Change My Mind ~ Criminal Minds (Aaron Hotchner x OC)

13.0: Phone Calls and Suspects

"The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die. As well the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be mind."
― Friedrich Nietzsche

Crystal appreciated the team's concern, but they needed to focus on the case. They still had a murderer on the lose and they needed to find them fast before another little girl's life was taken, "We didn't get a chance to talk to the grandmother, but Mrs. Lamb was able to answer some questions. Abigail and Bailey both were apart of a solo group for ballet, there's a total of four girls in the group."

Reid stood up to point at the notes, "These notes are handwritten and are the exact same to each of the girls, but Abigail's is written a bit more sloppy which suggests that this was written in haste. This can be connected to anger towards her, Bailey's note doesn't show this."

Morgan nodded, "We looked at the crime scenes and Abigail's dump sight isn't to far from where she was attacked and killed, we think she was meeting with someone. There was two empty cups of soda, they're currently it for prints and DNA."

Emily sighed as she slouched a bit in her seat, "I doubt they'll find the unsubs prints or DNA on the cup, they wouldn't be that careless." Morgan sighed, "Well our best bet would be to question the ballet instructor, maybe someone's been lurking around. Baby girl, can you send us the address of the local studio?"

"Sent to your phones, there's only one in this town and holy smokes does it have a reputation. It's very well known and according to this article people come from out of state to be taught by the instructor Catherine Berry who is a retired ballerina, says here she was quite famous in her days."

Rossi chuckled, "Definitely would shut down other studios if she was famous."

Hotch looked towards the screen, "Garcia look to see if there's anyone who's been charged with assault towards young girls around Abigail and Bailey's age, narrow your search down to people who are native here. The unsub is someone who gained the trust of these girls quickly so look into teachers, store owners, and anyone else they could've come into contact with."

"On it, will call you guys back as soon as I have something."

JJ tilted her head when she looked at Bailey's photos, "What's painted on the wall?" She pointed to a flower, it was small and really unnoticeable unless you looked at the other photo of Bailey's full body. Morgan looked at the photo, "It's just a flower, what about it? People graffiti all the time."

"Looks like a flower called hyacinth and the purple ones mean remorse." Reid provided as he looked at the picture, Rossi raised an eyebrow. "So the unsub didn't mean to kill Bailey?" Crystal shook her head, "I think the unsub meant to hurt her, but he didn't feel good about it. Maybe the unsub was trying to scare her and things went wrong?"

Reid went over to look at the crime scene photo's again, "Look at this, the logo on Abigail's cup has a petunia. These flowers have the meaning of anger and resentment, I think we just found our signature."

Emily stood up as she walked towards the board, "So the unsub is leaving behind flowers that symbolize his feelings towards them, why flowers?" Reid pointed at the flowers, "Performers such as ballerinas and dancers are given flowers at the end of their performance to show appreciation for the hard work they've done to do produce the performance. The unsub could be trying to mock them, they no longer are able to do their solos in the next recital."

Hotch stood up, "We need to find out who else was supposed to be performing for that solo, the notes could be directed towards them." Crystal nodded, "I was going to head down to the ballet studio to question the instructor, I'll ask for the other two girls while I'm down there."