Блейк Пирс - Once Bound

She didn’t reply.

Ryan got up from the couch and headed for the door.

“Let me know if you change your mind,” he said as he left the house.

Riley was tempted to say …

“Don’t hold your breath.”

… but she managed to not say it. She just sat still until she heard the sound of Ryan’s car pulling away. Then she breathed a little easier.

Riley sat there in silence for a little while, thinking about what had happened.

Jilly called him “Mr. Paige.”

That had been cruel, but she couldn’t deny that Ryan had deserved it.

Even so, she worried – what should she say to Jilly about that kind of cruelty?

This motherhood thing is tough, she thought.

She was about to call Jilly down from her room to talk about it when her phone buzzed. The call was from Jenn Roston, a young agent she’d worked with on recent cases.

When Riley took the call, she could hear the stress in Jenn’s voice.

“Hey, Riley. I just thought I’d call and …”

A silence fell. Riley wondered what was on Jenn’s mind.

Then Jenn said, “Listen, I just want to thank you and Bill for … you know … when I …”

Riley was on the verge of telling her …

“Don’t say it. Not over the phone.”

Fortunately, Jenn’s voice faded without finishing her thought.

Even so, Riley knew what Jenn was thanking her for.

During the case they’d just finished, Jenn had gone AWOL for most of a day. Riley had persuaded Bill that they should cover for her. After all, Jenn had covered for Riley in a somewhat similar situation.

But Jenn’s delinquency from her job had been due to the demands of a woman who had once been her foster mother, but who was also a master criminal. Jenn had stepped outside of legal boundaries to take care of a problem for “Aunt Cora.”

Riley didn’t know exactly what it had been. She hadn’t asked.

She heard Jenn make a slight choking sound.

“Riley, I’ve been thinking. Maybe I should just turn in my badge. What happened before might happen again. And it might be worse next time. Anyway, I don’t think it’s over.”

Riley sensed that Jenn wasn’t telling her the real truth.

Aunt Cora is pressuring her again, Riley thought.

It was hardly surprising. If Aunt Cora’s hold was strong enough, Jenn could serve as a real resource from inside the FBI.

Riley briefly wondered …

Should Jenn resign?

But she quickly told herself …

No.

After all, Riley had had a similar relationship with a master criminal – the brilliant escaped convict Shane Hatcher. It had ended after Blaine had shot Hatcher, almost fatally, and Riley had captured him. Hatcher was back in Sing Sing now, and he hadn’t spoken a word to anybody ever since.

Jenn knew more about Riley’s relationship with Hatcher than anybody except Hatcher himself. Jenn could have destroyed Riley’s career with the knowledge she had. But she had kept quiet out of loyalty to Riley. Now it was time for Riley to show the same loyalty to Jenn.

Riley said, “Jenn, remember what I said to you when you first talked to me about this?”

Jenn was silent.

Riley said, “I told you we’d deal with this. You and me, together. You can’t quit. You’ve got too much talent. Do you hear me?”

Jenn still said nothing.

Instead, Riley heard the beep of her call-waiting service telling her that she had another caller.

Ignore it, she told herself.

But the beep came again. Riley’s gut told her that the other call was something important. She sighed.

She said to Jenn, “Look, I’ve got to take another call. Stay on the line, OK? I’ll try to make it quick.”

“OK,” Jenn said.

Riley switched to the incoming call and heard the gruff voice of her team chief at the BAU, Brent Meredith.

“Agent Paige, we’ve got a case. It’s a serial killer in the Midwest. I need to see you in my office.”

“When?” Riley asked.

“Already,” Meredith grumbled. “Sooner if possible.”

Riley could tell by his tone that this really was an urgent matter.

“I’ll leave right now,” Riley said. “Who else are you putting on the team?”

“That’s up to you,” Meredith said. “You and Agents Jeffreys and Roston did good work together on the Sandman case. Take both of them if it suits you. And all of you get your asses right over here.”

Without another word, Meredith ended the call.

Riley got back on the line with Jenn.

She said, “Jenn, turning in your badge isn’t an option. Not right now. I need you on a case. Meet me at Brent Meredith’s office. And hurry.”

Without waiting for an answer, Riley ended the call. As she dialed the number of her partner, Bill Jeffreys, she thought …

Maybe another case is just what Jenn needs right now.

Riley hoped so.

Meanwhile, she felt a familiar heightening of her own alertness as she hurried to find out what the new case might be.

About a half hour later, Riley pulled into the parking lot at Quantico. When she’d asked Meredith how soon he wanted her there, she’d heard real urgency in his voice …

“Already. Sooner if possible.”

Of course, when Meredith called her at home, time was almost always running out – sometimes literally, as in her last case. The so-called Sandman had used sand timers to mark the hours that would elapse before his next brutal murder.

But today, something in Meredith’s tone told her that this situation was pressing in some unique way.

As she parked, she saw that Bill and Jenn were also just arriving in their own vehicles. She got out of her car and stood waiting for them.

Without exchanging many words, the three walked toward the building. Riley saw that, like her, Bill and Jenn had brought their go-bags along. None of them had needed to be told that they’d likely be flying out of Quantico in short order.

They checked into the building and headed toward Chief Meredith’s office. As soon as they got to his door, the burly, imposing African-American man burst out into the hallway. He’d obviously been notified of their arrival.

“No time for a conference,” he growled at the three agents. “We’ll talk and walk.”

As they hurried along with Meredith, Riley realized that they were headed straight to Quantico’s airstrip.

We really are in a hurry, Riley thought. It was unusual not to have at least a brief meeting to bring them up to speed on a new case.

Striding along beside Meredith, Bill asked, “What’s this all about, Chief?”

Meredith said, “Right now there’s a decapitated dead body on a train track near Barnwell, Illinois. It’s a line out of Chicago. A woman was bound to the tracks and run over by a freight train, just a few hours ago. It’s the second such killing in four days and there are apparently striking similarities. It looks like we’re dealing with a serial.”

Meredith began to walk a little faster, and the three agents scurried to keep up.

Riley asked, “Who called for the FBI?”

Meredith said, “I got the call from Jude Cullen, the Chicago area Deputy Chief of Railroad Police. He says he wants profilers there right away. I told him to leave the body where it was until my agents got a look at it.”

Meredith grunted a little.

“That’s a pretty tall order. Three more freight trains are scheduled along that track today, and a passenger train as well. Right now, they’re all on hold, and it’s already getting to be a mess. You need to get out there ASAP and get a look at the crime scene so the body can be moved and the trains can start running again. And then …”