CHAPTER TWO: BLONDES HAVE MORE FUN !

13x03

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AT OFTEN TIMES, CASEY WILLOWS ALLOWED HERSELF TO BE JUST A LITTLE LATE TO WORK. When she arrived today, she'd spotted everyone up at the BAU room and headed up to join them for the case Garcia informed her about via text.

Once she entered the room, all eyes on her. Or rather her hair. "Whoa." JJ comments. "Casey?" Everyone couldn't help but stare at the girl and her now dyed hair.

Yes, Casey Willows had gone blonde.

Almost everyone's jaws were agape, staring at her. Even her ex couldn't stop staring at her. Spencer gulped and widened his eyes at the blonde woman in front of him. "Your hair." He said, catching himself before staring too hard.

         "Wow, never pictured you as blonde." Luke comments and JJ nods, impressed. "Gotta say I dig it." She compliments. "Now, we just need Emily to join and we'll have a whole brood of blondes!" Garcia cheers. "Don't get your hopes now." Emily stated.

          Casey shrugs, "Yeah, almost everybody I know has gone through a blonde phase in their life and well, I decided to give it a try. Needed a bit of a change. And you know what they say, blondes do have more fun." She smirks.

         "It looks good," Spencer tells. "Really good." He nods at her and Casey nods at him back with a small smile, "Thanks."

          Seeing as though it got quiet, Casey looks over at Garcia. "What'd I miss?" She asks. "We were just beginning, my even fairer maiden." Garcia holds the remote up to the screen. "This morning, Detroit Police were called to an abandoned warehouse, where they discovered the body of 42-year-old, Curtis Wyler." Emily explained.

"He was hanging from a meat hook. Curtis Wyler's homicide appears to be connected to the murder of 27-year-old Darrel Forester. His body was found two weeks ago under nearly identical circumstances."

"Due to the stages of decomposition, the Coroner has not been able to determine the time of death or the cause of death, but clearly, he suffered a lot of injuries here, and what really stood out to everybody was that both victims had been completely... castrated." Garcia explained.

"Castration is a removal of the testicles. It appears that—" Spencer is interrupted by Garcia. "You know, I have misspoken. I... they... I guess technically, then, they had been emasculated, the whole package... gone." Garcia explained as Spencer makes a face.

"Okay," Tara started. "So torture and sexual mutilation." Rossi added on, "And these men weren't connected?" He asks.

        "I haven't had a crack at them, but according to the police, there's nothing that stands out. Wyler was a fancy criminal lawyer. Forester was never his client. And he worked as some sort of roving DJ." Garcia explained.

       "Was either one reported missing?" JJ asks. "Forester wasn't," Emily stated. lAlthough he had no immediate family in the area, Mrs. Wyler called police a week ago when her husband didn't come home. But there were no signs of forced entry or foul play in his office, nor Forester's condo."

       "There's no blood at these scenes, either, just the bodies." Luke said, looking over the file. "This unsub knows what he's doing and has someplace special to do it." Rossi told. "Yeah, and then after he's had his fun, he likes to show off his handiwork. Kinda like Jigsaw." Casey comments. "Clearly, this guy's trying to send some kind of message." Tara added.

        "This reminds me of cartel violence... the brutality, the public staging. You know, I come from Michigan, not the Motor City... Carson City... But my first job in law enforcement was in Detroit. And so I'm looking at this and I can't help but think that we should take a look at the Chaldean Mafia." Matt explained out loud to the team.

        "The call-the-who what?" Garcia asks.

        "The Chaldean Mafia is an Assyrian ethnic g*ng with a criminal network that historically spans from Detroit, Michigan, southwest to San Diego, California." Spencer explained and Matt nodded, "What Reid said."

        Luke added on, "Yeah, but I thought the DA's Operation Shadowbox ended." He stated. "It did, but the problem is, it also put some guys with a particular set of skills on the free market." Matt told. "And yet this extreme expression of sexual brutality, this seems to go far beyond the type of punishment doled out by some narcotics gang's enforcer." Tara explained.

       "Yeah, we may be looking for more of a pure psychopath here, but I agree. This guy seems practiced, like a pro." Rossi nodded.

       "Well, either way, this unsub is organized, skilled, and motivated. But so are we. Wheels up in 20." Emily ordered.

         As Casey collected her go-bag, JJ had already gotten hers ready to go and went on over to Casey's desk with a suspicious look on her face. "Don't look now but you have an audience at twelve o'clock." JJ muttered. Casey furrowed her brows, "Huh?"

         "Ex-husband staring," JJ said. "And failing at making it look like he's not." Casey then realizes what JJ is saying and before she decides to turn around, Casey whispers at JJ. "You think if I turn around fast enough I can catch him?" JJ shrugs and Casey decides to do just that, spinning so fast Spencer's eyes widened as he packed the rest of his bag up and headed towards the elevator.

           When he walked out, JJ and Casey burst out in a fit of laughter. "It's the boyband look all over again." Emily spoke, walking up to the two with Tara by her side. Tara furrowed her brows in confusion. "Boyband look?"

            "It's ancient history." Casey stated and JJ decides to spill the beans. "Nearly eight years ago, Spence got a haircut that was deemed the 'boyband look' after Hotch said that he looked like he was in one..." Emily decided to finish off for JJ. "And Casey started developing a little bit of a crush on our boy wonder. And the rest was history."

           "And like you said, it's history." Casey told. "I still can't believe you two broke up." JJ stated.

        The rest of the team had ended up finding out due to Garcia sleuthing and worrying about her favorite couple. She'd gone through their private messages and broke down in tears. Luke had been there for Garcia and that's when Garcia spilled the beans about Casey and Spencer no longer being together. To Garcia, it was like a celebrity breakup. Luke ended up telling Matt and Tara about it without meaning to. Casey had told JJ herself and Rossi, well, the man's smart, he knew what the hell was going on. They understood why Casey had done what she did but it was weird no longer seeing them together after a long time.

          "Well, believe it. You all know what happened. The team dynamic was... no longer the team dynamic. I'm doing what's best for me. For Christopher. Even for Spencer himself. I just want everyone to understand that." Casey explained.

           "And we do." Emily said. "Things change, feelings change. And hair colors seem to, too, Blondie." Casey rolled her eyes playfully. "I never should've gone blonde."

          The four then made their way to the jet and headed towards the designated spots. Casey and Emily sat together as Rossi and Spencer sat in front of them.

"The victimology on Curtis Wyler does make it easier to see where he might have pissed off a drug gang." Rossi started. "Yeah," Casey turns towards Tara on the couch. "While he was a well-paid criminal defense attorney, his winning percentage of clients accused of a wide variety of drug related crimes was, ugh, not so good."

"Though none of those convicted clients appear to have any obvious connection with the Chaldean Mafia." Matt told. "And comparing Wyler's victimology to Forester, well, there's a lot more contrast than comparison." JJ stated.

"Well, Darrel Forester moved to Detroit 3 years ago and became a big DJ on the local music scene, and by all accounts is a model citizen." Luke stated.

Garcia appears on the monitors. "Hold on. I may have found some cyber skeletons in their cloud closets. Check out these bank records. Over the last year or so, both Wyler and Forester have made some high-dollar cash withdrawals on a semi-regular weekly basis. They range in amounts from $5,000 to $9,999." She explains.

"Because Wyler and Forester probably knew that $10,000 cash transactions automatically trigger their banks to file currency transaction reports on the financial crimes enforcement network." Spencer explained. "So the question is, what exactly were these two men paying for?" Casey wondered aloud.

Emily looks up from her cell to look at Matt on the couch. "Matt, do you know an Adrian Scott?" She asks and Matt's ears perk up. "Uh, yeah. We were rookies together. Why?"

"Well, he's made captain now. He's also our local taskforce leader. So since you know the lay of the land, I'd like you, Casey and Reid to come downtown with me." Emily tells. "JJ, Luke, drive out to the crime scene, see if there's anything that's been overlooked. Dave, Tara, you'll go to the Coroner's office. Hopefully by now they've been able to nail down a window for time of death, if not cause of death, for our victims."

Once they landed, everyone went to their designated spots. To tell the truth, Casey didn't mind she got paired with Reid. She just didn't know how he was taking it. But she wasn't gonna ask him because she didn't want to embarrass him. Especially in front of Matt and Emily.

When they arrived to the PD, a man in a suit locked eyes with Matt and the two were reunited. "SSA Matt Simmons." Adrian spoke as they greeted each other with a handshake and hug. "Ah, it's good to see you, man. It's been way too long." Adrian told.

"Wish it were under better circumstances." Matt stated and Adrian nods in agreement. "This is Unit Chief Emily Prentiss," Emily shakes Adrian's hand. "Agent Casey Willows," Casey goes to shake the man's hand next. "And Dr. Spencer Reid." Spencer waves at Adrian.

"Captain Scott, the BAU is here to help you in any way we can." Emily stated. "Well, that's good," Adrian told. "Because this case just got a whole lot more twisted." Casey furrowed her brows, "What do you mean by that?"

What Adrian meant by that was that the victims were recorded when they were tortured and they were currently watching the footage of the men being tortured on the screens. Everyone was obviously disturbed by the footage found and someone finally decided to put a stop to it.

"Okay, that's enough of that!" Casey pauses the footage by pressing a button. "I see what you mean by that now." She tells, looking at Adrian. "Man, oh, man. I thought it was rough the first time around. Sick bastard made a snuff film." He explained.

The woman in front of the monitors begins to speak. "As you'll see, he poses Mr. Wyler in quite a few degrading positions. All the while, he deliberately starts and stops the recording so as to not appear on camera himself." She shows the hard copy photos to the five.

"But he saves the best for last. After he castrates them, he just lets Wyler bleed out in real time. Tape ends at 42 minutes and 15 seconds where you see Wyler lose consciousness and die." Adrian stated.

"Was this sent directly to you?" Emily asks. "No," Adrian walks over to a box on the desk and pulls out a ziplock bag. "It was sent like this. Clean. No fingerprints, no DNA. All on the little micro-cassette that I haven't seen in like 20 years. There were two tapes, actually, both hand-delivered, one to Wyler's home, the other to Forester's condo." Adrian explains.

"And Mrs. Wyler gave you this one?" Matt asks. "Thank God she couldn't play it." Adrian nods.

"It looks like pure sexual sadism, but in this case, the unsub not only inflicted physical pain on the victim, but he intended to exact a secondary psychological sadism on others by sending them the tape." Spencer explained. "Except why would he use media that nobody has anymore?" The woman in front of the computer asks.

"It could suggest some sort of degree of technical expertise or maybe even a complete lack thereof. It is, however, an effective forensic countermeasure in that it avoids the technical markings inherent to digital media." Spencer explained.

"We should talk to Mrs. Wyler." Emily offers and Adrian nods, "Absolutely. She's here. She insisted on waiting in my office."

"Spence, Matt, I'd like you to stay here with Officer Royce. See if you can find out what that building is and more importantly, where it is. Willows and I will talk to Mrs. Wyler." Casey nods as she follows Emily out the door.

After with talking with Mrs. Wyler and seeing her suspicious facial expressions, she was choosing to turn the other way. Everyone had met back up in the PD to discuss what everyone had figured and found. Rossi and Tara were with Spencer in the computer room.

"So you walk through these crime scenes and you realize the unsub needs time to set this crazy stage. So he's obviously comfortable in these spaces." JJ explains. "It's difficult to imagine that these two men are his first kills. I mean, there's definitely a level of confidence and expertise being demonstrated." Luke explained. "He definitely knows what he's doing." Casey added.

"And yet we found nothing in VICAP." Emily nods. "Yeah, we should do a geo profile of potential dump sites in the area." Matt suggests and Emily's cell phone rings.

"Garcia, what did you find?" Emily asks as she puts her on speaker. "I come bearing a curious love connection between our two victims, and she calls herself Dasha. Following along in your hymnals, you'll see that both Wyler and Forester were quite smitten with this comely lass, so much so that they archived their very romantic emails, and therefore, I was able to use those to trace each gentleman's "meet cute" with Dasha to the website of the Blue Siren International Social Club, where members are encouraged to cultivate mutually beneficial and satisfying social arrangements." Garcia explained.

"Where sugar daddies meet sugar babies." Matt comments. "And I thought I liked older men." Casey adds. "Hookers and Johns by any other name." Garcia says.

"It looks as if Blue Siren works almost like pretty much every dating site. Members can sign up and then hook up from all over the country." Emily tells. "Yeah, but they don't like to enroll using their real names. I mean, Dasha?" JJ considers.

"Clearly that is a Nom de Plume, but her real name is in the veiled hands of the Blue Siren." Garcia told. "Strange, though. Our profile begins with a male sexual sadist hunting victims through escort services. Except when you read these emails, I mean, you know that these guys met and hung out with the one they were expecting." Luke explains.

"Uh, true, and I know we don't have a reliable timeline for either of these crimes, but from what I can tell, Dasha was the last person to see both of these men alive." Garcia dropped the bomb.

"Garcia, tell me you have a terrestrial address for Blue Siren." Emily said.
"You betcha. Sending it now."

Figuring out Dasha's real identity was Kimberly Desmond, Emily set up protective detail in her house, volunteering Matt to stay with her overnight. Luke and JJ had talked to Kimberly's mother, Janel Desmond and Luke and JJ had stayed outside of her house and ran background checks. They discovered that all of the men in the family had passed, like the family had been cursed. Spencer had discovered an isolated area of the background sound of the videos that were sent and as he dug through, he found the isolated area through the geographical.

Emily called Adrian to get a few people to look over the area as well as Casey, Luke and Spencer. Casey had paired herself up with Adrian and had found a skull in some dirt. She studied it for a moment and remembered the anatomy lessons from seventh grade. The victimology was consistent with males but this was the skull that belonged to a woman. She decided to call over Luke and Spencer so they could come and check it out.

Spencer and Luke followed behind as Casey knelt down to examine the skull once more. Luke knelt down next to her. "Victim was shot in the back of the head." Spencer stated, confused since the MO was blatant torture.

"That's not all that's confusing. This victim isn't a male." Casey added. Luke nods as he takes the skull from Casey's hands. "Yeah, look at the temporal line. It's less pronounced. Supraorbital Ridge is sharp." Spencer nods, "It's been out here for a long time."

"Why would he have completely change his MO and victimology?" Casey wondered. "Unless there's something special about this particular woman?" Adrian suggests. Luke nods, "I'd say that's exactly what it is."

"We're gonna need to get an expedited DNA identification." Spencer tells Adrian.

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Garcia had discovered that Kimberly Desmond had no birth certificate and Janel was lying about something. Her last name was formally Benjamin and there's no record of it anywhere. The team all regathered at the office as Garcia was about to reveal what she found.

"So I got an ID. On that Jane Doe from the cargo container site. Her name is Cynthia Hendricks. She's been listed as a missing person in Indiana since July of 1996. Here's something. Cynthia had a little girl. She had a baby. Her name was Kimberly. She had that baby on May 6th, 1994."

"That's Kimberly Desmond's birthday." Emily stated. Garcia continued, "Exactly. And then I thought maybe that's a coinkydink, but then I remembered what Tara said about a home birth and I followed up on that. Except in Indiana, and this Kimberly was born at home, so they had to fill out a form and have it notarized and signed by witnesses. One of the witnesses was a Janel Merza, the sister of the father of Kimberly. His name, Gabriel Merza."

Tara read from the tablet in front of her. "It says here he was granted parole at the end of last year from Sidney Falls Correctional Facility, having served 10 of his 15 years for voluntary manslaughter." She explained.

"That was just one of his many crimes, which include putting a bullet in the back of his baby mama's head." Luke stated. "She was probably about to leave him, maybe even go to the police." JJ suggests. "And yet, with whatever sliver of humanity this guy had left in him, Gabriel chose to spare the life of his baby girl give her up to his sister to raise." Casey told. "And I bet Janel's been so afraid of her brother that she wasn't lying to protect his identity, she's been lying to protect Kimberly from the awful truth." Matt added.

"And after he got out of prison, he might have gone to check on the one part of his life he feels has any value." Spencer stated. "And instead of finding his daughter had grown up to make something special of her life, he discovered she timeshares her companionship." Emily continued the chain. "Yeah, and that's where I can see some very sick parental protective instincts kicking into high gear." Rossi told.

Adrian walks into the room. "Just got a 911 call." He announces. "Son of a bitch broke in and kidnapped Kimberly. Butchered one of my officers. We're Code One."

Matt, Emily and Casey had gone down to Kimberly's home and Spencer had discovered an area Gabriel Merza might have been keeping Janel and Kimberly. Garcia had given Matt, Emily and Casey the directions and so they put their FBI vests on and headed that way.

When they arrived, Kimberly had been running out of the abandoned house and Emily, Casey and Matt rushed over to her. "It's okay. Kimberly, we've got you." Emily assures.

"Is he inside with Janel?" Matt asks Kimberly and she nods, "They're in the bedroom upstairs." She stated. Matt nods to Emily and Casey. "I got him."

Emily had taken care of Kimberly and told Casey to go and check in with Matt. Finding a way through the back and hearing a fight and struggle, Casey went down there and found the unsub sitting above Matt, holding a knife to his face, Matt being strong enough to hold the man in place before he could stab him.

Casey had jumped in and kicked the man off of Matt and held her gun right at him as Matt fought him off. When Matt was done, he flipped the guy over put him in handcuffs. "It's over. You're under arrest."

"You alright?" Casey asks Matt, who nods. "Yeah, nice kick." Matt compliments and Casey nods, putting her gun in her holster. "Yeah, well, I learned from the best."

FIRST OF ALL- 1K ALREADY AND THIS BOOK JUST GOT PUBLISHED??? (this also happened with 'as it was' and i'm living for it🥳) kudos to y'all for already getting this book to 1k!!!!

second of all:
you guys are in for an original next chapter!
you will most likely not like me at the end of the chapter😀
warning you all now before you throw tomatoes at me

third of all:
hope y'all caught the callback to the first book with the boyband look🤭

fourth of all:

casey in her blonde era??? i think tf yesss

anywaysssss
sorry this chapter didn't have much in it!
butttt more to come!
i love you all!
thank you for reading!
*mwah!*
-mya </3