With a fresh coffee in hand, Parker sat down with the others in the meeting room before JJ began presenting the case.

"Missing child in Wilmington, Delaware. 11-year-old Billie Copeland was last seen on the playground at 4:30 yesterday afternoon.

"That's 20 hours ago," Hotch pointed out. "Child Abduction Response Plan says we get notified immediately. What happened?"

"Well, there was reason to believe that she was with her father. Her cell phone shows a call to him at around the time of the disappearance."

"So, they've since ruled him out?"

"He called the mother about an hour ago."

"That doesn't mean he isn't involved."

"He's on his way to the family home so you can talk to him there. But, the local police are now considering this a stranger abduction."

"20 hours late?"

"Long-term stranger abductions of childhood Billie's age are rare," said Spencer. "They represent only half of one percent of all missing cases per year, but they are usually more likely to be fatal. Of the children that are abducted and murdered, 44% die within the first hour. From that point forth their odds of survival greatly decrease. 75% are gone after three hours. Virtually all of them are dead after 24."

"Which means we have just under four hours to find her," Hotch summarized.

"Shall we go?"

~~~~

The poet W. H. Auden wrote,

"Evil is always unspectacular and always human. And shares our bed and eats at our table."

Hotch, Derek and Parker dropped their colleagues off at the Copeland house and drove on to the park where the girl had disappeared to meet with Detective Russet.

"Put out a citywide alert," the detective reported. "We've got multi-agency law enforcement running canvasses. Body and evidence grid search is up and running on foot with canine units. Talked to the press twice, gave them a description of the SUV and the suspect and formed a round-the-clock -clock volunteer-manned hotline service."

Detective Russet led the agents to the exact spot where Billie disappeared.

"Did you run a background check on these volunteers?" Derek asked.

"Ongoing, but no red flags yet. I had to make a call on this one, you know? It looked like a family thing."

"Any witnesses?"

"Witnesses have her talking to a white male, mid-30s, carrying a leash, right about there."

"Just a leash? No dog?" Hotch asked.

"No dogs."

"Lost dog is a common ruse," said Parker. "Especially with children. "Hey, my little Luna ran away. Did you see her?" "No, Sir, but don't worry, I'll help you." And gone is the child. Anything else?"

"A short time later, a green SUV sped out of the parking lot over there. We have an Amber Alert on it."

"According to preliminary reports, mother and daughter had an argument during soccer practice?"

"Billie wants to spend more time with her father. It's a pretty fresh divorce. I get the impression that our victim is in the middle of it."

The group arrived at the spot where soccer practice had taken place.

It was an open space, and you could see far in every direction.

"UnSub could've been hunting during practice. A crowded park at 4:00 p.m.'s a target-rich environment."

"Angry, upset little girl needs someone to talk to."

"How would he know she was upset?"

"Finding vulnerable kids is what these guys are good at."

Suddenly Russet's cell phone rang, she took a few steps away and answered the call.

"Billie must have been hiding behind a tree so she can't be seen," Parker said as they looked around. "That's what I would do. Sit under a tree so Mom can't see me and then call Dad."

"Agents? Uniforms just located another kid who might have talked to the suspect yesterday. It's a couple of blocks from here," Russet explained as she rejoined the others,

"Let's go."

~~

Parker followed her colleagues and Detective Russet to a group of children playing basketball together in a driveway. They were supervised by several mothers.

"Good afternoon. I'm Detective Russet. This is Special Agents Hotchner, Morgan and Gallagher from the FBI."

"Hi, you guys."

"Can I see your gun?" one of the boys asked.

Parker scoffed and before any of the agents could respond, one of the mothers addressed the investigators.

"This used to be a good neighborhood. But this is what happens when you let pedophiles and sex freaks live wherever they want," complained the woman.

"Ma'am, we..." Detective Russet tried to calm the other woman down, but she interrupted.

"No, I have been searching the sex offender registry. Two of them live close. Not that you can tell exactly where from the map on the Internet. Are you talking to them?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"What's a pedophile sex freak?"

"Okay, hey, hey, kids, kids, listen up," Derek drew attention to himself. "Which one of you is Connie?"

A girl with long blonde hair and a pink jacket carefully raised her hand.

"Hey, sweetheart."

"Ma'am, do you mind if we ask your daughter just a couple of questions?" Parker addressed the mother, who was standing behind her daughter.

"No."

"Why don't we step right over here and the rest of you can go back to playing, all right?"

The other children continued to play while the investigators walked away with Connie and her mother.

"Connie, I'm Agent Hotchner. Did you talk to a man yesterday about finding his dog?"

"Yeah, he said her name was Candy and that she was old. But I told him I couldn't help him 'cause I had to go home and have lunch. And if I'm late, I get grounded."

"Yeah, well, moms are like that."

"And then when he came back, I was already late for soccer practice."

"Connie, he came back?"

"Yeah, after lunch. He said his dog was still lost."

"Do you think you'd recognize him if you saw him again?"

"I don't know."

"Would you like to go down to the police department and have a look at a book with some men's faces in it? Might help you recognize him?" asked Russet.

"Would that be all right?" Hotch added to his mother.

"OK."

"OK."

"Thanks, Connie."

The detective and the two stepped away, leaving the three agents alone.

"He came back to the same neighborhood twice in one day. That's bold."

"He's comfortable in the area."

"Yeah."

~~

As soon as Parker, Derek and Hotch got out of the car, Gideon met them.

"What do we know?"

"We talked to a kid who had contact with the UnSub. He came back to the same street more than once," Morgan began.

As he spoke, Spencer and JJ also joined the group.

"That tells us he's at ease in the neighborhood and comfortable talking to kids in plain view. He lured Billie with a story about a lost dog."

"Yeah, she recently lost one of her own," said Gideon.

"That indicates prior knowledge of the victim."

"Yeah, but it doesn't mean she necessarily knew him personally, only that he's aware," Parker expanded.

"It's not uncommon for predators like these to know kids that live around his area."

"He's from the neighborhood."

"Then we go door-to-door and ask for voluntary searches," suggested Detective Russet.

"The neighborhood's already crawling with uniforms. They're everywhere."

"Look, so far, you've followed the Child Abduction Response Plan to the letter?"

"For the past few hours. Yes."

"So now we need to move past the guidelines. Change tactics. If we don't, Billie isn't going to make it past the next 24 hours," explained Gideon and then pointed to the assembled press. "I want you to corral these clowns. We're going to need them. All of them."

~~

The team briefly gathered at the police station and presented the profile.

"Billie Copeland has been missing 22 hours. It is vital that we locate her in the first 24," Gideon began.

"The unknown subject in this case is most likely a resident of one of the subdivisions around the park. We have canceled the AMBER Alert. We need to coordinate with all your officers to pull everyone off the street immediately."

"That's crazy," one of the officers interrupted.

Parker sighed. Almost always one of them was interrupted when someone introduced the profile. Was it so hard to just listen to the end?

"Just hear us out."

"But it goes against CARP procedures. You guys wrote the damn thing."

"CARP is just a guideline for immediate response to child abduction", said Spencer. "Believe it or not, we're already late in the game and we do know enough about this UnSub to know that if he feels like we are closing in on him at all, he will kill Billie to avoid detection. If anything, we need to lessen the pressure on him."

"The man fits in 'cause nobody knows what he is. Can we really know our neighbors? He walks his dog. Does yard work. Solitary activities appeal to him. But if you watch closely, you'll see that he pays a little too much attention to the neighborhood kids. This largely goes unnoticed because he isn't perceived as a threat."

"He's a white male, in his late 20s to 30s. He has a menial or temporary job. Socially marginalized and frustrated, he relates better to kids than he does to adults. This is not his first offense against children, but it is his first abduction."

"How do you know that?"

"Well, first timers hunt close to home. Experienced predators don't."

"And he's had a recent stressor, a job loss or other setback. Unable to maintain a normal relationship, he'll have extensive pornographic materials in his home and on his computer. And while they won't all involve children, some of them definitely will."

"Since he used a missing dog ruse and we believe him to be a regular fixture of the neighborhood, it's quite possible that he truly does own or did at one point own a dog named Candy. We'd recommend crosschecking any veterinary records with residents in the neighborhood."

"He will not inject himself into this investigation."

"Don't these guys like to know what the cops know?", Detective Russet inquired.

"No, not this type of UnSub. He's hiding. He doesn't know what anyone saw. He doesn't know if there's any information about him out there. He's not likely to walk in and ask us, "Can I help you?" But I can guarantee you he will be watching the news. So how we handle them is very important."

"Check your canvass records. One of you may have had contact with him in the early stages."

"What about registered sex offenders?"

"We've got somebody working on that right now. Okay, ladies and gentlemen. Everyone clear on that?"

"Good luck. Thank you."

~~

"Well, that's it. No more uniforms in the neighborhood," Russet commented as the last police car drove past them.

She sat behind the wheel of an undercover car, Gideon was sitting next to her and Spencer and Parker were in the back seat.

"Are you sure this is the way to go?" she then asked Gideon.

"I hope it is."

"You're taking a hell of a chance, aren't you?"

"All we can do is respond to what's in front of us."

"What if you're wrong?"

"Do you know what program did the most harm to this country in terms of crimes like this? Child abduction," Gideon asked a counter question.

"No."

"'Stranger Danger,'" Spencer replied.

"Flooded the schools with it."

"I remember them coming to Parker's and my classroom. It was "Officer Friendly" with "Stranger Danger" coloring books."

"I remember too. It was funny, but funny 'HaHa' funny 'weird'."

"Taught a whole generation about a scary man in a trench coat hiding behind a tree. Then we learned that strangers are only a fraction of the offenders out there. Most are people you see every day. Your family, your neighbors, your school teachers . You know the rest. Prepared our children for 1% of the danger and made them more vulnerable to 99%. So we've been wrong before. All we can do is learn from it and hopefully be better next time."

"Unit five-three-nine," came a voice over the radio.

"Nine."

"Nine, we have a marked unit calling for your presence at the river off Route Six."

"What's this in reference to?"

"They've located a body. Female."

~~

"The call was anonymous. Said there was a body in the water," an officer reported as he led Parker and the others to the spot on the river where the body was found.

"Brown hair, brown eyes. About 4'10 ", 4'11"?"

"Yeah."

"I should have started this search earlier," Russet muttered.

"I'm sure you just did what you thought was right, Detective."

Suddenly the detective stopped and turned to the profilers.

"I can't, I can't. If it's her I..."

"It's all right," assured Gideon.

The profilers went on and stood on the bank of the river. The body had just been recovered, so there was no way to tell if it was Billie.

Gideon, Spencer and Parker watched tensely as the body was pulled out of the water.

Please don't be Billie. Please don't be Billie, Parker repeated over and over in their head. Instinctively, the young agent reached for Spencer's hand. The young genius pulled Parker a little closer to him and ran his thumb over the back of their hand.

After what felt like an eternity, the body was safely on the bank and could be carefully turned onto its back.

It wasn't Billie.

~~~~

When Parker and the others got back to the police station, the pair went straight to helping Derek go through the list of suspects.

It was a long list and would take some time to process. Time that Billie didn't have.

"How's it going?" asked Hotch.

"The UnSub's in here somewhere. I got to bet that the police talked to him in their initial canvases."

"Maybe not," Spencer pointed out. "Our UnSub is a solitary individual. He isn't the type of guy to insert himself into an investigation. I mean, wouldn't it make more sense that he wouldn't have answered the door during the initial canvases?"

"The neighborhood was crawling with cops, canine units, Search and Rescues. Make him nervous and jumpy. He'd want to avoid them at all costs."

"So, then he couldn't allow anyone into his home to ask routine questions even if the girl was bound or gagged because it'd be too risky."

"Of course", Parker agreed. "It is next to impossible to control breathing, speech patterns, body language when the body's under extreme duress. Maybe if we compare hotline tips with anyone who wasn't at home during the initial canvass."

"Or didn't answer the door."

"We'll find our UnSub."

"Let's go to it."

~~

"All right, thank you, ma'am," Parker ended the call - it was their tenth phone call in the last half hour.

The young agent put down the phone and leaned back in the chair.

"That was a dead end. Again," she said with a sigh.

"Agent Morgan?" an officer spoke to the profiler.

"Yeah?"

"Is this the kind of thing you're looking for?" the officer asked and motioned for the agent to follow him.

"Reid, Parker."

The couple also stood up and followed the officer.

"A Mr. Lomax has a neighbor with a green SUV, but he hasn't seen him all day. Says that's unusual. Thought he might've just been out of town, but now he sees some lights on over there," reported the man and handed Derek a piece of paper.

That sounded promising, Parker thought.

"'1106 Springfield,'" Derek read. "Where's our canvas sheets? 1106."

Spencer unerringly reached for the list on the desk next to him.

Parker didn't even wonder how her boyfriend knew exactly where the list was. They were quite sure that it would have taken them ages to find this list among all the paper.

"1100 block. 1106. No answer."

"Let's go to talk with Mr. Lomax. Nice call."

"All right, guys. Good luck."

~~

Said Mr. Lomax was standing in a garden sweeping up leaves when the three FBI agents came to the front yard fence.

"Mr. Lomax?" Derek addressed the man. "Agent Morgan. Agent Reid. Agent Gallagher. FBI."

Parker and her colleagues showed their badges and Mr Lomax moved closer to the fence.

"Holy smokes, that was almost," the man commented.

"A child is missing, Mr Lomax. We have to act fast," explained Parker. "But did you call in a tip about your neighbor, Don Curtis?"

"Lives down the street," said Mr. Lomax, pointing to one of the houses. "I saw the news thing, you know? I was thinking, Don drives a dark green Explorer and he's at the park all the time. I figured, like they said on the television, maybe he knows something, but doesn't know that He knows it. Know what I mean?"

"Where's his Explorer now?" asked Derek.

"It's usually in the driveway, but I haven't seen it today. Haven't seen Don either, which is kind of weird. We're always out front talking about the lawns. He never has any crabgrass. I don't know how he does it."

"Do you know if he has a dog?"

"Used to. A big golden retriever. Her name was Candy. I think she died like six months ago."

"Thank you, Mr. Lomax," Derek thanked him and stepped aside to call Hotch. He and Parker recognized the Dogs name from when they talked to Connie.

Mr. Lomax also turned back to continue working, but Parker stopped for a moment.

"Mr Lomax, have you tried neutralizing the pH of the soil with lime or fertilizing the lawn to eliminate nutrient deficiencies? Maybe that will help."

"Fertilize Yes, not the other one. I'll try that, thanks."

The young agent nodded and turned to Spencer.

"Wanna see if he is home now?" Parker asked, pointing to the house Mr. Lomax had just pointed to.

"I don't think he'll open," Spencer pointed out.

"Maybe not for police officers, but what about two harmless-looking young people who want to talk about religion. Do you happen to have an old brochure for something in your pocket?"

"Um–"

The young genius rummaged briefly in his bag, found an old brochure and handed it to Parker.

The couple went to the front door and Parker rang the bell. The two waited a moment before the young agent knocked on the door.

"Hello? Is anyone home? My friend and I would like to talk to you about our lord and savior Jesus Christ. Do you have a moment?" Parker asked loudly.

"Sir? Ma'am?"

"Nobody there," said Spencer, also louder than normal and the two stepped away.

~~

A few minutes later reinforcements had arrived, Hotch, Gideon and Detective Russet.

"Third house down on the right. Parker and Reid knocked on the door but nobody's answering."

"His neighbor said he's definitely in there. He's got a green Ford Explorer in the garage."

"Break down the door," said Gideon.

"No, we don't have probable cause."

"He's got a green SUV, he had a dog that died recently, he spends time in the park."

"And he's pretending he's not home."

"None of which are illegal. No judge is going to sign a warrant based on that information."

"You're weighing the life of a child against the price of a door?"

"I'm weighing the law against the price of a door," replied Detective Russet.

Even though she had a good reason to wait, Parker had to agree with Gideon. They couldn't wait any longer.

"The girl's in the house right now and the longer we stand here and wait, the longer he has to finish her off."

"I'll call a judge," the woman explained, reaching for her cell phone. "If we go in there without a warrant, all that evidence will get thrown..."

"We're aware of the rules of evidence. What do you propose that we do?"

The detective couldn't answer the question as Gideon simply ran towards the house.

"Gideon!"

The others ran after him and couldn't stop him from grabbing a flower pot and breaking one of the windows.

"Wait a minute. Gideon!"

"Gideon, you need backup."

The profiler climbed through the window and Derek had no choice in kicking down the door.

"Federal agents. FBI."

"FBI."

Parker grabbed their gun and entered the house after Hotch. They, Spencer and Russet searched the right side of the house while the others searched the left side.

"Clear," Parker called, walking back to the entrance.

The young profiler saw Derek pushing Curtis out of the house.

"Tear the place apart!"

~~

And that they did. They searched every corner of the house and garage, but Billie was nowhere to be found.

But as expected, they found incriminating video footage and files on the computer.

"Just as we expected, he has an extensive collection of deviant photos and cartoon downloads," reported Spencer Gideon.

The older profiler had walked into what Parker called the media room. The room had a desk with a computer and a built-in cabinet with a television and cassette tapes.

"Neatly partitioned? All in separate folders?"

"Yup."

"Access the Internet history. Identify any pornographic sites, shut them down."

"Uploading to Garcia as we speak," said Parker.

Gideon's eyes fell on the cassette tapes that Derek had placed on the floor next to him.

"What is this? Is it all porn?"

"It's a lot of home movies with a bunch of kids in it. But this one, you need to see it."

Parker's colleague inserted a cassette into the recorder. "Shh. Remember what I'll do if you tell."

"Gideon, we searched the entire house. Upstairs, downstairs, everywhere. There's no sign of the girl or that she's even been here", said Spencer. "It is possible that he moved her. Polly Klaas was found 25 miles from home. Danielle Van Dam, 30, Samantha Runnion, 52, but, keep in mind, we were 20 hours late getting involved."

"The man doesn't take chances. He wouldn't drive around with the girl in the car. He took her and got her off of the street as quickly as possible. Just keep looking."

~~

Hotch closed the front door and walked into the living room where Russet, Gideon and Parker were.

"Curtis lawyered up," Hotch explained.

"Of course, he did."

"That's the first smart thing he's done."

"Yeah, he'll do great in prison," Parker commented. "I mean a guy like him? He's gonna passed around like a–"

"Parker–"

"Sorry," the young agent apologized.

"We broke into his house and without Billie, we don't have the exigent circumstances we need to make this stick. We may have to let him go."

"Then we have to find the girl, because we can't let that guy go."

"I told you we should have waited."

"Yes, I know," Hotch said diplomatically. "We made a call. And if there are any complaints, we will take full responsibility."

"Hotch, he's the man."

"Jason, I agree, but we may have been overly hasty."

"Hasty?" Detective Russet repeated. "You know as well as I do, unless we actually find Billie in this house, any evidence we find, is fruit of the poison tree."

While the others were chatting, something else had caught Gideon's attention. He crossed the living room and took a closer look at the broom.

"Gideon, what–"

"Insulation."

He had hidden Billie between the walls? Parker wondered. In a way that was smart– they almost didn't think of it.

That's why Parker felt immense joy that the guy is going to prison for a long time.

"There it is," said Gideon and pointed to a grille on the ceiling in the hallway.

"Hotch, get me up there."

The agent in question happened to see a chair in the nearest room and handed it to Gideon.

The older agent climbed onto the chair, unscrewed the grille and climbed into the ceiling.

"She's here," Gideon called.

~~~~

"Don't measure the work until the day's out and the labor is done."

Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

On the flight home, Spencer, Derek, JJ and Hotch played poker. Parker sat in the seat next to Spencer, reading a book.

"I got absolutely nothing," said Derek and put his cards on the table.

"Nothing," JJ said too, placing her cards next to Derek's.

And since Hotch was already out, it was Spencer's turn and of course he won this game too.

"Two pairs of aces."

"Oh. Shut up."

"Oh, get out of town."

Parker had to smile at the fact that JJ and Derek were still upset about it.

Spencer very rarely lost and when he did, 90% of the time he lost on purpose. Well, except for poker, where he didn't even let Parker win.

"See, why you always win?" Derek wanted to know.

"Because he cheats," JJ replied.

"Poker, it's mathematics, it's statistics," Spencer replied.

The young genius leaned back and put his arm around Parker's shoulders.

"He's from Vegas," Hotch reminded the others, sounding like a tired father.

"House rules."

"There's that, too," Spencer admitted. "Love, will you play next round?"

"Just to lose to you, again?" Parker asked, turning a page. "No thanks."

"And yet you love me," Spencer murmured as he shuffled the cards.

Parker shook their head slightly– he had no idea. They closed the book, Parkers finger between the pages as a temporary bookmark.

"Yes, I do," Parker admitted, ruffling her boyfriend's hair.

"Hey, Hotch," Gideon addressed his colleague. "Did you send flowers to that tech room girl, Garcia, and say they were from me?"