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"And you think it's good enough?"

"I know it's good enough," Christopher replied. "This case is tricky, and you're doing your best to work out what he's doing. This isn't your fault."

"I wish I could believe that," Paige said, and then Christopher saw her pale.

"What is it?"

"Her family name is in the notes. He actually called her Sara Langdon."

Christopher didn't get the significance of that. "So?"

"So I could have identified her, based on those notes, if I’d only guessed the significance of that session. We could have found her. If I'd just worked out that she was going to be the next victim, if I'd identified the girl before this, we could have saved her."

Christopher touched her arm. He knew that she needed the reassurance, right then. "You can't blame yourself for this. You did everything you could."

"I feel like I didn't do enough," Paige said.

"You're not a detective, Paige. You're a psychologist. You're doing your best with this. Don't beat yourself up about it."

Even so, he saw her shake her head.

"I just feel like I have to do better."

"I know you do," Christopher replied. "And you're going to. But there's no point in dwelling on what might have happened. We have to deal with what actually happened. We have to catch Adam. And that's going to take some doing."

Paige still looked upset. "We were sitting there, outside George Riker's house, while this woman was being murdered."

"Paige, look at me," Christopher said gently, maintaining the contact of his hand on her arm. "Do you want to stop? You’ve done your best to help me, but you’re not an FBI agent. This isn’t your job."

“I… I want to do this,” Paige said, and the determination in her voice was impressive.

She looked up at him, and for a moment or two, Christopher couldn’t quite place the look on her face. She was looking at him intently, almost as if…

Then his phone rang, breaking the moment even as Christopher started to work out what was going on in it.

Christopher picked up instantly once he saw that it was his wife, Justine.

"Hey Justine," he said, trying to keep his voice light. She deserved better than to see the side of him that worried about whether they were going to be able to catch a killer. "Is everything all right?"

"No, it's not all right," she replied, in a tone of obvious annoyance. "Where are you? I was making dinner tonight, remember?"

"Oh, shit," he said, realizing that he'd completely forgotten. "I'm so sorry Justine. It's just been a really busy couple of days. You saw the news?"

"You know what might have been easier than the news?" Justine said. "If maybe my husband had called me to tell me what was going on."

"I'm sorry," Christopher said. He held back the urge to tell her that he was currently standing in a murder scene. "I... I've been dealing with this case. We got a lead on the serial killer. I've had to move fast to try to catch up to him."

"I get that, Chris," she never called him Chris, "but you could have found the time for one phone call, so I knew you were safe. Running around after killers, do you think I don't worry?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't think," he said, apologetic again.

"No, I guess you didn't. Do you have him? Your serial killer?"

Christopher couldn’t even soften this with that piece of good news.

"Not yet," Christopher replied. "We're close."

"Good," Justine replied. "I just... I want you to be safe."


Tags: Blake Pierce Paige King FBI Suspense Thriller Thriller