Y/N and Spencer showed up at Emily's place. When they entered, they saw the team in Emily's living room, a file in each of their hands. Emily handed both Spencer and Y/N a case file.
"Thank you, all of you, for coming." Emily smiled as everyone sat down, looking up at her.
"I've missed this, us." She exhaled, taking a moment to breathe.
"Before we do this, I need to be sure everyone understands what we're getting into. We have been told not to investigate this case. If we do, we are violating direct orders, and eventually Barnes will find out. So, if something goes wrong or we don't catch this unsub, she will shut down the BAU and most likely fire all of us. No more reassignments." Emily warned.
"You know what? Even if everything does go right and we do catch our unsub, I mean, the same thing could happen." JJ added, nodding.
"Right. Barnes would try to spin it, label the BAU a rogue unit that needs to be shut down." Matt noted.
"Right. So if anyone has doubts, no shame, no judgment." Emily smiled.
"The BAU started in a room just like this one. If this is how it goes out, so be it." Rossi chuckled.
"We're all in?" JJ looked around, everyone nodding.
"Okay. Let's talk victimology." Emily told before everyone opened their case files.
"Since we don't have any leads on our victims' identities, Garcia's been drilling down on the emails that contain the photo attachments." Emily gestured to Penelope, who nodded.
"Right, so, this is the darknet, so they're encrypted, but the digital files had time stamps. I was able to narrow down their point of origin to the greater D.C. area." Penelope explained.
"So we're gonna have to focus our profiling on the photos." JJ nodded.
"The first 3 are of the same woman. They appear to be a complete 3-part series, depicting her in 3 different states...before, in captivity, and postmortem. The before picture is a candid photo, which suggests the women were comfortable with the unsub." Y/N noted.
"We have only one captivity photo. It was taken over 48 hours later." Rossi inspected the photo.
"But it's in a different location. It's a darker, enclosed space. The victim is disheveled and appears disoriented and traumatized." Matt told.
"Now she's only wearing this white satin negligee." Tara furrowed her eyebrows.
"The third photo's posed and appears to be post-mortem. In this case, the fatal wound, a single bullet to the chest, is clearly featured. It's also been cleaned up a little bit. There's no extraneous blood, and it's almost pretty." Spencer examined the photos.
"So he's displaying his work for those who will appreciate it, the people our drop-box owner Adam Jeffries were selling to." Emily exhaled.
"Okay, and then there's the fourth photo, it's of a different woman. It's the first in a new series, the new victim." JJ noted.
"The fourth photo appears to be taken 72 hours ago. If the unsub's pattern holds, it means she's about to die." Rossi looked at the image, clearly worried.
"JJ, Luke, Tara, dig into the before photos. Garcia already ran them through the Bureau's hotel database. Based on background details, it's extremely likely that they were taken at a high-end hotel in the area." Emily looked at JJ, Luke and Tara, each of them nodding.
"We'll map them out and start canvassing first thing in the morning." JJ confirmed.
"Good. Dave, Matt, head out to the prison and see what Adam Jeffries can tell you about how these ended up on his drop-box." Emily insisted, Rossi and Matt nodding.
YOU ARE READING
Reconciling the Hotchners | 2
RomanceY/N and Aaron believed that their lives would slow down a little after Y/N remained with the BAU and Aaron left. But with a job as time consuming as working with the BAU, things fall through the cracks...problems arise. The BAU doesn't want Y/N and...
