CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
They were driving at speeds that would ordinarily have scared Paige, but right then the possibility of something happening to her mother frightened her far more. The landscape flashed past outside, and Paige tried to keep up with it so that she could give Christopher meaningful directions to her mother’s house.
“Left up here. Yes, we’re almost at the town.”
They flashed past cars as they drove. Thankfully, the roads out here were pretty quiet, and Christopher had both his lights flashing and a siren running, but even so, Paige felt sure that they were going to crash into one at some point.
Christopher’s face seemed to be a picture of concentration as he drove. He’d obviously had training in this kind of high-speed driving. At least, Paige hoped that he had. The thought that he might just be winging this only made the whole situation more terrifying.
“Call your mother,” Christopher told her, as they skidded around the corner that Paige had indicated.
Paige took out her phone and did it, hoping that her mom would pick up. Maybe she would be able to warn her, to tell her to get out of the house and go over to a neighbor, or to wait for them in a public place. The last place her mom should be was inside, alone. That was exactly where Adam liked to murder his victims. She needed to be where he couldn’t get to her without it being public and obvious.
The phone rang and rang… then clicked over to voicemail.
“Mom, it’s me,” Paige said. “If you’re there, pick up right now.”
Her mom didn’t pick up, though. Paige tried again, then again, telling herself each time that it might just be that her mom had put her phone down somewhere while she was off doing something else. She might be in another room, or have her phone on silent, so that she wasn’t hearing the calls.
Paige wanted to believe that was true, but her fears told her that there was another, far worse explanation. Her mom not answering might mean that Adam was right there with her, killing her even while Paige tried to get through to her. The thought of that was terrifying, making Paige feel sick with worry for her mother.
She didn’t know what she would do if anything happened to her mother. She’d been there for Paige through so much, even if she didn’t really understand Paige’s obsession with serial killers now. The thought of losing her was almost too much to bear.
They’d reached the town now, and Paige had to put the phone down so that she could give directions to Christopher.
“Right here, then left. Yes, just here.”
They wove through the thankfully light traffic of the town, following Paige’s directions, heading for the home that she’d shared with her mother after they’d gotten away from Jeremy and his place.
“Just down this street,” Paige said, “right at the end there.”
Even as she said it, Paige saw the police cars parked there at an angle in the street and a shocked kind of horror hit her like a punch to the stomach. If the police were there, then…
“No,” Paige said. “No. We can’t be too late. We can’t!”
“We don’t know what’s happened yet,” Christopher said, as they pulled to a halt. His tone was obviously aiming for comforting, but Paige could hear the worry there behind it. He was as worried as she was that they were too late.
They were too late, and now her mother might be in there, tangled up and killed by Adam. Paige could picture it all too easily, now that she’d been in the other crime scenes linked to Adam, now that she’d seen exactly what he could do, close up. Just reading a few files and looking at a few pictures for her thesis wasn’t the same thing.
“Come on, Paige,” Christopher said, getting out of the car.
Paige had to force herself to follow him. She didn’t want to follow him, didn’t want to see what was in there as he made his way over to a couple of local cops standing by their car, speaking urgently into their radios.
Christopher was with them now, showing them his ID as he started to explain who he was.
As they started to respond, Paige realized that she’d been wrong just a moment or two ago. Then, she hadn’t wanted to see what was happening. Now, inexplicably, she did. She had to see it for herself, had to know, one way or another. She couldn’t wait around, be told about her mother’s death, and only then get to see what had happened. Or worse, not be allowed to see it at all so that her imagination would have to fill in every horrific detail.
So Paige ran for the door, instead. The front door was closed, but Paige guessed that Adam would have gotten in around the side.
“Paige, wait!” Christopher called after her, but Paige didn’t slow down.
The back door was open, a local police officer kneeling near it, apparently trying to collect evidence. Paige was past him before he could react, and then through, looking around the place, trying to see what had happened to her mother.
There was no sign of her in the kitchen, nor in the living room. Paige was making her way to the stairs when Christopher caught up to her, grabbing her around the waist and holding her back. Under other circumstances, Paige might have given a lot to be that close to the handsome FBI agent, but right now, she struggled to try to get free.
“She isn’t here, Paige,” Christopher said. “She isn’t here.”
The words cut through the sense of panic that filled Paige at the thought of her mother being dead, making her stop cold. She turned to face him, expecting to find some hint of hope and reassurance there, but Christopher’s expression was still grave.