Blake Pierce - Once Forsaken

“Excuse me,” she told the enormous man.

Still looking quite terrified, the man scrambled sideways like a giant crab, getting out of Riley’s way. She got into the car and drove through the gate. She tossed the pistol on the ground as she drove away.

They don’t think I’m a reporter anymore, she thought.

She was also sure that they would let the congresswoman know that pretty quickly.

A couple of hours later, Riley pulled her car into the parking lot at the BAU building. She sat there for a few moments. She hadn’t been here once during her month on leave. She hadn’t expected to be back so soon. It felt really strange.

She turned off the engine, removed the keys, got out of the car, and went into the building. As she made her way toward her office, friends and colleagues spoke to her with varying degrees of welcome, surprise, or restraint.

She stopped at the office of her usual partner, Bill Jeffreys, but he wasn’t there. He was probably out on an assignment, working with someone else.

She felt a slight pang of sadness—even jealousy.

In many ways, Bill was her best friend in the world.

Still, she figured maybe this was just as well. Bill didn’t know that she and Ryan were together again, and he wouldn’t approve. He had held her hand too many times during her painful breakup and divorce. He’d find it hard to believe that Ryan was a changed man.

When she opened the door to her own office, she had to double check to make sure she was in the right place. It all looked far too neat and well organized. Had they given her office to another agent? Had someone else been working here?

Riley opened a drawer and found familiar files, though now in better order.

Who would have straightened everything up for her?

Certainly not Bill. He would have known better.

Lucy Vargas, maybe, she thought.

Lucy was a young agent that both she and Bill had worked with and liked. If Lucy was the culprit behind all this neatness, at least she’d done it in a spirit of helpfulness.

Riley sat at her desk for a few minutes.

Images and memories came to her—the girl’s coffin, her devastated parents, and Riley’s terrible dream of the hanged girl surrounded by mementos. She also remembered how Dean Autrey had evaded her questions, and how Hazel Webber had outright lied.

She reminded herself of what she’d said to Hazel Webber. She’d promised to get an official investigation underway. And it was time to make good on that promise.

She picked up her office phone and buzzed her boss, Brent Meredith.

When the team chief picked up, she said, “Sir, this is Riley Paige. I wonder if I could—”

She was about to ask for a few minutes of his time when his voice thundered.

“Agent Paige, get in my office right now.”

Riley shuddered.

Meredith was plenty mad at her about something.

When Riley hurried into Brent Meredith’s office, she found him standing by his desk waiting for her.

“Close the door,” he said. “Sit down.”

Riley did as she was told.

Still standing, Meredith didn’t speak for a few moments. He just glared at Riley. He was a big man—broad-built with black, angular features. And he was intimidating even when he was in the best of moods.

He wasn’t in a good mood right now.

“Is there something you’d like to tell me, Agent Paige?” he asked.

Riley gulped. She guessed that some of her activities that day had already gotten back to him.

“Perhaps you’d better start first, sir,” she said meekly.

He moved closer to her.

“I’ve just gotten two complaints from on high about you,” he said.

Riley’s heart sank. By “on high,” she knew who Meredith meant. The complaints had come from Special Agent in Charge Carl Walder himself—a contemptible little man who had already suspended Riley more than once for insubordination.

Meredith growled, “Walder tells me he got a call from the dean of a small college.”

“Yes, Byars College. But if you’ll give me a moment to explain—”

Meredith interrupted her again.

“The dean said you walked into his office and made some preposterous allegations.”

“That’s not exactly what happened, sir,” Riley pleaded.

But Meredith steamrolled right along.

“Walder also got a call from Representative Hazel Webber. She said that you made your way into her home and harassed her. You even lied to her about some nonexistent case. And then you assaulted two members of her staff. You threatened them at gunpoint.”

Riley bristled at the accusation.

“That’s really not what happened, sir.”

“Then what did happen?”

“It was the guard’s own gun,” she blurted.

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Riley realized …

That didn’t come out right at all.

“I was trying to give it back!” she said.

But she instantly knew …

That didn’t help.

A long silence fell.

Meredith drew a deep breath. Finally, he said, “You’d better have a good explanation for your actions, Agent Paige.”

Riley took a deep breath.

“Sir, there have been three suspicious deaths at Byars College, just during this school year. They were allegedly suicides. I don’t believe that’s what they were.”

“This is the first I’ve heard of it,” Meredith said.

“I understand, sir. And I came here just to tell you about it.”

Meredith stood, waiting for further explanation.

“A friend of my daughter’s had a sister at Byars College—Lois Pennington, a freshman. Her family found her hanging in the garage last Sunday. Her sister doesn’t believe it was suicide. I interviewed her parents, and—”

Meredith yelled loud enough to be heard out in the hallway.

“You interviewed her parents ?”

“Yes, sir,” Riley said quietly.

Meredith took a moment to try to bring his temper under control.

“Need I tell you that this is not a BAU case?”

“No, sir,” Riley said.

“In fact, as far as I know, this is not a case at all.”

Riley didn’t know what to say next.

“So what did her parents tell you?” Meredith asked. “Did they think it was suicide?”

“Yes,” Riley said in a hushed voice.

Now Meredith didn’t seem to know what to say. He shook his head with dismay.

“Sir, I know how this sounds,” Riley said. “But the dean at Byars was hiding something. And Hazel Webber lied to me about her own daughter’s death.”

“How do you know?”

“I just know!”

Riley looked at Meredith imploringly.

“Sir, after all these years, surely you know that my instincts are good. When I feel something in my gut, I’m almost always right. You’ve got to trust me. There’s something wrong with these girls’ deaths.”

“Riley, you know that’s not the way things work.”

Riley was startled. Meredith seldom called her by her first name—only when he was genuinely concerned about her. She knew that he valued, liked, and respected her, and she felt the same about him.

He leaned against his desk and shrugged unhappily.

“Maybe you’re right, and maybe you’re wrong,” he said with a sigh. “Either way, I can’t make this a BAU case just because of your gut feelings. There’d have to be a whole lot more to it.”

Meredith now gazed at her with a worried expression.

“Agent Paige, you’ve been through a lot lately. You’ve been on some dangerous cases, and your partner almost got poisoned to death on the last one. And you’ve got a new family member to take care of, and …”