He seemed to realize that, and then he did something that Paige really didn’t expect. He dropped through the trapdoor feet first.
He slammed into Stephen’s back, making him cry out and sending him sprawling. The sword went tumbling from his hand.
Paige was on her feet in an instant, trying to get after him and bring him down to the ground. Even stunned by the impact of Christopher’s entrance, though, he was still fast enough to avoid Paige’s attempt to grab him.
He ran for the tunnel and Paige set off after him. There were twists and turns down here, and Paige did her best to follow him, not wanting to let him get too far ahead. A couple of turnings, though, and he was quickly out of sight.
Paige heard the sound of his running footsteps ahead.
She followed the sound, snatching up her gun again as she passed the spot where she’d dropped it. She guessed that she should be grateful that Stephen hadn’t spotted it to pick it up.
“You could have waited for me,” Christopher said as the two of them padded forward, advancing on the sound of the footsteps.
“He was getting away.”
“I meant before that,” Christopher said. “You should have waited for me before heading into the park.”
“There was imminent danger to the next victim,” Paige replied. She saw Christopher look over at her with surprise, but then nod.
The two of them kept heading through the tunnels beneath the park, following the sound of the footsteps. They were closing in now. The footsteps were closer.
Only Paige remembered what had happened last time she’d closed in on that sound. She and Christopher kept moving towards it, rounding a corner in the dark, their flashlights the only glimmer of light there. The footsteps were very close now.
Paige saw the phone there on the ground, and she was already turning, dropping to one knee as she did so.
Stephen Booth was coming up behind them, another blade in his hand. This one was short and utilitarian, but it would still kill them as quickly. As soon as he saw Paige turning, Stephen sprinted for her, the blade raised.
In that moment, she was back in the forest where Adam Riker had tried to kill her mother. She was back standing over her father’s corpse. She was at every crime scene she’d been to, staring at every corpse she’d seen so far. In that moment, it would have been so easy to be overwhelmed by the horror of all of it, so easy to simply freeze in the face of the killer rushing her.
Paige didn’t freeze.
Instead, Paige fired once, the bullet slamming into the shoulder of the serial killer’s raised weapon arm. Stephen went down, screaming and clutching his shoulder, in obvious agony as he fell.
“A good magician never repeats the same trick twice,” she said, as she went over to him.
Her heart was pounding, the terror of the last few seconds finally hitting her. Still, Paige did the things that she knew she was meant to do. She kicked the knife away, making sure that Stephen wouldn’t be able to use it again. She covered him, while Christopher moved in, wrenching his arms behind his back and cuffing him.
“Stephen Booth, you’re under arrest.”