"Because there's something about you that intrigues me. You seem… special, but you have drawbacks.”
“Such as?” Paige asked.
“Your inability to see things the way they really are, for one."
"I'm sorry?"
"Not only can you not see the truth; you can't accept it, either."
"I'm sorry, you're going to have to explain that one to me."
"It's just the way you are, Paige. You don't want to know the truth because you don't want to know how wrong you really are on this. I think that's why you want to do that thesis, actually. You've convinced yourself that there's some great meaning behind all of this, and you want to prove that to yourself. You want to prove that you were right about something. But you know what? You’re wrong. There is no greater meaning to any of it. That idea was all just a dream. A fantasy that you've been living in for far too long."
Paige remembered how she'd felt at those words, how she'd been hurt by them.
"When you write your thesis, I think it's probably going to be a very boring one. You know, most people would say that the truth is a lot more interesting than any dream."
"But not you."
"The truth is boring. It's nothing like you think it is. I think everyone wants to believe that the truth is complicated; but actually, it's simple."
"And what's the truth, then?" Paige asked, on the recording.
A pause, as Adam considered his answer.
"The truth is that in the end, you're all alone. That no one can ever understand you. That no one can ever truly love you, because they don't know you. They aren’t like you. I don't need to ask if you understand that, Paige. I know."
Perhaps he had known. Perhaps he'd known all about Paige's life, even then.
"Tell me, Paige, do you ever go home, to your family?"
Looking back with hindsight, it was obvious then that he'd known all about Paige. She just hadn't seen it at the time, cocooned in an illusion of safety that came from Adam being locked away, supposedly for good. It had been a game where they’d both been playing, but only he had known that.
"That's not something I'd like to talk about," Paige's voice said on the recording.
"No?" Adam said. "I completely understand. Family is another trap. Another thing that people tell you is important. Would you like to hear about my family home, out in the sticks? About the place where my father used to try to beat the evil out of me whenever I did anything he didn't like? As a kid, I used to want to burn it down, preferably with my father inside, but fire has never been my... medium of choice."
Paige remembered that she'd thought that it was a joke, a bad joke. She'd never believed that Adam had really wanted to talk about his family home like that.
Lying there alone in the dark, Paige remembered how she'd shaken her head, and Adam had nodded in response.
"It's alright. That's another thing that I know that you know. That's another reason why we get along. Why I’m prepared to talk to you. You understand me in a way that no one else can. And I understand you. You know that I'm like you, in many ways. You know that I'm the same as you, in many ways. Even if you don't want to admit it. Even if you don't want to admit that there's any truth in what I'm saying."
Paige had thought that Adam was just trying to get under her skin, but now she wasn't so sure. She thought now that it might be something both deeper and more dangerous than that.
"Now that you're an adult, do you still want to burn it down?" Paige had asked. She could remember Adam giving a small snort of laughter.
"My father is dead. I killed him. My mother is gone. Burning it all would not exorcise any ghosts, and I wouldn’t do something like that for the enjoyment. But perhaps... I would quite like to stand there and see it again as a man, not a child. What is the trite modern term? I would like… a sense of closure.”
Listening to the recordings, Paige stopped short. She thought she knew then where Adam might go. His family home had been looked into in the initial investigation into his crimes, but now didn't belong to him. For that reason, she imagined that Christopher wouldn't give it much attention.
But the first two killings had the sense of completing unfinished business about them to Paige. If Adam really had wanted to see his family home again for the closure, well, wasn't there every chance that he might go there now?