It was difficult for Parker to watch the video, but it was part of their job.

The unsub kidnapped the women, raped them and then sent the video to the family.

They watched the video without warning, leaving them expectingly very shocked and confused. In the case of Mr. Clemensen (the most recent victim's father), it was so bad that he died of a heart attack.

"So the music's not added like a regular soundtrack. It's in the background, so if you turn it down, you also turn down the voices."

"Well, can't we get Garcia to separate the audio tracks?"

"She's working on it now."

"Well, the sooner we hear how he talks to the victim, the sooner we'll know what kind of man we're dealing with."

"Tell us about Laura Clemensen."

"She's 20 years old, sophomore at Jacksonville University in Florida, assumed to be the fifth in a series of rapes and murders over the past two years. Some women were abducted in parking lots, others while they were running," reported JJ.

"And when was she reported missing?"

"Technically, she wasn't. Her roommate thought she was visiting family. Family thought she was at school."

"Was she close to her family?", Parker asked.

"Very. She had dinner with them on Sunday."

"That was five days ago, and nobody's seen her until now."

"She wasn't killed on the tape, and, given forensics, other victims were tortured for weeks before they were killed, so I think we should operate as if she's still alive."

"Not for long if the bastard gets his way."

"Okay, I don't get it. This is the fifth abduction and now the second DVD. Why'd they wait to call us in?"

"The last victim's family received this DVD two months ago," said JJ and started a second video.

It had the same background, and it was the same guy.

"– Jacksonville PD thought maybe they'd get some more clues. Instead, it just raised more questions."

"Turn that down, please," Gideon asked.

"There seems to be a natural escalation to the murders. It began as brutal attacks against the victims, and now it's psychological attacks to the families."

"So, if the thrill of the kill isn't enough to satisfy his sadistic needs, he needs to spread panic, and he thrives on that."

"Sadistic killers are typically strangers to their victims. It's easier for the offender to torture and kill someone that they don't know."

"Offenders," Gideon corrected Spencer. "The man on the tape isn't doing this just for himself. He's playing to an audience, not her family."

Gideon grabbed the remote control and started the first video again.

"There's someone watching who can appreciate what he's doing, admire his sadistic skills."

"It is a characteristic of partners to record their crimes so they can relive the fantasy later," said Parker.

"How can we be sure?"

"Right there, the camera moves."

"One guy tortures while the other records it. Master and servant."

"Jacksonville PD's been looking for this killer for years. How long is it going to take them to find a team?", Spencer asked.

Parker did ask themselves the same question in their head– Without help? A few more years.

And judging by the look on Spencer's face, he was thinking the same thing.

~~

Mark Twain wrote,

"Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it."

The Team continued the meeting on the jet.

"Again. That's the third time he's looked back at the camera," said Derek and stopped the video on the laptop.

"He's looking back at his partner."

"These two are clearly deranged and acting out their worst sadistic fantasies."

"Folies à deux."

"A rare psychological phenomenon in which two or more people share the same psychotic delusion," said Gideon.

"In its literal translation, yes, but it often refers to the bond that exists between two people that bring out the worst in each other," corrected Spencer as he sat down next to Parker.

"Most killing teams have a dominant personality that instigates and plans and a submissive one who's the eager accomplice."

"So how do they decide who gets to kill?"

"Well, the dominant one will usually insist on taking the life."

"So what's the psychology behind making these DVDs?"

"It's a shared souvenir. Allows the dominant to keep the submissive one motivated, loyal and aroused."

"It's also about control. A built-in insurance policy for blackmail just in case someone gets cold feet."

"It makes you wonder what might have happened if these two people never had met."

"Chances are the women would still be alive."

"Jacksonville PD just located Laura Clemensen's body. Some hikers found her under a bridge," Parker heard Garcia's voice.

They leaned into the hallway and could see that the technical analyst had started a video chat.

"They never hide them. They're always easy to find."

"Guys, Laura Clemensen wasn't missing for more than a week. Time spent torturing is getting shorter."

"Has her mother been notified?"

"No, not yet", Garcia replied and ended the video chat again.

"We can cover more ground if we split up."

"Morgan and I will meet local PD at the scene," Gideon explained.

"I'll talk to Laura Clemensen's mother, and since she just lost her husband–"

"I'll go with you," Elle agreed.

"Parker and I start with the victimology. Maybe find a reason why these women were targeted."

~~~~

Spencer, Parker, and JJ spread out in a small meeting room at the police station.

Parker pinned the final pictures to the board and then turned around. Their eyes fell on Spencer and the young agent stopped.

"What is that?" Parker wanted to know.

"What?"

"That thing on your nose."

"My glasses? You know I have them," Spencer said.

"Yeah, but you never wear them, that's why–"

"Now I'm wearing them. Does it bother you?" asked the young genius with a small smile on his face.

Parker scoffed, rolling their eyes and crossing their arms over their chest.

"You know exactly what I think when you wear your glasses."

"Guys, I talked to Garcia–", JJ reported and entered the room again.

~~

After Hotch and Elle spoke to Mrs. Clemensen for fifteen minutes, they met the others at the police station.

"Are there new victims?" asked Elle.

"Garcia just sent a list of all the unsolved rapes and murders in the past three years," Parker explained. "There are two that are particularly interesting."

"They look the type. Anything else?"

"Well, aside from sharing similar physical traits, they were also posed. The only difference is they were manually strangled, which I think is why Jacksonville PD didn't find a connection."

"Did they find DNA on the first two?"

"That's the thing. It didn't match the recent kills, but check this out. What if the dominant one allowed the submissive one to rape the first two victims in order to sort of draw him in, and then once he's hooked, he began keeping the prize all for himself?"

"You tell Morgan and Gideon about this yet?" Hotch wanted to know.

"They're still at the crime scene."

"We confirmed that Laura Clemensen had good relationships with her family and friends. She got good grades and stayed out of trouble."

"Just like all the other victims."

"Did you guys notice that package sent to the Clemensen family was only sent to Mary?" asked JJ.

"What about the first DVD?"

"Right here."

Parker pulled the packaging for the first DVD out of the evidence box. And this envelope was also addressed to the victim's mother.

"Why are they targeting the mothers?"

"The mother asked God to forgive the people responsible," said Spencer.

"And?"

"The family that received the first DVD went on TV pleading for their daughter's life. That must've made the UnSubs angry."

"So sending the DVD to the mother is a message in itself."

"A very clear one. They don't want or need forgiveness."

~~~~

A half an hour later, Gideon and Derek were back from the last crime scene and the team was looking through the evidence again.

"We're up to seven victims now", said Elle.

She put the box of evidence aside, just to grab another one.

"The humiliating posing of the body can't be a coincidence. It's just too unique", summed Spencer up.

"The bruising on the necks. Looks to me like the first victim struggled. I'd say the killer probably lost his grip a couple of times and really had to fight these women."

"That's why he switched from bare hands to a ligature. It's more efficient, controlled, and it doesn't sacrifice the sadistic need for a slow death."

"Because the DNA didn't match, Jacksonville PD just didn't put it together," Spencer muttered.

"And since they weren't looking for two offenders–"

"The signature indicates these women had the same killers. We just need to figure out who the hell they are."

"Well, Jacksonville PD searched everywhere, even swamps, and still didn't find the victims' vehicles. I've got Garcia tracing VINs, but my guess is they dispose of the cars just like they do the women."

"Yeah, but the bodies are easy to find. Why do they go to so much trouble to hide the cars?"

"Because the cars are more relatable to them," Parker quested.

~~

In the afternoon the team was ready to present the profile.

"– The dominant one is the mastermind. That's not to say that the submissive partner is in any way pure or innocent in this exchange," explained Elle.

"If their criminal desire wasn't present, their partnership wouldn't work," Gideon added.

"The offenders share a common delusion. It's one that you and I would never accept, but it's this bond that justifies their actions," said Derek.

"So we're looking for two sick minds who complete each other," summarized the sheriff.

"It's kind of like the perfect storm. Once these deviant personalities collide, they're deadly and unstoppable," Parker explained the situation.

"Like the DC Snipers or the Columbine assassins, sometimes they've met in childhood. Other times, they can be related like the Hillside Stranglers, Angelo Buono and Kenneth Bianchi, psychopathic cousins who terrorized women in Los Angeles. The dominant partner makes the submissive one feels invincible. That's his reward for doing as he's told. Unfortunately, there are countless opportunities for these twisted minds to meet, and once they pulled off their vicious acts, the two accept this as common behavior and become bored with normal activity. They live only for their new reality. They're obsessed with it, addicted to it, and there's a fierce loyalty between the two."

"The submissive one, however, is usually less intelligent and easier to catch, and, once caught, he is easier to turn."

"Lack of remorse increases their aggressiveness. Sexual sadists will stop when they're caught."

"And the need to psychologically torture the families–"

"Sorry to interrupt," Hotch was interrupted by JJ.

~~

Another young woman was kidnapped, and the mother was currently in the news.

"If you've seen my daughter, please... Tiffany's all I have–"

The woman held a picture of her daughter up to the camera. Parker's stomach clenched. The mother had no idea that she was signing her daughter's death warrant.

"She went for a run last night, and she never came home. She's my baby," the woman pleaded.

"Why weren't we told about this before she went on the news?" asked Gideon.

"Because we didn't know about it. Tiffany was abducted from Middleberg," JJ explained and turned off the television.

"That's nearly an hour away," explained Sheriff Portillo and it's outside of Jacksonville's jurisdiction."

"Are you sure these are the same offenders?", he wanted to know.

"Sadly yes, she's her type," Parker replied. "Grabbed her while jogging, just like her third victim."

"Middleberg's only one hour from here?"

Parker saw JJ reach for her phone out of the corner of their eye.

"If they see this, it's just a matter of time before they send a DVD."

"Jennifer Jareau, FBI. You just aired a press conference with Beverly Spears. I need to speak to her immediately," she said and left the room.

"These guys are impatient. They just dumped Laura Clemensen's body 24 hours ago."

"Which means they're more dangerous than they were yesterday, and Tiffany Spears is running out of time."

~~~~

Garcia found a suspect who was linked to three of the cars. The unsubs had the cars taken apart and the parts in different states.

Only when they wanted to talk to him (Joseph Davin) he pulled out a gun and– well, he didn't make it.

However, Garcia found out who he was in a cell with (his name was Tony Canardo), but Derek and Gideon only encountered the woman, Amber.

Spencer just entered the small office where Parker and Gideon were waiting for news. The young genius handed his better half a bottle of water and a paper bag with a bakery logo printed on it.

"Here, you haven't eaten anything since this morning and only drank coffee."

Parker looked in the bag and found one of their favorite cupcakes.

"Naw, thanks. That's why I love you."

Parker happily ate the cupcake and drank the water almost immediately.

It was normal for Spencer to remind Parker to drink and eat. It was just as normal for Parker to remind their Genius to sleep or take a break.

Parker threw the empty paper bag into the trash can as Elle stopped at the door.

"Hey, Garcia's checking Mike Kroger's whereabouts when the women were abducted. Some of his alibis already check out."

Kroger was Davin's boss, and he didn't seem too shocked about the death of his employee when talking to Hotch and Elle.

"What about Tony Canardo?" Spencer asked.

"Morgan's still waiting outside his house."

One of the officers also entered the office and reported that someone wanted to speak to Gideon.

Parker, Spencer and Elle followed the older profiler out of the room and encountered Mrs. Canardo.

The woman with short blonde hair looked very upset and Parker immediately noticed her black eye.

"Mrs. Canardo. What happened?" asked Gideon.

"After you left, I got nervous, so I went to find Tony–", the young woman explained.

Parker led Mrs. Canardo to a desk and motioned for her to sit down.

"And he knew something was up, so–"

"What'd you tell him?" Gideon wanted to know as he sat down opposite the young woman.

"Well, I told him the truth, that the FBI was asking questions."

"So he hit you?"

"Well, I wasn't completely honest with you about Tony," confessed Mrs. Canardo. "He fell off the wagon a while ago. I just was afraid to say something. I didn't want to betray him. He's my husband."

"No, it's good that you're here with us. You're safe here," promised Elle. "I'm going to go tell Portillo and Hotch that they should meet Morgan."

"Mrs. Canardo, can I ask you a question?" Spencer asked her.

"Yes."

"Is that ring new?"

"Tony won some money playing poker. He bought it as a gift. Why?"

"It looks a lot like Laura Clemensen's."

Mrs. Canardo realized what he meant. She quickly slipped the ring off her finger and dropped it onto the desk, almost in disgust.

~~~~

"If we're going to get anything out of Tony, we gotta praise him."

Hotch, Derek and Portillo had arrested Tony Canardo and found the original videos, including the video of the latest victim.

Canardo was taken into a room and the team watched footage of him just looking there.

"He's the dominant. He thinks he deserves it."

"Confirm instead of undermine his expectations, make him think he's smarter than us because he saw it coming."

"We don't have much time."

~~

Hotch took over the interrogation. On the screen, Parker saw their colleague enter the room and sit across from Canardo.

Canardo raised his hands as a sign that the handcuffs would be removed from him.

"Oh, sorry, that's just standard procedure. Special Agent Aaron Hotchner. I'm supervising this task force. I just want to say that this case, your case, is, uh, remarkable. You've got people at the BAU shaking their heads," Hotch began.

Elle and Parker exchange a look. The youngest of the team was always amazed at how good their colleagues were at interrogations and hoped that one day they would be as good.

"What about you? You shaking your head?" Canardo wanted to know.

"Absolutely. Seven victims in three years. You've got every woman in Jacksonville living in fear. It's pretty much what you wanted, isn't it?"

"I'm sure whoever's responsible for it is enjoying it."

I bet, you do, you little–, Parker thought and scoffed.

"The BAU would like to study you, interview you, with your permission, of course."

"Show me what's in the boxes."

"It's... They're all full. It's all you."

The profiler reached into the box that was placed on the table. He pulled out a few files and placed them on the table.

"We can, uh... We can open all the boxes if you want."

"No," chuckled Canardo. "I want to see my lawyer."

"Well, Tony sure lawyered up quickly," commented Derek.

"That doesn't add up, does it?" said Parker. "Shouldn't he be bragging about what he did?"

"He's playing games."

"I know the State wants to make a deal. If you just tell us where Tiffany Spears is–", Hotch tried again.

"This guy's been to jail before. He knows how to keep his mouth shut."

"Think about it."

"What, do you think I'm stupid?" asked Canardo.

"Far from it."

The two men stared at each other for a moment before Hotch stood up and left.

"Look at that. Notice how he's focused on those two pictures?"

"We can't forensically tie him to those victims, but we're certain that he posed those bodies after death."

"Well, that's certainly not working," Hotch muttered, entering the room. "I'm not getting anywhere with him."

"Is the wife still here?"

"You want to put her in a room with him?"

"We need to humanize him. I think she could do that," explained Gideon.

"How? He abuses her," Elle pointed out.

"And she takes it. She's subservient to him."

"Do you think she'd do it?"

"If we want to find Tiffany Spears, she'll have to. It's worth a shot."

~~~~

Gideon was able to convince Mrs. Canardo to talk to her husband.

Who also told her where Amber could be found– in a warehouse that only Joe Davin's father had the key to.

"Joe's dad? Isn't he in a wheelchair, though?" Spencer asked.

"Only for the last two years," Gideon reported. "Henry Davin could've raped and killed the first two women three years ago, then brought in Joe and Tony to continue his work."

"Maybe it's the only satisfaction he can get now. They record it, and he lives it through them."

"So it was a team of three."

"We found Laura Clemensen's hair at Henry's house. It makes sense."

~~

"He's really playing the tough guy with that officer, huh?" commented Spencer.

He, Parker and Gideon watched on the screen as Canardo pretended to attack the officer.

"He played the tough guy with Hotch. He wasn't antagonistic. He was defensive."

"False bravado. You think he's wearing a mask?" Parker wanted to know.

"Let me see Amber's tape."

Spencer grabbed the remote and started the tape. The camera was next to Tony Canardo and across from Amber. The man stared straight ahead in silence while the woman fidgeted with her fingers.

"Why isn't she scared?" Gideon suddenly asked.

"She looks scared to me," Spencer replied.

"No, look."

The older profiler took the remote and rewinded the tape a few seconds.

"She initiated eye contact, right there," Gideon explained. "If she were afraid, she'd look anywhere but his face."

Then Amber Canardo's eyes fell on the crime scene photos.

"She's looking at the victims, and she doesn't really... She doesn't seem that repulsed. She actually looks surprisingly calm," Spencer murmured.

"He's studying her. He's waiting for her lead."

"Where did Joey take the girl?", she asked her husband.

"She just gave him an order."

"He's protecting her. He's giving her an out."

Gideon rushed out of the room to the waiting area where Amber Canardo sat down after she talked to her husband. But she was nowhere to be found.

"Where is she? Where's the girl? Where is she?"

~~

"We analyzed what we recorded of Tony and Amber. Turns out she's the dominant one," Gideon reported to Hotch and Derek over the phone.

"Garcia finally isolated the soundtrack on that DVD. Turns out it was Amber giving the orders."

"That means she's the one doing the killing. Where is Amber now?"

"She told the cops she was going out for a smoke and walked out the back door."

"We're running out of time. You've got to find out where they're holding Tiffany."

"Yeah, I'll change the approach," said Gideon and left the office.

Spencer, Parker and Elle moved to follow him, but JJ approached her colleagues at the door.

"Hey, uh, you're going to want to look at this."

She handed Parker a file and the young agent scanned it.

"Joey Davin's DNA didn't match the first two victims. That means neither could Henry's," they muttered.

"So who raped the first two girls?"

Gideon wasted no time. He crossed the desk area and disappeared into the room where they had placed Tony Canardo.

The other profilers re-entered the office to listen in on the conversation.

"Lucky man. You know that?" Gideon began. "You have something really special. I mean, she had to know what you were doing to all those women, and she stayed with you anyway."

Canardo looked at the older man for a secund and Gideon sat down opposite him.

"It must feel great to be appreciated by the woman you love."

"It happens."

"I bet. I know you and Amber would do anything for each other, but why would you confess to killing these two women when you had no idea who they are?" Gideon wanted to know.

He pointed to the pictures of the victims that Garcia had found through her research.

"Joey and I killed all of them", Canardo admitted without looking at the pictures.

"Really? Well, whose DNA did we find at the scene?" replied the profiler.

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, it's not yours. It's not Joe's. That poor guy probably had no idea these cars belonged to the women you killed. It makes you wonder, if you and Joe hadn't shared a cell together, maybe he'd still be alive."

"You got the wrong idea."

"No, I think you got the wrong idea, Tony. Joe wasn't your partner. Tiffany Spears isn't at the storage unit," explained Gideon. "And you want to know what else? We can hear Amber's voice on the videos telling you what to do. We know Amber's your partner. Come on. Why? Why are you protecting her?"

"She's my wife," Canardo replied.

Parker almost admired how strong the relationship between them was. He was willing to confess anything for her. If it hadn't been about covering up multiple murders, it would have been cute.

"It's more than that."

"Look, nothing would ever come between us, not you, not nothing. Besides, Amber would never do anything to hurt me–"

Spencer's cell phone rang and immediately went on speaker.

"Reid here."

"No time for pleasantries", said Garcia. "I was able to unseal a file regarding Amber Canardo."

"What does it say?" asked Parker.

"When Amber was 15, she walked into a Tallahassee hospital, raped and beaten something awful. Doctors deduced she was being abused by her father and her brother. Eventually, they convinced her to go to the police, but when she did, Mom showed up and told them that Amber was lying," reported the technical analyst.

"Wow. She obviously did nothing to protect Amber from the abuse. She feels betrayed by her mother and now receives extreme sadistic pleasure in watching the same thing that happened to her."

"Strange, in this case, the abused actually became the abuser," Parker summarized.

"That doesn't happen a lot?"

"One in eight."

"We found the one."

Spencer hung up and the profilers returned their attention to the screen and the interrogation.

"Ask Amber how the first two women died? She's done it before, Tony."

"No, she hasn't," Canardo scoffed.

"Yes, she has, with other men. You're not so special. Men mean nothing to her. She used you just like the other guy."

"Shut up."

"She set you up, Tony. She had you do everything. Whose DNA do you think that was at the scene?" asked Gideon.

Canardo's poker face began to crumble. Spencer and Parker exchanged a look before the young genius reached for the walkie talkie.

"– Come on, think about it. Amber beat herself up. She walked in here. She handed me Laura Clemensen's ring, and she told us you gave it to her as a gift. You know it's true, and that's why you're upset."

"Gideon," Spencer spoke over the headset. "Garcia found out that Amber was abused by her brother and her father. They'd take her to the woods."

"She betrayed you, Tony. There's only one way to get her back because if you don't, she'll forget about you just like this other guy. Tell us where she's keeping the girl. I know Amber's father kept her in the woods, so no one would hear her scream. Was it Amber's idea to leave the girls in the woods? Where's Tiffany?"

Canardo knew Gideon was right. His facade was now finally breaking down.

"There's a cabin–"

~~~~

"We've got Amber, and Tiffany Spears is alive."

A few hours later the team was back on the jet heading home.

"All right, thank you," JJ ended the call and hung up.

"Jacksonville PD found the remains of a body on the grounds of the cabin. They think it's Amber Canardo's old boyfriend," she reported to the others.

"Well, 10 will get you 20 that DNA will match the first two victims."

"At least the families will finally have closure," said Spencer as he sat down next to Parker with his coffee.

"And we did save Tiffany Spears," Morgan added.

Philosopher Kahlil Gibran wrote,

"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls. The most massive characters are seared with scars."