Fresh Eyes, New Mind (CRIMINAL MINDS FANFICTION)

Chapter 3 : Solved |EDITED|

Nicki's POV

As soon a we landed, everyone split off into the SUVs with the groups of people that were assigned to different locations throughout the area. That being said, Prentiss, Reid, and I were together, Emily driving us to the site where the first body was found.

During the drive to the scene, we bounced possible motives off of each other, working as well oiled machine. Most of the ideas that we came up with were based around a figure most likely needing some form of control in his life. This is just going by the fact that all of the victims were young females, typically pointing to someone physically weak, going after someone who would have very little luck in terms of being able to protect themselves against attackers.

Considering that there was no signs of sexual assault on any of the victims, we can assume that he is either motivated by his incompetence, the fact that he can't get it up fueling his anger, or there is a slight chance that he is attracted to men, and angry about it.

Upon arriving at the scene, we noticed a member of the local precinct waiting for us at the edge of the dumpsite. Being that I was the new girl, and technically only temporary agent until further decisions are made, I allowed Prentiss and Reid to take the lead and hung back.

"Officer Jameson," the cop spoke, reaching his hand out to shake each of ours, " you must be from the BAU."

"That we are, officer," Emily responded, "I'm agent Emily Prentiss, that is Dr. Spencer Reid, and she's trial agent Nicoletta Jerone."

Upon seeing the officers hesitance at my introduction title, Emily began to speak again causing a smile to bloom on my face, however small it happened to be.

"Make no mistake, officer," she paused, raising her sunglasses to rest on her head, "although Agent Jerone is trailing in the BAU, she's more qualified for this job. She's only trialing because she is, in fact, overqualified. She could easily work in any unit in the bureau, and is trying to find her best fit team. So do not underestimate her scale because I'm positive my unit chief will not be happy to hear that one of his own is being wrongly treated because of her title. Thank you."

Emily didn't give the poor man a chance to reply before leading us away, leaving the officer a stuttering mess behind us. We walked further into the site, myself taking the initiative to head straight over to the riddle.

IN A PLACE OF STONE, WHERE SILENCE CLOAKS THE GROUND
SEARCH THROUGH ALL THE EMPTY NAMES, AND FINALLY I'LL BE FOUND.

I stared at the wall, allowing the words to truly spoken. I knew if I didn't allow the riddle time to sit in, I would oversimplify it confuse my brain as it handles complexity better than simplicity.

The first part I began to dissect was the silence part. Given that it is apparently silent, it is either is never populated, or very little. Perhaps it simply isn't common to go to often enough. There is a few places that immediately come to mind, abandon buildings, maybe monuments of some sorts. Somewhere someone could pay respect?

I decided to abandon the riddle as it was now committed to memory, so I headed to inspect the area with the other two agents.

"Gather anything useful," I questioned, "or are we left with more questions than answers?"

"Well," Reid responded, "considering this is only the first location, I'd say it's actually a decent amount of information. The scene is organized, but the panic of the unsub was evident on the bodies."

"OK, so clearly, this is our unsub's first time killing," I replied, "but they obviously have a career in some sort of office job. Something that requires a neat and organized environment. I go as far as to say that they might even suffer from an intense form of OCD. Judging by the clean site and although there was clear signs of hesitance on the body, it was still kept decently clean."

"Alright, I'm sold," Emily replied, "but we have some other places to check out. You can bring up your theory to Hotch later."

Hotch's POV

Upon arriving at the precinct, Rossi and I were immediately escorted into a meeting room, where a cork board, a whiteboard, pins, and everything else we would need were waiting.

All of my focus was on pinning the pictures of the victims up, and Dave was supposed to be writing down what we know on the whiteboard.

"How do you think she's doing," he asked, causing my attention to turn to him, "Nicki, I mean?"

"I'm sure she's doing great, Dave," I replied, turning my eyes back to the cork board, "you and I both know that she's more than capable."

I understood his worry. Dave and I met Nicki when she was a little girl, and we both feel as if she is in our respective families. In all honesty, I can't wait for this case to end, because I plan on inviting Nicki over to meet Jack. I know she's a lot older than him, but I really think that she'd be an amazing older sister for him. She's also like the kid Dave never got the chance to have, and he really cherishes her, and very much so cares for her.

"I know she'll be more than fine, Aaron," he spoke, sighing, "but that doesn't stop the unnecessary, paternal worry."

I couldn't help but laugh at that. As a father, I knew exactly what he was talking about. We know that our kids are safe, but no matter how safe we know they are, we will still worry about them, a whole lot.

"If anyone understands that," I paused, turning around to see the doors, "it's me."