Chapter 18: The Skinner

Spencer's POV

As I walk down the hallway to the conference room, I feel someone sling their arm over my shoulder. Turning my head, I see that it's Morgan, grinning at me.

"So, Pretty Boy." He begins. "How'd it go with Yang last night?"

"Great," I reply. "We had a lovely evening."

"And what exactly did you guys do for your lovely evening?" Morgan grins mischievously. "You came in looking kinda rough this morning."

I roll my eyes at him, knowing where he is going with this. "Derek we didn't do anything, alright?" I say exasperated, "We literally fell asleep watching a movie together."

"Alright, alright." Morgan chuckles, patting me on the shoulder. I enter the conference room and sit down next to Garcia, where she is organizing data on her laptop.

"Hey, Garcia." I give her a small smile.

"Greetings, Boy Wonder," she says cheerfully. "I heard that someone is dating a certain wonderful girl now." She giggles.

I can't help but grin at everyone in the room. "Let me guess, Morgan told you guys."

"We're happy for you." Prentiss puts a hand on my shoulder.

"It's time you have a girlfriend." Rossi slaps my back.

I roll my eyes. "I'm just glad that I finally met someone that makes me comfortable and myself."

As if on cue, Lina walks in. "Hey, everyone," she greets happily and everyone smiles at her.

"Yang." Hotch starts. "I heard about you and Reid. Congratulations."

"Thanks," Lina replies shyly.

"Just a heads up, I'll need the two of you to meet me in the office later to discuss some things," he states and glances over at me.

"Yes, sir," Lina and I respond and he nods.

"Okay. Garcia, you can start." Hotch looks at her.

"Skylar Moore, 45, and Felix Martinez, 42, were both found dead in the woods in Phoenix, Arizona. Both victims were skinned," Garcia announces. She clicks the remote and pictures of skinless men pop up on the screen.

"Oh, my God." Morgan looks away.

Prentiss is at a loss for words. "That is..."

"Yeah, I know." Garcia frowns and quickly switches to another screen. "Based on reports, Skylar was dumped 1 week ago, and Felix was found just yesterday."

"Flaying, or better known as 'skinning alive' was used as an execution method. Records of the practice go as far back as the Neo-Assyrian Empire, beginning in 911 B.C.," I state.

"The skinning was actually done postmortem," Garcia corrects.

"Then what was the cause of death?" Rossi flips through the case file.

"Blunt force trauma to the head."

"So the UnSub isn't sadistic," states Hotch.

"What's interesting is that on both bodies, the UnSub left a picture of him wearing the victims' skins." Garcia looks disgusted.

JJ's eyebrows shoot up. "I'm sorry, what?" Garcia clicks on her remote and a picture of a polaroid photo with a man wearing human skin pops up.

"So he's skinning his victims, then he proceeds to wear their skin." I scratch my chin, trying to make sense of it.

Garcia twirls her pen. "Mhm. He wears a mask in the photos so we can't ID him."

"He doesn't skin them from the neck up, though," observes Lina and everyone nods in agreement.

Rossi clears his throat. "There are also wheel marks on the ground that suggest he's using a wheelbarrow to carry and dump the bodies."

"These men are all very slight, why can't he just carry them himself?" Morgan leans back in his chair. "Leave less tracks."

Lina fidgets with a paperclip and says, "Maybe he's handicapped or injured in some way, making him unable to."

"What's confusing me is that—if the UnSub isn't trying to torture the victims, why skin them at all?" Prentiss questions.

"And why wear it?" adds JJ.

"We will have more information once we get to Phoenix." Hotch stands up to leave. "Wheels up in 30."

Once everyone leaves, I quickly walk over to Lina's side. "Hi." I discreetly intertwine my fingers with hers so nobody notices.

She grins. "Hey." She makes sure no one is looking and gives me a quick kiss, making me smile. We walk hand in hand to our desks and let go when people are near, not wanting them to make a deal out of it. Twenty minutes later, the whole team is on the jet, flying to Phoenix. Since we don't have much information to discuss about, I sit down with a good book.

"What are you reading now?" Lina asks, sitting down next to me.

"'The Magical Mathematics of Quantum Physics'." I show her the book cover.

"You read that for fun?" She smirks.

I shrug. "Yeah, I guess." Two hours pass when we finally land. From there, we drive to the police station where the team and I are greeted by a man.

"Hi, I'm Detective Paul Solomon," he says, shaking Hotch's hand. "You guys must be from the FBI."

"That's right," states Hotch. "I'm SSA Aaron Hotchner and this is my team." He gestures to all of us. "These are agents Derek Morgan, Jennifer Jareau, David Rossi, Emily Prentiss, Lina Yang, and Dr. Spencer Reid."

"Nice to meet all of you guys." Solomon shakes all of our hands. When he gets to me, I give him a wave instead, not wanting to contract his germs and he looks at me weird. "These murders have been scaring the hell out of people. The press calls the killer 'The Skinner'."

"The press know about this?" JJ furrows her brows. "I thought, we told you guys not to share any details of the killing yet."

"You know how those guys are. Always digging up information."

Hotch sighs. "We'll deal with the press later. Do you have a room we can set up in?"

"Yes." Solomon gestures for us to follow him. "Right here." He opens the door to a small room.

"Thank you." Hotch nods politely.

"We did some digging, and so far the only thing connecting these two victims are their physical appearances." Solomon tapes two photos of the men on the evidence board.

"They both kinda look like Reid," Morgan observes. "Tall, skinny, and brown hair." Everyone chuckles and I roll my eyes.

"They were also both reported missing by their wives when they didn't come home from work," Solomon adds.

"We'll find more at the coroner and crime scenes," states Hotch.

Suddenly, Solomon's cell phone rings and he picks up. "Hello?" A few moments later he sighs. "Okay, got it." He hangs up.

"What is it?" asks Rossi.

"Another body has been found in the woods."

"It's only been a day since the last body." Prentiss begins. "He's escalating."

"Then we don't have much time to waste," Hotch states. " Reid and Yang, go to the newest crime scene. JJ and Rossi, go talk to the victims' wives. The rest, come with me to the previous dump sites." We all nod and head out.

"You drive or I drive?" Lina walks up behind me.

"You drive," I say and we head to the car. Thirty-five minutes later, Lina and I are hiking in the woods to where the body is. I grunt in pain since my leg is still hurting a bit.

"Are you alright?" Lina pants.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I step over a fallen branch. "Aren't your ribs still bruised? The average healing time is 3 to 6 weeks."

"It's not that bad," Lina replies. "One time I went to a karate tournament with a fracture in my knee." I chuckle and shake my head in disbelief. "Besides, Hotch said that I can work as long as I'm not chasing any UnSubs down. And the same goes for you, too."

"Yeah, I know." I grin at her. Soon, we see the section of the wood that is sealed off with police tape and we walk up to the officer there.

Lina wipes away some sweat. "We're here."

"Hi, I'm Dr. Spencer Reid and this is SSA Lina Yang—we're with the FBI," I say to the officer.

"Hey, how are you guys doing? I'm Officer Kyle Doyle," he replies. "In my 25 years of working here, I've never seen anything like this." He sighs and leads us to the body. As we approach the body, I feel my stomach lurch a bit. I'm used to seeing gruesome things, but this is just on a whole different level. I look over at Lina to see how she's doing, but she seems completely unfazed by it.

"Who was the victim?" Lina asks.

Doyle puts a hand on his hip. "Michael Pattison, 42 years old. We found his wallet and ID a couple feet from here."

"He matches the victimology as the other two men," I observe. "Same physical appearances, same age."

"And same MO and signature." Lina puts on a pair of gloves and picks up the photo on the corpse. "He's wearing their skin again."

"There's also wheel marks here, too." I point at the marks in the ground next to the body.

Lina cocks her head. "Was the cause of death blunt force trauma to the head?"

"Yeah, it looks like it." Doyle scratches his chin thoughtfully. "If he was killed by the skinning there would be a lot more blood here." We all stay quiet for a moment, scanning the area for any clues.

"We could be looking at a taxidermist," I say, breaking the silence.

"Or someone with medical training." Lina points at the corpse. "Look at the stitches on the skin." She points to the photo in her hand. "From the looks of it, he used a running subticular suture. It's commonly used for surgical wound closure."

"But in this case, he's using it to make little outfits for himself." Doyle sighs, looking disgusted.

"Hm." Lina purses her lips, looking thoughtful. "But I just don't understand why the UnSub would want to wear it."

"Perhaps he has scarring on his skin that made him susceptible to bullying. So wearing the skin of others makes him feel more confident, and he's taunting us by taking photos?" I suggest.

"Wait, Reid, you may be onto something." Lina takes off her gloves. "It's possible that the UnSub is purposely targeting and skinning men that look and have the same build as him. In a way, these victims are like surrogates to the person that he wishes he is."

"We need to tell Hotch about this," I state and Lina nods. We head back to the car and drive back to the station. As Lina steps out of the car, I quickly grab her hand and pull her back in.

She gasps. "Spence, why'd you do that?"

"So I can do this." I put my hand around the back of her neck and lean in, planting my lips on hers. She smiles into the kiss and wraps her arms around my neck, pulling me in closer. Our kiss grows more urgent and I feel her pull my hair, tangling her fingers in it. Finally, we break away, gasping for breath.

"Woah, Spence." Lina grins.

"Was that okay?" I ask, worried that I should've been more gentle.

"Yeah, that was nice." Lina cups my face with her hand. She leans in for another kiss and I close my eyes, enjoying the moment.

"We have to go in," I say in between kisses.

"Mmm, alright." Lina pulls away, smiling brightly at me. Together we head into the police station. I quickly hide the huge smile on my face from the rest of the team, not wanting them to suspect anything. I turn to look at Lina and she winks at me, making me turn red.