Secret Deception (Jonathan Black's Love Story)

Chapter 25: Week One

When I walked into the instruction room Monday morning all five of my Deception recruits were already there. The room was five times the size I needed to teach this course.
"Come sit close to the stage, guys." I said into my small microphone, projecting my voice around the large room.
"If you can't see what's been written on the board move closer. Once all of you find a seat we can get started."
I watched as they moved toward the stage. Finding seats in the front row.
"Today is mostly an introduction day. This is a 28 week course with an additional four weeks at the end for testing." I began waking to the center of the stage.
"The FBI usually doesn't have me teach for a few reasons. One, I don't much like lecturing all the time. Every Monday will be the instructional day where I lecture about, law or ethics or whatever the government says I have to teach you. I prefer the hands on approach." I motioned over to a small faux crime scene set up behind me.
"Every week there will be a new crime scene set up. Every week I will choose one of you at random to be the 'lead investigator'. Tuesday to Friday all of you will work with the week's lead investigator to try to solve the crime. I want the focus to be on observation; what do you see, what do you hear, what do you feel?" I started pacing the stage gesturing with my hands as I spoke.
"In this business we put a lot of stock into what we feel. Most of the time we don't have the luxury of time to wait for the facts. A lot of the time the decisions we make are life and death and they happen in an instant. Second reason that I don't teach often is that as the Director I am often pulled in many different directions. I have been tasked by the President to train you to the best of my ability. Sometimes this will consist of on the job training. You will be able to watch me do my job. Be it investigations or press conferences or even throwing my title around to get done what needs to be done.
"This week we're working in a closed classroom, meaning that once I begin teaching no one walks in that door. We break everyday from noon to one PM for lunch. All of you know me very well, you all know how to get ahold of me if you have questions. No question is a dumb question here. I want all of you to completely understand the material.
Your exams will be as follows: Week one is the boxing/grappling exam. Each one of you will square off against me. You don't have to win but you do have to try. None of you is capable of actually hurting me. This will focus more on technique than brute force. Week two is the investigation exam. Each of you will take a scene like the one behind me and solve it. On the Monday of that week there will be five classrooms each with a different scene. You will be assigned a scene at random. You will have the full five days to solve the case. Again this is more about technique than being perfect. I do not expect perfection from anyone who works for me. Week three is the physical exam; sit ups, push ups, sprint, and endurance run. There is a baseline you have to pass but we perform these tasks everyday of that week and I accept the best time or number from the week. Week four is the final. The five of you will work together to solve a crime and create a deception to catch the perpetrator."
I walked back to the center of the room.
"One more thing that is incredibly important. Outside of this building I am a daughter, a sister, a fiance to each of you but once we walk into this building; I am your boss. We have to be able to draw that line. I will not always be looking over your shoulder, by the end of this course I won't need to but each and every one of you reports to me." I sighed and glanced out into my audience.
Gunther looked back at me with pride. Dina's eyes locked on mine with a smile. Jordan was fiddling with a pencil with his eyes on the stage. Cameron looked entirely too happy. And Jonny. Jonny looked up at me with the greatest look of love in his eyes.
"Jonathan. This week is your week. I will be here to guide you but starting tomorrow morning I want your observations on this scene. I will lead you through the investigation process but you will be the one making the decisions with the information gathered. You can all come up now and take a look at the scene. It will be up all week as reference. Every month the amount of time the scene stays up will shorten and the amount of help I lend will be less."
As I stepped aside all five members of our deception team walked onto the stage to the scene.
This week we were investigating the murder of a security guard (number 13 on my list) at a bus stop (number 7 on my list) in Charlotte, North Carolina (number 12 on my list). I definitely tried to make sure I made these cases as random as I could. I didn't even pick the numbers until I walked into my office that morning.
I walked into the instruction room the next day and found Jonathan already there going back over the crime scene.
"You're taking this very seriously." I said walking up onto the stage.
"I want to make you proud."
"You always make me proud, Jonny. This isn't about you being perfect. I want you to ask questions. If you're going to make mistakes I want you to make them now while I'm here to teach you." I told him, kneeling down next to him.
"I didn't pick you to go first to intimidate you. I did it because I believe in you. Because I can see your willingness to learn."
I heard the others climb up on the stage.
"Let's all sit on the stage and discuss what we see." I said moving to sit to the left of the scene looking out at them.
"The victim was a security guard so he could have interrupted the perpetrator while they were committing another crime." Jonathan said.
"Very good. Many homicide victims become victims because they are in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"He was cut up." Cameron added.
"Right. The technical term is exsanguinated." I said standing up.
"Exsanguination is different from stabbing in that when you stab someone you stick the knife straight in and pull straight out. Exsanguination is achieved by using more of a slashing motion leaving these long deep cuts in the victim." I explained as I demonstrated on the dummy security guard.
"The victim was left where he was killed." Dina mentioned.
"Right. This is another sign that the killer didn't plan to kill the victim. Any guesses on what the primary crime was?"
"Robbery?" Jordan asked.
"Possibly. It's very possible that our UNSUB or unknown subject was fleeing from a robbery. Other guesses?"
"Vandalism." Jonathan said.
"What makes you say that?" I ask and he visibly tenses.
"Just tell me what you see."
"On this wall." He tapped the wall on the right side of the scene.
"There's some graffiti that looks unfinished."
"Very good. Now, Jonathan. Give me a basic profile."
"Male. Late teens to early 20s. Well built. Right handed. 5'10."
"Very good. Now out in actual cases they'll want more of a psychological profile but what Jonathan just gave is a good start. We'll pick it up tomorrow."
I walked with Jonathan out to the parking lot.
"You did really well today." I told him taking his hand.
He squeezed my hand.
The next day we reconvened on the stage.
"Let's play off Jonny's profile from yesterday. What do we know about the typical vandal?"
"Young. Artistic. If he was alone he probably works alone all the time." Jonathan said.
"Right. Do we have any evidence pointing to more than one UNSUB?"
"No. I only see two sets of footprints. One for the UNSUB and one for the victim." Gunther remarked.
"Right. So we can add, loner to our profile. What else?"
"The victim has defensive wounds on his hands and arms. It's possible the UNSUB has some wounds of his own." Cameron added.
"Good. Look for someone with a bruise or contusion; a cut from a fight. Tomorrow I'm going to bring in three pictures of possible UNSUBs and we're going to try to see which man fits our profile."
The first picture was of a 21 year old man 5'9 with an athletic build, a deep bruise across his left eye.
The second picture was of a 19 year old man 6'0 an amateur wrestler with a small cut over the bridge of his nose.
The third was of a 25 year old man 5'10 skinny but muscular that majored in abstract art at the local college. He has light scratches along his throat.
"Who do you believe, based on the profile, committed this crime? We're going to go around starting with Gunther."
"Number one, because of the bruise across his face." He answered.
"Number two. He fits the physical description" Jordan said.
"Number one. He's athletic and in the right age range." Dina said.
"Number two. The cut on his face could be from a punch to the nose. He is also athletic and in the age range." Cameron said.
"Number three. He fits more into the psychological profile. More of a loner, studied art and still fits the physical profile." Jonathan said.
"Jonathan's right. The hardest thing to nail down is age. We are often wrong. At 5'10 skinny and muscular he fits the profile without being athletic which tends to support popularity. He's artistic and the light scratches across his neck were likely made when the security guard started to lose consciousness from the blood loss and began to fall."
I looked across the stunned faces looking back at me.
"The moral of this case is strictly observational. There will always be inconsistencies between the profile and the UNSUB. Profiling isn't an exact science and it never has been. It's a tool we use. Next week it'll be someone else's turn. You'll find out on Monday if it's you."