Блейк Пирс - Once Lost

In spite of that, Riley couldn’t make herself look away from the picture on her cell phone.

She had snapped that picture of Lucy Vargas last fall, right here in the Behavioral Analysis Unit offices. Lucy’s ankle was in a cast, but her smile was simply radiant, a dazzling contrast to her smooth brown skin. Lucy had just been injured on the first case she had worked with Riley and her partner, Bill Jeffreys. But Lucy had done great work, and she knew it, and so did Riley and Bill. That was why Lucy was smiling.

Riley’s hand trembled a little as she held the cell phone in her hand.

Lucy was dead now – gunned down by a deranged sniper.

Lucy had died in Riley’s arms. But Riley knew that Lucy’s death hadn’t been her fault.

She wished Bill felt the same way. Her partner was currently on mandatory leave and not doing at all well.

Riley shuddered as she remembered how things had unfolded.

The situation had been chaotic, and instead of shooting the sniper, Bill had shot an innocent man who was trying to help Lucy. Fortunately, the man wasn’t badly injured, and no one blamed Bill for his actions, least of all Riley. Riley had never seen him so debilitated with guilt and trauma. Riley wondered how soon he could come back to work – or if he ever could.

Riley’s throat tightened as she remembered holding Lucy in her arms.

“You’ve got a great career ahead of you,” Riley had pleaded. “Now stay with us, Lucy. Stay with us.”

But it was hopeless. Lucy had lost too much blood. Riley had felt the life ebbing away from Lucy’s body until it was gone.

And now tears began to trickle down Riley’s cheeks.

Her recollections were interrupted by a familiar voice.

“Agent Paige …”

Riley looked up and saw Sam Flores, the lab technician with black-rimmed glasses. He was standing in her open office door.

Riley stifled a gasp. She hastily wiped away her tears and turned her cell phone face down on her desk.

But she could tell by Sam’s stricken expression that he’d glimpsed what she’d been looking at. And that was the last thing she wanted.

A romance had been budding between Sam and Lucy, and he’d taken her death very hard. He still looked brokenhearted.

Now Flores looked at Riley sadly, but to Riley’s relief he didn’t ask what he’d just interrupted.

Instead he said, “I’m on my way to the meeting. You coming?”

Riley nodded, and Sam nodded back at her.

“Well, good luck, Agent Paige,” he said, then continued on his way.

Riley muttered aloud to herself …

“Yeah, good luck.”

Sam seemed to realize she was going to need it for this meeting.

It was time to pull herself together and face whatever was coming next.

A little while later, Riley sat in the large conference room surrounded by more BAU personnel than she had expected, including technicians and investigators in a wide range of capacities. Not all of the faces were familiar, and not all of them were friendly.

I could really use an ally right now, she thought.

She certainly missed Bill’s presence. Sam Flores sat nearby, but he looked too downcast to be of any help to her right now.

The least friendly face of all was Special Agent in Charge Carl Walder, who sat directly across the table from her. The man with the babyish, freckled face glanced back and forth between Riley and a written report in front of him.

He said in a sullen voice, “Agent Paige, I’m trying to understand what’s going on here. We’ve granted a request to post agents at your house around the clock. This seems to have something to do with Shane Hatcher’s recent activities, but I’m not sure exactly how or why. Please explain.”

Riley gulped hard.

She’d known that this meeting was going to deal with her relationship with Shane Hatcher, a brilliant and dangerous escaped convict.

She also knew that a full and honest explanation would mean an end to her career.

It might even put her in prison.

She said, “Agent Walder, as you know, Shane Hatcher was last seen at a cabin that I own up in the Appalachian Mountains.”

Walder nodded and waited for Riley to say more.

Riley knew she had to choose her words very carefully. Until recently, she and Hatcher had had a secret pact. In return for helping Riley on an intensely personal case, Riley had agreed to let Hatcher hide away in the cabin she had inherited from her father.

It had been a pact with a devil, and Riley looked back on it with shame.

Riley continued, “As you also know, Hatcher escaped an FBI SWAT team that surrounded my cabin. I have reason to think he might turn up at my home.”

Walder squinted at her suspiciously.

“Why do you think that?”

“Hatcher is obsessed with me,” Riley said. “Now that he’s been spotted, I’m fairly sure he’ll try to reach out to me. If so, the agents around my house have got a good chance of capturing him.”

Riley cringed a little inside.

It was a half-truth at best.

The real reason she wanted agents around her house was to protect her and her family.

Walder sat drumming his fingers on the table for a moment.

“Agent Paige, you say that Hatcher’s obsessed with you. Are you sure that obsession isn’t mutual?”

Riley bristled a little at the insinuation.

She was relieved when her immediate superior, Brent Meredith, spoke up. Meredith cut a daunting presence as always with his black, angular features and his stern look. But Riley’s relationship with Meredith had always been respectful, even friendly. He’d often been her ally in difficult times.

She hoped that he’d be one right now.

He said, “Chief Walder, I think that Agent Paige’s request for agents at her home was well-founded. We mustn’t pass up even the faintest possibility of bringing Hatcher to justice.”

“Yes,” Walder said. “And I am not satisfied with the fact that we knew exactly where he was but he still got away.” Walder drew himself up in his chair, stared directly at Riley, and asked, “Agent Paige, did you warn Hatcher about the SWAT team that was closing in around him?”

Riley could hear a gasp in the room.

Not many people would have the nerve to ask her such a question. But Riley had to suppress a laugh. This was one question she could answer truthfully. It was why she had reason to fear Hatcher now.

“No, I did not,” Riley said firmly, meeting Walder’s gaze with a glare.

Walder dropped his eyes first. He turned to Jennifer Roston, a young African-American woman with short straight hair who sat looking at Riley with intense dark eyes.

“Do you have questions, Agent Roston?” he asked.

Roston said nothing for a moment. Riley waited somewhat anxiously for her reply. Roston had been assigned to bring Shane Hatcher to justice. Roston was new to the BAU and eager to make her mark. Riley didn’t think she could count on the new agent to be her ally.

Roston hadn’t taken her eyes off Riley during the whole meeting so far.

“Agent Paige, would you mind explaining the exact nature of your relationship with Shane Hatcher?”

Riley bristled again.

She wanted to say …

Yes, I mind. I mind very much.

Roston’s tactic was becoming clear to Riley.

Some days ago Roston had privately interrogated Riley about this very topic in this very room.

Now Roston clearly intended to ask her the same questions all over again, hoping to catch Riley in a contradiction. Roston expected Riley to crack under the pressure of a large meeting like this. And Riley knew from hard experience not to underestimate her. Roston was highly skilled with mind games.

Say as little as possible, she told herself. Be extremely careful.