Page 46 of The Girl He Wanted

Christopher shook his head. "We’ll deal with that when we get to it. For now, we have to assume he’s inside.”

Paige nodded, steeling herself. She pressed the doorbell, waiting nervously for a response.

Christopher was less patient. He stepped forward, hammering on the door with his fist. "Alvin Richards, this is the FBI! Open up!"

There was still no answer from inside. Paige could feel the tension building up inside her as they waited for a response.

"Check the back of the house," Christopher said. "I'll cover here."

Paige nodded. She knew that there was a chance that a killer like Alvin would try to run when he heard the FBI coming. She headed around the side of the house, her gun drawn in case of trouble.

The back of the house was just as run-down as the front, with a rickety, wooden fence separating the yard from the neighbors. Paige scanned the area, searching for any sign of movement. She made her way carefully towards the back door, her gun held out in front of her.

She could hear Christopher still knocking on the door at the front, his voice ringing out clearly.

"Alvin Richards! Open up! This is your last chance!"

Paige kept covering the rear of the house, making sure that Alvin wasn't about to come charging out at her. She heard a noise and span towards it, but she saw that it was only Christopher approaching.

"There's no answer," he said.

"What do we do now?" Paige asked.

In response to Paige’s question, Christopher took a step towards the rear door of the house and kicked it, splintering the wood around the lock as it broke open. The two of them moved into the house, turning on lights as they went to counter the greyness of the weather.

Inside, the air was musty and still. There was no sign that anyone was there. The only sound was the soft pattering of their shoes on the old linoleum floors.

"Clear," Christopher said from the kitchen, his voice echoing through the empty house. "Paige, check the bedrooms."

Paige nodded, making her way up the narrow staircase. The first bedroom was empty, the bed stripped of its sheets. The second was the same, with nothing but a few old clothes and some empty bottles scattered around the room. It was only in the third bedroom that she found something interesting.

This bedroom was obviously lived in, with clothes scattered on the bed and clutter all around the room. It was the nature of that clutter that made Paige's breath catch in her throat.

"Up here!" she called out to Christopher, hearing him come running.

The room was full of materials relating to the Tower of the Winds. There were books, notes, and sketches, all carefully laid out on the bed and surrounding surfaces. Alvin had been studying the tower, just like Dr. Kostopoulos. Alongside Kostopoulos, sharing in his obsession and then going further, into violence.

There were maps, diagrams, and notes spread out on the bed and the floor. Paige scanned the notes, her eyes widening as she realized that they contained detailed information on the tower's history and construction.

"Look at this," she said, holding up a piece of paper. "It's a list of potential sacrifices, with dates and locations to grab them."

Christopher peered over her shoulder, his eyes flicking over the list. "There's three names on here from the times of the murders," he said. "This has to be it. This has to be where he planned everything."

Paige nodded, her mind racing. "But where is he now?"

"Maybe he's already gone to make the next sacrifice," Christopher said, his voice grim. “There’s another name on this list. Zelda Mackie.”

Paige shuddered at the thought. They had to move fast if they wanted to catch him. If they wanted to save a young woman’s life.

"We need to get to him before he can finish this."

Christopher nodded, his face grim. "We need to find him first."

"There's no car in the driveway," Paige said. "That suggests that he took it with him to go wherever he's going. If we can trace the car, then we can trace him."

"I'll go get Detective Johnson and his people to check the traffic camera footage for Winterly," Christopher said. "With so few cars on the road, there shouldn’t be much to look through. You stay here and see if you can find anything else."

He left the room to make the call. Paige started to go through Alvin's notes, trying to use her psychological skills to get a sense of the person they were dealing with.

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