The Secret Love Of A Unit Chief

10: The San Angelo Killer

Monday

It was 8:35 in the morning when the team saw JJ walking towards Hotch's office with a sad and disgusted look on her face.

"Looks like we have a case." Morgan said, looking towards JJ who was knocking on Hotch's door.

"Come in" Hotch said in his cold stern way of being. JJ walked in and looked apologetic, as she handed her boss the file. He opened it and started reading. His eyes widened as he realised why she was so upset.

"Gather the team" He said without looking up from the case file. JJ walked out and looked at the team.

"We got a case" Morgan smirked at his coworkers, as they all got up from their seats. JJ knocked on Rossi's door calling him to the briefing room aswell.

Once everyone was sitting at the round table, JJ started presenting the case.

"5 homosexual men between the ages 32-40 have been killed in San Angelo, Texas. They have been burnt and tortured, then dumped in seemingly random places." JJ said with disgust clear on her face as she spoke.

"Why are we being called in now, why not sooner." Reid questioned, as he looked up from the file. "5 dead men, with the same burns and cuts on their bodies this is obviously serial."

"The first 3 victims each had 5 months in between kills, the last two were killed with only a week's cooling off period." JJ glanced at Hotch, who seemed lost in thought. "And the detective I talked to said, and I qoute,'we have a lot more to worry about than a bunch of queers turning up dead.'"

Hotch's eyes glared at the file, before he took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down.

"Where all the victims openly gay?" Morgan asked, as he looked away from Hotch.

"No, 3 were only out to close friends, and boyfriends." JJ answered.

Hotch stared at a picture of one of the victims, he couldn't get himself to stop thinking one thing this could have been Nathan. He realized it could have been him too, but all he could think about was Nathan, and what he would have done, if someone killed his boyfriend.

"Hotch!" Rossi's raised voice pulled Hotch out of his trance.

"What?" He got shocked by the sudden yelling, and narrowed his eyes at Rossi. The whole team was looking at Hotch with worried eyes.

"Are you ok? I have been calling your name, and you didn't hear me." Rossi looked at his best friend, worrying about how he was gonna take this case.

"I'm fine." Hotch said with a stern gaze, as he stood to his feet. "Wheels up in 30."

8=====D

They arrived in San Angelo later that afternoon, heading straight to the police station, they set up their own meeting room there.

"The last victim was killed 2 nights ago, if this unsub sticks to his recent schedule we have about 5 days till the next body turns up. So hopefully we can find this guy before it's too late. " Morgan stated, well meaning.

"We can't risk that, he went from a 3 month cooling off period, to 1 week very quickly, he could already have eyes on his next victim." Hotch said his stare directed at Morgan, before going back to flipping through the case files.

"So what do we have?" Prentiss asked.

"We have an unsub who targets gay men." Everyone looked to Hotch again, he obviously had something on his mind, but no one was gonna push him on it, the team were afraid to get stared down just like Morgan.