Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds and intend no copyright infringement.
Morgan was so fast, Hotchner even managed to answer the phone. JJ informed him that Henry Milton had just died. "A few seconds before, he woke up once more", she said. "His last words were: I can't live with this guilt."
Rossi nodded. "He couldn't live with the guilt of having unintentionally killed his sister", he said. He kneeled down beside their former attacker who was now firmly pinned to the ground by Morgan. "Who are you? And where did you get that gun?", he asked him.
"My name is Thomas Brannon. A couple of weeks ago Henry's sister told me that she couldn't stop thinking about an acquaintances' sudden death. Oddly, I knew the name. Francine Whittaker. It had shown up in one of the files I had worked on for the man in the back. I didn't tell Emma or Henry, but her story got me thinking. After Emma died I started nosing around. Gradually I discovered the truth. Unfortunately too late for everyone."
"Who killed Emma and all the other people?", Hotchner demanded to know.
"Most likely the man who broke into my home a couple of hours ago, tripped over my dog and fell down the stairs so unluckily that he broke his neck. I think he's a professional killer, hired by the man in the back. I took the killer's gun, but I honestly didn't want to kill anyone. I only came here to cover my tracks, I didn't even know you were here."
"The killer who took out five people with a single gunshot each tripped over your dog and broke his neck while falling down your stairs? Your luck is amazing." Unbelieving, Morgan shook his head.
"Depends on the point of view", Brannon, still pinned on the carpet with the agent on top of him, groaned.
"This "man in the back" probably got nervous when Emma started inquiring about the dead patients, so he hired someone to kill her. Maybe he thought all his problems were solved with her death. Then he found out that his financial consultant had contacted you…" Reid nodded in Rossi's direction "… knowing that he would have the FBI on his trail, he decided to make a clean sweep and ordered the killer to take out all his partners: Henry Milton, the surgeon, the nurse, the mortician, you, our dumb lucky accountant here…"
"Unknowingly Emma Milton was not on a serial killer's trace, but on her own brother's scent. His involvement with illegal organ transplants got her killed. So he was right: Her death is his fault", Rossi continued.
"But will we be able to detect the "man in the back's" name?", Prentiss wondered.
"Maybe…", Reid said and turned to the painting of Eilean Donan Castle, "…if Henry Milton made his backups as meticulously as he kept his apartment clean." And then he finally got to explain what he had wanted to say all evening: "If you take the f7 and e4 as ordinate and abscissa, they mark a certain point on the canvass. Look here…" he pointed at a tiny spot right under the horse's left hoof. "The paint was applied thicker here. I guess we'll find a microfilm or something like that under it."
And so it was. Henry Milton had hidden a complete list of everyone ever involved in the illegal organ trade – perpetrators, customers, victims, under the paint of the picture. The "man in the back" was identified easily.
"This way Milton at least helped to catch the man who ordered his sister's assassination", Rossi stated some weeks later in Quantico, as he skipped through the case's notes one last time.
"Does it make him less responsible?", Reid asked.
"No", Rossi said flatly and closed the file.