Killian waited until he had two mugs of coffee sat on the table in front of them both before he pulled out his phone and the notebook that he always carried with him.

"Do you mind if I record this?" he asked. At Emma's confused look he added, "It's just for clarity. I might miss something you tell me now because I'm distracted, or pass over a detail that I don't think is important and later proves to be a big help to us. Nobody else will ever hear this. I can promise you that. It'll be destroyed the second the trial is over."

The young woman nodded her agreement as she reached for her coffee mug, holding the ceramic cup between both of her palms to allow the warmth of the beverage to soothe her soul.

"Thank you, Emma." Killian fiddled with his phone for a moment to start the recording and then spoke directly into the microphone. "It's June twelfth, twenty-eighteen, and this is an informal chat with Emma Swan regarding the current serial homicides taking place in the state of California." He set the device down on the coffee table to his left before reaching into his jacket to pull out one of the images that he'd bought over to the house with him.

"I know this isn't easy, but I was wondering if you could take a look at this picture for me, Emma? It's of our first victim."

Emma looked like she was willing the image in his hand to spontaneously combust as she saw him extend it in her direction. After a moment of glowering down at it, she finally reached out with trembling fingers to take the picture from him. But the instant she realized who had taken the picture, her face furrowed with her anguish.

"Focus on her features, Emma. Not on what's happening in the image."

She tried to do as she was asked, but even then she could see the scream forming around the woman's gag, and the look of sheer terror in her eyes.

"No," she eventually whispered. "I'm sorry. I don't know her. Has she not been identified yet?"

"We've identified two of our victims so far," Killian assured her. "This is Juliet Holding. Does that name ring a bell at all?"

Emma shook her head before she could voice her answer, but stopped suddenly as a memory tugged at the back of her mind. "Wait. What did you say her name was?"

"Juliet Holding."

Emma definitely knew that name. She just couldn't quite place where she'd heard it before. "Show me another one," she commanded, hoping that maybe the next victim's identity would help to trigger that memory.

Killian passed over another image, this time of a redheaded woman, bound in the same way and to the same chair, in what appeared to be the same location.

"I know her," she whispered. "I know I do. I just don't know how."

This was exactly what Killian had been hoping for. It was why he'd brought the images with him. "What about this one?" he asked, handing over another picture, this time of their third victim. "Her name's Imogen Ward."

"Yes! She's a blogger." Emma's eyes snapped up to meet his and the relief behind her gaze almost floored him. For all of her reluctance when they'd first met, it was obvious that she wanted to help where she could. Even if it was only to protect herself.

"She uh… she's a fashion blogger. She didn't like an outfit I wore for an event a few months back and completely tore it apart online. I didn't read her article, but plenty of people sent it to me."

Killian's pen flew over his page as he made notes on what she was saying while he asked, "Is it possible that the other women are also bloggers?"

"Of course. There are thousands of them out there. I don't know them all by name, though. I just remember this one because it happened recently."

"Has anyone else ever written anything negative about you?"

Emma arched a brow in his direction that said he was asking a stupid question, and Killian sighed in agreement.

"Point taken. Do you maybe remember any in particular? Anything exceptionally vicious or nasty?"

"Uh…" Emma tried to think back on anything memorable that had happened during her career, but most of those moments were positives, not negatives. She tried to always focus on the good in her life, instead of dwelling upon the bad. "No. I don't… yes. Yes! The redhead. She wrote an article about me not long after my break into the industry. She called my music 'cheesy gimmicks aimed at brainwashing teenage girls into thinking they want to be me, and teenage boys into thinking that they want to be with me.' I don't remember her name, though." Emma only remembered the article because, at the time, it was the first piece of negative press she'd received. She'd cried herself to sleep after reading it through – twice.

"That's fine," Killian assured her. "I can have a member of our team look into it. And if it's okay with you, we'll do a search for any articles or blogs that may have written negative pieces about you, and see if we can link them back to any of our other victims."

"Oh, God. Do you think that's what he's doing? Is he killing people that voice a negative opinion about me online?"

"It's entirely possible. His letters suggest a desire to protect you, so this might just be his twisted way of doing that," Killian explained.

It wasn't much, but it was the closest they'd come to a break in their case, so he'd take it. It also gave them a starting place to identify potential targets for any future attacks that could take place. Killian only hoped that Emma's detractors were in the extreme minority online. The FBI didn't have the resources to surveil dozens of people at once, especially when they were in the middle of a large murder investigation.

"Do you wanna take a small break," he asked, as he reached for his phone to stop and save the recording.

"Please." Emma took a few heavy gulps of her coffee as she tried not to imagine how many people would have inadvertently put themselves on some psycho's kill list just because of her. "Do you um… do you think I should issue a public statement?" she asked quietly. "I could ask him to stop? Or I could warn people to be more careful about what they post online?"

Killian considered the question carefully before he gave his reply. This version of Emma Swan was vastly different to the one he'd first met, and it took him a moment to realize why. It wasn't fear that was motivating her actions, it was trust.

Emma Swan trusted him, and because she did, she was opening herself up to him a little more.

"I don't think that's a good idea," he told her gently. "There are some people in this world that will take advantage of situations like this one. They'll use the hysteria to commit their own crimes and hope we lay the blame for them at the feet of our killer."

Emma nodded her head in understanding. She'd seen enough crime documentaries to know how true that was.

"Right now, you're our secret weapon, Emma. Nobody outside of the bureau knows about your connection to the crimes. As long as it stays that way, we have a better chance of making sure that we don't waste our resources in the wrong areas." Killian waited until Emma caught his eyes before he offered her a small smile of encouragement. "Thank you, though. For wanting to help."

"I'm not as heartless as some people seem to believe I am," she threw back at him. "I just… I wish this wasn't happening. I don't want anyone to suffer, Agent Jones. Especially not for me. I'm not worth that."

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