Page 47 of The Girl He Claimed

Caroline shrugged. "Dr. Neiltold me to supervise you packing up your things here. I guess I'm meant to makesure that you don't run off with all the books, or something."

She said it in an apologetic tonethat made it clear she knew it was nonsense just as much as Paige did. It wasjust another way of Dr. Neil trying to make them uncomfortable. Paige guessedthat it also might be his idea of some kind of punishment for helping the twoof them before.

Paige decided to be honest with her."We aren't finished just yet. Before we pack everything away, we want tohave one last try at finding answers here."

Paige wasn't sure what to expectthen. Would Caroline go running to Dr. Neil? Would she insist that they pack upthe way they'd all been told?

Instead, she smiled. "That'sgreat. How can I help?"

"We wouldn't want to get youinto trouble," Christopher said.

Caroline shrugged. "Are youkidding? Everyone knows this place is going to be investigated as soon as allthis is done, maybe even shut down. If I get fired for helping the FBI toomuch, I think that helps me, not hurts me."

Paige appreciated that enthusiasm,and she thought it might be good to have an extra pair of eyes to go throughthe material there.

"Okay," Paige said."I want to go through everything again. I want to go over the files, workthrough any statements, look over the evidence. There has to be something therethat we missed. Caroline, you can help us with anything to do with the St JustInstitute."

Caroline nodded. "I can helpwith that. And, when it comes to the institute, I know this place like the backof my hand."

Paige felt a surge of hope. Maybethey could find something, some small detail they had missed before that wouldlead them to the Exsanguination Killer.

Together, the three of them startedcombing through the files. Paige could see the determination on the others'faces, and that made her glad that she had them there. If anyone could find ananswer there, it was the three of them.

Even so, it was slow going. Paigebegan to feel a sense of exhaustion creeping over her. She yawned mid-sentenceand rubbed at her eyes.

Christopher looked over at her."You should get some rest. We can continue in the..."

He tailed off, obviously realizingthe problem with what he'd almost said automatically.

"I don't think there'sanything new to be found in the files on the most recent murders," Paigesaid. "I think Adam and the Exsanguination Killer were both careful. Theywouldn't leave behind something that would point to their location."

She saw Christopher nod. "Iagree. But what does that leave?"

"We focus on Adam'sescape," Paige said. "That's the part that they had to organize in ahurry, so it's likely to be the part where there's the best chance of somethinggoing wrong for them, something that might leave us a clue."

Paige started to look at theevidence from the time of the escape. She'd already looked at the security datafor the key cards, and she knew that there was no security footage available toshow Adam leaving with someone.

"We don't have much to goon," Christopher said.

"Maybe that's something initself," Paige said. "Maybe we should focus on what we don't have,and why."

"We know that someone tamperedwith the security footage," Christopher pointed out.

"I'm more interested in thetraffic camera footage," Paige said. She hadn't pursued this part as faras she could at the time because they'd been focused on looking into the keycard evidence. Now, it seemed as if it might be the most relevant thing of all.

"But the local traffic camerasdidn't pick up any sign of Riker," Christopher said. "We ran themthrough facial recognition, and there was no sign of him. There weren't evenany cars on the approach road at the time."

"Exactly," Paige said."That's my point."

It took Christopher a couple ofseconds to get it, but then Paige saw the realization dawn on his face.

"If he didn't leave by car,where did he go?" he said. "There were guards out combing thesurrounding area and we set up a perimeter. If he'd just run on foot, we wouldhave caught him."

It wasn't guaranteed, but Paige waswilling to bet that Adam wouldn't have risked it. The first time he'd brokenout, he'd driven away in a guard's car after killing the guard who helped himto escape. He hadn't risked simply running.

"So where is he?" Paigesaid. "If he didn't leave by car, and he couldn't risk trying to escape onfoot... what if he didn't leave the night of the escape? What if he hidsomewhere?"

Christopher looked doubtful."Butwhere would he have gone? We searched the entire perimeter. We searched the Instituteitself. The guards and the local police went over every inch of it."

---