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"It seems that we have encountered quite a challenge." Jessie and Elle heard a hint of sullenness in Hotch's voice as soon as they stepped into the office door.

"What's wrong?" Elle wondered what could make Hotch so angry.

"Someone sent a package from Ohio to the headquarters." JJ closed his eyes, unwilling to reproduce the scene at that time. "It was full of packets of...candles."

"Candles?" Jessie walked to the package, put on the gloves prepared by the side, and took out one to observe.

"In addition to the candles, we also found a stack of videos from an unknown person about how he abused his victims, and each victim's ... suicide note." Morgan came over with a USB drive, and I had asked Grasia to go After processing the video, Reid and Gideon were in the room identifying and analyzing the handwriting of each victim's suicide note.

"How many victims so far?" Elle asked.

"There are only three of them. The information shows that they should be on vacation or on a business trip, but they have been kidnapped and tortured for at least a week." JJ looked at the documents, "Once this incident was exposed, it caused an uproar across the country. Moved, and even started to openly provoke the police."

"Staruss told me that the bureau attaches great importance to this case. In order to prevent it from being a terrorist incident, they sent an agent to assist us." Hotch looked at the watch in his hand, "It should be here soon."

"Send an agent?" Morgan was a little unconvinced, "Does this mean you don't trust us?"

"Morgan." Hotch frowned. "He's here to help."

"The case has caused panic. Is there anything unusual about it?"

"Yes." Jessie looked up at Elle. "These candles are made of corpses."

JJ pouted, "No wonder the smell is so strange."

"Excuse me, is there a supervisor here who is Aaron Hotchner?" A sudden voice interrupted several people who were looking at the contents of the package. "My name is Emily Prentiss, and I'm here to assist the BAU team in solving a case."

"Emily!" JJ turned his head after hearing a familiar voice, "I didn't expect it to be you!"

"JJ!" Emily was also a little surprised, "What a coincidence."

"You guys know each other too?" Hotch asked curiously.

"Yes." JJ was a little embarrassed.

"Prentiss, nice to meet." Hotch held out his hand to Emily. "You can just call me Hotch. I was lucky enough to work with your mother for a while as a security director. Thank you very much for joining our team."

"The humid and alkaline environment will cause the fat of the corpse to sometimes interact with anaerobic bacteria, resulting in a wax like soap or waxy substance. After a streamlined and purified saponification reaction, the unknown person will make the victim into a candle." The meeting. In the room, Jessie put the things in her hand into the package and explained to everyone.

"In fact, it is not uncommon to make corpses into candles." Reid scratched his head, "At the end of the 18th century, King Louis XVI of France closed the domestic cemetery, and soon the French stored the corpses in the catacombs, and found that Corpse fat becomes soap and candle matter. Of course, people are not limited to being made into candles after death... If the corpse is fully decomposed, some useful molecules will be produced. Recently dead, oxygen-starved cells will be filled with carbon dioxide, while The acidity of carbon dioxide destroys the cell sacs, releasing enzymatic substances into the body..."

It was the first time for Emily to see Reid, who talked eloquently, and she was a little stunned for a while.

"Trust me, he's always said that," Elle said softly to Emily sideways.

"There is also a suicide note..." Gideon put on his glasses and said calmly, "The upturned handwriting does not match the pessimistic tone at all. However, the investigation of several deceased people showed that they did not have any abnormal emotions recently, which is not in line with suicide profile of the author."

"So the suicide note was forged?"

"No." Gideon looked up and noticed Emily, "All the victims wrote suicide notes under drug control."

"Pack up our things and head to the airport. Get to Ohio as soon as possible to quell the fear of the people." Hotch turned to look at Morgan. "Take Grasia, I want her to be able to track criminals in real time."

"When you think of Ohio, the first thing that comes to mind is Cincinnati's abandoned subway system..."

"After that, there are all kinds of short stories that give people a strong sense of substitution..." Elle took Jessie's words and continued.

"The local police found four unrecognizable body parts based on the information provided by the unknown person." Emily flipped through the file, "After he tortured them, he divided the body?"

"The body parts are purified more precisely so that they can be made into candles." Reid held his chin. "The unknown person has a certain background in medicine or chemistry, but this knowledge can also be found on Google."

"Hey, big guy." Grasia tapped the keyboard, "I checked the purchase of local chemicals in Ohio according to what Jessie said. Sodium hydroxide, alcohol, and sulfuric acid are not sold on a particularly large scale. This guy must be running I bought it from many stores. I hate criminals the most.”

"Check the sales of hydrochloric acid." Jessie thought for a while and said.

"Getit! Here's a guy who bought a good deal of hydrochloric acid at five different stores two weeks ago. Let's see his name...Mike Well."

"Nice, continue to investigate." Hotch closed the case file.

"Hydrochloric acid?" Elle was puzzled.

"Aqua regia made of hydrochloric acid and sulfuric acid at a ratio of 3:1 can not only efficiently corrode the bones of corpses, but also is much cheaper than treating with sulfuric acid alone."

As much as she doesn't want to admit it, Elle thinks that the little doctor speaks just as much as Reid does once he's in academic mode.

"Has the person who sent the package been found?"

JJ shook his head at Hotch, "She disappeared after sending it, presumably the fourth victim..."

"JJ, to sum up everyone's current views, we will release the profile to the media as soon as we get off the plane."

"Won't it anger unknown people?" Elle worried about the safety of the fourth victim.

Gideon shook his head, his eyes fell on the package delivered this morning, "He can enjoy provoking the police and torturing the victims. He has declared war on us, and we can't just sit still."

"The identity of the unknown person has become clear. He is in his early 20s, a white man, and has a house or private space with good sound insulation. He has no emotional or property stimulation. In view of his cruel evil methods and the four body parts found look……"

"I hate being exposed to the spotlight." Emily looked at JJ who was being interviewed by reporters not far away, "But she did a good job, calm and unhurried."

"JJ is the window through which we interact with the local police and the media." Morgan followed Emily's eyes and looked at her. "You will fall in love with her if you get in touch with her a few times."

"Agent." A police officer ran up to Hotch and Gideon, "The missing woman who delivered the package was found near an abandoned chemical plant. Has... died. There is also an open letter for you. "

"Stupid FBI agents don't understand my art style...I will let them witness what is called true criminal art." BAU, who felt the scene, looked at this arrogant open letter and couldn't laugh or cry.

"Crazy..." Morgan couldn't hold back his curse, "Such a perverted move is called art?"

"He signed it this time." Elle read the scribbled handwriting. "Mike... Well."

"The suspect we discussed on the plane..." Gideon murmured, "He announced his name first."

"He's very arrogant, it seems like he's prepared for everything." Reid analyzed the messy and disorderly handwriting, "We have to be more vigilant."

"Sir..." Emily, who followed Jessie to see the corpse, looked at Hotch, "The unknown person didn't abuse her this time, nor did she make candles from her corpse. Is it because our arrival prompted him to change his modus operandi?"

"That possibility is not ruled out." Hotch frowned.

"The corpse was dissolved by strong acid this time, and it was vaguely identified as the missing person from the clothes left at the scene." Jessie's footsteps were a little unsteady, "When I rushed to see, there were only three pieces of unknown tissue that hadn't had time to corrode... ...JJ is already explaining the situation to the media outside."

"Insane..." Reid turned his back, and there was a wave of turbulence between his words.

Elle walked up to Jessie and gently held her cold hand.

Jessie glanced sideways, but said nothing.

"The profile has been announced." JJ, who finally got rid of the media's long guns and short guns, returned to the group of people, "I'm just waiting for him to contact us."

"He'll come." Gideon looked at the darkening sky, "I have a hunch."

"Jennifer Jareau?" A young man in a white coat and a mask walked up to JJ, "During the routine inspection of the corpse just now, we found an extra piece of unknown tissue. Are you sure there are only three pieces?"

"Sure." Jessie felt an indescribable strangeness, "It's the corpse I went to see."

The man's eyes blinked, his face showing embarrassment.

"Where is the body now?" JJ asked, "I'll go and have a look."

"I'll go with you." Jessie held Elle's hand instead, "Wait for me to come back."

The man nodded and led them to the car ahead.

"Wait, something's wrong." Emily looked at the backs of the three of them. "How can there be an extra piece for a good one?"

"Maybe it's getting late and there is some negligence?"

"But, have you ever seen a corpse put in a car for identification?" Emily asked Hotch back.

An ominous feeling rose in Hotch, "Did you check their papers?"

Morgan shook his head, "No..."

"Come back! Come back!"

JJ and Jessie, who had just stepped into the car, heard Gideon's voice, looked at each other, and were about to jump out of the car when the door suddenly closed automatically.The air suddenly filled with the smell of anesthesia.The eyelids of the two became heavier and heavier, and finally fell to the ground.

Elle and Emily opened the door and got in before Morgan started the car, cranked up the horsepower, and the SUV made a beeline for the ambulance that was already on the road ahead.

After chasing for three streets, the three were trapped at a busy intersection, looking at the red light above the street, and watched in despair as the ambulance carrying JJ and Jessie drove away.

The author has something to say: Gideon, the first prophet of BAU

It's time to test the tacit understanding of the two couples

(>^ω^<)

Thank you very much for your liking for this article. This is a great encouragement for Xiaomengxin

Thank you all (>^ω^<)

☆, candles