Chapter 5 - On The Case

                                    

                                          
The team had been in Georgia for almost three days now, and there had still been little progress in finding the unsub. Another body had turned up the day after they had arrived, and the entire town was on edge. Spencer had managed to narrow down the geographical profile, but they were still struggling to identify the unsub's motive, stressor and trigger. Although his mind had been mostly occupied with the case, Spencer's thoughts couldn't help but drift to Alethea whenever he was left without a task or distraction. She'd been doing remarkably well for her first case, making a number of suggestions and proposing a number of valid theories. 
                          
Alethea's mind had also been somewhat distracted despite the urgency of the case, something she wasn't proud to admit to herself. She'd tried to rid her thoughts of Spencer, but whenever she had managed to, they had somehow crept back up on her. It was mentally draining, to say the least, but she was insistent on focusing solely on the case. 
                          
They were all sat around a table that had been set up in the backroom of the police station, re-establishing all of the information that they already knew about the case.
                          
"So our unsub holds the victims for approximately ten hours before he kills them. He tortures them with a knife and beats them during this time, and then kills them with a stab to the abdomen. There are also no signs of sexual assault ante or post-mortem" Emily states, while looking back over the case file. 
                          
Derek continues on for her, "That means that he isn't a sexual sadist, so he isn't motivated by sex. The extremity of the beatings and the extensiveness of the victims wounds suggests that unsub feels rage towards the victims, and the consistent victimology suggests that they are surrogates and his anger has actually been redirected from his real target". 
                          
As the team continued going over the facts of the case for what seemed to be the millionth time, a thought occurred to her. 
                          
"Guys, I think we've been looking at this all wrong!" she interrupts, and everyone's attention turns to her as she begins explaining her train of thought.
                          
"We've been comparing the victims to find commonalities other than the fact that they are all twins, when really we should've been comparing the individual sets of twins. When we look at all of the victims in comparison to their twins, we notice that all of them would be considered to be the 'better' or 'more successful twins', in almost every way. They are physically fitter and more appealing, they all have more prestigious and higher paying jobs, and they all have a well-established family unit, which the other twin lacks".
                          
The team is quiet for a moment, and Alethea begins to worry that her suggestion was completely off-base. However, Spencer speaks up, extinguishing all of her worries. 
                          
"I think you might be right!" he remarks hurriedly. "Our unsub is probably a twin who feels inferior to his sibling in many aspects of his life, and is now taking out his rage on surrogate twins who he views as superior to their counterparts. It also explains why he sent a note to each of the victim's twins with the implication that they were indebted to him. He feels as if he's doing them a favour and ridding them from having to live in their twin's shadow".
                          
"Well if that's the case, then our unsub is going to escalate soon and target the real source of his rage: his twin," Hotch concludes, his tone grim.
                          
Morgan pulls out his phone and calls Garcia.
                          
"Omnipotent goddess speaking! What can I do for you my darling?" she chirps.
                          
Morgan stifles a laugh, before speaking.
                          
"Babygirl, I need you to find all of the male twins that live in the area. Narrow it down to men in their twenties, with low-income jobs, who are antisocial and possibly even have a criminal record" he requests, before turning to wink at Alethea.