Just before landing, Parker put their notebook away. They tapped Spencer, who had fallen asleep after JJ told them about the case.

It was urgent, so the team met directly at the jet. Where were they going? Flagstaff in Arizona.

JJ was the first to exit the jet and greeted Detective Griffith, who was already waiting for the FBI agents.

"Jim Griffith," the man introduced himself.

"Hi, Jennifer Jareau. Thanks for meeting us here."

"Thanks for taking this on so quickly."

"Yeah, the faster we get here, the faster we can help stave off panic."

"I hear that."

"What can you tell us about the university?" asked Spencer.

"It's small, tight-knit. Dorms are still single-sex. It draws from all over the country, but students are mostly the arty type."

"Have you increased uniform presence on campus?" Derek wanted to know.

"Yeah. Doubled it," explained Derektiv Griffith.

"Any other measures?"

"I've got security shuttles running 24/7, and, as of tonight, I've imposed a 10:00 curfew."

"We need a corner of your precinct so we can set up shop," said Hotch.

"You've got it. Do you need to get to the hotel first?"

"No. Spree killings in a confined area are a race. He's racing to kill as many as he can. We're racing to stop him."

~~

Parker and the others barely left the airport when Derektiv Griffith got a call– there was another victim, a young woman with brown hair.

Derek, Gideon and JJ accompanied the detective to the crime scene while the others drove to the police station.

The next morning, Parker and Emily headed to the coroner's office.

"Did the other victims have this much overkill?" asked Parker.

"Death was caused by a single, very forceful stab wound to the heart," summarized the coroner.

"Yeah, he broke through the breastbone."

"And after that he just lashed out at random."

"Well, no defensive wounds. She didn't even hold her hands up to fight him off," Emily said as she and Parker looked at the victim's hands.

"The first two victims were the same."

"Did you run toxicology screens?" Parker wanted to know.

"None of the others were drugged. Considering that she was standing, waiting for a shuttle, my guess is, she wasn't either."

Emily went outside while Parker was still waiting for the report.

They thanked the man and followed their colleague outside.

The dark-haired woman sighed and put her phone back in her jacket.

"Something wrong?" Parker asked.

They opened the car door and sat in the passenger seat.

Emily got behind the wheel first before answering: "No, not really. Someone just wanted to sell me insurance– again."

She drove off and changed the subject.

~~

Emily and Parker met Gideon, Hotch, and Derek at the police station where they were about to present the profile.

Parker handed the coffee to the others that she and Emily had brought with them and stood at the evidence board.

"We know everyone's tired, working overtime. I want to tell you how much we appreciate it," Gideon began.

"We'd like to give you a rough profile of the man we're all looking for," Hotch explained. "This is someone with access. He's managed to move into a small community with a high police presence without raising suspicion."

"Which means there's a good chance that this is someone you've seen."

"This UnSub has killed three women in four days. That's what we call a spree killing. Now, most likely, something has happened in the past few days to set him off."

"Because he kills white, brunette women that stressor probably has to do with a woman in his life who fits the same description. A wife, mother, girlfriend. The women he's killing, they're most likely a substitute."

"What we ask you to do is look at people who are part of the campus fabric, see if anyone fits the bill. Students, professors, support staff," Parker asked the officers and detectives.

"I'm sorry, but how are my men supposed to know about somebody's home life?" Detective Griffith wanted to know.

"Well, the people around him have seen him devolving. If you suspect someone on campus, talk to anyone who knows him. Find out if he's recently found religion, been drinking, even if he's been harming himself," Hotch answered the question.

"He may feel emasculated. Considering the stressor and the victimology, there's a good chance that rejection is a recurring theme in his life."

"This UnSub displays a great amount of anger. He stabs his victims repeatedly, even after they're dead. Seconds later, he feels remorse. It's possible that his guilt is because his victims were in a position to trust him."

"How's that?" asked a female detective.

"Good question," said Parker. "As we said, we think he's a part of campus life. The victims, they feel safe around him. He's able to get close."

"He's also able to kill these women without them fighting back. Not one of them has defensive wounds on their hands."

"Like if they'd been Tasered first," the same detective commented.

"That's possible. Why?"

"Security guards on campus aren't allowed guns. They carry Tasers," explained Detective Griffith.

Parker and Emily looked at each other as they remembered the strange markings the victim had on his stomach.

Parker nodded to her and the woman walked past the others to take another look at the markings on the photos.

"Can you get me an employment list for campus security?"

~~

After the meeting, Parker helped Emily and Garcia go through the list of security guards.

"I got nothing," summarized the technical analyst.

"Nothing?" Parker repeated disappointedly.

"Nada. Your security guards are all clean. Squeaky. No criminal records."

Parker stood up and threw the now empty coffee cup into the trash can.

"What about a recent rejection?" Emily wanted to know. "Something set him off. Did any of these guys get fired recently? Or did their wife leave?"

"I'm sorry. That is far too general, even for my powers of snooping."

"Okay, okay. Let's try it this way..." the young agent sighed and fell back into their chair. "You're a security guard..."

"I'm not sure I like where this is going," Garcia replied.

"You probably had higher ambitions," Emily added, understanding Parker's train of thought.

"Easy."

"Could you crosscheck these guys against police and military records?" Emily asked the blonde woman. "See if any of them got kicked out or rejected."

"I got one, but it's not recent," Garcia reported after a moment.

"Give it to us anyway."

"Nathan Tubbs. Rejected from the police academy, 2003. Failed his psych evaluation."

Detective Griffith reentered the room.

"I've got the list of responders. Only four guards were at every scene."

He handed the paper to Parker and the young agent held it out so Emily could look at it, too. The name 'Nathan Tubbs' was also on the list.

"Nathan Tubbs. Garcia, what else can you give me on Tubbs?" Parker asked further.

"I've got a court appearance, six days ago. It looks like the judge gave his wife full custody of their daughter. No visitation rights."

"How much do you want to bet his ex-wife is a brunette?"

"10 bucks and thanks Penny."

"Yeah, you're the best."

"Word."

~~

An hour later, Nathan Tubbs sat in the interrogation room. They found him when he wanted to accompany a student home in the car– that was his statement.

The team was sure they had the right guy, but unfortunately, they didn't find any solid evidence in Tubb's car or his apartment.

"How's it going out there?" Emily asked as Hotch entered the room.

The profiler observed the interrogation so far and now wanted to be updated on the latest evidence.

"Gideon's winding him up."

"Smart."

"Anyone who exhibits that much overkill is bound to explode," Parker added.

"How does it come in here?"

"Means of subduing the victim," Emily began listing, holding the Taser up.

"Potential weapon," Parker added, taking Tubb's knife out of the box.

"Source of displaced rage."

In the third evidence bag was a third of a photo. Tubbs had torn off the part showing his ex-wife.

"Stressor."

Parker placed the official letter from the court on the table with the other items.

"Evidence of a self-destructive spiral."

"– and trophies of his kills."

Parker and Emily placed the hip flask and the newspaper articles about the murders on top of the other things that were already on the table.

"Everything that points to the profile, yet nothing we can hold him on."

~~

"You know, I wouldn't mind some actual physical evidence," said Derek.

He and the others already looked over the evidence a fourth time.

"Do we have anything?" asked JJ.

"The knife Tubbs had on him is inconclusive. The Taser didn't have any prints on it, which I guarantee means we're not going to get a DNA match either," summarized Derek.

"I'll stop by the security offices. If Tubbs kept any trophies linking himself to the crimes, he might have kept them in his locker," said Spencer.

The young genius walked past Emily, who was standing at the table, and Parker, who was sitting at the table, and discreetly tapped Parker on the shoulder four times.

"I'll go with you", Emily suggested, grabbing her jacket.

"No, let Reid do it. Go to the hotel, check in. They're not gonna hold our rooms forever. We'll go in shifts," said Derek.

"I'll sleep when he confesses," Emily replied.

"We all want," JJ added.

Parker also nodded as the two women also left the room.

At some point during the evening, Tubbs' psych eval was sent to them.

It fit the profile. They still didn't have any solid evidence, but they kept Tubbs in custody.

~~

In the early hours of the morning, Parker just closed the door to the hotel room when the team received news of another murder.

It was another brunette young woman.

Parker found it hard not to feel guilty. Spencer told them how relieved the students were last night.

And the faces of the people standing around the crime scene didn't make it any better.

"I guess we can release Tubbs after all," said Detective Griffith.

"Well, I think that would be a mistake."

"What are you talking about?"

"I don't think it was the same killer," explained Gideon.

"You've got to be kidding me."

"She has blunt force trauma to the head. She was knocked out, not Tasered," Emily summarized.

"She's a brunette stabbed to death on this campus."

"These stab wounds are shallow. They're hesitation marks. Whoever killed her either wasn't sure they wanted to be killing, or they never tried it before."

"There are no defensive wounds. Just like any other victim. That's not surprising, considering the head wound."

"Excuse me, sir?" an officer spoke to Detective Griffith.

"What?"

"This was dropped at the precinct. There were no prints on it," the officer explained, handing the detective an envelope with a message.

'He's innocent. I'm still out here.'

"Now, do you believe we have the wrong guy?" Detective Griffith wanted to know from the profilers present.

"The first UnSub showed remorse. He wouldn't brag about it or flaunt his latest kill," said Parker.

"I don't believe this."

"This victim wasn't posed," Gideon added. "The papers never included details about the bodies. If this was a copycat, he could only do it the way he assumed the first killer did."

"Look, I asked you guys here because I needed your help. You're the experts, but right now it sounds to me like you're trying to cover your own asses."

Parker, who was wearing sunglasses, rolled their eyes slightly.

"Hey, look around. This is not the place for this conversation."

~~

After a good half hour, the profilers left the crime scene again.

As soon as Gideon and Derek entered the police station, Tubb's lawyer complained to them and demanded that they let the man go.

Hotch took over because according to him: "I was a prosecutor. I can keep him off for days."

"– and he was innocent, but the accusations tore apart his life," Derek argued as Parker walked through the door with coffee for the entire team.

Gideon didn't bother with Derek, turned around and walked past Parker.

"What's wrong?", asked the young agent.

"To be honest, I don't know."

The older profiler exited the building as Parker turned in his direction, confused.

They handed Derek the coffee, took theirs and the one for Gideon and followed him outside.

"Do you think I'm wrong?" Gideon wanted to know and turned to Parker.

The young adult thought for a moment, handed Gideon his coffee and answered.

"I think we should consider all possibilities. Even if it was Tubbs, we now have a second killer. And I also think it's not easy for you right now and–"

"I'm fine," Gideon said, but Parker knew him well enough to see through his lie.

"Ok," they simply said, since there would be no point in arguing with Gideon.

The two drank their coffee in silence before joining the others.

~~

"I can't believe we're actually thinking about letting Tubbs go," JJ commented shortly after Parker and Gideon entered the room.

"JJ, we've got no evidence. Tubbs' lawyer's not gonna let him talk, so we're not about to get a confession out of him."

"We can still hold him for another 48 more hours," the young woman reminded her colleague.

"You can't hold a suspect indefinitely with no evidence."

"Not indefinitely, 48 hours. It's enough time to clear the campus."

"Can we please forget about Tubbs for a minute?" said Gideon. "Let's just say we have a copycat, who are we talking about?"

"The most common examples are on it that people don't always think of as being copycats. Kids who commit school shootings, also teen suicides," Spencer listed.

"They tend to come in clusters. Both models, we're talking about an age range that's consistent with the campus," Parker added.

"School shootings fit the classic copycat model. They want their own piece of the glory. They're competing."

"Okay, but that doesn't jive with whoever wrote this note. 'He's innocent.' "That's about freeing Tubbs, not trying to steal any credit," Derek pointed out.

"So, could Tubbs have a partner?" JJ wanted to know.

"Yeah, sure. That's possible, but I think it's highly unlikely. I mean, come on, look at Tubbs. He's a loner. He's anti-social. He's not the partner type."

"It could be more like a groupie," Spencer suggested. "After Kenneth Bianchi was arrested, he actually convinced a woman he hardly knew to attempt a murder, so the police would think the Hillside Strangler was still at large."

"But Tubbs subdues his victims first. He's not powerful. Not to mention the stabbing most likely means he's impotent."

"A groupie doesn't have to know that," Gideon muttered, indirectly agreeing with the young genius. "All they have to believe is that Tubbs answers some need inside them. And whoever wrote this definitely needs something from Nathan Tubbs. 'I'm still out here'

~~

The team had to let Tubbs go but watched him through surveillance cameras. That and Derek, Emily and Parker followed him at a distance.

Tubbs was picking up his things since he could forget a job there when one of the students approached him.

Derek grabbed cell phone and called Gideon.

"Hey, we've got a brunette that just approached Tubbs outside the security offices."

"Good. Hotch is having them uplink the security monitor."

Parker watched as Tubbs and the girl talked and then started moving together.

"Okay, they're on the move. What do you want us to do?"

"Stick with them, keep your distance. We have video. Hotch and I will be your eyes and ears."

"Got it. Let's go."

They followed the two across campus but didn't hear what they said because they had to keep enough distance.

Then Tubbs and the girl stopped, and she sat on a bench.

This time it was Parker who pulled out their phone and dialed Hotch's number.

"They just walked into a courtyard. We can't get an eye line without them seeing us. Do you have an image?"

"Yes. The security camera microphone is uni-directional. The audio pickups are only good for so far. We've got it as loud as it can go without distorting."

"All we've got to go on right now is a profile. I need you to get as close as you can, until he makes a move on her or either one of them admits to murder."

"Okay. Just give us the go," said Parker and hung up.

"Let's get close."

The three F.B.I agents crept closer to Tubbs and the girl. but still couldn't hear anything said between the two.

They stood against a wall next to a hedge and waited for Hotch to contact on of them.

"What's going on?"

"She's offering him a knife," Hotch explained immediately.

"Did he take it?"

"No."

"She wants to be a victim," Derek addressed Parker and Emily.

Parker had already suspected that the girl was the copycat. But they hadn't expected that she would also want to be one of the victims.

And judging by the surprise on Emily's face, neither did she.

The young agent could barely finish the thought until–

"Go. Go. Go."

Parker was the first on the scene.

They stopped with the gun raised just as Tubby collapsed to the ground.

"FBI! Put the knife down, now!" Parker said to the girl, who was still holding the bloody knife in her hand.

"FBI! Put down the knife."

"Put the knife down," Derek and Emily also addressed her as the two stopped next to Parker.

"Listen to her."

"Drop the knife," Emily repeated.

"Are you going to shoot me?" the girl wanted to know.

"Just put the knife down. Nobody's going to shoot you," Parker assured.

It wasn't what the girl wanted. And for a second it looked like she would put the knife down without any further problems, but then...

But then she rammed the knife into herself.

"No!"

"No!"

"No!"

She also collapsed to the ground. Derek and Emily checked on the two of them while Parker called the ambulance.

But any help came too late for both Tubbs and the girl.

~~

"Gideon, you knew how this was going to end, didn't you?" Derek asked the other profiler before they entered the jet.

"I never thought anyone would die," replied the profiler.

"No, of course not. I know that. I mean, the copycat. You knew the two of them would find each other. That's why you let Tubbs go, isn't it?"

"Look, I trusted the profile. At best, it's always just an educated guess."

Derek nodded and climbed the stairs in the jet.

"It was the best chance of catching them," Hotch Gideon agreed.

"I know."

"Anna Begley was ill. Her suicide may have been inevitable," said Parker.

"And Tubbs?"

"He killed three women."

"Right," Gideon muttered and stopped. "What if we were wrong?"

Hotch said nothing. He just turned around and followed his colleagues into the jet.

Parker followed the Unit Chief for a few steps, but decided otherwise and waited until Gideon also entered the jet.