Page 30 of The Girl He Claimed

Adam smiled at that. "Or I'llkill you. Either way, we'll have fun along the way."

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Paige hurried into the library ofthe St Just Institute, determined to get to the bottom of what was going on inthe case.

Caroline walked in a little afterPaige and Christopher arrived, which was something of a surprise, even thoughshe was the librarian there.

"Caroline," Paige said."You don't have to be here, you know. We're using this as a base for ourinvestigation. I'm pretty sure Dr. Neil would give you a couple of daysoff."

Caroline shook her head, though."Are you sure? This is Dr. Neil we're talking about."

Paige had to admit that she had apoint. Dr. Neil clearly wasn't happy about the FBI's involvement in all ofthis, and he wasn't the kind of boss who would give someone time off justbecause the FBI was taking up the space where they worked. He'd probably insiston Caroline going over to the administration offices to help catch up on someextra work there.

"Besides," Caroline said,"I thought maybe I could help. I was able to help you with the ID cardsbefore. I just... I want to do something, you know?"

"I know," Paige said, andshe did understand that impulse, probably better than anyone. After all, it hadbeen what had driven her from working there to joining the FBI. Was it so hardto believe that someone else might have the same desire to help catch bad guys?

Besides, there was every chancethat the librarian might prove useful here.

"I'm happy for her tostay," Christopher said. He was obviously thinking the same thing."But Caroline, I need to make it clear that you aren't any kind of officialpart of this investigation. I don't want to throw you out of your own library,and if you're able to help us, great, but we need to be careful not to put youin any danger."

"I wouldn't want to be in anydanger," Caroline said with a slight shudder that suggested she realizedexactly how dangerous it could be. "I'm not like you, Paige. I couldn'tthrow myself into action, taking risks like that."

Paige tried to imagine thelibrarian chasing after a suspect. She had to admit that she couldn't.

"But you can still helpus," Paige said. "Dr. Chang had an alibi for the two most recentmurders." She had to pause as even talking about it brought up the sightof the Thorntons' bodies. It was almost too much to bear.

"Are you all right,Paige?" Christopher asked her. "Can you do this?"

Paige forced herself to nod. Shecould do this. She had to do this. She wasn't about to give up. The best thingshe could do for her friends right now was to try to catch Adam and theExsanguination Killer.

That meant going through the files,trying to find out who in the institute had an alibi for either the escape,like Caroline or the security guard they'd brought in, or the murders, like Dr.Chang. It would give them a pool of suspects.

"Her alibi is based on beinghere working last night," Paige said. "I want to use the St JustInstitute's security to find out who else was working here last night, and whowas working here at the time when Adam escaped. Anyone who was working here forthe escape but who doesn't have an alibi for last night is a potentialsuspect."

"We would also need to look atvisitor lists," Christopher said. "They're less likely to have hadthe access to do this, especially when Riker said he met the ExsanguinationKiller in here, but if we see that a former employee was visiting, then there'sa chance."

"Or someone who came to visitAdam specifically at some point in the past," Paige suggested.

"That could be a lot ofpeople," Caroline pointed out. "Between the guards, the doctors andthe administrative staff, the institute has probably close to a hundred staffmembers. And a lot of those who were working the night of the escape will beoff now. Dr. Neil switched out most of the guards, so there was no chance ofthem releasing any other patients."

Paige felt a little frustrated atthat. Dr. Neil had made her and Christopher's job harder, and for what? TheExsanguination Killer wasn't going to start releasing every patient in thefacility. She'd only been interested in Adam.

"We'll work through them oncewe have them," Christopher said. "Paige, you already have a prettygood idea of the kind of person the Exsanguination Killer is, right?"

Paige nodded. She had more than agood idea. She'd been thinking about the Exsanguination Killer since she wasfourteen in an attempt to try to work out everything that she could about her.

"We're looking for a woman,highly organized and intelligent, maybe someone whose files demonstrate oldpsychological trauma, but not someone given to lashing out randomly. This issomeone who plans, someone who's careful. She would probably show evidence ofneeding to control things, needing everything to be just right."

Finding that person would meancross-referencing every suspect they found against their files at theinstitute, hoping that something stood out about them, something they couldpick up on.

"I'll start compiling thelist," Caroline said. She set to work on one of the computers there,looking through the security from the night before to establish who had beenthere.

Paige pulled up a list of the StJust Institute employees who had been there at the time when Adam escaped.Christopher seemed to be working through visitor logs, trying to establish ifany might have helped Adam.

He quickly shook his head, though. "Thereweren't any visitors in the facility at the time of Riker's escape," hesaid. "It was too late for them to be there visiting prisoners. There werea couple of new patients, but they were being closely monitored, so there's nochance that it was them."

This meant that they were back tothe only option being that it was a member of staff who had helped Adam and whohad her own career as a serial killer running in parallel to his.

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