CHAPTER SIX: PUPPET PLEASER !

8x10

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CASEY WILLOWS WAS UP BEFORE SPENCER REID. That was a rare occurrence. Usually, Reid's insomniac self stayed up in all hours of the night — either reading or admiring his girlfriend's sleeping face until he fell asleep himself. She had been up before Reid, going through the files of one Cooper Rogers.

     She had gone to the PD herself to pick up the files herself to go over what he said in his interviews and why he wanted to see her, what he was hinting at. Casey had become so obsessed with the fact that he was locked up and had gone crazy from Adam framing him. She would've thought he would've gotten his life on track after that. It turns out that he killed Lucy, his girlfriend at the time after what happened. He said people made him do it but it was by his own hands. Something just seemed off about all of this. And Casey was gonna get to the bottom of it.

      Casey had turned over when she realized that Reid had stirred awake. He opened his eyes and rubbed them and realized his girlfriend was already up. "Whatcha doing?" He questioned. Casey quickly but subtly put the file in her drawer next to her bed. They were over at her apartment this time. "Oh, nothing." Casey told.

       She looked down at his sleeping face and pecked him right on the lips. "You sure?" Spencer asked and Casey smiled, "Yeah, I'm good." Since everything that Casey found out with Cooper Rogers, Spencer had kept an eye on her to make sure that she was okay and stayed by her side. Once Casey started becoming obsessed in her own head, Spencer had to tell her to stop and she swore she would — but what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

         Things started to get very heated between the two when they both got text messages from Garcia — interrupting them. Duty calls.

The two walked in the office a bit disheveled because they were in a rush and had eyes all on them. Garcia had started as soon as they got there. "Three days ago, Bruce Phillips was found dead with his blond hair dyed black. He had been put in a box and left on a busy street." She explained.

"A custom-made box." Rossi told. "Maybe our unsub was a carpenter." Blake continued and Morgan added, "He stuffed him in there practically folding him in half." Garcia continued. "He had also been hung and restrained and that's where the plot thickens like bad soup."

"Yesterday, Justin Marks and Connie Foster, who were dating, they went missing two miles away from the first abduction site." Garcia told. "A couple? He's escalating." JJ said. "Yes. This morning Justin's body was found. He had been hung. He had been stuffed in a box left in an alley. Officers say his brown hair had been dyed black. Connie's still missing." Garcia explained.

"So he probably still has her." Casey pointed out. "Why would he reject Justin overnight but keep the first male victim for two days?" Morgan questioned. "Something about him didn't work out. Look at his neck. He was hung multiple times." Rossi pointed out.

"The question is, what does he do with Connie?" Blake asks. "He could make her watch him abuse the men or have asphyxiative sex with them." Reid says. "Well, a brunette male and a woman are crucial to this guys fantasy." Morgan tells. "Well, he's kept Connie. Maybe she's the object of his desire." JJ tells. "Well, our first order of business is finding her and then making sure he doesn't do this again. Wheels up in 30." Hotch states.

The team had headed onto the jet and they were now getting started on victimology. Casey had been seated over at the couch and she rested her legs on Reid's knees. It was kind of an awkward position for them but they didn't care. "All right, let's go over victimology. Both male victims had their hair dyed black, and the woman is a brunette." Hotch started.

"The guys are similar. Same ages, same builds." Blake pointed out. "They were also abducted outside their homes, which were all in the same area." Rossi said. "So they were probably being stalked." Morgan assumes. "Was Connie with her boyfriend when she was abducted?" Reid questions. "It looks that way. Her purse was found on the ground outside of his house." Casey tells.

"So this involves some kind of ruse." Morgan says. "It's difficult to lure most people from the security of their own homes." Reid says. "Well, some people let their guard down." Blake thinks. "Yeah, but stalking victims vary their routes home. They enter and exit through different doors, they wear disguises. They don't talk to anyone in their driveway. They hardly talk to anyone at all. They're--they're terrorized." Casey began to think what Reid was saying through.

Morgan looks towards the man and thinks about what he's saying, too. "Okay, so maybe they were followed, Reid. I mean, bottom line is the unsub escalated. The first male was abducted alone, the second was with his girlfriend." JJ looks towards Morgan. "Well, what do we know about her?" She asked.

Casey looked down at the file to answer JJ's question. "Connie was in her 30s, baked cakes for a living, she never had a run-in with the law. She seemed pretty normal from what we can gather." Casey explained.

"Assuming he kept her, what's the reason?" Rossi asks. "She's a necessity. Somehow she fits into his fantasy." Blake stated. "And so far, that need may be what's keeping her alive." Hotch agreed. "So what we know is that we have an unsub with a fantasy or a deep desire that requires the man to look a specific way." Morgan says.

"Since he rejected Justin so quickly, he's probably looking for a replacement as we speak." Reid finished off.

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After arriving, they'd discovered another man went missing and fake blood had been smeared on the window. They'd given their thoughts to what this unsub was doing with medieval torture and such. The man was found the next day and he was dressed the same way the last victim was. They'd given the profile.

Through this case, Reid had felt that Casey had been hiding something from him. He'd felt that way for some time now. He was confused on why she was and it kinda hurt him. Could it have been something he did? Could he had finally driven her away?

He sat alone in a room, trying to figure out the geographical profile to which the bodies were found and Casey had been in the back of his mind. Someone in the team had noticed Reid's glum expressions and decided to check on him. That someone was Blake.

"There you are," Blake spoke as Reid looked up at her. "How's the geographical profiling going? And why are you doing it in here?" She asked. "It's going good. I'm just having trouble concentrating out there, is all, so I came in here." Reid explained.

Blake understood and looked towards the man. "So what's with you today? Is this about... Casey, by any chance?" She asked. Reid had decided to give in. He needed someone to talk to about this. "I just... I think she's hiding something from me. I mean, her whole life, she's been pretty secretive and I'm just worried about her, that's all. I mean, she's the most beautiful girl in the world to me, inside and out. I just feel like... I'm losing her and it's terrifying me. What if she's lost interest in me?" Reid rambled out.

Blake looked around and then sat in front of him. "Why would she lose interest in you?" She asked. "Because I'm weird," Reid admitted. "I slouch, my hair's too long, my tie's perpetually crooked." Blake shakes her head. "Your hair's fine." Reid looks at the woman. "Really? Thanks. My mom thinks it's too long. So does my Aunt Ethel."

"Well, you're not dating them. I'm sure Casey's crazy about your hair." Blake told. "I just--I--I just wouldn't want to ruin something so special just because we aren't making the effort to tell the truth to one another." Reid tells. "Just talk to her. I don't think her losing interest is the case. She likes you and I know for a fact she wouldn't want to lose you. Talk." Blake recommended and Reid nodded at her words.

        After the conversation he had with Blake, he decided that he was gonna talk to her after the case. They'd discovered that the person that owned the clothes shop for the clothes they found on the victims and had run off.

       Casey had been seated near Hotch and Rossi as she heard the news. "The owner of the vintage shop bolted from the store." Hotch informed. "Well, I've got something strange, too. The ME just called. Not only were there ligature marks on victim 3's arms, but his jaw was dislocated as well." Blake and Reid had arrived back to hear the news.

       "His jaw?" Reid asked. "Why would you hang someone, dislocate their joints and their jaw, and then crucify them?" Hotch questioned and Casey looked over at her boyfriend that was deep in thought. Rossi seemed to notice to, because he said: "I can see your wheels turning. Don't hold back."

       "Yeah, babe, share with the rest of the class." Casey told. "Maybe he's dislocating their body parts so he can manipulate them himself." Reid told. "For what purpose?" Blake asked.

        "Think about it for a second. If you add the dislocation, the holes in the hands, the strange clothing, and the odd makeup, I know this sounds crazy, but what if our unsub is turning his victims into human marionettes?" Reid explained and Casey's eyes widen. "You mean... human puppets?" She asked. "Man, I have officially seen it all."

        "The Greeks translated 'puppets' as 'neurospasta', which literally means string-pulling. And throughout time they've been used as a method to tell kings a story so the subjects didn't have to speak directly to him." Reid explained. "It was a way to hear the truth." Rossi tells. "It seems like this unsub's doing something similar, using his puppets to tell his story." Hotch told.

        "He can't be controlling them by hand." Casey shakes her head. "No, he probably built some sort of contraption." Blake said. "And he's trying to lift his victims." Reid said. "That could explain why they discarded the men. They were too heavy." Rossi stated.

       "What do you see?" Hotch asked. "Well, I'm checking the licenses of our victims, and each one weighed less than the previous one." Rossi explained. "You know, if he's making human marionettes, that also explains why he's stuffing his victims into boxes. It's like a sick toy chest." Reid tells. "So he is dehumanizing them and torturing them, but he's just not killing them." Casey stated.

       "He's turning them into his playthings." Hotch added and Detective Martin walked in with the latest news. "A father and son were just abducted from a parking lot at gunpoint. A witness saw a man force them into a car."

       "Dave, you and Blake go check it out. I'll have Garcia start looking for theater owners and puppeteers in the area."

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      After Rossi and Blake had checked the car and discovered that the unsub had driven off in a blue van — which caused Hotch to call Garcia with this new info he found out. "Garcia." Hotch started. "Yes, sir."

      "Were there any incidents involving a father and son in the puppeteers' histories that you found?" Hotch asked. "Father and son. Okay. No, it's coming up empty." Garcia stated. "What about 20 or 30 years ago?" Casey asked.

       "Well, there was a pretty famous puppeteer in the late fifties named Alex Rain. He died in a robbery. His son witnessed it." Garcia explained. "What was the son's name?" Blake asked. "Adam Rain. Mom died ten years ago." Garcia answered.

       "Cross-check Adam's name with the names of the patrons in the clothing store." Reid told. "Oh, I got a big old hit. Okay, Mr. Rain called Tucker, the owner, forty times in the last month. And check this. His father was most well-known for a pair of puppets named Mitch and Steph. The male one had dark black hair, the female was a redhead." This was getting even freakier.

       "You have an address?" Rossi asked. "Last known was a building on Pine Street, used to be his father's theater." Garcia told. Hotch nudged his head. "Come on, Dave."

        "And guess what he drives."
        "A blue van."

      After getting this guy and locking him up, the team headed back to the BAU and Casey had been in some sort of rush to get out of there when Reid stopped her. "Hey." Reid started. "Hey." Casey gave him a quick kiss as she headed towards the elevator. "Where are you going?" He asked. "Home, why?" Casey asked, taking a pause.

      "Well, I was hoping we could talk." Reid told. "I'm sorry, I can't tonight. I'm pretty busy." Casey couldn't tell Reid what she was going to do. He'd be questioning her to why she was so obsessed with the fact that she wanted to know more about that night.

        "Rain check, okay? Soon." Casey told.
        "Okay, I'll see you tomorrow then?" Reid asked as she headed into the elevator and pushed the button. "I'll see you tomorrow. Bye. Love you." With that, the elevator closed and the two realized what had just been said.

        Reid had realized what she said as soon as she had said it. Casey realized when the elevator closed. She leaned back and muttered: "Shit." It was only a slip-up, she didn't mean to say it, it just came out. But the thing is: she said it. She still said it.

         After getting out of the elevator, she headed towards her car in the parking lot and drove home and immediately called the number of Cooper's lawyer to see if maybe she could talk to him. Cooper had refused to talk to anyone without a lawyer present. So, they made a plan that she would be talking to and meeting up with him soon. But the plan would only go haywire once it happened.

hey lovelies
yes casey said "love you"😁
anywayssss sorry i haven't updated lol
i've been busy with everything since i'm getting ready for the summer to end lol
i'm gonna be a senior y'all🥳
it's weird cuz i started this series in my sophomore year and it's so weird to think about lol
anywayssss
thank you so much for reading
personally not a big fan of this episode cuz of the dislocating of arms and such but yeaaaa
still love it cuz matthew directed it😁😁
bye y'all
-mya </3