CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR: CLUE !

5x20
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     CASEY WILLOWS WAS FINALLY READY TO TAKE A BREAK. After returning to work for five weeks, she was already ready for a break again. This time, she was going with Emily for a while Sin-To-Win weekend in Atlantic City. She was pretty excited for it.

      Casey was cleaning up a bit when JJ walked in the room and Emily spoke to her: "Hey, have a good weekend, JJ." JJ turned around and showed them a file, indicating that everyone was stuck at work once more. "Sorry." She apologized.

       Everyone took a defeated sigh. "Damn it." Casey comments. "There goes my beach house rental." Morgan states. "And Casey and I's non-refundable Sin-To-Win weekend in Atlantic City." Emily told and Casey smushed her face up in defeat. "Sin-To-Win?" Morgan asks.

      "Yeah," Emily sighs. "And I always win big." She smirks and Casey stands up, following her into the office. "I didn't have any plans." Reid commented and Casey stops and looks at Reid.

      "We have got to get you a girlfriend." Casey tells.

      "Why don't you volunteer yourself, Willows?" Morgan comments and both Casey and Reid go red. "I'll-I'll pass." Casey says as she walks away.

The team had been explained to by JJ that a college student had gone missing and that a man had killed himself and he had tattoos of previous victims' faces on his body. The man's body hadn't been moved yet and the team was going to be checking in on him now.

They had arrived at a warehouse that the man's body had been found. "Oh, this heat is brutal." Morgan commented and he was right about that. It was seriously hot compared to Quantico. "You know, it isn't so much the heat as it is the humidity." Reid stated. "At some point it doesn't matter how you look at it, it all sucks." Morgan told.

"FBI?" A man approached the team. "Yes, sir." Hotch nodded. The man held his hand out and introduced himself. "Hi, John Barton, Tallahassee PD. I'm the primary on the missing girl, Rebecca Daniels. I got my files in the car if you need them." The man explained.

"I'm Agent Hotchner," Hotch introduced. "This is Agent Rossi, Agent Prentiss, Dr. Reid, Agent Morgan, Agent Willows and Agent Jareau."

"Yeah, we spoke on the phone." JJ shook the man's hand. "Yeah, hey, thanks a lot for coming out so quickly. I appreciate that. I've also confirmed that all the women are victims from around the Southeast... Florida, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama." John began to lead the team to the warehouse.

"And Rebecca's the only woman on the wall who's not represented on his body?" Hotch questioned. "Yeah, she's the only one." They had reached the place and before Barton opened the door, he looked at the team. "Hope you have a strong stomach."

Everyone walked in and the smell was agonizing. Casey let out a cough. The body was already rotting through the warehouse. "The chair was turned like that?" Hotch asked. "This is exactly the way you found him?"
Barton nodded, "Yeah."

"Talk about staging." Morgan comments. "Talk about ego." Emily added. Casey was handed gloves and began to put them on. "There's also a couple boxes with or composition books. They're filled with writing. We haven't been through them yet other than to dust them for prints." Barton explains.

"Have you identified him?" Rossi asked. "We're working on it," Barton states. "Uh, we got a rush on the DNA and the prints. He's cleared locally, but it's gonna take some time to get the national records." Casey looked up and began to speak. "What about property records?" She asked.

"I talked to the owner. She said she rented it a couple weeks ago to a quiet, normal-looking guy named Bob. He said he wanted to store some equipment and he paid in cash." Barton explained. "They're always normal." Rossi comments. "No lease?" Emily asked next.

"Uh, month to month, no. Out here in the boonies, you don't get a lot of, uh, record-keeping types." Barton says. "Especially when it comes to cash transactions, I bet." Morgan added. "He's no kid, yet the missings go back only ten years?" Rossi asks. "As far as I could tell." Barton says. "Late bloomer." Rossi added.

"You see this a lot, uh, these guys killing themselves?"Barton questions. "Most serial killers who commit suicide do it in prison after they're caught." Reid tells. "Well, maybe he was already in jail once. Probably didn't wanna go back." Casey stated.

"JJ, gather as much information about the prior victims as you can. Morgan, Willows and Prentiss, take the journals. Dave, you and Reid, the tattoos. See if he left any clues about where Miss Daniels might be."

With that, the team split up in their groups. The man had written at least a hundred journals with all of this information about himself and the girls he killed and the three knew there was no way they were gonna get through all of it in time. They had all gotten an idea once Casey looked in Reid's direction and Morgan and Emily had the same idea as her.

      "Hey, Reid?" Casey asked and Reid's head perked up. "Can you come here for a sec?" Reid begin to walk up to the three. "What's up?" He asks.

      "Our man here was a prolific journaler." Morgan spoke. "With teeny tiny handwriting." Emily added. "He probably had counseling at some point when journaling was part of his therapy." Reid stated. "That's what we were thinking." Casey said and everyone began to stare at Reid. "And?" Reid sighed, knowing where this was going.

      "And, uh, well, you know, the three of us, it would take us like three days to read all of this stuff." Morgan told. "Yeah, if only we knew a, uh, tall scrawny dude that could read 20,000 words per minute." Casey stated.

       Reid looked at the three and scrunched his lip together. "You guys owe me." He told and Morgan handed him a journal and Emily pulled a chair out for him. "Don't worry, I'll do your paperwork for three weeks." Casey told.

       "Three weeks? This guy has like, ten years worth of writing." Reid says. "Well, then you better get started now." Casey smirked as she walked away from the man.

        Hotch had gathered everyone up to discuss. "So what do we know so far?" He asked. "He wanted the police here. He wanted us to see all this." Rossi told. "And he was definitely a sadist. From what we saw, his journals were graphic and meticulous." Morgan added. "Covering himself with his victims' likeness is methodical, possessive. He'll always own them." Rossi tells.

        "And the suicide shows commitment." Emily tells. "He's organized and compulsive. The crimes are on an annual cycle." Hotch added. "Computer printouts on the board, they were all printed on the same day... two weeks ago." JJ told. "That's when he rented the building and decided to move everything into it. It's a history of his crimes. He wanted us to find everything that he did." Casey explained.

      "So, he did all of this in 2 weeks." Emily told. "He got away with it for 10 years. He could have kept going. But he decides to end it all and hand everything to us." Hotch tells and suddenly Reid stands up from the crate he was sitting on. "That's it... everything." He says. "Everything."

       "Reid?" Hotch asks. "Everything," Reid says. "His body, the tattoos, the clippings, the printout, the journals. He moved it all into one room. Like Casey said, he wanted us to see all of it. See all of him... his work... the women, he put them in chronological order. He's screaming, 'look at me.'" Reid explained all of it.

      "We all got that." Rossi says. "No, but think about it. If you take a step back, it sort of makes sense. It's just a confession. A giant, flashy confession. What would we say if an unsub turned himself in to the police before they were even onto him?" Reid asked.

      "That he was trying to hide something." Casey answered. "Or someone." Hotch added and Casey looked over at him for a second before looking away. It was obvious they still weren't on speaking terms.

      "He made a mistake... in his third book. I almost missed it, but then I caught it." Reid looked at the journal again. "'I thought it would take longer, but today was the lucky day. She almost walked right by, almost missed her completely, but at the last moment, we found our latest guest.'" Reid read from the journal.

       "'We'." JJ repeated. "He has a partner." Reid says. "He put everything in this room so we wouldn't look further, wouldn't dig even deeper." Rossi pieced. "He would've assumed we had everything we needed and moved on." Casey added.

       "If he has a partner, he's still out there, and he's got Rebecca Daniels." Hotch stated.

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       The rest of the team had waited outside as Rossi and Casey stuck around as they were packing the body up and taking pictures of the corpse. The two had decided to call Garcia to see if she had any new info on tattoo artists in town. "Fair maiden, please tell me you called because the case is over and I can erase this freakity-freak off my otherwise uber-delicious desktops." Garcia told.

      "Long way to go," Casey told. "I am into epidermartistry as much as the next Gen X'r, but this guy... eesh. I'm just glad he's not breathing the same air as you, my fine furry friends." Garcia told. "Agreed." Casey stated.

      "What have you found out about tattoo artists down here?" Rossi asked. "That the state of Florida requires  licensing for all skin illustrators, but... and I am not going to elaborate on how I know this... not everyone in the body art lifestyle goes through official channels."

       "All right, we'll start with the legit ones and see if anyone recognizes the work." Rossi says. "I shall send the list to your PDA." Garcia tells. "Thanks, Pen." Casey hangs up the phone.

        "Epidermartistry?" Rossi questions. "You know, I'm a pretty smart person but... is that a word?" Casey asks. "Well, you know Penelope." Rossi comments and Casey shrugs. The two exit the building to meet up with the rest of their team — well, with JJ, Emily and Morgan, at least. Reid was still reading the journals inside and Barton and Hotch were having a discussion.

         Rossi had taken his jacket off and so did Casey it was extremely stuffy, even outside. "It's like 110 out here and it feels like a refrigerator compared to their warehouse." Rossi stated. "Seriously, it's like living in a sauna. This is why I prefer the cold." Casey told.

        "How's Reid doing?" Morgan asked. "It doesn't even seem to faze him." Rossi told. "He's just sitting there in that corner turning pages." Casey added. "Yeah, Reid goes to another place when he reads." Casey nodded along to JJ's sentence.

         "I've got the addresses of the major tattoo parlors in Tallahassee. That work is pretty detailed. Someone might recognize it." Rossi looks over towards Emily. "You want to go check these out with me?" Emily shrugs, "Sounds fun." The two begin to walk down the hill and Hotch approaches JJ, Morgan and Casey.

        "Hey, so, uh, I got a few more hours out of the media." JJ told. "Well, we'll take what we can get." Hotch says. "Prentiss and Rossi are going to check out some tattoo parlors." Morgan informed.

         Casey took one look at Hotch and decided that she couldn't stand to be in the same circle as him, now. "Well, I should go back in. Should do some, uh, light reading with Reid." With that, she decided to go back in the warehouse. Morgan and JJ didn't know what was up between the two of them and wanted to know but obviously, the case was more important and they would deal with the matter later.

        Hours had passed and Casey had been helping Reid with the reading. She didn't enjoy reading these journals — seeing as the man was going into detail about murdering the women, but it had to be done. "Oh, no, no, that's not right." Reid spoke up and Casey's head perked up. "What's up?" She asked.

       "Hey, guys, it isn't the only blank space." Reid stood up. "What do you mean?" Morgan asked. "The spot on his chest where we assumed Rebecca's portrait would go? In the journal, he talks about filling in the last space, how once he does that the artwork will be complete." Reid explains.

        "And?" Barton asks. "It isn't the only blank space. In his back, in the middle of that tree is a giant open spot. Why would he talk about completing the artwork when he hasn't? I need to see the body again." Reid tells. "I'll go with you." JJ volunteers. "Yeah, I'll come with, too." Casey says.

        "I'll call the M.E. and let 'em know you're on your way." Hotch says and the three take the trip down to the morgue to look at the body again.

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        The three arrived at the morgue and Reid was examining the body. "If these tattoos are a fetish, what enjoyment does he get out of the ones on his back? He can't even see them." JJ says. "You know what? There's something here. I can feel the raised ink." Reid looked up at the employee. "Do you have a black light scanner?" The woman nodded. "Thanks."

      "Right there, see?" Casey had placed a hand where Reid's hand was and knew what he was talking about. "Yeah, what is that?" Casey asked. Reid had taken the black light scanner. "I've read about this. Tattoos put on with invisible ink so that no one can see them. Oh, man. Can you, uh, turn the lights down?"

      The lights were turned down and the tattoos were clearly seen. "Look, there's one over here, too." Lines were seen trailing all over his body. "They're all connected to the faces." JJ stated. "They lead to the blank spot." Reid told, pulling his hair back. "What is that?" Casey asked, pointing to the blank space.

      "It's an embryo in a womb." JJ told and Casey noticed the baby on the back. "The partner's a woman," Reid told. "And they're having a baby." Casey finished.

       In the end, the partner was found. The woman had been visiting her father in prison and suddenly started visiting the unsub and once he was released, they began to start dating and started a new life together. Rebecca was found at the house they were staying at and the woman had given birth to her son and died from blood loss.

       The team had now been on their way home on the jet and Casey and Reid had been playing cards. The two sat in silence — both trying to figure out the other's moves. "Three cards, please." Casey spoke and Reid handed the girl the cards. "Three cards for the lady. And I'm gonna take one card."

"Ooh, one card. A straight or a flush, Doc, what are you trying to fill in?" Casey asked. "Well, considering the odds of filling in an open-ended straight with one card are 5-to-1 against, while a 1-Card flush draw is more like 4.5-To-1, I guess you'd say if I was smart, I'm drawing to a flush. Hmm. I think I'm gonna go all in on this." Reid places all of the jet peanuts towards the middle and Casey looked at him with a look on her face that she was intimidated. Reid gave a simple smile.

Casey grabbed another card. "So, are you?" Casey asked. "Am I drawing to a flush, or am I smart?" Reid asked. "Either." Casey shrugged. "Well, I'm-I'm provably a genius, but, uh, actually, I was drawing to a full house. 8s over 6s." Morgan and Emily walk in on the convo as Reid places his cards down.

"Ohh... I always forget you're from Vegas." Casey plays as if she's lost. "Yup." Before Reid could take everything, Casey stopped him. "Ooh, I'm sorry, not so fast. I, too, have a boat. Jacks over 3s." Casey smirked. "Ooh." Morgan comments. "Someone finally beat Dr. Reid." Emily adds.

   "You drew three cards to a full house? That's like 100-to-1 against." Reid commented. "97-to-1," Casey corrected. "Hey, Morgan calls me 'Ace' for a reason. Besides, Gideon's my uncle or did you forget that?"

"Looks like you're out." Emily stated, sitting next to Casey. "Congrats, Willows, someone finally did what others aren't capable of." Casey smiled at the woman and Morgan leans against Reid's seat. "Hey, Prentiss," Emily looks up. "Sin to win."

Emily looks at him in confusion. "I'm sorry, what?" She asks. "Come on, now, I gotta know. What the hell is a Sin-to-Win weekend in Atlantic City?" Both Emily and Casey look at one another and Emily sighs, "Derek, I have a tremendous amount of respect for you, but there are some questions that if you have to ask them, it means you probably couldn't handle the answer." Emily goes over to sit with JJ, Hotch and Rossi.

Morgan looks over at Casey, hoping she'd at least answer but she stands up from her seat, walking over to get some coffee. "What she said." She stated and Morgan sighs, "There is a whole other side to women, man." Reid looks over at the cards and frowns: "I never lose."

As Casey goes over to get some coffee, she looks up but looks immediately back down to see Hotch coming towards her. She pretends as if she didn't see him. "Excuse me." Hotch mutters quietly and moves next to Casey, getting some coffee as well.

The man looks towards the woman and begins to speak. He didn't want to just stop talking to Casey. "I think we should talk." Hotch spoke. "Talk about what?" Casey still wasn't looking at him.

"Casey—"

"There's nothing to talk about, Aaron." Casey interrupts the man. She looks around and makes sure the others didn't hear and she spoke more quietly. "You knew my mother. Probably better than I ever did. You were with her. And you didn't think to bring that up?"

Hotch looks at the girl, feeling guilty and realizing why he didn't talk to her sooner. "What could I say?" He questioned. "She made her decisions. I had no control over them."

Casey looks at the man, disgusted with him. "You were supposed to get her help. You weren't supposed to just let her die."

"You think I don't live with that regret everyday?"

Casey knew she couldn't just keep being upset at him but right now, it was all she could do. He had a point, she just didn't want to side with him. "I'm done having this conversation with you. You don't get to talk about her. Not anymore."

With that, Casey walked back to her seat, ending the conversation at that.

hey, lovelies!
we have three more episodes and s5 will be done!
i feel like we've been on this season forever ughhhh
but we're almost done and i'm so excited
i wanted to add this episode because < reid & casey 3
love you guys!!
-mya <3333