[Criminal Minds] years before love

"Hello, Owen."

"Why do you arrest me?" The young man wanted to stand up from the chair, but the handcuffs had completely restricted his range of motion.

Hotch pushed the picture of the dead old man forward.

"Who is this?" Owen glanced at it and slumped back on the back of the chair in fright.He was very inexplicable, quite sure that he had nothing to do with the charred corpse.

Hotch turned the photo around and pushed closer to him, "You should really take a look."

Owen glanced hesitantly, and quickly looked away, "Well, what does this have to do with me?"

"I said, take a serious look." Hotch slowed down and said every word. He was relieved now. Although this young man looked good at bluffing, he obviously hadn't really killed anyone.

The young man trembled and forced himself to look at it for five more seconds, "I really don't know what this is."

"It's a charred body," Hotch explained gently. "An old woman living alone."

Owen shrank back again, "I don't know her!"

"I guess you are more familiar with this one." Hotch clicked on the statue of the Madonna, which was not so conspicuous on the scene map.

Owen carefully moved his gaze away, his eyes widened, and he stood there in shock.

"It seems that you do know." Hotch took back the photo, slammed a table, and leaned in front of him, "Hey, Owen, I'm just very curious. When you made these, didn't you think about people being burned? What does it look like after death?"

Owen seemed still in shock, and even forgot to refute.

Then Hotch casually scattered a thick stack of photos all over the table, "Owen, you have to say something."

"It's not, I didn't do it! It wasn't us!" A photo of a charred corpse slid down the table in front of him, and Owen argued in a panic.

"you?"

"It shouldn't be like this!" Owen looked at Hotch, then at the photos, shaking his head desperately.

"Looks like your flames don't have the ability to tell good from evil." Hotch stared at him.

"No, no, no—" Owen slammed his head on the table twice, "God knows who is guilty!"

"He didn't give you the right to judge." Hotch looked at him pitifully, "All you did was kill people."

"That's not what we did!" Owen trembled, "We, we haven't... I've made sure there's no one in those places!"

Hotch shrugged.

"Someone stealing from the warehouse?" he quickly denied. "But, not yet. Only when—"

Owen came to his senses suddenly, swallowing the words that almost reached his lips.

Hotch shook his head, took his words and continued, "Only by lighting the sacred fire on the day when God comes, can the world be washed away and all sins taken away."

Owen was stunned again, "Why, how did you know? Who betrayed us?"

Hotch curled his lips and said in a low voice, "I know everything."

Owen flinched back in shock.

"And I also know what's left after your so-called flame." Hotch paused.

Owen blinked, his throat was dry, he swallowed, and said in a hoarse voice, "God knows who is guilty, and those who pass the baptism will reach heaven."

"I don't know how many people will make it to heaven. But I know all that's left is the corpses." Hotch held up the charred corpses before his eyes again, "Owen, and you will be like them."

The young man gritted his teeth and stared at him in fear.

"Owen, I know you're having a hard time, your father left you and your mother early on," Hotch said softly, "but you know, those people, the ones who tried to make you do this, don't Praying for you for doing this. They don't really care about you."

The young man pinched his fingers tightly, the nails digging deep into the skin.

"Think again." Hotch threw down a table of photos and turned to leave.

Lee looked at him in shock from outside, "You said he didn't do that?"

"I didn't say it was him." Hotch glanced back at the trembling young man, "I just let him know the consequences."

"He was terribly frightened."

"Usually humans have a deeper sense of fear of being burned to death. We have known fire tens of thousands of years ago before we had knives and guns." Hotch shook his head, "Only the most evil people would make such a decision , and he, neither vicious nor fanatical enough. God? No, he just wants to fit in with the gang. He'll talk."