Criminal Minds (9 page)

Jareau said, ‘‘I don’t get your point, Chief.’’

‘‘If
you
catch him, we look like a bunch of Barney Fifes and our budget goes down. If
we
catch him, we’re heroes, and the budget goes up.’’ He was almost shouting. ‘‘Because, you see, on the average day in our fair little city, when the high-and-mighty FBI isn’t around to ‘help’ and ‘support’ us? We
still
have crimes to deal with. And for some strange reason, that’s an easier task for us if we have enough money to keep
officers
on the goddamn
street
!’’

Realizing he was on a rant, Oliver let out a breath and sat down.

Rising as the chief sat, Hotchner said, ‘‘Thank you for your time.’’

Jareau and Lorenzon also rose and followed Hotchner out of the station and back to the SUV. Hotchner climbed behind the wheel, Jareau next to him, Lorenzon in the back.

As they pulled away, Jareau could hold her tongue no longer. ‘‘What was
that
?’’

‘‘It’s something I’ve run into more than once,’’ Hotchner said. ‘‘Never as extreme, maybe. . . .’’

Lorenzon said, ‘‘Sorry. I should have warned you about some of these outlying suburbs. They want to cover their asses more than they want to solve crimes.’’

Trying not to sound too critical, Jareau said to the Chicago cop, ‘‘I noticed
you
didn’t wade in.’’

‘‘I just couldn’t see getting in a pissing contest with those small-minded jerks.’’

Hotchner sighed. ‘‘That doesn’t mean his points aren’t valid.’’

Jareau goggled at her boss. ‘‘You’re
siding
with Oliver and Denson?’’

‘‘Not a chance,’’ Hotchner said, driving along the lake where the two girls disappeared. ‘‘We’re still the best option for catching this killer . . . but I understand what Oliver said about living here after we’re gone. He knows his town better than we do. And he doesn’t know we were being straight with him about our willingness to give him and his people the credit.’’

‘‘What are we going to do, then?’’ Jareau asked. ‘‘We can’t investigate without being asked in.’’

‘‘No, we can’t,’’ Hotchner said, pulling the SUV into the parking lot on the lake’s beachfront. ‘‘But there’s no law against stopping for a cool drink before we head back to the city.’’

The beach was nearly deserted, the sun a ghost on the horizon, the lake looking cool and choppy as an evening breeze rolled in. The July heat still hung in the air, but the crowd had gone home for the night and the kids who ran the refreshment stand were pulling umbrellas out of the few tables outside their boxy little concrete building, stacking plastic chairs.

Jareau gave Hotch a look. ‘‘Aren’t you breaking the rules? Visiting a crime scene when we haven’t been invited?’’

Shaking his head, as he pulled into a parking spot, Hotchner said, ‘‘I’m just thirsty—aren’t you?’’

‘‘Well, I don’t know about JJ,’’ Lorenzon said from the back, ‘‘but I’m parched.’’

With a little half smirk, Jareau said, ‘‘I guess I could use a drink, too, although right now I might prefer something a little harder than what that stand offers up.’’

‘‘You’ll settle for lemonade or bottled water,’’ Hotchner said. ‘‘Anyway, I’m buying.’’

‘‘Better hurry,’’ Jareau said. ‘‘Looks like they’re about to close up.’’

‘‘No problem,’’ Hotchner said. ‘‘I don’t want to spend a lot of time here, anyway. I just want to get the lay of the land.’’

They got out of the SUV and strode over to the screen-covered service window of the refreshment stand. Behind the counter, a teenaged girl stood smiling. ‘‘May I help you?’’

She was blonde and perky, even for the late hour, and Jareau couldn’t help but remember her own teenage jobs back at East Allegheny High.

Jareau swiftly scanned the menu on the wall behind the young girl. ‘‘Lemonade, medium.’’

‘‘Medium lemonade,’’ the girl said. ‘‘Anything else?’’

Hotchner leaned in and twitched a smile. ‘‘Make that two.’’

‘‘Three,’’ Lorenzon said, making the Boy Scout sign.

The girl got their drinks. Hotchner paid the bill, then joined Jareau and Lorenzon and their lemonades next to the SUV.
Fitting,
Jareau thought.
We need to make lemonade out of the lemons Chief Oliver and DetectiveDenson have tossed our way. . . .

Jareau gave Hotchner a look. ‘‘You’re not going to ask her if she was working the day the girls disappeared?’’

Shaking his head, Hotchner said, ‘‘That
would
be crossing the line.’’

After a quick sip of his drink, Lorenzon looked back toward the building. ‘‘I’m not FBI. I could ask her.’’

‘‘You’re working with us now,’’ Hotchner said. ‘‘That would constitute breaking the rules, as well.’’

‘‘What the hell,’’ Lorenzon said with a smile. ‘‘I’ll just bend ’em a little—they won’t break.’’

‘‘Not this time,’’ Hotchner said, easy but firm. ‘‘If we want to win Chief Oliver over to the side of a joint task force, going behind his back is not the way to get that done.’’

‘‘What do you call
this
?’’ Lorenzon asked, gesturing to himself and them.

‘‘I call this,’’ Hotchner said, ‘‘three coworkers sharing a nonalcoholic drink at the end of a hard day.’’

‘‘
Riiight
,’’ Lorenzon said.

Jareau watched as Hotchner sipped his lemonade through a straw, and for one brief moment she could imagine her stoic boss a young man standing on a beach like this, as human as the next guy or girl. But it was just one brief moment. . . .

Hotch was slowly scanning the lake, then the beach, then the parking lot. A great deal of the lake’s perimeter was wooded. On the south and east sides businesses and houses lined the shore and up the west side were a small marina and more homes. The beach was large enough for a couple of hundred sunbathers as well as swimmers, Jet Ski enthusiasts and boaters. The parking lot was smallish, room for maybe fifty cars, tops. As the sun set and the shadows thickened, Jareau could have sworn she felt the killer somewhere out there. . . .

As they loaded back into the SUV, Lorenzon asked, ‘‘So, what did we just do?’’

‘‘We learned,’’ Hotchner said.

‘‘Learned what?’’

Shaking his head as he put on his seat belt, Hotchner said, ‘‘Not much.’’

He started up the Tahoe.

‘‘But
something
,’’ Jareau said.

As they began the long trip back to the city, Hotchner said, ‘‘We learned there are something like one-hundred places our UnSub could have observed his prey from.’’

‘‘A
hundred
?’’ Lorenzon asked.

‘‘Easily. With high-powered binoculars, he could have been anywhere around the perimeter of the lake.’’

‘‘And that tells us what?’’

Hotchner drew in a breath. Let it out. ‘‘It may tell us he was particular. He was trolling for a specific kind of victim—he picked two girls who were at the lake that afternoon, unaccompanied girls. He might have watched all day waiting for just the right set of victims to satisfy his needs.’’

Lorenzon asked, ‘‘What were his needs?’’

‘‘Not the normal needs of a serial killer, if the word ‘normal’ can be applied. Not sex, although obviously murderous rage. He was coolly seeking two young women like Janice Ott and Denise Naslund, the two young women Ted Bundy abducted from Lake Sammamish State Park.’’

Lorenzon’s voice was hushed. ‘‘And he found them.’’

‘‘He found them.’’ Hotchner glanced at the detective. ‘‘The thing is, with Bundy, several people saw Janice Ott talking to a well-dressed young man with a cast on one arm. One witness even heard her call him ‘Ted.’ Did Denson mention to you anything about that? A man with a cast on one arm, spotted at the lake that afternoon?’’

Lorenzon said, ‘‘Denson didn’t talk to me—he spoke to Tovar. But Tovar never said anything about witnesses or a cast, either. Judging from our reception by Denson and the chief, though, I wouldn’t exactly be shocked if the Wauconda boys had neglected to share all they knew with Tovar, either.’’

Jareau shook her head and said, ‘‘You would think that
someone
must have seen him.’’

Hotchner lifted his eyebrows in a sort of shrug. ‘‘This guy is very good at his job.’’

‘‘His
job
?’’ Lorenzon asked.

‘‘On one level, that’s what it is to him. This is what he does, it’s what defines him. He is a master at blending in. Someone probably
did
see him, but they don’t even know it.’’

‘‘You have to ask the right questions to find out that kind of thing,’’ Lorenzon said. ‘‘And I have no particular faith that Detective Denson did.’’

‘‘There were probably lots of people at the beach that day,’’ Jareau said. ‘‘Still, our UnSub picked out two victims and managed to abduct them, without anyone noticing.’’

‘‘Which means,’’ Hotchner said, ‘‘he’s a smooth operator.’’

Lorenzon said, ‘‘He’s smart, he’s smooth, he plans things well and he blends in. So we do know a thing or two, at that. But how in the hell are we going to catch him?’’

Hotchner glanced into the rearview mirror. ‘‘If we do our job, we may be able to catch him before he strikes again.’’

‘‘And if not?’’

Hotchner’s sigh must have started down around his toes. ‘‘Then we have to make sure we’re there when he makes a mistake.’’

Lorenzon was shaking his head. ‘‘What if he doesn’t make a mistake?’’

‘‘He will,’’ Hotchner said. ‘‘He will. They all do.’’

Hotch was right—Jareau’s experience told her as much. But experience also told her that an UnSub could take his time, making that mistake. . . .

E
mily Prentiss, in black slacks and black blouse, knew that by the end of this muggy summer day she would be cursing the choice of color. Nonetheless, she also knew black aided and abetted her sleek professional look and nicely complemented her lithe figure.