Page 31 of The Girl He Claimed

The list started to take shape,and, as Caroline had predicted, there were a lot of names on it. It seemed thatalmost everyone who had been there the night Adam had escaped hadn't worked thefollowing night, either because of the shock of such an escape happening whilethey were working or simply because they'd been exhausted from helping out withthe hunt for Adam through much of the night.

There were close to fifty names onthe list, and even once Paige eliminated all of the men from it, there werestill fifteen women, one of whom might be their suspect.

Paige knew that she needed tonarrow it down, so she started to pull up the facility's files on itsemployees. One good thing about the access they had in the wake of Adam'sescape was that it made that part of her job relatively straightforward.

Another good thing was that, as asecure psychiatric institution, the St Just Institute had psych evaluations forall of its staff. Paige resisted the urge to go looking for her own, but onlyjust. She wasn't here to read whatever Dr. Chang had written about her; she washere to try to assess which, if any, of the staff there had what it took tobecome a killer.

That was anything but easy. Itwasn't as if any of the files said, "This person will probably become aserial killer if they are not watched.” Indeed, Paige would have expected anyserious personality disorder to have disbarred the guards or the doctors fromtheir roles. The doctors would have picked up on that easily, too. She had tolook for subtler clues in the psych evaluations, looking for anyone with whatseemed to be an excessive need for order and control, anyone who seemed to havetrouble working with others or grandiose ideas about themselves.

It was slow going because Paige hadto read each psych evaluation in detail, had to understand the deeper meaningsof each psychologist's assessment, trying to weigh up whether the doctor makingthe evaluation was being too cautious or not cautious enough, trying to workout what they meant by each phrase.She also looked for any signs of behaviorthat might point to carefully hidden problems: any disputes with colleagues orstrange behavior, a refusal to fit into the order of the institute orreprimands that might point to violent behavior. It seemed to take forever, andPaige was still working her way through the list when Dr. Neil burst into thelibrary.

"I want the two of you out ofmy institution!" he snapped, by way of a greeting, pointing towards Paigeand Christopher as he said it. "The FBI might have jurisdiction toinvestigate here, but it does not have the authority to use my library as somekind of headquarters!"

Christopher rose to meet him, hisvoice calm. "What seems to be the problem, Dr. Neil?"

"The problem is that youarrested one of my most senior staff members. How dare you just drag Dr. Changin for questioning like some common criminal?"

"There was evidence linkingher to the scene of the most recent murders," Christopher said, keepinghis tone level. Paige was impressed because she had a much harder time notreacting to the institute head's sudden determination to throw them out.

"Which I'm sure wasplanted!" he said.

"It was," Paige replied,"but we still had to ask her the questions, and when she started refusingto answer, we were left with no choice other than to arrest her."

"No choice? She was an eminent–"

"She was writing prescriptionsfor cash," Paige snapped back. "To anyone who wanted them. Andapparently, nobody here noticed."

She didn't point out that Dr. Neilshould have been the one to notice, that it was his job to have oversight ofthe whole facility. She didn't need to.

"I hope you're not suggestingthat I had some involvement in all of this," he said, his expressionhostile.

Paige knew that she should holdback, that she should be diplomatic, yet, after everything that had happenedlast night, she wasn't sure that she could anymore.

"I think that you've turned ablind eye to too many things," she said. "I think that one of yourmost dangerous prisoners has escaped not once, but twice, and that you didn'tnotice that one of your senior doctors was writing prescriptions for pain medsto whoever wanted them."

"I want you out," Dr.Neil said again, more vehemently this time.

Paige shook her head. It was timeto stand up to her old boss. "No. I'm not some junior psychologist hereanymore, Dr. Neil. My partner and I are with the FBI, and this building is apart of an ongoing investigation. I will not leave just because it suits you.Instead, I'm going to get to the bottom of everything that's happening here,and if you try to stop us one more time, I'll bring you in for obstruction. Doyou understand?"

Dr. Neil still looked furious, buthe didn't immediately say anything. Maybe he realized that there was nothing hecould say right then, at least not to them. Instead, he pointed to Caroline. "You.You're meant to be a librarian. The last I heard, your job didn't involvehelping the FBI."

"But Dr. Neil, they're in thelibrary, and-"

"No, you'll let them get onwith their jobs. Go over to administration while they're here. I'm sure thereare plenty of things to do there."

Paige opened her mouth to argue onbehalf of the librarian, but even as she did so, Christopher's phone rang,cutting the conversation off.

"Marriott," he said. Hisexpression was suddenly grave. "Yes, sir, I understand. Where? We'll beright there."

Paige had a sinking feeling aboutwhat he was going to say next, even before he hung up.

"Paige," he said."We have to go."

"What is it?" Paigeasked, dreading what his response might be. "Not another murder?"

"There's been a sighting ofAdam Riker."

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

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