Chapter Text
Emily settled into the beige leather seat and watched JJ connect her laptop to the jet Wi-Fi. She watched as her fingers moved gracefully over the keys and her golden hair fell forwards, hiding her face from view. She looked up suddenly and Emily, caught, averted her gaze.
She focused her attention on Garcia, voice tinny through the laptop speakers, as she laid out the facts of the case. “Over the past four months, six men have been dumped, sans clothing, on the side of the road in the beautiful little town of St Mary.”
The team flipped through their files, inspecting the graphic photos, while Garcia listed the victims’ names. “All white, all physically healthy, all between the ages of nineteen and twenty-six, and all missing for days before their bodies were found”.
Hotch nodded. “Is there any other connection between them? Did they share social circles? College classes? Anything like that?”
Penelope’s face scrunched uncomfortably as she spoke “I’ve not gotten that far into looking at their backgrounds yet, Sir, but there is one notable similarity between these murders...” She trailed off, cheeks flushing obviously, despite the pixelation of the screen.
“What is it, baby girl?” Morgan pressed her.
Her eyes avoided the webcam. “If you flip to page 11, you’ll see that they were all found to be exhibiting a case of...”
“Oh!” Exclaimed JJ, and Emily’s stomach lurched as they both turned to the page.
“... extreme rigor mortis.”
There was a stunned pause as they all processed the images before them. A two-page spread of angry red erections attached to six different bodies.
The silence was broken as Reid scanned the images. “It’s actually referred to as rigor erectus and it’s most commonly seen in hanging victims, it was much more widely known a few hundred years ago thanks to the fashion for public hangings, but in recent years we’ve learnt that...”
Morgan cleared his throat and gave Reid a pointed look. “In any case,” he continued, abashed, "There’s no evidence of hanging or strangulation on these men.”
“No,” agreed Rossi “Going by these pictures, I’d say they all died by blunt force trauma to the skull.”
Garcia nodded enthusiastically through the screen. “And the M.E. would agree with you! If you take a look at her report, you’ll see that she also listed something that she found in all their bloodwork.”
Thumbing through the papers, Emily found it, and in spite of her years of experience it took her a second to understand what she was reading. “An unknown compound?”
“I can see why they called us in,” JJ commented, still examining the photos.
Garcia spoke up again. “They’ve already sent some samples to our experts, but they’re not sure how long it will take for the results to come in, it could be weeks.”
“Let’s hope we catch this guy before then.” said Hotch, tone serious.
Reid had been quiet for a moment, examining the information about the compound. “Oh, I think I recognize this!” He looked up excitedly, hair flopping around his face.
“You recognize this as-yet-undiscovered compound?” asked Morgan, incredulous.
“Yeah! Well, no, but I’ve been reading a lot about behavior modifying drugs and their development, specifically in regard to Alzheimer’s,” he gestured wildly as he explained, “and the literature has some really fascinating theories and ideas about the ways in which human behavior could be affected by synthetic chemical compounds!”
Emily leant forward in her seat, intrigued. “Can you tell what effect this compound would have?” she asked.
“Sure, probably! I mean, not in exact detail and not just by looking at the M.E.’s report, but going by its structure I’d hypothesize that it would promote the production of testosterone and cortisol. Possibly estradiol as well.” Reid responded.
“Which could result in a state of heightened sexual arousal,” surmised Hotch, seeming to understand. Reid nodded in agreement.
Rossi cocked his head. “So, they’re being drugged for sex, forced to perform?”
“But then why not use a little blue pill?” Emily’s brow furrowed in confusion as she spoke “Sildenafil is easier to obtain and surely more reliable,” she mused.
JJ shook her head. She still hadn’t been able to look away from the photographs in front of her. “Guys, say all of this is true, these men are being abducted and drugged into a state of arousal, look at these pictures.”
The team reluctantly drew their eyes back to the engorged shafts in their folders, some a dark, angry red and others purple, almost bruised looking. The glans of one of them was cracked and bleeding as though it had split from the pressure. “They’re absolutely raw. I don’t think this is about forcing them to have sex, I think it’s about forcing them to feel pain. I think this is torture.”