Loaded Smile ~ Chapter 2

Chapter 2

            By the time Derek finally arrived at the location, Rossi was all ready waiting for him. Derek parked the black SUV behind Rossi’s and hopped out. He headed over to where Rossi was waiting on the sidewalk.

            “Good to see you, Rossi,” Derek said in greeting.

            “Same to you,” Hotch said you got a lead on another person who saw the victim before they were found dead.”

            “Yeah, it was a second homeless person. A young woman who was apparently the one that tackled the victim when he tried to make off with the singer’s wallet,” Derek replied.

            “Oh really? So either a good Samaritan, a possible suspect or a possible future victim.”

            “If she turns out to be the first or the last or both then she could help in ways that might help us catch this guy before he kills again. I don’t see her being the one to take these men and women on alone. According to Mr. Lambert, the girl might only be about five foot, maybe a little over and wears glasses. Not exactly someone that could easily overtake a grown man or woman unless there is a partner we haven’t accounted for.”

            “That’s true, if there’s an accomplice then it makes overwhelming an individual, especially a lone homeless person, much easier,” Rossi said as he looked around. “So this is the area that the girl was last seen?”

            “Yes it was, so she was either passing by or found some shelter nearby that she lives in.”

            “Looks like we have to start asking nearby businesses if they’ve seen her.”

            Rossi and Morgan headed off down the street and began describing the young woman they were looking for. Most places they came across didn’t know her and didn’t care. Others thought that they might have seen her in one place or another.

            Eventually, they walked into a small market on the opposite side from where they started.

            Rossi headed up to the counter and flashed his badge.

            “Excuse me sir, are you the owner here?”

            “Yes I am. What do you want?” the man asked suspiciously.

            “We just need to ask if you’ve seen a girl here before. She’d be a young woman around five feet tall, brown hair, and wears glasses. Also she is a homeless person that goes by the name Catherine.”

            The man narrowed his eyes. “Did she do something wrong?”

            “We just need to question her to find out what she knows about the homeless man that was found murdered a few blocks from here. Apparently, she was one of the last people to see him alive and we are hoping she can help us stop this from happening.”

            The man looked at him closely for a moment. “Just a moment,” he said before heading out from behind the counter and heading into the back through the employee door.

            “Looks like we might have caught a break,” Morgan said.

            Minutes later, the owner of the store came back through the door but this time there was someone following him.

            It was a young woman. Her long brown hair was in obvious need of cleaning and washing but she had managed to tie it back. Her glasses had a slight crack in them and while her clothes bore some dirt and grime the rest of her body looked pretty clean. The only odd mark on her was a bruise on the right side of her face. As she approached Rossi and Morgan, it was apparent that she was shorter than she seemed because she still kept her chin up and had some confidence that made her seem bigger.

            “Mr. Hale told me you were looking for me?” the young woman said with confusion in her voice that did carry the formal education that the singer had spoken of.

            “Are you Catherine?” Rossi asked.

            “I am. Who are you and what do you want? I need to finish the job I started for Mr. Hale,” Catherine replied.

            “You work here?” Morgan asked.

            “She and I have a deal. She comes and does whatever chores I need done around here and then instead of paying her I tell her how much she has in store credit so she can get the things she needs,” Mr. Hale answered.

            Catherine nodded. “I have a good deal here. I don’t want to mess it up by leaving a job undone.”

            “I’m Agent Rossi and this is Agent Morgan from the FBI,” Rossi offered to answer part of her question.

            “Do you know a man named Gary Sanders?” Morgan asked.

            “The last name isn’t familiar to me but I do know a Gary,” Catherine replied.

            “Was he a homeless man?”

            Catherine looked suspicious and worried as she replied, “Yeah… Why do you ask?” She looked between the pair.

            “Gary Sanders was found dead in an alleyway this morning,” Rossi said calmly.

            Catherine’s jaw dropped and her face paled at the news.

            “Gary….Gary’s dead? Wha…what happened to him?” Catherine said though somewhat shaken by the news.

            “So you didn’t know?” Rossi asked.

            Catherine looked at Rossi and seemed to be gathering herself to speak. “After he took off after that guy gave him some money, I went to try and find him. Try and tell him that there was a better way than stealing from people but I couldn’t find him. I felt bad for him. Gary was new to being homeless and he wasn’t taking it well. Most don’t in the beginning.”

            By the time she finished talking she had regained her composure but there was still fear in her eyes and a tension to the way she held herself that she couldn’t quite hide.

            “We would like you to come down to the station and look over the photos to confirm if this is the guy you know and to answer some more questions,” Morgan said politely and softly.

            Catherine opened her mouth to say something and stopped. Then she looked over to Mr. Hale.

            Mr. Hale smiled softly to her. “I’ll give you a free pass this time. Come back later and we can work out something.”

            She slowly nodded and then looked back to the men.

            “I guess I’m okay to go then…” Catherine looked a bit unsure again.

            “Right this way then, Catherine,” Morgan headed over to the door and opened it up for her as they led her out to the waiting cars on the other side of the block.

            Back at the police station, J.J. was filling Hotch in on what Doctor Reid and she had found.

            “The Chief was right. There are tons of gaps here in time were there isn’t a single report of a homeless person missing or of any other suspicious deaths of homeless people. Most of the ones here are OD’s or suicides. Apart from the ones we were informed of, there doesn’t seem to be any new information,” J.J. explained.

            “So either there are bodies that haven’t been discovered yet or we found the beginning of when the unsub started killing the homeless people and the only way we can get any farther back is to discover the unsub’s past,” Hotch said as he looked over the files. “What else do we know about the area the bodies have been dumped in?”

            “As Garcia mentioned, it’s a pretty small geographic area. Either the area means something to the unsub personally or it’s just the easiest place to dump a body that won’t be found too quickly afterwards.”

            That was when Reid came back into the room with the coroner’s reports that he set on the table.

            “After looking at the coroner’s reports, this unsub either has basic medical training or they are using some kind of book to help them perform their actions,” Reid concluded.

            “What makes you say that?” Hotch asked.

            “In looking at the ones who had their eyes cut out. While it seems clean on the outside, the inside of the sockets have what looked like to be hesitation cuts. But I think the unsub is not used to doing this kind of procedure but knows the mechanics of how it’s done. The tools used on the wrists to cut off the hands wasn’t a sharp saw blade or sawing tool like one might find at an emergency room but something that wasn’t well kept up and didn’t make a clean cut. By the lack of blood flow, it was apparent the body parts were taken long after the victim was dead.”

            “So that rules out torture,” Hotch summarized.

            “But if the unsub isn’t immediately cutting these people up then he has to be holding them alive somewhere before he kills them,” J.J. said.

            Hotch looked to Reid. “What did the coroner say the cause of death was?”

            Reid looked back over the reports for the one he was looking for as he began to read, “according to the coroner, they found a small mark on the arm of each of the victim presumably from a needle. The tox(sp?) screen showed a lethal dose of heroin in their system.”

            “So the unsub holds them for a short time, then manages to inject heroin into their system. That would actually cause a numb feeling while the victim is dying,” J.J. said with surprise in her voice.

            “The unsub isn’t killing them in a brutal way. There are enough poisons out there that would cause pain but the unsub chooses one that is calming. Like he’s putting them to rest,” Reid offered. “Maybe there is a religious angle to this. If the unsub sees themselves as the savior of those committing sins, then he wouldn’t see this as murder but a mercy killing. The unsub is absolving them of their sins and trying to send them to heaven.”

            “If that is the case then we have something to work with when Rossi and Morgan come in with another possible witness,” Hotch said as he rose from the chair.

            “Another witness?” J.J. asked.

            “Apparently, the act of a homeless woman being the one to stop a man from robbing a singer wasn’t sensational enough. But according to the singer, that’s exactly what happened. Morgan and Rossi located the girl and are bringing her in. They should be here any moment,” Hotch answered.

            In the distance, the voices of Rossi and Morgan could be heard entering the station.

            The group in the meeting room rose to look at the girl they had brought in.

            Rossi had moved off to get an interview room ready while Morgan was waiting near the front of the station with the homeless girl they had picked up. He was talking to her as they stood there and she shook her head at something he said.

            Reid looked closely at the girl as she turned to look around the police station. His genius mind flashed back to a memory upon seeing her face. He remembered her. Quickly, he strode out of the meeting area with Hotch and J.J asking after him. However, he moved up towards Morgan and the young woman but stopping just out of reach as he looked down at her.

            Morgan and the young woman turned to look at him at his sudden arrival.

            Catherine looked at him studying his face before tilting her head slightly. “You seem…familiar.”

            Morgan looked between the pair looking confused as Hotch and J.J came up behind Reid and Rossi came back over from the interrogation room.

            “What is it Reid?” Hotch asked.

            Catherine looked shocked for the second time that day.

            “Reid? Spencer Reid?” Catherine asked.

            “Hello Catherine,” Reid said with a shy smile that Catherine returned with a full smile.

            “Reid, you know this woman?” Morgan asked.

            Reid looked to Morgan. “Yes I do.” He looked back to Catherine. “This is Catherine Harmon. We went to college together.”

Minutes later, the team found themselves gathered together watching Reid sitting with Catherine in the interrogation room. Neither side seemed to be saying much from what they could see.

            “What are the odds of Reid actually knowing someone from this case?” Morgan asked.

            “Reid doesn’t share much of himself with us. Like the case back in Las Vegas. He might have blocked even this part of his life away from himself only to have it come back when he saw Catherine,” Rossi replied as a way of offering a possible explanation.

            “In any case, Reid is going to be the best one to get her to open up about what she knows. She trusts him. Maybe enough to help us out,” Hotch said as he watched the pair.