Hotch's Niece | Criminal Minds

Profile

"Our unknown subject is unknown no longer," I announce as the team settles back into the conference room chairs. Everyone is back from their duties, as we now know who we are looking for and that's our priority.

JJ steps up to introduce the suspect. "Annie Anderson, aged 26, Radcliff native, homeless since the age of 10. She ran away from an abusive foster home, which she was placed in after her mother, Jane Anderson, killed her father, Michael, right in front of Annie. She was just 6 years old at the time, and despite having aunts and uncles, no one took her in, so she ended up in the foster system,"

Reid interrupts JJ by raising his hand. "Yes?" I say.

"Why didn't any of her relatives take her in?" he asks. Not super relevant, but it was an obvious question on everybody's minds. Even Uncle Hotch, professional Uncle Hotch, looked like he really wanted to hear the answer.

I glance at JJ, and she nods for me to answer. "The only living and capable relatives that Annie had were all on her dad's side, and there are records that state that no one wanted Michael to marry Jane, they thought she was unstable. So when the child of the woman they all hated was left orphaned, all of her relatives turned her out for fear that she was crazy like her mother."

"Enough to make anyone psychotic," Morgan mutters, obviously disgusted by the actions of Annie's relatives. There's a moment of silence as we all realize that we might not have been standing in Kentucky right now, that Izzie might not have been an orphan, if someone decent had just taken that frightened little six-year-old Annie in and helped her through losing her parents.

JJ finally breaks the slightly depressing silence. "Anyways, Annie is obviously killing people who remind her of her mother, and the change in visual features could be because Annie doesn't really remember what her mother looks like. It has been 20 years."

I pick up where she left off. It's almost surprising how well JJ and I work together. "Jane, the mother, was released from prison three or so days before Annie's first murder."

This time, it's Morgan who raises his hand. "But didn't Annie attack Jackie well before Jane's release?"

"Yeah, we noticed that, and so we did a little digging. JJ thought that Jackie may have accidentally triggered a memory from the night Michael died, so we did a little digging. It turns out that Mark and the officers on call the night that Annie attacked Jackie left something out... Mark and Jackie were fighting over the phone right before the attack. Jackie must have said something that Jane also said - Jane and Michael were in an argument the night she killed him. Also, check this out," I pin a fairly low quality photo of young Jane next to the one of Jackie.

JJ explains the importance of the photo. "This is a photo of Jane, taken just a few weeks before the murder, so probably the version that Annie remembers. She looked almost exactly like Jackie! So the question is, if your mother killed your dad, and that was the last time you'd seen her in twenty years, and then you saw someone who looked exactly like her fighting with their husband, just walking down the street, what would you do?"

"Lastly, we also found this," I finish, pinning a recent photo of Annie (a mugshot for shoplifting) next to the sketch from the assault on Jackie. The woman in the photo and the sketch are the exact same person.

"Well, we've definitely found our Unsub. Great job, ladies. Get this photo out to the press and talk to the officers, spread the profile around. JJ, take the lead but make sure Avery learns the process." Uncle Hotch says. JJ nods, and the two of us head off.

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"So talk to the homeless and transient community, someone's seen this girl. She can't live nowhere, and most homeless people tend to stick together for safety, so she can't be that hard to find." I finish giving the profile to the officers, and JJ thanks them. Reid's watching Izzie, so I looked as professional as possible, and it appeared that they were actually listening to me, despite my youth.

As they all disperse, JJ turns to me. "Hey, Avery, you did some really great work today. You knew exactly what to ask Garcia - I don't think I've ever seen her find a conclusive result that fast. Her speed always depends on the person directing her, so that's a reflection of you, not her. Don't tell her I said that." the gorgeous blonde laughs.

"Thanks, JJ. That's really nice of you to say. I didn't even know what I was saying half the day, to be honest. I just kept thinking about something that my highschool cross country coach said to me once," I blush.

"Oh yeah? What's that?" JJ says, seeming genuinely interested.

"He'd always say to me, 'Don't look back. If you look back, the guy behind you will see that you're weak and he will run you down. Do not look back.'" I pause for breath. "And so I didn't. I just went off instinct and I guess it worked. But that is all that was going through my head, that I could not look back, no matter what I did. If I thought I messed up or said the wrong thing, I still didn't look back."

"Well it seems like he was a really great coach. I ran track in highschool, which I know isn't the same thing as cross country, but my coach was pretty much a fat slob who made us run till we collapsed because his wife left him, so I wouldn't really know anything about inspiring coaches." JJ laughs, and imagining a teenage JJ makes me crack a smile as well.

"So... what do we do now?" I ask. "Just... wait around for them to find something? Help with the search?"

"No. It's late, we go to our hotel and get some rest, see what they have in the morning. And I believe that you have a little girl to take care of, so you're gonna need as much sleep as you can get."

"Yeah, speaking of that, can you give me some pointers on kids?" I ask JJ. She begins telling me a Henry story as we stroll off towards the rest of the team.