CHAPTER EIGHTY-FIVE: PROFILING 101 !

7x22

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IT HAD BEEN A WHILE SINCE CASEY WILLOWS STEPPED FOOT ONTO A COLLEGE CAMPUS. The team had all agreed to speak to some college students about the case of Tommy Yates. Rossi had insisted on doing this himself but Hotch had said otherwise.

The team had all been standing on their little podiums as the college professor spoke to the students. "It's rare that an undergraduate criminology class gets guest speakers of this caliber. But today we're specially fortunate. I'd like to welcome an old friend, esteemed author and FBI Agent David Rossi, and his team, the Behavioral Analysis Unit." The woman introduced.

      "Now, they've agreed to spend an hour of their valuable time talking about what they do and how they do it. So let's make them feel welcome." The class had applauded for them and Casey looked over as the professor looked at Rossi as he stepped up to the stage.

      "Thank you, Dr. Grant," Rossi started. "Now, when she said I was an old friend, she was just referring to the fact that we've known each other for a very long time." There's laughter in the class.

       "Now, as the good Professor said, I am Supervisory Special Agent Rossi." Rossi looked around at his team and pointed to each individual, introducing them. "These are SSAs Jareau, Prentiss, Hotchner, Morgan and Willows." Casey waved at the students. "This is Dr. Spencer Reid. And on keyboards today we have our technical analyst, Ms. Penelope Garcia." Garcia muttered a small 'hi'.

      "At the BAU, we use behavioral science, research, casework, and training to hunt down monsters. Rapists, terrorists, pedophiles, and our specialty, serial killers." Rossi explained as he took his step back onto the podium.

       "Does anybody here know exactly what a serial killer is?" Morgan asks. "Someone who's committed more than one murder." A boy says, raising his hand. "That's very good. By statute, three is the magic number. And it's actually more qualitative than quantitative for us." Morgan told.

       Rossi stepped right back up. "And today we're going to talk about how some serial killers get made. Because if you can understand that, then you can figure out a way to catch them. Garcia." Garcia nods over as she heads towards the computer. "My liege."

      Pictures appear on the screen in front of them. "Okay, this is Rachel Moore, a 17-year-old runaway from Spokane, Washington." JJ explained. "Now, she grew up poor and in a broken home. Her mom left her dad because he liked to drink and beat on them." Rossi added.

     Another picture popped up on screen. "And this is Tina Dyson, a 19-year-old college student from Seattle." JJ spoke again and Rossi took over once more. "Now, she was a trust fund kid, and she got straight As and came from a loving family. Now, these two girls couldn't be any more different. But the one thing that they had in common is they both crossed paths with the most prolific serial killer the BAU has ever seen."

      "One thing you should understand is that no two killers are the same," Reid spoke up. "They each occupy their own point on the behavioral spectrum. Genetics, brain chemistry, psychology, and environment are all factors."

      "But we believe that this particular killer grew up in an environment so adverse that he never had a chance." Hotch explains. "He endured years of cruel and abject physical abuse." Emily added. "As well as horribly profound psychological abuse, adding onto the trauma being endured. When he wasn't being ignored, he was being humiliated." Casey explained and looked over at Reid, who gave the girl a reassuring smile that she was doing good.

      "Now let me be clear," Rossi started again. "Most abused kids do not turn into killers. Not even all psychopaths become killers. But this particular unknown subject, or unsub, suffered extreme abuse, and it has everything to do with why he does what he does."

      Pictures of the crime scenes popped up next on the screen. "Now, these are some of his victims. He kidnapped them, he restrained them, and he starved them for days." Morgan stated. "Then he killed them by mutilating their reproductive organs." Emily added on. "Right now, we know there are at least 40 of them." "But we believe that he may eventually claim over 100 victims." Hotch told.

      "Now, we chose this case for today because we've been discovering bodies up and down the West Coast since 1992." Rossi explained. "For lack of a better word, it's a classic. This unsub's entire childhood was a crucible, and in it, a psychotic killer was forged."

        The team had explained that they first discovered the killer in 1992 in Seattle. Rossi had been a part of this case since then. A couple of times as they began to explain the cases, Rossi kept stepping out and Hotch had followed behind him at one point. But they'd always come back.

      They'd also explained that in 1997, two other bodies  were found and it was definitely their guy. And then again in 2005, but the cases went cold soon after. "It would be four years before we got another break." Hotch stated. "Not too long after, I came out of retirement." Rossi added.

      Casey remembered the day they got the case.

      Casey hadn't officially been a part of the team yet and her only job was being their intern and getting them coffee and following them around like a puppy dog. JJ was still a press liaison and Rossi had just come out of retirement. She had remembered when she came back with everyone's coffee and was walking in around the same time as Rossi and they both saw everyone's sorrowed faces.

      "What'd I miss?" Casey asked.

      "Rochelle Jenkins, a 40-year-old prostitute was found dumped in an alley in Seattle." JJ informed the team. "She was given a complete hysterectomy." Reid added.

       "Her vocal cords were cut out, too." Emily added on and Rossi sighed as he looked at the files. "He's back where he got started." Morgan added, "He'll be on the hunt for a low-risk victim in her 40s next."

        "Who?" Casey asked.

        "The Womb Raider." Reid told, refreshing Casey's memory and Casey thought about it. She remembered Rossi and Gideon mentioning something to her about this case in the past. "Ohhh." Casey said.

        "I wonder what brought him home." Rossi told. "It's a long trip. We should get going." Hotch stated. "Willows, you're coming with." Casey nodded and stated behind as she followed with Reid. "This one seems serious." She said. Reid took a deep breath and nodded.

       "But this time we were ready for him." Rossi told. "We wanted to use the press to our advantage. So we came up with what's called a targeted media strategy." JJ told. They had showed a clip of the press conference and had tried to make the unsub believe that they caught the wrong guy.

       "So you did catch him." A student stated. "No," Rossi said. "But we wanted him to think we caught the wrong guy."

       "Why?" Another student asked.

       "To give him a false sense of security." Rossi told. "If he thinks we messed up, then maybe he relaxes and makes a mistake." Casey added, "That, or he gets angry because he thinks someone else is stealing his thunder." Hotch nods; "Either way, the aim of the strategy is the throw the killer off course." JJ continued, "Otherwise, all we're doing is reacting to him, and we needed him to react to us."

      The team had been on the jet, going over the case. "He's been moving south this whole time. He could have gone east or bounced back up north, but no, always south." Rossi stated. "Almost like he's running from something." Emily told. "Well, he's running from us." Morgan shrugged.

      "But why go back home now, after all these years?" Rossi asked. "Something could've brought him back." Casey assumes.

       "Rochelle Jenkins was in her 40s, so we can assume he is, too." Emily tells. "Okay, so why do people come home at that age?" JJ asks. "Family, special occasions, funeral." Reid assumes.

      "Wait a minute. You guys have your own jet?" A boy, who's name Rossi had gotten, asked. "Yes, Zimmerman, as a matter of fact, we do." Rossi nodded. He had Garcia pull up a picture of the jet.

      "Hey, guys, a missing persons report just came in. 42 years old," Garcia spoke to the team. "Grace Powell, mother of two, went out for girls night, never came home."

     "That's gotta be him." Casey tells. "Garcia, where did he take her from?" Rossi asks and Garcia does her magic.

      "I recognized the place immediately. It was hard to forget." Rossi told.

    Casey remembered going with the team to the crime scene. "This is where he took Tina Dyson from in '92. This restaurant was a dive bar." Rossi explained.

       "A dive bar?" JJ asked.
       "In this neighborhood?" Casey asked.
       "Things were different then." Rossi shrugged.

     "He didn't just come back home. He returned to the exact same spot." Reid tells. "But why here? What is it about this place?" Emily asked. "It's where he grabbed one of his first kills. The first ones are always significant to the unsub." Casey stated, the team all looking her way.

       "What?" Casey asked.
       "You're gonna make a good profiler one day, kid." Rossi told and Casey smiles a bit.

      "And this is where my particular skill set comes in handy," Garcia told as she spoke in front of the college kids. "See, I am like one of those wonderful people in prison movies that can get you anything you need." The kids laughed. "And we needed to know everything there was to know about this particular part of the city. So I went honey badger. I dug up police reports, news articles, parking tickets, even. If anything went down in that area in the last forty years, I knew about it. And I found zip. Zero. Stingy with the dinero. Couple of Fender-benders. A bar fight. There was a homeless guy who was into mooning people, but no life-changers. So I extended my search another 10 years and I found this."

       Garcia continues, "This is a police report from 1966, where a 16-year-old girl was found raped in a parked car on that street. But she was a minor, so her name wasn't listed on the report."

      "Well, what's this girl got to do with a serial killer?" A boy asked.

       "Pump your brakes, sweetcakes, 'cause I'm bringing it home." Garcia told, getting laughter from the crowd. "It turns out that Jane Doe, instead of given a name, she was given a patient number. So I tracked that number, and it turned out that she went back to that hospital several times after... for prenatal care." Garcia explained and Rossi nodded, "And she eventually brought that baby to term. She hemorrhaged badly during childbirth, and during her emergency hysterectomy she died."

        "It was at that point that I was able to find the corresponding death certificate and get her name." Garcia told. "Georgina Yates."

       "Her son, Thomas Yates, survived. He was put into the custody of his grandparents, Trudy and Roy Yates, Georgina's parents. When we started looking at Thomas... we knew." Rossi told.

        "Growing up, he got kicked out of two schools, both times for starting fires." Garcia informed and JJ stepped up next. "Fire-starting is the first part of what we used to call the homicidal triad. The other two parts are bedwetting and cruelty to animals."

        Garcia continued, "He was also in the emergency room a lot as a kid. He had a broken arm, burns, he broke a rib once." Emily added, "So, he was either very clumsy or he was being beaten."

        "Then when he was fifteen, he committed his first murder. He was a skinny kid who snapped and stabbed a bully at school. And he was convicted, served three years in juvie and another seven in prison, and then he was released on parole." Casey explained.

       "But when he was on the inside, he spilled his guts to the prison shrink," Morgan told. "He talked about how his grandmother would starve him and make him sleep in the dog house. How she would beat him senseless... and sit on him until he couldn't breathe."

        "And you actually believed this guy?" A college student asked. "The prison psychiatrist concluded that Thomas was telling the truth." Hotch's cell phone buzzed and he walked off. "His childhood medical records also corroborated this story." Emily told.

      "And at that point we realized it wasn't the mother but the grandmother who was the object of his rage." Morgan revealed.

       "Then I find out his grandfather had just died, and his grandmother had lung cancer and she had just been admitted into hospice care." Garcia concluded it. "And that is what started the killings." Casey told and looked Garcia's way. "Seriously, we would be useless without her, she's like a magician." That earned a laugh from the crowd as Garcia smiled, "Thank you, fair maiden."

        Casey remembered when Hotch had told her to go with Emily and JJ to speak with Trudy Yates. She was in a wheelchair in a hospice facility. "Excuse me, uh, Mrs. Trudy Yates?" Emily asked.

      "Who are you?" Trudy questioned.
      "I'm Agent Prentiss. This is Agent Jareau and Miss Casey Willows." Casey gave a small smile at the woman in greeting. "We're with the FBI."

       "FBI?" Trudy questioned. "You got the right Trudy Yates?" JJ nodded, "Yes, I'm pretty sure we do, ma'am. You're Thomas' grandmother, right?"

       "What about it?" Trudy asked. "We're looking for him." Emily told. "Tommy? He in trouble? What'd he do this time?" Trudy questioned.

        "Do you know where he is?" Casey asked. Trudy shook her head, "No idea." Emily added, "When was the last time you saw him?" Trudy scoffed, "The day he put me in this damn place."

       "My daughter's womb was cursed. That boy was a bastard born in sin. Nothing good comes out of sin." The three looked at one another and they knew that he was definitely the object of Tommy's rage. And there was good reasoning to support their evidence.

       They'd revealed to the college students that they had caught the man some after and put him into custody. "How come I've never heard of this guy?" Zimmerman asked. "Have you ever heard of Efren Saldivar?" Morgan asked. "No." Zimmerman answers. "David Parker Ray," Morgan continued. "How about John Edward Robinson?" No answers.

       "See, at any given time, we have at least 25 open cases. Every year we're able to close around 15, yet new ones still seem to pop up. There are more serial killers out there than you may think." Morgan explained.

       "But we finally had Yates in custody, and we questioned him for two weeks straight. We all took turns. He didn't say a word." Rossi explained. "Never asked for a bathroom break, glass of water, nothing." JJ told.

       "I thought given his M. O., being female, I might be able to strike a nerve, get him to open up, but he just sat there, for hours." Emily told. "We even sent in our intern at the time, given that the original M.O., he was killing younger girls and we thought maybe it would trigger something in him." Rossi stated and Casey nodded, remembering. "He didn't say a single word to me."

      "Staying absolutely silent under that kind of pressure was a skill he undoubtedly learned as a child. He was rendered silent for so long, it became a conditioned response." Reid explained and Morgan nodded, "But we had him safely in custody. And we had other cases to solve." Hotch added on, "Eventually Yates was tried and he received the death penalty."

       "And life went on," Rossi told, "Then two years ago today... I got a call. It was Tommy Yates himself."

       "He called you personally? How'd he get your number?" A college student questioned and Hotch answers with: "Probably from his attorney."

       "What did he want?" Another student asked. "He wanted to make a deal, and I was the only one he would make it with." Rossi explained that Yates gave him a list of the victims and that every year, on a day of his choosing, he would reveal the location of the body of the victim.

       "We checked the list he gave us, and then we went out to the locations where he said he'd dumped the bodies, and we found all forty." Rossi explained. "Did you actually make a deal with that maniac?" A college student asked. "We did. Not to bend to his will, but to bring the families of the victims some peace. I'd been on the case so long, I felt obligated to contact each of the families personally."

      "Does it ever get hard dealing with all that tragedy?" Another college student questioned. "You know, it's funny," Rossi started. "Some cases, they end well, so you can forget them. And some, like this one... they become a part of you."

        "Dead kids. Mutilated bodies. It's all so horrible. How do you do it?" Casey thought about the question herself. She had been shot multiple times, kidnapped, stalked and lost someone she loved because of this job. If she knew it all and how it would end up for her, would she do it all over again? It was a question she was asking herself a lot recently.

         "Irish statesman and author Edmund Burke once wrote, 'The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.'" Rossi told. "This job isn't just what I do, it's who I am."

        "Is it worth it?"

        "For every life we save? Damn right it is."

        "Absolutely, it's worth it." Morgan told.
        "I can't imagine doing anything else." Reid added.

        Casey thought for a second before delivering her answer. "Going into the FBI has been my dream since I was eight years old... and yes, there are a lot of hardships, but... in the end, it's all worth it." The answer to her question was — yes, she would do it all over again. In a heartbeat if it meant she was saving a life.

        Zimmerman raised his hand. "Yes, Mr. Zimmerman." Rossi spoke. "So, you have to go visit this guy every year to get the name of another victim." Rossi nodded, "That's right." Zimmerman asked, "So what was the special day of his choosing?"

        It was then that Rossi revealed that the day of his choosing had been his birthday, which was today.

       After exchanged glances and they were done with speaking to the students and the professor, the team all followed behind Rossi outside of the building.

      "You really don't want us to go with you?" Emily asked. "It's no trouble at all." Reid assured. "No, it's okay." Rossi shook his head, walking down the steps. "Rossi, it's like two hours away." JJ tries.

       "Come on, I can drive. I'll get us there in less than an hour." Morgan tried. "Let me drive, I'll get us there less than thirty." Casey jokes. "And what makes you think you're getting on the freeway, driving the way you do?" Morgan questions, jokingly. "I'm good, really." Rossi assured.

       "We could stop for dinner on the way home." Garcia tells and Rossi stopped in front of the team. "Stop," He told. "All of you. I'll be fine."

       "We'll see you tomorrow." Hotch told and Rossi nodded, "You bet." They all watched as he walked to his car and Garcia muttered: "Ohh, is he gonna be okay?"

       "Of course he is," Emily told. "It's Rossi."

the fact that we're almost done with this book is literally terrifying lol
anywayssss
i made the cover for the sequel and the gifs and the aesthetics and i'm LITERALLY SO EXCITEDDDD
we're almost done with s7😭
anywaysss
this episode was kinda boring butttt mullet reid🫶
-mya <333

p.s. quick question: how do y'all feel about smut??? 👀