[Criminal Minds] years before love

The FBI never really considered Sullivan's home a crime scene, and they certainly searched it, but definitely not for intruders.

"I was a little surprised. With his income, he can move to a better neighborhood." Hotch stopped in front of the house after walking through the dilapidated and chaotic streets. The two-story house had obviously not been repaired for a long time. Nope, the so-called yard is overgrown with weeds and smudges are crawling on the walls.

"There are no children, and life is so peaceful that there are almost no waves. I think he probably doesn't have much motivation to change." Gideon turned his head and observed, "There are not many secrets in this kind of place. His wife moved away temporarily to avoid harassment, and the key was left with him. She insisted that her husband was not a murderer. In her opinion, Sullivan was gentle and even cowardly, and refused to change. Although he was not a good husband, he could never kill someone."

"Doesn't sound like a former soldier," Hotch sighed. "Maybe he really wanted to escape those... wars, raids, violence, etc."

"You don't seem to believe everything he says." Gideon was keenly aware of the skepticism in his words.

Hotch nodded, "Yeah, I don't believe it. I just think he probably wasn't lying about the fact that he wasn't the killer."

"why?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's because the soldiers I've seen aren't like that?" Hotch blinked. "Probably just a hunch."

"Not a good reason, especially considering that the veteran you're familiar with is completely unrepresentative." Gideon smiled, "But I have to admit that a lot of times I rely on it to lead in the right direction-follow you Intuition, but don't rely on it."

"I see."

"His wife said that we can look at the room freely." Gideon took out the key and stepped forward.

"We don't really need permission when we believe that this is a crime scene." Hotch looked down at the messy footprints at the door, and gave up looking for clues, "...why I'm not surprised."

Gideon patted him on the shoulder, obviously quite familiar with this style of handling cases.He pushed the door smoothly, and to their surprise, the door opened easily. The inside was quite dark, except for a ray of light that slipped in through the crack of the open door, there was hardly anything to be seen.

"I assume our colleague left without locking the door?" Gideon continued to push the door open.

"I'm skeptical." Hotch frowned vigilantly, and put one hand on his waist, "You can't expect a few pieces of plastic tape to really stop people from entering."

Gideon quickly fumbled to turn on the light. The room was empty, the seat was overturned, and there were obvious signs of a fight. "They took Sullivan from here."

"It hasn't been cleaned and it's hard to tell if anyone has ever entered after that."

"It looks like a normal person's house." Gideon roughly scanned the furnishings, "Although the furniture is old and the walls haven't been painted for a long time... Regardless of the economic situation, Mr. Sullivan is not doing well. The bedroom is in the upstairs."

Gideon led the way up the stairs into the bedroom.

Hotch hesitated for a moment, glanced at him, and walked to the kitchen directly below the bedroom.

The door was half-opened inwards, and due to the orientation and location, it was almost pitch black inside, but Hotch still caught sight of the wine bottle on the chair by the door.

Only a small half of the liquid swayed almost imperceptibly.

Hotch pursed his lips unconsciously, raised his head to confirm that Gideon's position was safe, and then slowly moved a step towards that side. The moment his hand just touched the gun on his waist, he saw a shadow in the darkness behind the door flashed.

Barely thinking about it, Hotch slumped to the left just moments before the gunshot, pulling out his gun and throwing himself to the other side of the stairs.

Then he heard Gideon's panicked cry and hurried footsteps coming down the stairs.

"Aaron!"