Police in America

On the Gulfstream plane, Reed was enjoying a chestnut cake while watching a video on his phone of a father and son playing the trombone and opening and closing an oven door.

Jie Jie and Emily were huddled in a corner, whispering about something. Judging by their gestures of touching each other's arms, they were likely discussing skin care.

Seeing no one paying attention to him, Jack sighed, sat down in front of Reed, and set up a PAD to send a video to Garcia.

"Baby girl, have you found Rossi's whereabouts?"

"Yes, he took a business flight early this morning. The FBI system shows that half an hour ago, he drove off in an SUV from the local office."

Garcia, in the video, frowned, still looking a bit shaken.

Jack tapped the table, signaling the two girls to come over.

"I just went through the information you gave me before leaving. To be honest, there's not much there."

Seeing Jack and Garcia getting down to business, Jie Jie and Emily quickly stopped their chat and sat on the sofa opposite and beside him, respectively.

"Well, there's a fingerprint. We're running a second comparison in the system as we speak. Hopefully, it matches. Unfortunately, it didn't. Do you need me to find an image expert to enhance it?"

Garcia asked.

"Contact Dr. Brennan at the Jeffersonian. Her team includes Angela Montenegro, an expert in image enhancement."

Jack pulled out his phone and sent Garcia Dr. Brennan's contact card. This was one of Rossi's resources, and it was appropriate to use his connections for his case.

Garcia continued, "There's also a crime scene notebook written by Rossi himself years ago. I'm still organizing it and will send the scans to you later. This is also why he came to my house last night."

"So, he was at the crime scene with the local police at that time?" Emily keenly identified the key point. This case clearly wasn't a serial murder case; twenty years ago, Rossi was already a big shot at BAU, so there was no reason for him to be at the scene first.

"Maybe that's why this case has been bothering him."

Jie Jie twirled a Parker pen in her hand, deep in thought. "The crime scene must have been quite horrific. The murder weapon was a long-handled axe."

"I've read all his works. Twenty years ago, he went through worse crime scenes. This doesn't add up."

Reed wiped his hands and put away his phone.

"Stop guessing. We'll ask Rossi when we get there." Jack said goodbye to Garcia, turned off the video, and laid out a few photos from the scene on the table.

"From the photos, even I've seen worse cases. There must be another reason troubling him."

Hearing his somewhat authoritative tone, Jie Jie was a little dissatisfied and pointed a finger at him.

"Do you know that among us, you're actually the youngest? I've seen your birthdate; you're even a few months younger than Reed."

Emily, reminded by Jie Jie, suddenly sat up straight. "Yes, you even dared to contradict 'Dad' before."

Seeing Emily bring up the previous topic, Jie Jie lightly kicked her, annoyed. "If you keep talking like that, I'm worried Rossi and Hotchner will both come after you."

"In terms of psychological age, Jack is older than Hotchner. He's very good at taking care of people and enjoys it."

Reed commented earnestly, leading Jack to suspect that he had practiced psychological profiling on the others in private.

So he deliberately put on a stern face and admitted the role he played in the team.

"Did you conclude that from when I corrected my dear little brother by giving him a good beating? And, do these two young ladies in front of me have any complaints about having a 23-year-old big brother?"

"It's still early; let's play some mahjong." Jie Jie, touched on the sore point of age, changed the topic she had brought up.

Indianapolis, the capital of Indiana, is a city in the Midwestern USA, slightly closer to the East.

It has a temperate continental climate, and in early March, the temperature just started to climb above freezing.

Before getting off the plane, the girls changed into thick winter clothes, Jack put on a slightly thicker jacket, and Reed wore a strangely colored knitted sweater.

As usual, a local FBI officer drove a Suburban to pick them up. This vehicle seemed to be the FBI's standard issue; Jack felt that in every city, it was always this model, just different years.

"So, where should we find Rossi?" Reed looked around blankly after getting off the plane.

"Let's go straight to the Palmer Hotel. I know where to find him."

Sure enough, at the five-star hotel's bar, Jack easily found Rossi drinking alone at the bar.

"What about your promise, Rossi?" Jack's gaze fell on the bracelet next to him. How many times had he seen that thing?

"I said I needed time to sort things out." Rossi's eyes were bloodshot, and he spoke somewhat absentmindedly.

"Come on, we're all here. Won't you buy us a drink?" Emily sat next to Rossi, eyeing the expensive liquor behind the bar in astonishment.

"Otherwise, I definitely couldn't afford such a high-end place. Jack, you didn't book the rooms here, did you?"

"I'll cover the stay; Jie Jie will pay for the drinks. Satisfied?" Jack waved to the pretty bartender.

Unfortunately, the four of them were still interns with annual salaries of less than $100,000, so they couldn't normally afford such a luxury hotel.

"We're all worried about you." Reed's weak statement finally made Rossi sigh deeply.

"Thank you all for coming. Everything's on me. Let's have a drink over there."

He got up, took his glass and bracelet, and walked to a nearby booth.

"Around the turn of the century, I came here to catch a serial rapist. The job wasn't difficult; it was easily done."

After they sat down, Rossi recounted his experience.

"That guy wasn't very smart. The day after his arrest, a local detective was taking me to the airport when we heard a distress call from a child in a house on the radio."

"The crime scene wasn't far from us. The detective asked if I wanted to go with him to check it out. We were the first to arrive. In that house, we found—"

"These?" Jie Jie took out the case file from her bag, opened it, and the first few pages were crime scene photos.

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