*
The house was a tall, three-story building, run down and not in the best neighborhood of the city. Paige guessed that working as a prison guard wasn’t the highest paid job out there.
For now, though, it was Nadia’s safety that Paige was worried about, not where she lived. Parking as close as she could to the building, Paige ran up to the front door and held her finger down on the doorbell, hoping that she’d gotten there in time.
It was at least a minute before Paige got any kind of answer. Then, the voice of the guard came through an intercom.
“Yes, what is it?” She sounded annoyed at being disturbed.
“Nadia, this is Paige King, from the prison. I’m here because I believe that you might be in danger.”
“Paige King?” There was a pause, presumably as Nadia remembered who she was. “What do you mean ‘I might be in danger?’”
“Let me in and I’ll explain,” Maya said.
It was another moment or two before the guard opened the door. Now that she was at home, she was dressed in jeans, a light blue t-shirt and a plaid shirt. Her expression was obviously concerned.
“Ok, come in. You’d better tell me what’s going on.”
Nadia led the way through to a living room that looked as if it had been furnished out of an IKEA catalogue, with everything neat but slightly impersonal, as if she didn’t spend enough time there to want to make it more her own. Or maybe she just didn’t care about the look of the place so long as it was comfortable and worked well. She gestured for Paige to take a seat.
“All right,” Nadia said. “What’s all of this about? And why are you here alone? You were with that FBI agent before, Agent Marriott?”
Paige nodded. “I’ve tried to get through to him to let him know what’s happening, but I didn’t want to wait for him to get back to me before I came to warn you.”
“Warn me about what?” Nadia asked. “You’re acting like I’m in danger.”
“I think you might be,” Paige said. “I believe that the copycat killer might be about to target you.”
Paige could see the shock on the other woman’s face. “What? But that makes no sense.”
Paige shook her head. “I think to him, it will make a lot of sense. I think that your job will technically fit into the victim profile that he uses, you’re a woman of the right age, and he will want someone with a strong connection to Lars Ingram for his next victim, as a way of marking Ingram’s death.”
She knew how thin it all had to sound, but when dealing with a serial killer like this, that kind of reasoning would be more than enough for him to try to kill Nadia.
“That’s…” Nadia looked around, her nerves obvious. “I kind of want to make sure that all the doors and windows are shut, now you’ve said that.”
“That’s probably a good idea,” Paige said. “Have you seen any sign of anyone near here who shouldn’t be here?”
“No,” Nadia said. “But then, it’s not like I’ve been looking for anything suspicious. Look, I’m going to check the back door. Are you sure about all this?”
That was the problem: Paige couldn’t be truly certain about any of it. This was just her best guess, based on what she thought the killer wanted to achieve with this murder spree. It fit the pattern, but for all Paige knew, he could be somewhere else, trying to murder an ordinary overnight caretaker or au pair.
“I’m not certain,” Paige said, “but I can’t think of anyone else he would want to kill more right now.”
She saw Nadia shudder at that. Nadia moved off towards what had to be a kitchen, presumably to go check the back door to the house. Paige went to go with her, not wanting her to be alone until they were sure the house was safe.
That was when Christopher called her. Paige answered immediately.
“Paige, where are you?” he asked.
“I’m at Nadia Stafford’s house,” she said.
“Because you think a killer is going there?”
“I know you think it’s Cal Sanders, but I really think this is where the killer is going to strike next,” Paige said.
“So you went there, alone?” She could hear the disapproval in his voice. “And is there any sign of anyone?”
“Not yet, but-”
Paige stopped, because that was the moment a terrified, pained scream came from the kitchen. It was Nadia’s voice.
The killer was there.