Criminal Minds s02e19 Episode Script
Ashes and Dust
Mom,dad! Dad,we have to go! What? The house is on fire,we have to get out of here! Come on,we have to go! The phone's dead-go!Come on,we gotta go! Come on.
Stay down.
Stay down.
Somebody! Somebody! Somebody,please help us! "The torture of a bad conscience is the hell of a living soul.
" John calvin.
Two fires,two families in three weeks.
The first family,the jarvis', all died.
Last night,the cutlers.
Only one survivor,charlotte cutler, she's in critical condition with burns to over 60% of her bodY.
Well,it's no accident.
It's the same M.
O.
No fuses,kerosene, multiple points of origin, families targeted at home while they slept.
The bay area has a serial arsonist.
Statistically,94% of all serial arsonists are male, if any,are ever caught.
Few? You don't have a percentage? About 16%, and those 16% set 30-plus fires before they were ever apprehended.
I'm trying to be more conversational.
Oh.
It's not working.
Most serial arsonists don't intend to inflict harm.
Injuries or death,those are accidental.
It's not about violence.
For this one it is.
It's also about power.
Seeing the destructive force of their fires.
Watching the chaos, for them,fire's just a substitute for sexual release.
Oh,great,so if these guys don't get laid,they start fires? Or in this case,burn entire families to death.
- No statistic? - Nope.
They don't have statistics on this guy.
One of a kind.
Thank god.
Three weeks ago,this serial arsonist escalated into a serial killer whose weapon is fire.
Why? Major event.
Possibly the breakup of his primary sexual outlet.
The separation,the loss.
all right What about the victims? Sfpd can't connect the jarvis' and the cutlers, but witnesses put an unidentified late model gold sedan near both fires.
Run the car.
Garcia,run the victims through the system, if there's any connection we need to find it.
Yes,sir.
We need victimology.
I'll go see charlotte cutler.
You took the burn one last timE.
It's all right.
I got it.
Has she said anything about the fires? I'm giving her as much painkiller as I can.
She asked about her husband and son.
She passed out again before I had to answer.
So she doesn't know.
Whatever you tell her, she won't live long enough to know different.
I'll be right back.
- Did she just tell us to lie to a material witness? - No.
She told us that we could.
Welcome.
Ricardo vega,sffdr.
Hi.
Jason gideon,this is derek morgan.
Most likely the arson suspect is a first responder who set both fires with premeditative intent to return to it within a professional capacity.
You read my paper.
"Profiles of a serial arsonist," I make everyone on my team read it.
I've run the first responders of both fires, these are the pedigrees of everyone that was here that night.
No fire,police,or emt responded to both.
- No one - except me, which is why I've included copies of my department performance reviews, medical records,and psych-evals.
- It's unnecessary.
- No,it's not.
Your best suspect is a fireman who saw both fires burning.
That's me.
I'm saving you time.
Come on,I'll walk you through it.
Mrs.
Cutler? I'm special agent aaron hotchner, - this is special agent emily prentiss.
- Hello.
Where's paul? Your son was with you the night of the fire.
That's why we're here.
I don't understand.
We're fbi agents.
We think that the fire may have been set intentionallY.
I'm very tired.
I understand.
This is very important.
Do you think you could just give us a couple of minutes? I want you to think back to that night.
Was there anything out of the ordinary? Think about the things that you normally do.
Uh,get undressed, wash your face I couldn't brush my teeth.
Dennis? The water's not working.
I'll check it out.
Dennis got the water back on.
Then then you went to bed? Do you remember what woke you up? - Paul.
- Not the smoke alarms? It was paul.
What else do you remember? Dennis unlocked it and it wouldn't open.
He unlocked what? The front door! Somebody please help us,please! What's wrong?! I ca Somebody! Somebody,Please help us,please And then I saw the fireman.
and****ok Dennis? Paul where's my baby? Paul.
Where are they?Are they ok? They're fine.
They're just outside in the waiting room.
Ohh oh,right.
I don't want them to see me like this.
No,I'm not ready.
Could you- please tell them to wait a minute,please? I'm not ready.
Agent prentiss will tell them.
You call gideon and morgan? I can stay with you until you're ready.
If you'd like.
I'd like that.
She told her husband there was no water.
Where's the shut-off? Runs up the sidewalk.
Ok,so I'm the unsub.
I need to get in the house.
So I turn the water off right here.
And then I wait.
I wait for him to come outside.
I wait for them to go to sleep and then I carefully pour the fuel.
Cutting access to the back door.
I leave them only one way to get out.
the front door.
She said that Dennis unlocked them.
Still wouldn't open.
When we got here was unlocked.
The door opens in.
Nothing held them from the outside so whatever used to keep it shut them up was in the inside.
Here See this light spots something was jammed in there.
Sheilded surface beneath it from smoke.
So where is it.
He jammed it from the inside it could still be here.
We didn't find anything.
Took it with him.
That means he would've still be inside as it was burning.
He would had been in full fire gear.
She didn't see a fireman.
She's saw the unsub.
Ok, hold on, the house is on fire why would he stay inside of it? He wanted to watch them burn.
This place is great!They have their own espresso machine.
Dr.
Reid,this is detective castro, she is with the sfpd liaison.
Burned my hand on that espresso machine.
Ooh! A genius,you said? Yeah,uh, his coordination drops off when he's thinking.
Good.
'Cause we need to figure out why this psycho chooses these families.
He's most likely targeting the men.
They're the only similar members of the two families.
C.
Jarvis,29,worked full-time.
Charlotte cutler,39,was a stay-at-home mom.
The jarvis' had two girls in public grade school, cutler's had a son in private high school.
The jarvis' went to church,the cutlers didn'T.
Nothing holds.
Except with the men- both in their late thirties,white, approximately 6-feet tall,brown hair, nice homes,nice families,good jobs, that's the connection.
What connection? Cutler was a lawyer, jarvis an executive.
There's no evidence they ever met.
But they're of the same type.
We know that most serial arsonists are white males.
A complex M.
O.
Develops over time.
This guy is in his mid-thirties, he sees the victims as successful versions of himself.
And he resents them for it.
I'll issue an A.
P.
B.
For a resentful 6-foot white guy.
Ok,great.
I got it.
Thanks.
Charlotte cutler died.
I'm sorry.
Next time I'll go.
What have we got on the vehicle? Uh,it is a 1999 gold ford taurus.
sold domestically as fleet vehicles.
Company cars, rental fleets.
Did you check all agencies? Yeah,none of them kept them for the past three weeks, or rented during both fires, so who keeps a rental car for three weeks? Then it's not a rental.
It would have to be a company car.
This guy,he had to have time to stalk his victims.
And if his job involves driving- there was a serial arsonist up in seattle,early nineties - paul kenneth keller.
- Yeah.
He used to drive around all day selling advertising for his dad's agency, picking out places to burn.
Company car.
Good work,J.
J.
Let's do the profile.
The unsub we're looking for is a highly intelligent, under-achieving,35 to with a severe narcissistic character disorder.
Nothing in his life works for long.
If he was married,he's now divorced.
If employed,it won't last.
What he wants is admiration, but he's got no respect for others- not their feelings,and most certainly not their safety.
He feels entitled.
He's like a petulant adolescent.
He both resents and he absolutely expects everyone to take care of him.
And given that a male relative wouldn't tolerate this behavior, he most likely lives with a female relative his mother,grandmother,aunt,whom he exploits.
His arson kit is expensive.
Fire suit, oxygen mask.
This suggests that he may be employed, but his personality will not allow him to work closely with others in an office setting.
This along with the information about his vehicle lead us to believe that he's a traveling salesman of some sort, who works for a company big enough not to notice that he's a sociopath.
Ok,this scumbag has issues,we all get it.
But why fire? He's like a drug addict.
Only fire's his drug.
Each time an addict needs a fix, they need more of the drug to get off.
So his crimes most likely get much worse.
It would be almost impossible for him to quit without help.
Thank you very much.
She shoots she scores! The crowd goes wild.
I just put the entire department on tac alert.
Garcia's on line one.
Brace yourselves.
I'm gonna teach you the meaning of lust.
- Did she say lust? -Mm-hmm.
I cross-referenced every known fact on the victims, and I just found a website that links both dennis cutler and matthew jarvis' companies on a list of businesses guilty of L.
U.
S.
T.
I'm missing something.
Leaking underground storage tanks.
The website belongs to a recently founded san francisco chapter of the earth defense front.
The edf? The eco-terrorist group? They aren't eco-terrorists,they're environmental activists.
Dennis cutler and matthew jarvis may disagree with you.
I'm pretty sure some edf people were sent up for torching an suv dealership a while back in san diego.
Nobody died in those fires.
Maybe they got lucky.
No,it's not luck.
This group's dedicated to protecting life.
What,do they wait until no one's home and then light the place up? That's exactly what they do.
So tell me who we're playing again today.
We play the jets.
The jets,right,ok.
I'll be- in a second.
Katie! Come on.
We're not gonna be late twice in one week.
- Yeah? - I'coming! Come on,sweetie.
RighT.
No,I got that.
Yeah.
No,we're leavin'- we're leavin' right now.
Yeah.
All right,guys.
We ready? Belt.
Oh,yeah.
- What's wrong? - I don't know.
It's not opening.
Are you telling me that the fbi doesn't have files on organizations like this?Lists and members? Domestic groups like the edf aren't the bureau's top priority right now.
Besides,they're more of a movement than an organization.
There's a central ideology, but- chapters are independent, they don't pay dues and they don't keep membership lists.
What if one of the chapters has broken ranks and has a new belief? dad? What are you doing?! Hey!Get out,guys, get out!Get out! - get out!kids,Get out now! - dad,It's not opening! - Come on,It won't open,dad! - Open the door!Get out! Hurting people's never been part of it.
Doesn't track.
Doesn't fit the profile.
Garcia,can you identify how many members are in this particular edf chapter? Uh,it looks like a hundred to 150.
- What are you doing?! - It's not opening! - I'm scared,dad!I'm scared! -Doors open-open! Start the car!I'm trying- it won't start.
Hurry! I'm scared,dad,I'm scared! Come on,get out! Get out!Keep trying!Keep trying! Come on!Keep trying- what are you doing?! Thomas R.
Dunleavy,dunbrook development group.
On the list.
Ok,I'm sending you a file on the edf leader.
Evan abby,41,5'11",185 pounds.
Thanks,garcia.
Pardon me for asking,sir,but how do we even know he's involved? We don'T.
That's why we're interviewing abby at the crime scene.
If he is the leader of the edf, his reaction to all this should tell us exactly what we need to know.
Where do you guys want it? This is the spot.
When he arrives, bring the fake bodies right past us nice and slow.
I want him to get a good look.
Remind me to never play poker with you guys.
So what do we have on this guy? - Hotch! - What? What do we have on the edf leader? Evan abby,41,divorced,father of liam,14.
Environmental engineer, does consults on real estate projects, has worked with every company on the edf list.
Can't wait to meet him.
Mr.
Abby,these are special agents jason gideon and aaron hotchner.
Thank you for coming.
Um,agent prentiss said you needed my help with a L.
U.
S.
T.
Related fire? Yeah,it's pretty bad.
Tom,brad,katie dunleavy.
All burned to death.
Whew.
Uh so,um,where's the- uh,where's the leaking storage tank? Katie was only 12.
You've got a son about that age,don't you? Did you know tom dunleavy? What is this? He worked for dunbrook development group.
Why are you asking me these questions? You posted dunbrook on your website.
My website? Look,I came down here voluntarily because I was told you needed help with a L.
U.
S.
T.
Related fire.
Three fires.
three families three fathers who worked for companies posted on your edf website.
All burned to death.
You worked for these companies- every one on your list.
Are you accusing me of a crime? What do you think? Mr.
Abby,I support your cause.
But I reject these methods.
I don't know what cause or methods you're referring to.
You created the site, you posted the list,you're the leader of the edf.
Well,if you could prove that,we wouldn't be having this conversation,would we? Mr.
Abby,people are dying.
Children,mr.
Abby.
We know edf's strategy has always supported violence.
I'm asking you,has edf's strategy changed? No.
It hasn'T.
He could barely look at this.
A serial arsonist wouldn't be able to peel his eyes away.
He's hiding somethinG.
More than just his support for the edf.
Hey,it occurred to me if all I knew about the edf was that they went around burning down suv dealerships and housing developments well,that's a common misconception.
That's my point.
What if our profile is right- and the unsub held the same misconception? He wants to fit in, he wants people around him to appreciate what he does, isn't it possible that the unsub joined the edf thinking- it was an arsonist's club? Sure.
That's possible.
If we give abby our unsub's profile could he help us identify him? We can't give abby the profile, not until we find out what he's hiding.
Still,it seems abby's our best chance of finding the unsub.
You want abby or the ex-wife? Abby.
At berkeley 20 years ago,evan was a different person.
At berkeley 20 years ago, evan was a different person.
In every way.
Warm,funny,honest.
Even naive.
What happened? We had school loans, I got pregnant his job evan was an environmental consultant.
Builder's hired him to help them clean up their sites.
Make sure they were up to epa code.
Evan thought they hired him to do the right thing.
- Did he? - No.
Developers don't care about mercury in the groundwater.
They just want to pass inspection as fast and cheap as possible.
He had a budget, it was never enough, but they didn't care how he spent it, as long as they passed inspection.
Well,how did evan deal with that? He drank.
It got bad.
How bad? I thought he might hurt himself.
I didn't know if he could live with it.
How's his relationship with your son liam? He doesn't have one.
I had to threaten to take him to court to get him to pay child support.
Must've either scared the hell out of him or really pissed him off.
Why's that? Because every sunday night for the past 9 months he tosses $2,000 cash through the mail slot.
He left long before I threw him out.
I don't know.
I will.
But I promise I'm going to give it to you.
Ok.
I love you,too.
Everything ok? Yeah.
You know, for a guy claiming to be innocent, he's acting pretty guilty.
I never underestimate the effect being confronted by the fbi will have on a suspect.
I don't think he's effected, I think he's freaked out.
In the time we've been watching him, he's packed his belongings into cardboard boxes, hit his attorney's office and 4 banks.
It does look like he's getting ready to run.
The question is,what do we do? For now,nothing.
We just watcH.
All those people? No booze or music? That's either a very lame going away party or an edf meeting.
We need to set surveillance up.
Grab your camera.
Where should I set up? Right here.
If he's hiding something, we don't have a warrant, we don't have supplies, you want to intimidate him.
I want another chance to find out what he's hiding.
Ok smile,everybody.
it looks like intimidation worked.
So what is it with you? Shoving a bunch of dead kids in my face wasn't enough? Thought I needed a little harassment,too? It's over,all right? I denounced the fires and the people responsible for them, and I just disbanded the edf.
If the edf had nothing to do with the fires, why would you disband? Do you have kids,agent hotchner? I have a son like you.
Good.
Then I'm gonna tell you this, one father to another.
I started the edf for my son.
And yours.
Not to have some other guy's son burn to death.
Hope your pictures come out.
Prentiss,does he look like he weighs 185 to you? Why would he hold a meeting when he knew we were watching? He wanted us to see it.
He wanted to make sure that we saw him trying to do the right thing.
You don't believe him? I don't know.
He seemed pretty angry for a guy who's trying to do the right thing.
That's why we need to get those photos to garcia.
What do you mean? Either he's angry because he's guilty of a wrongdoing, or he's angry because his attempts to do the right thing with the edf have gotten people killed, but either way the arsonist was here tonight.
Yeah,I'll show you a sick,deranged coward, you ignorant son of a bitch.
Deranged coward.
I'll show you a deranged coward.
The victim was a cpa.
Greg ballou,39,white,6-feet,handsome.
He was talking to his fiance on his cell when it happened.
This kerosene is the same exact type used in the other fires.
Well,hotch had abby under surveillance at the time of the attack, so we know abby's not the unsub.
Witnesses put the gold sedan here, so we know this is our guy.
And given that the attack occurred less than 30 minutes after the edf meeting and abby's house is less than a mile from here.
Chances are the unsub was at abby's house.
He parked some distance away and walked.
This victim wasn't even connected to the edf list.
He was just a guy who looked like he had a nice life like the others.
The unsub didn't go into a house, he barely even got out of his car.
There was no planning whatsoever.
Why? He's evolving.
He's doing it fast.
He's smarter than that.
This was random,impulsive,adolescent.
Like a tantrum.
He's got displaced aggression.
He listens to abby denounce him and his work, it enrages him, and so that's the trigger.
Unsub lashes out immediately.
Well,if he was at abby's we have him on camera.
It's just a matter of time before garcia has a suspect list.
He's evolving too rapidly.
He's gonna attack again soon.
We're gonna have to trust this abby guy with the profile.
Let's go.
He's leaving, but not the way we thought.
What do you mean? He's seeing his oncologist.
Ohh,god.
It makes sense.
The banks, the attorney.
He's putting his affairs in order.
Yeah.
Which one is your son? Catcher.
Does he know you're here? I think so, but we have an arrangement.
What's that? We both pretend I'm not.
I'm sorry.
How long do you have? And you haven't told anyone? No.
It's leukemia.
Lust can be lethal.
I started the edf right after I was diagnosed.
How did you know? My father,when I was in high school everyone knew he had affairs even my mother- but nobody talked about it, so i decided to confront him.
And I followed him- the lawyer's,the doctor'S the banks, the weight-loss, and it all came back.
He had lung cancer.
Well,you know what benzene is? I know it causes cancer.
Leukemia.
It's also highly flammable.
They kept it in underground tanks.
It's expensive to clean up- cheaper to hide.
My specialty.
Most of the properties were zoned "cr", commercial- warehouses where nobody worked, so what's the harm,right? I just found out that one of those jobs was sold and rezoned "es".
Elementary school.
And you didn't report it? I report it, they come after me and I leave nothing for my son.
That's why I started the edf, the L.
U.
S.
T.
List.
I was trying to do the right thing.
You still can.
I don't know who he is.
He was at your house last night and he was angry.
Everybody was angry last night, they were furious that I shut it all down.
He was angry for a different reason.
What you said enraged him.
But he's a coward, he wouldn't confront you.
He was probably the only one who wasn't angry at the time.
He didn't express anything until after he left.
Vincent stiles.
Thank you.
Vincent stiles.
Abby's leaving, keep a trail on him until we have stiles just to be sure.
Copy that.
I have abby.
Clear.
Gideon,he's not here.
He got the company names from the edf website, then he watched the offices until he found employees that suited his taste.
He just left.
A neighbor saw him leave.
He's a pharmaceutical sales rep, he's been living here since his divorce 6 weeks ago.
That's the stressor.
Yeah,talk to me.
Yeah,I'll let him know.
What? Abby shook the tail we had on him.
Bet you were afraid I wasn't coming,huh? Look.
Those things that I said about you I'm sorry.
I had to say them.
I know you're an artist.
A genius.
I appreciate your true value.
So what, you just came here to apologize? No I came here because I respect your talent.
And I want to take full advantage of it.
Garcia checked abby's phone records, and he called stiles right after I left him.
Well,you saw someone abby identified with.
I can't killers, I save lives, I'm a hero, until my key hits my front door, and then i'm just the father and the husband who's never there.
I got that one.
Here's the thing.
When I'm home, I'm in this silent panic because I know that I have to be as good as I can as fast as I can, because any minute the phone is gonna ring and my time is up, and that panic is exactly what I saw in abby.
Good.
You're abby.
You're a dead man walking, you gotta make this right.
You have no time left, how do you do it? Come on,don't think about it, you know the answer.
What is it? I'd stop him.
How? I'd burn him.
The same way he killed them.
I'd do it where nobody could get hurt.
Which is why I would call it in first.
We got a 9-1-1 anonymous tip for a fire in the harbor district.
Is it a warehouse? Yeah.
6000 san alameda.
- Can you call garcia? - She's right here.
Hey,garcia, can you check the zoning code on a warehouse at 6000 san alameda? Yeah,I certainly can.
The sfpd chopper circled the harbor twice.
There's no sign of fire.
Ok,6000 san alameda is a commercial storage facility.
But it looks like the property was just sold and the lot was approved for zone conversion.
"Cr" to "es".
Yeah,that's right.
"Cr",commercial,what's "es"? Elementary school,and there's a leaking benzene tank underneath it.
It's not a false alarm.
But there's no fire there.
There's about to be.
I started without you.
This is how you do it, right? Well,fire's a fire.
Once it gets going, it don't matter.
That's not- that's not really true,though,is it? I don't know what you're talking about.
There's something missing from this scenario, don't you think? I'm sorry, you lost me.
The innocent family.
You know, the victims.
That's what the suit's for, right? So you can see the terror on their faces as they burn? But of course,then, you're here to kill me,right? You're dead right.
We can't put a benzene fire out with water.
All water does is spread it around, it burns too hot.
Contaminates the ground table.
So we'll let it burn.
We exhaust the fuel.
All we can do is cordon it off, stop it from spreading, and let the benzene burn out.
Do you understand? Yeah,I got it.
Does hotchner? Yeah,what's up? Don't put me on speaker.
Just listen.
Well,you know, you can go ahead and shoot me, and then you set this place off like a bomb.
No? you know,this suit can handle over 1,500 degrees.
Benzene burns so fast, I won't go through half my air before it goes out.
Oh,you won't even go through that much.
See,benzene burns at twice that.
What are you doing? The right thing.
Why? You didn't know any of those people.
Neither did you! This fire will spread! Fire department's on its way.
They can't fight a benzene fire.
They'll contain it.
Seriously,what- how do you plan on getting out of here? I don'T.
6000 block of san alameda Morgan,what are you doing? Hotch,it's too late, man, I'm sorry.
Hotch-stop! Stop,stop! He's burning to death and we're just gonna stand here? Look at it, man! It's over! He wanted his death to mean somethinG.
I found this in abby's car.
Gandhi said, "live as if you were to die tomorrow.
Learn as if you were to live forever.
" - Here he is.
- Thanks.
Mom,what's going on? It's ok,liam.
Liam? My name's aaron.
I was a friend of your dad'S.
I saw you with him at my practice.
That's right.
You weren't at his funeral.
I couldn't be there.
I had to be with my family.
But I was thinking of him and you.
Your dad asked me to give you this.
Why you? I don't know.
Maybe because I was young when my dad died.
Anyway,you may have some questions some day, and,uh please feel free to call me, I'll do everything I can to answer them.
Stay down.
Stay down.
Somebody! Somebody! Somebody,please help us! "The torture of a bad conscience is the hell of a living soul.
" John calvin.
Two fires,two families in three weeks.
The first family,the jarvis', all died.
Last night,the cutlers.
Only one survivor,charlotte cutler, she's in critical condition with burns to over 60% of her bodY.
Well,it's no accident.
It's the same M.
O.
No fuses,kerosene, multiple points of origin, families targeted at home while they slept.
The bay area has a serial arsonist.
Statistically,94% of all serial arsonists are male, if any,are ever caught.
Few? You don't have a percentage? About 16%, and those 16% set 30-plus fires before they were ever apprehended.
I'm trying to be more conversational.
Oh.
It's not working.
Most serial arsonists don't intend to inflict harm.
Injuries or death,those are accidental.
It's not about violence.
For this one it is.
It's also about power.
Seeing the destructive force of their fires.
Watching the chaos, for them,fire's just a substitute for sexual release.
Oh,great,so if these guys don't get laid,they start fires? Or in this case,burn entire families to death.
- No statistic? - Nope.
They don't have statistics on this guy.
One of a kind.
Thank god.
Three weeks ago,this serial arsonist escalated into a serial killer whose weapon is fire.
Why? Major event.
Possibly the breakup of his primary sexual outlet.
The separation,the loss.
all right What about the victims? Sfpd can't connect the jarvis' and the cutlers, but witnesses put an unidentified late model gold sedan near both fires.
Run the car.
Garcia,run the victims through the system, if there's any connection we need to find it.
Yes,sir.
We need victimology.
I'll go see charlotte cutler.
You took the burn one last timE.
It's all right.
I got it.
Has she said anything about the fires? I'm giving her as much painkiller as I can.
She asked about her husband and son.
She passed out again before I had to answer.
So she doesn't know.
Whatever you tell her, she won't live long enough to know different.
I'll be right back.
- Did she just tell us to lie to a material witness? - No.
She told us that we could.
Welcome.
Ricardo vega,sffdr.
Hi.
Jason gideon,this is derek morgan.
Most likely the arson suspect is a first responder who set both fires with premeditative intent to return to it within a professional capacity.
You read my paper.
"Profiles of a serial arsonist," I make everyone on my team read it.
I've run the first responders of both fires, these are the pedigrees of everyone that was here that night.
No fire,police,or emt responded to both.
- No one - except me, which is why I've included copies of my department performance reviews, medical records,and psych-evals.
- It's unnecessary.
- No,it's not.
Your best suspect is a fireman who saw both fires burning.
That's me.
I'm saving you time.
Come on,I'll walk you through it.
Mrs.
Cutler? I'm special agent aaron hotchner, - this is special agent emily prentiss.
- Hello.
Where's paul? Your son was with you the night of the fire.
That's why we're here.
I don't understand.
We're fbi agents.
We think that the fire may have been set intentionallY.
I'm very tired.
I understand.
This is very important.
Do you think you could just give us a couple of minutes? I want you to think back to that night.
Was there anything out of the ordinary? Think about the things that you normally do.
Uh,get undressed, wash your face I couldn't brush my teeth.
Dennis? The water's not working.
I'll check it out.
Dennis got the water back on.
Then then you went to bed? Do you remember what woke you up? - Paul.
- Not the smoke alarms? It was paul.
What else do you remember? Dennis unlocked it and it wouldn't open.
He unlocked what? The front door! Somebody please help us,please! What's wrong?! I ca Somebody! Somebody,Please help us,please And then I saw the fireman.
and****ok Dennis? Paul where's my baby? Paul.
Where are they?Are they ok? They're fine.
They're just outside in the waiting room.
Ohh oh,right.
I don't want them to see me like this.
No,I'm not ready.
Could you- please tell them to wait a minute,please? I'm not ready.
Agent prentiss will tell them.
You call gideon and morgan? I can stay with you until you're ready.
If you'd like.
I'd like that.
She told her husband there was no water.
Where's the shut-off? Runs up the sidewalk.
Ok,so I'm the unsub.
I need to get in the house.
So I turn the water off right here.
And then I wait.
I wait for him to come outside.
I wait for them to go to sleep and then I carefully pour the fuel.
Cutting access to the back door.
I leave them only one way to get out.
the front door.
She said that Dennis unlocked them.
Still wouldn't open.
When we got here was unlocked.
The door opens in.
Nothing held them from the outside so whatever used to keep it shut them up was in the inside.
Here See this light spots something was jammed in there.
Sheilded surface beneath it from smoke.
So where is it.
He jammed it from the inside it could still be here.
We didn't find anything.
Took it with him.
That means he would've still be inside as it was burning.
He would had been in full fire gear.
She didn't see a fireman.
She's saw the unsub.
Ok, hold on, the house is on fire why would he stay inside of it? He wanted to watch them burn.
This place is great!They have their own espresso machine.
Dr.
Reid,this is detective castro, she is with the sfpd liaison.
Burned my hand on that espresso machine.
Ooh! A genius,you said? Yeah,uh, his coordination drops off when he's thinking.
Good.
'Cause we need to figure out why this psycho chooses these families.
He's most likely targeting the men.
They're the only similar members of the two families.
C.
Jarvis,29,worked full-time.
Charlotte cutler,39,was a stay-at-home mom.
The jarvis' had two girls in public grade school, cutler's had a son in private high school.
The jarvis' went to church,the cutlers didn'T.
Nothing holds.
Except with the men- both in their late thirties,white, approximately 6-feet tall,brown hair, nice homes,nice families,good jobs, that's the connection.
What connection? Cutler was a lawyer, jarvis an executive.
There's no evidence they ever met.
But they're of the same type.
We know that most serial arsonists are white males.
A complex M.
O.
Develops over time.
This guy is in his mid-thirties, he sees the victims as successful versions of himself.
And he resents them for it.
I'll issue an A.
P.
B.
For a resentful 6-foot white guy.
Ok,great.
I got it.
Thanks.
Charlotte cutler died.
I'm sorry.
Next time I'll go.
What have we got on the vehicle? Uh,it is a 1999 gold ford taurus.
sold domestically as fleet vehicles.
Company cars, rental fleets.
Did you check all agencies? Yeah,none of them kept them for the past three weeks, or rented during both fires, so who keeps a rental car for three weeks? Then it's not a rental.
It would have to be a company car.
This guy,he had to have time to stalk his victims.
And if his job involves driving- there was a serial arsonist up in seattle,early nineties - paul kenneth keller.
- Yeah.
He used to drive around all day selling advertising for his dad's agency, picking out places to burn.
Company car.
Good work,J.
J.
Let's do the profile.
The unsub we're looking for is a highly intelligent, under-achieving,35 to with a severe narcissistic character disorder.
Nothing in his life works for long.
If he was married,he's now divorced.
If employed,it won't last.
What he wants is admiration, but he's got no respect for others- not their feelings,and most certainly not their safety.
He feels entitled.
He's like a petulant adolescent.
He both resents and he absolutely expects everyone to take care of him.
And given that a male relative wouldn't tolerate this behavior, he most likely lives with a female relative his mother,grandmother,aunt,whom he exploits.
His arson kit is expensive.
Fire suit, oxygen mask.
This suggests that he may be employed, but his personality will not allow him to work closely with others in an office setting.
This along with the information about his vehicle lead us to believe that he's a traveling salesman of some sort, who works for a company big enough not to notice that he's a sociopath.
Ok,this scumbag has issues,we all get it.
But why fire? He's like a drug addict.
Only fire's his drug.
Each time an addict needs a fix, they need more of the drug to get off.
So his crimes most likely get much worse.
It would be almost impossible for him to quit without help.
Thank you very much.
She shoots she scores! The crowd goes wild.
I just put the entire department on tac alert.
Garcia's on line one.
Brace yourselves.
I'm gonna teach you the meaning of lust.
- Did she say lust? -Mm-hmm.
I cross-referenced every known fact on the victims, and I just found a website that links both dennis cutler and matthew jarvis' companies on a list of businesses guilty of L.
U.
S.
T.
I'm missing something.
Leaking underground storage tanks.
The website belongs to a recently founded san francisco chapter of the earth defense front.
The edf? The eco-terrorist group? They aren't eco-terrorists,they're environmental activists.
Dennis cutler and matthew jarvis may disagree with you.
I'm pretty sure some edf people were sent up for torching an suv dealership a while back in san diego.
Nobody died in those fires.
Maybe they got lucky.
No,it's not luck.
This group's dedicated to protecting life.
What,do they wait until no one's home and then light the place up? That's exactly what they do.
So tell me who we're playing again today.
We play the jets.
The jets,right,ok.
I'll be- in a second.
Katie! Come on.
We're not gonna be late twice in one week.
- Yeah? - I'coming! Come on,sweetie.
RighT.
No,I got that.
Yeah.
No,we're leavin'- we're leavin' right now.
Yeah.
All right,guys.
We ready? Belt.
Oh,yeah.
- What's wrong? - I don't know.
It's not opening.
Are you telling me that the fbi doesn't have files on organizations like this?Lists and members? Domestic groups like the edf aren't the bureau's top priority right now.
Besides,they're more of a movement than an organization.
There's a central ideology, but- chapters are independent, they don't pay dues and they don't keep membership lists.
What if one of the chapters has broken ranks and has a new belief? dad? What are you doing?! Hey!Get out,guys, get out!Get out! - get out!kids,Get out now! - dad,It's not opening! - Come on,It won't open,dad! - Open the door!Get out! Hurting people's never been part of it.
Doesn't track.
Doesn't fit the profile.
Garcia,can you identify how many members are in this particular edf chapter? Uh,it looks like a hundred to 150.
- What are you doing?! - It's not opening! - I'm scared,dad!I'm scared! -Doors open-open! Start the car!I'm trying- it won't start.
Hurry! I'm scared,dad,I'm scared! Come on,get out! Get out!Keep trying!Keep trying! Come on!Keep trying- what are you doing?! Thomas R.
Dunleavy,dunbrook development group.
On the list.
Ok,I'm sending you a file on the edf leader.
Evan abby,41,5'11",185 pounds.
Thanks,garcia.
Pardon me for asking,sir,but how do we even know he's involved? We don'T.
That's why we're interviewing abby at the crime scene.
If he is the leader of the edf, his reaction to all this should tell us exactly what we need to know.
Where do you guys want it? This is the spot.
When he arrives, bring the fake bodies right past us nice and slow.
I want him to get a good look.
Remind me to never play poker with you guys.
So what do we have on this guy? - Hotch! - What? What do we have on the edf leader? Evan abby,41,divorced,father of liam,14.
Environmental engineer, does consults on real estate projects, has worked with every company on the edf list.
Can't wait to meet him.
Mr.
Abby,these are special agents jason gideon and aaron hotchner.
Thank you for coming.
Um,agent prentiss said you needed my help with a L.
U.
S.
T.
Related fire? Yeah,it's pretty bad.
Tom,brad,katie dunleavy.
All burned to death.
Whew.
Uh so,um,where's the- uh,where's the leaking storage tank? Katie was only 12.
You've got a son about that age,don't you? Did you know tom dunleavy? What is this? He worked for dunbrook development group.
Why are you asking me these questions? You posted dunbrook on your website.
My website? Look,I came down here voluntarily because I was told you needed help with a L.
U.
S.
T.
Related fire.
Three fires.
three families three fathers who worked for companies posted on your edf website.
All burned to death.
You worked for these companies- every one on your list.
Are you accusing me of a crime? What do you think? Mr.
Abby,I support your cause.
But I reject these methods.
I don't know what cause or methods you're referring to.
You created the site, you posted the list,you're the leader of the edf.
Well,if you could prove that,we wouldn't be having this conversation,would we? Mr.
Abby,people are dying.
Children,mr.
Abby.
We know edf's strategy has always supported violence.
I'm asking you,has edf's strategy changed? No.
It hasn'T.
He could barely look at this.
A serial arsonist wouldn't be able to peel his eyes away.
He's hiding somethinG.
More than just his support for the edf.
Hey,it occurred to me if all I knew about the edf was that they went around burning down suv dealerships and housing developments well,that's a common misconception.
That's my point.
What if our profile is right- and the unsub held the same misconception? He wants to fit in, he wants people around him to appreciate what he does, isn't it possible that the unsub joined the edf thinking- it was an arsonist's club? Sure.
That's possible.
If we give abby our unsub's profile could he help us identify him? We can't give abby the profile, not until we find out what he's hiding.
Still,it seems abby's our best chance of finding the unsub.
You want abby or the ex-wife? Abby.
At berkeley 20 years ago,evan was a different person.
At berkeley 20 years ago, evan was a different person.
In every way.
Warm,funny,honest.
Even naive.
What happened? We had school loans, I got pregnant his job evan was an environmental consultant.
Builder's hired him to help them clean up their sites.
Make sure they were up to epa code.
Evan thought they hired him to do the right thing.
- Did he? - No.
Developers don't care about mercury in the groundwater.
They just want to pass inspection as fast and cheap as possible.
He had a budget, it was never enough, but they didn't care how he spent it, as long as they passed inspection.
Well,how did evan deal with that? He drank.
It got bad.
How bad? I thought he might hurt himself.
I didn't know if he could live with it.
How's his relationship with your son liam? He doesn't have one.
I had to threaten to take him to court to get him to pay child support.
Must've either scared the hell out of him or really pissed him off.
Why's that? Because every sunday night for the past 9 months he tosses $2,000 cash through the mail slot.
He left long before I threw him out.
I don't know.
I will.
But I promise I'm going to give it to you.
Ok.
I love you,too.
Everything ok? Yeah.
You know, for a guy claiming to be innocent, he's acting pretty guilty.
I never underestimate the effect being confronted by the fbi will have on a suspect.
I don't think he's effected, I think he's freaked out.
In the time we've been watching him, he's packed his belongings into cardboard boxes, hit his attorney's office and 4 banks.
It does look like he's getting ready to run.
The question is,what do we do? For now,nothing.
We just watcH.
All those people? No booze or music? That's either a very lame going away party or an edf meeting.
We need to set surveillance up.
Grab your camera.
Where should I set up? Right here.
If he's hiding something, we don't have a warrant, we don't have supplies, you want to intimidate him.
I want another chance to find out what he's hiding.
Ok smile,everybody.
it looks like intimidation worked.
So what is it with you? Shoving a bunch of dead kids in my face wasn't enough? Thought I needed a little harassment,too? It's over,all right? I denounced the fires and the people responsible for them, and I just disbanded the edf.
If the edf had nothing to do with the fires, why would you disband? Do you have kids,agent hotchner? I have a son like you.
Good.
Then I'm gonna tell you this, one father to another.
I started the edf for my son.
And yours.
Not to have some other guy's son burn to death.
Hope your pictures come out.
Prentiss,does he look like he weighs 185 to you? Why would he hold a meeting when he knew we were watching? He wanted us to see it.
He wanted to make sure that we saw him trying to do the right thing.
You don't believe him? I don't know.
He seemed pretty angry for a guy who's trying to do the right thing.
That's why we need to get those photos to garcia.
What do you mean? Either he's angry because he's guilty of a wrongdoing, or he's angry because his attempts to do the right thing with the edf have gotten people killed, but either way the arsonist was here tonight.
Yeah,I'll show you a sick,deranged coward, you ignorant son of a bitch.
Deranged coward.
I'll show you a deranged coward.
The victim was a cpa.
Greg ballou,39,white,6-feet,handsome.
He was talking to his fiance on his cell when it happened.
This kerosene is the same exact type used in the other fires.
Well,hotch had abby under surveillance at the time of the attack, so we know abby's not the unsub.
Witnesses put the gold sedan here, so we know this is our guy.
And given that the attack occurred less than 30 minutes after the edf meeting and abby's house is less than a mile from here.
Chances are the unsub was at abby's house.
He parked some distance away and walked.
This victim wasn't even connected to the edf list.
He was just a guy who looked like he had a nice life like the others.
The unsub didn't go into a house, he barely even got out of his car.
There was no planning whatsoever.
Why? He's evolving.
He's doing it fast.
He's smarter than that.
This was random,impulsive,adolescent.
Like a tantrum.
He's got displaced aggression.
He listens to abby denounce him and his work, it enrages him, and so that's the trigger.
Unsub lashes out immediately.
Well,if he was at abby's we have him on camera.
It's just a matter of time before garcia has a suspect list.
He's evolving too rapidly.
He's gonna attack again soon.
We're gonna have to trust this abby guy with the profile.
Let's go.
He's leaving, but not the way we thought.
What do you mean? He's seeing his oncologist.
Ohh,god.
It makes sense.
The banks, the attorney.
He's putting his affairs in order.
Yeah.
Which one is your son? Catcher.
Does he know you're here? I think so, but we have an arrangement.
What's that? We both pretend I'm not.
I'm sorry.
How long do you have? And you haven't told anyone? No.
It's leukemia.
Lust can be lethal.
I started the edf right after I was diagnosed.
How did you know? My father,when I was in high school everyone knew he had affairs even my mother- but nobody talked about it, so i decided to confront him.
And I followed him- the lawyer's,the doctor'S the banks, the weight-loss, and it all came back.
He had lung cancer.
Well,you know what benzene is? I know it causes cancer.
Leukemia.
It's also highly flammable.
They kept it in underground tanks.
It's expensive to clean up- cheaper to hide.
My specialty.
Most of the properties were zoned "cr", commercial- warehouses where nobody worked, so what's the harm,right? I just found out that one of those jobs was sold and rezoned "es".
Elementary school.
And you didn't report it? I report it, they come after me and I leave nothing for my son.
That's why I started the edf, the L.
U.
S.
T.
List.
I was trying to do the right thing.
You still can.
I don't know who he is.
He was at your house last night and he was angry.
Everybody was angry last night, they were furious that I shut it all down.
He was angry for a different reason.
What you said enraged him.
But he's a coward, he wouldn't confront you.
He was probably the only one who wasn't angry at the time.
He didn't express anything until after he left.
Vincent stiles.
Thank you.
Vincent stiles.
Abby's leaving, keep a trail on him until we have stiles just to be sure.
Copy that.
I have abby.
Clear.
Gideon,he's not here.
He got the company names from the edf website, then he watched the offices until he found employees that suited his taste.
He just left.
A neighbor saw him leave.
He's a pharmaceutical sales rep, he's been living here since his divorce 6 weeks ago.
That's the stressor.
Yeah,talk to me.
Yeah,I'll let him know.
What? Abby shook the tail we had on him.
Bet you were afraid I wasn't coming,huh? Look.
Those things that I said about you I'm sorry.
I had to say them.
I know you're an artist.
A genius.
I appreciate your true value.
So what, you just came here to apologize? No I came here because I respect your talent.
And I want to take full advantage of it.
Garcia checked abby's phone records, and he called stiles right after I left him.
Well,you saw someone abby identified with.
I can't killers, I save lives, I'm a hero, until my key hits my front door, and then i'm just the father and the husband who's never there.
I got that one.
Here's the thing.
When I'm home, I'm in this silent panic because I know that I have to be as good as I can as fast as I can, because any minute the phone is gonna ring and my time is up, and that panic is exactly what I saw in abby.
Good.
You're abby.
You're a dead man walking, you gotta make this right.
You have no time left, how do you do it? Come on,don't think about it, you know the answer.
What is it? I'd stop him.
How? I'd burn him.
The same way he killed them.
I'd do it where nobody could get hurt.
Which is why I would call it in first.
We got a 9-1-1 anonymous tip for a fire in the harbor district.
Is it a warehouse? Yeah.
6000 san alameda.
- Can you call garcia? - She's right here.
Hey,garcia, can you check the zoning code on a warehouse at 6000 san alameda? Yeah,I certainly can.
The sfpd chopper circled the harbor twice.
There's no sign of fire.
Ok,6000 san alameda is a commercial storage facility.
But it looks like the property was just sold and the lot was approved for zone conversion.
"Cr" to "es".
Yeah,that's right.
"Cr",commercial,what's "es"? Elementary school,and there's a leaking benzene tank underneath it.
It's not a false alarm.
But there's no fire there.
There's about to be.
I started without you.
This is how you do it, right? Well,fire's a fire.
Once it gets going, it don't matter.
That's not- that's not really true,though,is it? I don't know what you're talking about.
There's something missing from this scenario, don't you think? I'm sorry, you lost me.
The innocent family.
You know, the victims.
That's what the suit's for, right? So you can see the terror on their faces as they burn? But of course,then, you're here to kill me,right? You're dead right.
We can't put a benzene fire out with water.
All water does is spread it around, it burns too hot.
Contaminates the ground table.
So we'll let it burn.
We exhaust the fuel.
All we can do is cordon it off, stop it from spreading, and let the benzene burn out.
Do you understand? Yeah,I got it.
Does hotchner? Yeah,what's up? Don't put me on speaker.
Just listen.
Well,you know, you can go ahead and shoot me, and then you set this place off like a bomb.
No? you know,this suit can handle over 1,500 degrees.
Benzene burns so fast, I won't go through half my air before it goes out.
Oh,you won't even go through that much.
See,benzene burns at twice that.
What are you doing? The right thing.
Why? You didn't know any of those people.
Neither did you! This fire will spread! Fire department's on its way.
They can't fight a benzene fire.
They'll contain it.
Seriously,what- how do you plan on getting out of here? I don'T.
6000 block of san alameda Morgan,what are you doing? Hotch,it's too late, man, I'm sorry.
Hotch-stop! Stop,stop! He's burning to death and we're just gonna stand here? Look at it, man! It's over! He wanted his death to mean somethinG.
I found this in abby's car.
Gandhi said, "live as if you were to die tomorrow.
Learn as if you were to live forever.
" - Here he is.
- Thanks.
Mom,what's going on? It's ok,liam.
Liam? My name's aaron.
I was a friend of your dad'S.
I saw you with him at my practice.
That's right.
You weren't at his funeral.
I couldn't be there.
I had to be with my family.
But I was thinking of him and you.
Your dad asked me to give you this.
Why you? I don't know.
Maybe because I was young when my dad died.
Anyway,you may have some questions some day, and,uh please feel free to call me, I'll do everything I can to answer them.