Page 35 of The Girl He Claimed

Paige felt Christopher's hand onher arm, guiding her forward, reminding her that the best thing was to ignorethe reporters and keep moving.

"Why hasn't the FBI caughtAdam Riker yet?" another called. "Do you think that it's because youand Agent Marriott are too close to this case?"

Paige whirled then, unable to stopherself. "I think that Adam Riker is a very dangerous man, and that he hasbeen assisted by a killer every bit as deadly as he is. And yes, I'm close tothis case. It's personal for me. But that means that no one, no one, has moreof an incentive to catch Adam Riker than I do."

Again, Paige felt Christopherguiding her inside. She knew that she'd said too much, but she meant every wordthat she'd said. She and Christopher were the best people to take down Adam andhis partner, because they had more of a stake in this than anyone.

As they entered the garage, thestench of death hit them like a physical blow. It was a smell that Paige knewall too well, a smell that was almost impossible to forget. She forced herselfto push through it, to keep moving forward.

The garage was dimly-lit, with onlya few flickering fluorescent bulbs casting a sickly glow over the space. Paigecould make out the outline of cars and trucks, some of them in various stagesof disrepair.

A man's body lay on the floor,stretched out by ropes, blood pooling around him in death. He was wearing adark suit, the white shirt stained red in places by the blood from his veins.He was young looking, his blond hair a mess, his features strong and handsome.

The coroner was kneeling by thebody, dressed in a plastic evidence suit. Paige looked over at her.

"What do we have?" Paigeasked her.

"It looks like the victim waskilled in the same manner as the other victims, Agent King," the coronerreplied, her voice muffled by the mask. "His veins have been cut in thesame places as the other Exsanguination Killer victims. We'll have to wait forthe toxicology report to be certain, but I've already found a needle markconsistent with the Exsanguination Killer's use of a sedative."

She sedated her victims, tied themso that they couldn't fight back and then watched them bleed out. This was thesame as Prof. Thornton, the same as Paige's father, the same as all the othervictims.

Paige felt her stomach churn at thethought of what the victim had gone through before he died. She could almostfeel the scalpel piercing her own skin, taking her own life force away, drop bydrop.

Christopher was a solid presencebeside Paige, looking over the scene with just as much pain in his eyes asPaige felt right then. She took a deep breath, forcing herself to focus.

"Did you find anythingelse?" Paige asked.

The coroner shook her head."Not yet. We'll have to take him back to the lab to examine him moreclosely."

"Do we have an ID on thevictim yet?" Christopher asked.

"His driver's license saysthat he's Daniel Beckmeyer. He's a DC resident. The local PD say that he workedin construction."

Paige frowned at that. It wasn't aname she knew, and she'd been expecting to know the name. Everything about thiscase had been highly personal so far. First, Adam and the Exsanguination Killerhad killed two of the people closest to her; then, they'd lured Paige into atrap designed to recreate the wound Paige had inflicted on Adam. It felt almostout of place that this victim should have no connection to her.

"We were told that there was apair of victims," Christopher said.

The coroner looked a little hauntedthen. "The woman is through there. We think her name is Sadie Zielinski.She's an out of work actor who waits tables downtown."

Again, Paige had that feeling ofconfusion because she didn't recognize the name. What game were Adam and theExsanguination Killer playing here? Was it possible that, now that they'dstruck back at Paige, they were switching to killing random targets, trying toavoid a pattern? Were they trying to make the point that Paige couldn't predictthem?

Paige and Christopher left thecoroner to her work. They headed over to a corner of the garage, stealing amoment to talk before they looked at the second body where they could speakwithout fear of being overheard.

"So, do we have any kind ofclue why they're changing this up?" Christopher asked.

Paige shook her head. "I don'tknow. I'm not sure why they're suddenly killing random people. Maybe there'ssome connection between the two victims that will help this to makesense."

She got out her phone, searchingfor Daniel Beckmeyer. She found his social media easily enough and theconstruction company that he worked for. There didn't seem to be any sign of aSadie Zielinski on his social media, though. When Paige searched for her namethere, it came up as a blank.

"There has to be some waythese two know one another," Paige said.

Christopher nodded in agreement."We need to start looking into their backgrounds, see if there's anyconnection between them that we're not seeing yet. Maybe they met up on adating app, or they're connected through some kind of group they both belongto?"

Paige nodded, feeling like theywere grasping at straws. She couldn't shake the feeling that there wassomething they were missing, some clue that would tie everything together. Shejust didn't know what it was.

As they made their way to the sideroom where Sadie Zielinski's body was, Paige couldn't help but feel a sense ofdread washing over her. She didn't know this woman, but she felt responsiblefor her death in some way. If she and Christopher had done something differentin their investigation if they'd been a little quicker, would she still bealive?

As she entered the room, Paigecouldn't stop herself from simply standing there and staring at what Adam haddone. He'd tied Sadie's petite frame in an elaborate web of ropes, suspendingher above the ground while contorting her, her arms dragged back behind heruntil the weight of her own body would have started to asphyxiate her. Even herred hair was tied, spread out by lines at angles so that it looked like a haloaround her slightly rounded features. Even knowing that this was what Adam didto his victims, even having studied him for so long, it was horrific seeinganother example of his work up close.

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