[✓] 𝐶𝐼𝑁𝐷𝐸𝑅 | 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐑 𝐑𝐄𝐈𝐃

𝟐𝟏| 𝐈𝐍 𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐁𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐃 | 𝟐/𝟐

— 𝒞 —

𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐖𝐎𝐌𝐀𝐍 now missing, the team followed Detective Wolynski into the Milwaukee police station.

"Hey," Wolynski said as they approached an officer, "what do we know?"

"Woman's name was Claire Thompson," he replied, folding his arms. "Her husband tried to reach her on the cellphone, and when she didn't pick up, he drove to the department store. Her car's in the parking lot, but she's not inside."

"Is that the husband?" JJ questioned, craning her neck to peer past the detective.

Charlie looked over to see a balding man sitting beside one of the desks while the officer answered, "Yeah."

"JJ, take Strauss with you," Morgan instructed.

As those two headed off, the officer continued, "I had the department store uplink the security footage to your analyst in Quantico."

Morgan nodded. "Perfect."

Wolynski raised a hand as he began to trudge towards the bullpen. "My desk is over here."

As they followed him to his desk, Morgan raised his phone to his ear and sighed. "Garcia, baby girl, please tell me something I want to hear."

Charlie had a feeling that Garcia's response would be some sort of cheesy line, so she made the decision to tune out.

She crouched slightly to see the footage when it loaded onto the computer screen. In black-and-white, a woman—Claire Thompson—was browsing through the racks of children's clothes. Nothing suspicious was going on though—no lurking man hiding behind the rack, no one staying close behind her.

"She doesn't seem to be on anyone's radar," Spencer commented.

As a child walked up to her and grabbed her attention, Morgan muttered, "Okay, who's the kid?"

"Does Claire Thompson have a son?" questioned the detective.

JJ, who had joined them, shook her head. "No, two-year-old daughter."

Watching as Claire crouched and spoke to the kid with a smile, Charlie remarked, "Looks like the kid's lost."

"Garcia," Morgan spoke into his phone, "is that all you got?"

"That's it," she answered, now on speakerphone, while Claire took the kid's hand and led him down the room. "And then they turn down a hall with no security camera, and we lose them."

"I'll, uh, get a list of missing kids," Wolynski said; "see if we can make out a resemblance to any of them."

Charlie stared at the screen for a moment before a realization hit her: this might not be a missing kid at all. "Oh, damn."

"What?" Spencer asked.

"Something Hotch said," she replied. "All of the abductions and disposals were timed around school. He thought the UnSub might work in the system. What if this guy's actually using his own son to lure his victims?"

— 𝒮 —

"Detective Wolynski told us you're trying to single out trucks and vans," began Morgan at their briefing. "Smart. The UnSub is dumping his victims in a business district, so I'd agree with you. He's probably not driving something that stands out—he may even have some type of company logo on the side of his vehicle, as well."

"We know that he abducts the women in Wauwatosa," Spencer added, using a map to help him explain, "and then he dumps their bodies somewhere in the Third Ward. Most UnSubs keep their area of control where they kill their victims triangulated between the two points."