Winnie

Sniper Zero part 2

"There was another shooting last night." Hotch said, his tone stern. 

"Hotch, Winnie's got something!" Reid said. All eyes immediately darted to Winnie, she was mid-yawn. Still drowsy, she tried to explain all the numbers on the wall. Her words came out fumbled and the only person who spoke math was Spencer. 

Soon Derek interrupted her, "English."

"Right! Sorry." Winnie took a small breath and collected her thoughts, "So I was looking at the map and and locations of the kills and usually its pretty easy to calculate a safe zone from the data. The safe zone should have been right around here." She pointed to an area on the map that was circled in red. 

"But there's nothing there." Emily said, confused.

"I know! Usually, with this amount of data, the numbers should point exactly to either the unsub's home or his work place. But it doesn't. So i've been checking my math, recalculating, adding data, taking every variable into account and nothing has worked. So then i stared doing them one crime at a time, and soon came to realize, only three out of these six have similar safe zones. The first one, the second and the fourth are all by the same sniper, like a Sniper Zero. The rest are just copy cats." 

"So you're saying we have four separate killers?" Hotch asks in semi-disbelief. 

"Maybe five; I haven't checked the newest murder yet. But, yes, Spencer and i found four safe zones." Winnie said as she twisted her ponytail. Spencer watched as she twirled it into a bun but then noticed she didn't have another hair tie. So, she let the hair drop back to her shoulders. But in the split second when her hair was up and her arms were down, Spencer noticed something. A scar on the bottom of her neck and disappearing down her back under her shirt. It happened so fast he couldn't be sure.

"Good work." And in that moment Winnie could swear Hotch almost smiled. Before anything else was said the phone rang. 

"Hey Garcia, you're on speaker." Derek said when he answered. 

"Bummer, i thought we could have some alone time." Derek smirked and by the tone in her voice, it was clear she had too.

"Whatcha got for us, babygirl?" 

"Okay so the green jeep. I was able to find a satellite image of it but i could only get a partial plate. I ran the numbers anyway and after narrowing it down i came up with Ted Osborne. He lives in the area and has a wife by the name of Sharon. He was convicted of aggravated assault back in 2001 but only served 2 years in prison. His hobbies include hunting, as in riffles.

"If this isn't our guy then my trust in your profiling has been eternally shattered."

"Great work Garcia." Hotch said. "I need you to dig into some of the victims lives; find out who might have a grudge. He then read out the names of the victims who weren't connected. 

"I thought the victims were random?" She said confused, but typing could still be heard on the other end.

"Winnie figured it out." JJ said. Once again all eyes were on Winnie. 

"Yeah, um, hi." Winnie started. "Only three of the victims are by the same killer. The rest are just copy cats."

"Why so many copy cats?" She asked.

"Well, it's almost like the power of suggestion. Imagine you want to kill someone. You turn on the news and see a string of shootings. A sniper that hasn't been caught. The bodies keep coming so you figure, what's one more. Almost like a fad. It's just the popular way to kill someone right now. And so the cycle continues. That's why the time between kills is so short." Winnie explained. 

Everyone nodded their heads, but Spencer was the only one who fully and completely understood Winnie. 

"Got it. So i'll do some digging and get back to you. Garcia out!" The beep sounded. 

~~~

The team worked hard on the case and caught a few killers, including Osborne. Several days went by and the body count increased. But soon they were able to catch every sniper. 

The original sniper, Sniper Zero, was a young man in his mid twenties. Winnie soon figured out that he had rejection issues. He tried to join the military and was at the top of his class until he was dishonorably discharged after assaulting several of his instructors. He was the sharpest shooter and wanted to prove it. 

After he was discharged, he tried to land some other jobs, the movies, the supermarket, etc., but he never stayed very long. He was fired from each one. To him, he failed. So, to turn his fail into a success, he had to do the thing he was best at, sniping. He went back to each job site and picked a victim at random then killed them.  

He had killed six people before he was arrested. And would have killed more if Winnie and Spencer hadn't worked the case. 

Soon the team was on their way back home. It wasn't far enough to take the jet, which was disappointing to the people who drove, seeing as they won't get to nap. And that included Spencer. Winnie could tell how tired he was.

"I can drive if you want to rest." Winnie offered. 

"Do you even have a licence?" Spencer smiled. 

"Yes! i just haven't used it in a while..." Winnie said, then she reached to take the keys. Spencer held them above his head with one hand, smirking.

"Perks of being tall." He said. She jumped to reach them, but missed. Spencer just noticed their faces were really close together. He gulped. Winnie took no notice of Spencer and tried for the keys again, this time she got them. 

"Perks of being able to jump high." She said. It was lame and they both knew it. She hopped into the drivers side and started the car. 

"Okay so it's been a while... Which one's the gas?" 

"Oh god!" 

"I'm joking! I know it's the left one." She joked again. But the look of terror one Spence's face was no joke, "Kidding. Gosh." 

"There's no way i'm getting any rest." And Spencer was right. He didn't rest at all, he was so busy talking with Winnie.

About an hour of driving passed and there was never a long silence. They were comfy chatting with each other. Mostly about their high school life, which they both had at a very young age. Then about college, which was just so easy. Soon though, the topic led to things like the case. And other cases. And of course their case. 

"So, I noticed you count when you're nervous?" Spence said. Winnie had been counting the street lights again and Spencer noticed her eyes dart to each one as they passed it. 

"Yeah... It's kinda a habit. I count stuff when i'm nervous or excited or..." She stopped, but Spencer continued.

"Scared?"

"Yeah." 

"So that's how you kept track of days at Tobias'" Spencer asked after a long pause. He had been meaning to ask but never felt anytime was good. She waiting a long time before answering. 

"I started by counting minutes, I thought i wouldn't be there long and that someone would find me, but no one did. Then i went to hours, then of course days. I never switched to weeks though. I thought if i start counting weeks then it would feel longer then it was."

"How did you lose count?" Spencer asked. He remembered her sating she lost count after 891 days. He felt like he knew the answer already but he had to ask. 

Winnie waited. Unsure of weather or not she should answer. She had left the dilaudid out when she had talked with Hotch. Yet, somewhere in deep inside there was a small part of her that wanted to tell him. 

"Um... He drugged me." Winnie said, her voice small. 

"Dilaudid?" Spencer asked. Winnie nodded her head, her eyes welling up a little. "Me too."