[CM] THE CASE

You cannot find peace by avoiding life. —— "The Hours"

It was a stormy night.

The man was lying in the messy room, raising his hand with difficulty.

His face was covered with blood, and the viscous blood stained his collar red, and the excessive blood loss made his eyes black.He groped for a piece of broken glass with all his strength, and the pain of being cut was almost negligible under the shadow of death.

to tell him...

Sharp glass marks the wood.

The old but dedicated old detective closed his eyes unwillingly, and died alone in the storm.

Reid looked particularly energized today.

He greeted Emily cheerfully, accepted Garcia's homemade biscuits, and added two spoonfuls of sugar when making the coffee - although judging from his sugar intake, those two spoonfuls didn't make much difference.

JJ holding the file with a tired face was very surprised: "Morning, are you in a good mood today?"

Reid said happily: "Yes, is there another case?"

JJ nods while waiting for his coffee.Maybe it was the joy infected by Reid, she temporarily put aside the case, but cheered herself up with some gossip: "Speaking of which, does Griffith still live in your house?"

The whole BAU knew Griffith was picked up by Reid.As for the relationship between the two people, everyone is tacit. Garcia also pretended to wipe away tears that didn't exist, lamenting that they had almost become a mother's office romance-she was the last person in the BAU who wanted Griffith to leave.

"Otherwise I can watch the gossip at a close distance." Garcia complained to Morgan.

Morgan, who is forced to watch at close range every day: "...Baby, you can watch me at close range."

Garcia let out a shy sigh, as if shot through the heart by Cupid's arrow.

But Garcia often popped up to Reid's desk to ask how Griffith was doing. Garcia was very worried and reluctant to part with this desirable work partner. After all, she was very busy with work, and she didn't visit Griffith when he was hospitalized. After all, she hadn't seen Griffith for a long time.

In fact, as early as the eve of Griffith's discharge from the hospital, they discussed whether to hold a discharge celebration party for Griffith, but Reid always said to wait, and because he was too busy with work, this matter was delayed again and again.

BAU, which has one less person, did not recruit new people, because Emily is still in the running-in stage, and Hotch hopes to consider the issue of whether to add manpower after she is fully integrated.

At least from the conference table, it is still very harmonious.

"New Orleans has a serial killer who killed at least three adult males before the hurricane."

Gideon put his hand to his mouth, frowning.

In the monitor, the man was lying on the side of the road with a hideous and fatal wound on his neck.

"The police thought the murderer died in the hurricane, but there was a fourth victim last night." JJ called up a new photo, "Same victim and modus operandi - throat cut, internal organs removed. "

Emily tapped the notebook with a pen: "One and a half years? This cool-down period is a bit long, are you sure it was done by the same person?"

"That's what he claimed," JJ said. "He sent a letter to Detective William Lamontagne, who was in charge of the case, claiming responsibility for these murders." Died in the hurricane, and now his son is in charge."

Morgan put down his coffee cup: "That's not easy."

Hotch looked down at his notes, and began to lay out ideas for solving the case: "We have to go through all the evidence. Starting from the first three cases, we will summarize the modus operandi."

JJ showed a embarrassed expression: "Uh, the materials of the first three cases have been destroyed in the hurricane, and there are no autopsy reports, eyewitness testimonies, or DNA test results."

Reid looked up. "So we can only start with the last victim?"

"Yes."

Hotch gave him a look: "Before the next body appears."

"So you're leaving again," Griffith said.

"Well, the purchase can only be postponed." Reid sighed.

"I can go alone." Griffith has no dissatisfaction, he was also a member of the flying around, so he naturally understands the lover's work. Reid is very mature in his work - the seriousness of his work is obvious to all BAU.

After hanging up the phone, the apartment seemed too quiet. Griffith lay in bed for a while, drifting off to sleep past dinner.

After such a long rest, Griffith's spirit is much better than when he was discharged from the hospital.He got up from the bed, checked the time, and decided to go home and have a look.

Living together is a joy, but there are some things that need to be dealt with. Nelson didn't want to pay attention to it for the time being, but he had to start thinking about cleaning the house.

only……

Griffith stood in the middle of the living room, hands on hips.

Where did Reid put the keys?

When I was discharged from the hospital, everything was packed by Reid.He really has no memory of such small things as house keys.

Reid should be working at this time, even after getting off the plane, the office and visits are very hard. Griffith chose the former between "rumping through other people's homes" and "interrupting other people's work".

He has lived here for more than a week, except for the guest room, living room and kitchen, he has not been to the more private master bedroom and study.The door of the master bedroom was closed, and the door of the study room was ajar. Griffith opened the door of the study room after searching unsuccessfully in the living room.

When they were not together, Griffith went in once as a guest, but did not go in after they were discharged from the hospital and lived together temporarily.At least from the first glance, the study has not changed much.The books were still in a messy pile, and Griffith accidentally kicked one of them over.He squatted down to clean it up, knocked down the second stack, and then, like dominoes, in the blink of an eye, Griffith had nowhere to stay in the room.

Griffith: "..."

Does this person usually rely on his long legs to get in and out of the study?

Reid has a good memory, and he can easily find the things he puts in his hands. Griffith hadn't wanted to clean it up for him in case Reid couldn't find the books, but now he had to.

In addition to various professional books, Reid also has a lot of serious literature. Griffith has never heard of many of them, so he had to read the introduction to classify them.Some scientists, in particular, have a quirky, logic-filled sense of romance that simply doesn't make sense from the title alone.He spent the whole afternoon in the study unknowingly, and his stomach that hadn't eaten lunch protested dissatisfiedly before Griffith tidied up the study.

Afraid to put the books back on the shelf, for fear of disturbing Reid's order, Griffith put all the books on the sofa, and when he finally stood up and was about to go to the kitchen, he suddenly saw rows of schizophrenic books in the bookcase.

Reid sat on the bed with an autopsy report in front of him.

This time there was very little information. He picked up the letter sent by the suspect to the old detective and read it back and forth many times.

Read clues from the text, as he always did.

He mentioned to Hotch that night that the murderer was probably imitating Jack the Ripper in London 100 years ago.

Imitation crimes are not uncommon. In fact, such a famous killer has a lot of fans, and some extreme ones will pay tribute to their idols through imitation, but...

Reid frowned.

But this time the victims were all men.

This is something that has always bothered him.

Victims are women, generally because women are weaker, easier to control, and easier to obtain, while men are relatively more "difficult". Is this admirer provoking Jack the Ripper?Or, because he was gay, killing men gave him an intense pleasure?

Reid couldn't figure it out, and he picked up the call without even looking at the call reminder: "Reid."

"I'm Griffith."

Reid blinked. "Oh, uh... good evening."

Griffith opened every drawer of his study desk, but he still couldn't find the key of his apartment, so he could only ask him: "That's right, I want to go back to the apartment to clean up, can you tell me where the key is?" where?"

Reid instantly became vigilant: "Are you going to move?"

Then he realized that his tone was not right.At first Griffith agreed to stay at his house because the apartment hadn't been tidied up, but now that he wants to go back, Reid has no reason to keep him.

Thinking of this, Reid's mood sank: "Is it because you don't like it?"

He didn't say clearly what he didn't like. Griffith understood what he meant, and felt soft: "No, it's just that it's not good to leave it there. I want to go back and pack it up and see if I can rent it out."

It took Reid a second to catch what Griffith meant.

"I have the key, the key." Reid stammered a little. "Uh, I mean, it's on my key ring. I'm in New Orleans."

Griffith said "Oh", "Then I'll wait for you to come back."

Await your return.

Reid curled the corner of his mouth and coughed pretending to be calm: "Okay."

Griffith knew his colleagues would take the case back to the hotel, and hung up the phone thoughtfully. Reid then picked up the letter again and started a new round of analysis with high spirits.

After all, Foster was waiting for him.

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