Heurism | Spencer Reid¹

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: STARLET

"A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know."

     — Diane Arbus.

—

"Natalie Ryan and Jeremy Collins. Recently engaged. They were found in their home in LA, both shot with a .22," JJ reads aloud. We gather in the jet, already on our way.

Hotch has taken the lead on this one, getting us all prepared. "Gideon and Reid just finished their profiling conference with the LAPD. They've already been to the house. We'll meet up with them once we arrive."

Looking up from my file, I frown. "Wait, Natalie Ryan? Isn't she that chick from the cop movie?"

"The very same," Elle sighs. "She was found on the couch, shot execution-style in the head. Her fiancé was on the floor with three to the chest."

"Sounds pretty disorganised. We thinking she was the target, he just happened to walk in?" I suggest thoughtfully.

That seems to be the consensus, although Morgan adds, "There was no sexual component to the murder, nothing to link it to the previous two victims apart from the way in which they were killed."

"The doorbell camera caught footage of a messenger with a motorcycle helmet. No identifying features."

"First two victims: Wally Melman, Chloe Harris. Both killed in public places."

Returning from the bar with a coffee, JJ starts to pace. "Chloe was killed while walking her dog on the beach in Santa Monica, which she did every morning... and Wally was killed outside of a massage parlour—"

"In Culver City," Morgan interjects.

Elle nods, taking another bite from her cookie. "Which he went to every Tuesday."

"Well, if he knows their schedules, maybe that means he follows his victims for a while."

"And not a single witness," Hotch points out. "So we know this UnSub can blend in. Regardless of the location, he has the ability to hide in plain sight."

"He's meticulous," Elle concludes.

I steal a cookie from her pack and lean back in my seat, chewing slowly as I run through the facts in my head. "So... two victims were female, early 20s, blonde, attractive. They were actresses on the rise. But Wally? Male, 40s, bald, not conventionally so. He disrupts the pattern."

JJ hums, inclined to agree. "The media's calling Natalie Ryan's murder the biggest celebrity homicide since Sharon Tate."

The implication is easy to recognise and Elle grimaces. "What does that mean for us?"

"That everybody will be watching."

——————

Meeting Gideon and Reid at the LAPD station, we go over our conclusions briefly before we consult Detective Owen Kim. He listens to us patiently from behind his desk, seated on the edge of it with his brow furrowed in thought. "This guy is an assassin?"

Morgan nods sternly. "When you look at the victimology, there's no obvious links. All the kills are clean, except in the instance of the last victim, Jeremy Collins."

"There's absolutely no evidence left at the crime scene," Elle continues. "There's no DNA, no manifestation of psychosexual release, and there's no detectable signature of any kind."

Leaning in the doorway, Gideon adds in, "Remember, our profiles are formulated not just by what's present at the scene, but also what's absent."