be the one ⇢ s. reid

xvii.

Melanie and Sam were able to compile the information they needed for their bizarre clown case, that included victims and possible unsubs. They gave the information over to Emily who then briefed the team, which meant that Spencer would be leaving for a number amount of days. Of course Melanie had been used to it and it never bothered her as much. It came to a shock with her colleagues because sometimes relationships were always tricky in this line of work but considering Melanie was always involved in her work, it made time go by fast. 

After all, she always did have her two friends, Sam and Penelope, stay back whenever the rest of the team had to travel outside Virginia. However, with the constant traveling it had made things pretty difficult for Melanie and Spencer to plan their vacation even though they haven't really planned it much since Spencer had brought it up. 

Since it was a day off for Melanie, she decided to relax at home. Day offs were something Melanie had despised but since working for the BAU she had much appreciated them.She already knew that working for the FBI was nothing but tiring work and she couldn't complain about it. Spencer, though, was about to leave Quantico to head back to Melanie's when he had gotten a strange email. He decided to check out the location that was sent to him with Emily. After they were finishing up what happened, Spencer called up Melanie to not only apologize but to explain what happened. 

"Email? You hate email." Melanie stated, chuckling softly. Spencer had explained to her that he had gotten an anonymous email with a scanned picture of a former FBI agent's badge as well as a location of where to find his body. "That's a big piece of bait." 

"I know, and the unsub knew we had to take it. Someone left us breadcrumbs to a former federal agent, who sure as hell looked dead." Spencer responded.

"Looked dead? He wasn't dead?" Melanie asked.

On the other end of the line, Spencer shook his head. "No. He was wrapped up and we assumed he was dead until we heard him yelling and tried to fight one of the agents. H'es real lucky." He explained. "I'm going to wrap things up right here and then I'll be over soon, okay? I'm so sorry again. This just completely came unexpectedly."

"Most of your cases do, Spence. I understand. Just pick up some food on the way back, yeah?"

Spencer laughed softly. "You got it."

After the two of them said their goodbyes and hung up, Melanie went back to what she normally does on days off: watch really bad reality television shows. She always did try her best to stay up for Spencer but sometimes sleep did get the best of her. But since Spencer wasn't that far away from where she lived, she was able to stay up.

"Who is this agent again?" Melanie asked. Spencer had gotten home looking more tired than ever (if that was even possible) but his tiredness did not stop him from spending a little bit of time with his girlfriend. After he had given her her food, and sat down next to her on the couch, he explained again what had happened.

"Owen Quinn. He worked on the fifth floor in our building but quit over a year ago. He was in the violent crimes apprehension program but he aspired to be a profiler." He responded.

"Why'd he quit if he was so desperate to be a profiler?" 

Spencer shrugged his shoulders. "He was convinced there was an unsub we missed. He named him 'The Strangler.'" 

Melanie raised an eyebrow. "Pretty bold of him to name an unsub. Everyone knows that's a dangerous thing to do. It gives the person even more confidence." 

Spencer nodded his head in agreement. "Exactly. We can't be surprised, however. It wasn't his first mistake. He automatically assumed that this 'strangler' was a serial killer after this one kill in Maryland. She was strangled and had the hyoid bone at the front of her throat removed." He then began to explain how Agent Quinn began forcing missing persons into his victimology that would fit the Strangler's profile.  "In the end, 5 of his 7 victims showed up alive and unharmed. 2 were inconclusive."