Cooper, Branthau and Delolly were on the crime scene, looking down at the body of 27 year old Nick Dallard as the medical examiner did his job.

Hugging herself and still shell-shocked, Erica Lawson talked to the agents. "I was right inside my apartment! This is all my fault, if I hadn't slammed the door in his face he'd still be alive."

Cooper thought she was probably better off without the drug-shooting loser that lay dead in front of them, but he wasn't going to say it. "What was the fight about, Ms. Lawson?"

She bit her lip and looked anywhere but the three FBI agents in front of her. "I did a thing, with his dealer. Nick uses," she swallowed a sob, "Used heroin. He owed his dealer a lot of money, and he was going to shoot him if he didn't pay up. I went to his dealer and tried to make a deal."

"Who is his dealer, Ms. Lawson?"

"Harvey Two Nickel, scumbag who works the Skid Row, that used to be a nice neighborhood." Erica hugged herself tighter.

Delolly was working close to the M.E., as close as he'd let her, as the man pulled something from the back pocket of the deceased's jeans. Her eyes widened. "Ms. Lawson, what did Mr. Dallard do for a living?"

"I don't know, he always dodged the question and got really mad when I pushed. We met on the street, I used to hook, but I haven't done that in three years."

"Coop, you might wanna take a look at this." Delolly held up the opened wallet in her gloved hand and handed her partner a business card while she showed him the badge in the wallet.

Branthau took one look and put his hand to his forehead. "I can't believe this."

Erica leaned forward. "What? What is it?"

Cooper looked at the wallet and back at Erica. "Ms. Lawson, meet your boyfriend. Detective First Class Nikolai Dallard, Roanoke Narcotics Division."

Erica was struck dumb for a moment before finding language. "No fucking way."

Reid and Harris' expressions were unreadable as the three agents came back and explained the coroner's finding on Dallard.

"Detective Dallard had been using heroin and cocaine, the police union rules give cops enough of a heads up of when a drug test is coming that Dallard must have managed to get himself in condition to not piss hot." Cooper rolled his eyes.

Delolly picked up from there. "He has track marks all over his feet, legs, and torso, indicating somebody who had to hide his addiction and long sleeved shirts weren't cutting it anymore. Toxicology said he was high as a mother loving kite at the time of his death."

Branthau tacked photographs to the board. "And the signature matches the killings in Tallahassee and the bodies from the mass grave here in Roanoke. Dallard had a cubic zirconia ring shoved in amongst his GI tract post-mortem, with the number 7 carved into the lower back. The carving is shallow, considering the high-risk situation and victimology, the unsub had to work fast, Erica Lawson could have had a change of heart and opened the door to her boyfriend at any minute."

One of the local detectives rapped on the door frame of the conference room the BAU had taken over. "Chief Reid, you got a fax in from Quantico. There's more people to your team?"

"Those would be my consultants, former SSAs Rossi and Hotchner. Anybody else would have used Skype."

As Reid left the room, Lawrence looked at the coroner's report and Seaver, back and forth several times. "Are we seriously thinking that the victim being a drug user in law enforcement is a coincidence?"

Seaver shook her head. "That makes no sense, Matt." She checked her perimeter, but the rest of Lawrence's agents were debating elements of the profile nearby. "Harris was not a member of the team in Tallahassee, so why would this victimology mean anything?"

"Okay, he chose this victim. Erica Lawson's apartment building had a buzz in lock on the door that worked, Delolly checked. Somebody buzzed the unsub in and he went after Dallard specifically."

"Or Dallard was just in the hallway at the wrong time, it happens." Seaver paced and looked towards the junior agents.

"There's only one way to figure out if Dallard was stalked prior to being killed, or displayed any awareness that he was being watched. It's going to be ugly and unpleasant." Lawrence started to walk away to find the Roanoke police chief, then the narcotics division captain and get the name of Dallard's partner.

She sighed at his back. "That's the understatement of the century, Agent Lawrence."

Reid grabbed the files off the old fax machine in the back corner of the police station. Only Rossi would use a fax. He read over the team's conclusions, and the various supporting statements, subsidiary notes and alternate conclusions they'd added. "You guys forgot that he probably feels invisible in his normal life."

But he couldn't help himself, as he walked back to the conference room the Roanoke PD had given them, and pulled out his phone to call back to Quantico.

The team talked amongst themselves over lunch, nothing too heavy, nothing too deep.

JJ was handing out the inevitable pictures. "And here's Henry and his wife's new baby Ashleighnen, I have no idea where they got that name from though."

Garcia squealed as she handed JJ her own pictures. "Our first little mini-Lynch! I was going to email these as soon as I got them from the boy, but Cloud is an epic procrastinator, he finally sent me pictures the day after I left the farm to come back here. You are so lucky, Jayje, your kids still live vaguely nearby. Cloud decided him and my daughter-in-law were moving to California!"

Morgan laughed. "Twenty-two hundred miles to get away from Mama, you that bad a mother-in-law there, Babygirl?"

She huffed and pulled off her glasses. "I am the world's best mother-in-law, for your information, Derek Morgan."

Prentiss shook her head with a small smile. "We do come home eventually, PG, believe me. No matter how overbearing a mother we have."

She huffed even more. "I am not an overbearing mother!"

Hotch hit the conversation just then. "Of course you're not. Rossi and I just sent our profile off to Reid and his team."

Rossi's phone rang as he added, "Boy moved a long way."

She growled. "My son was not trying to get away from me. He got a better programming work offer in Los Angeles, that's all."

"David Rossi speaking." The entire group suddenly quieted, out of respect and wondering who had called.

"It's Reid. Is everybody else with you?" The younger man sounded very tired.

"They're with me, Reid, I'm putting you on speaker." Rossi hit the right key and laid his phone in the middle of the group.

"We've had another one, and he's just getting warmed up, Rossi. It was a cop, a narcotics detective with the Roanoke police department." There was a long pause, and the group didn't say anything, letting Reid talk. "The detective was an intravenous drug user. I sent Cooper and Delolly to talk to the dealer, and Lawrence is talking to his captain and his partner."

Rossi glanced at the stiff expressions on several faces. Finally, Hotch spoke. "You okay, Reid?"

"I'm fine, Hotch, this entire case is just personal for me." The team could hear muffled shouting in the background. "I have to go, Lawrence and the narcotics captain just got in a disagreement. Police captains don't seem to favor it when they're told one of their men is a drug abuser, was a drug abuser. I'll call back in a little while. Garcia, you got a computer with you?"

She grinned as she hurriedly put away the pictures of her grandson. "Of course I do, sweetums. Hit me good."

"Sending you the files on Detective Nikolai Dallard now. Crime scene, coroner, and my agents' first notes from the detective's girlfriend, Erica Lawson. She didn't know he was a cop, for starters. Rawlins is running Dallard's background back at the BAU."

Garcia watched as the email hit her box. "The Great Old Chiefs shall look over this and get back to you post-haste, Young Chieftain."

Reid gave a tired laugh. "Garcia, I wish Rawlins was half as cheerful as you are. I've got him background checking the entire police department. I think we all know from experience that Detective Dallard's colleagues had to have known he was using."

The phone clicked off as Hotch rubbed at the bridge of his nose. Rossi's arms were crossed. As many years as he had been with this group of people before he'd retired the second time, there were still moments when he wondered about the time before he'd joined them.

The two oldest men had an entire conversation with their eyes, then Hotch said to the group. "Look over the stuff Reid just sent us and start figuring what it changes or adds to the profile."

Morgan and Prentiss exchanged a look as they grouped tightly to read the data on Garcia's tablet.

Gideon paused a moment, almost about to follow Hotch and Rossi, before turning back to the files Reid had sent them. He'd sacrificed any grounds to say anything about Reid a long time ago and knew it.

Cooper and Delolly got out of the SUV and walked up to the large house where Harvey Two Nickel lived. Cooper whistled as he looked up. "Damn, think I went into the wrong career."

Delolly rolled her eyes. "Tell me about it."

Cooper banged hard on the door while Delolly let her hand rest on her gun. The door opened to a man in his late forties or early fifties. "Hello, can I help you?"

Cooper pulled out his credentials. "Agent Cooper, this is Agent Delolly. We'd like to speak to Harvey Two Nickel."

"Um, yeah, I'll go get him, agents. I'm Cory, for what it's worth." He walked off to retrieve his boss.

Lawrence was squared off with Narcotics Division captain when Reid approached. "Are you seriously trying to tell me, Agent Lawrence, that one of my men was part of the freaking problem?"

The unit chief bit his lip for a second. "We need to talk to his partner. What your other investigators did or didn't know isn't at issue here, and nobody is being witch hunted. We need to know if Dallard gave any indication of being a man that was being stalked or hunted prior to the murder."

There were times when Reid severely felt sympathy for old Erin Strauss. "Lawrence, go talk to Branthau and Harris about the geographic profile."

Lawrence was about to open his mouth to say that the two weren't even done with it, but soon changed his mind and walked away. Reid put himself next to the captain. "I completely understand what this is like for you."

The captain stalked off to his office. "You can come if you want, don't let me stop you."

Reid followed after the captain. "Days ago, one of my unit chiefs was shot and killed right through his so-called bulletproof vest. I hadn't even had a chance to talk to his widow before that mass grave was found."

The captain didn't look at Reid. "Well, I don't have to talk to the widow, do I? Just the crack whore that my heroin-shooting detective had as a girlfriend. Who didn't even know he was a cop."

"I've been there, too. Nikolai didn't deserve to die because of it, but if he was killed because of it, that can help us catch the murderer, Captain."

"His partner was Eric Nord, Detective Second. Nord swore to me already he didn't know anything."

Reid nodded. "We still need to talk to him, Captain. We are not trying to cast any aspersions on anyone."

Harvey threw one leg over the other as he regally gestured Cooper and Delolly to seats in his sprawling living room. "I presume you're here to talk about Niko, Agents?"

Cooper nodded. "Funny thing, narco detective owes you a lot of money, and he turns up dead. Big coincidence there, Mr. Nichols."

Harvey started laughing. "Come on, I'm not deaf, Agent Cooper. I heard about that mass grave. Do you really think I would have killed a narcotics detective for owing me money? If Dallard hadn't been fish gutted, I was about to start turning some screws, my own personal wrench in the police department, pity that can't happen now."

Delolly leaned forward. "You probably knew him better than his colleagues, was there ever any sign of anyone targeting him, stalking him?"

Harvey shrugged. "My guys, mostly. I knew Niko was a cop before he knew I knew. I made very sure he wasn't working under before we'd sell to him. Funny as hell, actually, Agent Delolly. You ever seen a heroin addict who desperately needs a fix? They will do anything to get someone to give them what they need, they will sacrifice everything that used to matter to them. Career, family, self-respect, the respect of others, they'll alienate their friends and family and coworkers, all in the name of the next hit."

Cooper interlaces his fingers and set his chin on his hands. "Interesting, such a perspective, and yet you're the biggest dealer in Virginia."

"Allegedly."

Delolly looked around the house. "Big place for 'allegedly.' "

"That's a matter of opinion, Agent Delolly."

Standing up and pulling a business card, Cooper handed it over to Harvey. "If you think of anyone else, give us a call."

On the way back to the vehicle, Delolly sighed and brushed her hair out of her eyes. "He didn't have anything to do with the murder. If I was a drug dealer with a narc on the rope, I wouldn't kill him, like Nichols said, I'd use them to screw up investigations in the Narcotics Division."

"Maybe Law'll get more from Dallard's partner."

Hotch and Rossi had gone as far as Hotch's hotel room. "Honestly, I always figured you knew, Dave."

"Not in so many words. Still, he knew the mother in that kidnapping case in 2011 was using, he's refused narcotic painkillers ever since I've known him. Think the unsub knows?"

Hotch shook his head. "I don't see how, somebody would have to have been close back then to know."

"Or obsessed." Rossi reached for the hotel room door. "We need to look at Reid's entire case history, including the years we worked with him. I would bet he has met this unsub before, and this man feels he has something to prove to Reid."

"That's a lot of cases, Dave."

"Tell me about it." Rossi walked out of the room. "I don't have the kind of memory Reid does, and nobody else here does. We're going to have to request our own case files."

Hotch followed. "That'll be a pain without Reid's say-so. Nobody's gotten a successful FOIA request on the FBI in fifteen years."

"We both consult, we share our conclusions, he'll authorize access to the back files. We aren't dealing with Erin here, Aaron."

Nord was stiff as a fireplace poker as he turned a cup of coffee in his hands while facing Reid and Lawrence. "I did not know Nick was, you know. I would have reported him, I would have. Made him get help."

Lawrence laid a hand on the detective's shoulder. "We're not saying you did, but we have to know if Detective Dallard was just in the wrong place at the wron time, or if our unsub picked him deliberately. Can you think of anyone that might have been following him, watching him? Did he ever give any indication he felt like he was in danger?"

Nord shook his head and sipped the coffee. "Nick was quiet, you know, didn't talk much. He had a good record back in robbery/homicide, but over here, I guess considering what he was doing this was a horrible position for him. I knew he had a girl, just by observation, but he'd deny it if I asked. I figured he was just trying to keep a private life private, you know?"

Reid picked it up. "Never any sign he was in trouble then?"

"I wish I'd seen something, honestly I do, Agent, but I didn't. There was never anybody and getting anything out of Nick about his personal life was like pulling an alligator's teeth. For good reason, now, I guess." Nord stood up. "If there's nothing else, I have to go through me and Nick's caseload."

"One more thing, actually. You're not originally from Virginia, are you?" Nord blinked and took a step backward. "It's your accent, you have a vague hint of a Latin-derived language in your speech. English isn't your first language."

He nodded. "Wow, yeah, actually, I moved here from Miami, way too violent down there for me, I thought Virginia'd be less violent."

"Actually, Detective Nord, while violent crime is more visible in large cities like Miami, very few places are truly 'safer' than others. You can find evil everywhere." Reid stood up and tried to stretch a stiffened old knee. As Nord left, Reid yanked his phone off his hip and dialed.

"Rawlins here."

"You got those backgrounds yet?"

"Not complete, but I started with Detective Dallard's fellow narcos, you want 'em now?"

"Send everything to our tablets, Rawlins."

"Sure thing, anytime, Chief." Rawlins hung up and Reid put his phone away.

Lawrence looked behind him as Nord walked away. "You can't possibly be thinking- Chief, there's no way the Diamond Killer would be stupid enough to kill this close to home."