"Aimee Lynch, 8 years old, was taken an hour ago from a winter festival in Ashburn." JJ informs.
"Any witnesses?" Emily asks.
"Her mom Barbara was right next to her when she vanished." JJ says.
"There must have been hundreds of people there. No one saw anything?" Emily questions and JJ shrugs.
"It's a temporary gathering, with little to no security." Spencer says.
"All right, Reid, you and I are going to head to the family's house. The three of you, I want you to work with Garcia. We need to look at every local abduction or attempted one in the past year, see if there's any overlap." Derek says.
"Good news is that we're barely into the second hour." JJ says.
"Yeah, well, odds are we've only got 22 hours to find Aimee alive, so let's do this." Derek says.
+++
"Ashburn has a winter festival every year, and not a single attempt at kidnapping." JJ says.
"Hey, JJ." Emily walks into Penelope's lair. "There's a woman here who says her son was abducted by the same offender." JJ sighs.
"Has she been drinking?" JJ asks.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure. How'd you know that?" Emily asks.
"Sarah Hillridge. She lost her son, Charlie, eight years ago. She comes in every time a child around his age goes missing." JJ says.
"She thinks her son is still alive?" Emily asks.
"Yeah, I know." JJ mutters.
"I remember her. She stays for the first 24 hours, right?" Penelope asks.
"Yeah." JJ walks out.
+++
Emily hangs the phone up as JJ walks in.
"Aimee's mom was distracted by a mother looking for her daughter, and she's blaming herself for looking away." Emily informs.
"Wait. Sarah-- Sarah said the same thing when Charlie was taken." JJ says. "There was a mother searching for her lost son. Do you... do you think it's a coincidence?"
"Or a ruse?" Bedelia asks.
"A woman looking for her lost son -- that's pretty specific, right?" JJ asks.
"Add to that a target rich environment with no security? Yeah." Emily says.
"Okay, so, if the woman was a distraction, who took Aimee?" JJ questions.
"A partner?" Bedelia asks. "If it's the same people, they've been doing this for close to a decade."
+++
"Look, we all think that Aimee could be alive. No one's given up on her." Hotch says. He, Derek, Spencer, Penelope, and Rossi are sitting at the round table. JJ, Bedelia, and Emily are standing between Spencer's and Penelope's seats.
"That's why there's hundreds of volunteers and officers combing every inch of the county." Hotch says.
"But they're dragging the rivers and digging up the woods. That's not gonna help us if Aimee is still with the unsub. If she's still alive out there." Emily says.
"What about Charlie? Is he still alive?" Derek asks.
"Sarah believes it." JJ says.
"Eight years she's been saying the same thing, JJ." Derek says.
"Well, maybe we've been stupid and just haven't actually taken her belief into account." Bedelia comments.
"Have you thought about why you suddenly believe her? Do you think it might be because you're a mother?" Derek asks the blonde woman.
"You did not just say that." Bedelia gives Derek an incredulous look.
"It's-- it's because another woman just walked in here with the same exact ruse used eight years ago." JJ says. "I can't deny that, can you?"
"All I'm saying is if we go from a single abduction to multiple abductions over 10 years, that changes everything. We all have to be convinced that's what it is. Based on an unbiased profile." Derek says.
"Okay. Distraction of a lost child. Eight year old victims taken from public places with little to no security." Emily says. "That's not just the same ruse. And I'm not a mother."
"Charlie would be 16 now." Hotch says. "We all know that preferential offenders typically dispose of their victims before they reach puberty."
"Maybe he serves another purpose." JJ suggests.
"Aimee's mom said the unsub was slight. It wouldn't be easy to keep a teenager under her thumb." Rossi says.
"Except that she's had him since he was 8 years old. By now, he's completely submissive to her." Bedelia says.
"Keeping him could explain why Charlie's body was never found." Spencer says.
"Garcia." Hotch says.
"Sir." She replies.
"Go back 10 years nationwide. Start with abductions and target rich environments. Rule out any with bodily recovery, dead or alive." Hotch instructs.
"I'm gonna let Sarah know." JJ says, walking out.
"We need to check out Aimee's abduction site with new eyes." Hotch says.
+++
"11 families have confirmed the same woman, 40 to 50 years old, calling for children. In some cases, she even had a child with her." JJ says.
"She actually used the kids for the abductions? Were they her own or the ones kidnapped?" Sarah asks.
"We don't believe she's a mother." Emily says. "Most predisposed female offenders are not."
"But they are the most violent." Spencer says.
"Y-you said that she's working with someone?" Sarah recalls.
"It's likely a subservient male. But the woman separates herself from her partners. She chooses the victim while they do the riskiest part -- they grab the child and manage the getaway." Hotch says.
"This is what he looks like as a teenager." JJ shows them the sketch.
"Um-- um, he's tall and thin. His hair is, um, darker than it was. But-- but that's him. That's-- that's Charlie." Sarah says. "Why would they take the risk of letting him out in the world?"
"They've had him under their control for 8 years. He's either got Stockholm or he's being threatened." Rossi says. ""Get us another kid, and we won't kill you.""
"Sarah... let's take a break, okay?" JJ tells her.
"Okay. Okay." She says, letting JJ lead her out.
"All right. So living and working in northern Virginia. It's most likely in isolation. I mean, there's no way to explain a houseful of kids at the neighborhood block party." Derek says.
"Managing this many children isn't easy." Hotch says. "There have to be incidents where things don't go as planned. We should start with domestic calls and disturbances. Concentrate on families who were visited by social services."
"I'll get Garcia." Spencer walks out.
"It's likely these unsubs were questioned before. Once we narrow down Garcia's list, we should revisit them." Hotch says.
+++
"Okay. There are 107 families visited by social services in the last 10 years." Penelope says.
"That's too many to go door to door." Emily says. "We're gonna have to narrow that down."
"We need to figure out why they're staying in northern Virginia." Hotch says.
"Their work could be the key. They could have a child care facility on the premises as a cover." Emily says.
"You know, it's most likely a single income family. Someone has to be home to stay with the kids." Spencer says.
"Okay, all this helps." Penelope says.
"They've been questioned before, so we can expect a rehearsed response." Hotch says.
"How many on that list are single income?" Derek asks.
"23." Penelope says. Derek shakes his head.
"What's the problem?" Rossi asks.
"We're gonna be knocking on the doors of 23 families and all of them have done something bad to a kid." Derek says. "We don't have a warrant. Just a profile. If we get it wrong and leave that house, they'll destroy any evidence they have, including the children."
"JJ, get an article of Aimee's clothing." Hotch says. She gets up and walks out.
"What for?" Penelope asks, standing up as Derek does the same and Hotch walks out.
"It's for the dogs." Derek tells her before walking out.
+++
"What about their work? We thought it could be tied to what they were doing for a living." Derek says.
"Employment records, taxes, it's all legit." Penelope says. "Roger's an electrician, has been since forever.
"What about the wife?" Emily asks.
"Looks like she stays at home." Penelope says. "I'm crossing these same records with her maiden name, Anita Weld Roycewood. I don't think I'm gonna find anything. And I'm rarely wrong, so-- I'm wrong."
"Her family owns a funeral home in Leesburg. You're less than 10 minutes from there." Spencer says.
"Oh, God. The funeral home's been in the Weld family since she was a little girl. Hearses, coffins, vans, a million ways to hide the children." Penelope says.
"We can't dig up 10 years of coffins." Derek says.
"Uh, you may not have to." Bedelia grimaces. "They have a crematorium."
+++
Emily and Derek got the three kids and the team is on their way back with them. Both unsubs are dead, Roger hung himself and Charlie shot Anita in order to save him, Aimee, and the third child.
Bedelia is standing outside the bullpen when the elevator opens, Emily leading Aimee and another girl out and into the bullpen.
Charlie walks out of the elevator, Derek behind him.
"Charlie." Sarah whispers.
"Mom." He whispers.
"Charlie." She walks over and hugs him, his dad joining. Sarah sobs in relief.
Bedelia looks over as Derek comforts the parents of a boy named Stephen. She looks into the bullpen and sees Aimee reunite with her parents as well as the other girl reuniting with her parents.
~ ~ ~
Emily, Bedelia, JJ, and Penelope are working on taking everything down in the bullpen. There's a knock on the open door and they turn to see Sarah.
"I have been trying to think of something to say, and thank you just doesn't even come close." Sarah says.
"You don't have to thank us." JJ says.
"Yes, I do. Do you know how long it's been since someone believed in me?" Sarah asks.
"We're just glad you have him back finally." Bedelia says, softly smiling at her.
"You are just surrounded by darkness. Why do you do it?" Sarah asks.
"Because of days like this." Emily says, the group looking out into the bullpen, seeing Aimee and the other girl each with their parents.