"Whoa." Emily comments as Penelope gives her a tablet.
"Welcome to the 21st century." Penelope says, handing out tablets. "Yay, technology. Behold. Everyone has a new tablet."
"We've gone paperless?" Spencer frowns.
"Fear not, doctor of the dark ages. I went old school for your anti-technology quirk." Penelope says, handing him a paper file. "Paper files, hard copy photos. But the abacus is your responsibility."
"Garcia, not that I don't appreciate your efforts, but exactly where did the funding for these come from?" Hotch asks.
"I did a thing." She says.
"A thing?" Hotch asks.
"Best not talk about the thing." Penelope says.
"We'll talk about the thing later." Hotch states.
"Okay. Instead, let's talk about harvest season." Penelope says. "Because it is harvest season in Indiana, and farmers are finding more than corn in their fields. Meredith Joy, Kimberly Jukes, and Amanda Frye were all discovered murdered in Johnson County, Indiana."
"All 3 women were exotic dancers living in different counties in the state. Kimberly Jukes, the first victim, went missing 6 weeks ago." Hotch says.
"And in each instance, the women finished their shifts, but they never made it to their cars." Penelope says.
"It says here Amanda Frye was found 90 miles from her house. This guy's going a long way to abduct his victims." Derek says.
"If he's dumping the bodies in the same county, it's a good chance he's located nearby. It shouldn't be too hard to work up a geographical profile." Spencer says.
"Meredith Joy put up quite a fight. She's got defensive wounds all over her body." Emily says.
"And the lab discovered two different samples of DNA under her fingernails, so we're dealing with at least a team." Hotch says.
"One that rapes, beats, and strangles their victims in a cornfield." Rossi says.
"They're using condoms. I bet one of these guys has a record and he doesn't want us connecting the DNA." Emily says.
"And they're accelerating their attack schedule." Hotch says.
"It's 3 weeks between the first and second kill, 2 weeks between the second and third." Bedelia says.
"Meredith Joy died October 31st." Penelope states.
"Now they're down to one week." Hotch says.
"Who's missing?" Rossi asks.
"Her name is Stephanie Wilson." Penelope says. "She was abducted last night from Club Prowl in Tippecanoe County. She finished her shift at midnight, but she never made it home to her 2 year old daughter. Babysitter called the police, and Stephanie's car was left in the parking lot like the others."
"And there's a clear pattern. All the women have been abducted on Friday night and murdered sometime Sunday evening." Hotch says.
"Which means we've got less than 2 days to save Stephanie Wilson." Derek says.
+++
Spencer, Bedelia, and Emily are at the club Stephanie works at and talking to one of the women.
"What would it take for you or one of your co-workers to go home with a customer?" Emily asks.
"Nothing. I have a boyfriend." She says.
"Does he know that you work here?" Spencer asks.
"It's how we met." The woman states. "He doesn't have a problem with it. Do you?"
"No, not-- not at all. I'm-- I'm-- I'm from Las Vegas. I don't have a problem with it." Spencer says. "I just, um, these are questions that we have to ask."
"We are not judging you." Bedelia tells her. "We're just trying to find Stephanie."
"Now, you said you met your boyfriend here. So you did go home with a customer once before." Emily says.
"Those were the early days. Everyone's a little wild in the beginning." She says.
"Not the veterans?" Emily asks.
"We know to play it safe."
"Was Stephanie the type of girl who played it safe?" Spencer asks.
"She never really went through a wild phase. All she cared about was getting home to her daughter."
"Did anyone try and take her home last night?" Bedelia asks.
"Everyone tries. Every night."
"Nothing stood out?" Emily asks.
"I know she got asked to go to a party." She answers. "We all did. But she turned them down."
"Them plural?" Spencer asks.
"There were these two guys. They got dances from each of us."
"What kind of party were they offering?" Emily asks.
"I never got a chance to find out. It's bad business to discuss private deals on the floor."
"Can you show me where you and Stephanie gave them their dances?" Emily asks.
"Yeah. Over here." She leads them over to the booths. "I was in here." She steps inside. "While Stephanie was in that one." She points to the one next to her and Emily steps in.
"Okay. Could you sit down?" She asks the woman.
"Yeah." Both Emily and the woman sit down in the chairs.
"All right, I can see the whole room, but I can't see my partner. If you're working as a team, you both want to see the girl you're gonna take home." Emily says. "Why would they do it somewhere where they can't see each other?"
"We should take a look at the club surveillance footage." Spencer says.
~ ~ ~
"Only 2 cameras. There's a lot of blind spots. How do you keep an eye on all the girls?" Spencer asks.
"We got the one guy in the back, one guy on the floor at all times." The guy says.
"It looks pretty full. Are you always this busy on the weekends?" Emily asks.
"Only on theme nights." The guy says.
"The unsubs probably picked crowded nights to make sure they blend in." Spencer says.
"Well, they're smart. They make a plan of attack before they get to the club, then they separate and choose their prey." Emily says.
"I doubt they were very happy when Stephanie turned them down." Spencer says. "Alpha personalities don't handle rejection well."
"They abducted her from the parking lot just like the others. It didn't matter what she said. Stephanie was going to that party whether she wanted to or not." Emily says.
+++
"We know these guys are local, so we should be looking for anybody working fields or agriculture." Derek says.
"Only problem is, more than half of Indiana is farmland." The sheriff says.
"Garcia, were either of the other clubs having theme nights when the girls went missing?" Emily asks.
"Oh, my gosh. All of them. Meredith Joy was abducted on dollar draft night, Amanda Frye on ladies night, and Kimberly Jukes on fantasy football Friday." Penelope informs.
"So, Reid, you were right. They're targeting nights that the clubs were at capacity so they won't be easily recognized by the security cameras." Derek says, but Spencer doesn't respond.
"Reid?" Bedelia calls.
"Guys, I think I found our two unsubs." He says. "These guys have gotten dances from half the girls in the club." He says as everybody crowds around him to look at the laptop. "They're very careful to hide their faces from the cameras. And this guy seems to be communicating with someone across the room."
"But if his partner's sitting in the booth next to him, who's he talking to?" Bedelia asks.
"Garcia, do you have another angle?" Hotch asks.
"No luck, head Hotch-o, the other camera faces the door." She answers.
"If there's a third unsub, we could be looking at a pack." Hotch says.
"That makes sense. If these two in the booths are underlings, they would look to the pack leader to choose the target." Emily says.
"That's why they abduct the women from the parking lot." Rossi says.
"Stephanie only knew about the first two men. If there was a third, she never would have seen them coming." Spencer says.
"Garcia, any luck with the DNA database?" Hotch asks.
"Nothing in a 5 state radius, but I am opening my parameters to nationwide. That is gonna take some time, though." Penelope says.
"That's the one thing we don't have. We have 24 hours before Stephanie Wilson ends up in a cornfield." Rossi says.
"We might even have less than that." Hotch says.
"What do you mean?" The sheriff asks.
"Two unsubs working toward a common goal is one thing. Add a third and all bets are off." Hotch says.
"We only found two traces of DNA. One of them probably doesn't know about the murders." Derek says.
"The pack hierarchy will start to break down. They'll question their leader." Rossi says.
"And when that happens, the alpha will have to reassert his authority, and Stephanie Wilson will be the object of his aggression." Hotch states.
+++
"I come bearing new information." Penelope says. "After I expanded my search nationwide, CODIS bounced back a DNA match to a series of rapes in Louisiana."
"The dominant's done it before." Hotch says.
"DNA matched only one unsub, but there's another sample in the Louisiana cases." Penelope says.
"He had partners before." Spencer says.
"Just not the same ones." Bedelia says.
"So he moves on when the pack dissolves." Rossi says.
"Louisiana P.D. were crazy close to solving who done it, but then the rapes stopped. Two locals went missing and they pinned the crimes on them." Penelope says.
"I'm sure they didn't just happen to disappear." Spencer says.
"Garcia, do a search of local colleges for students from Louisiana." Hotch tells her.
"Yeah, I'm gonna do that. Garcia out." She hangs up.
"If he's killed his partners before, he'll do it again." Hotch says.
"But if he kills his accomplices, Stephanie Wilson is as good as gone." Rossi states.
+++
Derek, Bedelia, and Spencer get to the cornfield where somebody found a body.
"Stephanie?" Derek asks.
"No. Male victim." The sheriff says. "We, uh, managed to ID what was left of him. Name's Scott Kagan. He was a sophomore at Ernstom College."
"This might be one of our unsubs." Spencer says.
"We said they'd eliminate the weakest link, and it looks like he was it." Bedelia says.
"The pack isn't just breaking apart, they're completely collapsing. Rather than kill Stephanie Wilson, they decided to eliminate one of their own. I mean, how long until the lieutenant realizes that he's expendable as well?" Spencer asks.
"Hopefully soon. Stephanie may have gained another day, but that's not gonna last." Derek says.
"We have another problem, that they've changed pattern also. We're 3 counties away from the normal disposal area." Spencer says.
"Maybe they saw the patrol cars at the usual dumping grounds and got spooked." Derek says.
"No, not a chance. My guys were parked at the edge of the field. No one saw them." The sheriff says.
"Well, then maybe they knew about the patrols in advance." Derek says.
+++
"Hotch, he's not in the dorms." Derek says.
"And he's not answering his phone." Rossi says.
"You know, if Salters inflicts physical punishment on Chris, then it's highly unlikely he's the alpha of the group." Spencer says.
"No, based on what we know, Chris wouldn't be the dominant, nor would he have the confidence to lead. But if the dominant protected Chris..." Hotch says.
"He'd have his unwavering loyalty." Rossi says.
"Sheriff, when Chris started Ernstrom, was there an upperclassman who befriended him or who he looked up to?" Hotch asks. "Did he join a fraternity? Did he play on a sports team?"
"He didn't do this." Salters says.
"Garcia, anything?" Hotch asks.
"I'm searching, sir." She says.
"Track team." Salter says.
"And Kappa Iota Phi." Penelope adds.
"That's what we've been missing. Garcia, expand your previous Louisiana search to former Ernstrom students who fit our offender profile." Emily tells her.
"Narrowing, narrowing..." She says. "Molto bene. Michael Kosina of Louisiana. Uh, let's see. He was kicked out of Kappa Iota Phi after questionable sexual conduct with a student in 2004. The charges were dropped, but the incident earned the fraternity probation from its national chapter."
"Michael Kosina. I met him. He caused Chris' bar fight. He did this to my son?" Salters asks.
"Were Kosina and Chris at Ernstrom at the same time?" Hotch asks.
"Yeah. Chris was a freshman when he was a senior. Michael dropped out a few weeks later after he got into an altercation with one of his professors." Penelope informs.
"This type of dominant would definitely have issues with authority." Rossi says.
"Tell me you got an address, baby girl." Derek says.
"En route as we flirt, baby." She replies.
"Morgan, wait until Sheriff Salters arrives. He might be able to talk to Chris." Hotch says.
"All right, but, you know, Hotch, if that doesn't work, Banks or Prentiss could be our best shot." Derek says.
"True. The pack objectifies women. They wouldn't know how to handle negotiating with one." Hotch says.
+++
They pull up outside of the house as Chris and Michael are walking out, Michael dragging Stephanie who is blindfolded.
"Hey!" Derek shouts as they all get out, staying behind the doors as they aim their guns. Bedelia stands behind the passenger door with Spencer. Michael puts the gun to Stephanie's head while Chris aims his gun at all of them.
"Chris Salters! Michael Kosina! FBI. Give yourselves up." Derek orders.
"We want to negotiate." Michael says.
"The time for that is over, son." Salters says.
"Oh, I wish I was your son, sheriff. It wouldn't be my ribs getting bruised." Michael says.
"Christopher, walk this way and we'll work it out." Salters promises.
"Don't you get it? He's done taking orders from you." Michael says.
"Sorry, dad. Can't." Chris says.
"Davis, go." Derek quietly says. "Go."
"Michael. Chris." Bedelia walks around the door, getting closer to the two. She holds her hands up, her finger off the trigger. "My name's Bedelia Davis. I'm holstering my weapon." She says, putting her gun up. "I just want to talk." She says, walking closer, but still keeping a good distance.
"That's what they all say." Michael says.
"That's quite a feat. Manipulating a cop's son into committing rape and murder." Bedelia says.
"Shouldn't we be talking about how your fine ass is gonna get us out of here?" Michael remarks.
"You wish. Look around. Everyone's guns are trained on you. Not Chris. You. No one wants to shoot a cop's kid. But you? I might shoot you myself." Bedelia says.
"You call yourself a negotiator?" Michael asks.
"Chris, I know you're loyal to Michael. I get it." Bedelia says. "He was there for you when you thought nobody else was."
"Nobody was." Chris says.
"That might be true. But you need to understand that Michael's done this before." Bedelia says.
"Don't listen to this bitch!" Michael yells. "She's trying to get us to surrender. We should rush them now."
"You don't want to do that, Chris, do you?" Bedelia asks. "That's suicide, for you. Michael doesn't care. He was gonna kill you the moment things got tough, anyway. Just like he killed his last team."
"What is she talking about?" Chris asks.
"Two men went missing following a series of rapes in northern Louisiana. What do you think happened to them?" Bedelia questions.
"Is that true?" Chris asks Michael. "Were you gonna kill me, too?"
"What do you mean, too? I didn't kill Scott. You did." Michael says.
"You said that it was to protect us." Chris says.
"Us, me. It's all the same." Michael says. "It don't matter, anyway. We're not getting out of here, either one of us. I need to know you're with me. To the end." Chris doesn't do anything, but his gun is still pointed at Bedelia. "Well?" Michael asks.
"Too late." Michael says after Chris doesn't say or do anything. He aims his gun at Chris' head, but can't pull the trigger before Salters shoots him multiple times and everybody rushes forward. Bedelia runs over to Stephanie.
"Put it down! Put it down!" Derek shouts.
"It's over, Christopher. It's over." Salters tells him.
"Stephanie! Stephanie." Bedelia grabs her and leads her back to safety.
"I am not going to jail." Chris states.
"We'll get you a good lawyer. We'll figure out a way to get your sentence reduced." Salters says.
"You'd like that, wouldn't you, dad? A chance to play hero."
"Son..."
"Well, too late. You don't get to win this one."
Chris goes to shoot himself in the head but Salters shoots him in the arm making him drop his gun.
"Medic, we need a medic." Spencer says.
The medics got there and are checking over Stephanie and another is dealing with Chris' wound.
"You okay?" Spencer asks Bedelia.
"Yeah. Yeah, no, I'm okay." Bedelia assures.
"Good." Spencer can feel himself relax a little.