❛𝐠𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐮𝐬❜ - 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐢𝐝

ACT THREE

"This is Dana Foster," JJ said as a blonde woman in her mid-thirties showed up on the screen. "She's a 34-year-old real estate agent from the suburb of Blue Bell. She was murdered five years ago when she went to meet a prospective buyer at a house in Bucks County. Her nude body was found in a cellar, and she was strangled and raped."

The team was gathered in the conference room as everyone came back with their own analyses based on the areas they were tasked with — Emily and Morgan with the storage unit, Hotch and Rossi on the magazines, JJ and Penelope with any possible victims or unsolved crimes in the area, and Reid and Vivienne on the linguistics aspect.

Reid was sitting across the TV, behind Hotch and Morris, while Emily leaned on the desk just off to the left side of the screen. JJ stood near the TV, handling the remote, while Vivienne lingered on her feet just between Reid and Emily, analyzing the crime scene photos that flipped through the TV. Morgan was across the desk Emily sat on, his foot up on the chair and elbow on his knee as he leaned forward slightly. Rossi was leaning on the side of the same desk, giving them all a good view of the likely victim of their unsub.

"And here's the torture behavior that Reid and Vivienne identified from the journals," Hotch pointed out when the shot focused on a close-up of the victim's wounds. Reid glanced at Vivienne instinctively, and she met his gaze with a subtle nod before she focused on the screen again. "The contact wounds are burn marks, most likely the result of electrical currents."

"Any leads on the buyer she went to meet?" Emily asked, nodding at the screen, and JJ shook her head with a frown.

"Fake name."

"Louis Ivey," Morris drawled as she looked up from the file in her hands. "Could this guy be any more perfect?"

Hotch's brows furrowed slightly and Emily paused before glancing at Vivienne, who was already staring at Morris with an unknown look in her eye. Whatever it was, Emily could tell she wasn't liking what she was hearing, but there was no true way to know as Vivienne's features remained blank.

Clearing her throat, Emily continued. "Were her clothes found at the scene?"

"No," JJ answered. "How'd you know?"

"He takes them as souvenirs," Morgan piped up, causing everyone to look at him as he shared his theory based on what they discovered in the storage unit. "And he alters them to fit his own frame."

Morris frowned. "So he's bisexual?"

"Actually, most cross-dressers are heterosexual," Reid corrected, his hand under his chin as he glanced at the team. "It's fairly common in sexual predators," he continued, bringing his hands back down to his lap.

"What about her hair?" Rossi asked, making Vivienne shift her gaze to him as she remembered the evidence bag he showed her and Reid before the team was called in. "Was any of it missing?"

JJ shook her head with a short pout of her lips. "Not that was reported," she answered, and in Vivienne's peripheral vision, she noted Morris's hand come up to her neck and rub.

Vivienne's expression remained unchanged, though her gaze did linger for a second longer on Agent Morris before her eyes went back to the screen, where Dana Foster's body stared back at her. It was a subtle movement that could've been from stress or just a habit that one did like Reid with his penchant for scratching his chin because his hands couldn't keep still.

She just found it odd that just minutes before, Morris seemed almost excited at the flow of information.

"JJ, contact Garcia and widen the victim search," Hotch ordered, sweeping his eyes over the team. "Rossi, Vivienne, and I will go visit the crime scene."