𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐄 𝐀𝐖𝐀𝐘. ( 𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐤 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐧 )

chapter six

TW: murder, mention and feature of a serial killer, graphic descriptions of crime scenes, mention of rape, mention and usage of guns, mild language, police presence.

family issues, part two of two.

" when all the dust is settled and all the crowds are gone, the things that matter are faith, family, and friends " - barbara bush.

-

After another hour of Genevieve rebuilding her rapport with Jessica, they still had nothing. She definitely knew more than she let on, although these little tells only showed up after Genevieve moved past the subject of Jessica being the killer, which could really only mean one thing. She wasn't lying about not participating in the murders. But she knew who did.

JJ and Elle had reached successfully put every one of Jessica's PhD students into protective custody, and Spencer was back to pouring over the victims' education to try and find a hint to what made them vulnerable. Hotch and Gideon were working up the profile based on the information being fed to them by the rest of the team, but, so far, it was getting nowhere.

Until, in true Garcia fashion, Penelope found a smoking gun.

"My delicious chocolate sundae, do I have a treat for you!" She said energetically as the team gathered around Derek's phone, which he put on speaker.

Detective Meyers, who was standing with them, raised his eyebrows in a surprised manner as everyone else rolled their eyes.

"You're on speaker, mama. You got the room," Derek said, laughing and shaking his head.

"Derek, I'm really going to need you to start with that from now on, ok?" She said, after a lengthy pause.

"Garcia. You have a lead?" Hotch said, slightly impatiently.

"Yes, sorry sir. I was digging, because I get itchy fingers when no one calls me for three hours straight," She said pointedly. "And, I found this. Miss Jessica Phillips has maintained regular correspondence with one Jared Knightly for two years now,"

"Who's that?" Genevieve asked, looking through her notes to confirm her suspicions that she hadn't come across that name yet.

"Jared Knightly is a twenty-two-year-old college dropout with several un-aggravated assault charges. The victim of his first incident dropped the charges for reasons unknown to me. But he was arrested again with the same charges, and this time, he was sent to jail for two years. The interesting thing? Both victims were white women, around Jessica's age, who were out with their young sons,"

"So-" Derek tried to interject, but he was cut off by Garcia.

"Uh-uh, I'm not done yet," She said sharply. "Their correspondence greatly increased last week, when our first victim went missing. So, following the trail of my hunch, like I see you marvellous behavioural analysts do every day, I went back twenty-two years, when, Jessica Phillips was admitted to the hospital with extreme nausea and fainting spells. She left the hospital after her initial consultation, so no conclusive diagnosis was made. She has no further history relating to this, which leads me to believe-"

"That Jessica was pregnant, with Jared," JJ said slowly, as the puzzle pieces clicked together for everybody.

"And, if I had been allowed to finish," The technical analyst said slightly irritably. "Jared had been in foster care since being a newborn, before being adopted at two years old by the Knightly family,"

"So she gave him up for adoption. So we were half right," Spencer said, nodding. "This is partially to get back at our victims- Jared sees them having the relationship with Jessica that he never could, to no fault of his own. But this also means that the book quotes were likely taunts to Jessica, not the victims. He's tainting the very thing that bonded Jessica and her students - literature, with their deaths,"