Untouchable

Jenna Borge

Waking up in a hospital was not Lydia's idea of a good time.

Not as a broke college student. And especially not when she had no recollection of injuring herself. In fact, she couldn't even remember falling asleep. It was like she had blinked and found herself horizontal... Not great.

She tried to pull herself together enough to figure out what was wrong. Other than her head being fuzzy, she couldn't seem to find any injuries on herself. Perhaps she'd passed out? But if that were the case, Jenna would have given her some water and put her to bed. What would warrant a trip to the hospital?

"Lydia Ambers?" A woman asked, pulling her attention to the door. "My name is Detective Richards. I have a few questions for you."

Oh shit...

~ ~ ~

"Last night, in Santa Cruz, California, college student Jenna Borge was stabbed multiple times in her dorm room. Her roommate, Lydia Ambers, was sedated with antipsychotics, but otherwise unharmed."

"So, it's personal," Morgan inferred.

"You would think that," JJ agreed. "Only, this doesn't look to be his first kill. Two months ago, a recent graduate from UC Santa Cruz, Elizabeth Chang, was stabbed and killed while walking home from work. Six months before that, Lucy Max was found in an alleyway. The first two girls were assumed to have been victims of muggings, but now with Jenna's death, the Santa Cruz PD are thinking it's a serial killer."

"Any connection between the victims?" Elle asked, but JJ shook her head.

"Nothing but age and gender. These girls were of different races, social standings, and Lucy was a college student at a different school than Elizabeth and Jenna. It's highly unlikely that these girls have any friends in common."

"Why leave the roommate alive then?" It was Reid this time, looking through the information on his file. "If our unsub has no preference for the girls he picks, why not kill her too? And the fact that he had the tranquilizer handy means he knew she would be there and had planned ahead of time not to kill her."

"So, our unsub has some sort of connection with these girls. He's killing these girls for a reason. The question is, what reason?" Gideon finished, standing up to leave. "Let's go to California."

~ ~ ~

"I need you to tell me everything you remember," Detective Richards said, sitting beside Lydia's bed.

"What's going on?" Lydia demanded. "Why am I here?"

"I really need to know what you know before I tell you anything," the woman explained, unhelpfully.

"I don't know anything! I swear, the last thing I remember was studying in my room."

"Was your roommate there?"

Lydia huffed. She didn't get it. Something was going on, something bad, likely having to do with the fact that she ended up in a hospital with no apparent injuries. And the only person who knew was being passive and dodging her questions.

The last time she'd had to deal with the police like this, they'd been as blunt as a hammer. Sixteen-year-old Lydia had no clue what was coming and they swept the rug out from underneath her. She had felt like she was drowning, being asked a thousand questions before their words could sink in.

Somehow, Detective Richards was worse.

"Yes. My roommate was trying to sleep."

"And was there anyone else in the room with you?"