Come Downstairs and Say Hello; S.R.

End of Case 3

"Walter Kern had a military background. ROTC in high school, 4 years in the Air Force." Morgan explained, handing out files of their suspect to the team.

"Hospital records show that he lost mobility in his right side due to severed nerve damage in his spinal cord." Read Reid.

"He never got his strength back." Max added.

"Kern's been a county worker, a claims adjuster and, get this, he installed home alarms with Scott Harbin." Hotch read, and Jo snorted a short laugh.

"Takes one to know one." She said.

"All those jobs allowed him access to people's homes." Reid said.

"That explains the lack of signs for forced entry." Morgan said, "he had a legitimate reason to knock on the door."

"Women felt comfortable letting him inside." Said Gideon.

"He got a degree in criminology from Villanova in 1988." Elle read, "I wonder if he murdered anyone on campus."

"That certainly explains his law enforcement knowledge."

"This looks like our guy. Anybody got a current address?" Hotch asked.

"575 wight street, southeast Philadelphia." Jo read.

"We got him. Let's go bring him in." Max declared. Jo, Hotch, Morgan and Reid stayed behind as the rest of the team went to Kern's house. Jo sat down at the table, sipping a coffee.

"This is a really exhausting job." She said with a soft laugh. Reid nodded, sitting next to her.

"You'll get used to it." He said.

"You better." Hotch added, making Jo smile. His phone rang, and he picked it up. "Yeah? Okay." He closed his phone and turned to Morgan, "Kern is at the Pinewood Community Center. Let's go." Morgan stood, and left with Hotch. Soon after, Reid's phone buzzed.

"What is it?" Jo asked.

"They found what looks like a scrapbook at Kern's place." Reid said, scrolling through the photos, "There's a chapter on every woman he's ever killed." Jo leaned close to him, looking over his shoulder at the photos. "The pages are detailed enough to let him relive the kills for years." He kept looking. Jo pointed at one of the pictures of a girl.

"Look at the clothing, and the hair." She said.

"You're right, these pictures have to be at least 20 years old." Reid said, before suddenly standing up and rushing to the board, startling Jo.

"What?!" She asked, watching as he scanned over all the word puzzles again.

"His recent themes of communication have been about "old friends", "unfinished business"" he said, "his car accident was in the Fairmount district of Philadelphia, that's exactly where Carla Bromwell lived." Jo stood up.

"Right, he was on the way to kill her when he had his accident." She said.

"It's not about finding a new type of victim, it's about a specific target! Because he was such a perfectionist.."

"He had to finish what he started!" Jo finished Reid's sentence, "th-these victims were targeted from day one!" She exclaimed. He nodded quickly, yanking out his phone to call Gideon and tell him what they discovered.

"His latest target is on the last page." He finished, hanging up. Jo was chewing on her fingernail.

"Let's hope we're not too late." She said, Reid nodding. They waited in silence for a few moments, until Jo's phone rang.

"Yeah?"

"Gideon just called. They have Sylvia Goodma, she's alive. They got him." Hotch reported, and she let out a sigh of relief.

"Good."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now sitting next to Reid on the plane, Jo was starting to drift off.

"Did Jason ever tell you about the time he found the directors itinerary in a bomber's car?" Max asked, immediately shaking Jo out of her exhaustion.

"what?!" She exclaimed, looking at Gideon, who had his head in his hands.

"Max, come on, come on.." he pleaded.

"He never told us anything." Morgan said.

"Well let me fill you in, then." Max said, "We had this bomber case, it was one of Jason's first, so we had him go over and search the bombers car which was in the Quantico garage. Except for me and the guys had planted this piece of paper that had all the times and locations of where the FBI director was gonna be over the next 48 hours." Morgan looked beyond ecstatic that this story even existed, and Jo was smiling softly, imagining Gideon as an amateur young adult. "Anyway, Jason takes one look at this piece of paper, and before we could stop him, he takes off, runs up 25 flights of stairs to the directors office-"

"Get out of here!" Morgan exclaimed, Reid holding in laughs.

"He interrupted a meeting with the attorney General himself." Max finished, and Morgan high-fived Gideon, making Jo laugh.

"The director didn't find it very funny." Said Gideon.

"He was the only one who didn't." Max said.