"Previously on Criminal Minds..." "I lost my father... when I was 9 years old." "He was shot and killed right in front of me." "Is that your daughter?" "Where is she?" " She's with my sister." " This is about you." "There's no history at your sister's place." "Promise me she'll be okay, Morgan." "Do it and promise him!" " Promise me, Morgan." " Okay." "Okay!" "I promise." "I love you, Ellie." "I can't..." "♪ Don't come back anytime ♪" "♪ I've already had your kind ♪" "♪ This is your payback... ♪" "Oh, my hands are numb." "One more try." "You can do it." " Am I close?" " Just keep trying." " I can't, I can't." " Come on." "2... 3..." " My babies..." " Sam and Kayla, wake up!" "Oh, my babies." "Sammy!" "Kayla, wake up!" "He took them from me." "Come on." "Come on." "Just keep trying." "You can do it." "♪ Don't come back anytime ♪" "♪ I've already had your kind ♪" "♪ This is your payback ♪" "♪ Money grabber ♪" "♪ Don't come back anytime ♪" " # Payback, money grabber #" " Oh, no." "♪ Don't come back anytime ♪" "♪ You've already run me dry ♪" "♪ This is your payback ♪" " # Money grabber #" " No!" "Get away from her!" "Get away from her!" "Come here!" "You never fought a man in your pathetic life, you twisted psycho." "No!" "Get out of our house!" "No!" "Please!" "Stop it!" "Please!" "Last night, all four members of the Bennett Family were killed in their home in Council Bluffs, Iowa." "Jake and Sandra Bennett were the parents of Sammy, 11, and Kayla, 9." "Agent Beeks in the Omaha field office called me." "The previous night, the other family, the Archers, were killed just across the state line in Nebraska." "He thinks it's the same offender." "The M.O. Is consistent." "Both mothers died due to severe blunt-force trauma, and the fathers suffered multiple stab wounds." "The children were all strangled." "Violence only in the kids' rooms, but no sexual abuse on any of the children." "That's odd." "Odd comes up right now because the Bennett father was not just stabbed, he was also..." "And those pictures are in your personal files 'cause I didn't think they needed the help of 1080p." "His chest was opened, organs disturbed, intestines removed." "That's awesome." "Could we please leave the gross part of the conversation for the plane?" "The father of the Archer family had multiple stab wounds but no dissection." "So he went from piquerism to this overnight?" "Two families in two days." "He's on a spree." "Wheels up in 30." "Hey, Morgan." "Ellie, how did you get past airport security?" "I stayed real close to this family." "Nobody asked." "If they had, I would have said I was 12 'cause you can fly by yourself." "This is not all right." "You can't just run away like this." "But that house is awful." "This older boy tries to watch me in the shower." "Hey." "It's way early in L.A." "I left a message with Child Protective Services," " but I haven't heard..." " You can't send me back there." "Ellie, you're a missing kid." "We have to let them know you're safe." "I didn't know where else to go." "I know." "Listen, this is one of my very good friends Penelope." "She's going to look after you while I'm gone." "Hi, Ellie." "Ellie, I'll come back as soon as I can." "Come on, Ellie." "Go ahead." "It's okay." "Come on, Ellie." "Have you ever been in a lair before?" "You'll like it." "What are you gonna do?" "I don't know." "All humanity is one undivided and indivisible family." "I cannot detach myself from the wickedest soul." "Mahatma Gandhi." "Hotch, listen." "Garcia's gonna help me find a way to get Ellie back to L.A." "How did she get here?" "She stole her foster mom's credit card, then bought a ticket online, and then somehow lied her way through airport security." "How old is she?" "She's 9." "I didn't see this coming at all, but I will fix it." "Check this out." "No forced entry at either house." "Both dinner tables are set for five people, not four." "Maybe they knew him and invited him to dinner." "Both families live in different states but only 8 miles apart." "Is it possible they knew each other?" "Garcia, did you find any overlap between" "The Bennett and Archer families?" "Zip." "They didn't work, shop, eat, or worship in any of the same places." "Worship?" "Both families religious?" "And then some." "Pretty much all their social lives revolved around some kind of church activities." "Maybe he forced the families to make dinner as part of a ritual, like Karl Arnold." "The Fox was a classic family annihilator who targeted patriarchs." "The dissection of the last dad makes me think the unsub was focused on male parents as well." "I'm not so sure." "There's a lot of overkill on the mothers." "All right, when we land," "Morgan, Prentiss, and I will go get set up" "At the field office with Agent Beeks." "Dave, you and Reid drive to Council Bluffs while the crime scene's still fresh." "Family annihilators tend to kill the children first." "It makes the parents suffer the most." "Maybe that wasn't the only reason." "Mom comes up to say that dinner is ready." "First thing she sees is the children." "She runs to them." "She opens up her back for him to attack." "He uses the children as bait." "The father arrives next." "He runs to the family just as the mother did." "The unsub repeats the attack." "Aah!" "No!" "No!" "It worked the first time." "It's a risky plan." "The unsub needs 10 or 15 minutes alone with the children to tie them up." "The table's set for five." "They were going to have tacos." "The big pot has red meat, the small one has... some sort of tofu mix." "Now, if a psychopath was forcing you to cook dinner, would you take the time to make vegetarian sides?" "He obviously didn't force Sandra to make dinner." "She wasn't afraid of him." "He was their guest." "He's too disorganized to bring a gun." "All the other items he used on the families came from within the house." "Kitchen knives, jump ropes, belts." "The Bennetts trusted him with their kids." "They had to have known this guy." "M.E. Report on Jake Bennett says he died less than a minute after being stabbed multiple times." "All dissection was done postmortem." "If it was done postmortem, it was probably done out of curiosity and not torture." "Is there any indication of medical training?" "Apparently, it's just the opposite." "The cuts were crude." "No more advanced than dissecting a frog." "Sandra Bennett died slowly, in a lot of pain, just like Monica Archer." "The wives suffer the most, physically and psychologically." "So what does that get us?" "This guy hates his mother?" "It means that everything he did he did to hurt Sandra and Monica." "He's targeting women." "Hey." "How's she doing?" "Sleeping, which, I get the impression, she has not done in many weeks." "There are six kids living in that foster house." "Well, what did the family say?" "They didn't know she was missing." "Sandra was a sixth-grade teacher." "She ran a church program for adult literacy and volunteered at a local soup kitchen." "Monica Archer was a nurse at Northern Omaha Medical, and she worked pro bono with disabled veterans at the V.A." "Maybe he posed as a victim, asked for their help." "It's likely these women would help a stranger but doubtful that they'd let him upstairs." "It could be another volunteer." "If they met him doing charity work, he could seem trustworthy." "Okay, so, we'll look into volunteers who worked with both Monica Archer and Sandra Bennett, but even so, neither of these women would have left their children with someone they didn't know well." "It's unlikely that it's a stranger, but we haven't found a single person that knew both families." "Great." "So we have a disorganized killer on a spree who appears perfectly stable." "People trust him on sight." "And he has absolute confidence that no one will guess what he is." "♪ If I could write you a song and you would fall in love ♪" "♪ I would already have you up under my arm ♪" "♪ I've used up all of my tricks, I hope that you... ♪" "Hey, kid." "Come closer so I can talk to you for a second." "What do you want?" "You shouldn't walk with your back to traffic." "You can't see the cars." "You know what I mean?" "Oh, okay." "Hey." "I'm Reverend Hannum." "I'm Jeremy." "Do you need a lift?" "My mom says I shouldn't get into a car with someone I don't know." "She'd, like, kill me." "Your mom's right." "But there's a gas station a mile or so up the road." "I could take you there." "Well, that sounds all right." "Cool." "Um, thanks." "It's getting cold out." "I love this song." "Me, too." "Put your seatbelt on." "Oh." "♪ You got designer shades just to hide your face ♪" "♪ And you wear them around like you're cooler than me ♪" "♪ You never say, hey ♪" "♪ Remember my name ♪" "♪ And it's probably 'cause you think you're cooler than me ♪" "He dissected the victim's arm postmortem." "I think it's our guy." " Just one victim?" " Yeah." "He's in the passenger seat." "Who is he?" "Louis Hannum. 41 years old, well-known local reverend." "He closed the church after a canned food drive at 6 p.m." "Told the other volunteers he was taking the donations to the Salvation Army 3 miles northeast on Route 6." "Did he leave with anyone?" "No, they said he left alone." "We're still getting names of everyone who was there." "Before now, he's attacked families in their homes." "Now just one victim on the side of the road?" "It doesn't..." "It doesn't really fit his victimology." "Well, it looks like he stabbed the reverend while he was driving, and then the truck crashed down here, he pushed him over, tried to drive away, but the truck was stuck." "His rage was so blinding, he takes out the driver while in motion." "He's lucky he didn't crash into oncoming traffic." "Then he immediately calms down and dissects the victim's arm?" "Yeah, he's incapable of thinking five minutes ahead." "It's like he's got A.D.D." "A short attention span is putting it mildly." "He's got wild mood swings, he's impulsive." "Young adults are inherently non-threatening." "Parents would allow him to be alone with their children because he's the same age." "If he's prepubescent, that would also explain why there's no sexual experimentation on the victims." " You guys can't be serious." " Think about it." "He opens up human bodies out of curiosity, the same way I used to open up radios and TV sets when I was 13." "I don't like it here." "Amber, you told me you needed to use the bathroom" "ASAP five times until I stopped." "This is a bathroom." "I didn't mean a gross bathroom." "Don't touch anything." "You can get herpes or worse." "Zack, enough." " Mom..." " Go." "If I get herpes, it's your fault." "Come on." "Hey, there." "Are you all right?" "This kid is streetwise, but clearly comfortable and easily accepted into middle-class suburban homes." "We can't diagnose anyone under the age of 18 as antisocial, so we are labeling this unsub a budding psychopath." "I came out of the bathroom, and the bus was gone." "A bus stopped out here?" "Well, yeah." "This woman was sick, and she said she needed some air." "Where's your mom, hon?" "Well, we live in Omaha, but my mom's visiting my aunt in Chicago." "His interpersonal skills are through the roof." "Now, this manipulation is not just a ruse." "It is a complex con." "I knew I shouldn't have gotten off." "Well, maybe I should just call your mom for you." "Does she have a cell phone?" "Yeah!" "Um, it's..." "My phone's on the bus." "I was supposed to memorize the numbers, but I never did." "If I don't get off the bus in Chicago tomorrow morning, my mom will freak out." "Look for reports of missing children in and around the city of Omaha." "This is where his killing spree originated." "And check juvenile detention centers and psychiatric programs for boys who've been recently released or escaped." "We believe he's crossed the state line into Iowa." "His last victim was traveling northeast on Route 6." "How has a kid gotten 40-some miles all by himself?" "They all give him rides and places to stay." "Well, you can't stay out here all alone." "We'll go to the police." "They can find your mom a lot faster than we can." "Really?" " Yeah, come on." " Thank you so much." "Thank you." "He appears extremely vulnerable." "Being a child alone out on the road, that's not hard to do." "Come on!" "Come on!" "You're letting him go to jail." "No, honey, this is a police station." "They'll help him find his mom." "Come on!" "Do you mind if we wait here a minute, until those guys have gone in?" "You're gonna need a weapon or something, in case that guy tries to shiv you." "Zack." "Will I have to sleep in the same prison cell as him?" "Absolutely not." "You're not sleeping in a cell." "What if they don't find his mom tonight?" "If I take a bus to Uncle David's and get lost, would I have to sleep in jail, too?" "No, Amber, of course not." "Get your hands off me!" "Jeremy won't be sleeping here, either." "You're staying with us tonight." " Thank you so much." " We'll bring you back in the morning." "Thanks." "No, I know." "As soon as Ellie crossed state lines, it became a federal case." "Mm-hmm." "Which is why it's okay that she remain in federal custody." "What are the chances of getting her transferred to Virginia?" "Oh, they are quite good because the Federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act defines this as neglect." "It's in her best interest that she be removed immediately." "Well, that's good." "That's great." "Baby girl, thank you." "Do me a favor." "Tell her to keep her head up, all right?" "I will, honey." "What's going on?" "The foster family didn't even know Ellie was missing." "I'm doing what I can to get her transferred to Child Protective Services in Virginia." "You think that's a good idea?" "I just want to know that that girl is safe." "If you asked me to look after Jack, would you be happy right now?" "I know that you'd do everything you could." "He's been in the system?" "I thought you said he's from suburbia." "He grew up in medium socio-economic status, but his rage against families tells us that he experienced extreme abuse or neglect, so at some point, he was most likely removed from his family." "Now, I had Garcia widen the search of missing children to those in foster homes and juvenile care facilities, all represented by these 10 black dots." "10 kids fit our profile." "That's great." "Actually, each dot represents a thousand currently in the system." "10,000 children?" "Nebraska's one of the nation's highest per capita state ward populations." "Now, using the age and the gender of our suspect," "I was able to whittle down the search, and that yielded this interesting pattern." "A pattern of red dots." "Give me one more hint." "The red dots represent 33 boys between the age of 10 and 17 who became wards of the state this year, all abandoned at major hospitals." "The state Safe Haven Law." "Wait a minute." "I thought the Safe Haven Law was so that women could leave unwanted babies in hospitals instead of leaving them in Dumpsters." "That's correct, but initially there was no age limit in Nebraska." "He's right." "The law now just covers infants, but we still get teenagers left at hospitals with a note pinned to their jacket." "Some are even driven in from out of state." "Now, Monica Archer, our first victim, worked at this hospital, Northern Omaha Medical." "If the unsub's parents abandoned him there," "It's probably where they met." "Oh, bummer." "Hey, did you have God of War?" "No, but I heard..." "I heard it's awesome." "Jeremy, will you dial your home number?" "I'm just gonna leave a message saying that you're staying here." "Yeah, sure, but like I said," "I don't think she'll check the home messages." "Oh, just in case." "Mom, Jeremy says he knows a really cool game." "Can we go play it in Zack's room before dinner?" "Not now." "It's time to eat." "Can we have soda since he have a guest?" "No." "A guest does not mean soda." " Oh, come on." " Here you go." "You just have to hit send." "Amber, Zack, this is why you have to memorize my cell phone and Uncle David's, okay?" "Hi, this is the Archers'." "We're not at home right now." "Please leave us a message, and we'll call you right back." "Hi." "Hello." "My name is Nancy Riverton, and, uh, your son Jeremy missed his bus at the rest stop on Route 6." "He's fine." "He's safe." "Don't worry." "He's with me." "But if you could just give me a call as soon as you get this." "I'm at 515-555-0154." "Okay." "Thanks." " Whoa." " Aha." " Yeah." " Got it." "One more to go." "One more to go." " Ohh!" " Oh-ho!" "Hey!" "Got it!" "Can't believe anyone, kids." " Do it." " Come on." "So what happens here when a child is abandoned?" "The hospital contacts Social Services." "The act of abandonment immediately labels the parents unfit, and the child becomes a ward of the state." "So he goes into foster care." "Ideally, but most parents won't take older children, in which case he'd be sent to a juvenile facility." "The same one that houses delinquents?" "That's right." "Did Northern Omaha Medical register an adolescent boy as a ward of the state on that day?" "Garcia said no, but she's still looking." "If Monica wanted to keep him out of a facility, she might have gone around protocol." "But she might still have documented it." "Reid and Rossi, go to the Archer house and see if you can figure out what her plan was." "Okay." "There you go, sweetheart." "You get some sleep, and we'll get in touch with your mom in the morning, okay?" "It's all gonna be all right." "Thanks." "Uh, don't turn that light off." "I'm not scared." "It's just..." "Of course." "I understand." "You come get me if you need anything, okay?" "I don't know what you'll find." "This was the first crime scene, so believe me, my guys went over it with a fine-toothed comb." "I'm sure they did, but now we know that Mrs. Archer chose to take the suspect home, instead of taking him to Social Services like she should have." "We need to try to figure out why." "She was a nurse for 15 years." "She would know how to work the system." "Maybe she called in favors with social workers or knew some foster parents that could take him in." "They've got messages." "My guys checked it the first day." "Those must be new." "This is Brittany at Dr. Olsen's office." "Eric missed his 9 a." "M. Please call to reschedule." "Hi." "Hello." "My name is Nancy Riverton, and your son Jeremy missed his bus at the rest stop on Route 6." "He's fine." "He's safe." "Don't worry." "He's with me." "But if you could just give me a call..." "What were the names of the Archer children?" "Eric and Daniel." "No Jeremy." "And she said she picked up this kid on Route 6." "It's him." "Hey, I need an address for a number... 515..." "That's Des Moines." "Name is Nancy Riverton." "It's all right." "We're the FBI." "You guys are safe now." "It's okay." "You're gonna be okay." "He left with my mom." "He's got a knife." "He woke us up in the middle of the night." "He said it was a game." "You've got to find them." "It's okay." "You guys are okay." " It's all right." " Okay." "Do you want a soda or a burger?" "You must be starving." "I'm not gonna fall for that." "You'd leave me there." "I wouldn't do that." "Your mother shouldn't have left you." "I'm sure she's sorry." "She will be." "Where's your dad?" "He died when Amber was little." "I'm sorry." "Do you know where he took my mom?" "Not yet." "But there are a whole lot of people looking for her right now." "Did this boy tell you his name, where he lives, goes to school?" "He said he was going to his aunt's house in Chicago." " Uh-huh." " But he lives in Omaha." "He said his name is Jeremy." "It's okay." "It's okay." "Just take your time." "I just want you to try and tell me about this game." "It wasn't a game." "He just wanted to scare my mom." "When your mom saw you tied up on the floor, what did she do?" "It was weird." "She told him he didn't do anything wrong." "All this stuff about how he's a good kid and just made a mistake." "Why would she say that after what he did to us?" "Zack, it sounds like your mom understood how dangerous Jeremy is, and she needed to get him out of the house." "It's like she made him a deal or something." "She said she'd drive him anywhere he wants to go." "And what was his answer?" "He said he wanted to go home." "Do you play any sports?" "I seem like a team player to you?" "There must be something you like at school." "A club or a class?" "I like science." "I like taking things... apart." "Do you ever wonder what's under your skin?" "Nope." "I don't." "Monica Archer called a friend at the Northern Omaha Children's Hospital about an abandoned 13-year-old boy." "Monica was going to bring him in the next day." "We need to talk to that friend." "Oh, no, I already did that." "Apparently, the children's hospital and Child Services have a strong rapport." " Did she get a name?" " Yeah." "She said the child's name was Niko Bellic, and his hometown was Newton, Iowa." "Say that again..." "Niko Bellic?" "The thing about that is that..." "Nico Bellic is the name of a main character In Grand Theft Auto IV." "What?" "I know things." "Guys, he's headed due east on Route 6, which passes right through Newton." "He probably didn't expect the question and gave away his real hometown." "Garcia, call the Iowa State Police, tell them to be on the lookout for a minivan" " headed east towards Route 6." " Will do." "If I open this up, you think the air bag will blow out?" "Why don't you try it, see what happens?" "Zack's a little punk." "But Amber, she'll be hot, though, when she's older." "You know, if I wanted," "I could climb into her room some night when you're all sleeping." "Or you could just ring the doorbell and come over to dinner s..." "Don't lie!" "You think I'm a bad kid." "I never said that." "You didn't have to." "2,200 families in Newton have kids under the age of 18." "In other words, a lot." "He would have acted out long before now." "He's got a juvie record, he's well known with truant officers, and he's probably been kicked out of school, maybe several." "We thought he was running away, but he's heading home." "Andhe'sgotaplan ." "Taking his rage out on surrogate mothers isn't doing it for him anymore." "Now he's ready for the real thing." "Garcia, we need to I.D. This kid so we can find his mom and warn her." "Got it." " Emily, get her back." " Everybody?" "No, just Garcia." "I haven't found her yet." "Hey, it's me." "Can anyone hear us?" "If by anyone you mean 9-year-old girls getting snacks, then no." "What's up?" "I want you to try and find Ellie's mom." "L.A. County couldn't find her." "They're not you, baby girl." "They sure aren't." "I'll get back to you." "You know, Zack, he's not the goody-good boy you think he is." "Do you know what Web sites he looks at?" "You think your kid is so special." "But underneath, he's just like me." "You're a good kid in your heart." "Why do you keep saying that?" "Because I believe that children are born good." "Your feelings are hurt." "You're angry." "You're acting out." "I don't blame you." "My mom blames me for everything." "My dad left." "My sister gets hurt." "It's all my fault." "I don't blame you." "I think you need help." "I think you need love and attention." "None of this is your fault." "You can pull over." "We're almost to my house." "I'll take you home, like I said." "I'm not that stupid, Nancy." "I'm not gonna show you where I live." "Now pull over." "I'll walk from here." "Well, here we are." "You couldn't wait to get away from me, huh?" "No." "Admit you can't stand me." "That's not true." "I like you." "32 kids with juvie records have been absent from school in the last three days." "I can send police to their mothers," "I can start calling houses..." "No, Garcia, we don't have time for trial by error." "We gotta narrow it down." "Okay, the kids at the last house said that the unsub liked to play a game." "He liked tying the kids up and scaring them, and he knew what he was doing." "He used socks and belts." "He's done it before, Garcia." "So you want me to look for kids who've picked on their little brothers and sisters?" "I'm an only child, but isn't that standard for you people with siblings?" "Budding psychopaths don't just pick on their siblings." "They torture them." "Okay, well, none of them have assault records." "Not yet, anyway." "Is there any way to see if any of the younger siblings have been in the emergency room in the last six months?" "Medical info like that is molasses slow to get, unless I..." "Please hold for genius." "Got it." "I figured a suspicious visit to the E.R." "Might end up in a Social Services report, and indeed it did." "10 days ago, the admitting doctor called about a Sayer family at 1365 Hunter Drive." "Jeremy Sayer is a 13-year-old with a disturbingly long juvie record." "Wow." "His 9-year-old sister Carrie was brought to the hospital with a spiral arm fracture." "The kind you get from having your arm twisted behind your back too far." "You want to play a game?" "No." "Okay, Kendra Sayer's boss said she left work already." "I have her cell phone." "What do you have on Mr. Sayer?" "He moved to Wisconsin three years ago." "I'm looking at the phone records right now." "He hasn't contacted the family in 10 months." "Mom, we've been through this." "There had to be another option than just abandoning your own flesh and blood by the side of the road." "It wasn't the side of the road." "Do you want him to come live with you?" "I..." "That's what I thought." "What area code is 202?" "I don't know." "New York, maybe." "Look, I had to protect Carrie." "She was so terrified of him, she wouldn't admit he broke her arm." " She sent me to voicemail again." " Keep trying." "Did you see him break her arm?" "No, Mom, of course I didn't." "Then how are you sure?" "For the same reason I was sure when I found rat pellets in the Thanksgiving turkey." "For the same reason I was sure when our neighbor's dog went missing." "Sorry." "This person keeps calling." "Hello." "Mrs. Sayer, this is Agent Prentiss from the FBI." "I need to talk to you about your son Jeremy." "I don't have a son." "I..." "I don't know what you're talking about." "Mrs. Sayer, it's important that you and your daughter stay away from your home." "We have reason to believe" "Jeremy's heading there now." "Oh, God." "He's here." "He's in the house." "Ma'am, do not go inside the house." "We'll be there in two minutes." "I have to go inside." "He's got Carrie." "Carriel" "Carrie?" "Carrie?" "Hi, Mom." "Jeremy, let her go, please." "No!" "Please, please!" "Sure thing." "But I want you to tell me the truth first." "Truth?" "What truth?" "That you always hated me." "Jeremy..." " Jeremy, please, just let her go." " Admit it." "Admit it, and I won't hurt your little sugarplum." "I don't know..." "I don't know what you want me to say." "I don't." "I swear." "Say what I heard you telling Father Quincy." "Say it!" "Oh, my God." "I..." "I..." "Confess and be forgiven!" "Isn't that what you always tell me?" "I was pregnant with twins, and then one day I wasn't." "Is that what you want to hear?" "The doctor said one fetus consumed the other." "I wasn't even born yet, and you blame me?" "You are rotten to the core!" "You always have been!" "FBI!" "Drop your weapon." "Maybe I made you into a monster because I hated you when you were inside me!" "But I think I hated you because I knew what you were!" "Don't do it, Jeremy." "Do you want to die?" "You won't shoot me when Mommy's little angel can get hurt." "Yes or no?" " I'll cut her neck open." " Okay." "I know how to do it." " I've practiced." " No!" "Please!" "I'm not gonna ask you again, Jeremy." "You can't shoot a kid." "I can shoot a killer." "And I will, believe that." "If that knife even twitches," "I'm gonna put a bullet right through your brain." " If I let her go..." " There is no if." "Fine." "I was only kidding anyway." "Turn around." "Mom!" "Mom, he's hurting me!" " It's gonna be all right." " Mom, I can't go by myself!" "Mom!" "Aah!" "Mom!" "Mom!" "Mom!" "Settle down." "Your mother's not coming." "Whatever." "I'm 13." "I'll see her in five years anyway." "Don't count on it." "I'm gonna be at every one of your parole hearings, and that's a promise." "Now get in the car." "Nancy Riverton got out of surgery." "She's gonna make it." "She's lucky." "She managed to control him long enough to save her children." "She's impressive." "Mrs. Sayer asked that she and her daughter be notified if and when Jeremy is released." "BAU should keep his file handy, too." "Excuse me." "I heard Garcia found Ellie's mom." "Yeah." "She had a hard time being married to a cop, so she moved back east for a while, and she travels a lot." "You think that's a solution?" "I just don't know how she could leave that little girl." "She probably left a bad marriage." "Hotch, that's her child." "How does she just walk out of her life like that?" "Maybe she didn't have any other options." "Most parents try to do what's best for their kids." "Maybe being with her dad in California was more stable?" "Her mom couldn't offer her that?" "Kids are adaptable, but they need somebody they can depend on." "Maybe her mom can give her that now." "How will I know?" "You'll know." "Agent Morgan?" "Ma'am." "You weren't easy to find." "I just got back to the States." "So you didn't know about Matt?" "I had no idea." "I'm so sorry." "Hey, you." "Look, I get it." "You and your ex-husband had your share of problems, so you separated." "But how could you not be in Ellie's life?" "I tried." "Matt pushed me away." "Said they were better without me." "Were they?" "I wasn't happy." "Matt and I..." "Ellie used to walk around with the biggest frown, and I thought, "I've done that to her."" "She's angry because that's how she sees me." "So what are you saying?" "You're better now?" "I've wondered if you'd like the places I've been." "If you still took ballet." "If tulips are still your favorite." "Go ahead." "Look at it." "You wrote to her every day." "So what?" "Ellie..." "She wrote to me every day." "Who cares?" "Hey." "This book means that your mom never stopped thinking about you." "Ellie, you know that I lost my father the same way that you did." "And it's really hard growing up without your dad." "I miss my dad every day." "But my mom, she means everything to me." "I gave your dad my word that I would keep you safe." "Ellie, right now you have a chance to have a really good life with your mom." "Just give it a try." "I rem..." "I remember that we used to read stories together all the time." "I miss that." "Me, too." "Let me show you something." "Okay." "Thank you." "But I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep." "And miles to go before I sleep." "Robert Frost."