Page 40 of The Girl He Claimed

Paige didn't want that, but she didhave some serious concerns now about the way it was being run. When she'd beenhere, she'd done her best to do her job well. Now that she was looking at theplace from the outside, she was starting to wonder how much went on here thatshe hadn't known about.

Paige sighed and walked away,feeling a little bit frustrated. They weren't going to get any usefulinformation from the guards.

Paige and Christopher left thecafeteria. They'd only gone a few yards when a guard came out of it, walking upto them. He hadn't been a part of the group Paige had spoken to. He was youngerthan the one who'd spoken before, short and blonde-haired. He looked a littlenervous.

"Hey, wait up," he said."I overheard you talking to the others about Gia."

Paige and Christopher turned backto him. "You did?"

The guard nodded. "Yeah. Look,I'm not supposed to say anything, you've seen how things are here."

"We saw," Christophersaid. "The whole 'code of silence' thing is normal here?"

The guard shifted his weight fromone foot to the other and looked around as if checking to see if anyone waslistening. He gestured for Paige and Christopher to move further along thecorridor with him.

"It is," he said in a lowvoice. "There are plenty of things here where it's easier to say nothingrather than risking losing your job, or everyone else making your life helluntil you quit."

Paige had a good idea about some ofthose things. It was obvious that Dr. Neil had been turning a blind eye to Dr.Chang's sideline in selling prescriptions. She wondered what else was going on,though.

"Like what?" Christopherasked.

The young guard looked too nervousfor that, so Paige tried a different approach.

"What's your name?” Paigeasked.

"Matteus," he said.

"Well, Matteus, something madeyou come after us. Something you know you ought to tell us about Gia. If it'simportant enough for you to follow us, then you know it's something we need toknow. Something that might make a difference here. My guess is that you don'twant the St Just Institute to keep running the same way."

"I also don't want to lose myjob," Matteus said.

"You won't lose yourjob," Paige reassured him, "but we need to know whatever you knowabout Gia."

Matteus still hesitated a momentlonger. "I don't know anything for sure, but there are rumors about her. Youknow they make us take monthly drug tests? The rumor is that she cheats herssomehow, because she's high a lot of the time. And... well, they say that she'sused excessive force with a bunch of patients. She likes putting in that extrabit of pain. She likes hurting them, but no one pulls her up on it becauseshe's guarding some of the worst patients in here."

And no one cared if a serial killeror some other highly violent offender got hurt.

Taken alone, those two snatches ofrumor would have been interesting but wouldn't have meant much. Together withthe evidence from the security footage, they seemed to imply far more. Theyhinted at a disregard for social norms and the feelings of others consistent inPaige's mind with an anti-social personality disorder. She was willing to betthat Gia would score highly on any psychopathy index Paige used.

She looked over to Christopher."It's her. It has to be her."

Christopher nodded. "I agree.But we still need real proof. We need to search her place and to bring her infor questioning. We need a confession."

Paige knew that. More than that,she wouldn't be satisfied until she heard one until she heard why Gia Ramirezhad done all of this.

Of course, for that to happen, theystill had to find her.

CHAPTER TWENTY

"How do we find her?"Paige asked.

"Maybe we can try the key cardlogs," Christopher suggested. "If it has the live system, then we'llknow where she is by the doors she goes through. I assume we can just searchfor her ID."

Paige didn't know for sure, but itsounded likely. It meant that they needed to be back in the library.

They hurried back to the library,and Paige went to the computer while Christopher kept watch. Fortunately, thekey card logs did have a live system, and Paige was able to search for Gia'sID. That brought up the logs for every door she'd been through, but once Paigerealized what the location markers meant, it was like looking at a map of theroute she was following.

Paige could see her opening moredoors now, and it took her a moment or two to realize where she was going.

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