"The fourth in five weeks? That's not a long time," Morgan said thoughtfully.

"San Francisco's a big place, sweetheart. And it could be more. The San Fran PD narrowed it down to those reported missing under the alike conditions," Garcia pressed a button again and the passport photographs of three more men appeared.

Everyone including Lara had already realised why they thought this was a serial killer as they looked at the pictures. They all uncannily resembled each other.

"All brunette, middle-aged, well- built and well off men with families," Garcia stated.

Dr. Reid tilted his head slightly to the side. "But that's one of the most common descriptions of men with money. As horrible as this sounds, all of them could've been kidnapped by different people for cash, and Thomas Colroy refused."

Garcia nodded. "Possible, whiz kid, but all of them live within a ten square mile radius. Also, none of them are known for being gentle giants when it comes to their businesses. Thomas Colroy had thirteen stab wounds and a number of bruises but cause of death was a bullet. Just missed his heart but punctured his lung." She winced in disgust.

Lara could see the clogs turning in all of their heads and realised they never did a half job. When they worked a case, they put in their all.

"Wheels up in thirty," Hotchner said. Lara stood up along with everybody. She had luckily brought her ready-to-go bag with her today instead of tomorrow. "I hope you don't suffer from jet-lag Morales, because this is going to be a long flight."

::::::::::

JJ set up a laptop on a table in the expensive jet. Lara was, for a lack of a better description, a little more than pleasantly surprised by the interior and exterior. It was quite impressive. Penelope Garcia, in all her colourful glory, appeared on the screen.

"Talk to us Baby Girl," Morgan said, leaning on his arm. Lara hid a smile and wondered, not for the first time, if something was going on between them.

"Read my lips Sweet Cheeks. The one big link we can see between the men is that they each set up their own businesses. Not exactly Microsoft, but apparently they acted like it was," she informed them.

"So it could be a recently fired employee, a rival or someone who's jealous," Lara surmised. She really wanted to be of use, and wanted to input anyway she could.

"What are the estimated abduction times?" JJ asked. Garcia squinted her eyes like she was trying to remember.

"All around eight to eleven pm."

"That's not that uncommon. How long after he was reported missing was he killed?" Rossi questioned, leaning back in his chair. Lara still wasn't sure if he was okay with her being there. But that was probably just nerves and an overactive imagination talking.

"Coroners think it was most likely a day. He was reported missing a week ago, but the wife had to wait forty eight hours before filing the report, so it was eight days until they found him. The body was found in a dump site," Garcia replied.

"But why keep them for a day?" Rossi continued, trailing off. Morgan shook his head, guessing.

"Maybe it's just to show that he's in charge? Tortures him for revenge for being fired?"

But all in all the six hour long coast-to-coast flight hadn't been too draining. Lara had spent the rest of it considering the uses of a private jet. She knew they had one but … Well, suffice to say, it was comfortably furnished.

They arrived at the police department. Immediately a black haired women and a greying man approached them.

"I'm Detective Jessica Stevens and this is Detective Daniel Lane," the woman said, indicating the man. Hotchner shook hands with them both as he introduced the profilers to them.

Detective Lane cleared his throat as the team made it's way in between cubicles to a collage of photographs of the men on a board. "When we found Thomas Colroy's body he had all his stuff. Homeless people visit that area looking for anything of use but despite his polished appearance, nothing seemed to be missing."

"What's this?" Reid asked, pulling a photo off the board. Lara strained her eyes to see it. It looked like grease proof paper except with logos dotted around it.

Stevens pulled another photo off the board, but kept it turned around, her eyes scanning the room. "I was about to get on to that. It's used to wrap up things like burgers and fries in a local pizza take away place called Luigi's. It was found in Colroy's breast pocket."

"We have the owner of the place here. He came in himself," Lane interjected.

Hotchner nodded and snapped straight into work mode. "Dave and Morgan, you two ask him a few things. Detectives Stevens and Lane and I will gauge his responses. I want JJ and Reid out to Luigi's asap."

"My guys can show you where it is. But there's another thing," Stevens said and glanced around nervously. "We think he was tortured. This was on the back of the grease-proof paper."

Grimacing, she turned the picture around. On the back of the paper, scrawled in messy, bold letters, was the word, 'HELP'. Lara, JJ and Reid winced.

Hotchner's face remained stoic as he said, "Prentiss and Morales, go and talk to Thomas's family. Ask about work and friends. We'll take anything we can get."

::::::::::

Lara followed Emily up the steps to the house. It was big, that was for sure. A sleek black car sat in the drive. Lara gave a low whistle when they passed it.

"That wasn't cheap," Emily muttered, admiring the car from the corner of her eye. She knocked lightly on the door. A woman with iron grey hair opened it. Both Lara and Emily showed their credentials.

"We're with the FBI. If you don't mind, could we come in?" the woman nodded at Emily and plodded into the house. She and Lara shared a look. The woman definitely wasn't Thomas Colroy's wife. They both stepped inside.

Another woman, around forty years old, was sitting on a burgundy sofa. Her eyes were red and puffy and the older woman had a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm Carol. This is my daughter, Rose."

Lara smiled at Rose Colroy gently. "Mrs. Colroy, I'm Agent Lara Morales and this is Agent Emily Prentiss. We'd like to ask a few questions, if that's okay with you." Rose sniffled and nodded but her mother rolled her eyes.

"Of course it's okay. I let you in, didn't I?"

Lara and Emily quickly exchanged a glance. Lara really hoped the mother wouldn't make this more difficult than it had to be.

"How important was work to your husband? Did he bring it home with him?" Emily asked, keeping her eyes on Rose, who opened her mouth but Carol interrupted her before she even started.

"Bring it home with him? Work was the man's home. He certainly felt more comfortable there than here anyway."

Rose looked hurt and scandalised. "Mother!" Lara and Emily shared another look. Lara stood up and smiled at Carol.

"Miss, can I speak to you in private?" Carol narrowed her eyes at her but glanced at her daughter. Rose nodded, telling her it was okay.

"Of course," she said stiffly. They both walked into the kitchen. Lara closed the door behind her. The woman clearly didn't like them and Lara knew she had to gain her trust.

"It seems to us that you have a more un-biased view of your son-in-law. What was your first impression of Thomas?"

Carol seemed to approve of this course of action. "Rose always told me he was different when I wasn't around, but he was cold. He judged everyone who was lower than him on the totem pole."

Lara winced in her head but nodded. She hoped that she might gain some useful information and not just hear about how undeserving Thomas Colroy was of Carol's daughter.

They do say 'mother knows best' but Lara didn't have much personal experience with that, so she was willing to give it the benefit of doubt.

"Even after work he would stay out a while. Rose would never admit it, though when he was alive she was not happy with him."

This caught Lara's attention. "He would stay out?"

"Oh, yes. Have a drink or two. I don't think he ever cheated though. Like he would find someone who would with him," Carol said spitefully and her face hardened.

"He always judged people by their cars. But he did seem charming at first." Carol placed an unasked for cup of tea in front of Lara. She was pleasantly surprised at her kindness. She pretended to sip at it, not wanting to offend her with the fact that she didn't drink tea.

"He was in business with a lot of his university pals. But it was clear they all hated him. He loved money." A light knock on the door interrupted her. Emily's head appeared around the door.

"Thank you for your co-operation Miss," Lara said to Carol. She nodded at her politely. The two agents then proceeded out of the house and towards the black SUV that was outside.

"Get anything useful?" Emily asked her. Lara shrugged.

"A pretty standard mother-in-law's impression of her daughter's husband. Said he was judgemental, appeared charming at first, was friendly with old university buddies but that they really disliked him."

Emily looked at her sympathetically. "Sorry about that. The wife insisted she didn't want to be disrespectful of the dead, but her statement was pretty much the same. She also mentioned university friends and a big deal that was coming up with Magnus Industries."

Lara waved her apology away. "Don't worry about it. It can't be all about private jets and the like, right?"

Emily grinned at her, which she was thankful for, then pulled out her cell phone. She waited a few seconds then said, "Tell Hotch we're on our way."

::::::::::

"So, how was it?" Emily asked as she approached Morgan, Rossi and Hotchner. Rossi shrugged.

"He was nervous but then again at one point I thought Morgan was going to make him cry." Morgan frowned, his dark eyebrows drawing together.

"I wasn't that bad. Besides, it seems like our boy visited Luigi's but we haven't got any security footage."

"Both the mother-in-law and the wife mentioned university friends. The wife, Rose, said something about a deal with Magnus Industries," Emily stated, walking over to examine the photos of Thomas Colroy's body closer. Morgan took out his phone and dialled a number.

Hotchner's eyes flickered towards the photographs as well. "We've established that he was held captive for around a day. His hands were definitely bound, but there were no signs of sexual assault."

The door of the room opened and JJ and Reid filed in. "I set up that hotline like you asked Hotch and we had a look around Luigi's but nothing seemed out of place. The only place we didn't have a look around was the food storage."

Reid nodded, agreeing with what JJ said. "We could have passed on any number of diseases like-"

"Really don't need to hear about diseases now, kid," Morgan told him, his attention still mostly on his phone. Reid considered it, then shrugged.

"Luigi's is nothing out of the ordinary, do you guys find anything?"

It seemed Morgan's call was answered because he said into the phone, "One second Baby Girl. I'm putting you on loudspeaker."

"No problem, what do y'all need?" Penelope Garcia's voice sounded out through the room.

"We need you to look at the higher up staff in Magnus Industries, the top dogs," Morgan told her. Garcia whistled at the end of the phone. "Big list guys."

"Look for the more official people, those that would manage a deal with another company and any connection they have to Thomas Colroy," Hotchner said, thinking out loud.

Garcia hummed on the other end of the line. "Here we go! I have got a one Mister Brendan Cusack who was negotiating a deal with Thomas' company. He's big in Magnus Industries. They went to university and collage together. And … oh," Garcia trailed off.

"What is it?" Rossi asked curiously.

"Well," Garcia continued. "It seems like Magnus Industries had deals with all of the victims. They were pretty important too. The business is losing serious money too. And …"

"Just like I thought. One guy managed them all. Our friend Brendan."

Reid thanked Garcia and she hung up. "So," he continued. "What now?"

"We bring him in for questioning," Hotchner replied, thinking deeply. "This doesn't add up."

Rossi nodded slowly in agreement. "You're right. Why would he destroy deals that were benefiting his company?"

"Maybe he was on the verge of being fired, and wanted to do as much damage as he could before he left?" Lara mused.

"Possible," JJ contemplated.

Emily turned away from the photos. "But why keep them for a day and torture them?"

"Maybe he is sadistically inclined? He's important in his business. He has power, he can fire someone and destroy their lives easily," Reid declared, his head tilted to the side.

"I don't think that's it. I mean, look at the marks on his wrist. We've established that he has a menial job, but I think he's bringing these men to his workplace," Emily continued, a thoughtful look on her face.

Morgan looked repulsed. "Like a 'Bring Your Hostage To Work Day'?"

"That would mean he'd have to either have a pretty big workplace, or one where he has a safe proof private area," Rossi said, leaning his head into his hand.

Hotchner shook his head. "Good, but we don't make any assumption until after we've questioned him. Morgan and Prentiss, with me. We'll question Cusack at his office. If he is guilty, then the pressure of everyone seeing what's going on might make him confess. But we need to look into Cusack's files and see if he's messed up things with his company, enough to make them want to fire him. We'll fax them over."

They left quickly and so the remaining team sat and waited for the onslaught of paperwork.

"There's something we're missing," Rossi muttered. Lara was certain the rest of the team, her included, had that feeling too.

I don't own Criminal Minds. Ah, the depressing moment when you realise that only twenty six people viewed your story and you received no alerts, favourites or reviews. Alas, that is the reality of this story. So if there is anybody out there who actually wants to read this story, please let me know. It would mean a lot

:(