A man tells a story about a lonely king who searches for a special someone. After a girl named Jody is tucked in bed by a woman she calls Mrs. Clemmons, a man enters her room and touches her hair. The girl wakes up and realizes that her daddy is home. She asks him to tell her another story.

He tells her a story about a king who met with a bar maid. Earlier in a New Mexican bar, the man watched a waitress tell a man he can't drive home. After work, the man helped the waitress after her car didn't start.

While the man tells the story, Jody asks if the king rescued the bar maid. He tells the girl that after the maid rode off with the king, he learned that she was not the one.

Later, JJ briefs the team about a dead waitress named Tanya Hill who was found in Edgewood, New Mexico. They see that she was the sixth woman who was strangled and found in a ditch along the interstates. Spencer figures that the unsub has a comfort zone in Edgewood. The team decides to head to the town.

Meanwhile at a diner, the unsub sees a lady who gives a baby a toy that she dropped. The lady asks the clerk if she knows anyone who is heading west. The unsub raises his hand and volunteers to give her a ride.

On the plane, Hotch sees that the time between the victims' abduction and time of death varied dramatically. The team learns that none of the victims were sexually abused and all of them were found with metal shavings under their fingernails. They see that Tayna had one nail left after she tried to claw her way out of her enclosure.

Spencer and David examine the ditch where Tayna's body was found. David tells Spencer to get into the ditch even though he was shot in his leg. They figure that the killer dumped the bodies at night. Since the unsub placed each body on their side, they wonder if he staged them as if they were asleep. Spencer asks for help getting out of the ditch, but David ignores him.

At the Edgewood, Hotch tells the Sheriff that they think they have a serial killer who either lived or grew up there. Hotch tells the Sheriff that they believe a killer is going to dump another body in his town.