His Undercover Lover

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

The phone rang and Garcia barely paused in typing to press the button.

“Talk to me,” she said.

“What, no sas?”

“I’m kinda busy, Derek, what do you need?” She tried not to snap but she was taking this case a little personally.

She could almost hear the wheels in his head turning, as he decided whether to get down to business or ask her more about what was bothering her. Knowing him, he could probably guess. Sometimes, she hated profilers.

“What are you up to?”

“Trying to find a link between our victims and not to sound blunt here, but I’m on a clock. What can I do you for?”

“I need you to check for sex crimes against similar victims in the New York area in the past fifteen years.”

“That could be a long list, can you narrow it down.” She still hadn’t stopped typing.

“Reid is sending you the victimology and I want you to search by victim, not by crime.”

“Does that include things other than sex crimes?”

“No, but include lesser sex offences, such as peeping toms and flashers.”

“Got ya. I’ll send you the details as soon as I can.” She hung up before he could say goodbye.

***

“Come on, Garcia, there must be something.”

“No, there is nothing these women have in common, Sir, a few coincidences but-.”

“What kind of coincidence?” he demanded.

“Uh, well, they all had boyfriends or were married, but they all met them in different places and they had been together for between two weeks and five years. Kelly and Alice were both in book clubs but different ones. Janice, Kelly and Sabrina all ate at Smiths Bistro in the past year, but months apart and I can find no trace that Alice or Beth ever did-”

“Did you check their partner’s credit card receipts?”

“Partners, parents, siblings and where known, friends. Nothing. I even emailed photos of the other victims to the owner and manager, but they didn’t recognise them.

“What else have you got?”

“Sabrina and Kelly were both gym members and Beth taught a salsa class at a local community center. Three had blogger accounts, Sabrina had a dating blog,  Alice, a bakery blog and Janice had a personal blog but it hasn’t been updated since 2011. Kelly, Beth, Alice and Sabrina all used Amazon.com in the past year but for different items’ Kelly and Beth bought kindle and paperback books as well as ordering from different sellers, but Sabrina only bought two paperbacks direct from Amazon, and Alice bought only bought a pair of trainers from a different seller. Like I said, coincidences but nothing that they all have in common.”

“Keep looking,” Hotch ordered, then hung up.

Penelope sighed. She knew this was an important case but did they have to lose the basic good manners that made life bearable, like hello and goodbye? Thank you? Sorry I snapped at you?

Didn’t they realise that she was doing everything that she could already? What did they want from her, blood?

She sat back and stared at all the data on her screens for a moment, hoping that something would occur to her.

***

“Reid,” Hotchner said as he entered the room. “Did you go through the cases that Garcia sent over?”