Beauty and the Genius

Chapter 10

Hotch, Rossi, and JJ left. Penelope grabbed her laptop and went into her bedroom.

"What is she doin' in there?" Morgan asked.

"Do you really want to know?" Emily countered.

Gwen sat with Spencer on the couch.

"Earlier...with your father..." Spencer started.

Gwen knew where he was going with this. "When I was growing up, my father may or may not have used interrogation techniques to catch me in lies. I was a bit of a rebel. Never broke the law or anything, but I did enjoy getting into trouble."

Spencer smiled.

"What?" Gwen asked.

"Nothing. Just trying to picture you as a teenager."

"Come over some time and I'll show you pictures."

Spencer blushed. Thankfully, Penelope's printer started printing, saving Spencer from having to sputter out a response.

Penelope came out of her bedroom as Derek grabbed the papers. "Those are all the cases I flagged," she told him.

Derek handed them each a few sheets of paper. "Okay. Everybody take a copy. We need to see if any of the agents overlap in all of the cases."

"There aren't any agents working on these cases. But the same deputy was a first responder in three," Emily said.

"What's the name?" Derek asked.

"Jason Clarke Battle."

"What are the cases?" Spencer asked.

"Uh, all three were drive-bys, at close range, shot with a revolver."

"Just like Penelope," Gwen said.

Penelope brought up her search program on her TV and typed in Jason Clarke Battle. A picture of a man popped up and Penelope visibly froze.

"Is that him?" Emily asked.

"Yeah."

"He's been honored twice as a hero."

"So why's he stuck at deputy?"

"Because even to his superiors, something was off about him."

"Makes sense. The showy clothes, the subtle bragging. He presents himself as a prominent attorney when he's actually just a deputy sheriff."

"Underappreciated in the world and over appreciated in his own mind."

Spencer looked at Gwen and could see the gears turning in her head. "Gwen, what is it?"

"Angel of Death."

"What?" Penelope asked.

"He's an Angel of Death."

"I thought those were nurses who put people out of their misery."

"Yeah, that's one model. The other is someone who puts people at risk in order to save them," Spencer explained.

"So he shot them so that he could save them?"

"Yeah. And when he couldn't, he made it look like a random murder," Emily said, "It's how he was able to be the first responder."

"It's called hero homicide complex. It's most commonly found in firemen who set fires in order to save the day," Spencer added.

"Garcia. You flagged these cases. He thought you were onto him," Derek told her.