Enjoying Your Company //

chapter forty eight

"Death does not come with old age, it comes with oblivion." Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Spencer's POV:

Vanessa and I walked into the conference room.

"Where's Hotch?" I ask, pulling out chairs for myself and Ness.

"Should he here any minute." Derek responded glancing up from his iPad. Nessa set her hand on the table, opening her file and I followed. Reaching for my case file, causally setting my hand in hers, sharing a secret smile under low eyes. Hotch entered taking the spot light.

"Merry Christmas everyone, sorry we had to be here."

"Not like any of us had plans." Rossi joked, lightning the mood.

"Some of us did." Emily said rolling her eyes to me.

"Garcia, what do we have?"

"A not so Merry Christmas for grandma this year. seventy eight year old Diana Ruster of Fitchburg Wisconsin was found dead this morning in the living room stuffed behind the family Christmas tree." Garcia, always sensibly dressed for a holiday, clicked the prompter to reveal the CSI photos. "As you can see she was all, grossly, tangled, and twisted up back there." She said through cringing facial expressions.

"That's an awful lot of anger." Morgan noted. "Our unsub has to be pretty strong to pull limbs out that."

"I'll say, you know how hard it would be to bend joints and break bones with an old lady kicking and screaming?" I half joked.

"Not to mention with a house full of people? How did he even get her back there without waking anyone up?" Prentiss offered, setting the file down.

"Right well, that's the mystery gift under the tree, same thing happened last year in Green Bay to eighty year old Myra Bell, and the year before, Betty Alice, seventy seven," She clicked more photos onto the screen. "Her six year old granddaughter was the one to find her."

"All three victims are elderly women, he's obviously got a beef with material figures." Nessa included. "Could have had an abusive grandparent."

"Maybe the hatred stems from feeling left out, his relationship with his grandparents could lack substance or a certain image." JJ tapped her pen against the air.

"Look at the Christmas tree." Rossi mentioned. "It looks like a rabid animal got to it, all the decorations are torn, dismembered, the tinsel is everywhere."

"He clearly hates the holiday." Emily said with a huff.

"Or it's his way of showing his anger towards the targets." I added, twisting my mouth sideways.

"If he strikes once a year and we have our victim, what's bringing us on this case?" Vanessa asked setting the file down.

"Garcia." Hotch readied.

"That would be, this." Garcia clicked the monitor to display a wide shot of the Ruster living room, the words 'look out' was left smeared in blood in a half circle below the tree. Adjacent was 'T.K.'.

"Whoa." An exhale slipped from Nessa's throat.

"Yeah." Garcia said with stuck focus.