Parker and Spencer walked with the others down the hallway of the house where, just a few hours before, horrible things happened. 

"I was teaching an in-service at the Baltimore Field Office when this came in. Baltimore PD's saw some grim stuff, but never anything like this," reported Derek.

"We've got two bodies ID'd as William and Helen DiMarco. Retired, lived here for 37 years. No kids. Neighbor reports a white male, 20 to 40 years old fleeing the scene. And I quote, 'Hopped up on those damn drugs.'"

"Eyewitness accounts are notoriously unreliable," Gideon commented.

"So far, sounds like a standard double homicide. Why are we here?" Hotch wanted to know.

The profilers reached the bedroom and the sight was actually answer enough.

Blood spatters right from the vanity to the wall.

"Massive overkill," Derek replied, emphasizing the word 'massive'.

"Helen DiMarco was found here tied to the chair in front of the vanity. No defensive wounds. Ligature marks around the wrists. One clean laceration from ear to ear."

"Looks arterial. Probably the carotid. She went quickly."

"The husband William was found in the shower, but he wasn't quite as lucky."

'Wasn't quite as lucky' wouldn't be the expression Parker would have chosen.

Whatever had happened to Mr. DiMarco, the result was that the entire shower was covered in his blood.

"Ligature marks on the wrists and ankles and one long laceration up the abdomen through both layers of muscle."

"Evisceration? That's typical of disorganized behavior."

"Despite all the blood, this crime scene shows method, order, control. I'd say it's pretty organized."

"There was also evidence of torture with the husband. Burns, contusions, lacerations. You name it, this guy tried it."

"If torture is the UnSub's signature, the methodology's usually unique. A person who burns someone doesn't normally use a knife," Spencer pointed out.

"So we have more than one killer?" Parker asked.

"That or we have one killer with more than one personality," said Hotch.

"We also have three victims," Gideon spoke up. "Blood on the vanity, wife's body was found there. The husband was in the shower. From the looks of the level of the ring in this tub, whoever was in it lost their entire blood volume."

"Approximately 10.6 pints," Spencer muttered.

"Which means the victim was dismembered."

"It looks like our guy took all the parts with him."

~~~~

Hemingway wrote

"There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it never really care for anything else."

A short time later, Hotch, Elle, Spencer and Parker were standing in the fireplace area.

"Okay, what do we know about the UnSub based on the two bodies we do have?" Hotch asked

"Typically, torture falls into two categories, sadistic and functional. Functional torture is used to extract information or to punish. It's measured, impersonal, completely disinterested–"

"– Like a military tactic."

"Exactly."

"The second one is sadistic torture which is used to extract some sort of emotional need," Parker added.

"But sadists are sexually deviant, yet there's no evidence of sexual contact," Elle pointed out.

"That we know about," said Hotch.

"What do you mean?" Spencer asked.

"Well, we don't have the third body yet."

~~

The remains of the third victim were found latter that night.

"Third victim was positively ID'd as a low-level mob guy, Frederick "Freddy" Condore–," Derek reported as he entered the conference room.

Elle stood at the evidence board while Gideon, Spencer and Parker sat at the table.

"–He was the nephew of the older couple. Body parts were found in seven different trash cans two blocks from the crime scene."

"Were they able to completely reassemble the body?"

"The killer didn't keep any trophies."

"Is there any evidence that he got off?", Elle inquired.

"No."

"Garcia has a number of unsolved murders in D.C., Virginia, and Maryland over the past 15 years", Parker said and put the file on the table. "Many of them have ties to organized crime but all of them have different MOs."

"What's the connection?"

"Torture. Marks on the bones are consistent with the same cutting tool."

"Tortured victims, most tied to organized crime, no signs of sexual sadism."

"We're looking for a hit man", said Elle.

"No, a hit man doesn't need to torture to get the job done."

The door opened, Parker looked up and saw JJ enter the room.

"Two things. Baltimore just forwarded a sketch of the man running from the scene," said the blonde woman and placed the drawing on the table.

"–And you've got some agents out there who think that you're poaching on their turf," she added afterwards.

"I'll handle it," Gideon assured.

The older profiler stood up and left the room to speak to said agents - as Parker would later learn, they were Agent Cramer and his Team for Organized Crime in Baltimore.

Parker didn't understand a word of what was being said. But the young agent assumed that the BAU should no longer work on the case.

The conversation didn't last long and Gideon came back into the conference room.

"So, we're just going to drop it?" Elle inquired. "These guys don't know what they're dealing with."

Gideon crossed the room, stopped in front of the writing board and added 'confident' and '40-50' to the thinks that were already written on it.

"Our UnSub is male, intelligent, organized, and methodical–," the profiler listed.

"He has the confidence of a man who's been killing for a long time. The only victim removed from the scene is Freddy Condore, indicating some tie to him. Elle, you and Reid stay on Condore's background with Garcia, dig deep, see what turns up."

"Condore worked as a supervisor at a scrap metal yard in Baltimore. It's owned by a guy named Michael Russo, boss of a small mob crew. Parker, let's grab Hotch and go check Russo out," said Derek.

The young profiler nodded and left the room with Derek.

~~~~

The car ride to the scrap metal yard took less than 20 minutes and the FBI agents were lucky because Russo was already running towards them, even though it was unintentionally.

"Michael Russo?" Hotch spoke to him.

The man stopped with a second unfriendly looking man.

"Agents Hotchner, Morgan and Gallagher, FBI."

"What do you want?" Russo pretended innocently.

"Freddy Condore."

Russo glanced briefly at the other man, who shook his head cluelessly and shrugged his shoulders.

"He didn't show up for work today. Didn't call. Nothing," Russo reported.

"Probably because he and his aunt and uncle were murdered last night," Hotch explained.

"Really? Too bad."

"Yeah?" Parker scoffed. "You look really sad about it."

"Look, kid, if you have something to say to me–"

"It was a professional hit," Hotch spoke up. "Either you're in charge of your business or you're not."

"What kind of business do you think I'm in, huh?" Russo wanted to know. "Look around, I'm in scrap metal. It's all about recycling. That's where the money is, my friend. Saving the Earth."

'Saving the Earth?' Parker didn't believe a word the man said.

"You've got a big problem. You know the mob isn't what it used to be."

Derek stepped closer to Russo.

"Ain't easy always fighting for respect, is it? You always gotta fight for what's yours. One of your boys steps out of line, you hit him hard. You make it count, right? Is that what happened to Freddy?"

"Look, you've got a case to make, run along, get your papers. Come back with the bracelets. Otherwise, I got a business to run," said Russo and went back to work.

~~~~

"I've got an address for you to hit," which was the first thing Elle said on the phone.

It was the apartment of one of Freddy Condore's 'friends'.

His name was James Baker and his rap sheet was more than suspicious.

He spent time in juvenile detention for attempted murder and was released at age 21.

After that he was arrested armed robbery, petty theft, burglary, narcotics sales and rape (in this order).

The apartment was equally strange. It wasn't just that James wasn't there. The apartment was very simply furnished – too simple.

There wasn't even a photo or picture on the wall.

"It's like nobody lives here," Parker commented as they looked at the living room area.

The young adult appreciated simple furnishings. They also had their and Spencer's apartment decorated rather simply - apart from the two large bookshelves and Spencer's antique furniture.

"Guess he wasn't expecting company," said Hotch.

He and Derek had looked around the kitchen and only found a few kitchen utensils in the cupboards.

"Something's wrong."

"Yeah, I know," Hotch agreed with Derek. "Look at this place. It's an artificial dwelling to match an artificial past."

Parker decided to take a look in the bathroom. Things weren't any different there, the young agent couldn't even find a bottle of shampoo.

"Guys, we got a hot weapon," Parker heard the voice of their colleagues.

Parker left the bathroom, not without turning off the light, and joined the others in the kitchen.

Derek had found the gun wrapped in a towel in a cavity in the kitchen wall.

"It's a GLOCK 19. And this round is standard law enforcement issue."

"So you're saying Baker's an undercover cop?" Parker asked.

"I'm saying I did 18 months deep cover, and this place, it's got all the makings of a crash pad."

~~~~

As it turned out, James Baker was an undercover cop assigned to get information on Michael Russo.

The only problem now was that James hadn't had any contact with Agent Cramer and the others since the murders and hadn't shown up when they came to pick him up.

"We're going to need a bigger board," said Garcia.

The technical analyst entered the conference room with another box.

"Please tell me you brought some breakfast," said Derek.

"Trust me, sugar, you are not going to want to eat when you see what's in here," Penny replied.

She opened the box and handed Parker a handful of files.

"How many more are there?" Derek wanted to know as he joined his colleagues.

"Well, I've gone back 15 years, and there's over 100," replied Garcia.

"A hundred unsolved murders?"

"Yeah, that we know about. And then there's more coming in."

Derek also picked up a file and looked at it.

"Well, the torture's consistent," said the profiler. "You know, we thought this guy might have been at it a while, but these many victims, Guys? John Wayne Gacy killed at least 30 people. This guy's more than tripled that."

"Yeah, but this guy gets paid for it. He's a hit man."

"No. He's more than that," explained Derek. "Not all these victims were mob hits. You know, my guess is he probably started hunting when he was really young. Perfected his craft. Moved on to bigger prey."

He moved closer to the board where he and Parker had hung the pictures of the victims of the first cases.

"I mean, look at this–"

Derek turned back to Garcia and Parker and held out the open file to them.

"There are no hesitation wounds on the body. Just one clean cut through flesh and bone," Parker summarized what they saw in the photo.

"Okay, so what does that tell us?" asked Garcia.

She looked the other way so she wouldn't have to see it.

Parker gestured to Derek to hand them the file. He did and Parker placed the file closed on the table.

"Most people wouldn't imagine doing something like this to another human being. But this guy, he doesn't even flinch. He's got no conscience. We've got ourselves a serial killer with a perfect career. Russo has no idea what "He's dealing with. I think we can shake him. You two, keep looking," said Derek.

He then left the room, leaving Garcia and Parker alone with the files.

~~

Hotch and Morgan were able to shake Russo's confidence in his hit man.

And with the surveillance team outside of Russo's office, they hoped it would go faster that way.

"Is this going to work?" Elle wanted to know.

She, Garcia, Spencer and Parker sat in Garcia's Batcave waiting for news.

Or rather, Garcia's computer was connected to the surveillance team and Parker hoped something would happen soon.

"The beam is reflected from the windowpane according to the law of optics," said Spencer.

"Yeah, the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection," Garcia added.

"Is it going to work?" Elle repeated the question.

This made Parker smile. Elle should know them both by now and should therefore expect such an answer.

But as if on cue, Michael Russo's voice came from the computer.

"Hey, it's me. I need to see you tonight. I'll call you from a secure line."

"Apparently."

"Hey. Listen, you brought a lot of heat taking down Freddy like that. I'm dealing with the Feds– Listen, meet me here at the office– They don't know nothing. I'm dealing with them. Stop being Paranoid, Vinnie."

"Bingo," Spencer said.

"No. Vinnie," Garcia replied.

~~

"Russo's got 11 associates named Vincent," Parker said as they went through the 'Vincents' files with Spencer and Elle.

"Oh, make that ten. Vincent Cellito died last summer," Elle reported.

Then she stopped and carelessly placed her coffee mug on a file next to her.

"Here's something. What can you tell me about Vincent Sartori?" Elle wanted to know.

At the same time, Garcia grabbed the coffee cup and threw it in the trash can.

"I was still drinking that."

Spencer and Parker glanced at each other and put their coffee cups down as well (far away from the computers).

"Not only is this equipment expensive, it's also extremely sensitive," explained Garcia.

"Vincent Sartori."

"Currently doing six at Dannemora for racketeering."

"How about this Perotta?" Spencer suggested. "There's not much on him."

"Can you get into those records?" Elle asked as Garcia began to do magic.

"Despite the fact that they were probably expunged," Spencer babbled. "– she can find the faintest echo of deletion, successfully recreate the file, thereby sending us all to prison for computer felony fraud counts."

"We can make bail," Elle replied simply. "Garcia?"

"Already in. Alcohol addiction at 14. Violent outbursts. Assaults. Once threw a Molotov cocktail at someone sitting in their car," Garcia read.

"Several notations for aggression. He once scheduled a visit to an infirmary to gain access to a boy who looked at him for too long," Spencer added.

"No fear, no remorse, quick temper. He was also smart enough to stay off the radar as an adult", mumbled Parker. "Paranoid personality. Could be our guy."

"There's absolutely no information on him as an adult. Like no driver's license, no utility bills, nothing. It's like he became a ghost."

"Let's just hope they can catch him."

~~

Spoiler: They caught him.

Only Hotch was injured during the arrest.

While Perotta was being put in the interrogation room, Parker basically stormed into the next room, from where Hotch and Agent Cramer were watching the whole thing.

"Thank God, you're okay," Parker said to Hotch. "They said you were hurt. I was really worried-"

"Parker–"

"You should go home and rest. Or go to the hospital... How many fingers do I hold up?"

"Parker–"

"That's not a–"

"I'm fine," Hotch assured

Parker nodded and the two profilers turned their attention back to Perotta.

"We don't have time for this little show. Interrogation techniques say make the guy comfortable, make him your friend, give him a way out. That's how you get a confession," complained Agent Cramer.

"That may work with a common criminal. It's not going to work here," said Hotch.

"Why is that?"

"Because anti-social personality disorder means never trust anyone with anything at any time," Parker explained.

"Then what are you supposed to do?"

"Make him uncomfortable."

~~

At first Gideon tried to get some information out of Perotta and it almost worked.

If Agent Cramer hadn't stormed into the interrogation room at the first mention of James Baker.

An agent took Cramer to the pullpen area.

Gideon tried one last time to find out where James Baker was, but to no avail.

But it was clear that Perotta wouldn't say a word.

The profiler left the interrogation room and rushed to the bullpen area, followed by his colleagues.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Gideon asked Agent Cramer.

"We don't have time for this, all right? My friend might still be alive out there somewhere–"

"You just told him Baker was a federal agent. He may never tell us now."

"I told him to hang tough," said Cramer.

"What?"

"Jimmy. When he called me, I told him to stick with the assignment, that we didn't need to bring him right away," reported Cramer.

"Hey, I had invested too much, all right?"

Parker opened his mouth to say something, but decided against it.

"Too much time. And I wanted Russo. So we waited 24 hours to go in for him. By the time we got there, that maniac–"

"There's a chance Agent Baker's being tortured," Spencer said as he walked to the others. "And I think I know how."

The young genius had watched the videotapes found in Perotta's van with Garcia.

Gideon turned to Agent Cramer and motioned for him to follow Spencer.

"After you."

~~

With the new information, the team was able to come up with a plan to get Perotta to talk.

"You needed me?" JJ wanted to know and joined the others.

"Yeah. These are the faces of new victims from the videotapes we found," said Hotch.

He handed JJ the photos.

"Check with local, see if they have any open homicides or missings that might correspond."

"Are those rats?"

"Yeah."

The young woman nodded and set off.

"What are we going to do?" asked Agent Cramer.

"Well, we looked at all the stuff from the van. And besides the videotapes, there's nothing that interesting," said Elle.

"I've got Garcia going over the sound on the tapes, trying to isolate the background noise. Maybe something there will help," Derek added.

"The good news is it seems like they were all filmed in the same space. It could be some sort of home base for him."

"Yeah, but where is it?" Agent Cramer asked.

"What do we know about Vincent Perotta?" Gideon asked the counter question.

"He's off the grid. Garcia can't find a registered phone, utility bill or home address on this hump."

"Come on, everybody lives somewhere. There's got to be a paper trail."

"If there is, we can't find it," said Spencer.

"In this day and age you can't live without leaving some sort of trace," Hotch pointed out.

"Unless someone pays your bills for you–"

"–or you still live with your parents," Parker added.

"What about Russo? Could he be taking care of him?" Derek addressed Agent Cramer.

"No. No, no, no. Russo's not paying anybody's bills but his own."

"Well, he has to have a weakness. It's in his crime. It's in his behavior," said Gideon.

"You know, something's just been bugging me. Freddy. Wasn't he easy to find? He cut up the body, he removed it from the crime scene. But then he leaves it a couple of blocks away, where he's got to know "We're going to find it. It's the whole reason we were able to connect Perotta to the crime."

"He made a mistake," Elle summed up Derek's thought process.

"Yeah, he did. He went off script."

"What does that mean?"

"That something knocked him off his game," replied Gideon. "His behavior. Well, what does he do?"

"He tortures."

"Always?"

"The difference is Mrs. DiMarco," Hotch said.

"Right. You want to finish this?"

"Yeah."

Hotch started walking, Gideon stood up and accompanied him.

"Keep working."

Parker also got up and followed the two.

Hotch was about to open the door to the interrogation room when he noticed Parker standing next to him.

"What are you doing?"

"You are not going in that room alone. This guy nearly killed you."

"Parker–" Hotch started.

Then he stopped. Parker wouldn't listen no matter what he said. So he had to give in.

He opened the door and the two agents entered the room.

"Hey, look who's here. My old friend. Feeling better?" commented Perotta.

Hotch walked to the chair across from Perotta while Parker leaned against a wall.

"Where's Jason?"

"You grew up in a house that looked normal and happy, didn't you, Vincent?" Hotch changed the subject.

"Did I?"

"But your father beat you every chance he got."

"He smacked me around someone. Didn't everybody's old man?"

"No," Parker replied.

"Well maybe if yours had, you or rather our friend here–", Perotta nodded to Hotch."– would have learned to fight."

"Paranoid personalities develop in childhood," said Hotch.

"You know you're saving me thousands of dollars in therapy bills?"

"And you learned to take the beatings, the abuse. You learned to smile. But in the back of your mind you probably thought, 'One day... One day, when I'm big enough...' So you were bullied and abused, and you became an abuser and a bully. It's a logical progression."

"Really?"

"Yeah," Hotch confirmed.

"Your father beat your mother, too, didn't he?" Parker asked, stepping away from the wall.

"My mother's got nothing to do with this."

"Not gonna happen. Because, your mother knew. She knew that he beat you every day and she did nothing to help you. And you still loved her. Even though she let you get hurt, you loved her," said Parker.

"And I wondered why, why you didn't hate her. Then, of course, I realized that he beat her as much as he beat you," Hotvh added.

"Don't talk about my mother."

"You killed all these people. Hundreds of them, and only one woman. That's what made you get sloppy, isn't it? Killing Mrs. DiMarco was hard. That's why you did it first and you made it quickly. We thought it was to establish dominance but it wasn't."

"He was a bastard, all right?"

"Your father?"

"I call him Frank. He was a mean son of a bitch. Is that what you want to know?"

"You were just responding to what you learned, Vincent. When you grow up in an environment like that, an extremely abusive, violent household, it's not surprising that some people grow up to become killers," said Hotch.

The profiler stood up as the second door opened and agents came in to take Perotta away.

"Some people?" Perotta asked.

"What's that?"

"You said some people grow up to become killers."

"And some people grow up to catch them," Hotch added before he and Parker left the interrogation room and Perotta was led.

Carl Jung said, 

"The healthy man does not torture others. Generally it is the tortured who turn into torturers."