He obviously couldn’t see how worried she was right then.
“Ah, Paige. All done on your last day with us?”
Paige nodded. She was done. After some of the things Adam had just said, she would be glad if she didn’t see this place again. She certainly never wanted to see him.
“I also wanted to tell you something that came up in my last session with Adam Riker. He… he told me that he plans to escape.”
Dr. Neil didn’t look as worried by that as Paige felt. Perhaps because he hadn’t seen the look on the killer’s face while he’d said it. The cold certainty, as if he were already guaranteed his freedom, and everything along the way was just an inconvenient detail.
“Many of the patients here fantasize about such things, but they are sent here for a reason,” Dr. Neil pointed out, in a voice that seemed far too even and reasonable to Paige. “This is a secure institution. We do not have escapes.”
“Even so, I think he was serious about making the attempt,” Paige said. She needed to make sure that the warden understood just how dangerous this could be. “He… made threats. Towards me, and my family.”
A look of sympathy crossed Dr. Neil’s face as Paige said that. “I still don’t think that anything is actually going to happen, Paige. If Adam Riker, or anyone else, could escape from here, they would have, by now.”
“Dr. Neil, I’ve spent months now having sessions with Riker, and I’m telling you that he wasn’t making an empty threat.” Paige could feel the tension running through her body just at the thought of it. “Even if he just makes the attempt, people could get hurt in the process.”
She saw Dr. Neil considering that, head bobbing slightly as if weighing up each possibility was enough to move it.
“I trust your opinion, Paige,” he said at last. “I wouldn’t have you running assessments on new arrivals if I didn’t. Do you honestly believe that Adam Riker is that dangerous? That he will actually try to do what he’s said?”
Paige didn’t hesitate to nod. “That, and a lot more. I’ve met a lot of dangerous people here, and of all of them, he… he scares me.”
Admitting that was hard, because Paige didn’t want to admit the kind of power Adam had over her by making her afraid, but at least it was enough to get Dr. Neil’s attention.
“Look, if you’re that worried, I’ll increase the number of guards near his room for the next few days. Just until he gets the message that whatever plan he has won’t work. Just remember, you get to go home now, and he doesn’t get to go anywhere.”
“Strictly speaking, I’m going to dinner at Professor Thornton’s house,” Paige said.
“A celebration for the end of your thesis?”
Paige nodded.
“Then celebrate,” Dr. Neil said. “You get to enjoy yourself. You get the joy of this all being done. Adam gets to sit in his cell. You won’t have to see his face again.”
Paige hoped so; she really did.