𝐓𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐁𝐲 𝐀𝐧 𝐈𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 | hotchniss

if this is the long haul how'd we get here so soon?

"Okay, so it's a lot of information. I need you to be ready for me" Garcia announced.

"We always are, baby girl. Spill it out" Derek said. You could tell it made her smile without even seeing her face. "So, Ed Green. A literature teacher. He's 40 years old, was married for ten years to his wife Gwen. She died three years after divorcing him, in a car crash" she shared, the sound of her fingers hitting the keyboard filling every moment of their silent hunger for information.

"I don't understand. His ex-wife died, he got remarried, had a new start, but he ruins it all? For what?" Morgan asked, voicing what they all thought. His ex-wife's death couldn't be his stressor it's been too long, what was the trigger?

"That's the unsettling part..." Penelope said quickly, as if she was sharing gossip. "His medical history shows he was sick and under treatment for an illness I'm not going to attempt pronouncing, and it happened around the same time as his divorce. My guess? His wife left him because of it."

"Where's the unsettling part?" Dave questioned.

"The medical test he took, the one right before her passing... showed he was healthy again. He got the results exactly two days after her death." Now they all saw the possible connection - two days, there was always two days between each kill.

"His wife wanted a divorce, too. Could that, combined with the illness, make him flip like that?" Derek asked, raising his eyebrows.

"But... but Ed is healthy now. He couldn't be the one who did that" Officer Cassidy said hesitantly, cutting his trail of thoughts. It was Garcia who gave her the answer. "I'm sorry to tell you this, but he is sick. The pill package you found? It's a medication used for terminal patients. It helps with the pain and symptoms"

The officer sighed, rubbing her face.

"La Belle Dame sans Merci" Reid said loudly. No one understood, apart from Emily who understood French, she looked at him with a big smile. "The beautiful lady without mercy" she translated, understanding exactly what he meant, and smiled at him as if hinting at a secret they shared.

"Reid, you are a genius."

"I know."

"It can explain the woods, the flowers and jewels" Emily commented. He nodded at her, wanting to keep talking about it with her, but he knew they needed to explain what they knew first. "Ed is a literature teacher, right?"

"Yes, he loves it, and so did Gwen" Kacey confirmed.

"Do you happen to know where they met?"

"I'm sorry, but how is that relevant?" the detective asked. Emily agreed this question wasn't relevant but she had to admit it was interesting to know, if this part might be overlapping too.

"Yes, of course" he left his question and explained "It's an old poem about a knight telling the story of how he fell in love and became obsessed with an enchanting woman he met in the woods who later abandoned him. He ends up sick and alone" he finished, seeing in his teammates' eyes that they were starting to connect the dots that Emily and he had previously done.

"I still don't understand" Gillies said.

"The knight gave the woman everything, a flower crown on her head, bracelets, necklaces but it didn't stop her from disappearing, much like Ed did with Gwen" Emily explained. Kacey had said the necklace belonged to Gwen, and like the woman in the poem, she left him sick and alone, the dump site being the woods also supported their theory. Emily was sure that tracking the jewels now would be even easier when they knew who they belonged to.

"So, his wife filed for divorce, he connected it with his illness coming back, and after the first murder didn't help, he went for his wife" Morgan concluded with a questioning expression, waiting for them to confirm his understanding.