criminalxminds | Fic: A good kid

Title: A good kid

Author: Sara Nublas

Characters: Emily Prentiss, all team involved

Rating: T

Summary: The BAU is called for a case in Wisconsin, soon it turns out to be a much more gruesome case they initially expected. Warning for violence

A/N: This story was written for the ‘Writers of the Silver Screen Challenge’; my assignment combines pairing Prentiss-Gideon and the movie: Psycho. While I have followed the movie very loosely, I read a lot about the real killers the movie was based on.

Important: Since Gideon’s presence in the team is still assumed, the events take place during the year 2007.

1. Beyond the tangible clues

The room is filled with the smell of disinfectant and it’s slightly cold, even though Emily doubts the temperature caused the shiver that just crept through her body.

When the ME finally enters the room, the profiler’s attention is veered from her eerie thoughts.

“Sorry for keeping you waiting agent,” she apologizes and greets Prentiss with an energetic handshake.

“No problem.” Emily reassures before cutting to the chase “What can you tell me?”

“The victim, Janet Crane, is a female, brunette, 25-26 years old,” the doctor lifts the sheet, uncovering the body, “She was hit in the back of her head with a blunt object, but this was not the cause of death; after being subdued, she was raped and then suffocated. My guess is that the killer tried to dissolve the body in some kind of acid compound, but didn’t finish the job.”

Prentiss registers every bit of information, while staring at the horribly mutilated body; she can’t help wondering how such a young, beautiful woman, ended up in this ugly hole to be brutally violated and killed.

“What about these bruises and scratches on her arms?” she inquires

“It seems she put up quite a fight at some point” the ME explains.

“Any chance to get some DNA?” she asks.

“We’ve got tissue samples from under her nails and sent them to the lab; but frankly with all that acid around I wouldn’t keep my hopes high.”

Prentiss nods and heads back to the police station, where the rest of the team is going through the detail of the case.

They’ve just arrived in Winsconsin, in a little town of 15000 inhabitants where two days ago a woman has been found dead. The sheriff, who’s been around long enough to recognize troubles coming, recognized the similarity between the present victim and a series of unsolved murders occurred four years ago in 2003, so he immediately contacted the BAU.

“Prentiss, news?” a very impatient Gideon welcomes her with a scowling look as soon as she’s back at the police station.

She’s been working with him for almost two years now, yet he still manages to make her ill at ease when he’s so intense, “Same MO of the previous victims. The body was extensively mutilated by chemical burns, probably acid” she quickly regains her composure.

“Dissolving bodies in the acid is a typical method employed by the killers of the mob, to delete proofs” Reid joins them.

“I don’t see how the mob might want to target a small rural town in Wisconsin, though.” Prentiss objects and Reid nods in agreement.

They all walk into a little room the local PD provided them at the station, “Maybe it’s just a way for the unsub to dispose of the body” Reid tries another angle.

“Then why didn’t he go through with it?” Prentiss objects.

“Someone interrupted him?” JJ offers.

“Well, then we might have an even bigger problem” Prentiss comments bluntly.

“What do you mean?” Morgan enters the room with a steaming mug of coffee.

“If you want to get rid of a body there are thousands more effective and easier ways to do that” she explains.

“Acid is easy and effective…” Reid clarifies, ready to start with a lecture in chemistry, but he gets cut off.

“Effective, but not at hand,” Emily registers the frowns from her colleagues so she carries on, “Okay. I’m the unsub. I have just killed Janet Crane, but something doesn’t go as planned and I need to get rid of the body immediately. I can bury it, burn it, cut it into pieces… but what is the chance that I have a barrel of acid with me, unless I’ve planned ahead in using it?”

“This means we are dealing with an organized killer, who’s been doing this for a while,” Gideon follows her line of thought, despite the unconvinced glares the rest of the team is giving them, “If you’re right, then dissolving the bodies of his victims in acid is part of his MO.”

“Guys,” Morgan doesn’t try to hide his skepticism, “this homicide is definitely creepy and there might be a link with the cases of four years ago, but it seems to me we are making assumptions with no actual evidence,” he objects.

“Morgan is right, we don’t have any proof,” Hotch admits “except the hypothesis of a zealous sheriff who was definitely upset by the brutality of those murders”.

“Well, we don’t have proofs because if this hypothesis is right, the unsub dissolved them all!” Prentiss argues, slightly irritated by how Hotch is always more prone to back up Morgan’s skepticism than her takes.

“Prentiss, even if this guy erased the proofs, how could several disappearances go undetected for all this time?” Morgan returns.

“Look at the victimology,” she doesn’t give up “young women, with no family, running away from something, passing by. Nobody even knew they were here…”

Morgan lays down his cup and fumbles through the files of the victims. He has to agree with Prentiss on this; Janet Crane, the last victim, was running away after stealing 40000 dollars to her step-father in New York, and wasn’t it for a PI he sent after her, nobody would have been minding about her whereabouts. Similarly, one of the previous victims four years ago was running away from a violent husband and another one, the first, was a former prostitute.

He sighs, slightly contracting his jaw and not fully convinced yet, “Okay then. How does he pick them?”

“He probably has a job that allows him to meet those girls and to talk to them,” Gideon suggests.

“Fuel stations, bars, restaurants, motels…” Reid lists the options.

“He needs to spend time with them, to choose who’s worthy of his attention,” Gideon carries on, “Let’s ask Garcia to check motels and bars in a 20 miles radius.”

“Anything to narrow down the search, sir?” the voice of the tech analyst greets them from the speaker.

“Focus on men between 25 and 30, single,” Hotch starts, “See if any of the employees has a criminal record, especially for harassment, aggression and cruelty on animals.”

“Cruelty on animals?” Garcia echoes horrified.

“You don’t reach this level of rage overnight,” Gideon explains, “you have to experiment and exercise your grudge and usually, as a teenager, when these impulses start surging, animals are the easiest target.”

“Why do I even bother asking if I always regret the answer?” Garcia complains while moving her hands frantically on the keyboard, “Bingo!” she chirps seconds after, “…and the winner is: Theodore Camden, 30 years old, single, he runs a motel just out of town. He was accused of stalking some students at university and expelled for inappropriate behavior. You wanna more? When he was in high school he was sentenced to social service for cruelty against animals..”

“Which kind of cruelty?” Reid inquires.

“I knew you would have asked. You never miss the creepy stuff young boy, uh?” she teases back reluctantly skimming through the file on her screen, while Reid displays an abashed look in response. “Hew! He picked dead animals, cats, dogs, birds and then dissolved them in acid. I’m sending you the file right now and unless you need me again I’ll go to rinse my brain out!” she cries back.

A silence falls in the room; it’s Morgan the first to break it, “Well Prentiss, I’m in. We just got ourselves a very organized and nasty unsub”

‘Guys, this way he could have killed dozen of women virtually undetected” Reid clarifies the obvious.

Hotch quickly organizes the team, “Gideon, Morgan and Prentiss, you three go to the motel and search for Camden and for clues of his involvement. He’s for sure a creepy guy, but as far as we know he’s just a suspect. JJ and Reid try to find the other potential victims among the women went missing since 2003. I’ll go and explain this mess to the sheriff” he resolves unenthusiastically.