CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX: CHAMELEON !

14x13

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            ONE THING CASEY WILLOWS LEARNED FOR THE PAST ELEVEN YEARS SHE'S BEEN ON THE JOB WAS THAT UNSUBS LIKED TO MANIPULATE. They loved manipulating their victims and law enforcement — letting them know that they were right there but they never saw them coming.

           It was a skill that has fooled the team every once in a while. And they thought that maybe they'd be more careful since The Multiplier. This time, it was different. A different kind of a threat that inhabited the team as one.

           It all started when Garcia gathered the team for a new case in Nashville. "A single homicide in Nashville, Tennessee. That is, firefighters responded to a house fire in the Green Hills neighborhood and were able to put out the fire before it destroyed everything, but they discovered the body of Monica Feinstein, with a complete face lift. And I'm not talking about the kind that you need a weekend and a bottle of aspirin to get over. I'm talking cheek to cheek, neck to noggin. Her whole face was lifted, like, removed from her..."

         Tara stops Garcia right there as she examined the file in front of her. "All right. Well, burns on the body were limited to the legs and feet, but knife marks went all the way down to the skull."

        "Possibly symbolic," Luke looks up at the screen. "Were the cuts postmortem?"
       "They were. Cause of death was strangulation." Garcia nodded.

       "So the face is a trophy. He took it with him to relive what he did." Emily told.

        "As with Jeffrey Dahmer, killers often collect body parts to combat a feeling of inadequacy. They see the trophy as an extension of their own identity, something they'd rather die than give up." Spencer explained.

         "How did the unsub set the fire?" Rossi asks. "Firefighters sourced the flames to a lit stove and then discovered evidence of corroded gas pipes." Matt looks at the file. "The gas pipes are made of galvanized steel, and the house is only a few years old. The unsub could've used sulfuric acid to mimic the effects of corrosion."

         JJ chimes in, "Yeah, he's gone to great lengths to make the fire look like an accident." Erik nods in agreement, "No forensic countermeasure. Burning the house down would be a perfect way to cover your tracks."

        "The sophistication suggests this isn't his first, and he's probably planning more. Whether it'd be involving a house or a woman. I suggest we look into this. Wheels up in 20." Casey nodded to her team.

         The team had gotten on the jet in a hurry as they discussed what they knew and debriefed before landing in Nashville. "Alrighty. Nashville, what do we know?" Casey starts.

       "Monica Feinstein, 52. Taught preschool, volunteered in a soup kitchen. Single mom, adult son. About as low-risk a lifestyle as you can get." Tara started from beside Casey since they were sitting next to each other.

       "And there's no sign of forced entry, so, the unsub was either someone she knew or didn't see as a threat." Emily follows. "He sets the fire to destroy the evidence, but he could also be setting it to hide his own shame or disgust for having taken the face." Matt told.

        Luke nods, "Yeah, that's true, but even if it was a trophy, he might've hated himself for wanting it."

        "Most unsubs have a love-hate relationship with their compulsions." Rossi stated. "Which in this case would be erotophonophilia." Spencer shrugged in response.

        "Erotophono-what?" Casey asks, turning to Spencer in her seat. "Erotophonophilia, lust murder, also called sexual homicide, is a homicide which occurs in tandem with either an overt sexual assault or sexually symbolic behavior. Lust murder is associated with the paraphilic term erotophonophilia, which is sexual arousal or gratification contingent on the death of a human being." Spencer explains nonchalantly.

         "You know, it amazes me just how much he knows." Erik comments. "Been on that boat for almost fifteen years now." JJ stated quietly to Erik.

          When they landed in Nashville and went to the PD, Casey had decided to call in Monica's son to chat with him. He was certain that it was his mother's boyfriend was responsible for this. And he was suspicious of him from the start. He'd given Luke a name, in which he'd given to the team after talking with Monica's son.

         "Paul Mclntyre, aka 'Mac'. He dated Monica two months before he proposed to her. And the address he gave her was a fake, and the phone number that he gave to her was for a burner that's now been disconnected." Luke explained to the team.

        "You know, it could be an unsub who targets a lonely hearts victimology... middle-aged women who are emotionally susceptible to his charisma." Spencer suggests.

        "And he takes his charm and harm seduction all the way up to the proposal and kills them." JJ stated.

         Suddenly, Casey's cell phone rings and she answers it after checking the caller ID. "Garcia, what'd you find?" Casey wonders. "Okay, I ran this photo of Mr. Mclntyre through facial recognition, and I'm telling you with my full confidence he does not exist. And I want to be really clear about this. I'm not saying he covered his tracks. I'm saying this guy is a stone-cold apparition." Garcia explains.

         "Is there anything in the creation of the false identity we can track?" Emily asks.
        "Okay. According to his faux dating profile, he values family and serving the homeless, which would be really cute if, you know, he didn't cut her face off and burn her house down." Garcia informs.

         "Helping the homeless was exactly what Monica was interested in." Tara stated. "The unsub was creating a persona tailor-made to get her guard down." Rossi said. "What about financial records?" JJ wonders.

         Penelope then darts in, "Oh, this is where things get really nasty. Actually, the part about the face is the nasty thing, but I'm sending you the specifics on this." Garcia sends in info on everyone's devices.

        "Shortly before dating Monica, the unsub opened a bank account using this fake identity." Garcia explains.

        Spencer sits up. "He used it as a fence to create an untraceable offshore account. He was draining Monica's money the whole time they were dating."

        "And then the low-down, lying sleazeball closed said account. And we all know what that means, don't we, my pretties?" Garcia questions.
       "He's a con man." Matt stated.

       "Yeah, but con men resort to violence only out of necessity. If he had a false identity, it would have been easier just to skip town than murder Monica." Tara told.

       "Maybe after the proposal, Monica discovered he wasn't who he said he was, and then he killed her to protect himself. As a natural con man, he would've needed to take drastic measures at that point." Erik tells.

        Emily then looks back at the board. "But then why go to these lengths? Why start the fire?" Casey continued, "And, more importantly, why cut off the face? I mean, I could see if he was trying to be the next Leatherface but this guy seems as normal as it gets. Why cut off the faces of women?"

         "Maybe there's a target." Erik pinpoints and Casey decides to run with that.

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          They'd discovered that their unsub changed his disguise whenever he found another woman. They found this out through all of the children of the women he was dating. There was a story he'd tell about his daughter that drowned in the bathtub because his mother wasn't watching his daughter. The target of his rage towards women had been towards his mother.

         "So let's assume that part of the unsub's story is true. Letting his daughter die could be the source of his rage toward his mother." Emily stated, which had the idea running in Casey's head.

           Casey was currently in their little conference room with Emily, Rossi and Spencer, trying to figure out what they were missing.

"We profiled something in his more formative years, though." Rossi stated. "You know, the drowning could be the culmination of the mother's lifelong neglect towards the unsub." Spencer told. "Well, most grandmothers would watch their grandchild like a hawk in the bathtub." Emily figured.

Spencer shrugs, "You know, as confidence games go, his story is both utilitarian and elegant; drowning garners instant sympathy from his victims."

"How big is Aberdeen?" Casey wonders, looking towards Spencer, knowing he had the answer in his mind. "It's about 5,000 residents. Why?" He asks. Casey shrugs, "Town that small, it shouldn't be too hard to find a record of a tragedy that big."

Casey calls Garcia to tell her what to look for but Garcia didn't find anything. "Sadly, I tell you no. Aberdeen is a little too small. The police haven't digitized the records yet, let alone anything from the early aughts."

"We'll have to go through them by hand." Rossi started and Casey decides, "I'll send Luke and Matt." She texts them to go ahead and they find something, but nothing regarding their unsub. They found something regarding his mother though, to which they brought to the team almost immediately and Spencer and Tara presented it to Casey, Emily and JJ.

"Roberta Lynch, 62. Starting in the late seventies, she hopped from suitor to suitor, getting them to marry her and then taking them for all they're worth." Spencer explains.

"An arrest in revealed she had a son, Everett, who was playing second fiddle to the con she was busted for." Tara added. "Having a con woman for a mother would have instilled the narcissism and misogyny that we profiled." Spencer agreed.

"Okay, the path to finding him is through his mother. Where is she now?" Emily asks. "South Mississippi State Prison. She's doing 25 to life for killing a boyfriend in a domestic dispute." Tara stated.

"Sounds like that runs in the family, also." JJ comments. "You're telling me." Casey added as she decided to send Luke and Matt to chat with her in prison.

The woman wasn't quite what they expected, flirtatious every chance she could get and sending in Matt and Luke seemed to be the right decision Casey made after reading her file. After they chatted with her, they discovered one thing. How she immediately shut down the flirtatious banter after the two men brought up what happened with her leaving her granddaughter to drown.

After that, Matt and Luke explained what happened to the team. "The detail about the drowning hit a nerve with Roberta." JJ stated. "Which suggests there's another element of truth to Everett's back story." Emily adds. "Now, he puts himself in the submissive role that he and his mother would take advantage of in her cons."

"So every time he gets down on one knee with his victims, he hears his mother's laughter ringing in his ears." Spencer said. "Talk about mommy issues." Casey comments.

"Roberta said that she taught Everett everything he knows. What if there's a pattern in that?" Rossi asks.
"What kind of pattern?" Casey wonders.
"Following her trail, maybe, going to the cities where her con worked, thinking he can work the same magic."

"Hey, Rossi's right," Spencer tells as he stands up to look at their map. "All of Everett's kills happened in cities where his mom conned a man: Birmingham, Memphis, Nashville. He's even mirroring the order in which his mother visited each city."

"Where did Roberta go after Nashville?" Casey asks and Spencer points towards the board. "‭Little Rock."

"Well, that's got to be where he is now." Emily tells as she goes to call Garcia. She quickly answers, "I was getting lonely. What do you need?" She asks.

"We think our unsub's next target lives in Little Rock. I need you to assemble a pool of potential victims based on our victimology... women roughly 50 years old, recent empty-nesters." Spencer told Garcia.

"No bout a doubt it." Garcia tells.
"Limit your search to women on dating websites, specifically those interested in getting married." JJ adds.

"Okay, women in Little Rock looking for... a little rock." Garcia tells. "Send us their dating profiles and social media. We'll work it on our end." Casey tells.

After she sent them to the team, Spencer had gone through them quickly and when he found the most recent victim — he announced: "Got him."

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After they found an address, they had no idea what lied ahead. But it was not good. Because they had been walking into a trap and they didn't even know it yet. Rossi, Tara, Matt, Luke, Casey and Spencer all arrived at the address.

They entered the living room and that was when they underestimated just how many women Everett Lynch had killed. Casey looked around, the faces of dead women were hung everywhere. Some old, some new. It was like Casey walked into a horror movie. "My God..." She muttered.

It was at that moment, that the team then heard screaming. "Help! Help me!"

"Upstairs." Luke announced, heading towards there already. "We need to clear the back of the house." Matt tells. "Alright, Dave, Matt, Tara, you guys take care of that. We'll check upstairs." Casey decides as she heads upstairs.

Casey had gone upstairs and found the victim's daughter and she told them to check for a barn out back where her mother was. Casey told Luke and Spencer to stay with her while she went to go check around the house. He had to have still been here.

As she went downstairs, it made her wonder. The faces were supposed to be his trophies. He wouldn't leave them behind. It was then that Casey figured out that they had walked into a trap and that he knew they were coming.

"Hey, Spence—" Suddenly, a whip of air came rushing towards Casey and she felt something slice at her temple and she landed on the ground, holding her hand towards the right side of her face. She yelped as she turned towards the left and saw Everett Lynch escaping.

Casey tried to reach for her gun and heard the daughter's screaming coming from upstairs as well as Luke's yell. "Spencer! Luke! Somebody get down here now!" Casey ordered in a rough tone.

Casey suddenly heard footsteps approaching her and she turned to who had come downstairs to help and it was Spencer. She tried to lift her hand away from her face but Spencer ushered her not to. "Hey, hey, don't move. Just stay there. What happened?" He questioned.

"He was here— ah. He was here. He cut me." Casey said and she almost panicked, thinking that maybe he stabbed her in the eye. But she knew she would've definitely been in more pain if he did. "He's nearby. You have to tell the rest of them. Tell them."

What Casey didn't know was that in that moment, Rossi had nearly died at the hands of the unsub and he was cut right where she was, serving to him as a warning that he could've killed him right then and there.

And here, Casey thought she was done walking into traps by unsubs that liked to manipulate.

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Casey pretty much ordered everyone to take a few days off after the case but nonetheless, everyone arrived to work on Monday, all healing from internal as well as external injuries. Everett Lynch had gotten away. And of course, that was gonna affect the team.

Luke had gotten his arm cut due to Grace Lynch, who was surprisingly the victim's daughter as well as Everett Lynch's daughter, Casey found out. And of course, Casey had a cut on her temple from Everett Lunch and Rossi had one on his temple as well. Spencer's wounds were more internal, apparently he stayed at the office all weekend.

When Casey saw that Rossi had arrived back at the BAU, she had decided to go to his office to wait there until he got in so she could talk to him. Rossi was always the type to take care of everyone, but no one took care of him. And so long as Casey was unit chief, she'd be there for every one of her team members, even if they hated her or they were arguing with her.

Rossi had entered his office and even if his back was facing towards the couch Casey was sitting on, he could feel her presence. "Not you, too." He started and Casey sat up, "You're tired of people asking you how you're doing?"

"Yes, I am." Rossi turns to Casey and the woman stands up. "I felt that way, too. And the looks of pity never helped either." She stated.

"How's the head?" Rossi wonders, looking at Casey's Spider-Man bandaid on her head. "I'll live." She stated. "I got some spidey senses from this bandaid. I ran out of regular ones." She joked.

"Do you know what this is?" Rossi starts. "It's an open investigation. That's all. We lost the first time, but we'll get another chance."

Casey nodded, "Yes, we will."
"This team doesn't take care of me. I take care of them. That's my job." Rossi stated.

"It's also my job, too, Rossi. Who do you think taught me?" Casey asks and Rossi sighs. "Maybe it's because you do that job so well, we want to be there for you when we can. You went through something terrible out there, but you can't keep it bottled up. I know firsthand that that's not how it works. You know that. And you taught me to open up, so I'm telling you to do the same thing."

Rossi takes a sharp breath and Casey looks at him. "I think you should take an extra few days off. Spend time with Krystall, get your mind off of work for a while. Do whatever you need to do to cope. Get angry about it, cry about it, but don't fight it. It never works. Trust me, it doesn't."

"So as your unit chief, I'm ordering you to take a few days off. I know you never like taking days off, but you look like you need it." With that, Casey goes in to hug the man and she smiles at him as she pulls away and starts heading towards the door when Rossi stops her.

          "Hey, Casey?" The woman looks at the older man. "Thank you." Casey smiles at Rossi as she heads back to her office but her attention is then drawn to the roundtable room. Spencer. He'd been beating himself up for not figuring out Everett Lynch's plan sooner.

And Casey knew that she should probably tell him to take few days off too. She knew what that headspace was like. And she'd witnessed this from Marco not too long ago. Despite their most recent interaction, Casey knew that she needed to talk to him and needed to advise him to just go home and get rest. She still cared about him — she always did.

Casey walked towards the roundtable as Spencer was looking through files amongst files, muttering to himself. "Spencer?" Casey made her presence known and Casey caught Spencer mumbling to himself, "It was right there. Why didn't I see it?"

Casey frowned as she walked towards the table. "Spence," she speaks. "None of us saw it. It's okay. We'll get him."

Spencer looks up and stated, "That's not enough." Casey furrows her brows as she looked at the coffee cups on the table and she decides to ask, "Have you been here all weekend?"

        Spencer ignores Casey and the woman takes this as a 'yes'. Casey sighs as she tries to get Spencer's attention, taking away a file from his hand and placing it on the table. "Look, I sent Rossi home. I think you should go home too. And get some sleep." Casey stated.

        The man looks away from her as he shakes his head. "I can't sleep. Not until I can look for him." He tells. Casey furrows her brows. "Spence..."

        "He cut your head and almost killed Rossi, you really think I'm gonna stop?" Since Casey and Spencer last had a whole conversation that took place in the hospital, he spent his time focusing on cases. Casey figured that maybe it was better than confronting his feelings. Casey hated that. He'd always done that.

"Spencer..." Casey tries but Spencer dismissed her. "I have to go get some more files." He grabs the other files and walks towards the door. "Spence—" The man walks past Casey, ignoring her and she turns back to him.

Part of her was glad that he was no longer pushing for a relationship with her but a part of her couldn't help but wish he kept trying. It was like Spencer saying he was done with her reawakened her in a way that she wanted him back. Or wanted something normal between them once more. She hated this weird stage they were in right now. But she knew it was her fault they were like this.

Maybe they weren't meant to be. Maybe everything was supposed to be the way that it was now. And maybe, they just had to live with that.

one more original for season 14
and one more episode for season 14!!
two more chapters altogether for this act!!!
i'm so excited

it actually feels kinda weird that season 14 is actually going to be finished and then we're on season 15 and then we're done with this trilogy🥲

me @ casey being her dumbass self and basically @ me for writing her to be that way:

hehehe
anyways
thank you for reading
i love you all
-mya </3333

p.s. my originals would've done for a better plot line instead of the everett lynch plot line and you all know it's true🤭