Make Me Smile

Just like in San Diego the team and I stood in front of the police staff, who sat in front of us, patiently waiting for us to begin. J.J was the first one to speak.

“This initial profile is not ready to be given to the media.” She looked around making sure everyone was listening.

“Releasing this profile prematurely will get people killed,” she finished saying, and walked to the side letting Hotchner to take over.

“We are looking to a 30 to 40 year old veteran. Driving a car large enough to shoot from but not so large that it was noticed. Probably a Sedan customized to seal its shooter, his weapon and the sound of his shot. The un-sub suffers from narcissistic and paranoid personality disorders, works out incessantly and is never without a weapon. He is completely self-centered and cannot empathize with others. He is incapable of admitting fault, and blames every problem he has on people around him and has no friends. He is drawn to high-stakes jobs where he can prove his superiority to others, but he will have a history of frequent job changes.” I looked around the room, my gaze falling on Gideon. He had a look of concern plastered on his face.

“We believe he changes the jurisdictions intentionally, and strikes during the first-second shift change indicating an intimate knowledge of law enforcement.”

“You are saying he is one of us?” asked one of the police men.

“We are saying he once was or is now a police officer,” answered Hotch.

“Is he driving a white van too?” came a remark from one of the officers, trying to be funny. Prick.

“That’s enough!” Sergeant Weigart snapped, shutting the officer along with the others up. Turning around to face Hotch he spoke again.

“That will be all for now. We will talk more in my office.” He got up and along with Hotch, Jareau and Detective Calvin proceeded to his office.

Reid walked away to talk to Gideon and Emily was going to some papers. The only person unoccupied was Derek.

“Hey baby girl, how are you?” He walked closer to where I was standing. I gave him a weak smile before replying.

“I’m alright.” Truth was that I wasn’t alright. I was exhausted. On top of that I have barely eaten anything the whole day, because we kept changing location. I just wanted to go home and sleep for the next week. But I wasn’t going to tell that Derek. He would think that I am a whiney pansy.

“How are you?” I asked, faking a smile. He seemed to buy it.

“I’m good, baby girl. Just hope we can catch this bastard soon so we can all go home.” I agreed with him. He talked a little more till the others came back. Hotch informed us that we would be going back to the Franklin Park to re-enact the shooting so we can better understand the shooters MO. I gave out a small sigh and mentally prepared myself for the rest of the long day.

Once again at the park our team along with some police officers was put into positions to recreate the shooting. J.J, Detective Calvin and Sergeant Weigart monitored from the Mobile Command Center van. Reid, Morgan and I all were each positioned at one of the orange cones, where the victims were shot. Each of us had a camera trying to get a view of the car at the parking lot. From where I was standing I had a clear view at the vehicle, but could not see the rifle from the car that was held by the officer who played the un-sub. After a while of recording the surroundings from the same spot I got a phone call.

“Hello, this Agent Alexandra Hale speaking.”

“Alexa its J.J, the profile was leaked to the media. It was Officer Scott McCarty. He could be a suspect,” informed me J.J.

“Umm.. okay shouldn’t you be telling Hotch this?” I asked as I shifted my weight from one foot to the other.

“The reason I’m telling you is because McCarty is playing the un-sub right now. If he is the un-sub then you are in his line of fire. So you need to keep casual.”

“Wait! What? Damn it, alright. You better hope he isn’t the un-sub,” I told her and hung up. Even though I was scared senseless that there was a change that the officer was the un-sub and could shoot me any moment, I kept my cool. I saw that a SWAT team was approaching the car. They threw a smoke bomb in front of the opened truck. As the smoke was spreading I suddenly got tackled to the ground by Morgan.

“Sorry baby girl, but had to be sure you weren’t going to get shot in case he fired,” he apologized as he helped me to my feet. Reid was close behind us.

“Thanks Derek,” I thanked him with a sincere smile this time. I quickly brushed myself off and we walked to the others, just as McCarty was being guided away.

All of a sudden a shot rang through the air and McCarty fell to the ground with a bullet right between his eyes. There was a scream. I soon realized that it came from my own mouth. My vision went dark, but I wasn’t unconscious. Hands pulled me down for protection. I guessed it was Derek.

“Alexa, darling are you okay?” came Morgan’s voice right in front of me. But if Morgan was in front of me, then who held me down? My vision slowly came back. I turned around to see that it was Spencer who had pulled me down, and he still held onto me tightly.

“Yea-ah I’m fine.” My voice was a little shaky. But could you blame me? A man was just shot right in front of me. Sure I have seen corpses before, but it is not the same as having someone die right in front of you. After the area was searched and found clear, Spencer helped me to stand up and walked me a bit further from the scene. His hands were still around me, in a protective manner.

“You sure you are okay?” he asked looking me straight in the eyes. His eyes were filled with concern.

“Yeah, just a little bit shocked,” I told him. I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths to calm myself down. After a few minutes I was feeling better, and we walked back to the others.

Back at the station everyone was devastated of the officer’s death. Detective Calvin informed us that the reason McCarty was put in the role of the un-sub is as a punishment. Morgan suggested that the un-sub must have overheard about the reenactment from some ‘cop-talk’. Gideon suggested that the off-scrip kill is another escalation. This was caused by the un-sub thinking that McCarty gave himself off as the shooter. The un-sub shot the officer in the head to bring a message across; he wasn’t going to let anyone take credit for his work. Garcia notifies us with the geographic profile. All shooting happened in the area of two hospitals. This was most likely were the un-sub met his victims.

“Alexa, if you want you can sit this one out,” told me Hotch as everyone was proceeding to the cars.

“Its fine, Hotch. I can do this,” I reassured him. He gave me a nod and we carried on walking. I wasn’t going to let a small shock get to me. I was going to be there for my team on full alert. I climbed in the backseat with Reid, whilst Gideon and Detective Calvin were at the front.

“I believe in this case is a ‘Hero Homicide’,” stated Gideon as we were driving to the hospital.

“What’s that?” wondered the detective.

“The best known case was the hospital nurse Richard Angelo, who has injected his victims with toxins so he could then help revive them. He killed 25 people that we know of,” explained Reid. He stole a quick glance in my direction and I could see that he was still concerned of my well being.

“So what’s the profile for one of these guys?” asked Calvin again.

“Arrogant, conceited, and egotistical.”

“You have just described every surgeon I have ever met.” Detective Calvin let out a chuckle. Gideon seemed to be deep in thought for a moment.

“Landman,” he said referring to the surgeon he had met, as turning back in his seat to look at Spencer and me. He then took out his phone and dialed, as I guessed, Hotch’s number. He informed him that we were going to start with Landman.

As we were getting out of the car Gideon instructed us to tell Sergeant Weigart to secure the area around the hospital. As everyone else went up the stairs, Spencer stayed with me as I was talking with the Sergeant on the phone. After I was done we went in the direction where our team has disappeared to minutes ago. Spence and I didn’t speak, but it wasn’t an awkward silence, quite the opposite. It was comforting. We stopped by Hotch, J.J, Emily and Morgan who were standing by a window that gave us the view of Dr. Landman and Gideon in the other room. The Sergeant is informed I told Hotch.

“Good.” He nodded. Through the window I could see that Landman as aggravated.

“I was in my office with Dr. Hanna Pate.” We all could hear him shout. “Go ask her, she is in the ER. I’m not the only one who thinks I am god.” He said referring to Hanna Pate.

“Well lets go take a walk to the ER,” said Hotch, mentioning for Reid and I to follow him.

“My guess Dr. Pate is going to support his alibi,” said Hotch as we walked through a double door. Landman had power and he knew it. We walked to a information desk to see where we could find Dr Pate.

“Excuse me, we are looking for Dr. Pate,” said Hotchner the male nurse at the counter as he showed his badge.

“I’ll go find her for you.”

“The motivations of a ‘Hero Homicide’ are; power, excitement and respect. Landman already has them all. Operating, racing against the clock to save a life is exciting. So it doesn’t make any sense for him to go and shoot three people at once since he can only operate on one at a time.” Hotchner was suggesting that Landman was the wrong person that we were looking for. Our attention was shifted to a nurse helping a man whose hand was badly bleeding.

“Not for Landman, and not in the ER.” I realized what he was talking about. The un-sub was probably a nurse, seeing that they get more interaction with the injured, which would allow the un-sub so spend plenty of time with his victims. Hotch was dialing on his phone, but was stopped by another nurse who told him that he cannot use his phone in the hospital. He put his phone away and walked over to the nurse.

“Excuse me ma’am. We are FBI agents,” he told her as he showed his badge, “and we believe that one of your staff members might be the sniper. Now the man that we are looking for works second shift and he would have transferred here the past two weeks.”

“We haven’t hired any personnel in the past two months,” she told us.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. Sorry I got patients who need me.” Hotchner stopped her and continued describing the un-subs behavior.

“He is vain, rude, works a lot, shows up to work late and blames others for his mistakes.” The woman’s widened in realization.

“Oh god, its Phillip Dowd. He picks up shifts,” she whispered to us.

“Is he here today?” I asked. The nurse started to wildly look around the room. But Hotch stopped her. He told her to stay calm and asked again whether Dowd was working today. She nodded but when we asked her if he was in the room she said ‘no’. Hotchner instructed Reid to go and tell Gideon, whilst I stayed here with Hotch.

Not a minute passed by that there were numerous shots. Suddenly the lights went out. Hotch pushed me behind him and to the wall as he took out his gun.