Morgan walks in as Dr. Meade starts to perform the Y incision on the torso of Norma Stiles. The man nods at the agent.

"You must be Agent Morgan."

Morgan nods. "Yes, sir. I guess you got my message."

"I did. In fact, I'm delayed on getting Ms. Stiles here going because I wanted to double check Mr. Peroles. I am ashamed to admit I missed the tazer marks." He nods towards a computer screen. "Hit the green button to wake it up. Marks were hidden by one of his tattoos but there is still no excuse for me missing them."

Morgan walks over and brings the photo of the tattoo up. It is an intricate design of thorny rose vines twining over an elaborate crucifix. Even with the circle electronically placed on the picture Morgan can barely make out the two marks. He slowly shakes his head.

"For what it's worth, Dr. Meade, I am impressed that you found them at all. In your opinion, was that a lucky strike or did the unsub aim for that tattoo?"

"I'd say lucky strike. He aimed for the chest which is the best place to taze someone. This tattoo covers Peroles' chest."

Morgan slowly nods. "So…the unsub was facing Peroles and was able to get a perfect strike to the chest in. Peroles doesn't flinch, doesn't try to get away."

Dr. Meade knows Morgan is talking to himself but answers anyway. "Based on what I saw, he didn't move. The leads hit him straight on, no wobble in the wound you would normally see if someone tries to turn away."

"Which lets us firm up our belief that the unsub knew the three victims personally. He knew them and, more importantly, they trusted him. What can you tell me about Stiles so far?"

Morgan turns just as Meade starts to stretch open the chest cavity. "She's underweight, malnourished, dehydrated, and most likely on methamphetamine." He gazes at the woman's insides. "And from what I can see here, her lungs were close to shutting down due to cigarettes and other inhalants. She wasn't long for this world without major medical help and a serious change in lifestyle."

"No chance that was happening any time soon," Morgan states. "Were the hands done post-mortem again?"

"Yes, they were. Small mercy, I suppose. I haven't started the full autopsy on Mr. Tildes…well, as full as it can be considering his state but I did look at him long enough to see the 5 stab wounds are in the same 2-1-2 pattern as the other two victims."

"Any particular reason for that pattern?"

"I would say to instill fear in his victim. The 2 and 2 would be painful. For someone unable to respond due to the tazer they would still feel the pain and want nothing more than to get away. Before they can, the final single strike to the heart would spell their near instantaneous death. Once they have breathed their last he cuts off the hands and goes on his merry little way."

Morgan nods, thinking. "There are other ways to instill fear and cause pain. He is so specific about the tazing, the pattern…there's got to be something to that pattern." He thinks a second more. "Doc, when you have a chance, can you check your files to see if that particular pattern came up in any crimes? Maybe not even that pattern just the 4 cuts before the final death."

Meade nods. "I sure can. May be this afternoon before I get to it since I sadly have a full house here."

Morgan smiles. "That's fine. Could be a long shot so thanks for checking. If anything jumps out at you as strange with these two autopsies, please give us a call."

"Will do, Agent. Talk to you this afternoon."

Morgan makes his way to his SUV. He pulls out his phone. "Garcia, need you to check unsolved homicides in Portland involving a victim or victims who died of multiple stab wounds."

"Icky but if that's what floats your sexy boat."

He smiles. "It is for now, Baby Girl. Get those luscious fingers typing and thrill me."

"Oh, sexy, my fingers don't need to type to thrill you," she says with a husk to her voice.

Morgan is still laughing as he hangs up. Time to get to the precinct to see what else can be deduced about this avenging unsub.

Hotch and the rest of the team aren't in the conference room long when Detective Ortiz walks in, a disgusted look on his face. He tosses the local paper onto the table.

"I know your hotel gives out free copies of USA Today so you probably missed this," he tells them.

Hotch rolls his eyes as he reads the headline, "FBI and Local Police Unable to Stem Crime."

"Why the hell would they run with it?" Rossi asks furiously.

Ortiz shrugs. "Sells papers? Boring news day? Hell, who knows? All I know is our media office is lit up like the fourth of July and our spokesman and his secretary are ready to resign."

Hotch nods. "I don't blame them. I'll get with them and arrange a press conference." He looks at JJ. "Read the article and start the release I'll need to give."

JJ nods. "On it."

"The rest of you start working on the various employees of the courts and police who crossed over with the three victims."

The team nods and gets to work as Hotch leaves with Ortiz to try to stem the media storm. JJ reads the article and can't help but grunt her disapproval at the falsehoods and inconsistencies reported as fact. But one thing jumps out at her.

"Hey, guys, listen to this. 'According to the vigilante, his life was turned upside down by police inefficiency. He lost the most important person in his life and they stood by and did nothing. What else could he do but render justice when the system has failed.'" She looks up as she finishes the passage. "I'd say that confirms that the attacks are personal to him."

"Then we need to find the case that drove his madness," Emily states as she hits Garcia's speed dial. "Garcia, any hits on the unsolved or dismissed cases search you were doing?"

"Nothing yet. I think I will need additional parameters to help me narrow it down."

"Please, do what you can. He contacted the media and…hey…he contacted the media…" Emily says, her voice trailing off.

"What is it, Prentiss?" Rossi asks.

"He sent a note yesterday to Hotch telling us to back off or he would go. How did he know we weren't going to obey his order? For all he knew we could have left last night and not come back. But if the paper had enough time to get this article in today's edition he had to have approached them even before he sent us that letter," she points out.

Rossi nods. "Good point. Garcia, keep doing what you're doing. Morgan is at the M.E.'s office this morning so he may call you for more searches."

"Got it, sir. Will be tickling my cyberbunnies until they produce chocolate eggs for us."

She hangs up to the chuckles of her team. Rossi looks at Reid. "You and I need to pay a visit to the editor-in-chief. Get any laws, facts, cases regarding First Amendment privilege to the front of your head. We need to find out who the source for his reporter is and how they were contacted."

Reid nods and stands. He stops and looks at Emily. "By the way, I think it's not at the jail which means it probably is."

Emily slowly nods. "Yeah, I see what you mean. If I have a chance I'll check it out."

He nods and precedes Rossi through the door. The older agent looks at JJ. "Not sure who's got the worst end of the EmiReid connection, me or you."

JJ just chuckles. "Well, I think this end is kind of sexy so at least I have something pretty to look at."

Rossi laughs and follows Reid out of the station. JJ turns and sees her wife staring at her. JJ shrugs.

"What? You act like I'm lying."

Emily finally chuckles and looks away. "Right." Now that they are alone, Emily voices something she'd noticed since they got on the plane. "You're more…open about us than before. You know, in front of the team and on a case and stuff."

JJ smiles and shrugs. "I hadn't really thought about it but I guess I am." She bites her lip a moment. "I guess…part of me wonders if you would have been so…so angry after Winslow if we didn't always try to curb our emotions about each other. I never want you to doubt my love for you or my desire to protect you. I want cases to be easier on you emotionally. I don't want you to go into the darkness again."

Emily smiles. "Then I know I won't. Thank you, Jennifer. I love you and, yeah, it's been easier this time. It means a lot to me."

JJ just nods and goes back to work on the press release Hotch will need to give.

"What part of 'protected by the First Amendment' do you not understand, Agent Rossi?" the editor snarls.

"What part 'creating a public panic' do you not understand?" Rossi counters. "You have published an article that tells the public their police are incompetent. You don't think that's going to cause some alarm?"

"We published a piece based on the claims of a man who threatened…you know what? Never mind. I stand by the piece and the reporter."

Rossi's eyes narrow. "You have no idea if there is accuracy in the story or not, do you?"

The man tries to control his facial expression but both profilers see his pulse start to go faster, the sheen of sweat pop out on his upper lip and the flush in his cheeks. Rossi shakes his head.

"You don't. Do yourself a favor: never play poker with a professional. Or even a rank amateur. We'd like to talk to you reporter. Now or my next call will be the one that brings auditors in to check all your stories for accuracy. Imagine if THAT were to get out."

"Is that a threat?"

"Nope. A promise." Rossi sits back in his chair, a smug look on his face.

The editor looks at Reid. "He can't DO that!"

"Actually, he can. And before you ask, yes, he will," Reid confirms.

The editor eyes flick back and forth between the two agents. He finally leans on his desk and scribbles a phone number on a Post-It note. "Here it is. If she doesn't want to give anything up to you she'll have my full support!" he warns them.

"Good. She'll need it while she rots in jail," Rossi says with a mean smile.

"At this time the police and FBI are working together to track down the vigilante responsible for the attacks. Though we may not always like the outcome of trials or the way the justice system concludes a case we have to continue to believe it works for the good of all citizens. The victims who were murdered had done the time for their convictions. Two were awaiting trial on new charges. The justice system was working. Vigilante justice does nothing but damage the entire process. What the murderer is not seeing is that he has become that which he hates: another case clogging the system, taking away attention from other cases," Hotch pauses to let that thought sink in, hoping the unsub is watching.

"You can rest assured, the Portland Police, the State Police and the FBI will continue to work until we stop this reign of terror. Everyone deserves their day in court and no one has the right to deem themselves judge, jury and executioner. Thank you."

Hotch takes questions for about 5 minutes, saying a lot of nothing while giving the news plenty of sound bites to use that evening. When he enters the conference room, JJ gives him a smile.

"Nice job, Hotchner. Keep it up and you have a bright future as a media liaison."

He raises an eyebrow at her then turns to Emily. "She's too peppy since you returned. I'm not sure I like it."

Emily shrugs, smiling. "Sorry, sir, I will make sure she's appropriately punished later," she says, with a suggestive wink at her wife.

Hotch laughs. "I soooo didn't need to know that, Prentiss." He sits down. "So, where are we?"

"So far I've got about 10 people to check out. I'm concentrating on the jail. Reid and I both feel like there's something there we aren't seeing," Emily tells him.

Hotch nods. "Run with it. You both have good instincts and if you're both feeling it there may be more there to see."

"I've been concentrating on bail bond companies and court employees. Have a few but none are really clicking for me," JJ tells him.

"Okay. Help Emily with…hold on," he pulls out his phone. "You're on speaker Garcia."

"Sir, I sort of found the grandmother of Norma Stiles. She lives WAY off the grid near a little town called Willamina. Log cabin, no phone, gas generator for electric, like majorly granola living," she reports.

Hotch sighs. "No phone so she probably didn't have much contact with her granddaughter."

"Actually, she did. Norma would call a neighbor when she was in a jam. Grandma Stiles, actually Judith Porter, would help as best she could."

JJ frowns. "If she lived so, uh, you know, low cost she couldn't have much money."

"Wrong again, Agent Jareau. You guys just aren't batting well today. Turns out Grandpa Porter was a tech genius and invented several things that helped Steve Jobs with the Apple computer innards. He was a GOD among men! But he was a tortured genius and killed himself. His wife sold off the big house, all the cars, and went back to simple living because technology reminded her of the loss of the love of her life. But she still has megabucks in the bank so bail was not a problem for Norma even when the bail bond companies didn't come through."

Hotch thinks a minute. "How far away is she, Garcia?"

"Willamina is about an hour and half from you. Her place is another 40 minutes or so up into the woods."

"Good work, Garcia. I'm going to have Emily and JJ send you the names they've pulled so far. Do some deeper runs on them. Compare them to the run you're doing on open cases. See if anything pops."

"Will do, sir. Morgan gave me an additional filter to help narrow down the parameters. Hopefully I can have something for you soon."

"Perfect. Send the GPS coordinates of Judith Porter to Prentiss and Jareau. They have a long drive ahead of them."

JJ rolls her eyes. "Gee. Lucky us. A long trip into the woods. My dreams all come true."

"At least you have me," Emily points out.

JJ thinks a second. "But the woods…"

Emily throws a balled up piece of paper at her wife. "Jerk."

JJ just winks at her.

"Don't worry, Jayje, if Jason is out there I can have reinforcements to you in, like, 2 hours. Tops. Promise," Garcia vows.

JJ laughs at the Friday the 13th reference. "Thanks, Pen. Really reassuring."

Hotch glances at his watch. "If you leave now you should be able to get there just after noon. Let me know when you get back to Portland and I'll let you know where to meet up with us."

Emily nods. "Sounds good."

She and JJ pack up their briefcases and head out for the trip to the middle of nowhere Oregon.