Page 43 of The Girl He Claimed

"Where is Adam Riker,Gia?" Paige asked.

Gia shook her head. "I don'tknow."

"Don't play dumb withus," Christopher growled. "We know you were the one to let himout."

"I had nothing to do withthat!" she insisted.

"Adam was helped by someoneinside the St Just Institute," Paige said. She decided to lay it outclearly, to leave no room for doubt. "We know from the kills afterwardsthat it was the serial killer known as the Exsanguination Killer, and we knowthat killer is a woman."

"So?" Gia said. Shesounded combative now as if she'd decided that the best way out of all of thiswas to fight back as hard as she could. "So what?"

"Of all the women who work atthe Institute, you're the only one who was there at the time Adam escaped whoalso doesn't have an alibi for either of the two double murders that have takenplace since."

"You mean the one where yourold friend Professor Thornton got killed?" Gia shot back. "All theguards were talking about it. Paige King, the FBI agent who couldn't even saveher old teacher."

Paige could feel anger building upinside her at the taunting, but she tried to stay calm. She knew that Giawanted her to react, wanted her to lash out. "I'm not here to talk aboutme. I'm here to talk about you, Gia."

"Well, maybe I don't want totalk about anything else," Gia said, with a nasty expression. It wasobvious that she liked trying to cause Paige pain like this. To Paige, that wasall the more reason not to react, not to give her what she wanted.

"Enough games!"Christopher snapped, sounding full to the brim with the same anger Paige wastrying to push down. "We have a team tearing your home apart right now,looking for evidence. Our techs are going through your devices. They will findsomething to connect you to all of this. Just confess. Tell us what youdid!"

Gia shook her head, though."I'm not confessing to anything. I didn't kill anyone. I didn't help AdamRiker escape. I didn't have anything to do with any of this. And you can'tprove otherwise."

She smirked as she said it like shewas winning some game with the two of them.

That seemed to be too much forChristopher. He lunged for Gia, grabbing her by the collar of her shirt andpushing her back to the limits that her handcuffs allowed. "You're lying!You know exactly what you did! You killed my wife!"

Paige quickly intervened, grabbingChristopher's arm and pulling him away from Gia. "That's enough,Christopher. We can't get any information if we assault her."

Christopher reluctantly steppedback, but his eyes were still blazing with anger. Gia sat there, lookingdisheveled and scared.

"Out, out of the room,"Paige said, pushing Christopher back towards the door. She knew she couldn'tlet him be in there with Gia, not when there was so much on the line.

Paige suspected that if it had beenanyone other than her trying to get him to leave, Christopher wouldn't havegone. As it was, she got him out into the space beyond the interrogation,looking in through the one-way glass.

"What was that?" Paigeasked him.

"I don't know,"Christopher said, his voice trembling with emotion. "I just... I can'thandle this. I can't handle her denying everything when I know she's lying."

"We'll find the evidence weneed," Paige said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "We just have tokeep pushing. But we can't let our emotions get the better of us. Do you thinkit doesn't hurt for me, doing this? Christopher, why don't you check in withthe techs, see if they've come up with anything?"

It was an excuse to try to get himaway from the interrogation room.

"I just want her to pay forwhat she's done," Christopher said, his voice still shaking with rage."She deserves it."

"I know, I do too," Paigesaid, putting a hand on his arm. "You know how much I've lost to theExsanguination Killer. But we have to do this by the book. If we don't, we risklosing any chance of getting a conviction. We need to be careful. Please, checkin with the techs."

Christopher obviously didn't likethe idea, but he still went, leaving Paige out there, staring at Gia throughthe one-way glass.

Gia sat there, looking defeated.She had lost her combative edge, perhaps realizing that things were not goingin her favor. Paige saw the change in her eyes, the way they darkened with asense of resignation.

Was she still acting for Paige'sbenefit, or was Paige looking at a woman who was genuinely frightened? Thiswasn't how Paige had imagined the Exsanguination Killer to look. She'dimagined... what had she imagined? Paige had imagined a monster, someone devoidof emotions, someone who took pleasure in the pain and suffering of others. Butthe woman sitting in front of her looked all too human, all too vulnerable. Shelooked... young. It was a jarring realization.

Paige kept watching her, theminutes stretching out as she tried to work out a way to get Gia to talk. Sheneeded to be careful now, after what had happened with Christopher back in theinterrogation room.

She needed to think of a way to getthrough to Gia. As she watched Gia sit there, looking defeated, Paige realizedthat she needed to change her approach. She couldn't keep pushing Gia likeChristopher had been doing. She needed to find a way to connect with her, tomake her trust her.

Christopher came back then, lookingagitated and carrying a phone.

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