moonstruck//Aaron hotchner

ch.47

"So I say we visit Majorie Hanson first, and then Becky Lawson, she works at a mental health clinic, that seems like a place we'll want to look at for a suspect." Morgan suggested, climbing into the drivers seat of the SUV.

"That works." Camilla buckled in and pulled out the file on Majorie Hanson's attack.

The twenty nine year old had been the owner of two cats, before she went to bed one night and woke up to meet the unsub. After he'd left, still naked and terrified, she called 911 and swaddled herself in a blanket. It was fortunate that it was the paramedics who'd found her feline friends, Jermey, the fluffy orange tabby, and Keaton, the gray short hair, dismembered and displayed in a ceramic fruit bowl.

"Why does he kill animals, why does he need to do that?" Camilla looked at Morgan.

"I don't know, to add insult to injury? Animals provide people with comfort and companionship, dogs provide protection."

She frowned. "She he what, wanted to completely annihilate their sense of security? He didnt think tying them to their beds and raping them in their own homes would accomplish that?"

Morgan held up an empty hand. "Alright look, let's back up and simplify this, pretend the animal slaughter isn't attached to rapes. We are the unsub, why do we feel compelled to kill these animals, why display them?"

She sighed. "Well, you can break up the crimes until we decide who the anger is directed at, the women or the animals?"

This was okay, this was good. She could profile, she could work, and block everything else out. She wasn't oblivious, she knew the Sheriff had recognized her, and that in all likelihood his 'word' with Hotch was about her. Whatever he'd said to Hotch had clearly pissed him off.

"Good point." he said. "Well, how much could a cat or dog really piss someone off?"

She shrugged. "I don know, Maybe its not at the animal exactly, maybe he's pissed because a pet was something he was denied as a kid, or maybe his pet was killed when he was a kid, his father shot it or his mother...cooked it, something traumatic."

Morgan actually chuckled. "So Mrs. Martin cooks up Lassie steaks, and Timmy's so disturbed he grows up to be a serial rapist?"

"Well wouldn't that disturb you?"

"Definitely, but I think I'll let you explain that theory to Hotch."

"Or not, well what reasons can you think of to hate pets?"

"Uh... dog bit him when he was a kid, or his favorite pet ran away, abandonment issues are always big."

"Alright, I don't think being bitten once would generate this level of pathological hate. I mean I was attacked by a wolf, and I hate them always have but then again its a wolf and not a regular dog. Abandonment maybe, if his family dynamic was already screwy."

"Screwy family dynamic is pretty common among sex offenders."

Camilla sighed, studying the photos, the horrific acts of violence. "Or maybe this damage is just the beginning."

Morgan glanced at her." What do you mean?"

"What if the animals are just substitutes for the women? If he's not emotionally able to brutalize the women like this yet, so he's deflecting it on the animals."