Garcia stares at the images on the screen. The hikers had not been caught on dash cam because they had taken the photos directly to the precinct. However, it appears that they knew exactly where all the camera's were because they have their ball caps pulled down low and keep their heads down.

"Damn you guys," she mutters as she switches to yet another view but all she can see is the backs of their heads. She had been at it for 2 hours but the "hikers" just never show their face. "Skeevoids. Why not? Are you the killers? Are you just bastards? Why can't I see your face?"

"If they answer, let me know," Emily says with amusement as Garcia jumps.

Garcia glares at her friend. "Stop. Sneaking. Up. On. Me."

Emily grins. "Who was sneaking? I just walked in."

"Right. Well…make noise or sing or something. Give a tech a little warning, would you?" Garcia says with irritation.

Emily nods. "Right. Sorry. So what do you have on the hikers?"

"They are both Caucasian. I have guestimates on height and hair coloring but no clear shot of their faces."

"Hopefully the officer that took their statements will remember enough to get with a sketch artist."

"Em? Are they the unsubs?"

Emily sighs. "I don't know, Pen. My guess is no because though an unsub might try to get into the middle of an investigation this one would never have given up those pictures. I think these guys probably have reason to avoid the cops, drugs, petty theft, something and that's why all the subterfuge. In their hearts, they knew they had to do the right thing but they also knew enough to protect themselves because of their illegal activities."

Garcia sighs. "I was afraid you'd say that. I really wish these were the guys."

"I know. Get what you have to Hotch. He'll probably have to release it to the media to get help tracking them down."

"Right."

"What about the ticket searches?"

"It's huge. Right now it's crossing with the insanely huge prior crimes search Hotch had me pull. Probably have another 4 hours or so on that one."

"Well, give me what you have. I need to work on something other than financials for a while."

"The pattern still holding?"

"Yeah. And with 31 women now confirmed and the rest waiting for DNA hits there's nothing more for me to look at."

"Okay. I'll move a copy of it to the share drive."

"Good. I'm heading downstairs for Rocky's 11 a.m. feeding. I'll let you know when I get back up here."

In California, JJ grinds her teeth together. "Sir, I know you don't completely understand the type of investigating we do. You're an old school cop, used to beating down a path to the bad guy's door. But that's not going to work here. This unsub has worked without detection for at least 12 years. Maybe longer if he has victims elsewhere, which he most likely does. He did not want his victims found. They are his. Early victims were probably found and returned to their families. It was offensive to him so he found a place of significance to him; a place where he could revisit his collection again and again.

"Now we are working against the clock. We've taken his collection, taken his safe haven. Trust me when I tell you we are working as hard and fast as possible to catch him. But if we go too fast we will lose him. You have to trust that talking to families and friends, looking into people who may have been ticketed in the area multiple times, and reaching out to the men who turned in the photos will give us the information we need to stop this killer."

"But all you three are doing is sitting here! He's out there somewhere!"

"I know, sir. I swear I know this. We all know. But please trust us. If you'd like, I can give you the names and numbers of other precincts where this slow, methodical searching has led to positive results."

The chief stares at her a minute then nods. "Get me that list. But if I don't like what I hear you're all done here."

JJ nods. "Understood, sir. Give me 10 minutes to get a list together for you."

He nods curtly. JJ quickly heads back to the conference room. Hotch looks up at her as she walks in.

"Well?"

"Not good," she replies as she sits at her computer to start compiling a contact list. She tells Hotch and Reid what happened.

Hotch shakes his head. "Make it a good list, Jayje."

"I will. If nothing else, maybe we move the investigation to San Francisco. The chief down there seemed happy to hear Morgan and Rossi were on their way."

"True. But I'd rather stick up here and work it on both sides until we know for sure where this unsub is located. He's got two comfort zones quite far apart. I don't want to give him any leeway to disappear on us."

JJ nods as her fingers fly over the keyboard pulling out names and numbers where the teams' meticulous work had lead to success. Reid has pulled out one of his files, looking over similar cases. Several in that file had now ended up on the boards. But there are two that he just feels should be up there but they are beyond the 12 year time frame that has now been established. Suddenly he jumps up.

"Oh my God!"

JJ and Hotch look up at him as he moves to the San Francisco map. He runs his finger over it, pausing at the various colored pins that mark abduction sites, regular hang outs of victims, and last seen locations. He looks at the two missing flyers in his hands and turns to the other two.

"These were his first two victims!" he says with confidence.

Hotch frowns. "How do you know?"

"They disappeared from the Bay Area, right in this area," his finger circles the main hunting ground. "They were found along Highway 1 but not concealed in the forest, just along the side of the road. They had been tortured, raped and were found naked. Authorities were worried they had a serial killer and started to patrol more often along the way. Reports had several people interviewed at the sites."

"Oh my God…the police talked to him!" JJ sees where he is going.

"Yes! And he knew what they were looking for and he knew he couldn't just leave them where he could see them anymore. So he had to find a place all his own."

"The burial site," Hotch says with a nod. "We need to see the records of those two investigations."

JJ stands. "I'll take the list to the chief. I can keep him busy while you all get what you need."

Hotch nods. "Good plan. I'll call Detective Bryant and see if she can put us in touch with the right person to get the records."

JJ nods and heads out as Hotch grabs his phone. Reid sighs in relief. Finally…the break they had been praying for; the signpost that could point the way to the capture of the unsub.

Morgan and Rossi wait for the lady in front of them to gather herself. She finally takes a steadying breath.

"She's been gone so long I…I guess I knew she wasn't coming back but I still hoped, you know? Maybe she'd had an accident and just didn't remember me, didn't remember our life together. Something like that." She finally looks at the agents. "Dumb, huh?"

Rossi shakes his head. "Not at all. No one wants to imagine the worst so even the unlikely becomes possible."

The woman just nods. Morgan sits forward, his hands clasped in front of him.

"Ms. Batch, do you know why Amelia stopped going to Moe's Diner for breakfast each morning?"

Sandra Batch slowly nods. "There was a guy there that started giving her a bad vibe. He had bumped into her a few weeks before and she accidently spilled her coffee on him. It was a serve yourself coffee place. She apologized and even bought his breakfast to apologize. She thought that was the end of it but he started showing up everyday. And he always…she said he would try to get her to spill her drink on him again. It was kind of weird. One of the waitresses even noticed and offered to bring Amelia's coffee to her. That really pissed the guy off. So I told her to just stop going for a week or so; you know, give the guy time to forget about her or find another place to get his coffee spilled on him."

"And do you know where she started going?" Morgan asks.

"She varied it after that. Even started paying cash. He really had her spooked." She wipes away fresh tears. "I told her she was being paranoid. Oh, fuck me, why didn't I listen to her?"

Rossi lays a comforting hand on her leg. "As the cliché goes, hindsight is 20/20. You told her the right thing to put distance between herself and him."

Sandra snorts. "Obviously not. The fucker killed her, didn't he?"

"We don't know," Rossi says honestly. "It's just one avenue we're looking into. Her financial statements had shown such a pattern we had to ask. It could mean nothing."

"When will you know?"

Rossi shrugs. "I don't know. But if we look like we've got the guy that killed her we'll let you know."

"Thank you. Have…have you told her parents yet?"

"No. We left them a message that we needed to speak with them," Morgan tells her.

"They, uh, probably won't call back. She was estranged from them…because of me; our lifestyle. When I told them she was missing they said it served her right and that she was answering for her sins. And if they do call back they'll probably demand I be kept out of the loop on everything. I do have a legal directive to…shit…to be in charge of her burial."

Morgan sighs, his hands clenching tighter. "No one deserves what happened to Amelia. No one asks to be gay or lesbian. They are the ones in the wrong, not you, not Amelia." He reaches over and takes her hand. "I don't care what they say to us, I will keep you in the loop. I swear to you. And get your lawyer and prepare to fight for her rights to decide her final resting place. Forget about her parents, just look out for Amelia."

Sandra nods. "I will. I swear."

He hands her his card. "If you have any questions please give me a call. I'll let you know when her body can be released to you."

"Thank you, Agent Morgan. You too, Agent Rossi. I can tell you really care about her. That makes this…easier, I guess."

Rossi gives her a smile. "I'm not sure anything could make this easier. But thank you."

The two agents take their leave. They sit in the SUV a few minutes their thoughts on their two teammates.

"You know…Elizabeth and Gerald could have been that bad. Image could have trumped love," Morgan finally says.

"The Jareau's, too. Small town and all," Rossi points out.

Morgan just shakes his head. "I can't even imagine turning on my child like that. Turning on anyone."

"Me, neither." Rossi takes a deep breath as they think a second. Finally he turns his thoughts back to the case. "So, that's 5 people we've interviewed and 4 remember a creepy man that someone orchestrated a meeting with a victim. And then turned that incident into stalking."

"But why? Did he imagine a relationship with them and then hated getting rebuffed? Or was the thrill getting them so spooked they changed their whole routine because of him?"

Rossi considers it a minute. "He's a sadist. He loves the torture. Once they changed their routine he knew he'd terrified them as much as he could there. The next step is to show them they can't escape him."

"So he takes them, tortures them, rapes them, keeps them several days before finally killing them. And then he buries them where only he can find them," Morgan states, coming up with the same conclusion about the burial ground Hotch and Reid had figured out.

"I need to call Hotch. This guy had previous kills and I bet they were found. That would ruin his ability to visit them and lord it over them that he owned them."

Rossi dials Hotch. After a few minutes he finds out that both sets of agents were thinking the same thing. He hangs up and looks at Morgan.

"We need to keep talking to people. Hotch had Bryant get him records of two unsolved murders where the victims were left along Highway 1."

"Damn. And there could have been others that may have ended up in the ocean or are still out there somewhere."

"Exactly. This guy has been doing this a lot longer than we thought."

"Shit. Not a comforting thought." Morgan threads his fingers together on top of the steering wheel. "And we still don't know what first puts these women on his radar. Is it an accidental bump or intentional?"

"Intentional means he targeted them and we still don't know how. Accidental means that initial contact puts his fantasy in motion," Rossi says. He thinks a minute then shakes his head. "And I don't get a vibe which direction to take with that."

"Me neither." Morgan looks at his watch. "It's 11:30. The Patterson's said they could meet with us at noon. Let's head that way and see what they knew about their daughter in the weeks leading up to her murder."

Rossi nods as Morgan gets them moving to the next family whose life had changed forever with a phone call.