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.
After the meeting broke up, everyone left the room except Riley.
Now that it had ended, Riley felt too badly shaken to get up from her chair.
Roston had asked her familiar questions – for example, how often Riley had communicated with Hatcher, and how. She’d also asked about the death of Shirley Redding, a real estate agent who had gone to the cabin against Riley’s wishes and had died there. The police didn’t suspect foul play, but Riley was sure that Hatcher had murdered her for intruding on his territory. Riley sensed that Roston also suspected the truth.
Through all of Roston’s questions, Riley had responded with familiar lies.
She could tell that Roston was far from satisfied.
This isn’t over, she thought with a chill. How long could she hope to conceal the whole truth about her relationship with Hatcher?
But a much more terrifying worry also weighed on her.
What was Shane Hatcher going to do now?
She knew he felt bitterly betrayed that she hadn’t warned him about the approaching SWAT team. In fact, he had deliberately allowed himself to be seen at the cabin, allowed the FBI to close in, just to test her loyalty.
From Hatcher’s perspective, she had failed that test.
She remembered a text message he had sent to her afterward …
“You will live to regret it. Your family might not.”
She knew Hatcher too well not to take his threats seriously.
Riley sat at the big table clenching her hands together anxiously.
How did I let it come to this? she wondered.
Why had she allowed her relationship with Hatcher to continue even after his escape from prison?
Something Walder had just said echoed in her mind …
“You say that Hatcher’s obsessed with you. Are you sure that obsession isn’t mutual?”
Now that she was sitting here alone, she couldn’t deny the truth behind Walder’s question.
Hatcher had fascinated Riley ever since she first met him in Sing Sing, seeking out his considerable expertise as a self-taught criminologist. He still fascinated her now that he was at large – fascinated her with his brilliance, his ruthlessness, and his strange capacity for loyalty. In fact, Riley felt an uncanny bond with him – a bond that Hatcher did everything he could to strengthen and manipulate.
It was just like Hatcher had sometimes told her:
“We’re joined at the brain, Riley Paige.”
Riley shuddered at the thought.
She hoped that at long last she had broken that bond.
But had she also brought the wrath of Shane Hatcher upon the people she loved most?
Just then Riley heard a voice behind her.
“Agent Paige …”
Riley turned and saw that Jennifer Roston had just stepped back into the room.
“I think that you and I need to talk some more,” Roston said, sitting down at the table across from Riley.
Riley’s mind
