Page 13 of The Girl He Claimed

Paige hadn't even considered thepossibility that the librarian might be, but she was right. This gave themconfirmation. It also potentially gave them more than that. Paige checked thelogs for the door to Adam's room, along with the doors to the secure wing hewas on.

Paige was shocked to find that shegot an answer. A woman's name came up on the screen, a woman who had opened thedoor to his room at 07:13, right around the time of his escape. A woman who hadto have been the one to release Adam: Karen Williams.

Paige's heart rate increased as shestudied the name. She felt a sudden surge of adrenaline as she realized thatthey might have found the person who had helped Adam Riker escape.

"Who is she?" Christopherasked, reading over Paige's shoulder.

"I'm not sure. I don'tremember her as being a part of the psychiatric staff."

"I think she's one of theguards," Caroline said, and Paige saw her eyes widen. "Do you thinkshe's the one who helped Riker escape?"

Paige nodded, trying to work outexactly what this meant. "It's a possibility. We need to find out moreabout her. Christopher, can you pull up her personnel file?"

Christopher nodded and began typingon his computer. "Karen Williams, let me see. Yes, here she is. KarenWilliams, 34, She's been a guard here for three years. No disciplinary issues,and her record is clean."

There was a picture of her on thefile, and Paige studied it closely. She had a stern expression, with sharpfeatures and short blonde hair. Paige couldn't help but wonder what wouldcompel her to risk her job and freedom to help a notorious serial killerescape.

"That doesn't mean she isn'tinvolved," Paige said, looking at the screen. Her mind was racing."We need to find her and question her."

Christopher nodded in agreement."I'll let the cops on site know that we want to talk to her. In themeantime, we should go try to look for her. I know a lot of the guards were helpingin the search."

That was a worrying thought. Itmeant that Karen Williams might be outside somewhere without anyone watchingher. It would give her plenty of opportunities to simply slip away quietly ifshe thought that people were getting too close to finding out her part in allof this. Paige's only hope was that she thought that no one knew she'd done anyof this and that she was going to continue to try to blend in rather than runwhen she didn't need to.

That raised another problem."We can't just send out a call to look out for her," Paige said."That would warn her that we're looking for her. We need to find herwithout tipping her off. We need to be discreet, or we risk letting her runbefore we can catch up to her."

That meant that they would have togo out there and look for her, just the two of them. Paige got up, hurrying forthe door, with Christopher following close behind.

The two of them headed out of thefacility and into the grounds beyond. Local cops were still sweeping the area,checking any nearby buildings and access roads, while guards helped them tocheck every potential hiding place in the grounds.

Paige and Christopher slipped pastthe police and made their way to the edge of the property, scanning the areafor any signs of Karen Williams. The sun was setting, casting long shadows overthe grassy fields surrounding the institute.

"Do you have any ideas whereshe could be?" Christopher asked, his eyes darting from side to side.

Paige shook her head. "No, butmy guess is that she'll be in one of the smaller groups of guards. She won'twant to stand out alone, but she'll also be able to slip away if she needs to.Maybe one of the ones closer to the edge of the property so it will be easierto run if she's found out."

Paige and Christopher split up,each taking a different direction to search for Karen Williams. Paige knew thatfinding her among the chaos of the search was going to be like finding a needlein a haystack, but she had to try.

As she walked along the perimeterof the facility, Paige kept her eyes peeled for any sign of Karen, trying toblend in with the search party. She checked the faces of every guard that cameinto view, looking for the sharp features and short blonde hair of the woman inthe photo. She was aware that she might spot Karen at any moment, and that kepther on edge.

As Paige made her way through thegrounds, she noticed a guard standing near the edge of the property, lookingout towards the road. The guard seemed to be preoccupied, staring intently atsomething in the distance. Paige approached him cautiously.

"Have you seen KarenWilliams?" Paige asked, trying to keep her voice calm, not wanting to giveaway the urgency of their search. "We need to talk to her."

The guard turned to her, his eyesscanning over her. "I think she was with a couple of the others, checkingthat stand of trees." He pointed towards a small cluster of trees a littleway outside the boundaries of the St Just Institute's grounds.

"Thank you," Paige said.

She hurried forward while sending amessage to Christopher to let him know that she had a potential location forKaren Williams.

As Paige reached the stand oftrees, she spotted Karen Williams standing slightly away from the other guards.It was easy to recognize her, even at a distance. She was on her phone, herback turned towards Paige. Paige moved closer, drawing her weapon, ready fortrouble.

She reminded herself that she hadto be careful; this might be the Exsanguination Killer. The woman who hadmurdered her father. A woman who had murdered plenty of people and who wasclearly dangerous.

Paige approached Karen Williamsfrom behind, keeping her gun trained on her. "Karen Williams, I need youto put your hands up and turn around slowly," Paige said, her voice firm.

Karen started at the sound ofPaige's voice and quickly turned around. Her eyes widened in surprise as shesaw the gun pointed at her. "What is this? What's going on?" sheasked, her voice quivering.

"Put your hands up," Paigesaid, trying to convey no uncertainty. If Karen attacked now, Paige wouldshoot. This was an armed woman, one who might be a serial killer. Anyhesitation might cost Paige her life.

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