timeless, spencer reid [ 1 ]

039. risky business

They're on the jet and on their way to a possible case.

"Sir, it's not that I'm not glad to be coming with you, because I am, I just don't understand the why." Penelope says.

"One of the aspects of an equivocal death investigation when suicide is a possibility is an indirect personality assessment. Our victims are all internet generation kids. There should be invaluable personal data on their computers to mine for this evaluation." Hotch explains.

"If they committed suicide, evidence of it will probably be in their cyber world." Derek says.

"So I'm gonna snoop through dead kids' computers?" Penelope asks.

"This plane seldom makes pleasure trips." Rossi says.

"We've all been over the files. Let's talk about victimology." Hotch says.

"Okay. All four kids were decent students, from different neighboring towns but the same school and the same county." Rossi says.

"Active in sports and community." Derek says.

"Intact families, no mental disorders, no precipitating events." Emily says.

"These are just average good kids." Derek says. "There has to be some underlying issue."

"Besides relative proximity there's no obvious connection between any of them." Spencer says.

"It seems to rule out an overt suicide pact." Hotch says.

"The first few days leading up to a teenager's suicide are usually very telling. Their behavior is transparent. There's a multitude of indicators." Spencer says.

"Yeah, but the most common don't exist here." JJ says. "There's no prior attempts, no period of deep depression, no withdrawal from family members, no spontaneous proclamations of love."

"Spontaneous proclamations of love?" Emily asks.

"Sometimes a suicidal person, in the days leading up to the act, will just blurt out "I love you" to family, sort of like a goodbye." JJ explains.

"We'll start with the latest two victims. If they were suicides, let's find out what drove them to it." Hotch says.

+++

"Hey." Emily greets as she, Hotch, and JJ get to the station. "You ready to delve into Trish Leake's online world?" She asks Penelope.

"If by ready you mean extremely capable and even more reluctant." Penelope says. Bedelia sympathetically pats her on the shoulder.

"I have a lot of kitten photos. We can look through those later." Bedelia suggests.

"I would love that. Thank you." Penelope says making Bedelia smile at her. "In fact, just go print them and tape them somewhere in my line of sight."

"Yeah, something like that." Emily says, putting the laptop down and resting her hand on Penelope's shoulder for a moment.

"How are the Leakes holding out?" Rhonda asks.

"Oh, probably as well as can be expected." Emily says.

"Yeah. They're strong people." Rhonda says.

"Good." Emily says.

"Well, that's weird." Penelope says.

"What?" Hotch asks.

"There's nothing here." Penelope says.

"Nothing useful?" Rossi asks.

"Nothing at all. Look, there's no root directory, there's no operating system. The registry appears to be blank." Penelope says.