Chapter Text
"Christopher Walton, a 41-year-old male, violently murdered his family last night. After enduring hours of torture, his victims died from blood loss. Right now we’re at the house where the murder took place. This is yet another act of extreme domestic violence. Just four days ago we were faced with an oddly similar incident when a woman killed her family of two and then committed suicide. There are no more details being released at the moment but we'll be informing…"
The screen went black with a press of a button. Garcia turned back to her teammates and started the briefing.
Their tired faces looked at her, trying to focus. For the last few months they’ve been tossed from one case to another, yet to each one finished, five new ones seemed to pop up out of thin air.
“…you’re headed to Springfield, Illinois. The Police Chief there said his officers didn’t touch the scene, except for arresting the husband. Media is being kept away as much as possible…”
“He’s alive?” Rossi interrupted, he thought the father has committed suicide like the woman from the previous murder did.
"Yes. He's in arrest right now, claiming he didn't do it. He was caught cutting himself with a kitchen knife when the officers arrived. He tried running at first, but it seems he stopped in an alley by the house. Officers said he was kneeling on the ground, looking like he was in shock,” Garcia continued.
Rossi frowned in confusion, why would a killer stop running when he had an advantage?
“We’ll interrogate him when we get there,” Emily spoke up, “the chief said there is something he wants us to see ourselves. He didn’t say what exactly, so be ready for anything. We’ll read up on the details on the plane. Wheels up in ten.”
…..
After short introductions, Albert Staton, the police chief, led the team to where the murder took place. All media outlets were already crowding outside, scavenging for any information.
Exhausted and irritated, the agents pushed their way through.
Prentiss knew the attention, and the chaos that came with it, would only get bigger. But she decided to just focus on the murder itself for now. Guided by the chief, she entered the house with her team.
The scene was a mess. It often was, but this time was different, it felt different. Emily couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but something was off.
And it wasn’t the fact that the whole scene looked like a shot from a cheap horror movie. The smears of blood that greeted them at the entrance gave this place an eerie feeling, sure.
But there was something more. And as she got closer to the bodies that have been tied to chairs by the dinner table, she saw exactly what it was.
“I wanted you to see for yourselves, this-it’s just not right.” The police chief shook his head looking at the used-to-be family.
A symbol was carved on the children’s foreheads, crude lines cut into their young faces. Even through the blood covering the design, it was unmistakable.
A five pointed star in a circle. Turned upside down, it could only mean one thing.
“Did this occur at the other site too?” She heard Luke ask somewhere behind her as she traced the cuts with her eyes.
“Yes, but nothing like this. I called it in then, but they said you guys were busy.”
“We were,” Emily confirmed, sighing. They were busy all the time these past few months.
"Do you think it's some kind of a…I don't know, satanic cult?”
She turned to the man, of course that was the first thing he thought. Most people would.
“Highly unlikely,” Reid spoke up, “there has never been a proven case of a satanic ritual killing in the United States. In most instances it’s just…kids playing jokes.” He didn’t turn his gaze away from the symbols as he spoke, observing them closely.
Worry hit her as she realized. Damn it.
With all the stuff going on, she didn’t think about how Reid would react to something like this. What if he-
“This look like a joke to you?” The sheriff snapped back, making Emily turn her attention to him. Reid turned away from the scene and looked at him too.
“We all know it’s not a joke. We’ll investigate and keep you updated on what we come up with.” Luke stepped in to answer for his friend, for which Reid was probably grateful.
The chief sighed, stepping down. Prentiss couldn’t help analysing the man. As she observed him, she got the feeling things like these don’t happen around here too often.
The man himself looked rather hefty, probably spent more time behind a desk these days than he did in the field.
“Take a look at this,” Rossi spoke up, directing everyone’s attention to where he was standing, by the wife’s body. “It looks like the spouse has the least amount of wounds.”
“Yeah, the kids seem to get the worst of it,” Emily concluded.
While the wife had a few cuts and bruises, the children had straight up symbols carved into their skin.
“We need to keep this out of the press. It would be a nightmare if this got out,” JJ spoke, concerned.
Everyone nodded. They knew news like these would bring panic, and that was the last thing they needed right now.
“Okay, let’s wrap up here then. Do we have a place to set up at the station?” she asked Staton.
"Yeah, I have a room prepared for you.”
“Good, let’s meet there to discuss the details.” She nodded to the man with a slight smile, trying to calm his nerves.
He didn’t look particularly reassured, but he wasn’t her biggest worry right now.
As they were leaving to let the crime scene investigators do their job, she noticed Spencer taking one last look at the bodies, or rather the symbols on them.
His expression didn’t betray what he was thinking, which only left her more worried.
Her mind went back to one of the talks they had in the weeks following his kidnapping.
~~~
“No progress in tracking them, huh?” Spencer gave her an apologetic smile as he sat down in her office.
“No, we didn’t have any luck, but you knew that.” She spoke calmly, making indicative eye contact.
“I heard a few things here and there.” He shrugged, looking away.
“C’mon, I know you’ve been following the investigation.” She tilted her head, trying to catch his eyes.
“Okay, yeah,” he admitted, “it’s my case after all.” He shot a disgruntled look.
“It is, but you’re the victim here. You know how it works.”
He sighed, obviously irritated.
“I know it’s frustrating. Maybe you managed to recall more details since our last talk?”
“I already told you everything I know, there are no more details to recall.”
“Are you sure?”
His eyes snapped back at her.
“Yes. I’m sure.” He glared.
“Okay, just checking.” She gave a light smile, trying to disperse the tension that already accumulated.
He shook his head, not convinced.
“You still think I’m not telling you everything. Do you really think I would be covering for them?”
“No. I just think what you experienced, the drastic difference between what you thought the Winchesters were like and how they treated you… Maybe it created a sort of confusion, some fondness, a bond you might feel was made while you were held captive.”
He raised his eyes to the ceiling, “Stockholm Syndrome. Are we getting back to that again?”
“Not necessarily.” She shook her head, trying to remain calm while stomping on thin ice. “It might just be the presumptions our profile created, that made the way they treated you seem exceptionally kind.”
He breathed out heavily, twisting his lips. But it looked like some of the irritation went away.
“Maybe,” he shrugged, “I guess it’s not that special to give some good food and books to read.”
She half smiled, but her happiness escaped her features when she noticed the dismal look on her friend’s face.
He must’ve not been happy that he had to admit the idealization. But that’s what it was, Winchesters weren’t good people, no matter how nice they were to him.
“So Dean is a good cook then, huh?” She asked in a light voice, trying to change the subject.
To her satisfaction, Reid seemed to light up, even if just a little bit, as he scoffed out a chuckle.
“Yeah, though he didn’t want to admit it. I think he actually really enjoys cooking for people.” He shook his head in amusement. “Even more so with Sam liking completely different food, he was so…happy that I liked the same things as him.”
He frowned a bit, his mouth was still rising up but something crept into his thoughts.
“What is it?”
“I…I just can’t believe I’m talking about the Winchester brothers, ‘America’s most wanted’,” He spoke, disconcerted by the realization.
“Yeah, it can be confounding to see that even the most violent killers have a human side.”
He didn’t look up, only a soft ‘yeah’ leaving his lips.
…..
As Luke walked into the police station with the rest of his team, the unbelievable quietness and order of the place struck a contrast with the house they were just in.
They were led into a separate conference room to set up. It didn’t oversee the offices, but there were big windows across from the entry. Even with boards obscuring the view, Alvez was happy to have natural lightning in the room.
“Okay, let’s set up. We have a tough one on our hands.” Emily spoke up as they took a look around.
Everyone made themselves comfortable and began working. The oval table was big enough for all of them, with room to spare.
The stack of files was soon turned into notes hanging on the boards. Photos of happy families, and under them - the nightmare that took place in their own homes. Soon it all came together to compose a neatly looking wall of the crime.
“This doesn’t make sense,” Luke was first to speak when everything was done, “we have two perfectly happy families, good homes. Then one night it all turns to a bloody slaughterhouse.” He pointed at the grotesque pictures.
“No triggers, no criminal past…" JJ sighed. She was looking at the board with furrowed brows. "Then these symbols," she walked up to one of the boards, "I'm just wondering where they came from."
“Well, there weren’t any satanic books or symbols in either one of the houses. No interest in rituals or killings of any kind really,” Emily informed them.
They all fell silent. JJ discussed something with Rossi, while Emily was flipping through some files.
Alvez’s eyes wandered mindlessly to Reid, who stood looking at the boards.
Luke watched his gaze travel over the boards, visibly working on something in his big brain. His eyes stopped at one point, making Alvez turn his eyes at the board.
Reid was staring at one of the close-ups of a pentagram carved in flesh. He looked back at Reid worried. Don’t go there…
Before he could say anything, Emily spoke up.
“Luke and Rossi, I want you to go interrogate the father. Reid and JJ, go to the morgue to consult the coroner. I’ll work with Garcia for now to see if we can uncover anything new.”
Everyone nodded in agreement and started gathering their things.
Spencer sighed and went for his bag.
Deciding to leave it for now, Luke followed Rossi out of the room.
…
Rossi looked at the handcuffed man through the one-way mirror.
He was showing distress, hiding his face in his hands, trembling, looking around. He didn’t present as someone capable of committing such an awful crime. Not at the moment at least.
He turned to Luke, the two men nodded to each other and walked in.
The cuffed man immediately stood up when he saw the agents.
“I didn’t do it, please, you have to believe me!” He tried to raise his hands but the handcuffs clattered on his wrists.
“Sit down and you can tell us all about it,” Luke said calmly.
David remained calm too, if they wanted to get anything out of the man, he needed to cool off.
He didn’t listen, just looked between the agents with a pained gaze.
“Sit, then we can talk. We want you to tell us what happened, but you need to calm down.” Alvez kept his ground, so the guy gave up and finally sat down.
The agents followed in his footsteps and sat down on the opposite side.
“Okay, Chris. Tell us what happened.” Rossi prompted with an encouraging nod.
“I didn’t do it! My family, I could never hurt them…and like this…” he was still frantic.
“So you remember what happened?” Alvez asked, they were told he didn’t seem to remember the night.
“Yes, I didn’t at first, it was like I woke up in that alley, my hands…” he lifted his palms and looked at them, “…my hands were covered in blood. Then the police shouted, I didn’t know what was happening. They cuffed me and said I’m being arrested for killing my family. My family! I-I didn’t, I couldn’t.” He started trembling again, sobbing.
“Okay, okay, why don’t you tell us what happened that night. You’re with your family, with your wife and kids, having dinner maybe? Tell us about the evening.” Luke tried to shift the man’s focus.
“I-we had a normal evening, just-just like usual. Suzie, my little girl, got a good grade on an important exam, so we baked cookies to celebrate. Everything was normal. When kids fell asleep Marilyn and I started fooling around, you know, we were happy.” The man gave a broken smile. It looked genuine.
“I remember falling asleep next to her. The next thing I know, I’m standing in the kitchen with…with a knife and they’re screaming. I-I wanted to help, I wanted to set them free, help them, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t move.” He started sobbing once again.
“Okay, let’s try something else, here is a pen and some paper.” Rossi took his notepad out of his pocket and laid them on the table. “I want you to write everything you can remember about that night. Everything. ” He made eye contact to make sure the man was listening.
“We’ll do our best to get to the bottom of this. But you need to help us, okay?” Luke added.
They both knew talking was futile while the man was so emotional.
Or pretended to be.
“Okay, I’ll do what I can. But you have to believe me, I wouldn’t hurt them. It wasn’t…” The man lost his words.
“Wasn’t what..?” Rossi narrowed his eyes, sitting back down just as he wanted to leave.
He looked up, tears in his eyes. “I-I don’t know, I only remember pieces, but the thing I remember…it was – I think it was - my hand that-“ he gesticulated with his shaking hand, eyes lost.
Rossi wanted to say something, but the man continued before he could do so.
“But it wasn’t, it couldn’t be me. Something. It was something that kept…kept cutting,…it enjoyed the whole thing…and I couldn’t stop it.”
“Enjoyed?” Luke repeated.
Chris looked up terrified, “Not me! It wasn’t me. It was this thing.” The man banged his fist on the table lightly.
Alvez rose a hand, ready to intervene if needed.
“This thing-it forced me. It forced me! I would never-“
The man started rambling, sometimes it wasn’t even words, not ones they could make out at least.
They made their exit, telling him to write down everything.
Rossi made a point to the guard to watch the man closely. He was anything but stable right now.
On their way to the conference room Rossi shared what his thoughts were, and so did Luke. They discussed all of it, but it wasn’t leading them anywhere.
…..
“What were you able to establish?” Reid looked up to the coroner, who was standing by the table on which the body of a woman was placed. It was from the first murder, the mother that killed her husband and kid.
"Nothing I haven't already put in the file. All the wounds on her are self-inflicted. On the right arm, you can see a star carved in her skin. It’s weird, cause from what I’ve been told she was right-handed. Same on the victims, the wounds were all made with the left hand.”
Reid narrowed his eyebrows in confusion. He looked down at the pentagram, there was no sign of hesitation, just a few clean cuts, almost like a signature.
“Was she diagnosed with split personality or any other mental issues?” JJ asked.
“Not to my knowledge, no.” The woman shook her head.
“And what about the victims?” Spencer asked, raising his head once again.
“Not much on the husband, looks like he was killed before the children. Speaking of which…”
The woman closed the refrigerating unit, and opened a different one.
The small body occupied only a part of the designated space of that one. It didn’t belong in a place like this.
“This poor little girl got the worst of it, I’m afraid. Numerous lacerations. Not very concise, but definitely made to be painful, somebody really wanted to make this girl suffer.” She shook her head , “I don’t know what possessed these people to do this, but it was not holy, that I can tell you.”
Reid noticed a cross hanging from the woman’s neck, he understood why she would say something like that, when faced with such a heinous crime. Looking back down at the body, he wondered if there was something to what she said.
“Maybe I’ll be able to establish something more when the new victims are brought in, should be soon. I’ll be providing you with my finds as I go.”
“We’d appreciate that.” JJ smiled with a sour look on her face.
They completed their interview and headed back to the station.
…..
Emily was working with Garcia on establishing some kind of a connection between the cases, it couldn't be a coincidence. Two murders happening a few days apart, in the same town, with the same symbols appearing on the bodies.
Despite that, every effort they made to connect the families failed. At most, they shopped in the same gallery.
But apart from that, there was nothing.
While Kylie, the woman who committed the first killing, attended church every week or so, Christopher and his family didn't seem to practice any faith. They were from different neighbourhoods, their kids attended different schools. Different economic levels, social circles, even sports played.
JJ and Reid appeared at the door while Emily was going through a file.
“Did you find anything?” she asked as soon as she noticed them, maybe they would bring something new to the table.
“Not much. The mother was never diagnosed with any mental illness, but that night it seemed almost like she was a completely different person,” JJ answered.
“Seems like that's the only prevalent thing here. There is no connection between the families besides that, nothing.” Prentiss shook her head.
“Besides the kids,” JJ prompted.
“Yeah, they’re always the center of attention when it comes to torture.” Emily confirmed, nodding her head.
“Looks like someone has a type,” JJ said with disgust on her face.
Prentiss shook her head, feeling the same.
Rossi and Luke soon joined them.
She turned to them asking for what they had established.
But they sat down with a sigh.
Well, that’s not a good sign.
“What we can tell you, is that that man was not right in the head, maybe still isn’t. He said he enjoyed it, or rather that ‘ something in him’ enjoyed what he was doing.” Luke said with a wry expression.
“Like he was after some sort of a psychotic break?” JJ asked.
“He might’ve been, yeah. He was disoriented, emotional, all over the place.” Rossi agreed.
“He could just be really good at acting though.” Alvez put in, but didn’t look so convinced with his own words.
"Wouldn’t be the first time." Emily replied reluctantly.
“But there are no signs in their past pointing to them doing something like this.” JJ pointed out.
"We need to search deeper then. I’ll have Garcia look into the killer’s childhoods. Maybe they had something in common that prepositioned them for this,” She told the team, not being very hopeful, but there were no other leads they could follow right now.
…
Prentiss had called Garcia, but she wasn’t able to find anything. She pulled up everything there was regarding the supposed killers, but nothing stood out.
Rossi contemplated the case, an uneasy feeling creeped up his spine.
Not only were the murders revolving around kids, there had to be satanic symbols.
Because of course there were.
Cases like these were the reason why he missed the peace and quiet of just writing books.
As they were hopelessly searching through the lives of everyone involved in the murders, new photos from the coroner's office were brought in.
Reid grabbed them with interest.
Rossi wondered what was on his teammate’s mind. After what happened with Winchesters, this had to have an effect on him.
If only he, or anyone on the team for that matter, could figure out what exactly was going through his head. But that was something they gave up way before the whole Winchester situation.
Rossi watched the young agent as he sifted through the new photos. He was going through them quickly, until one of them seemed to get his attention. His wide eyes stared at it, shocked.
He was about to ask him what it was, when he shot up from the table, holding only that picture and discarding all the rest. “I need to talk with Christopher Walton.”
“The husband? We just talked to him.” Luke turned to him confused.
David didn’t understand either.
“I have something I need to discuss, I’m going.” He didn’t wait for approval from Prentiss, or anyone really. He stormed out of the room, taking the photo with him.
Everyone just looked at each other for a bit, having no idea what got into the genius.
…
He quickly walked down the hall, trying to get a hold of himself.
But it couldn’t be a coincidence. Not this .
When no one was around to judge, he picked up the pace even more, heading to the interrogation room.
“Wait!”
He was just about to enter, when he heard Luke’s voice. He looked back and saw the agent coming his way. Oh no.
“Prentiss said I should help you. Maybe you’d like to share what popped into that big brain of yours all of a sudden?” Luke smiled, tilting his head. He wanted to know what Reid was on to.
This won’t end well.
“You’ll have to see.” He walked into the room, leaving Alvez in the corridor. It would be easier for him to do this himself. But he couldn’t leave it now. It was too important.
Luke was baffled but followed in.
“Mr. Walton, I need to ask you some questions,” Spencer said before he even placed himself in his seat.
"What-Who are you?" The man asked. Luke noticed he was a bit calmer now, but still looked distressed.
“I’m doctor Spencer Reid, and I believe you.”