsub has to have access to all of them so zoo workers, vet techs, even pet store workers." Derek was the first to offer his thoughts.
"They have to symbolize something but the question is what?" JJ looked up from her file to look at Spencer. Out of all of us he's the only one who would know the answer to that instantly.
"In some Abrahamic cultures snakes represent sexual dicer but considering the victims are older men the unsub is probably using a different interpretation. In the 17th century an African center of worship was Dahomey who carried around a snake thinking it would cast out evils. Most commonly know in the greek myth of medusa a woman curse with snakes for hair. It was said she was so ugly that anyone who looked at her would turn to stone."
"Medusa is often used as a symbol for women who survived sexual assault, could we be looking for a female unsub?" I scanned the group doing the best I could to avoid eye contact with Arron.
"We need to keep all our possibility's open. When we land Wallace and Prentiss head to the most recent crime scene. Reid and JJ go to the corners office. Morgan and Marks I want you to look into local area where these snakes could have come from. Dave and I will go to the field office and start building a geographical profile, I want this to be over before we have another victim on our hands." Arron always directed us on where to go when we landed but this felt different. Almost as if he had specifically put us as far away from each other as he could.

As soon as we got off the plane I regretted my very dark outfit. The sun instantly shining into my eyes giving everything around me a washed out look. Emily and I both put on our sunglasses and I slid into the passenger seat in one of the SUV's that were waiting for us. We peeled out of the hanger parking lot and headed towards the most recent crime scene. The home of forty nine year old Matthew Thomas, more specifically his basement. That's where he was discovered by his wife at 4:30 in the morning after she heard the gunshot two days ago. When local police arrived and saw the snakes they knew it was time to call us. It took us a day to even get the case and half a day to get here. The unsub had plenty of time to find another victim and we could already be too late.