Chapter Three: Right Infront of You
1x04: Plain Sight

Birthdays are supposed to be this special day. Where everything works in your favor. Eden had made Reid a birthday cake, it was his favorite, Devil's food cake. Derek, JJ, Eden, and Elle  were all standing around him as he tried to blow out the candles.

"Make a wish! Come on man! Blow, baby blow! I thought you were full of hot air Reid. Come on, Reid." Derek Teases as Eden rolls her eyes.

" They're trick candles, Spence Okay? They're gonna come back every time."

" Oh, mommy to rescue you!" Derek chastises as Eden rolls her eyes as wekk as JJ.

" Mommy?" Reid furrows his brows. Eventually they start taking the candles off the cake and dropping them into a cup of water. Reid walks over to Gideon who was watching from a far with Hotch, but Hotch got called away to a phone call.

" You having fun?" Gideon asks.

" Yes, definitely. I'm definitely having fun." Reid has a giant smile on his face. 

" Make a wish?"

" Can I take this hat off?" He asks as Gideon just shrugs.

" I wouldn't."

" Hey Spence, first piece for the birthday boy." Eden holds up a plate with cake on it.

" Do you know she's the only person in the whole world who calls me''Spence ''?" He says before walking over to take the group he takes the piece. " Thank you."

"Did everyone get a piece?" JJ asks as everyone nods, munching on a piece of Cake.

"Why don't you feed it to him,  Eden?"

Eden looks to Derek who is smirking. "I hope you choke." She replies as Elle and JJ are laughing.

"Sorry, guys, the party's over." Hotch puts the phone back on the receiver as everyone sighs Eden cuts the cake up more before putting it on the counter of the break room. They all sit in the round table room waiting for Hotch and JJ to come back with the case files and Details.

" We're going to San Diego."

" Not for surfing, huh?" Derek says as JJ passes out some files.

" They're calling him the Tommy killer."

" Six  women raped and murder in their homes in the last three weeks." Hotch explains.

" Six in Three weeks?"

" That's a short fuse." Gideon comments.

" And getting shorter. The first two were eight days apart then the next four in two weeks."

" Rapid escalation. Do you think he's regressing to a psychopathic frenzy?" Reid asks as everyone is looking through the photos.

" No, he's too controlled for that. See you on the plane." Hotch gets up and heads for the door.

" Why the Tommy killer?"

"You know the rock opera? This unsub glues the victim's eyes wide open." and with that he leaves.

" He wants them to see him."

" And feel him." Gideon says as everyone gears up for the plane ride.

French poet Jacques Rigaut said "don't forget that I cannot see myself, that my role is limited to being the one who looks in the mirror."

"Brenda Samms was found yesterday by her children when they got home from school. She had been strangled with a thin ligature, possibly a wire." Hotch comes back to his Seat Eden was the coffee station, her seat was next to Elle's who also wanted coffee.

"No weapon left at the scene."

" Residue on the wrist and mouth indicate that duct tape was used and then removed."

" Also not found at the scene."

" Brought it with him, took it with him."

" He also started leaving messages at the fourth scene. This was on the mirrors. "Fair lady, throw those costly robes aside. No longer may you glory in your pride. Take leave of all your carnal, vain delight."

"I've come to summon you away this night." Eden and Reid finish together, everyone looks at her with wide eyes. She clears her throat as Reid continues babbling.

"It's a ballad from the late 1600s. A dialogue betwixt death and a lady."

" A 17th century ballad?"

" Essentially, a woman begging death to live." Reid continues.

" What kind of person knows this ballad? Are we looking for a literature professor?"

" Anyone with an internet connection, actually. You should see what comes in when you type the word "death" into a search engine."

" Reid, no wonder you can't get a date."Derek teases.

"Don't listen to him, Reid, he doesn't actually date."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Derek quirks a brow at Eden who sighs.

"Sleeping with some bimbo who has tits for brains isn't a date, A date requires a meal and a conversation, there's no talking involved with swapping spit." Derek just glares at her as she continues looking over her file. Everyone else was talking and ignoring them.

" Reid, Eden, you stay on the messages. See if there's a deeper meaning."  Gideon says pretending like Eden and Derek weren't just bickering, everyone was used to it at this point they just talked over them and ignored them sometimes.

" It definitely looks like he ransacked the crime scene pretty well."

" A lot of damage, nothing taken. The eyes are the thing, the signature. The behavior that isn't necessary for the murder, but necessary for the emotional release. That's what he's there for. ." Gideon continues.

"There used to be a widely held belief that the eyes record a snapshot of the last thing a person sees before they die." Reid babbles.

" Yeah, that's right. People used to write poems about talking to death."

" Ballads." Reid corrects.

" Whatever."

" You think they'll ever run out of new things to do with their victim?" Eden questions, as Gideon sighs.

" Well, finding new ways to hurt each other is what we're good at." Gideon responds as everyone stays quiet,

//

The team enters the task force department and heads straight to the room they are occupying, Gideon is looking over some photos while Reid and Eden are already looking over the Messages. Reid is mumbling to himself while Eden is looking through the messages. She learned how to read fast during her intern year,

"My name is death. Have you not heard of me? You may as well be mute..."

"Creepy, huh?" JJ walks up.

"A bit, I find it intriguing." Eden says as JJ nods surprised.

"Really?"

"Yeah." Eden nods.

" Actually, conversations between death and his victim were a fairly popular literary and artistic theme throughout the renaissance." Reid babbles, JJ looks at him and Eden just smirks looking at the both of them. "Yeah, creepy." he says as Eden chuckles.

After a few minutes Reid and Eden go talk with Hotch who is talking with Elle.

"It looks like what he's written at the scenes are most of the first three verses of the same ballad."

"Most of?" Hotch questions.

" It's only one part of the conversation. There's no "betwixt" Reid chuckles a bit as Hotch just stares at him.

"Death speaks, but the lady never answers." Eden explains as Hotch nods.

" Maybe he feels like their bodies are answer enough."

Hotch and Elle went to the latest attempted victim, her husband came home and interrupted  him.

Reid and Eden were working on the messages, the only reason why she was working with Reid was because she knew the ballad. She studied it for a project in her English lit class, it was one of her favorites among many. 

Gideon and Derek come sauntering in having just come back from the last crime scene, Reid eagerly pulls Eden over to Gideon to explain their findings.

"The verses."

" Found something?" Gideon quirks a brow at the boy genius.

" Not an answer, a question. We  found the full text. He's pretty much following it to a t, at least the death side of the conversation."

" But?"

" Why didn't he leave them at the first three murders? I mean, this ballad is ten verses long, just on the death side."

Eden nods. "He's got plenty to work with. But if it's not part of his signature,"

" if it isn't something that he has to do for an emotional reason then, I mean, why start?" Reid furrows his brows.

" JJ, find out when the press ran the first story on this unsub." Gideon turns to the woman she was only a few feet away.

" When?"

" After which victim."

" Yeah, you got it." JJ picks up the phone.

" What're you thinking?"

" He wasn't getting enough attention." Eden explains as Gideon nods.

" The police department sometimes don't even realize they're looking at a pattern."

"Yeah, until somebody tells 'em." Derek says.

" The first story ran the morning after the fourth victim was found." JJ says.

" The increased patrols didn't begin until after the fourth victim, either."

" Yeah, the police didn't realize what was happening. He wrote his verse,"

"and- and everyone knows that he was there." Reid finishes as Hotch and Elle walk up to the group.

" The offender in this new attempt is a black male."

" black male? That's cross racial. That doesn't happen."

" What about Herbert Mullin? He killed fourteen different people of completely varying ages, races, and creeds."

"But there was no sexual component to his crimes. And he wore a ski mask. This attacker wore a ski mask." Elle explains as Gideon zones out looking over at the crime scene photos, on the boards.

"Tell 'em we're ready."

" For a profile?" Eden questions.

"We're gonna make Tommy contact us." Gideon says walking away.

They begin gathering around as the Bau team starts giving the profile Gideon starts off first.

" The unsub brought the weapon with him.  tape, glue, wire. He did not leave them at the scene. He took them when he left. He has a kind of killing kit that he carries."

" Organized killers usually have a skill job, likely technology related which may involve the use of the hands. The crime scenes are far enough apart that he needs a vehicle. This will be well kept, obsessively clean, as will be his home. He's diurnal, the attacks occurred during the day so the vehicle may be related to his work, possibly a company car or truck." Hotch continues.

" We believe he watches the victims for a time learns the rhythms of the home, knows his time frame."

" You're not gonna catch him accidentally." Hotch says.

" He destroys symbols of wealth in the victim's homes. He harbors envy of and hatred toward people of a higher social class. He feels invisible around them."

" Class is the theme of the poem which he left at the various crime scenes. At one point in the poem, the women attempts to bribe death but he doesn't accept it. He says this is the one moment when riches mean nothing when death comes, the poor and the rich are exactly alike."

" So he's poor." one detective asks.

" Probably middle-class. A decidedly lower-class person would stick out in a highly patrolled neighborhood. This guy appears to belong there. He blends in."

" Why does he glue the eyes open?" another Detective asks.

" The unsub is an exploitative rapist. Most rape victim close their eyes during the attack, turn their heads. For some rapists, this ruins the fantasy. For this type of rapist, the goal is more related to the victim watching him than the act itself. The verses, the staging, the aggressive language, "I am death, " this is a guy who, while being in control of the crime scene, almost certainly feels inadequate in the rest of his life." Eden explains.

" That's why he couldn't wait for you to figure out what he'd done. Why he needed to make sure all his crimes were counted. His victims, they represent whatever it is that's controlling him and he wants that control back. He is under the thumb of a powerful woman who frightens him. And a final point. He is white." Gideon says sitting down in his chair.

"We have witnesses that identify him as a black male."

"The attacker was black. He is not the Tommy killer."

"Mrs. Gordon's husband came home at the same time that he always does. The Tommy killer would've known that." Hotch explains.

" And Mrs. Gordon's attacker wore a ski mask. The unsub knows when he walks into a house he's going to kill the woman who lives there. If you're not leaving any witnesses, why wear a ski mask?"

" And he wants the vIctim to see him anyway." Derek speaks up.

" Your attempted rapist is a garden variety disorganized young man."

" As the victim's age goes up, generally the attacker's age goes down. Mrs. Gordon is about 60, which puts her rapist at about 20." Eden continues.

" And it takes years to develop the level of calm and sophistication that Tommy displays at a crime scene. The rapist is far too young for that."

" Mrs. Gordon told me that there's a young man who delivers groceries to their home. He fits a lot of what we're describing here." Elle explains.

" Great. So we're back to zero on Tommy." Detective Morrow, the lead the detective of the task force unit says.

" Not at all. May I see you in your office for a moment?" Hotch asks as they go into his office.

//

The plan they had was simple. Find the delivery driver and bring him, but make a big show out of it, pretend that he is connected to the Tommy Killer murders. When they all knew he wasn't. It was just so the real killer ended up calling into the tip line  Elle and Derek bring in the driver right as JJ is done with her press conference.

Everyone was sitting around waiting for him to call. JJ was on the phone with Garcia who was gonna do a trace. Eden was sitting at a desk with Reid who was playing with a rubix cube.

"God, I hate waiting like this" She groans, sitting up in her chair her arms wrapped around her body for warmth.

" Do you think it's weird that I knew that ballad?"

" I don't know how it is that you know half the things you know but I'm glad you do." Eden smiles at him.

" Do you think that's why I can't get a date?" Eden glares at the back of Derek's head knowing that he was the reason this was happening.

" Have you ever asked anyone out?"

" No."

" Then that's why you can't get a date." She replies simply as Reid nods. A phone rings and another Detective answers.

" Detective Martin. Hey. Hey." He waves the Bau over.

" Line 6, Penelope." JJ covers the phone. " Line 6." she says to Eden. everyone gathers around her desk as she puts it on speaker.

" You stupid, incompetent sons of bitches! I don't make mistakes! I am death! You hear me?! I am death! You'll see now. Tomorrow, mark my words, you will see. And while I'm taking her, I'm gonna be thinking of you."

" Anything?... She said she got nothing." JJ shakes her head.

" Nothing?"

" We missed him?" Hotch asks as everyone sighs.

//

Its the next day and the team is grouped up to find the unsub.

" We have an undercover car for each of your teams and the entire damn department out there, too."

" Remember, a truck. Maybe a work truck in excellent condition."

"Everyone knows." Detective Morrow nods.

" All right, he might make a mistake today. He's angry, and he probably hasn't done the kind of surveillance he'd like."

" Yeah, well, neither have we. Let's go, Reid." Derek says as Eden and Reid follow after Derek. They were broken up into groups of three. Elle was with Hotch and Gideon, Eden was glad Reid was with her and Derek, she really disliked him alot.

//

Eden was sitting in the backseat, usually during times like this should we be reading trying to perfect her craft, she was still that headstrong woman, wanting to be perfect at any job she did. This time However she was just sitting in the back looking around, she was content with the silence. It truly didn't bother her.

"It's 10:30 already." Derek groans, punching the steering wheel.

" All he said was tomorrow. He didn't... Specify morning"

"Reid, this guy's gotta spend a lot of time in that house. A lot. He needs it to be morning."

" Are we sure this is a good spot?" Eden leans in between the seats.

"Three  of the victims lived within a block of this street. It's the main artery through the neighborhood."

" True, but three victims in the same block could mean he's done with the area."  Eden says as Reid nods in agreement.

" Or that he's just really familiar with it."

" And comfortable in it." Reid replies.

Derek sighs, it pained him but Eden was right. " But then, on the other hand the other victims lived more than a mile in either direction."

" Right."

" God, I hate not having a plan. We're looking for a needle in a haystack here." Derek sighs.

" Actually, it's more like we're looking for a needle in a pile of needles."

" What?" He says as Eden just rolls her eyes.

" A needle would stand out in a haystack." Eden dumbs it down for him as he just glares at her through his sunglasses.

" Ok. And we're not looking for someone who stands out?"

" No. We're looking for a particular needle in a pile of needles."  Reid continues he starts looking around with a pair of binoculars.

Eden gets a call from Hotch he explains that Gideon figures out why he left their eyes open, its because he wanted them to see him, he was a phone repair man. He fixed the phone lines. Garcia found an exact phone repair place that had been used in that area and Reid, Eden, Derek, drive there, they run inside and Derek flashes his credentials.

" FBI. I need to know where one of your technicians is."

"FBI?" The clerk behind the counter seems dazed '

" Where are your technicians?" Reid asks.

"They're all out in the field."

" Listen!" Derek slams his hand on the desk. "I need Franklin Graney right now."

Derek calls Elle and explains where to go, Eden then figures she could run to the area quicker. And decides to run over and Meet Gideon and Elle, she arrives just as Elle and Gideon get out. Hothc pulls up tires screeching against the asphalt. He closes his door. As Gideon is looking around.

" Fan out. Go through yards. Look at telephone poles. He's around here."  Everyone breaks off. Eden followed Gideon. Figuring it will be faster if two people work together.

They walk a few blocks down and see a house with a big entrance gate. To the left of the entrance gate is a yellow fence. The door to the fence is open and a baby is heard crying. They walk through the gate and past a pool, there the baby is screaming at this point. He's screaming from his high chair for his mom, Gideon draws his gun seeing a tool belt for the with the logo from the phone repair company on the counter, Eden follows suit. He nods to her stepping into the house. The child screams more when he sees Gideon, Eden shushes him a bit and Gideon pulls out his phone.

"875 Orange, Hotch. Back door."

They walk through the house and see a set of stairs Gideon nods to Eden and they go up the stairs. Eden looks around the hall, gun raised out. Of course Graney's voice is heard in the room with the closed door, she nods towards it as Gideon nods for her to move forward. Of course as she steps forward the floor creaks, Graney is quiet, they realize they've been made and just walk to the door opening it. Eden hides behind the wall so Graney doesn't know she's there.

" I'll shoot her."

"No, you won't, Franklin."

" Yes, I will."

" If you hurt her, I'll kill you. I'll just say we caught a low-life burglar. You didn't turn out to be Tommy after all. You will remain uncaught. After a while, people will forget you. You'll be nothing. Once every 5 or 10 years, they'll do a TV show. They'll ask, "what ever happened to that Tommy guy? Why'd he disappear?" Then they'll stop talking about it altogether."

Eden sees Hotch and Elle coming up the stairs she waves them back a bit and they stay at the end of the hall

. "Put the gun down. Come on. Walk outta here with me. I'll make sure your face is splashed across every newspaper and TV in the country. Tommy killer Franklin Graney. Everyone will see you then. Bundy, Dahmer, Graney. Whole world will know who you are. It's up to you, Franklin. You can be famous, or you can be invisible."

" You'll tell everyone?"

" I have a media specialist outside right now. It is your choice."

" Promise? Yes, sir. I promise."

" Back away from the gun." Eden hears the end of the conversation and immediately comes into the room, she cuffs Graney, he squirms a bit as Eden straightens him up and carries him out followed by Hotch.   Elle and Gideon check on the woman.

Rose Kennedy once said, "birds sing after a storm. "Why shouldn't people feel as free to delight in whatever sunlight remains to them?"

Everyone was sleeping on the jet ride minus Reid and Gideon. They were playing chess, Elle was sleeping on the couch. Derek and Hotch were in chairs, Eden was  reading a book in a booth seat with JJ her head in JJ's lap. While JJ was looking over some files.

"Oh, I almost forgot. I have something for you."

"Oh, yeah?" Reid quirks a brow.

" Forgot to give it to you at the party." He hands him a blue rectangular box.

" But you don't give birthday presents." Reid unwraps it, opening the box.

" The "red...skins."

"It's a V. I. P. Box." Gideon explains.

" Thank you so much."

" Ever been to a pro football game?"

" No, I honestly didn't even know this was football." Reid says as Gideon laughs.

" You're gonna love it."

"We are. You're coming with me, right?"

" No. Someone else on the plane is a huge skins fan."

" Who?" He asks curiously.

" Only person in the world who calls you Spence."

"Eden," He turns to look at Where Eden was. She was now at the coffee station.

"She's a huge Redskins fan."

" Wh-what should I say?"  Gideon just shrugs, Reid tucks the tickets into his pocket before looking at the board. " Checkmate." he says moving his piece, he gets up as Gideon laughs and he walks over to the coffee station. " Heard you're, uh, a fan of football." Eden nods happily, he pulls out the tickets and they talk for a while as Eden laughs at something he says. Gideon just smiles like a proud parent.