Criminal Minds Series Rewrite: Season Four

Normal: Part Two

"When the victimology's this specific, we know the victims represent a specific person to him," Spencer says to her. "Given the fact that he's the same age and race as the victims, it's likely a current or former wife or girlfriend."

"Why not just kill the actual person?"

"She's just a scapegoat for his own personal failings. He knows if he kills her, he loses that scapegoat."

"So, he just goes around blowing away any women?" Thea scoffs.

"No, just women that remind him of his wife. When this type of killer is triggered, they need to release their resentment quickly. Subsequently, they tend to strike close to the focus of that resentment. If the focus is his wife, then that focus is his home. He almost certainly lives in this area." Spencer marks it on the map that's covered with markings of various designs. "This is his kill zone. Uh, what are these various markers everywhere?"

"Road work."

You and Hotch enter the station, interrupting the conversation. Spencer grabs the map and walks to the whiteboard he's claiming, and Thea turns to you expecting to hear some news.

"Judy said that he shot her after she told him off for being too slow. She cut him off because she was impatient. Before that, he was almost apologetic."

Spencer takes the map he's working on and heads over to the main group to discuss what he's found.

"What's going on?" Rossi asks and walks over.

"Out of the thirty roadwork sites in the kill zone, only two were alternate merges. Both were less than three miles from the crime scenes."

"Alternate merges?" Emily asks.

"Multiple lanes funneled down to one. One car per lane, alternating at the drivers' discretion. These sites allow him to set up the confrontation. A guy who follows the rules may lash out once, but to do it again, he'd need similar provocation."

"So, he seeks out alternate merge sites, then he goes through them over and over again until he finds a woman that fits his victim type who cuts him off."

"We have to shut down every alternate merge in the county immediately, and we need to talk to the crews who work the sites."

"What does this tell you?" Thea wonders.

"Impersonal killers are like drug addicts. The first time gives them the ultimate high, and after that, no high is as good. Unfortunately, the addict doesn't know that. He will chase that high to the gates of insanity and death. By now, killing is all our unsub thinks about. He's set up the exact same situation again and again, hoping to get the same result. He begins to think he's doing it wrong, he becomes obsessed with improving his skills, and he tailors his weapon to his deadly purpose. He figures if he gets them all just right, he'll feel that first high again. He's becoming a more lethal addict, and he'll never accept that the high is gone and it won't come back. He'll never stop. Never."

Rossi and Hotch head out together to talk to different construction workers at the different merge sites, but it doesn't seem like they're going to get anywhere... until they talk to the one who has the information they're looking for.

One worker sees a lot of cars go through the area, but he remembers a specific car that was going so slow the construction worker thought he was lost. He dressed like a "hard-ass" in a leather jacket with sunglasses on even though it was too dark to wear sunglasses. The unsub is roleplaying, breaking from reality.

A car cut him off, and he stuck his arm out across the front seat as if he was protecting someone who was sitting there. The worker didn't see anyone sitting in the front seat, which was weird. After that, the worker never saw him again.