CHAPTER TWELVE
They set off, taking Christopher's car.
“I’d feel more comfortable if you stayed behind,” Christopher said, driving quickly along the streets of D.C.
"I think it will be better if I’m there," Paige argued. “I’ve been involved in this whole thing, and I know more about Adam than anyone else does. Maybe I’ll spot something that you don’t, because it fits with something in my research.”
Paige wasn't sure what she could see that Christopher wouldn't, especially when they were mostly just going to make sure that Adam's uncle was safe. Christopher was the field agent here. She was just a psychologist who had gotten caught up in it all. Yet she felt certain that there would be some opportunity to help here.
“All right, but don’t take any risks,” Christopher said, continuing to drive. “So, why exactly do you think that he'll go after his uncle?"
Paige shrugged. "It fits. I mean, Adam's father is dead. His mother is gone, probably dead. There's no one else in his family that he could have had a relationship with. His uncle is the only family he has left. And he hates him."
At least according to the files. There was another aspect to that too.
"So does he have any relationship with his uncle at this point?" Christopher asked, touching on it.
"Adam says that their relationship was abusive," Paige said. "His uncle was another figure who he blamed for everything that had gone wrong with his life. In his sessions, he said that his father beat him, and his uncle helped. That he was part of driving Adam's mother away. I think he blamed him more for that than for all the rest of it."
They approached the edge of the city, with rows of older houses that had been subdivided into apartments. According to the address, the next street was where Adam's uncle lived. It was the kind of place that had probably once been intended to be some bright, clean development, but it had never quite worked out like that.
Given the location, Paige hadn't been expecting a mansion, but the house that they pulled up to was fairly modest even by the standards of her expectations. It was a single-story, with a driveway and a garage off to one side.
They pulled up in front of it, and Christopher got out and approached the front door. Paige followed him up the front steps, standing beside him as he knocked on the door.
"Hello?" he called out. "Mr. Riker?"
There was no reply initially, and Christopher called out again.
“Mr. Riker, it’s the FBI.”
Now, Paige heard someone coming.
The door opened, and a man in his late fifties stood before them. He had a weather-beaten face, with lines around his eyes, and gray hair that looked as if it hadn't been combed for days. His eyes were bloodshot, but Paige felt as though she could see a hint of Adam’s features in his. This was definitely his uncle.
"What do you want?" he asked.
"I'm Agent Marriott, with the FBI," Christopher said, holding up his ID for the other man to look over.
"So what?" the uncle asked. "You think that's gonna make a difference here? I don’t care who you are. You got no right to be bothering me."
"If I could just ask you a couple of questions, sir," Christopher said. "It's about your nephew."
Paige saw the older man's expression sour even more. She hadn’t been sure that was even possible.
"Adam's been dead to me for years," he said. "I have no interest in talking about him. After the things he's done, you think he matters anymore? You think that whatever happened to him matters to me?"
Paige saw the man's hands balling into fists at the thought of his nephew, but Paige knew they needed to ignore him. If she could just get him to listen, she might be able to keep him from making a mistake.
"Do you know where your nephew might be?" Christopher asked. That was the question that mattered here. “He escaped from the facility holding him.”
“Well… shit,” George Riker said, looking genuinely surprised. Obviously he hadn’t been watching the news.
“You must have some idea of where he might go.”
"I won't tell you anything," the uncle said. "Not until you tell me more about what’s going on. You could have sent local police to ask me if I’d seen Adam. You didn't drive all the way out here just to ask me that."
"We have reason to believe that your nephew might be planning to do something," Christopher said. "Something dangerous. Something to you."