Dave is the one who has to talk to Ed because Dave is the one who recruited him, made the exceptions for him. He stands by the decision because Ed has been an excellent addition to the team, but he's been ignoring inconsistencies about Ed for nearly three years, and since he brought Ed in, he needs to be the one who confronts him.

He finds Ed leaning against the side of one of the SUVs, staring at his phone like he wants to crush it in his fist.

"Expecting a call?" Dave asks casually. Unless he's calling Garcia ahead of them, everyone he should need to get ahold of is already here.

Ed puts the phone away. "I wish," he says.

Dave leans against the SUV next to Ed, more in his space than he'd usually be, but he thinks that part of why Ed kept such a large personal bubble is just because he wanted to avoid people bumping his prosthetics. Since Dave knows, he should be okay. "You want to explain what all that was about?"

"No."

At least he's honest about that.

"That profile you gave was very specific," Dave says. "We have no idea how you got there."

"I can't, Rossi—"

Dave pushes off the SUV to look at Ed more directly. "You can't withhold information from us like this. If you know something, you need to tell us."

"I can't."

"Try us."

"I can't ."

"You mean you won't ," Dave says, serious. He knows Ed is keeping secrets, but keeping secrets to protect himself at the expense of innocent lives is not something Dave imagined he'd do.

"Even if I explained it, you wouldn't believe me," Ed says. He puts his left hand on his right arm and clutches it again. "Honestly, if he weren't trying to fuel it with people, I'd be tempted to tell you to just let him do it. It'll probably kill him anyway."

Dave stares at Ed for a moment before he says, "You really believe that circle has power, don't you?" It had been obvious inside, but he had hoped once Ed distanced himself from it, he might come to his senses. That is obviously not the case.

Ed leans his head back against the SUV and stares up at the sky. "I don't know," he says. "I don't know if what he's made has any actual power or not."

"But you believe it does."

Eyes closing, voice soft and full of regret, Ed admits, "Yeah. I do."

Dave frowns. "This isn't a game, Edward. If you know something that can help us, you need to tell us!"

"I've already told you everything I know that can help you. I gave you your profile. I told you I think that circle could have real power. What more do you want?" Ed asks, tired and defeated.

"Lives are at stake!"

"You think I don't know that?" Ed snarls, coming to life. "You want to know more? Fine. This guy? He frequents libraries, probably college ones. He needs the concentrated collections academic libraries house rather than the public ones. He's young enough or at least looks young enough to pass as a student, but he's not, so he can't take things out. He'll avoid asking for help because he doesn't want to draw attention to what he's researching, which means the librarians might know him on sight, but they won't have a name for you. Because the closest major campus is well over an hour away, he's mobile, so he has a vehicle. But we already assumed that because—look around." He makes an expansive gesture to the woods surrounding them. "Do I need to go on providing useless pieces of the profile?"

Dave sighs. It's all good information to have, but Ed's right—it doesn't actually help them find this guy.

"What can you tell us that is helpful?"

Ed leans back against the SUV again and sighs, all the fury and energy drained, but he's thinking. "He's slightly above average intelligence, and his strengths will be math or science. The array—the circle itself, it's easier than you'd think, but there's still a lot of calculations and he wouldn't have dared ask for help with them." He pauses, staring up at the overcast sky before continuing, "He probably started with animals, so he's probably an accomplished trapper. He was sure this would work before he was willing to sacrifice people to it."

"An accomplished trapper might help. Hunters are a dime a dozen in this area, but a trapper is a more specific skillset," Dave points out.

"Crawford already knows who our unsub is. She just doesn't want to tell us because she doesn't want to believe it. He's probably either her age and they went to school together, or she knew whoever he lost. She's protecting him."

"I know," Dave agrees.

Ed pushes off the SUV. "Then let's go make her talk."

Dave puts his hand on Ed's shoulder to stop him, feels the metal under the clothing. It's strange to know he's allowed to touch Ed now, after nearly three years of Ed being unequivocally "hands-off." "We can't just badger her," he says. And really, with the secrets Ed is keeping, Dave doesn't know if he wants Ed talking to her at all.

Then again, those same secrets probably make him the ideal person to do so.

"Normally I'd say if you don't think I can do the fucking job, then send me the fuck home," Ed says, and there's a hardness in his voice that Dave doesn't know that he's heard before.

Dave waits for him to go on, but Ed falls silent, his hard, dark eyes meeting Dave's. In those eyes, Dave sees what Ed won't quite say— This is mine , and you are out of your league and you need me on this one .

Ed knows what's going on, and none of the rest of them have a clue. Neither do they have time to make Ed tell them. Dave isn't wholly sure that they can make Ed tell them anything.

Morgan is coming up to them with a grim look on his face. "Garcia just called. A bus from a senior living center was hijacked about an hour ago. More than a dozen people were on board. GPS has been disabled."

"It's our guy," Ed says, every bit as grim as Morgan.

"The unsub thinks he's resurrecting someone," Morgan says. "In that case, wouldn't he want younger victims?"

"I'd say let's be grateful that he didn't target a school bus," Dave says.

"There weren't any kids," Ed says like he just realized. He makes a beeline back to the barn, forcing Morgan and Dave to run behind him. When they get there, Ed is standing beside the victims. "There aren't any kids. She's the youngest," he says, pointing at the young woman who gouged the circle. "And she's got to be at least twenty-five. He can't bring himself to target kids, or even young adults. He doesn't care about race or gender or anything else, but he won't sacrifice kids."

"It could just be opportunity," Reid says. "Kids going missing is a lot higher risk because of things like the Amber Alert program."

"No," Ed says with certainty. "He could have taken kids. We're close enough to DC or Philadelphia that he could have picked up runaways."

"Might not have been that easy," Morgan says. "Street kids are canny."

"I think Ed's right," JJ says. "The unsub didn't hesitate to take healthy adults. He knew enough to target mostly people who weren't immediately missed. He could have found kids who fell through the cracks. He chose not to."

"Regardless, he's going to have to either ditch the bus soon or he's got somewhere to go," Emily points out. "It's not exactly an inconspicuous vehicle."

Ed's eyes move around the circle, then he goes and grabs an old horse broom off the wall. Before anyone can say anything, he is sweeping away part of the circle, heading to the tray in the center as he does, ignoring cries of surprise.

"We've got pictures already," Ed says, sounding irritated as he erases a swath of the circle. "And I can recreate it if we don't. " He sets the broom aside and kneels down in front of the tray.

Looks dart between the team, with Emily pointedly looking at Dave. He sighs and follows Ed into the circle as he lifts the tray.

"What is all this?" Dave asks, staring at the mound of what looks like mostly mud.

"Water, carbon, ammonia, phosphorus, salt, saltpeter," Ed rattles off. "Other traces." He lifts the tray with his right hand, feeling the weight of it.

"Those are basic compounds that make up a human body," Reid says, sounding confused.

"Yeah, and with at least forty pounds of carbon in here, I'd say that whoever they're trying to bring back is an adult," Ed confirms.

"None of those things are hard to get or expensive," Morgan says. Dave glances up and meets his eyes. Apparently they are going to ignore the fact that Ed knows the breakdown of a human being off the top of his head. At least for now.

"A kid's pocket money could probably get it all for you," Ed agrees, sounding drained, like this is a conversation he's had before. Then he adds with bitter amusement, "We're made of such cheap materials."

Reid frowns. "We have all the stuff to make a body, but how does the unsub expect to resurrect the particular person they want?"

Ed uses the tray to shift materials around without touching them, looking at it intently. "A hair," he says, as one is shifted to the top.

Dave leans forward. "Short, dark. Could be the unsub's or who he's trying to raise." He slides a glance over to Ed and asks, "What would you use?"

"It could be either," Ed says, answering the first question. "And I don't know how you get the person you want back. A hair from them or from you, if you're related, isn't an irrational choice though."

There's something Ed's not telling them. Something very specific to this that he knows but won't say. He knows this whole thing too intimately and this has shaken him too deeply. Dave has never seen Ed more than annoyed or pissed off about an unsub and what they're doing. He's never been afraid.

Ed had been afraid when he first saw the circle. He had known exactly what they were looking at.

"What did you use, when you tried it?" Dave asks. He feels the others tense, not because they haven't gotten there, haven't reached the same conclusion, but because it's hard to accuse Ed of an atrocity like this.

The tension in the barn ratchets up when Ed doesn't immediately answer. Just when Dave gets ready to push again, he finally says, "It doesn't matter. It didn't work," staring into the tray like it holds the answers. "It won't ever work. You can't bring the dead back. He's setting himself up for failure."

"You killed people—?" Reid blurts.

"Don't be an idiot," Ed says, weary and far too old as he sets the tray down and stands. "I wouldn't have tried if I had to kill someone to do it."

"You really tried this?" JJ asks. She looks as stunned as she sounds.

"I was a stupid kid," Ed says, the self-loathing and contempt in his voice are thick enough to choke on.

"What happened?" Emily asks. "When you tried it?"

Dave hears the real question—Why are you so afraid of it?

"That's how you lost your arm and leg," Dave says before anyone else can get there, though Reid's mouth is open. The memory of Ed standing in his kitchen, removing the hoodie to show an arm made of armor is still clear in Dave's mind.

Because I was a fucking stupid kid messing around with things I shouldn't have.

Ed is holding his arm again, but he doesn't say anything.

"How could a circle cost you an arm and a leg?" Reid asks.

"What does this do, Elric?" Emily demands. That's her boss voice. That's the one that says she's not taking shit anymore.

"I can't explain."

"You won't ," Emily snaps back as Dave gets a wave of deja vu.

Ed doubles down. "I can't ."

Emily stares at him hard, but he doesn't flinch from her. "Morgan, JJ," she says after a long moment. "Why don't you and Elric head back to the station with Deputy Crawford? We'll finish up here and start canvassing the locals."

It's not a reprimand, but Dave can sense one coming. They can't afford to appear divided among a small-town law enforcement group like this, though. Dave knows there will be further discussions to come.

Ed doesn't argue, just following Morgan and JJ out. He may not argue, but he's not subdued. He pauses before he leaves and says, "If you find another circle… don't touch it. Don't touch anyone in it. Not unless you can confirm it's broken like this one."

"Or what, it'll cost us an arm?" Emily says, sarcastic and obviously frustrated with Ed's unwillingness to explain.

"If you're very lucky, that's all it will cost," Ed says, sober, heavy with knowledge that was bought at a terrible price. He leaves them with those ominous words hanging in the air.