Once Gone (a Riley Paige Mystery--Book #1)

Chapter 17

Riley cursed under her breath as she pulled into the parking lot beside a long, flat-roofed building. Three people wearing FBI jackets were standing outside, mingling with several local cops.

"This can't be good," Riley said. "I wish we'd gotten here before the hordes descended."

"No joke," Bill agreed.

They'd been told that a woman had been kidnapped from inside this small-town medical clinic, taken early this morning.

"At least we're getting on it faster this time," Bill said. "Maybe we stand a chance of getting her back alive."

Riley silently agreed. In the earlier cases, no one had known exactly when or where the victim was kidnapped. The women had just disappeared and later turned up dead accompanied by cryptic signs of the killer's mindset.

Maybe it will be different this time, she thought.

She was relieved that someone had witnessed enough of the crime to call 911. The local police knew about an alert for a serial kidnapper and killer, and they had called in the FBI. They were all assuming that this was the same deviant at work.

"He's still way ahead of us," Riley said. "If it's really him. This is not the kind of place I expected our perp to grab someone."

She had thought the killer would be stalking a parking garage or an isolated jogging trail. Maybe even a poorly lit neighborhood.

"Why a community clinic?" she asked. "And why in daylight? Why would he take the chance of entering a building?"

"Sure doesn't seem like a random choice," Bill agreed. "Let's get moving."

Riley parked as close to the taped-off area as she could. As she and Bill got out of the car, she recognized Special Agent in Charge Carl Walder.

"This is really bad," Riley muttered to Bill as they walked toward the building.

Riley didn't think much of Walder—a babyish, freckled-faced man with curly, copper-colored hair. Neither Riley nor Bill had personally worked a case under him, but he had a bad reputation. Other agents said that he was the worst kind of boss—someone who had no idea what he was doing, and was therefore all the more determined to throw his weight around and assert his authority.

To make matters worse for Riley and Bill, Walder outranked their own team chief, Brent Meredith. Riley didn't know how old Walder was, but she was sure that he had risen up the FBI food chain too fast for his own good, or for anybody else's.

As far as Riley was concerned, it was a classic example of the Peter Principle at work. Walder had successfully risen to the level of his incompetence.

Walder stepped forward to meet Riley and Bill.

"Agents Paige and Jeffreys, I'm glad you could make it," he said.

Without niceties, Riley went right ahead and asked Walder the question that was nagging at her.

"How do we know it's the same perp that took the other three women?"

"Because of this," Walder said, holding out an evidence bag holding a cheap little fabric rose. "It was lying on the floor just inside."

"Oh, shit," Riley said.

The Bureau had been careful not to leak to the press that detail of his MO—how he'd left roses at the scenes where he'd posed the bodies. This was not the work of a copycat or of a brand new killer.

"Who was it this time?" Bill asked.

"Her name is Cindy MacKinnon," Walder said. "She's an LPN. She was abducted when she came in early to set up the clinic."