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

Won't Get Fooled Again [2]

"Yeah, what's up?" Hotchner asked Morgan as he got off the phone.

"Hotch, listen, they're gonna be sending us bomb fragments by this afternoon. I'm the only one with an ATF background. So if you'd like me to stay behind to supervise the bomb profile, I'm on that,"

"Morgan, you wouldn't be afraid to be out in the field with a bomber, now, would you?"

"You know, maybe it's not the bomber that I'm worried about,"

"I thought we were past all that,"

"Hotch, Boston sent Gideon into a posttraumatic tailspin. How do we know that won't happen again?"

"Morgan, I tell you what. Why don't we concentrate on profiling the bomber and not Gideon?"

"Copy that," Morgan sighed

***

"Bombings occurred within 3 miles of each other." Hotchner explained as the team sat on the plane "First victim was a 74-year-old widow, Barbara Keller. 2 hours after that, Clurman got hit in his driveway, and 45 minutes later...well, we all saw that. Jill Swenson, 34-year-old housewife who lived across the street from Clurman of the 3, only Clurman survived,"

"Is there any connection between the victims?" Reid asked

"One. Clurman was a partner in a $10-million condo development deal in which Keller was an investor, and a few weeks ago, the whole deal went bust,"

"Went bust how?" Elle questioned

"Geologists discovered that the land was on methane, the condos never got built, the land became worthless, and Clurman lost a lot of people a lot of money,"

"So maybe one of them was mad enough to take aim at Clurman," Reid suggested

"Oh, let's not get ahead of ourselves," Gideon said "It's a little too early to theorize about motive,"

"Then where do we start?" Elle asked

"From the beginning. What do we know about bombers?"

"Mostly male, loners, history of criminal activity." Reid noted "About 50% of all bombings are actually the product of vandalism,"

"And more often than not, bombers end up accidentally blowing themselves up," Hotchner added "so the first suspects you always look for in the bombing case are the victims,"

"Clurman was the only male." Elle said "Losing a large business deal like that it could be a powerful stressor,"

Gideon raised his eyebrows "Well, then there's the crime scene. Clurman was the only victim who didn't get hit at his door. Why? What was different about this one?"

***

"Before Clurman passed out, what he told cops at the time was that he saw the package sitting on the stoop outside his kitchen door," Hotchner explained as the team looked over the crime scene.

"Why didn't he take it in?" Elle wondered

"Why didn't it go off until he got to his car?" Reid asked "It's like 50 feet away,"

"Joe Reese, one of Clurman's investors, was here before the bomb went off." Hotchner said "The cops have ruled him out as a suspect, but he said he saw Clurman get in the car with the package,"

"So maybe Clurman wasn't receiving a bomb at all." Elle said "Maybe he was on his way to delivering one,"

"But he drops it or tilts it," Reid said "and it goes off by accident,"