𝓼𝓪𝓯𝓮 ➣ 𝓼. 𝓻𝓮𝓲𝓭

𝓯𝓸𝓻𝓽𝔂-𝓼𝓲𝔁

Morgan and JJ went to the church to find the preacher while Mara and Reid looked into the preacher with Garcia.

"I haven't found his present whereabouts yet, but I'm looking at his bank account. I can tell you he doesn't adhere to the give all your money to the poor model." Garcia said through the phone. 

"Any idea where the money's coming from?" Reid asked.

"Not yet," she answered. "But it's mostly cash, and we're talking a lot of cash."

"You know, maybe it's sex trafficking," Mara suggested. "This UnSub is able to get prostitutes to let their guard down. They're somebody he knews."

"I thought you said our killer was a john?" Sheriff Coleman asked.

"Prostitutes would rat out a john or kill him themselves, but they would never go against their own pimp." Mara said.

"Garcia, take everything we know about Mills and run it up against pandering and procuring charges," Reid said. "This isn't the first time he'd done this."

"You got it."

Through research, they found out that preacher Mills was originally Gorden Borell, he was arrested for cutting one one of the ladies he employed. Particularly on the back. Marking his property.

"He's not our UnSub." Hotch shook his head.

"This guy fits to a T," Coleman said. "How can we rule him out?"

"Criminally, pimps follow the same behavioral patter as drug dealers," Reid answered. "Prostitutes are his revenue stream. He would only kill them as a last resort."

"He comes back here to start over, sets up a new shop, that's when somebody found out about his past, use it as a forensic countermeasure to throw us off track by framing him." Mara explained.

"That's why the girls kept saying, they're after us," JJ said. "There wasn't a team of UnSubs, but one sadist copying the behavior of another."

"It would also explain the change with Tabitha, the escalation, the perfume on the feet." Mara said.

"But you said the UnSub wanted us to catch him and punish him." The Sheriff argued.

"What he really wanted was for us to catch the preacher." Hotch replied.

"So, whoever this guy is, he's fooled all of us, and now we got nothing when it comes to the profile." Coleman said.

"No, that's not true," Hotch said. "The UnSub chose Mills for a reason, and Mills can still lead us to the UnSub. We'll have Agent Morgan and the deputies start at his house."

Morgan and some deputies left to go search the house while the rest of the team practically sat around and waited to find the preacher.

Hotch's phone ran and he answered it, talking to Morgan before hanging up. "They went through the preacher's house, he's not there. But they found a kilo of cocaine."

JJ and Mara headed to the bar to see if Dinah's seen the preacher. When they got there, there was someone else behind the bar and not Dinah. 

"Dinah left an hour ago." The man answered.

"Was she with the preacher?" JJ asked.

"He was here earlier, Dinah and him were talking, and then he left all in a huff." He answered, cleaning the car.

"Do you know where he was going?" Mara asked him.

"Didn't asked," he answered, turning his back. "He was too pissed off."

"All right, thanks." JJ said before heading out of the bar, calling Hotch to report back.

She hung up and turned to Mara as they got into the truck. "They're not having any luck either."

On the way back to the station, the police came through on the radio. "Sheriff, be advised. I've got the suspect headed into El Lobito's diner. Repeat, I've got the suspect headed into El Lobito's diner."

Morgan, JJ, Mara, and Reid all headed to the diner with the Sheriff while Rossi and Hotch coordinated the response at the station.

Once they arrived, the deputy was trying to contact the preacher inside. "He's not answering."

"Keep trying," Reid said. "We need to tell him we know he didn't do this."

"How many entrances?" Morgan asked. 

"Two, it looks like." The deputy replied.

"Is he alone?"

Before anyone could answer, a gun went off and everyone ducked behind the car. He continued firing back and forth for what felt like hours.

Mara let off a couple rounds, the Sheriff getting closer to aim at the preacher. Instead, a bullet ripped through the Sheriff and Mara instantly moved, keeping low to the ground as she moved over to the Sheriff.

As soon as Mara leaned down, grabbing the Sheriff, the window of the car right where her head would be was shot out and Reid moved.

"Mara!"

He went to grab her and pull her to safety but a gun went off, slashing right across his neck and he collapsed, a bullet lodging itself right in Mara's vest, knocking the wind out of her.