The Boss' Niece (Spencer Reid)

54. Mr. Scratch

"Why don't we just start with the simplest explanation? They're lying." Derek asked as he, Penelope, JJ, Emily, Rossi and Hotch sat around the round table, looking through the file.

"There are easier lies to tell to cover up a murder. Why tell the same one, especially when it doesn't make sense?" JJ shook her head, confused.

"Could it be a group delusion?" Rossi asked, confused.

"Their similar age range all points in that direction, 33 to 34 years old, but the geographic diversity kind of rules that out." Emily exhaled.

"Yeah. Larry Merrin's from Topeka, Christine McNeil is from Roswell, Georgia, Daniel Karras is from Derry, Maine. All different economic levels, social circles, obviously different racial backgrounds." Penelope explained, pressing a button on her remote to pull up pictures on the screen.

"So if he's an unsub, he's not killing but creating killers. Murder by proxy, if you will." Rossi looked between the file and the screen.

"It's gotta be drugs. Larry Merrin's story just sounds like a bad trip." Derek looked at the group.

"According to the police reports, all 3 tox screens came up negative." Penelope shrugged her shoulders.

"Well, they only screen for known compounds. This could be a cocktail we've never seen before." JJ suggested.

"Every drug affects every person differently, yet somehow this unsub is able to make his drug affect 3 completely dissimilar people exactly in the same way." Emily spoke up, Derek looking at her as if she had turned into a female version of Spencer.

"Maybe they're not dissimilar at all. Maybe the drugs are just the tipping point and these 3 share some sort of pre-existing mental condition he knows he can tap into to induce them to kill. We find that, we find him." Hotch explained, looking around at the team. He did wish that Cassidy and Spencer were here, but if they were, they'd be disobeying a direct order.

———

"Did she feel a lot of pain? Did I kill her quickly?" Daniel asked as he carefully placed photos of a bloody knife down onto the metal table, JJ and Derek sitting in front of him. He was clearly out of energy and sick of all the interrogation that he had been put through.

"Mr. Karras, we want to get to the bottom of this, too. So we'd like to take you through a cognitive interview." Derek spoke up, his hands clasped together.

"What's the point?" Daniel asked, exhaling.

"It could help you remember details you couldn't before. And those details could help us understand what happened. So, please. Close your eyes. And put yourself back in your home a week ago." JJ calmly looked at Daniel, who shook his head before closing his eyes, taking a few deep breaths in and out.

"You got home from work early, right?" JJ asked.

"Right." He whispered.

"How did you feel when you walked through the door?" JJ watched how Daniel responded.

"Happy." He exhaled.

"She wasn't. And then I remembered she said that she was going to the movies with some friends. I thought my beer tasted funny. And then I realized it wasn't my beer, that it was a smell that was coming from somewhere else." Daniel explained, both JJ and Derek watching as his hands tensed up.

"What was the smell?" JJ asked, furrowing her eyebrows. She could tell that he was vividly reliving some sort of dream.

"Sage." He answered, his voice broken.