REPLACEMENT; criminal minds (1)

𝙏𝙒𝙀𝙉𝙏𝙔

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Maya and Derek stop by the prison to get some background on the killer. He never contacted anyone but his wife, who was the only person that visited him. Which was darn nice of her, considering all the young girls that her husband murdered. For her part, the wife explains that because the dead guy stood by her when she had cancer, it was her duty to stand by him until his death.

Her next plan? Skip the state to live down the shame of her association with a monster.

There's a little more information from the prison and wife. People visiting prisoners are shuttled in on a bus, then searched before entering, so it would be nearly impossible to get a message in. And the dead guy's wife was so devoted she was out there on every single visiting day.

"How do you like your partner, Derek?" Emily asks as Maya grabs gloves to look over some letters with her.

"What are you talking about?" Maya asks as she looks through some of the letters, not seeing any that scream obsessive. "You two make a great team" Emily mocks Hotch from what he said on the plane.

"Okay, stop. We do make a great team" Maya says as she nudges Emily's shoulder playfully making her chuckle softly.

"Yeah, such a great 'team'" Emily says, putting air quotes over team making Maya knit her eyebrows in confusion. "Why must you use air quotes?" Maya wonders. "When you realize you loveeee, Morgan" Emily says, a little louder causing Maya to widen her eyes in shock.

"You're so annoying" Maya sighs as she snatches the surgical gloves off, walking over to the board that's set up for the case. After a while, the team learns that there isn't anything useful in the letters yet, but at least some expansion on the MO reveals that yes, the low-risk victims are a departure from the previous killer's methodology.

Earlier, when JJ was examining the body of another victim she noticed that the corpse's hair is strangely uneven - and a check of her phone reveals that the hair was much longer last night and figured the unsub was cutting the womens hair so they resembled the old victims all those years ago and turns out, she was right.

Garcia shows security footage of Cara Smith at an ATM and her hair was much longer before she was killed, confirming the unsub cuts their hair but the team doesn't understand why. "What if the unsub finds pleasure in cutting the hair?" Maya wonders. "Trichophila is a fetish where one becomes aroused by the removal of hair" Reid adds, stating that it's possible the unsub can find pleasure in this act.

"Well, now it's starting to look less like a copy cat. It seems this unsub wants to be better" Maya declares, crossing her arms over her chest. "He's also choosing low-risk victims. Garret stayed with high-risk targets like prostitutes, runaways" Reid informs.

"Yeah, according to what I read, Garret for sloppy at some times. He left behind clues that eventually nailed him, but this unsub is careful and meticulous" Maya states, looking around at the team. Even though he leaves doors open and teapots boiling, those things could be intentional because he wants the bodies found so the team knows when and where he's killing.

Emily finally finds something useful in the letters - the same Arabian Nights quote as the killer's last words. And it was sent by the same person who'd crafted a generic 'fan letter'. Emily and Rossi go to talk to the widow of Garret about it, but other than offering the information that it was one of his favorite letters, she doesn't have anything useful to offer.