✓ | sick of losing soulmates [SPENCER REID]

4.1

4.1
( the first big case. )

☆ ★ ☆

iris

Several mornings and a few cases later, Iris sits with the others at their desks after orders from Hotch not to start on something yet, since they had a case that they would be briefed on shortly. Emily, tired, sips her coffee as Spencer watches Morgan, with his feet up, and Iris play an idle game of catch with a mostly empty pencil case, smiling too. After a couple of minutes, JJ calls them from outside Hotch's office, and they quickly follow her to pour into the conference room.

Hotch is already there, his back to them and his eyes on a screen positioned on the far wall. "Don't get comfortable." Iris looks past him, seeing that he's watching a grainy CCTV recording. "We have time to debrief on the plane."

"Where we headed?" Spencer asks.

"New York."

Iris perks up instantly. She's never been to New York — although, this isn't exactly a time to be interested in visiting the Statue of Liberty if it's for a case.

"Five shootings in two weeks — it's about time we got the call," comes Rossi's voice as he enters the room from behind Iris.

She turns and blinks at him in surprise. How does he know about the case already? "What?"

"It's been on national news," he explains shortly. "City's panicking already."

"We'll take Garcia with us. Hopefully they'll give us access to their surveillance systems," Hotch says, turning away from the screen.

"What do we know?" Emily asks.

"All the killings are midday," he answers. "Single gunshot to the head with a 22. All public places — street corners, subway stations."

Spencer says, "Twenty-two caliber pistols are normally one-hundred-and-fifty decibels. New York subways and streets are well over two-hundred. It could be people aren't even registering the gunshot until the unsub's already leaving the scene."

"They sound like mob hits," Derek notes.

"Except none of the victims have ties to organised crime," Hotch shuts that theory down.

"Do they have any connection to each other?" Emily asks.

"None they've found."

Derek flicks his eyebrows up and down, and there's a pause as everyone thinks before Iris asks, "What about communication with the police? Has the unsub tried to make contact?"

Hotch shakes his head and turns to the TV again, his expression much more somber than usual. His constant frown isn't just blank and strict, militaristic, anymore, but its mournful. Worried. "Surveillance cameras have captured videos of three of the murders." He switches off the video he had been watching previously, loading up something else. "This is the latest."