Sinner | Spencer Reid

Chapter 14

Jaella's POV

As Hotch is already at the local PD, Spencer and I make our way outside to share one of the black SUVs. I toss the keys to him. He looks at me after fumbling yet managing to successfully catch the keys.

"You sure?" He asks.

"Why wouldn't I be? You do have your driver's license, right?"

He playfully scoffs. "I will have you know that I've been able to drive since the age of seven. It's just that the government wouldn't issue me my license until I was fourteen. I had to cycle my way back and forth to college. The team just doesn't usually let me drive."

"Well then," I say whilst buckling into the passenger's seat, "my life in your hands. The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them."

He starts up the car and pulls out of the parking lot.

"Ernst Hemingway. I didn't know you liked him."

"Oh Dr. Reid, there are a lot of things you don't know about me. One of them is that I was a massive nerd." His eyes widen in surprise. "Skipped two grades. Didn't have many friends. Loved books."

"Loved?" He asks.

"Well once I dropped out of school I didn't really read much. Not a lot of time for things like that. Then once I enlisted in the FBI training program, I only read those nasty law books. I had to study a bit extra compared to everyone else in my chosen sector because I had missed half of my senior year. Haven't really gotten back to reading since then, unless it's a file on suspects or whatnot. I should though, I miss reading."

"I could recommend loads of great reads," he offers. "My apartment is more of a library than anything else."

I suddenly burst out laughing. Spencer looks at me with a look of confusion compelling his features.

"What? Was it something I said?"

"No no not at all," I manage to get out between laughs. I take a few deep breaths. "What do you call yourself when you are looking at a book?"

"Um, I don't know?" He asks confusedly.

"Spencer Read."

Now we both begin to laugh at my god awful joke. More at how disgustingly bad it was than the actual punch line.

We make our way into the precinct conference room and spot Hotch already there. He looks up and gives a tight-lipped smile in greeting. Spencer suddenly stops and I look back at him with a questioning look.

"Oh sorry Sir," he begins. "I forgot to grab your ID card from the car. I'll go now."

He makes to go away but Hotch stops him. "What do you mean? I have my card with me now."

Spencer walks over and sits down beside me. He bites the inside of his cheek.

"What's wrong?" I ask him under my breath, as others begin to arrive.

"It's just that last night Garcia told me to grab his ID card from the car."

My eyes widen.

"I was talking to Garcia and she was the only person who knew that I was in the car."

"So are you saying that she wanted for me to come out and find you?" He asks.

I chuckle softly. "We can confront her about it later. That will be fun."

He smiles back at me.

"Alright team," announces Hotch. "Since the other murders were three days apart, give or take one day, we can only assume that the added time means that this unsub is changing his tactics. Possibly widening his killing market, stepping outside of his boundaries."

"What exactly can we estimate about the unsub?" Questions David Rossi.

Spencer replies, "We can assume that we are dealing with a caucasian male, aged thirty-five to fourty-five. This is due to the fact that he was able to overpower all three victims. He will not stop killing until he is stopped. He knew these three victims before he took their lives as he had a sense of remorse before killing them. We can tell this from the hesitant yet methodical cuts from the throat. Because of the added time, we can only assume that he's currently devolving and will somehow change his tactics."

"Garcia managed to find a link between all of the victims. They all attended the same local church. That is where we will be headed today. I want for you all to split up and walk around. Ask if people could have noticed something different about the victims' behaviour or something along those lines. Alright let's go," finishes Hotch.

Getting intense. Buckle up ladies and gents. Yeehaw.