Page 14 of The Girl He Crowned

Paige remindedherself that this was the part that Christopher was good at. Where she broughttogether connections to try to establish more about the killers they hunted,Christopher was an expert in tracking them and taking them down once they’d corneredthem. That combination was a part of what made them such a good team.

Paige just hopedthat they would be able to continue working as a team. If Agent Sauer got hisway, they might both find themselves reassigned to who knew where.

Paige didn’t wantthat, and not just because working in the BAU was her best chance of catchingthe killer who had murdered her father. Shelikedworking withChristopher. Maybe she even liked it a little more than she should. Yes, theflare of attraction she felt every time she looked his way was distracting, andmade her feel slightly guilty, given that he was a married man, but the two ofthem worked well together. They were a good team who blended well and who had alreadyput several killers behind bars.

That made it allthe more important to bring in the killer this time. They had to remind Sauerof exactly what they were able to do together.

“Do you think it’shim?” Paige asked, as they headed over to Tom Wright’s home. She felt like hemight be their killer, but Paige didn’t want to get ahead of herself and simplyassume that it was him.

“The pendulum feelslike the kind of thing that it would have been easy for him to make, and hewent missing right around the time of the murder,” Christopher said. “But I’mworried about Mr. Willis. Do you think he’s credible as a witness?”

Paige had beenworrying about exactly that while they talked to him, but she wasn’t sure thatit was enough to let them just discount what he’d said out of hand.

“I think he’sobviously a little paranoid,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean he’s necessarilymaking anything up. Especially not when we have the evidence of the pendulum. Themain thing I want is to at least be able to test Tom Wright’s gloves againstthe fibers we found.”

It was almoststrange in one of their cases to have a piece of physical evidence that theycould rely on in that way to prove or disprove the identity of the killer. Itwouldn’t be enough to let them work out who the killer was without a set ofgloves to compare to those fibers, but it would at least allow them to establishif someone was the killer once they’d found a likely suspect like Tom Wright.

Paige was stillthinking about the strangeness of that when they pulled up in front of Wright’shouse, a broad single story structure on the outskirts of Eddis, in an areathat was much less obviously wealthy than the rest of the town. If anything,the area looked slightly run-down, although Wright’s home was in good repair,presumably thanks to whatever talents he possessed as a builder.

“This doesn’t lookpromising,” Christopher said as they approached.

Paige could seewhat he meant. There was no car in the driveway, and there didn’t seem to beany signs of movement in the house or yard. Even so, the two of them made theirway up to the door and hammered on it, trying to get Wright’s attention in themost obvious way possible.

“Tom Wright, openup! This is the FBI!”

There was noanswer from inside the house. More than that, there was no sign of sudden movementin response to their call, the way Paige might have expected if a killer werepanicked by their presence. She could imagine someone not wanting to answer thedoor, but the same person would at least react to their presence, right?

It was starting tolook as though Tom Wright wasn’t home. Even so, Paige made her way to thewindows, checking for any sign of him.

“He isn’t here,”Christopher said. Paige could only agree.

“The question nowis where he’s gone if he’s not at work and he’s not at home.”

Those were usuallythe two most obvious places to find a suspect. She had one idea that might helpto find him. Taking out her phone, she started to look through social mediasites, trying to find Tom Wright in Eddis. It didn’t take long for her tolocate his pages, and she was slightly surprised to find that they were filledwith pictures of him partying, holding drinks, posing next to women, dancing.

He was a goodlooking guy in his early thirties, with shaggy dark hair, deep brown eyes, anda chiseled jaw. He wasn’t shy about showing off the muscles he’d built up,either, mostly appearing just in brightly colored swim shorts. The most recentpost was one of him taking a run up and jumping into a pool over the heads of acouple of other people, hitting the water with a huge splash while loud musicblared in the background. The post was recent, just minutes old.

The caption readPartyat my girlfriend’s place!

There were nodetails of where that place was, because presumably the people who needed toknow that information already did, but that caption was enough to send Paigelooking for Tom Wright’s relationship status, which showed that he was in arelationship with a woman named Amber Thorn, andthatinformation wasenough to make a check with the DMV to find her address.

“I think I knowwhere Wright is,” Paige said at last, turning the phone to Christopher.

“Then it lookslike we have a party to attend.”

It was only acouple of streets away, easy to cover in the car. They were still the length ofa street away when Paige started to hear the music, so that she suspected she wouldhave been able to pick out the right house even without an address. A bunch ofother cars were parked out on the street, suggesting that this wasn’t just aparty for a few of the neighbors, and even as Paige watched, a couple of womenin swimsuits came staggering out from the house, obviously drunk or high orboth.

Thanks to the DMVcheck before, it was easy to make out Wright’s pickup and park behind it. Thatwould help to cut down his escape options if he chose to run when theyapproached him. The killer would most likely run or fight rather than riskbeing captured. Only a few tried to brazen it out, and Paige felt certain thatTom Wright wouldn’t be among them.

She andChristopher made their way towards the front door, which opened as theyapproached to let out a couple of partygoers looking for some air. Paige tookthe opportunity to catch the door before it closed, and she and Christopher steppedinside, looking for Wright.

The scene withinwas utterly chaotic, not helped by the loud pulse of the music. It looked as ifa party had already been raging for a couple of hours, even though it was onlythe early afternoon. There were people dancing there in the house, and beerbottles everywhere. Paige was pretty sure that she saw pills being passedaround casually, and there was white powder spread out on one table.

Paige foundherself wondering then if she should do something about that. She was startingto move towards it when Christopher put a restraining hand on her arm.

“That’s not whatwe’re here for.”

Paige nodded atthe reminder. Dealing with the drugs could wait; they were there to find apotential killer. That took priority, and then maybe afterwards they could callin Sheriff May to deal with the rest of this.

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