A/N: There's nothing I can say about leaving this fic for so long that would be a decent excuse so I'm just going to do what I can do, which is post the last couple chapters.

Chapter Twenty-Two – Puzzle Pieces

"Bobby," Alex called, waving a handful of papers in his direction. The two were at MCS, both finishing up on their current cases before heading home. Bobby had just been finishing up a report when he saw her coming towards his desk.

"What is it?"

"I've been thinking about what you said the other day," she replied, slapping the papers down on his desk, eyes alight with excitement. "About Boyd and how the victimology changed so much, and about how MCS specifically might have been targeted."

"And?" Bobby asked, turning to give her his undivided attention.

"After the fourth victim, the one who got us assigned to the case, his later victims were all over the map, their only connection being that they were female and between the ages of eighteen and thirty. We figured they were victims of opportunity, or that he had some very basic ruse that he used when he spotted a woman on her own."

"Okay," Bobby agreed. "That would make sense."

"Right," Alex agreed. "But that type of behaviour is very sophisticated. He never left any witnesses, never let a victim get away from him, and never screwed up in any way."

"These victims weren't his first," Bobby realized, following her lead.

"I seriously doubt it," she said, nodding. "I had just started to think the same thing when I was originally working the case. I was going to look into similar MOs in different jurisdictions, because the first three that we got were from out of state, only I never got the chance. We got a lead into where he could actually be, and who he was, and we followed that instead. We got Boyd, and I completely forgot about checking for possible past crimes until now."

"And you've found something?" Bobby prompted, glancing at the papers she'd left on his desk.

"Maybe," she said. "We'll have to look these over."

She picked up the papers, while he quickly organized the last of his paperwork and shut off his computer. "And what you said about MCS being targeted?"

"Hmm?"

"I think you're right," she said. "It's like you said about the tapes, how they were only sent after Cassleman and I were assigned. By victim number five, he was sending torture tapes to the families, and making the victims watch their loved ones' reactions via the hidden cameras. We figured that he was just developing his technique, extracting every possible sadistic pleasure he could. That he was escalating. But what if that wasn't the case? What if he was just waiting to send the tapes until Cassleman and I were the one's investigating? Like he only wanted us to investigate?"

"You think that the tapes were part of his game with you?"

"No, those were for his own sick pleasure. But those tapes are how we found him. What if he only wanted us to catch him? What if the murders and tapes were because he's a psychopath, but having us catch him was part of his game?"

"You think he wanted to be caught?"

"I don't know," she answered, the two of them now getting into the elevator. "But I think it's worth considering. Because if he's so sophisticated and skilled in kidnapping and murder without getting caught… It almost seems like he was leaving clues for us to find him."

"That would also explain how he was able to escape," Bobby realized. "It was part of his plan this whole time."

"But that still leaves us with why," Alex reminded him. She pushed the button to close the elevator.

"Maybe," Bobby mused, "It has to do with what you said. He was getting away with it. He'd perfected his craft. Maybe now he wanted someone to know what he'd done."

"But why us?" Alex asked. "If he just wanted to get caught, he could have turned himself in. Or left clues for any detective to follow."

"He's too meticulous to pick someone at random. We were targeted. He didn't just want us to know what he'd done; what he'd gotten away with. He wanted to play a game."

"Maybe these will give us an idea of where to start," Alex said, waving the papers again. "He must have made a mistake somewhere. DNA, a fingerprint, a victim that connects to him; something to give us some idea of what to go on."

"Alex, look at this."

She scooted her chair closer to his. They were sitting at the dining room table while Lexie played nearby, casefiles spread out in front of them.

"A connection to Boyd?" she asked.

"No," he replied. "To someone else. I've been looking over our unsolved casefiles, and came across this one, which has a similar MO to this one," Bobby explained, reaching for another file. "One of our unsolved cases links to an unsolved case across state lines – and from the city where the Marshall was from. The Marshall who was helping Boyd."

Alex took the two files from him and scanned them while he waited impatiently, bouncing his knee. "We were getting close," she realized, looking at her typed notes attached to the file. "We had just started to move in on law enforcement, based on the perp's knowledge of police procedure. We were focussing on those who had a connection to the victims, but then-"

"Then we told the captain about our relationship, and the case got reassigned to other detectives while we were suspended," Bobby finished.

"You mean while we waited for new partners."

"That was the captain's explanation, yes."

"So during the time it took them to figure out that connection for themselves, he'd moved on," Alex continued, not in the mood to get distracted by the past.

"Yes," Bobby agreed. "And he moved on to the city where he was murdered by Boyd. The city where you lived for a year."

"So what, he was worried we'd look back over the case and catch him after all?"

"More likely he's a narcissist who was pissed off that we got as close as we did. According to my notes we talked to him."

"We questioned a lot of people."

"Yes, but we got a little too close for his comfort. So this was revenge for him."

"Boyd found him and convinced him to help," Alex said.

"He must have," Bobby agreed. "He probably rubbed salt in his wounds, manipulated him into taking revenge. I found you, they could find you. They almost did. Don't you want to punish them?"

"How did Boyd even find him though?" Alex asked.

"That I don't know," Bobby answered. "But it is at least one more piece of the puzzle."

"I've had about enough of fitting puzzle pieces," Alex sighed. "I want this to be over."

Alex lowered Lexie into the crib, smiling to herself. Today for the first time she had reached for Alex when they picked her up from her parents' house, instead of looking past her for Bobby. She was beginning to look to either parent to comfort her without a preference for her father.

It was lucky that Lexie was so young. Although Alex suspected that Lexie might always be closer to Bobby, she was certain now that Lexie would love her too. She probably would never even remember a time when Alex was gone. Still, she was bitter about missing as much time with her daughter as she had. An entire year was too long.

Alex jumped and Lexie startled awake as there was a shout from the living room. Scooping Lexie up again, Alex raced out of the room. "What is it?"

"Look," Bobby hissed, shoving an envelope at her. Alex traded him Lexie for the envelope, hands shaking as she pulled a paper out from it.

Come and play. The invitation contained an address and a picture of John and Penny with Lexie. John and Penny's faces were crossed out in red marker, and he had drawn a bull's-eye over Lexie's. After taking a moment to process, Alex looked back up at Bobby. "He wants us to come to him now?" she exploded.

"Yes," Bobby replied tersely. "And I think I may have figured out why he's been playing this game now, if not why he's targeted us.

"Why?" Alex asked.

Bobby indicated the files that had become a permanent fixture of the dining room table. "I've just looked over his medical records. He had prescribed puffers, I had assumed for asthma. But there's no indication of him having asthma on the medical form he filled out for insurance two years ago."

"So?"

"It's very rare for asthma to develop later in life," Bobby explained. "But he is in the right age range for COPD."

"What?"

"It's chronic obstructive pulmonary disease – likely emphysema since according to this form he used to smoke a pack a day for twenty years."

"He's dying?" Alex asked.

"It won't kill him for years; and I'd say he's in the early stages since there have been no signs of any symptoms reported at all during the time he spent in lock up. But what it will do is make it more and more difficult for him to continue to physically exert himself. He'll get short of breath easily. He'll eventually need to be on oxygen. He won't be as capable when it comes to his kidnap, restrain, torture, and kill routine. If a victim managed to get away from him, he wouldn't be able to give chase."

"So he wanted to play his game while he was still able to?"

"Yes. He probably needed his physicality to escape from prison, and to kidnap his victims. Even if he drugged them he'd have to drag them to his vehicle and secondary location, and that was going to get more and more impossible."

"So he came up with a new way to play a sadistic game," Alex concluded.

"I'll bet that's part of the reason he teamed up with the Marshall too. He was the brawn and Boyd was the brains."

"But what do we do about this?" Alex asked, holding up the invitation. She could feel rage bubbling up inside of her again as she looked at the photograph. "Look what he did!" she snapped, indicating the target drawn over their daughter's face."

Bobby reached for the invitation, frowning pensively. "This is good," he muttered.

"Excuse me?" Alex demanded.

"Look how old this photograph is: Lexie's much younger in it. And your parents are crossed off in the picture. He doesn't realize that they're alive. That means he hasn't been watching us during our 'vacation'. If we're lucky, he hasn't been checking up on us at all. He's been too busy preparing his endgame."

"You think this is his endgame?"

"He's never had us come to him before, has he?" Bobby asked grimly.

They were silent for a moment, both thinking, until Alex spoke. "His message with this picture is pretty clear. He'll go after Lexie if we don't cooperate. Well if he's trying to set a trap for us, we'll beat him at his game. We'll set a trap for him."