CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
They pulled up outside Prof. Thornton’s house, with Paige hoping that they were in time. If something happened to the professor, Paige wouldn’t be able to forgive herself.
Adam had to know that, too, which made it all the more likely that he would strike there.
That was why there was a local squad car following her and Christopher. He might not be able to swing another full stakeout just on Paige’s say so, but he’d managed to pull police to keep an eye on the property.
Paige got out of the car, went up to the front door, and knocked. It was fifty-fifty whether the professor would be at home or at the university. She knew his schedule well enough to know that he didn’t have any classes until this afternoon, but maybe he’d taken the opportunity to hit the library and do research in preparation for his next publication.
She breathed a sigh of relief as he answered the door, giving Paige a puzzled look.
“Paige? And Agent… Marriott, wasn’t it? This is unexpected.”
“May we come in, Professor?” Paige asked. “There’s a problem. I think you might be in danger.”
Something in her tone must have told the professor just how serious she was about that, because he stepped aside, waving her and Christopher inside, through to the living room.
“Take a seat, both of you,” Prof. Thornton said.
Paige and Christopher both sat on the sofa, close enough that Paige could feel the weight of his presence there beside her. There was something comforting about that. There was also something comforting just about being back in this place.
“Now, what’s all this about my being in danger?” Prof. Thornton asked, in a calm, soothing tone. It might as well have been a tutorial question: discuss the reasons that he was in danger, with examples.
“We believe that Adam Riker may try to target you, sir,” Christopher said.
“And why do you believe that? Paige?”
Paige did her best to explain. “We’ve just come from a crime scene, another murder we think Adam is responsible for.”
She saw Prof. Thornton nod. “I saw the news. I must say, I’m not entirely happy about you dragging one of my grad students around to crime scenes, Agent Marriott. Especially not when it has the press rooting around in issues that I’m sure must have caused Paige some distress when they brought them up.”
The news had run with the stuff about her father, then. That made a familiar tightness clamp down in Paige’s chest. She’d been through all of this before, with reporters hanging around, wanting to know exactly how she felt, caring more about their ratings than they ever did about what effect the questions had on Paige. She remembered as a child, having to essentially hide out in the wake of her father’s murder, because neither she nor her mother had been able to stand one more question.
“I can handle it,” Paige told the professor, although it took an effort to do it. Everything about this was hard, but she was a grown woman now. She wasn’t going to hide away, the way she had as a kid. There was a reason that she’d gone into her field of study, trying to find answers rather than shying away.
“I hope that’s true,” Prof. Thornton said. “Now, what was there at this crime scene that makes you think that I might be a target?”
“The victim was Angelique Philips. She was a classmate of mine, back when I was an undergrad.”
“And did she have any connection to Adam Riker?” Prof. Thornton asked.
Christopher answered that one. “None that we’ve been able to find. But she did start seeing one of Paige’s old boyfriends.”
“And Adam knows that because…”
“You’ve seen my session notes, Professor,” Paige said. “I thought it was a good idea to give him something to get him to talk in return.”
Prof. Thornton looked at Paige for several seconds. Was he judging her? Was he deciding that she wasn’t fit to work with the worst of the worst after all? Was he already planning out the note that he would send to the university’s ethics committee about Paige’s actions?
“It’s not your fault, Paige,” he said, instead. “I imagine you’re feeling quite guilty right now. You tend to take things on yourself that aren’t yours to take.”
“If I hadn’t told Adam about Angelique-”
“Then he would have killed some other unfortunate. Someone would still be dead. Yes, telling Adam Riker personal details about yourself was… somewhat naïve, but I imagine it was founded on the reasonable calculation that he would never be in a position to do anything with the information.” This was something Prof. Thornton was good at, assuaging Paige’s fears about the way she was going with things. “There is one thing I still don’t understand, though. Why does all of this lead you to think that I might be in danger?”
Paige tried to express it as best she could, knowing that the professor wouldn’t be satisfied with a simple hunch.
“Adam’s first two killings after he escaped were people from his past. Killing someone from mine makes me think that there has been a shift in his way of thinking. That he might have somehow… fixated on me in the institution. That he’s decided to start killing people close to me. That might include you, my mother…”