memento vivere - supernatural & criminal minds

chapter 17

Chapter 17
Line of Fire

Franklin Park was beautiful, expansive, and lush. Unfortunately, it was also a crime scene. Jude stepped out of the passenger’s side of the SUV and slipped her sunglasses over her eyes. She, Morgan, and Spencer walked behind Hotch to greet Detective Calvin, who stood beside their parking spot with a hand on her hip. 

“Thanks for comin’, follow me,” she got straight to it after the introductions. Jude could respect her for that. “The cones mark the places where the victims were.” The detective led them to the edge of the lot, pointing to the three neon orange placeholders in the grass.

“So we know he fired from somewhere in this area, close enough to hit all three victims, but far away enough not to be seen,” Hotch said. He walked ahead and gestured for Jude to follow. “Where’s your head?”

Jude’s eyes danced between the traffic cones and let her mind fill in the actual images of the victims from the crime scene photos. “The fact that the unsub intentionally wounds the victims could tell us he’s a sadist.”

“I know that. Outside the case, where’s your head?” Jude looked up at him, squinting over the rim of her sunglasses. “You’ve been checking your phone more often than you have in the year I’ve worked with you. It started when you got back from California. Is everything alright?”

”Yeah.” Jude focused on a cluster of blue flowers beneath a willow tree to avoid his gaze. She tried to forge the path of the fewest lies and settled on “Just…going back dug up a whole bunch of family stuff I haven’t thought about in a long time. There was a lot we shouldn’t have buried, and I think we’re all still trying to sort through it. It may take a while.”

Hotch inclined his head toward the others and they walked back to join them. “Just don’t let it take your focus.”

“It won’t.”

“Prove it. What do you see?”

Jude looked down at the blue and white handicap symbol painted beneath her feet. “This handicapped spot couldn’t be further from the entrance to the building,” she noticed, jabbing a thumb over her shoulder to the parks and recreation building. Jude’s train of thought didn’t always make sense. Sometimes it was as if the train was starting on a spot halfway down the track instead of at the beginning, and some of the passengers weren’t on yet. “It’s completely impractical.”

Hotch was undeterred by this seemingly disjointed observation. “And?”

“It has a line of sight to all three victims.” Her eyes swept the park again and she pointed upward. “And that flagpole. At this range, the unsub would’ve had to factor in the wind direction and speed. He would need a spot with the widest field of fire and line of sight to the flagpole so he could gauge how the wind would affect each shot.” She paused for a moment to reassess and Spencer jumped on her train.

“He came here before the shooting to find the spot, decided on this one, and marked it with the handicap symbol to ensure it would be empty when he came back.” Which would explain the absurd distance from the building.

Hotch hummed quietly and looked back to Jude. “So your guess is he’s shooting from his car?” Jude nodded. “Good, that’s what I thought, too.” It was hard not to feel like she’d passed a test of some kind.

***

“Okay, thanks Elle.” Jude hung up and rejoined Hotch, Spencer, and Calvin by the evidence boards. They were at the police station while the rest of the team stayed at the hospital, where a - extremely arrogant, according to Elle - surgeon had successfully removed the intact bullet from the last victim. The bullet was sent to Penelope for analysis, and Morgan was across the room getting intel from her. “They think the shooter has intimate knowledge of law enforcement procedures. The shootings all happened in the thirty-minute window of police shift changes.”