❝ Some things scratch at the surface while others strike at your soul. ❞
𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐄 𝐋𝐔𝐂𝐀𝐒 𝐇𝐀𝐒 𝐃𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐃 her whole life to catching the monsters in this world in hopes of fixing something that is broken inside of her.
Tha...
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"What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal."
— Albert Pine
➴ ➴ ➴ ➴ ➴ ➴
2.3 ; ACCELERANT.
THE VICTIM HAD BEEN a professor. Caroline had overheard Gideon and Hotch talking in the halls after the fire had been put out. Professor Wallace. He was a favorite at the university, a legend. He changed lives, got through to people. He cared.
Or, well, he did.
Now, all that was left of a brilliant man was a charred corpse and a decimated office.
"We've been at this all night, and we've got nothing," Morgan complained as he paced around the command center. After the fire, Caroline printed out all the pictures she had taken of the crowd and laid them out on the table and just stared at them. "Look at these expressions." He gestured to the photos. "We got fear, a touch of horror, even a little bit of panic. Where's this guy getting off?"
The BAU team all watched as he paced back and forth around the room. Mostly everyone was sitting around the table, except for Derek, and Reid, who was leaning against the wall. Hotch sat across from her with his head in his hands, trying to think. Elle and Gideon simply watched Derek pace back and forth, back and forth. Caroline was too focused on the photos to bother watching.
He was right. She saw all the behavioral tells—fear, horror, panic. But she wasn't seeing any pleasure or enjoyment from any bystander. Which meant either the unsub was a very good liar or he wasn't there, which also meant he didn't watch the fire and therefore, the profile was wrong.
"When asked about his motives, Peter Dinsdale said, 'I am devoted to fire. Fire is my master.'" Reid stated in a matter-of-factly tone.
Derek sighed. "Okay, so who was our boy's master?" He pulled out a lighter from his pocket and flicked it to life, examining the small orange and yellow flame. "10,000 plus students and one has a serious fascination with fire." He shut off the lighter and shoved it back into his pocket.
"Fire starting is one-third of the homicidal triad—an early predictor of adult dissociative criminal behavior." Elle remarked. "If we looked into his childhood, we'd probably find all three. Bedwetting and cruelty to animals."
Gideon stood up slowly, rubbing his hands together as he thought. "Absent or a divine father, trouble with the opposite sex, chronic low self-esteem—the M.O. would be dynamic." He began to walk around the room as he spoke. "Evolving. As the fire setting escalates, they thrive on panic, fear. It's just the standard profile of a serial arsonist."
