Once Lost

“Do you wish to discuss anything else, Agent Roston?”

The younger agent chuckled a little.

“Please, call me Jenn. All my friends do.”

Riley squinted uncertainly as Roston got up from her chair.

“Mind you, I won’t presume to call you anything except Agent Paige. Not until you feel comfortable otherwise. But please. Do call me Jenn. I positively insist.”

Roston left the room, leaving Riley sitting there in astonished silence.

*

Riley settled down to catch up with paperwork in her office. Whenever she wasn’t working on a case, it seemed as though tons of bureaucratic tedium awaited her and didn’t let up until she went out into the field again.

It was always unpleasant. But today she had an especially hard time focusing on what she was doing. She grew more and more worried that she’d just made a terribly foolish mistake.

Why on earth had she just handed that file over to Jennifer Roston – or “Jenn,” as she now insisted Riley call her?

It was nothing less than a confession of obstruction on Riley’s part.

Why had she given it to this particular agent when she’d never shown it to anyone else? How could an ambitious young agent do anything other than report Riley’s transgression to her superiors – maybe even to Carl Walder himself?

Any minute now, Riley might find herself under arrest.

Why hadn’t she just erased the file?

Or she could have gotten rid of it, as she had done with the gold chain Hatcher had given her. The chain had been a symbol of her bond with Hatcher. It had also contained a code for contacting him.

Riley had thrown it away in a frantic effort to free herself of him.

But for some reason, she hadn’t been able to bring herself to do the same with the thumb drive.

Why?

The financial information it contained was surely enough to at least limit Hatcher’s movements and activities.

It might just be enough to stop him for good.

It was a riddle, as were so many aspects of her relationship with Hatcher.

While Riley was sorting papers on her desk, her cell phone rang. It was a text message from an unknown number. Riley’s gasped when she saw what it said.

Did you think this would stop me? Everything is already moved. You can’t say you weren’t warned.

Riley found it hard to breathe.

Shane Hatcher, she thought.

CHAPTER THREE

Riley stared at the text message, panic rising inside her.

It wasn’t hard to guess what had happened. Jenn Roston had opened the file as soon as she and Riley had parted. Jenn had found out what was in it and had already gotten right to work trying to shut down Hatcher’s operation.

But in his message, Hatcher himself defiantly announced that Jenn hadn’t succeeded.

Everything is already moved.

Shane Hatcher was still at large, and he was angry. With his financial resources intact he might be more dangerous than ever.

I’ve got to answer him, she thought. I’ve got to reason with him.

But how? What could she possibly say that wouldn’t infuriate him more?

Then it occurred to her that Hatcher might not fully understand what was happening.

How could he know that it was Roston sabotaging his network, not Riley? Maybe she could make him understand at least that much.

Her hands shook as she typed in a reply.

Let me explain.

But when she tried to send the text, it was marked “undeliverable.”

Riley groaned with despair.

Exactly the same thing had happened the last time she’d tried to communicate with Hatcher. He’d sent her a cryptic message, then cut her off. She used to be able to communicate with Hatcher by video chat, text, and even phone calls. But those days were over.

Right now, she had no way at all of reaching him.

But he could still reach her.

The second sentence of his new message was especially chilling.

“You can’t say you weren’t warned.”

Riley flashed back to what he had written the last time she had communicated with him.

“You will live to regret it. Your family might not.”

Riley gasped and said aloud …

“My family!”

She fumbled with her cell phone as she punched in her home number. She heard it ring, then keep on ringing. Then the outgoing message came on, her own voice.

It was all Riley could do to keep from screaming.

Why wasn’t anyone answering? The schools were on spring break. Her kids were supposed to be home. And where was Riley’s live-in housekeeper, Gabriela?

Just before the outgoing message ended, she heard the voice of Jilly, the thirteen-year-old that Riley was in the process of trying to adopt. Jilly sounded breathless.

“Hey, sorry, Mom. Gabriela went to the grocery store. April and Liam and I were out in the backyard kicking a soccer ball around. We’re expecting Gabriela to get back any minute.”

Riley realized she’d been holding her breath. She made a conscious effort to start breathing again.

“Is everything all right?” she asked.

“Sure,” Jilly said with a shrug in her voice. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

Riley struggled to calm herself down.

“Jilly, could you go and look out the front window for me?”

“OK,” Jilly said.

Riley heard a few footsteps.

“I’m looking,” Jilly said.

“Is the van with the FBI agents still out there?”

“Yeah. And so is the one in the alley. I just saw it when I was in the backyard. If that Shane Hatcher guy comes around, those guys are sure to catch him. Is something wrong? You’re kind of scaring me.”

Riley forced a laugh.

“No, nothing’s wrong. I’m just – being a mom, I guess.”

“OK. I’ll see you later.”

The call ended, but Riley’s worry was still surging inside her.

She went down the hall and straight to Brent Meredith’s office.

She stammered, “Sir, I – I need to take the rest of the day off.”

Meredith looked up from his work.

“May I ask why, Agent Paige?” he asked.

Riley opened her mouth, but no words came out. If she explained that she’d just gotten a threat from Shane Hatcher, wouldn’t he insist on seeing the message? How could she show it to him without admitting that she’d just given the file to Jenn Roston?

Meredith looked concerned now. He seemed aware that something was wrong that Riley couldn’t talk about.

“Go,” he said. “I hope everything is all right.”

Riley’s heart flooded with gratitude at Meredith’s understanding and discretion.

“Thank you, sir,” she said.

Then she hurried out of the building and got in her car and drove home.

*

As she neared her townhouse in a quiet Fredericksburg neighborhood, she was relieved to see that the FBI van was indeed still there. Riley knew there was another van stationed in the alley. Although the vehicles were unmarked, they were hardly inconspicuous. But there was nothing to be done about that.

Riley parked her car in her driveway, walked over to the van, and looked inside the open passenger window.

Two young agents were sitting in the front seats – Craig Huang and Bud Wigton. Riley’s spirits lifted a little. She thought highly of both agents, and she’d worked with Huang several times recently. Huang had been a little too gung-ho for Riley’s liking when he first came to the BAU, but he was rapidly maturing into an excellent agent. She didn’t know Wigton as well, but he had an excellent reputation.

“Anything going on?” Riley asked them through the window.

“Not a thing,” Huang said.

Huang sounded bored, but Riley felt relieved. No news was definitely good news as far as she was concerned. But was it too good to last?

“Mind if I have a look inside?” Riley asked.

“Be our guest,” Huang said.

The side door to the windowless van slid open, and Riley stepped inside to find another agent, Grace Lochner, stationed inside. Riley knew that Grace also had a sterling reputation at the BAU.

Lochner was seated in front of a battery of video screens. She turned toward Riley with a smile.

“What have you got going here?” Riley asked.

Seeming eager to show off the technology at her disposal, Lochner pointed to a couple of screens that showed overhead views of the neighborhood.

She said, “Here we’ve got real-time satellite images showing all the comings and goings within a half mile of here. Nobody can get near here without us noticing.”

Laughing a little, Lochner added, “I’m glad you live in a quiet neighborhood. It gives us less traffic to keep track of.”

She pointed out several more screens showing street-level activity.

She said, “We’ve hidden cameras around the neighborhood to see what’s going on closer up. We can check license plates of any vehicle that comes near here.”

A voice crackled over an intercom.

“Have you guys got a visitor?”

Lochner answered, “Agent Paige just stopped by to say hello.”

The voice said, “Hello, Agent Paige. This is Agent Cole, in the vehicle around back of your house. I’ve got Agents Cypher and Hahn with me too.”

Riley smiled. Those were all familiar names of well-respected agents.

Riley said, “I’m glad to have you on the job.”

“Our pleasure,” Agent Cole said.

Riley was impressed by the communication between the two vans. She could see the van behind her house in a couple of Lochner’s screens. Obviously, nothing could happen to either team without the other team knowing about it immediately.

Riley was also pleased by the display of weaponry stocked inside the van. The team had enough firepower to fight off a small army if necessary.

But she couldn’t help but wonder – was it enough to fight off Shane Hatcher? She left the van and walked on toward her house, telling herself not to worry. She couldn’t imagine even Shane Hatcher thwarting all this security.

Still, she couldn’t help remembering the text message she had just received.

You can’t say you weren’t warned.

CHAPTER FOUR

When Riley stepped inside her house, the place seemed eerily empty.

“I’m home,” she called out.

But nobody replied.

Where is everybody? Her alarm started to turn into panic.

Was it possible that Shane Hatcher had slipped through all that security after all?

Riley struggled not to imagine what might have happened if he had. Her pulse and breathing quickened as she hurried to the family room.

All three kids – April, Liam, and Jilly – were there. April and Liam were playing chess and Jilly was playing a video game.

“Didn’t you hear me?” she asked.

All three looked up at her with blank expressions. They had obviously all been concentrating on what they were doing.

She was about to ask the kids where Gabriela was when she heard her housekeeper’s voice behind her.

“Are you home, Señora Riley? I was downstairs and I thought I heard you come in.”

Riley smiled at the stout Guatemalan woman.

“Yes, I just got in,” she said, breathing easier now.

With a welcoming nod and a smile, Gabriela turned and headed toward the kitchen.

April looked up from the game she was playing with Liam.

“Is everything OK, Mom? You look kind of agitated.”

“I’m fine,” Riley said.

April turned her attention back to the game.

Riley took a moment to marvel how mature her fifteen-year-old daughter looked. April was slender, tall, and dark-haired, with Riley’s hazel eyes. April had been through more than her share of life-threatening danger during the last few months. But she seemed to be doing very well these days.

Riley looked over at Jilly, a smaller girl with olive skin and big dark eyes. Riley was in the process of adopting her. At the moment, Jilly was sitting in front of a large screen blasting bad guys away.

Riley frowned a little. She didn’t like violent video games. As far as she was concerned, they made violence – especially gun violence – seem both too attractive and too sanitized. She believed they had an especially bad influence on boys.

Still, Riley considered, maybe these games were harmless compared to Jilly’s own experience. After all, the thirteen-year-old had survived real-life horrors. When Riley had found Jilly, she had been trying to sell her body out of sheer desperation. Thanks to Riley, Jilly had a chance at a better life.

Liam looked up from the chessboard.

“Hey, Riley. I was wondering …”

He hesitated before asking his question.

Liam was the newcomer to the household. Riley had no plans to adopt the tall, gangly kid with red hair and blue eyes. But she had rescued him from a drunken father who had beaten him up. He needed a place to live right now.

“What is it, Liam?” Riley asked.

“Is it OK if I go to a chess competition tomorrow?”

“Could I go too?” April asked.

Riley smiled again. Liam and April had been dating when Liam had come to live down here in the family room, but they had promised to keep that relationship on hold for the time being. They had to be hermanos solamente, as Gabriela had put it – brother and sister only.

Riley liked Liam, all the more so because of the positive influence the bright boy had on April. He’d gotten April interested in chess and foreign languages and schoolwork in general.

“Of course you can go, both of you,” she said.

But then she felt a renewed burst of worry. She got out her cell phone and found some photos of Shane Hatcher and showed them to all three kids.

“But you’ve got to watch out for Shane Hatcher,” she said. “You’ve got these pictures on your own phones. Always remember exactly what he looks like. Contact me right away if you see anyone who looks anything like him.”

Liam and April looked at Riley with surprise.

“You’ve told us all this before,” Jilly said. “And we’ve looked at those pictures a thousand times. Has something changed?”

Riley wavered for a moment. She didn’t want to scare the kids. But she felt that they needed to be warned.

“I got a message from Hatcher a little while ago,” she said. “It was …”

She hesitated again.

“It was a threat. That’s why I want you all to be especially on your guard.”

To Riley’s surprise, Jilly grinned at her.

“Does this mean we get to stay home from school when spring break is over?” she asked.

Riley was startled by Jilly’s nonchalance. She also briefly wondered – maybe Jilly had the right idea. Should she keep the kids out of school? And should Liam and April not go to that chess competition tomorrow?

Before she could think things through, April said, “Don’t be silly, Jilly. Of course we’re going to keep right on going to school. It’s not like we can put our lives on hold.”

Then turning to Riley, April added, “It’s not a real threat. Even I know that. Remember what happened in January?”

Riley remembered all too well. Hatcher had saved April and Riley’s ex-husband, Ryan, from a killer bent on revenge against Riley. She also remembered how Shane Hatcher had delivered the killer bound and gagged for Riley to deal with at her own discretion.

April went on, “Hatcher wouldn’t hurt us. He went to a lot of trouble to save me.”

Maybe April’s got a point, Riley thought. At least where she and the other kids are concerned. But she was still glad that the agents were stationed outside.

April shrugged a little and added, “Life goes on. We’ve all got to keep doing what we do.”

Jilly said, “And that goes for you too, Mom. It’s a good thing you got home early. You’ve got plenty of time to get ready for tonight.”

For a second, Riley couldn’t remember what Jilly meant.

Then it came back to her – she had a date tonight with her handsome former neighbor, Blaine Hildreth. Blaine was the owner of one of the nicest casual restaurants here in Fredericksburg. He was planning to come by and pick Riley up and treat her to a wonderful dinner.

April hopped to her feet.

“Hey, that’s right!” she said. “Come on, Mom. Let’s go upstairs and I’ll help you choose something to wear.”

*

Later that evening, Riley was sitting on the candlelit patio at Blaine’s Grill, enjoying wonderful weather, excellent food, and charming company. Across the table from her, Blaine cut a handsome figure as always. He was just a little younger than Riley, lean and fit, with a slightly receding hairline that he wasn’t the least bit vain about.

Riley also found him to be a pleasant conversationalist. As they ate a delicious dinner of rosemary chicken pasta, they chatted about current events, memories of long-ago times and travels, and goings-on in Fredericksburg.

Riley was delighted that their talk never once turned to her work at the BAU. She was in no mood to even think about that. Blaine seemed to sense that and steer clear of the subject. One thing Riley really liked about Blaine was his sensitivity to her moods.

In fact, there was very little about Blaine that Riley didn’t like. True, they’d had a bit of a spat not long ago. Blaine had tried to make Riley jealous over a woman friend, and he had succeeded all too well. Now they were both able to laugh about how childish they’d both been.

Maybe it was partly the wine, but Riley felt warm and relaxed inside. Blaine was comfortable company – fairly recently divorced like Riley, and anxious to get on with life without quite knowing how.

Dessert finally arrived – Riley’s favorite, raspberry cheesecake. She smiled a little as she remembered how April had secretly called Blaine before an earlier date to alert him to some of Riley’s favorite things, including raspberry cheesecake and her favorite song – “One More Night” by Phil Collins.

As she enjoyed her cheesecake, Riley talked about her kids, especially how Liam was settling in.

“I was a little worried at first,” she admitted. “But he’s an awfully good kid, and we all love having him around the house.”

Riley paused for a moment. It felt positively luxurious to have someone to talk to about her domestic doubts and worries.

“Blaine, I don’t know what I’m going to do with Liam in the long run. I just can’t send him back to that drunken brute of a father, and God only knows what’s become of his mother. But I don’t see how I can legally adopt him. Taking in Jilly has been really complicated and it’s not settled yet. I don’t know if I can do it again.”

Blaine smiled at her sympathetically.

“You’ll just take things one day at a time, I guess,” he said. “And whatever you do, it will be the best thing for him.”

Riley shook her head a bit sadly.

“I wish I knew that for sure,” she said.

Blaine reached across the table and took hold of her hand.

“Well, take my word for it,” he said. “What you’ve already done for Liam and Jilly is wonderful and generous. I admire you so much for it.”

Riley felt a lump form in her throat. How often did anyone ever say anything like that to her? She was often praised for her work in the BAU, and had even received a Medal of Perseverance recently. But she was not accustomed to being praised for simple human things. She hardly knew how to take it.

Then Blaine said, “You’re a good woman, Riley Paige.”

Riley felt tears well up in her eyes. She laughed nervously as she wiped them away.

“Oh, look what you’ve done,” she said. “You’ve made me cry.”

Blaine shrugged, and his smile grew even warmer.

“Sorry. Just trying to be brutally honest. The truth sometimes hurts, I guess.”

They laughed together for a few moments.

Finally Riley said, “But I haven’t asked about your daughter. How’s Crystal doing?”

Blaine looked away with a bittersweet smile.

“Crystal’s doing just great – good grades, happy and cheerful. She’s away right now for spring break, at the beach with her cousins and my sister.”

Blaine sighed a little. “It’s only been a couple of days, but it’s amazing how fast I start missing her.”

It was all Riley could do not to start crying all over again. She’d known all along that Blaine was a wonderful father. What might it be like to be in a more permanent relationship with him?

Careful, she told herself. Let’s not rush things.

Meanwhile, she had almost finished her raspberry cheesecake.

“Thank you, Blaine,” she said. “It’s been such a lovely evening.”

Gazing into his eyes, she added, “I hate to see it end.”

Gazing back at her, Blaine squeezed her hand.

“Who says it has to end?” he asked.

Riley smiled. She knew her smile was enough to answer his question.

After all, why should their evening end? The FBI was guarding her family and no new killer was demanding her attention.

Maybe it was time to enjoy herself.

CHAPTER FIVE

George Tully didn’t like the looks of one patch of ground over by the road. He didn’t exactly know why.

Nothing to worry about, he told himself. The morning light was probably just playing tricks on him.

He took a deep breath of fresh air. Then he stooped down and picked up a handful of loose soil. As always, it felt soft and luxurious. It also smelled good, rich with nutrients from past corn harvests – husks and ears plowed back into the soil.

Good old black Iowa dirt, he thought as bits of it trickled down between his fingers.

This land had been in George’s family for years, so he’d known this fine soil all his life. But he never got tired of it, and his pride in farming the richest land in the world never waned.

He looked up across fields that stretched as far as he could see. The earth had been tilled for a couple of days now. It was ready and waiting for corn kernels dusted purple with insecticide to be placed where each new cornstalk would soon appear.

He’d held off on the planting until today to make sure of the weather. Of course there was never any way to be certain that a frost wouldn’t come even this late in the year and ruin the crop. He could remember a freak April blizzard back in the ’70s that had taken his father by surprise. But as George felt a breath of warm air and looked up at some high clouds streaking across the sky, he felt as confident as he could hope to feel.

Today’s the day, he thought.

As George stood watching, his field hand Duke Russo came driving a tractor that dragged a forty-foot-long planter behind it. The planter would seed sixteen rows at a time, thirty inches apart, one kernel at a time, deposit fertilizer on top of each one, cover the seed, and roll on its way.

George’s sons, Roland and Jasper, had been standing in the field awaiting the tractor’s arrival, and they walked toward it as it rumbled along one side of the field. George smiled to himself. Duke and the boys made a good crew. There was no need for George to hang around for the actual planting. He waved at the three men, then turned to head back to his truck.

But that odd patch of earth near the road caught his attention again. What was wrong over there? Had the tiller missed that patch? He couldn’t imagine how that could have happened.

Maybe a groundhog had been digging there.

But as he walked toward the spot, he could see that no groundhog had done this. There was no opening, and the soil was patted down.

It looked like something had been buried here.

George growled under his breath. Vandals and pranksters sometimes gave him trouble. A couple of years ago, some boys from nearby Angier stole a tractor and used it to demolish a storage shed. More recently, others had spray-painted obscenities on fences and walls and even cattle.

It was infuriating – and hurtful.

George had no idea why the kids would come out of their way to give him trouble. He’d never done any harm to them that he knew of. He’d reported the incidents to Joe Sinard, Angier’s police chief, but nothing ever got done about it.

“What have those bastards done this time?” he said aloud, tapping the soil with his foot.

He figured he’d better find out. Whatever was buried here might wreck his equipment.

He turned toward his crew and waved for Duke to stop the tractor. When the engine was off, George yelled to his sons.

“Jasper, Roland – fetch me that shovel in the tractor cab.”

“What’s wrong, Pop?” Jasper called back.

“I don’t know. Just do it.”

A moment later, Duke and the boys came walking toward him. Jasper handed his father a shovel.

As the group watched curiously, George prodded the soil with his shovel. As he did, a strange, sour smell met his nostrils.