by Blake Pierce
She was going to hurt his ego.
She rose from the chair.
“Thank you, Mr. Farrell,” she said. “You are of no further interest to us. I won’t waste more of our time with you.”
Bill added, “We’ll show ourselves out.”
Riley held Farrell’s gaze for a moment, enjoying his punctured expression. After all, this little performance he’d given had been about nothing but asserting his power. He’d expected some resistance from the agents—and lots of frustration. But now Riley was dismissing him as if his power meant nothing.
He sat there saying nothing.
Riley and Bill silently left the office and went back down the stairs. On the way through the massive room, Riley glimpsed the man’s young wife standing off to one side, staring at her once again with an imploring expression.
A feeling of helplessness came over her.
It was her job to bring down monsters and killers, and she and Bill did the best they could.
But many monsters and killers were immune to them—perhaps most of them, and perhaps the worst.
Without breaking her stride, Riley veered in the woman’s direction. She reached inside her coat and pulled one of her FBI contact cards from her shirt pocket.
She held the card out to Morgan Farrell.
The young woman glanced to see that her husband wasn’t watching. Then she hastily took the card and tucked it into her bra.
Riley continued on her way. There was nothing she or Bill could do—right now. But if Morgan Farrell ever reached out to her, something would surely happen then.
She and Bill got back into the car, and Bill started to drive.
“That was a waste of our time,” Bill said.
It was true, of course. But Riley saw no point in saying so.
“So what do we do now?” Bill asked.
“Get back to Quantico right now,” Riley said. “We’ve still got work to do. There are some things in this world that we can change.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Riley was in complete darkness. She had no idea where, but she could hear a voice calling.
“Mom! Mom!”
April’s voice!
But where is she? Riley wondered.
And where am I?
It dawned on her that she was in the Penningtons’ garage again.
It was even darker than before, and it was a vast space with no walls in sight.
Then a light came on straight above her. She looked up and saw sparkling crystals arranged in elaborate clusters. It was one of Andrew Farrell’s grotesque chandeliers.
A chandelier in a garage! Riley thought.
It was vulgar and weird. And the light didn’t carry very far into the darkness.
But it did illuminate a circle of doors standing shut around her.
She heard April’s voice again.
“Mom!”
Riley tried to reply, but no voice came out of her throat.
Where had April’s voice come from?
Surely from behind one of the doors. She thought she knew which one.
She rushed forward and opened the door.
Instead of April, a strange girl was hanging dead by a rope. Dozens of family photographs were scattered at her feet.
Riley backed away with horror.
Then she heard April’s voice again.
“Mom!”
The voice seemed to be coming from the opposite side of the circle of doors.
Riley turned and rushed over to that door and pulled it open.
Again, a girl was hanging there, with pictures below her dangling feet.
Then came April’s voice from behind another door.
“Mom!”
Riley felt something seize her by the shoulder—
“Mom!”
Riley’s eyes snapped open, then she squinted against the light. It took her a moment to realize that she was lying in bed at home. April was standing beside her bed, shaking her awake.
Riley looked blearily at her daughter.
“What time is it?” she asked.
“Ten o’clock. You were sleeping late—and really hard.”
Riley realized it was Sunday. She wasn’t expected at the BAU this morning.
April added, “You were moaning. Were you having a nightmare?”
Riley didn’t answer the question. Looking around, she saw that the bed was quite rumpled.
She was starting to remember now.
She’d gotten home from Atlanta late last night. Ryan had been here, asleep in bed. But he’d woken up as soon as she’d climbed in with him.
And then …
Riley smiled at the memory. Maybe things were going to work out with Ryan after all.
“Mom, you’ve got to get up,” April said. “Something’s happened.”
Riley sat bolt upright with alarm.
“Are you OK? And your dad? Jilly? Gabriela?”
“It’s nothing bad,” April said. “Dad and Jilly are downstairs eating breakfast. But this is important. Tiffany just got here.”
Riley rubbed her eyes, trying to remember.
Oh, yes. Tiffany. April’s friend—and the sister of the dead girl, Lois Pennington.
April said, “Tiffany didn’t want to go to church with her parents. It was a week ago today that … they found Lois. She wanted to be here instead. So they dropped her off.”
Riley was surprised. When she’d visited the Penningtons, they hadn’t seemed happy with her. On the other hand, they did know Ryan and they surely had nothing against him or April.
April continued, “Anyway, Tiffany and I thought of something. You really need to hear about it. Come on downstairs. I’ll get you some coffee.”
“I’ll get dressed,” Riley said.
April left the room, and Riley heard her footsteps going down the stairs.
Riley went to the bathroom, splashed water on her face, and combed her hair. She pulled on a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt and looked at herself in the mirror.
She turned around and smiled. She liked what she saw.
Mom jeans suit me, she thought. Comfortable and practical.
Of course, after last night, she thought she could feel sexy wearing a burlap sack.
Just as Riley finished dressing, April came back into her room and handed her a hot cup of coffee. Riley took a few sips, then they went downstairs.
Tiffany was sitting on the living room couch. Riley could see that the girl looked tired, but not nearly as distraught as she’d been the last time she’d seen her.
Ryan stepped out of the kitchen and called out to Riley.
“Want to join us for breakfast? Gabriela’s made fried plantain and eggs. Delicious!”
He leered at Riley and winked.
Riley smiled back, remembering last night.
Then she blushed.
She hoped everyone in the house hadn’t heard their intense lovemaking.
April said, “We’ll be there in a few minutes, Dad. Tiffany too.”
“OK,” Ryan said, then disappeared back into the kitchen.
Riley and April sat down with Tiffany.
April said to Riley, “I just told Tiffany that the FBI opened a case about her sister and the others.”
“Thank you,” Tiffany said weakly. “My parents still believe it was—”
She couldn’t finish the sentence. Then she said, “So can I talk to you about it? Is that OK?”
“Of course,” Riley said.
Tiffany looked relieved but anxious.
“Well, I remembered something this morning,” she said. “Lois had a friend at school who lived in the same dorm. Her name is Piper Durst. I met her once or twice at Byars. She’s very nice. She called me for a video chat last Tuesday to tell me how sorry she was. I thanked her, but I asked her some questions.”
“What sorts of questions?” Riley asked.
Tiffany shrugged slightly.
“I just wanted to know how Lois had seemed shortly before it happened. I
mean, was she really depressed? Did she seem suicidal?”
“What did Piper say?” April asked.
“She said that Lois had seemed fine. The whole thing came as a complete shock to her. She couldn’t understand it. But she also said …”
Tiffany paused for a moment, then said, “She said that Lois had told her about some strange sort of guy she’d been talking to. She didn’t say anything else about him. But it seems kind of odd that she’d mention him at all.”
Tiffany looked at Riley.
“Do you think that might mean anything?” she asked.
“It might,” Riley said. “Have you got her address for video chats?”
“Sure,” Tiffany said.
April rushed upstairs to get her laptop computer. Then Riley, April, and Tiffany gathered around it and made the call.
Piper Durst was an ordinary-looking girl with dark, curly hair. Behind her, Riley could see a disheveled-looking dorm room, much like the one she’d had herself at college years ago. Riley didn’t think she looked old enough to be a college freshman. But then, Riley was feeling that way more and more about young people. As she got older, kids seemed younger.
The girl smiled when she saw Tiffany’s face crowded between Riley and April.
“Hey, Tiff! I’ve been thinking about you. How are you holding up?”
“OK, I guess,” Tiffany said. “Listen, this is my friend April. And this lady is April’s mother, Riley Paige. She’s an FBI agent. And she’s investigating some of the suicides that have been happening at Byars—including Lois.”
The girl’s eyes widened.
“The FBI? Holy shit!” Then she put her hand to her mouth and said, “Pardon my language.”
“It’s OK, Mom’s cool,” April said.
Piper squinted as she struggled to comprehend what the callers were saying.
“But why would the FBI be investigating a bunch of suicides? I know it’s weird that there have been so many of them, but—”
Then she grew pale.
“Oh my God! You don’t think they’re suicides! You think those kids were—”
She stopped talking.
“We don’t know what to think just yet,” Riley said. “But Tiffany told me you might know something important. Before Lois died, did she say something about a strange guy?”
Piper thought for a moment.
“Well, yeah. But she didn’t say much about him.”
“Was she scared of him?” Riley asked.
“No, I don’t think so. He was a student, she said. She said she didn’t know whether to like him or feel sorry for him. But she said he was nice, and she liked to talk to him. I just got the feeling that he was kind of uncool somehow, and maybe Lois was feeling weird about getting to know him. Like she was a little embarrassed.”
Tiffany looked at Riley and said, “Lois used to get crushes on odd sorts of guys. They ranged from jocks to nerds and every type in between, but they were a little offbeat one way or another. People sometimes made fun of her for it. She used to tell me about guys like that when she was still in high school and living at home. Sort of like she was asking whether it was OK to date them. Sometimes she did, sometimes she didn’t. Whenever I met them, I thought they were OK.”
Riley was rapidly taking notes.
She asked Piper, “Did she say anything else about him? His name? What year he was in school? Anything about what he looked like?”
“Not a word,” Piper said.
Riley realized that the girl had told her all that she knew.
“Thanks for talking with me, Piper,” Riley said. “I’ve got to ask you to keep quiet about this for now. Don’t tell anybody.”
The girl looked startled.
“Are you kidding? With a killer loose on campus? Shouldn’t we all be watching out for this guy? Are any of us safe?”
Riley understood the girl’s alarm. But the last thing anybody needed right now was an outburst of uncontrolled panic on the Byars campus.
Riley said, “I’ll make sure the BAU releases a warning as soon as possible. But please, for the time being, don’t say anything. Give me a chance to make it official.”
Piper shook her head.
“Wow. OK, I guess. But I’ll be scared to leave my room.”
You’re probably wise, Riley thought.
But she didn’t say so aloud.
Riley thanked Piper again and they ended the call. Tiffany and April went to the kitchen for breakfast. But Riley didn’t join them.
There’s danger on that campus, she thought.
And she had to make sure that the students were warned about it.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
For a moment, Riley couldn’t think how to handle this. She had to get a warning out to Byars students as quickly as possible, and in a way that didn’t cause a panic. Then she realized where she could get help.
Lucy Vargas was planning to work today. And Riley had meant to call her anyway to get an update. She picked up her phone and dialed Lucy’s number.
“Hey, Riley. I’m glad you called,” Lucy said. “I went to the Yoh residence yesterday and interviewed Constance’s parents.”
Riley listened eagerly. She knew little about Constance Yoh’s death except that she’d been found hanging at home and had taken a high dose of alprazolam.
“What did her parents tell you?” Riley asked.
“They said they’d been worried about Constance’s grades. They hadn’t been perfect, they said—slipping below a 4.0 GPA. They said Constance had been worried too. Can you imagine that? Having your parents expect you to do everything perfectly? The pressure must have been awful.”
Lucy’s words made Riley wonder—had Constance Yoh committed suicide after all? And if she had, might Riley be wrong about all the other students? So far she hadn’t proven that any of the deaths had been murders. Maybe she was wrong. Maybe she’d gotten this investigation underway over nothing.
If so, the last thing she wanted to do was cause a panic at Byars.
“What else did the parents tell you?” Riley asked.
“Well, it was kind of weird,” Lucy said. “They’re sure Constance didn’t commit suicide. But it wasn’t so much because they didn’t think she would commit suicide. They just knew that she wouldn’t do it that way. She would surely have left a note, they said, but she didn’t. Also, it looked like she’d climbed a ladder to hang herself. But that was impossible, they said. She was too scared of heights—any kind of heights at all. She’d never been able to climb a ladder in her life.”
“Not even if she’d been drugged up with alprazolam?” Riley asked.
“Well, that was another thing. She’d been taking anti-anxiety medication. But it was lorazepam, not alprazolam. There was no way she’d have deliberately overdosed on alprazolam instead.”
So it was definitely murder, Riley thought.
But she didn’t feel relieved about being right.
“Lucy, I need for you to do something,” Riley said. “The students at Byars need to be warned about a possible killer. But we mustn’t cause a panic. Can you get to work on that for me?”
“Sure,” Lucy said. “What do you think we should say?”
Riley thought for a moment. Should she say that the killer might be a male student who didn’t quite fit in?
No, she still didn’t have enough information to be even that specific.
“Kids just need to watch out for any unusual interactions with other people on campus—either total strangers, or people they know who are acting strangely. And they should report anything strange immediately. They should especially avoid situations in which someone might deliberately slip them any kind of drugs.”
“Anything else?”
Riley paused again. Yes, there was something that Lucy needed to know.
“To put out this warning, you’re going to have to deal with Dean Willis Autrey. He’s a jerk. He’s liable to give you some resistance.”
“I’m sure I can handle hi
m,” Lucy said.
Riley felt sure that Lucy was right. The young agent dealt with people better than Riley did. And this would be a good learning experience for her. Coping with hitches from people in power was an important part of the job.
Riley thanked Lucy and ended the call.
What do I do next? Riley wondered.
She realized that she was still sleepy. She needed to finish her coffee and get some breakfast. She went into the kitchen and joined her family.
*
After breakfast, Riley went to her office upstairs. She figured she was due for another visit to Byars College tomorrow, and she would have to meet again with Dean Autrey. Perhaps after talking with Lucy, Autrey would be more inclined to be helpful.
But Riley doubted it.
If he’s given in on something, he’s likely to get more stubborn than ever, she thought.
What could she do to change that?
Lucy would do her job right away. Riley also knew someone who might be able to help her.
She got on her computer and called up forensic psychiatrist Mike Nevins at home for a video chat.
“Riley!” Mike said when he appeared. “What a surprise! But I don’t assume that this is a social call.”
Riley was amused to see that the fussy, meticulous man looked as dapper as always, even on a morning away from work. It felt good to see him. He’d done a lot of consulting work on cases with her, and had counseled her through some of her own PTSD.
“Mike, have you heard about the Byars College case? The so-called suicides?”
“Yes, I heard that you managed to get the case off the ground with your usual panache. Poor Walder! You must drive him out of his mind.”
Riley chuckled.
“I try,” she said. “Anyway, I’m dealing with a serious psych case at Byars—a man who is paranoid and anal and pathologically uncooperative.”
“Ah! A university administrator!”
Riley grinned. He’d picked up on her punch line.
“That’s right. Willis Autrey is the dean of the college. He’s been giving us a lot of pushback. He wasn’t even straight with us about the number of so-called suicides there have been during this school year.”