Special Agent Angel (Criminal Minds fanfiction) [Season 1]

Compulsion

Gideon moved a chess piece on Spencer's board. "Check. Checkmate in three moves,"

Spencer looked down at the board in confusion "What..."

Morgan tossed his newspaper away to look at Reid "You know you'll beat him when you start learning,"

"Learning what?"

"To think outside the box,"

"Question for you," Elle said as she came towards the group.

"Shoot," Morgan said sitting up.

"The Footpath killer, why did he stutter?"

"Come on, Elle, we've all asked him, and he won't say. He wants us to figure it out,"

"Okay. I'm up for a challenge,"

"Good, because these go to you," JJ said as she gave a pile of folders to Elle "Special Agent Jennifer Jareau, JJ if you like,"

"Elle,"

JJ and Elle shook hands.

"Greenaway--highest number of solved cases in Seattle three years running," JJ praised "specialty in sex offender cases,"

"Not bad," Elle said

"Well, I'm the Unit Liason. My specialty is untangling Bureaucratic knots. You'll probably be talking to me a lot. My door's always open, mostly because I'm never in my office, so just call me on my cell, okay? We'll talk," JJ walked up to Agent Hotchner "Did you watch it?"

"Yeah. Think everybody should see it," Hotchner walked passed her "BAU team, can you meet me in the conference room, please? I need to show you something,"

The Team all got up and followed Hotchner into the conference room.

***

"This is from the Phoenix Office. Bradshaw College in Tempe, six fires in seven months," Hotchner explained once the team was convened.

"Who recorded it?" Gideon asked

"A student with a digital camcorder," JJ replied "He was watching a fire in the building across from their dorm. The other person you'll see is his roommate, 20-year-old Matthew Rowland," she pressed a button which began playing the video clip on the screen.

"This is crazy. Hey, Matt, get over here. You gotta see this. The building's on fire. Bro, you getting this?"

"Is that the kid?" Gideon questioned

"Yeah, that's him," Hotchner said

"Relax, man. There are always fires during rush week,"

"Yeah, but that's pretty big. Dude, over here. Check this out. What is it? I don't know but it's coming underneath the door. Is someone in the hallway? Hey, someone's trying to get in. Hey, man, you should get away from there. Oh, my god! It smells like gas." The student burst into flames "Oh, God! God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Aah! Put me out! Oh, my God! Oh, God! Help!"

***

"There are two common stressors for a serial arsonist," Reid explained on the plane as he set up the chess board.

"Loss of job, loss of love," Elle listed.

"When was the first fire set?" Morgan asked

"March." Hotchner said "Uh, the next one was in May, and the third one wasn't till September, then two weeks later there were three in one night,"

Samarra put the data into her laptop. "He's speeding up," she noted "Fire's are closer together,"

"Hey, Reid, you got a statistic on arsonists?" Morgan teased

"82% are white males between 17 and 27. Female arsonists are far less likely, their motive typically being revenge," Reid explained

"Sounds like our boy's a student,"

"Don't be so sure," Gideon said "you rely too much on precedent, you never allow for the unexpected. If he went from setting one fire to three in two weeks' time..."

"Rapid escalation," Hotchner finished

"He's gone from the power to damage a building to something far more satisfying,"

"The power over life and death," Samarra realized, she quickly looked back at her computer screen, however taking note of Morgan's look towards her along with Reid's glance from the reflection of the screen.

"Who we talking to first?" Gideon asked

"Dean of students, Ellen Turner," Hotchner said