by Blake Pierce
O N C E L O S T
(A RILEY PAIGE MYSTERY—BOOK 10)
B L A K E P I E R C E
Blake Pierce
Blake Pierce is author of the bestselling RILEY PAGE mystery series, which includes ten books (and counting). Blake Pierce is also the author of the MACKENZIE WHITE mystery series, comprising six books (and counting); of the AVERY BLACK mystery series, comprising five books; and of the new KERI LOCKE mystery series, comprising four books (and counting).
ONCE GONE (a Riley Paige Mystery--Book #1), BEFORE HE KILLS (A Mackenzie White Mystery—Book 1), CAUSE TO KILL (An Avery Black Mystery—Book 1), and A TRACE OF DEATH (A Keri Locke Mystery—Book 1) are each available as a free download on Google Play!
An avid reader and lifelong fan of the mystery and thriller genres, Blake loves to hear from you, so please feel free to visit www.blakepierceauthor.com to learn more and stay in touch.
Copyright © 2017 by Blake Pierce. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior permission of the author. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Jacket image Copyright aradaphotography, used under license from Shutterstock.com.
BOOKS BY BLAKE PIERCE
RILEY PAIGE MYSTERY SERIES
ONCE GONE (Book #1)
ONCE TAKEN (Book #2)
ONCE CRAVED (Book #3)
ONCE LURED (Book #4)
ONCE HUNTED (Book #5)
ONCE PINED (Book #6)
ONCE FORSAKEN (Book #7)
ONCE COLD (Book #8)
ONCE STALKED (Book #9)
ONCE LOST (Book #10)
ONCE BURIED (Book #11)
MACKENZIE WHITE MYSTERY SERIES
BEFORE HE KILLS (Book #1)
BEFORE HE SEES (Book #2)
BEFORE HE COVETS (Book #3)
BEFORE HE TAKES (Book #4)
BEFORE HE NEEDS (Book #5)
BEFORE HE FEELS (Book #6)
AVERY BLACK MYSTERY SERIES
CAUSE TO KILL (Book #1)
CAUSE TO RUN (Book #2)
CAUSE TO HIDE (Book #3)
CAUSE TO FEAR (Book #4)
CAUSE TO SAVE (Book #5)
KERI LOCKE MYSTERY SERIES
A TRACE OF DEATH (Book #1)
A TRACE OF MUDER (Book #2)
A TRACE OF VICE (Book #3)
A TRACE OF CRIME (Book #4)
CONTENTS
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY TWO
CHAPTER THIRTY THREE
CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR
CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE
CHAPTER THIRTY SIX
CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN
CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT
CHAPTER THIRTY NINE
CHAPTER FORTY
CHAPTER FORTY ONE
CHAPTER FORTY TWO
CHAPTER FORTY THREE
CHAPTER FORTY FOUR
CHAPTER FORTY FIVE
CHAPTER FORTY SIX
CHAPTER FORTY SEVEN
PROLOGUE
Katy Philbin was giggling as she stepped carefully down the stairs,
Stop it! she told herself.
What was so funny, anyway?
What was she doing, giggling like a little girl—not like the seventeen-year-old she actually was?
She wanted more than anything in the world to act like a serious adult.
After all, he was treating her like an adult. He’d been talking to her like an adult all evening long, making her feel special and respected.
He’d even been calling her Katherine instead of Katy.
She really liked it when he called her Katherine.
She also liked the adult drinks he’d been making for her all evening—“Mai Tais,” he called them, and they were so sweet that she could barely taste the alcohol.
And now she couldn’t even remember how many she’d had.
Was she drunk?
Oh, that would be awful! she thought.
What would he think of her if she couldn’t even handle a few icy, sweet-tasting drinks?
And now she was feeling extremely light-headed.
What if she fell down these stairs?
She looked down at her feet, wondering why they weren’t moving as they should be. And why was the light so dim here?
To her embarrassment, she couldn’t even remember exactly why she was here on this flight of wooden steps that seemed to get longer by the moment.
“Where’re we going?” she asked.
Her words came out all fuzzy and sloppy but at least she’d managed to stop giggling.
“I told you,” he said in reply. “I want to show you something.”
She looked around for him. He was somewhere at the bottom of the stairs, but she couldn’t see him. Just one lamp spilled a small pool of light in a corner far away.
But that light was enough to remind her where she was.
“Oh, yeah,” she murmured. “Down’n your basement.”
“Are you all right?”
“Yeah,” she said, trying to convince herself that it was true. “I’ll be right down.”
She forced one foot to reach for the next step.
She heard him say, “C’mon, Katy. The thing I promised to show you is over here.”
Dimly she realized …
He called me Katy.
She felt oddly disappointed, after a whole evening of being called Katherine.
“Be there in jus’ a minnit,” she said.
The slur in her words was getting worse.
And for some reason, she found that extremely funny.
She heard him chuckle.
“Are you having a good time, Katy?” he asked in a pleasant voice—a voice that she’d liked and trusted for many years.
“The besht,” she said, giggling again.
“I’m glad.”
But now the world seemed to be swimming around her. Hanging onto the railing, she sat down on the stairs.
He spoke again in a less patient voice.
“Hurry up, girl. I’m not going to stand here all day.”
Katy pulled herself back to her feet, struggling to clear he
r head. She didn’t like the tone of his voice now. But could she blame him for getting impatient? What was the matter with her, anyway? Why couldn’t she get down these stupid stairs?
She was finding it harder and harder to focus on where she was and what she was doing.
She lost her grip on the railing and dropped down to sit on the step.
She wondered again—how many drinks had she had, anyway?
Then she remembered.
Two.
Only two!
Of course, she hadn’t been drinking at all since that horrible night …
Not until now. But just two drinks.
For a moment she couldn’t breathe.
Is it happening again?
She told herself sternly that she was being silly.
She was safe and sound here with a man she’d trusted all her life.
And she was making a fool of herself, and the last thing she wanted to do was make a fool of herself, especially around him, when he’d treated her so nicely and served her all those drinks and …
And now everything was foggy, blurred, and dark.
And she felt a strange nausea churning inside her.
“I’m not feeling sho good,” she said.
He didn’t reply, and she couldn’t see him.
She couldn’t see anything.
“I think I’d besht—better go home now,” she said.
He still didn’t say anything.
She reached out blindly, groping around in the air.
“Help me—me get up—off the shtairs. Help me go up the shtairs.”
She heard his footsteps coming toward her.
He’s going to help me, she thought.
So why was that churning, sick feeling getting worse by the second?
“D-d-rive me home,” she said. “Could shyoo do that for me? Please?”
His footsteps stopped.
She could feel his presence right in front of her, even if she couldn’t see him.
But why wasn’t he saying anything?
Why wasn’t he doing anything to help her?
Then she realized what that nauseous feeling actually was.
Fear.
She summoned up her last ounce of will, reached up and took hold of the railing, and pulled herself to her feet.
I have to leave, she thought. But she was unable to say the words aloud.
Then Katy felt a heavy blow to her head.
And then she didn’t feel anything at all.
CHAPTER ONE
Riley Paige struggled to blink back tears. She was sitting in her office at Quantico, looking at a photo of a young woman who had a cast on her ankle.
Why am I punishing myself like this? she wondered.
After all, she needed to think about other things right now—especially a BAU meeting scheduled for just a few minutes from now. Riley was dreading that meeting, which might threaten her professional future.
In spite of that, Riley couldn’t make herself look away from the picture on her cell phone.
She had snapped that picture of Lucy Vargas last fall, right here in the Behavioral Analysis Unit offices. Lucy’s ankle was in a cast, but her smile was simply radiant, a dazzling contrast to her smooth brown skin. Lucy had just been injured on the first case she had worked with Riley and her partner, Bill Jeffreys. But Lucy had done great work, and she knew it, and so did Riley and Bill. That was why Lucy was smiling.
Riley’s hand trembled a little as she held the cell phone in her hand.
Lucy was dead now—gunned down by a deranged sniper.
Lucy had died in Riley’s arms. But Riley knew that Lucy’s death hadn’t been her fault.
She wished Bill felt the same way. Her partner was currently on mandatory leave and not doing at all well.
Riley shuddered as she remembered how things had unfolded.
The situation had been chaotic, and instead of shooting the sniper, Bill had shot an innocent man who was trying to help Lucy. Fortunately, the man wasn’t badly injured, and no one blamed Bill for his actions, least of all Riley. Riley had never seen him so debilitated with guilt and trauma. Riley wondered how soon he could come back to work—or if he ever could.
Riley’s throat tightened as she remembered holding Lucy in her arms.
“You’ve got a great career ahead of you,” Riley had pleaded. “Now stay with us, Lucy. Stay with us.”
But it was hopeless. Lucy had lost too much blood. Riley had felt the life ebbing away from Lucy’s body until it was gone.
And now tears began to trickle down Riley’s cheeks.
Her recollections were interrupted by a familiar voice.
“Agent Paige …”
Riley looked up and saw Sam Flores, the lab technician with black-rimmed glasses. He was standing in her open office door.
Riley stifled a gasp. She hastily wiped away her tears and turned her cell phone face down on her desk.
But she could tell by Sam’s stricken expression that he’d glimpsed what she’d been looking at. And that was the last thing she wanted.
A romance had been budding between Sam and Lucy, and he’d taken her death very hard. He still looked brokenhearted.
Now Flores looked at Riley sadly, but to Riley’s relief he didn’t ask what he’d just interrupted.
Instead he said, “I’m on my way to the meeting. You coming?”
Riley nodded, and Sam nodded back at her.
“Well, good luck, Agent Paige,” he said, then continued on his way.
Riley muttered aloud to herself …
“Yeah, good luck.”
Sam seemed to realize she was going to need it for this meeting.
It was time to pull herself together and face whatever was coming next.
*
A little while later, Riley sat in the large conference room surrounded by more BAU personnel than she had expected, including technicians and investigators in a wide range of capacities. Not all of the faces were familiar, and not all of them were friendly.
I could really use an ally right now, she thought.
She certainly missed Bill’s presence. Sam Flores sat nearby, but he looked too downcast to be of any help to her right now.
The least friendly face of all was Special Agent in Charge Carl Walder, who sat directly across the table from her. The man with the babyish, freckled face glanced back and forth between Riley and a written report in front of him.
He said in a sullen voice, “Agent Paige, I’m trying to understand what’s going on here. We’ve granted a request to post agents at your house around the clock. This seems to have something to do with Shane Hatcher’s recent activities, but I’m not sure exactly how or why. Please explain.”
Riley gulped hard.
She’d known that this meeting was going to deal with her relationship with Shane Hatcher, a brilliant and dangerous escaped convict.
She also knew that a full and honest explanation would mean an end to her career.
It might even put her in prison.
She said, “Agent Walder, as you know, Shane Hatcher was last seen at a cabin that I own up in the Appalachian Mountains.”
Walder nodded and waited for Riley to say more.
Riley knew she had to choose her words very carefully. Until recently, she and Hatcher had had a secret pact. In return for helping Riley on an intensely personal case, Riley had agreed to let Hatcher hide away in the cabin she had inherited from her father.
It had been a pact with a devil, and Riley looked back on it with shame.
Riley continued, “As you also know, Hatcher escaped an FBI SWAT team that surrounded my cabin. I have reason to think he might turn up at my home.”
Walder squinted at her suspiciously.
“Why do you think that?”
“Hatcher is obsessed with me,” Riley said. “Now that he’s been spotted, I’m fairly sure he’ll try to reach out to me. If so, the agents around my house have got a good chance of capturing him.”
Riley cringed a little inside.
It was a half-truth at best.
The real reason she wanted agents around her house was to protect her and her family.
Walder sat drumming his fingers on the table for a moment.
“Agent Paige, you say that Hatcher’s obsessed with you. Are you sure that obsession isn’t mutual?”
Riley bristled a little at the insinuation.
She was relieved when her immediate superior, Brent Meredith, spoke up. Meredith cut a daunting presence as always with his black, angular features and his stern look. But Riley’s relationship with Meredith had always been respectful, even friendly. He’d often been her ally in difficult times.
She hoped that he’d be one right now.
He said, “Chief Walder, I think that Agent Paige’s request for agents at her home was well-founded. We mustn’t pass up even the faintest possibility of bringing Hatcher to justice.”
“Yes,” Walder said. “And I am not satisfied with the fact that we knew exactly where he was but he still got away.” Walder drew himself up in his chair, stared directly at Riley, and asked, “Agent Paige, did you warn Hatcher about the SWAT team that was closing in around him?”
Riley could hear a gasp in the room.
Not many people would have the nerve to ask her such a question. But Riley had to suppress a laugh. This was one question she could answer truthfully. It was why she had reason to fear Hatcher now.
“No, I did not,” Riley said firmly, meeting Walder’s gaze with a glare.
Walder dropped his eyes first. He turned to Jennifer Roston, a young African-American woman with short straight hair who sat looking at Riley with intense dark eyes.
“Do you have questions, Agent Roston?” he asked.
Roston said nothing for a moment. Riley waited somewhat anxiously for her reply. Roston had been assigned to bring Shane Hatcher to justice. Roston was new to the BAU and eager to make her mark. Riley didn’t think she could count on the new agent to be her ally.
Roston hadn’t taken her eyes off Riley during the whole meeting so far.
“Agent Paige, would you mind explaining the exact nature of your relationship with Shane Hatcher?”
Riley bristled again.
She wanted to say …