Psychopathy

Chapter 82- The Vigilante

Isabel sat across the table from the young man. He shifted in his seat, almost as if he was itching to get out of there. As if he had more important things to do. And, in a way, he thought he did. But Isabel wasn't letting him go that easily. Isabel settled back into her seat, taking a deep breath through her nose. If someone was a monster, she could smell it. She could sense it. Her Circian powers had been stripped away when she entered hell- the power to create and control monsters. But slowly, it was starting to return. For now, she was limited to just being able to sense when she was among monsters.

This man didn't present as a monster, but there was something off about him. Monsters smelled horrible- as if they were rotting from the inside. This man didn't smell like that. He smelled like fire and brimstone, and that told Isabel a lot. Deep down, he wasn't a monster. But if he wasn't careful, he could easily tip over the edge and fall into the darkness. If he wasn't careful, he could easily become a monster.

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"Hey, Garcia, I need yer help with something," Ciara said as she walked into the office. Garcia turned away from what she was doing, smiling when she saw Ciara.

"Of course, Chestnut. I'm running into a wall here anyway," she answered. Ciara didn't know what she was already doing, but maybe taking a break and chasing a different angle would help her get the clarity she needed. She sat down in another chair, her conversation with Alya still buzzing in her ears. What did the little girl mean, she'd heard Ciara's voice before? She shook her head, shaking the thought away. Alya probably was just referring to her accent. She'd heard an Irish accent before, and that was what she meant when she recognized Ciara's voice.

"Alright. Alya said that the Unsub had the tarot cards tattooed on his arm. She didn't say which arm, but would there be a way to track him through that?" Ciara asked.

"Well, technically, yes. But it would be time-consuming. I'd have to run the recognition software through every security camera in D.C. But I suppose I can multi-task. Have the software running while I work on something else. But if he keeps the tattoos covered up, then there's nothing I can do," Garcia answered.

"Focus on Dupont Circle. If Alya saw them, that means he didn't cover them up. Don't worry too much about specific details. The designs of tarot cards differ from deck to deck. Just focus on looking for a tattoo of three cards. We can narrow it down from there," Ciara explained, and Garcia nodded, getting the recognition software set up. "Alright. Now there's something else we need to do. The man we're looking for is absolutely a vigilante. But I don't want to go to Hotch with that information without any proof."

"What makes you so sure he's a vigilante?"

"Alya said that her father liked to watch scary movies with screaming women. Now, that could just be normal horror films. I'm not positive. But her mother? Alya said her mother... liked to take pictures of her."

"What kind of pictures?" Garcia asked, her face slowly dropping into horror.

"I think ye already know what kind of pictures," Ciara answered, and Garcia let out a gasp of horror. "So that's what we need to do. We need to get onto the Michael's and Stella's computers and see if Alya was telling the truth, or if she was just misinterpreting things."

"Right, right. I can do that. Morgan already gave me their I.P. address, so this shouldn't take me too long," Garcia said. For a minute, there was only the sound of Garcia's furious typing as Ciara watched the information fly across the screen. But, eventually, they were in, and they had access to even the most encrypted files. "Alright, let's start with Stella. She's the one that's less likely to be innocent. And then if all Michael has is horror movies, it will feel a lot better knowing that at least one of her parents wasn't a complete monster."