Criminal Minds Series Rewrite: Season One

The Fox: Final Part

Hotch called a SWAT team to meet you at Jackie's home. Gideon didn't want to storm the place in case Karl shoots everyone. However, looking at the family at the dinner table, you don't see Karl at all.

"We've got 3 adults and 2 children sitting at the dining room table," one of the members from SWAT says.

He gives a hand signal to let everyone else know it's time to raid the place. You have your gun trained in front of you as you move stealthily towards the house. One of the members of SWAT rips open the back door, and you look at the terrified family at the table.

"FBI! FBI!" Gideon yells.

"He's got my baby!" the mother screams in terror.

"Ma'am, is he alone?" Derek asks.

"My baby!" she sobs.

"Where is the basement?" you ask firmly.

"Under the stairs!"

The lights go out, and you know Karl did it. He knows you're here, and he's not going to go down without a fight.

"Son of a bitch," Derek mutters.

"Get them outta here!" Gideon orders the SWAT team while you, Gideon, Derek, and a few other members of SWAT move throughout the house.

You pass by a door under the stairs, and Derek whispers your name. It doesn't have a knob, but you know you can get it open. You open the door with your finger through the small hole, and go down first with Derek behind you. It's dark, but you know Karl is down here with the baby somewhere.

"Karl? Karl, it's the FBI," you announce as you make your way through the dark basement with only your light to guide you.

You take small and gentle steps in fear of Karl hurting the child if you were to make any sudden movements. You tiptoe around the corner and see Karl crouched on the floor with the baby in his hands. He looks up and shushes you with his finger to his mouth.

"Karl? Why don't you give me the baby?" you ask but receive no answer. He takes his hand off the baby's mouth and he starts to cry. "Karl? Karl, I want you to look at me. I'm gonna put my gun away and I want you to hand me that baby." You slowly put your gun back in its holster. "Give me the baby."

You hold your arms out to receive the small child, and he takes this as an invitation to give him to you. He stands up and walks slowly to you with the crying baby in his arms. When he reaches a foot away from you, he tosses the baby at you and tries to make an escape. You catch the child easily, and Derek takes down Karl when he tries to cut his way out of the basement.

"You move, I'm going to break your neck," Derek threatens when he has Karl up against the wall.

"Oh, you're okay. You're okay," you say to the screaming child.

You know he's only going to stop screaming when he's back in his mother's arms. For right now, you have to work to calm him down.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Karl is brought back to the office at Quantico since it's only an hour away from where you found him. He doesn't seem a bit remorseful over what he's done, and you know it's going to take a lot to get a confession out of him. You know you can't connect him to the other crimes since he did a good job at erasing himself from both homes. However, you know Gideon has a plan to get him to crack.

You and Derek take him to the interrogation room and lock him down before Gideon joins you. Behind Gideon, and facing Karl, is a board with the crime scene photos on it. Each family is sectioned off, and ever since Karl came into the room, he hasn't taken his eyes off it. However, Gideon begins the process.

"Emily Crawford was a very talented and gifted girl. Her brother Sam was a bright and energetic child. You watched them from the yard for days, maybe even weeks. You learned everything about them, studied their every move, and then you wrote it all down."

"May I have a glass of water?" Karl gulps.

"Is something wrong?" you ask from next to Gideon.

"No, I'm just thirsty."

"Water, please," Gideon approves.

"Could you remove my shackles? I'm clearly no threat to you."

"They stay on," Derek glares.

"You chose families that reminded you of the one you lost. You stalked them, you bound them, you terrorized them, and then you killed them one by one. We have your journals, Karl," Gideon continues.

"It's my job to write everything down–to get to know them. I can't help them solve their problems without knowing their background. And I make home visits sometimes without their knowledge because people lie. You, of all people, should know that," Karl glares. Gideon takes out pictures of the Crawfords and Millers before the murders. "Eric Miller was an awful husband and father. Allison Crawford hemorrhaged money her husband didn't have. It can strain any marriage."

Next, Gideon took out pictures of Karl's own family before he divorced his wife. It seemed to strike a nerve because his face twitched at the sight of it. He's getting angry, you can tell by the way his aurora thickens and deepens in color.

"On the surface, this looks like any family. If you look a little closer you'll see their body language tells a different story. The woman and children are distant from the man. Their smiles are stiff. Their eyes are frightened. Every hair is in place, wearing their sunday best. Their own private hell being memorialized on film."

Karl doesn't seem to be listening because he's so focused on the crime scene board in front of him. He's visibly nervous, and the aurora thickens.

"Are you okay?" you ask.

"It isn't right."

"What isn't?" Gideon asks.

"You've got the pictures mixed up!" he yells. "The one in the middle, that is Sam Crawford's. It should be Ty Miller's! You need to swap them. You need to make it right."

"This one here?" Gideon asks as he points to the picture in question.

So that's what Gideon has JJ do. She switched the pictures to get him to notice and then confess. Someone with his personality wouldn't handle them being mixed up.

"What the hell have I been trying to tell you?"

"You're right. They're switched. That is Sam Crawford's foot with the Miller family, but how did you know that, Karl?" you ask with a smirk as Gideon switches them.

"I watched them for a number of days–always at night. I saw how they lived, how they loved. I would keep them apart until the last night, till the last supper. Then, I would bring them, one by one down to the basement. The youngest first. The father last," he confesses, however, he's not done.

That doesn't stop you from cleaning up the board because you already got a confession.

"Why, Karl?" Gideon asks.

"So he could see what happens to families when the head of household isn't strong. Wives wither. Children perish. But me? I'm an excellent father."

There is nothing left to do but leave and let the court deal with Karl from here on out.

When Hotch came back from Karl's office, he had a solemn look on his face. Everyone is gathered in the briefing room to see what Hotch discovered. When you did, your heart just sank because you were right.

There are more families... more victims.

Gideon takes every single wedding ring in the box and places them on the table just to show how many more families are left without justice.