Finding the Sun

Chapter 2

SSA Aaron Hotchner walked into the New York City precinct, Jennifer Jareau at his side, her hand already outstretched to Captain Miller.

"Agent Jareau, thank you so much for coming."

"Of course. Hotch, this is Captain Miller. Captain Miller, this is SSA Aaron Hotchner, Agents Prentiss and Rossi. The rest of the team is already at the morgue."

"Again, I really appreciate you guys coming out. I have my best detectives on this case, but still, we're a little out of depth here." She brought the team over to a conference room, where a white board and all the existing case files were already waiting. The team got to work immediately, beginning to pin the pictures of the victims up on the board.

...

Two hours earlier

"Alright my lovelies!" Penelope began, possibly the only woman who could be this bubbly in the face of numerous grisly murders. "Five hours ago, Maria and Patrick Williams became the latest victims in a recent string of murders in The Big Apple, New York City. They were just discovered by their 16 year old daughter Aster Carr. Poor baby."

"Five couples in 3 weeks? Not much of a cooling down period." said Prentiss.

"No, but look at victimology. All white, middle class, straight couples. But most importantly, all foster parents." Dr. Reid interjected, already forming a hundred possible theories.

"So, Aster Carr was the foster daughter?"

"Looks like it. How long was she with the Williams?"

"That's where this gets interesting. Aster Carr was only with them for 3 months. In fact, all of the kids had only been in the care of these families for 2-4 months, and all of the kids are within a year of each other in age. Oh and get this! The bodies of the victims were all discovered by the foster kids in question. Coincidence? I think not!"

"You're right Garcia, definitely not a coincidence." It was Rossi this time, thinking what most of the team already was. It looked textbook, a former foster kid, replacing the true target of his anger with whomever else he could find that fit until he worked up the courage to go after his true target.

"It's clear this guy has a type, and he doesn't look like he's slowing down. We need to talk to these kids asap, try to find as many connections as we can." Morgan was the last to speak, the rest of the team looking to their boss for confirmation. Agent Hotchner looked up. "Wheels up in 20."

...

Present

"The bodies didn't tell us anything new. Classic overkill, this guy obviously has a lot of rage." Moran and Reid had just gotten back from the morgue, joining everybody back at the precinct. The team had gotten there pretty late, but wanted to get started on interviews as soon as they could.

"Wasn't that Aster Carr that we saw leaving?" Prentiss asked Captain Miller. "Do you think she's still around? We need to ask her some questions."

Captain Miller looked at her, but shook her head. "The poor girl was here for hours. We took her statement, she found them at 8:15 pm, after getting home from a date with her boyfriend Leo Valdez. We checked him out too, another foster care kid, but nothing suspicious. She didn't notice anything weird this past week, and can't think of anyone who would want to hurt them."

Captain Miller walked around the table to look at the faces of the foster kids the team had pinned to white board. "She said basically the same as all the other kids. She didn't know her foster parents that well, they were distant but not cruel. Nothing stood out."