Front Lines| Spencer Reid + Anne Grey

thirty seven

What Reid had said immediately sent a chill over the room. Zodiac was a dangerous word when it came to the FBI. A streak of unsolved murders could sour a term very easily.

"The zodiac," Gideon echoes, sounding as though he had just run a short marathon. He had seen it before. Someone obsessed with The Zodiac Murders does something ten times worse than the original, and it's a media blitz.

"That's not possible," Morgan says, assuming that they were referring to the original. "It's been over thirty years. He's not sending letters."

Reid nods, giving him assurance. "No, but whoever this is has to be aware of the relation." He adverts his gaze to the stack of crime scene photos on the table, picking them up and starting to shuffle through them. He could sense that something else was waiting to come to light, and knew that something would set it off sooner or later. Hopefully, sooner.

Elle lowers her eyebrows, remarking, "Well, they aren't doing a good job of being a copycat."

Derek gives her a nod of agreement. "That's what I'm thinking. Why brunettes?" he asks, looking to Spencer for an answer. He had been the one who started the zodiac discussion, after all.

He barely seems to be listening, though, getting to a specific image of a victim and zoning out for a moment. He remembers a certain agent making an odd comment about that photo, and instantly perks up. He shows everyone else the picture, questioning, "On the jet, Anne compared this woman to a murder victim from decades ago. What was the name?" It was times like this that he wished his eidetic memory was auditory, as well.

He gets a series of shrugs, until JJ looks up from the folder in her hands.

She gives Reid a squinting stare, indicating that she knew what he was talking about, but couldn't place the name, either. She looks off into the distance for a moment, then comes up with a name. "The Black Dahlia, or something," she suggests, sounding proud of herself already.

"That's it," Spencer extols, nodding at her gratefully.

"What does the Black Dahlia have to do with this?" asks Elle.

Reid looks at Gideon, sure that he would be the only person with knowledge pertaining to what he was about to say. "George Hodel. This has something to do with him."

"He's dead," Jason flatly replies, though his expression alters with a small amount of hope. Maybe the kid was onto something. He was usually always onto something.

Derek glances between the two. "Who's George Hodel?"

"He was the leading suspect in the murder of Elizabeth Short, AKA the Black Dahlia, in 1947," Spencer smoothly answers. He was back on a roll with his facts, due to this information being from books, not word of mouth. "Recently, his son Steve has been on a mild public rampage about how his father should've been arrested for that killing, and the zodiac murders."

That made it clear to Morgan, along with the rest of the team, that something was up. Regardless, he challenged Reid. "That still doesn't explain why someone else is latching onto this."

"I know, but this doesn't all just add up to nothing." He didn't have a great defense yet, but he knew that the team would be open to exploring the idea anyways. "I'm calling Hotch and Anne. Maybe if they ask about the Black Dahlia, someone will have heard something." Pulling out his phone, he issues a small wave, then exits the room.

He had considered just staying in the hallway, up until he noticed the gaze of a few officers landing on him. That made him uncomfortable, so he chose to leave the building  and stand out back.