SSA Scottley - A collection - S.R.

Ghost

Episode: 15x05

"Now I know what a ghost is. Unfinished business, that's what." - Salman Rushdie

"So Alvez, I heard you got smoked." Tara teased as soon as Luke walked into the bullpen, talking about the rumors that Matt had given Luke a run for his money in their latest basketball match.

"Ha, ha, ha..." Luke laughed sarcastically. "I did not get smoked."

"You so did." Lily smirked.

"I did not." Luke rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, well, we've taken to calling Simmons the bus driver because he took you to school." Tara said, as everyone laughed.

"He kind of did." Luke finally admitted. "He's also been off for the past month. He's slept in. He's working out."

"Whoa, he's got a newborn baby and 4 kids to corral." JJ interrupted him with a shake of her head. "I don't think so, buddy."

"Seriously, you got more sleep last night than Matt's had in a month." Rossi said, as Spencer spoke up.

"That's actually not an exaggeration." He said. "Research studies have shown that in the first 12 months of a child's life, parents sleep less than 59% of the recommended 8 hours a night, hence losing the equivalent of, on average, 50 nights of sleep."

At that both JJ and Lily nodded their heads, pointing at Spencer, knowing all too well what he was talking about this time. Luke sighed as he looked from them and toward Spencer instead.

"Do you have any stats that might be able to help me?" He asked, as Spencer shrugged with a small, amused smile.

"Nope." He said, causing everyone to laugh when Lily sighed after receiving another text on her cellphone.

"It's happening again." She said, jumping off of Spencer's desk where she had been sitting and standing up instead. "We got a case."

***

"This was a double homicide this morning in Des Plaines, Illinois." Lily said, as she introduced the new case for the team. "It appears our victims, Marko Salazar and Benjamin Blake, were shot by a sniper while playing basketball on a neighborhood court."

"Des Plaines, Illinois?" Spencer asked, as Lily nodded.

"I know what you're thinking and you're very right to be thinking that because two days ago a gentleman named Brian Nikolay was shot in a parking lot by a sniper."

"Just like the Phillip Dowd case we worked in Des Plaines 15 years ago." Emily said.

"It is." Lily nodded. "All single shots to the victims' torsos, all in public places, and no one's seen the shooter. He's a ghost."

"There's no way it's the same long-distance serial killer because..." JJ started as Spencer spoke up.

"Because I killed Phillip Dowd." He said.

"So you think it's a copycat LDSK?" Luke asked.

"Typically, LDSKs are skilled marksmen with a god complex." Tara said. "And they pretty much revel in taking people's lives from above and afar."

"But copycats are out to prove their superiority by making a bigger bang." JJ said. "Or to ride the wave of infamy created by the original killer."

"But in this case, the original killer, Phillip Dowd, is a distant memory." Rossi said. "There's not much of a wave to ride."

"Dowd's original M.O. was to shoot his victims, then race back to the emergency room where he worked cause he thrived on trying to save them." Spencer said.