Chapter 78

Dana stoodat the smart board and gazed at the less than tasteful photo of a Grim Reaper. BAU Agent Walsh had taken liberties and added the photo to the box Dana labeled Reaper in her preliminary sketch.

Ignoring the tactless art, she focused on the row of seven boxes beneath. The first three were filled with morgue photos of each victim: Norton Hayes, Cash Holloway, Kylie Marx. The remaining four boxes contained only question marks.

"Based on the theory of the Seven Sleepers," she began.

"We're familiar with the legend," Agent Garcia interrupted. "Seven men sought refuge from religious persecution by hiding in a cave. They fell into a deep slumber and miraculously

woke centuries later."

"Correct," Dana answered. "I believe we're dealing with an individual who is trying to recreate his own Seven Sleepers."

"To what end?" Hartwell asked.

"In our line of work, there's not always a rational explanation for irrational behavior," Agent Richter warned.

"In this case, I agree," Dana interjected. "I believe the Reaper is acting on the deluded notion that if he can complete seven murders with seven blessed blades, he'll be able to resurrect his victims, just as the Seven Sleepers were resurrected."

"The pattern so far has produced one victim every 24 hours," Agent Davis added. "Do we expect the pattern to continue or accelerate?"

"There's no indication that the pattern will deviate," Dana answered.

"The Unsub is detail driven," Richter added. "Numbers, patterns, repetition. It all matters."

"Agreed," Dana replied. "If the pattern continues, we can assume the D.C. Reaper has seven days to complete his seven harvests. That means we have four days to stop four more murders."

"Great," Hartwell grumbled. "Is this scythe-wielding psycho picking off people at random or do you have a guess at his targets?"

"His victims aren't random," Dana replied. "So far, all three victims were patients at Passages Rehab Center, treated by Dr. Dvita. I believe we should focus our efforts there."

"How many patients does he have?" Richter asked.

Walsh was on it, furiously typing away on his laptop. Specializing in analysis and algorithms, Dana had no doubt in the BAU agent's ability. In a matter of seconds, the smart board displayed a list of patients. There were hundreds.

Dana frowned. "Rule out deceased and reference only patients who were at Passages during the fire."

Walsh keyed in the parameters and the list shrunk. Eleven names stared back at them, but only one made Dana's heart sink.

She knew Claire's name would be there but seeing it on the murder board made it feel like a foregone conclusion.

"Eleven? That's a number we can work with," Hartwell said, sounding reenergized. "Hell, I'll put ‘em in lock up for the next four days if it'll stop this thing."

"I'm afraid it's not that simple," Dana replied.

Hartwell crossed his arms. "Why not?"

"Interrupting the pattern could cause the Unsub to deviate from plans and cause unpredictability," Richter said, echoing Dana's thoughts exactly.

Hartwell's face reddened. "I know you're not suggesting we let this monster keep slashing innocent citizens."

"No," Richter answered. "But we have more factors to explore. We need to dial in every angle to get a clear picture of the Unsub's motives if we're going to stop them."

"That sounds like it's going to take time we don't have," Hartwell muttered.

"Trust the process," Richter answered.

Hartwell looked to Dana, who nodded her agreement. Shaking his head, he said, "Then let's get to it," before walking away to refill his coffee.

For the next two hours Dana and the BAU team explored every possible factor of the three known victims. Age, gender, religion, birthdate, family history, illness, hospitalizations, education. Nothing matched.

When they got to the presidential and first lady nicknames assigned at Passages, it spawned a lengthy debate about whether the Reaper was killing them in the order of Presidency, which then spiraled off into tangents of conspiracy theories involving everything from the Freemasons to Watergate to the Illuminati.

Dana led the discussion back to occult matters when they still hadn't managed to find any connecting threads. She hoped delving deeper into the Grim Reaper's modern-day interpretation would be able to shed light on something they were missing.

The BAU team eagerly debated the significance of the dark hooded cloak and wielding a scythe. They argued the minute religious differences between cultural messengers of Death. The Grim Reaper, angels, demons, ravens, crows and so on.

It made Dana miss Jake's skepticism. Anything she suggested, the BAU team ran with without question. It was making the spectrum broader instead of narrowing it down. She and Jake worked because he challenged her, and that forced Dana to reevaluate and reapply her knowledge to the present problem.

That's what she needed to do here, because Hartwell was right, time wasn't on their side.

Dana pulled Hartwell aside. "I know BAU still has a lot to sort through to build their profile, but I can't shake the feeling that Dr. Dvita is behind this. Do you know he told his patients that he's been acting as a police liaison during the investigation?"

"He isn't."

"I know. I think he was just trying to get everyone to go to him with information rather than the police. Something just feels off. I want a warrant so we can access his files, particularly his hypnosis recordings."

Hartwell shook his head. "You got anything besides your gut? Because that's not enough evidence to execute a warrant."

"No, but I know he's involved in this. I saw him hypnotize Claire. It was powerful."

"Powerful enough to persuade his patients to kill?" Richter asked, joining the discussion.

Dana swallowed the fear that statement evoked. "He's hosting a group meeting for all his patients from Passages at St. Ann's tomorrow. Come with me and see for yourself."

"By tomorrow we'll have another victim," Hartwell argued.

"All the murders have taken place under cover of darkness," Dana reminded him.

Hartwell scoffed. "Oh good, that's a comforting tip I can announce at the press conference. I can see the headlines now. D.C.'s afraid of the dark!"

"When is the press conference?" Dana asked.

"Today at noon," Hartwell confirmed.

"Maybe we can use it to our advantage," Richter suggested.

"You wanna drop some breadcrumbs?" Hartwell asked.

"Dvita's too smart for that," Dana argued.

The corner of Hartwell's mouth twitched into a lopsided smirk. "Only one way to find out."

"If we play it right, release a false profile, the Unsub might actually call the tip line to clear things up," Richter said. "We know he's smart, organized, a psychopath versus psychotic. He's the kind of killer who will inject himself into the investigation. Especially if he thinks we don't understand why he's killing."

"What if it's more than one Unsub?" Dana asked.

"There's not adequate evidence to prove that theory," Hartwell argued.

"And there's nothing to disprove it either," Richter said. "Go on, Dr. Gray."

"I don't have any hard evidence, but the scenes have all been completely different. One was outside a rehab facility. One in a park. One in a parking lot. And then there are the victims. Different race, ethnicity, gender. We'd never link them if it weren't for the murder weapon. And the brutality of the second victim's death is on a different level."

"I have to agree with Dr. Gray," the Alchemist interjected. "After examining the lacerations made on all three victims, it's my opinion they were inflicted by at least two separate individuals of varying heights."

Dana mouthed a silent ‘thank you' to Raynard, accepting his olive branch.

Richter frowned. "You bring up valid points, but I have to tell you, the odds of cases like these leading to multiple unsubs are nearly nonexistent. Our profile points to a white male, mid 40s to 50s who's highly intelligent, professional and works alone."

"Actually," Walsh interrupted. "Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck, known as the Lonely Hearts Killers, worked as a pair killing an estimated seventeen women in the 1940s. Or the Lethal Lovers; two nursing aids from Michigan who went on a killing spree at the hospital they worked at in 1987. Then there was the Podkopaevs, a Russian family of four who killed together in 2009. And how can we forget the Manson family?—"

"Okay! Okay," Richter said, interrupting Agent Walsh's morbid monologue. "We get the point. But one key factor you're missing is that all except the Manson family were sexual deviants. There's been no evidence of sexual assault on any of these victims."

"That's our breadcrumb," Hartwell said. "We say our Unsub is a sexual deviant."

"Is agitating a highly dangerous murderer really the best idea?" Dana asked.

"We're out of better ones," Hartwell replied.

"Fine," Dana grumbled, "but while you're dropping breadcrumbs, I have another lead I'd like to follow."

"What's that?" Hartwell asked.

"Meredith Kincaid."

Hartwell's tired expression hardened. Dana could see he knew the name. Though he hadn't worked the Priory of Bones case, he'd certainly heard about it. Everyone in D.C. had.

The last thing Dana wanted to do was drag Meredith back into a criminal investigation, but she couldn't shake the feeling Mere might be able to shed light on Dvita's motives.

Unwilling to leave any stone unturned, she quickly explained Agent Spector's interest in Meredith.

"Already have her listed as a person of interest," Richter confirmed. "She's worth a visit."

"I'm worried the Reaper might target her."

"She's not on our list of potential targets," Richter said.

"I know, but Dvita's treated her. He even brought her to Passages to mentor Claire."

"What?" Hartwell's complexion soured. "Dvita took a convicted felon from the nuthouse on a field trip, and I'm just hearing about it now?"

"It's all in the files HSI sent over," Richter replied without batting an eye. "But Dr. Gray raises a fair point. We need to expand our parameters to include patients Dr. Dvita is currently treating outside of Passages." He strode over to Agent Walsh who quickly executed the command.

Dana watched the list of targets grow from eleven to more than sixty. Hartwell swore, crumbling his paper coffee cup before throwing it in the trash. "Any more good news for me to share at the press conference?" When no one in the room spoke up he kicked the trashcan. "That's what I thought. I need a shower. This suit was stale two crime scenes ago. Call me when you have something I can share with the press."

Dana watched Hartwell lumber out of the room, his frustration palpable. She too felt the pressure of the ticking clock. They'd been at this for hours. The more time they spent here, the less time they'd have to apprehend the Reaper before the next kill.

Without a definitive direction there was only one thing left to do. Dana rolled up her sleeves as she approached the nearest evidence table and began the daunting process of combing through it again.