"Burning Heat"

Derek was teaching an- in service at the Baltimore Field Office when a call came in. Baltimore PD had seen some grisly stuff but never anything like this. Baltimore was only an Hour and twenty nine minute drive from Virginia so the team arrived in their usual Black Suv's.

"We got two bodies ID, William and Helen Dimarco, retired, 57 years old, no kids. A neighbor reports a white male, 20 to 40 years old fleeing the scene and I quote hopped-up on those damn drugs."

"Eyewitnesses sometimes can be kind of notoriously unreliable."

"So far it sounds like a standard double homicide. Why are we here?" Hotch asks as they are walking through the house of course when they get to the actual scene there's blood spatter all over the walls and ceilings.

It was a massive overkill and the wife was found Tied to the chair in front of the vanity. No defensive wounds. Ligature marks on the wrists. One clean laceration from one end of her neck to the other. The husband was found in the shower. But he wasn't quite as lucky. Ligature marks on the wrists and ankles and one long laceration up the abdomen through both layers and muscles. Evisceration, that's typical of disorganized behavior. Despite all the blood, the crime scene showed method, order, control, it says it's pretty organized. There was also evidence of torture with the husband. Burns, contusions, lacerations... You name it this guy tried it. The torture is the unsub signature, the methodology is usually unique. A person who burns someone doesn't normally use a knife. Maybe they have more than one kill or we have one kill with more than one personality.

They also have three victims. One on the vanity where the wife's body was found, her husband was in the shower. For the looks of the level of the ring in this tub, whoever was in it lost their entire blood volume. Approximately 10.6 pints. Which means the victim was dismembered. Looks like their guy took all the parts with him. This was definitely a case where they would work and everyone was already on high alert, gearing up for the next few days and the events that would take place.

Hemingway wrote : "There is no hunting like the hunting of man. And those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it never really care for anything else".

Back in Virgina, Cyra is doing some paperwork for Aaron, she had made a key to everyone's office everyone being Hotcner's and grabbed some files from the stack leaving only five left, she knew Hotch wasn't going to be happy that she took the majority of the stack, but she was almost done with it anyway, she worked face and was very efficient.

The familiar sound of her phone trilling popped back into reality, and she pulled her headset over her head hitting a key with her fuzzy pin, "This is the Lady Lair your Majesty the Queen is speaking. How may I help you, peasant?"

"Babygirl,"

"Yes Big papa, What can I do for you?"

He laughs. "Look into open files in Maryland."

"What am I looking for?"

"I'm sending the crime scene photos now. See if any of them involve this level of tortrue. Try to go back at least Ten years. " her computer beeps indicating she got the photos.

"Your wish is my command over an out girl scout." and with that she hangs up shaking her head as she goes through the crime scene photos, she makes an algorithm before going back to the files and playing some Paramore to ease her mind.

Of course it takes her almost three hours to get everything done and she packs everything up into files before having her assistant Maya deliver everything to the team, the day goes by a lot faster than she anticipated and it's the next day, the team regroups in the round table room.

Derek enters the round table room where Reid, Elle and Gideon are finishing setting up. "Third victim was positively ID'd as a low-level mob guy. Frederick "Freddy" Condore. He was the nephew of the older couple. Body parts were found in 7 different trash cans 2 blocks from the crime scene."

"Were they able to completely reassemble the body?" Reid asks.

"Killer didn't keep any trophies."

" Is there any evidence that he got off?" Elle asks.

" No."

"Cyra has a number of unsolved murders in D. C., Virginia and Maryland over the past 15 years. Many of them have ties to organized crime. All different M. O'S." Reid explains handing out the files to everyone.

"What's the connection?" Elle asks again.

" Torture. Marks on the bones are consistent with the same cutting tool." Derek explains.

" Tortured victim, most tied to organized crime. No signs of sexual sadism."

"We're looking for a hit man."

" No, a hit man doesn't need to torture to get the job done." Reid says flatly as Elle rolls her eyes.

JJ the teams liaison comes into the room handing a few papers to everyone" Two things : Baltimore just forwarded a sketch of the man running from the scene and, uh, you've got some agents out there who think that you're poaching on their turf."

" I'll handle it." Gideon gets up to leave of course not before telling Reid and Elle to work with Cyra on digging up more on Condore's background.

Which made Reid excited he got to work with Cyra in her Lair, the two were always exchanging books every chance they got, each of them getting Giddy with one another when they stopped in passing to discuss them, it wasn't just that, Cyra was nice and genuine, she had a smile that would light up the room and made sure that everyone didn't over overwork themselves. She was always leaving pastries or coffee in the breakroom for everyone. She always cleared up the messes after every debriefing they did, and made sure to water the plants in the office. She was a true human being and those were hard to come by. Elle didn't like her because she thought she was fake, there was no way no one was that happy or that in tune with themselves, especially someone in a wheelchair. She didn't like that she was already so close with everyone on the team, Elle was still trying to gain everyone's trust, trying to be one of the guys on the team. Cyra didn't mind her, they never really talked and if they did Elle was rude but Cyra let it roll off her back she didn't find anything she did to hurt her, she was used to it.

//

Reid was hunched over Cyra's shoulder twirling a pen between his nimble fingers. His mouth gaped slightly as the technical analyst types away. "You're breathing on my neck." she smirks as Reid straightens up, a blush appearing on his face, he had absentmindedly been stuck in a thought.

He clears his throat, sucking in her scent of Rose buds and lavender. Or in his mind Channel #3

" Sorry. Sorry for that." he stands up as she smirks, continuing to type. Elle walks in a coffee mug in her hand.

"You two having fun?"

"Oh, yeah. Sifting through the life and times of Freddy Condore with Dr. Reid, here is a party I wouldn't want to miss." She chirps as Reid stands there twirling his pen around in his hands. " Credit card receipts show Freddy loved crab cakes, preferred light beer and used to spend his Thursday nights with a woman in Fells Point." Elle leans forward placing her coffee on Cyra's desk " An, uh, expensive woman." Cyra stops typing and moves the cup from the spot handing it to Elle who looks at Reid but takes the cup.

" What about his associates?" Elle asks standing up.

" Most of them have criminal records."

" That much I guessed."

" But one of them is particularly interesting. Pull up James Baker's rap sheet. He spent time in juvenile detention for attempted murder, was released at age 21, and then subsequently arrested for, and this is in order, armed robbery, petty theft, burglary, narcotics sales, and rape." Reid explains.

" But there's no other sexual assault complaints in his file." Elle asks as Reid nods.

" Absolutely nothing. I told you it was interesting."

"That sounds like a fake rap sheet." Cyra snorts out a laugh. As the two agents look at her with wide eyes.

"So someone made that rap sheet up and they weren't thinking about the behavior, they just plugged in whatever sounded good." Elle says as Cyra nods.

Cyra's computer bleeps. "Hold on. His mug shot is coming up." She explains as the other two agents in the room scoff Reid puts the mug shot up next to the photo.

"Well I'll be damned." Cyra says as Elle just laughs lightly before pulling out her phone.

" I got an address for you to hit." She says into it as Cyra turns around to look at them.

//

The next day rolled around like a thick cloud of smoke, all the files that Cyra requested had finally come in and Maya, her assistant, was bringing them in slowly. She decided to carry the first box into the round room.

"Oh, please... You're gonna need a bigger board." She mutters seeing Derek standing in front of a small white board a cup of coffee in his hand.

" Please tell me you brought some breakfast."

She breathes out a laugh as she puts the box down on the table with a thud. " Trust me, sugar, you are not going to want to eat when you see what's in here." She pulls out a few files from the box, placing them on the table.

"How many more are there?"

" Well, I've gone back 15 years and there's over 100."

" 100 unsolved murders." Derek replies back in disbelief.

" Yeah, that we know of. And then there's more coming in. Maya is bringing the rest." she points out towards the door as Derek opens the file and closes it quick wincing as Cyra nods.

" Well, the torture's consistent. You know, we thought this guy might have been at it a while but this many victims, Cyra? John Wayne Gacy killed at least 30 people. This guy's more than tripled that." Derek explains as Cyra's jaw is practically on the floor.

"Not all these victims were mob hits. My guess is he probably started hunting when he was really young. Perfected his craft, moved on to bigger prey." Cyra looks away thinking for a moment. " Hey, Cyra, look at this. There's no hesitation wounds on the body. One clean cut through flesh and bone."

"So He's got no conscience?" Cyra asks as Derek nods surprised as to how quick she was catching on.

" We've got ourselves a serial killer with the perfect career. Russo has no idea what he's dealing with. I think we can shake him. Keep looking." he says, putting on his suit jacket and leaving.

Long story shirt, their bad guy did have a fake rap sheet. He was an undercover cop who's cover seemed to be blown and was now kidnapped, he was investigating a mob boss by the name of Jimmy Rosso who was hiring a hitman to kill people. And now they were bugging Russo's phone and Elle and Reid were back in Cyra's Lair.

"Is this gonna work?" Elle asks as Cyra is twirling a pin around in her hands.

" The beam is reflected from the window pane according to the law of optics."

" Yeah, the angle of instance is equal to the angle of reflection." Cyra explains as Elle rolls her eyes.

"Is it gonna work?" she asks again as Cyra rolls her eyes this time.

"Hello, Oracle of wonder and genius," Cyra points to herself, before she can finish she is interrupted by Russo's voice.

" Hey. It's me. I need to see you tonight. I'll call you from a secure line."

"Apparently." Elle mutters as they all lean forward to listen.

"Hey. Listen, you brought a lot of heat taking down Freddy like that. I'm dealing with the feds. Listen, meet me here at the office. They don't know nothin'. I'm dealing with them. Stop being paranoid, Vinnie."

" Bingo." Reid says

" No. Vinnie." Cyra smiles at him and she gets to work trying to identify the guy on the phone by the name of Vinnie.

"Russo's got 11 associates named Vincent."

" No, make that 10. Vincent Cellito died last summer. Here is something.'' Elle places her coffee mug in the same spot as before on Cyra's desk. " What can you tell me about Vincent Sartori?"

Cyra stops typing, taking her hand and sliding Elle's cup into the trash can below. " I was still drinking that."

" Not only is this equipment expensive, it's also extremely sensitive." She mutters before going back to her screen. Spencer makes a face along with Elle.

" Vincent Sartori." She says as Cyra rolls her eyes,

" Currently doing 6 at Dannemora for racketeering."

" How about this Perotta? There's not much on him." Reid speaks up from behind the pair.

" Can you get into those records?"

" Despite the fact that they were probably expunged she can find the faintest echo of deletion and successfully recreate the file thereby sending us all to prison for computer felony fraud counts."Reid smirks at his joke as Cyra and Elle look at each other.

" We can make bail. Cyra?" Elle nods to the woman.

" Already in. Alcohol addiction at 14. Violent outbursts. assaults. Once threw a molotov cocktail at someone sitting in their car. "

Reid leans forward closely to look at the file. "Several notations for aggression. And he once scheduled a visit to an infirmary to gain access to a boy who looked at him for too long?"

" No fear. No remorse. Quick temper. And he was smart enough to stay off the radar as an adult. Paranoid personality. He could be our guy."

" There's absolutely no information on him as an adult. No driver's license, no utility bills, nothing. It's like he became a ghost." Cyra explains as Reid sighs.

" Let's just hope they can catch him."

They of course find the guy and bring him in, he has a constant smirk on his face as he walks down the hall, past the Bau room and into the interrogation room. They bring all his stuff from his Van and Cyra is all for helping only she needs to check on Aaron, she finds him collecting himself in the hall away from people.

"Oh my god, Sir are you okay?" She was looking at his face which had a busted lip and bloodied cuts.

"What did I say about calling me sir?" he mutters as Cyra kisses her teeth.

"You look like you got mauled by a cat and you're worried about me calling you sir." She sasses as she nods her head at him she goes to touch his face and he winces. She says nothing, dragging him next to her chair as she leads him to the back way to her Lady Lair. She pulls out a first aid kit and begins dabbing at his face with a cotton ball, of course Hotch is mesmerized by how pretty she is.

Who wouldn't be, her perfectly plucked brows knitted into concentration, she was so focused on fixing him, making him feel better, she kinda forgot where they were and who he was truly was, She fixes some of the hair on his face and their eyes meet for a second before she feels herself blush and she gets back to work. She finishes up quickly giving him some tylenol to take and a water bottle from her mini fridge to make sure he strayed hydrated before joining the others who were looking over the contents of Vinnie's car.

" This was all in his van?"

" Yep. The guy wasn't exactly neat." Derek mutters.

" Classic antisocial personality." Reid mutters before holding up an evidence bag. " What are these tapes?"

"I don't know. Why don't you and Cyra go take a look, let us know all right?"

" Yeah. Movie night. I'll make popcorn." Cyra beams wheeling away to go do it.

//

"Ten bucks says this involves naked coeds and a plumber." Cyra holds the tape in her hands looking seductively at Reid who gulps and pulls at his shirt collar.

" What?" he mutters as she shakes her head and rolls her eyes.

"Never mind." She puts the tape into The VCR. They watch as there's a zoomed up image of a man screaming

"Ok, who's that?"

" I have no idea." Reid clears his throat. " Put another tape in."

Cyra does as she told as the other tape is a man screaming in pain as he is getting tortured, or eaten alive by rats. Reid's face twitches a bit.

" Oh, my God." Cyra gasps as Reid clears his throat before covering Cyra's face with his body, he presses pause on the tape as she just stares off in space for a second.

"I'll be back." he says simply leaving. Cyra mustered up enough strength to watch the videos again, it was a few hours later and she was silent as she handed the photos off to Elle of all the victims from the tapes. They asked Cyra to go over the sound on the tapes trying to Isolate the background noise, so that's what she spent her time doing.

//

Reid comes back into her Lady Lair to check on her, she hands him an ear bud and he sits down in the extra chair in her room having a listen to the sounds.

"There. Did you hear that?"

" What is that?"

Cyra pulls her glasses over her eyes. " I don't know. But I think it's moving."

" Getting closer." Reid mutters his eyes lost in thought, the gears in their heads were both turning at the same time.

" Airplane." they both blurt out loud. Shocked by each other's sudden outburst.

"Jinx, you owe me a soda." Cyra yells as Reid furrows his brows.

Of course Cyra was already working on narrowing it down, then Elle called her about finding a bunch of pizza boxes in the back of his van for a place called Fenatti's which helped Cyra narrow it down a bit more, Derek comes into her office after he calls her from his desk

"You got that address?"

" In Glen Burnie like you thought. And it looks like Frank Perotta died in a suspicious hunting accident. With his son."

" How long ago?"

" 30 years. He was 17." Cyra shakes her head at the thought.

" And my guess is it was no accident."

" Well, you said Vincent was looking for bigger prey. Sounds like he found it."

"Cyra..." He kisses her head. "You're my girl. Thank you."

Cyra lets out a shaky breath, there was no way she was getting any sleep tonight. They of course got the undercover cover agent. Jackson who made it out alive, barely breathing but alive. Cyra had been sitting in her Lair for hours scrubbing trying to rid her happy space of such negativity, she was so determined, to get it done, to cleanse it, she had sage light in the corner and a few incense burning. Hotch stood in the doorway watching her, how she used her rubber gloves to scrub at her desk, all the monitors were gone and away, it was just her desk bare and covered in sudes. He says nothing, grabbing a spare sponge from the bucket and squeezing it he rolls up his sleeves tossing his jacket off in the corner over the chair. Cyra doesn't notice his presence until she sees his hand on the desk scrubbing at the otherside. She smiles at him, and he smiles back, having noticed all the files she had worked on for him, this crush she had, was big and blossoming every second it could. If only she knew that he felt the same way.

Carl Jung said, "the healthy man does not torture others. Generally it is the tortured who turn into torturers."

Word count: 3400