CHAPTER FOUR
For several seconds, Paige could only stare at the FBI agent in front of her in shock. She felt as if all the strength went out of her legs, so that she might stumble, and had to catch herself against the doorframe to stop it from happening.
“Escaped?” she managed. The full horror of what that might mean was still sinking in for Paige.
“Earlier tonight,” Agent Marriott said. He looked to her, then to the Thorntons. “May I come in?”
Prof. Thornton looked over to her. “It’s ok with us, Paige, but if you’d rather do this another time…”
He was obviously trying to protect her, but right then, Paige didn’t need protection. She needed to know what was happening, and how Adam had managed to escape from a supposedly secure facility. More than that, she needed to know that everything possible was being done to put Adam back where he belonged.
“Maybe once I’m out, we’ll talk again. On my terms.”
The memory of those words made Paige feel almost sick with worry. At the time, the threat had seemed bad enough, but ultimately empty, since Adam wasn’t going anywhere. After Dr. Neil had increased security, she’d almost been able to dismiss it completely, but now that he was out…
…now, it was terrifying. Now, it meant that Adam might be coming right for her.
“We’re doing everything we can to catch him,” Agent Marriott said. He’d obviously spotted the fear on Paige’s face. “But the more we know about him, the easier that will be. That’s why I was hoping to talk to you.”
So this wasn’t just a precautionary visit to warn her about the killer on the loose. No, of course not. FBI agents had better things to do at a time like this than just deliver warnings. He could have left that to the local police, or even just called. Agent Marriott thought that there was something to gain by talking to Paige. Maybe it would help to catch Adam quicker.
If it could, then Paige was more than willing to help. She wanted him back behind bars more than anyone.
“Yes, come in,” Paige said. She looked over to Prof. Thornton. “If you’re sure it’s ok?”
“It’s fine,” Prof. Thornton assured her.
He showed them through to the lounge, rather than the kitchen. There, Paige quickly found herself ensconced on one end of an ancient leather sofa, with Agent Marriott on the other, Prof. Thornton on an armchair and Haley going to fetch coffee. Paige waited for Agent Marriott to make the first move.
“At the institute, they said that Adam Riker had told you that he was planning to escape,” Agent Marriott said, in a neutral tone.
“That’s right,” Paige replied. “We had a counseling session earlier today.”
Paige found herself thinking back through that session, wondering if there was anything more that she could have done to stop Adam from escaping. There was nothing, though. She’d done everything she could.
“And when he told you that he was going to escape, you told Dr. Neil, the institute’s director?”
Paige nodded. “That’s right. I hoped that he would take it seriously.”
She saw Agent Marriott nod. “Very seriously. He doubled the guards on that wing. But then Riker used that confusion to make his escape easier.”
Prof. Thornton stepped in then, obviously seeing where the FBI agent was going with that line of questioning. “You aren’t suggesting that Paige played some part in Adam Riker’s escape?”
Paige was touched by the note of protectiveness there, even as she was suddenly worried that the professor might have a point. What if this FBI agent thought that she’d helped Adam to escape? What if he was really here to accuse her of something.
Agent Marriott was already shaking his head, though. “No, I don’t believe that you did that, Paige. I do believe that he manipulated you, though, to get you to give him what he wanted, even while you thought you were stopping him.”
“So he played me?” Paige asked.
She didn’t like the feeling of that, as true as it probably was. It was too close to the way Adam had revealed just how much he’d known about her. It was a reminder that their sessions hadn’t just been her trying to learn all she could about the serial killer. It had been a battle for information that Paige hadn’t even been fully aware she was fighting. And because she hadn’t been aware of it, she’d been losing that battle.
“I think he has played a lot of people,” Agent Marriott said, in a reassuring tone. “In one sense, you’re the lucky one. He actually persuaded one of the guards to help him escape. That guard is now dead.”
Paige winced at that, but she wasn’t entirely surprised. “Adam doesn’t see people as worth anything. They’re just there to be controlled, and then discarded. He’s good at making people believe that they’re special, that they’re the one who means something to him, and that’s how he gets them to do what he wants.”
She saw how pleased Agent Marriott looked as she said that. It seemed that Paige had done something right. It only took her another second to understand what.
“You’re here because of my sessions with Adam,” Paige guessed. “You think I have some kind of inside line on what he’s going to do, and when.”