A/N: I watched "Lauren" last night and teared up a little. It's amazing all of the little things you catch the third time watching it, like Hotch's goofy smiling picture when they call Emily's cell at the beginning of the episode and find it in her desk. Or maybe I just notice that now because of my newfound shipper status of Hotch and Emily together? Anyways, here's another chapter. Holy smokes this is going on way longer than I expected and now I have a casefile…oh boy. Hopefully you all are enjoying it! Love seeing your reviews, thank you all so much!

Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

Hotch sat down on the small sofa, shooting Emily and Reid a quick glance to confirm they had also seen what he had on the mantle. They both nodded slightly, Reid taking a seat next to Hotch while Emily leaned on the side of the couch. "Thank you for meeting with us on such short notice today Miss Bandsmith."

"Of course, and you can call me Charlotte. Miss Bandsmith was my mother's name," Charlotte said, smiling tightly at the agents. "So, what's all this about a follow up?"

"It's standard procedure, let me reassure you," Hotch confirmed. "We are currently in the process of trying to interview Peter Milton. He's been less than cooperative in the last few years."

"But why do you need to do that?" Charlotte crossed her arms over her chest protestingly. "He was tried and found guilty. Countless evidence against him too."

"It's not that we think he's innocent to any means," Emily added, trying to calm the girl. "We study his behaviour which is then used to compare for similarities in other future cases. It's not an effort to dismantle the verdict by any means."

Charlotte nodded, uncrossing her arms. "Have you seen him?"

"Yes, we've been trying to talk to him," Hotch answered. "Unfortunately, he's taken a vow of silence."

"What?" Charlotte's eyebrows shot up. "He's not talking?"

"Typically a vow of silence doesn't last very long, simply due to lack of self-control," Reid explained. "In this case however, three years of not speaking a word shows us that Milton is incredibly persistent and controlled when it comes to his emotions."

Charlotte chewed her bottom lip nervously. "Well I don't think I can help you. Honestly, I've tried to push that night out of my head and move on."

The sound of a buzzing phone startled Emily, and she looked down to see Garcia calling her. "If you'll excuse me for a moment, I'll be right back." She caught Hotch's eye as she left the room. She knew that she wasn't alone in having a small inclination that there was more to the story than Charlotte was revealing.

Stepping out onto the porch, Emily walked out into the street so that the conversation would be somewhat private. "Go ahead Garcia."

"Ok my sweet, I have something that may or may not be a coincidence," Garcia chirped, her fingers clicking across her keyboard. "But then again, there aren't many coincidences when it comes to murder these days are there?"

Emily smirked. "What do you have Penelope?"

"Well as strange as it may seem, all of our victims do have something in common with Peter Milton. Victims one and two even stayed at the same hostel."

"Let me guess. Felicity Brawn and Helen Mack were in Paris, Abigail White and Robin Harrison were in London, and Rose Waters and Marilyn Smart were in Rome," Emily ventured.

"Bang on the money mademoiselle. And going through Felicity Brawn's Facebook page, I found photos of her and Helen Mack standing by the Eiffel Tower. They both signed up for the same travel group."

"Okay, so Milton likely meets his victims while he's traveling. Was he alone at the time?" Emily asked.

"So far, I've only found records of him booking single rooms," Garcia answered. "But he was definitely in the same countries as our victims while they were traveling."

"What about Charlotte Bandsmith?"

"I'm still looking into it but it looks like Charlotte was in the good old U-S of A studying hard for her finals. Credit card purchases were made at the university coffee shops the same weeks our victims were out of the country." The blonde typed away and pulled up the transaction history. "The same coffee shop employed her for two years prior to her attack."

"Ok, so she's our missing link right now." Emily frowned, pacing down the sidewalk. "Has she ever been out of the country to any of the places the victims visited?"

"As a matter of fact, she's never been outside of North America," Garcia confirmed.

"So she wasn't a traveller, probably couldn't afford it with student loans," Emily pondered. Other than her appearance, Charlotte Bandsmith didn't seem to fit the victim profile at all.

"You are correct on that front my peach. Harvard was not nice to this girl at all. She was fifty grand in debt by her second year."

Emily looked up to see Hotch and Reid walking down the front steps. She quirked an eyebrow at them. "I'll call you back, keep digging."

"You got it, hit you back as soon as I get something!"

Emily hung up and turned to Hotch. "What happened?"

"She got called in to work. Any news?"

"Yes, Garcia determined that the first six victims were in the same country at the same time as Milton," Emily explained. "Felicity Brawn and Helen Mack knew each other. Garcia confirmed the connection through social media. They also had the same accommodations in Paris at the hostel that Milton was staying at."

Hotch nodded. "So he met each of his victims while traveling. Maybe struck up a conversation when their guard was down."

"When I would travel, it wasn't uncommon for all of us staying in the shared dorms to stay up late and talk about where we were from," Emily said. Of course she had always lied about her family, and it made her uneasy how so many people she had met had willingly wanted to exchange addresses with her. "They meet him in the hostel, find out he's from the same city and they let their guard down. Maybe even go sightseeing with him."

"Then he gets their contact information so they can exchange pictures when they get back," Reid suggested. "Maybe agree to meet him somewhere to talk about their travels."

Hotch nodded in agreement. "It's a good start. What about Charlotte?"

"Garcia's still looking into it, but that's the part that doesn't quite fit," Emily explained. "She never travelled overseas to any of the locations our other victims did. Didn't even leave North America."

"Right now the only connection Milton and Charlotte seem to have is they were both raised by single parents," Reid noted. "Charlotte said her mother was known as 'Miss', not 'Mrs.'"

"If they knew each other and were both raised by single mothers, it's possible that could be how he got close to her." Hotch nodded at Emily's suggestion. "He's been in her house. There's no other way he would have known about the owl figurine. He must have stalked her before he made his move."

"And the fact that none of his drawings reflect landmarks where he met Charlotte with the exception of today's, it's possible they never actually met outside of the city," Reid said.

Emily nodded. "If he's drawing about places they met, maybe the owl figurine shows that the first time they met was in her home?" She brushed her hair out of her eyes. "The only question is why would she withhold that information?"

"Let's get back to the office. We should brief the rest of the team." Emily and Reid nodded and followed Hotch to the SUV. "We can try and come back tomorrow. She also agreed to come into Quantico if necessary, but she'll likely open up if we come to a place that's on her comfort level."

As they climbed in and drove away, Charlotte Bandsmith let slip the curtain she was holding open and her face disappeared from the window.