Copycat//Criminal Minds FanFic

Signs

Reid watched as JJ coolly handled the press conference. He couldn't imagine talking to that many people and keeping a clear head. Reid could barely handle talking in front of all the police to give them the profile.

Speaking of profile.

Reid tuned back into the conversation the rest of the team was having.

"He shows deep regret for his killings. He says that he doesn't have a choice."

A copy of one of the notes was being projected onto a big whiteboard.

"If the Unsub's showing deep regret, it could mean that he's mentally unstable," Reid commented. He's going to kill them... Reid shook himself and came back to the present. No one had noticed. It had been years, everyone had probably tried to forget. Reid had tried, he just kept failing.

A police officer burst into the room without knocking. "We have a problem."

The BAU team, minus JJ, exited the vehicles and walked up to the quiet suburban house. Nothing was moved inside. It looked as perfect as any house. Nothing was out of place. The team filed up to the bedroom.

The victim, a thirty-two year old mother of two, was lying prone on the bed. It was covered in blood.

The blood came from a hole in the woman's abdomen.

Reid swallowed. "It appears that the, uh, killer removed something."

"I found the note," Prentiss said. "It says the exact same thing as the others."

Hotch nodded. A autopsy came in, looking nauseous. Hotch said a few words to him and the man made an audible gulp. He cautiously walked up to the body as if he expected it to jump up and attack him.

"I'm guessing he deals with more of the funeral home type bodies," Morgan said to Reid as they stood by each other.

"Yeah." Reid's mind was already working on figuring out who the killer had copied this time.

"It's a kidney," the coroner announced as he quickly backed away from the body.

"Jack the Ripper," Reid said before anyone could ask. "He used to take out the kidneys of his victims."

"Right." Hotch scratched his head. "Reid, you and I'll go back to the station. Rossi, Morgan, Prentiss, you guys stay here and try to find something else."

"Gotcha," Prentiss said.

Back at the station, Reid was standing in front of a board covered in all of the photos from the first two crime scenes. It had taken forever to sort through the mess in Handel's office. He sipped on another coffee as he studied them.

Something was weird about them. Reid started over with the first crime scene.

"Got anything yet?" Hotch was going over the paperwork on the victims again.

"There's something, I just can't..." Reid stopped short. Is it really that simple? Reid skipped to the next scene. There. "Hotch, you better come look at this."

Hotch walked over. "What is it?"

"In all of the crime scenes, or at least the first two, he leaves a clue as to who he's going to copy next. In, in this one, see, in the victim's hand? It's a horoscope. It uses the Zodiac signs. So that points to the Zodiac killer! Then in this crime scene." Reid turned to the second group of pictures. "Look, right here, a knife. It's stabbed into that table. A knife wasn't used in the killing! There were no knife wounds on the victim. So that points to Jack the Ripper."

"Good job. Now we just need to find out what the new clue is."

"We probably don't have much time. The killings are getting closer and closer together."

"I know."

____________________________________

Why won't you go away? I've done as you asked.

You haven't done enough. You're an embarrassment to the masters. You need to be better to make me leave.

I'm trying. I've given in. You told me you'd go away. At least for a little while, he sobbed in his head.

I will when you deserve the reprieve.

____________________________________

"Come on, Reid, there has to be something that we're just not seeing," Morgan said.

"Maybe there isn't anything," Reid started to doubt himself.

"No, you're right." Hotch was looking on the bedside table again.

They were back at the crime scene. The entire team was scrubing the place. A few police officers were there, also. They had been looking for an hour. The others had been obvious, but they had known what the next kill was already.

"We could invite the husband to come and look the room over. He could tell us if anything is different," Prentiss offered.

Hotch hesitated. "Okay, Prentiss, you talk to him. Make sure he's okay with it. We'll cover the bed."

Prentiss nodded and walked out. Reid, Morgan, and Rossi covered the bed with a tarp to hide the blood. The body had already been taken to the funeral home.

Prentiss poked her head in. "He's coming up the stairs. You guys ready?"

"The real question is if he's ready," Hotch said.

The husband was a good looking guy in his late thirties. His eyes were red and tears were still leaking out of the corners of his eyes. He was trying to keep a straight face, but as he walked into the room a sob escaped his lips.

He'll probably never live in this house again, Reid thought sadly.

"Hello, Mr. Stewart. My name's Aaron Hotchner, I'm with the FBI. I need you to look around this room and tell me anything that's out of place or wasn't here before. I need you to be specific. Anything at all can really help us."

The man nodded, swallowing another sob as he looked around what used to be his and his wife's bedroom, but was now like an alien planet. "Susie was home alone. I went to go pick up the kid's from school on my way home from work. I talked to her all the way there. I heard the door bell ring in through the phone. She said goodbye so she could go answer it..."

The BAU team watched the man as he walked around the room. He mentioned some things that had been moved, but nothing that out of the ordinary. He paused at the window.

"Is something the matter?" Hotch pressed.

The man hesitated. "Um, yes. I don't recognize that wind chime. Susie might have just bought it. Sorry. Never mind. I'll keep looking."

"No, wait, you might have found something." Reid quickly walked over to the window and looked out. The wind chime was attached to a rod that looked like it had been recently installed. Reid turned his attention back to the wind chime. It wasn't really made of chimes. The articles dangling from the strings were shaped like curved rods. Reid scanned all of his memory, knowing that somewhere in his mind, there was a picture of something like this. He went back years, to a house in the country. Dozens of these creations were hanging off the porch. Gideon was there, and Prentiss. They appear to be... human ribs... Reid snapped back to the present.

"Hotch, we have a problem."