"Witness says these unsubs are using cats. We should find out where they might be getting them" Hotch said back at the local station.
"There's plenty of strays out there. Nobody would notice if a few went missing" Morgan said as Lilith walked into the room and stood next to Reid.
"Or they could work someplace where they had access to animals" Lilith suggested.
"Could overlap with the pentobarbital... Research labs, veterinary hospitals" Reid continued smiling at Lilith.
"I'll get Garcia to make up a list" Morgan said walking off to make the call.
"Carrie said that they referred to each other as brothers" JJ explained.
"It's not uncommon for duos to be related. The hillside stranglers were cousins. The Carr brothers perpetrated the Wichita massacre" Reid stated.
"Yeah, but these two are of different races, and Carrie said the Hispanic one did not speak Spanish, which makes me think..." Lilith started to say.
"Raised in a white household. Maybe they're half-brothers" Hotch finished for Lilith.
"What if they're adopted? Family destruction plays a role in the crimes. It could be a reflection of their own broken home" Reid suggested.
"This guy expressed affection for Carrie. We know he took her photograph. We could use that" Hotch said standing up.
"If we release news of her survival, it might draw him out" Reid suggested making Lilith noticeably wince at the suggestion.
"Not comfortable with that?" Hotch asked Lilith who sighed.
"Ok, but I would be more comfortable if we doubled her security" Lilith said firmly.
…..
"Hey. So Carrie's been cleared to go" Lilith said as JJ walked up to her back at the hospital.
"Well, I wish she had somewhere to go" JJ said sadly.
"No luck with the L.A thing? Can't this girl catch a break?" Lilith said sighing before they heard screams coming from Carries room. They ran through the hallways to find her screaming in her sleep.
"Carrie. Carrie. Carrie. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. It's ok" JJ said grabbing onto Carrie's shoulders while Lilith stood nearby.
"Oh, it was Daddy" Carrie cried.
"It's ok. It's just a dream. Ok" JJ said hugging her.
"I'm ok" Carrie said sitting back.
"We, uh... We brought you a change of clothes" Lilith said trying to move on past the nightmares that she knew all about.
"I... I didn't know what to grab you, so I just got three of everything" JJ explained.
"From the house" Carrie said softly and JJ nodded.
"Looks like a flower shop in here" Lilith said looking around the hospital room at all the flowers.
"Yeah. They all started, um... Coming in after the news broadcast" Carrie explained before Lilith's eyes landed on a set of purple flowers.
"We got to go" Lilith said to JJ and they left the hospital and got in the car.
"You okay?" JJ asked softly as she realized Lilith was being extremely quiet on the drive back to the station.
"That girl is going to have nightmares for the rest of her life… I know what that's like" Lilith admitted.
"You still have them?" JJ asked worried but Lilith shook her head.
"Not as much… I haven't had one in a few weeks but I know it will happen again eventually. It always does" Lilith explained bitterly before getting out of the car and walking over to Hotch.
"Exact same floral arrangement was in the Ortiz living room" Lilith explained to Hotch.
"Could be coincidence" Hotch said.
"Or the sender was in the house, associated it with her" Lilith explained.
"No note?" Hotch asked.
"No, just a blank card from the floral shop" Lilith explained.
"Get Garcia to track the delivery, and Reid's got something for us when you're done" Hotch explained walking off as Lilith pulled out her phone.
"Hey, Garcia. It's Fallon" Lilith said once Garcia picked up.
"Why cats?" Garcia asked sadly.
'Sorry?" Lilith asked confused.
"Evil has no boundaries" Garcia muttered.
"Well, for what it's worth, I think they go peacefully" Lilith said trying to be helpfully.
"Yeah. How do I catch these guys?" Garcia asked typing away.
"Uh, back-trace a flower delivery for me" Lilith explained before looking up to find Reid watching her from the conference room. she nodded at him giving him the go ahead to start without her.
"This is the Laybourne house, where we believe our unsubs graduated from robbery to murder" Reid said pointing to the photos.
"Did you find a trigger?" Morgan asked.
"Not until I looked at the daughter's autopsy reports. Uh, check out the bruises on her torso" Reid explained.
"She was beaten?" Hotch asked.
"But not by our unsubs. The coroner noted those bruises were several days old. Uh, it turns out she'd been to the emergency room 3 times in less than 2 years. The D.S had even been notified" Reid explained.
"So the Laybournes were abusing their daughter. Where's this going?" Hotch asked.
"One of the unsubs decimates parental figures, but we know the statistics there. It's... It's likely he was abused himself" Reid explained.
"So you're saying the unsub recognized the signs of abuse, flew into a rage, and killed the parents?" Hotch asked.
"Anger displacement. He's getting revenge for his own childhood abuse" Reid stated.
"So you think what, the victims were beating their kids?" Nellis asked.
"Uh, the Laybourne case was just the trigger, but now they see all parents the same" Reid explained.
"That doesn't explain the kids" Nellis said.
"Maybe it does. Think of the family annihilators John List and Mark Barton. They thought they were saving their kids by killing them" Morgan explained spinning around to face Nellis.
"But what is he saving them from?" Nellis asked.
"Life without their parents, without love, life like his" Morgan explained.
"They're orphans. What if they both grew up in a third-party household?" Reid suggested.
"What, like a foster home?" Nellis asked confused.
"Didn't Carrie describe an aversion to eye contact?" Hotch asked looking at the board of crime scene photos.
"Oppositional defiant disorder" Reid stated.
"Often seen in kids who grew up in foster homes" Hotch explained before Lilith walked into the room quickly.
"Guys, I think we may have found our girl's secret admirer" Lilith said holding a notepad.
"Garcia traced the flowers?" Morgan asked shocked.
"Yep. Paid for by phone with a credit card under the name Robert Serrano" Lilith explained as Reid, Morgan and Hotch went to the address listed with the credit card only to find it was another crime scene.
"Detective. Flowers weren't the only thing they bought on that stolen credit card. $31 worth of gas at a station 3 blocks from here" Morgan explained to Nellis as he arrived the house with the local police.
"Paul, the station... See if you can pull the security camera footage, I.D that car" Nellis said to a local police officer.
"Security chain's been broken. They couldn't lie their way in this time" Hotch explained walking out of the house.
"Media blew their M.O" Nellis stated.
"They're speeding up, feel us getting close" Morgan stated as Nellis saw a dead body get taken past them.
"This is close?" Nellis asked softly before Morgan's phone rang.
"Talk to me, Garcia" Morgan said into the phone before putting it on loud speaker.
"So, felons in the Denver area with foster background, stress on assaults and burglaries" Garcia explained.
"What'd you get?" Morgan asked.
"The phone book. Foster system's a bit of a breeding ground, go figure" Garcia said sarcastically.
"Well, try crossing it with..." Morgan started to say before being interrupted.
"With offenders having workplace access to small animals and/or pentobarbital?" Garcia finished smugly.
"How many names?" Morgan asked.
"9. Matching all 3 criteria. Sending them now" Garcia said before hanging up.
"Now we're close" Morgan said to Nellis before walking off to find Hotch.
…