CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN: O, CANADA !

4x25
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TODAY WAS A PRETTY BIG DAY FOR CASEY WILLOWS. It had been the day after her graduating the FBI academy and now... she was finally here at the BAU as a graduate from the academy. Of course, the team congratulated her and showed up at her graduation.

Penelope had showed up with cupcakes for the girl and fortunately, Casey got one before anyone else did. "Well, hello, Miss FBI." Morgan greeted to the girl as soon as he had entered the conference room. "Miss Almost FBI, actually." Casey corrects.

"Congrats on graduating from the academy, kid." Rossi tells, shaking Casey's hand. "Thank you." Hotch comes in behind Rossi, shaking Casey's hand, as well.

        "Congrats on being bumped up to agent-in-training, by the way." Emily congratulates the girl as she takes one of Penelope's cupcakes.

         "It took facing my past demons and almost dying from a strain for this to happen." Casey tells, looking over at Reid as JJ walks in the room. "Where's the next case located, JJ?" Hotch asks. "Canadian border." She informs, turning on the screen and sitting with the team as she placed the files in front of them.

           JJ had played footage from the security cameras at the border of a man and he had crashed the guard post and he had looked straight at the cameras as he let the guards get him.

"His name's William Hightower. He claims over the past month, he's picked 10 people off the streets of Detroit, killed them, dumped their bodies across the border in Canada." JJ informed.

"Has he given up the dumpsite?" Emily asks. "He said he'll only talk to the FBI." JJ told. "Do we have confirmation these people are even missing?" Reid questions. "Two were reported missing by family months ago, but they all appear to be transients. We're having a hard time finding any information on them." JJ informed.

"Garcia?" Hotch asks, looking towards the woman and she nods, "Like a bloodhound, sir." Garcia grabs her things and leaves the room.

"So what do we know about this guy?" Morgan asked. "Until 2 months ago, he was a sergeant in the US Army. He did two tours in Iraq. Lost his left leg in a roadside ambush. He was discharged with a purple heart and a commendation for Valor." Hotch answered Morgan.

"And the Royal Canadian mounted police are requesting our help?" Reid asks. "They don't have a lot of choice." Hotch tells. "He manages to get away with ten murders so why crash the guard post?" Casey asks.

"Could be an attempted suicide," Emily answered. "And maybe he was trying to take as many people with him as he could." Rossi adds on to the list, "It may also be a case of Post-Traumatic  Stress Disorder."

"I don't know." Hotch admitted. "Do we think he's legit?" Morgan asks. "I think it's too many bodies to take chances." Hotch answered and so they decided: they needed to do what they did best and that was investigate.

They hopped on the jet as they debriefed on the case a bit more and the people that were missing. "He documented them all in detail. Names, photos, dates, and locations where he took them." JJ told. "Military background. He's bound to be organized." Morgan added.

"He definitely doesn't have a type." Casey looks over at Rossi sitting next to her. "The only consistency is that they were all abducted in the same area." Reid tells.

"Yeah, what do we know about that?" Emily questions. "It's called the cass corridor. It's right here," Reid answers, leaning over the map placed in front of Casey. "It has an extremely high concentration of drug trafficking, prostitution and homeless people."

"All high-risk behavior." Casey comments. "So, for this guy, maybe it's more about opportunity than victimology." Emily assumes.

"Morgan and Prentiss, when we land, I want you to head straight to Detroit. See if you hear anything in the whisper stream. I want to make sure we have a crime before we get too deeply into this." Hotch tells.

"I hear Detroit is beautiful in the spring." Emily commented and Morgan smirked over at the woman.

"The rest of us will meet with the legal attaché before whit the Royal Canadian mounted police." Hotch told. "Actually, sir, the officer in charge said that his team was part of a fellowship the BAU gave to train police forces in profiling." JJ tells, holding a paper up and Rossi leans forward as JJ hands the sheet of paper over to him.

"That was the first one we ever did." Rossi says. "Jeff Bedwell." He read. "You know him?" JJ asks and Rossi nods. "Is he any good?" Morgan asks next. "He better be. I trained him."

So, Rossi, Hotch, JJ, Reid and Willows all head down to the headquarters in Ontario and Rossi was immediately greeted by Bedwell.

"Jeff, how you been?" Rossi shakes the man's hand. "You mean besides having serial killers trying to take out our border agents?" Jeff speaks sarcastically and Rossi goes right ahead into the introductions of the agents.

"Jeff Bedwell, agents Aaron Hotchner, Spencer Reid, Jennifer Jareau and our new agent-in-training, Casey Willows." It was quite strange to not hear the word 'intern' according to Casey. Being upped to 'agent-in-training' felt good. And new, fresh. It was something she could get used to.

"Thanks for being here," Jeff told. "I've got a victim board and timelines set up on monitors in the conference room. Anything you need, you've got the run of the place." Jeff began to lead them to the room.

"We appreciate it." Hotch tells. "Don't thank me. Thank the unsub. He's the one that put you all in charge." Bedwell said and Rossi turns towards the screen of the victims that went missing and their timelines of the dates they went missing. "I see you paid attention in class." He comments.

"I need to go talk to Garcia, see if she had any luck locating the family members." JJ tells and Hotch added on, "And check records for multiple border crosses, see if we get any hits for the days the victims went missing." JJ nods, "Got it."

"You believe that he killed all these people?" Reid questions. "Fits the profile." Bedwell tells. "How so?" Casey turns over to the man.

"He got a recent physical trauma, could be a stressor. Wide disparity of victims. No bodies. Possible border cross. Two entirely different terrains. To pull that off, you'd have to be smart, you'd have to be organized, mobile, physical." Bedwell explained.

"Military background gives you all that.l Rossi says. "Exactly." Bedwell tells. "It appears as though he clusters his victims into men, then women, and then back to men again." Reid views the board.

"What does that tell you?" Bedwell asks.
"At the moment, nothing." Hotch admits.

"Has he contacted family?" Rossi asks and Bedwell looks at the man. "Refuses a lawyer, too."

"He's in interrogation?" Hotch asks. "Waiting for us." Bedwell says and both Hotch and Rossi make eye contact with one another. "This guy's US Army. He demanded to talk to the FBI. He's not gonna want to talk to anyone but the person he thinks is in charge." That person had been Hotch.

So, Bedwell took Hotch to the man. He had gathered information from Hightower and it wasn't easy at first. But this man had gone to the Detroit police three times about people going missing and they didn't listen to him so he brought in the FBI to help him with this. He had been watching people — much like a protector by writing their names in a notebook. His sister had been one of the people missing and that's why he did what he did. No one did anything for him. If Casey was being honest, she felt bad for what this man had gone through.

Hotch had received evidence in the spare tire of William Hightower's car about his baby sister. A voice message she left before she disappeared.

"'William, are you there? Something bad is happening. It's dark. I don't know where he's taking me.'" Hotch looks up. "After that, the signal cuts out."

"This is the same night she left her mom's house?" Reid asks. "Hightower called in an army favor. They triangulated the call to a cell tower in Canada just over the border in Port Huron." Hotch tells. "It explains why he crossed into your jurisdiction." Rossi says.

"It's also a surefire way to get the FBI involved. He knew we'd investigate an American citizen being held on multiple murder charges." Reid said. "And you believe him?" Bedwell asks. "I do." Hotch nods.

Hotch's cell begins to ring and he immediately picks up. "Go ahead, Garcia." Garcia's bright voice chirps up. "Good news and bad news. I've got IDs on multiple border crosses for the dates in question. Trouble is, I've got hundreds, and as far as I can tell, if your license doesn't ping for any prior felonies, you're pretty much gonna pass go and collect 200 Canadian dollars." She informs.

"She's right," Bedwell says. "Busiest cross in North America. Lot of commercial traffic, trucks mostly. Stop and searches would cause too many delays."

"So he's got virtually free passage." Casey added. "And once he crosses, there's nothing but woods to hide whatever he's doing." Reid said and Casey sighs, looking back at the map behind her.

The team had gotten Bedwell to release Hightower into their custody and fortunately, the police board agreed to it. Casey sat beside JJ as she had been on the phone with a relative of a victim, Casey had been investigating the case herself. What could she see that the team hasn't yet?

"Yes, ma'am, right now we just consider them missing. The second I get more information, I'll be in contact with you. Okay." As soon as JJ was done with her call, Reid had walked in the room. "How's it going?" He asked.

"The majority of the people on the street aren't even from Detroit. We don't have last names on most of them. No hometowns. Unless there's a missing persons report on file somewhere, it's almost impossible." JJ told. "Most of these people's families probably gave up on seeing them long ago." Casey shrugged. "A mother would never give up." JJ stated and Casey looks over at Reid and then looks back down at the file.

"Can you hand me William Hightower's arrest report?" JJ asks as she looks on the computer and Casey goes ahead and hands her the file.

Reid's cell began to ring and he picked up as JJ walked out of the room with the arrest report. "Yeah, Garcia." Reid said. "Sherlock, it's Watson. I think I've got something." Garcia said.

"What do you have?" Rossi had walked into the room on time "I checked Detroit crime reports over the last month because Derek and Emily astutely thought there might be some sorts of assaults or disturbances having to do with our unsub."
"And what have you got?" Casey asks.
"Well, it's tres weird, but on five of the abduction nights, Detroit PD reports a break-in or a robbery at some type of medical facility."

"What types of medical facility?" Rossi asks. "We got a hospital, blood bank, medical supply company, the Red Cross--"
"What is he doing, stealing narcotics?" Reid questions. "That's just it," Garcia said. "He isn't some drugstore cowboy. The stuff he took is, like, anesthesia and sterilizing equipment and syringes. Negative on the narcota."

"Garcia, where were these places located?" Casey asks. "Putnam Street, St. Antoine, East Hancock, Martin Luther King Boulevard."

Reid looks up at both Rossi and Casey. "Those are all in the cass corridor." He tells. "Do you have a list of what else he stole?" Rossi asks Garcia.

"Uh, IV tubing, infusion pump, units of O-Negative blood, chest tubes, o-silk sutures, elastoplast." Garcia tells. "Garcia, thanks a lot." Reid nods, hanging up and then looking over at Rossi and Casey.

"You don't just randomly know how to hook a line up to an infusion pump." Reid said. "Or that O-Neg is the only safe blood type for any victim." Casey nods. "I'll tell Hotch we think we know what he's doing with them." Reid tells, standing up from the seat he was sitting in.

         And fortunately, they had enough for their profile. The team stood in front of the station, giving their profile. "We believe the man we're looking for is a sexual sadist." Rossi informed. "What this means is that for him, the torture becomes a substitute for the sex act." Reid told.

        "The fact that he's stealing medical equipment like sterilizing agents and anesthesia tells us he may be performing experiments or surgeries on his victims." Hotch explained. "We believe this unsub gets gratification from his ability to keep his victims alive in order to endure more torture." Reid told. "The choice of items stolen is extremely specific, which makes us believe he's got a medical background." Casey added on.

        "Check disciplinary files at hospitals, med schools, and community health organizations," Morgan informs. "People would have noticed his behavior."

       "This is someone who would volunteer to perform painful procedures. And he would spend extra time probing, say, a broken hand or a distended abdomen." Emily tells.

       "And after a long day, when everyone else is emotionally drained from multiple traumas and mangled bodies, he'd be the one pushing his coworkers to go out for a drink and talk about their day." Morgan explains.

       "Now, we know what you're thinking-- a profile is fine, but, yes, our best shot at stopping this guy is still to catch him in the act."
       "This unsub is extremely smart and obviously organized. He's managed to abduct very different victims with very different abilities, all with no witnesses."
       "Now, we're coordinating with the police and our agents on the ground in Detroit."
       "We've also asked Sergeant Hightower to act as a guide on the streets in Detroit while he's in our custody."

        Hightower had been sitting in front of the team, nodding along to what they had to add about him. "That's it. Any questions, you find me or one of the agents." Bedwell notifies as the officers and detectives walk out of the room.

       Hightower had then taken notice of JJ with his mother and looked up at the team. "What's she doing here?" He questioned.

      "Well, we've notified all the family members we can locate." Hotch told. "You have no right." Hightower tells. "It's her daughter." Rossi defends.

      "No, it's one thing to... to believe Lee is lost on the streets. I don't want her to know that there's a killer out there. We know how this is gonna end." What he said made sense but to keep her in the dark of what was going on was just absurd.

       "No, we don't." Hotch says. "Look, everything I have done is to find the truth so I can spare her. I don't want her living off hope."
       "There are worse things."
       "You're wrong," Hightower argues. "Bad news stops us for a while, but then you move on. Hope is paralyzing."

        As he argued, his mother and JJ had approached him and the first thing his mother said was: "You did a stupid thing." William stands up. "Yes, ma'am." The mother and son exchange a hug and then his mother pulls away and her eyes thwart to the screen. "All these people are missing?"

      "We believe so." JJ nods. "You have any suspects?" William's mother asks. "No," Rossi admits. "But we have a strategy to try to catch him. And William is helping." William nods to Rossi's words.

       "My daughter-- there's a chance she-she might still be alive?" The woman asks. "It's possible." Hotch confirms. "Do you know what he's doing to them?" Hotch looks at the woman, admittedly. "It's difficult to say."

        So, Hightower, Hotch, Prentiss and Morgan showed up at the 13th Precinct and began to investigate the disappearance of these people while the rest of the team stayed back at headquarters and decided to speak to Hightower's mother.

      "Lee disappeared, I begged William to find her, but it wasn't fair to him." The woman explained. "I'm sure he wanted to find her as much as you did." Casey told. "He'd just gotten home. He lost his leg, and he was going to physical therapy. He hadn't even processed what happened to him yet." The woman added.

      "But he found her." Rossi assumes.
      "First time," said Hightower's mother. "She came home for two weeks and I had her going to meetings. I even got her onto welfare."

       "So what happened?" Bedwell asks. "The day after the first check came, she disappeared." She tells. "Wait, what was that date?" Reid asks, looking up at the board. "The 2nd?" JJ asks, looking up at the board as well. "What if that's it?" Reid questions. "Okay, you lost me, Reid." Casey said, looking towards Reid.

       "Lee Hightower was abducted on the 2nd, the day after she cashed a welfare check." Reid stated. "So?" Bedwell asks. "Look at the dates of the other abductions." Casey looks up at the board and it clicks. "All the men are abducted around the first and the 15th of the month. When welfare checks are issued." She stated.

       "What if he's not intentionally clustering the male/female? What if this is how he best isolates his victims?" Reid assumes. "You think he has a way to get them alone based on how they cash their checks?" Rossi asks. "And then the rest of the month he resorts to picking up prostitutes." Reid added. "It would explain the pattern." Bedwell tells.

       "We need to find out where these men cash their checks." Reid gets on the phone as JJ says: "We don't have last names. There's no way to find them." Casey looks over. "Only if there's a place where these people are cashing their checks nearby." She added.

       "Morgan, figure out how people on the streets are cashing their welfare checks." Reid tells and Rossi had dialed in Garcia's number. "Garcia." He said, putting her on speaker. "I need you to find out if lee hightower ever cashed a welfare check."
        "Okay, I'm typing my fastest." Garcia says.

Garcia had found out that Lee had cashed out a welfare check and Morgan had discovered that people were cashing out their checks near a motel on third and one people had cashed their checks, they'd be looking for a place to score coke or drugs instead of staying at a place or grabbing a bite to eat. This was how the unsub was luring his victims and to their great luck, another girl had gone missing.

The rest of the team had arrived back at the border crossing and there was nothing discovered just yet. Everyone had stood outside of their vehicles. "They should have tried to make the cross at least an hour ago." Reid stated and Casey checked her watch as she did so.

"Any word from the off-road sites?" Rossi asks. "I have agents at every known drug smuggling entry. Nothing." Bedwell told. "This unsub's smart. Everything about his plan is well researched. I think his border crossings would be consistent." Hotch explained. "Are there former shipping lanes somebody could have studied in advance?" Reid asked. "Nothing marked." Emily stated.

"Hunters might know the terrain, but it's word of mouth. Nothing documented." Bedwell told. "What about the underground railroad?" Hightower asked, everyone looked at the man. "How so?" Rossi asks.

"In the Civil War, Detroit was the last stop for a slave before they escaped to freedom in Canada. They made the crossing in this area." Hightower stated. "He's right. But there aren't any historical landmarks that register the crossing points." Bedwell said.

"Well, they built a series of Victorian homes along the river to signify safe passage, right?" Casey asks and everyone looks at the girl. "What? I paid attention in History class. Barely passed."

"Some of those homes might still exist." Morgan added. "We know your sister's cell phone registered at a tower near Port Huron. He had to be close by when he crossed the border." Rossi said.

Hotch grabbed his phone and dialed Garcia. "Garcia." He spoke. "Present." Garcia said. "Is it possible to cross-reference Civil War maps with Victorian homes that still exist in the Port Huron area?"

"Well, I'm gonna take that question as rhetorical and... got one. Three miles south of the Blue Water Bridge."

"Can you send me a GPS map?"
"Coming now."
"Thanks," Hotch hangs up. "Prentiss, you and William come with me. The rest of you stay here. We might need to be mobile in a hurry."

And sure enough, they did. There had been a vehicle ditched near the river and they discovered that the vehicle had belonged to Mason Turner, who specialized in medicine and lived in Canada. Garcia sent the address over — which led them to a farm and the team had put on their vests and headed down to the place.

Casey stayed with Hotch, Reid and Hightower and they entered the building. The house was old and the first thing they had discovered in the home was a man paralyzed and in his bed. Mirrors all over the place.

"Sir, are you all right?" Hotch questioned. "Who the hell are you?" The man asked in a sort of robotic tone. Casey was confused. "Did someone do this to you?" Casey asks. "Get the hell out of my house." The man demands.

"You're Mason Turner?" Reid questions.
"That's not your business." He says.

Casey looks at both Hotch and Reid and they are just as confused as her. "He's our unsub?" Reid questions and Casey furrows her brows. There was no way this guy was their unsub. He looked paralyzed and he obviously wasn't capable of these murders.

So, what the hell was going on?

hey, lovelies!
ONE MORE CHAPTER AND WE'RE ON S5 BABY🥳
i'm sorry this has gotten boring probably but i swear it'll get better by s5 lol
ALSO
casey has been upped to agent-in-training now!!
yayyyy i'm excited because of — well i can't tell you but you'll figure it out eventually lol

i'm excited for the next chapter because the pig farm episode is one of my favorite episodes and this episode genuinely creeped me out and is probably one of the scariest episodes in my opinion lmao
like i find it more scarier than "the lesson" tbh
ANYWAYS
thank you for reading and ily all
-mya <3