CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Riley still gripped the casing of her phone as April’s panicked voice faded from the call.
The possibility that Leo was taking Jilly to that place she could never forget—the riverside where she had killed Peterson in a desperate attempt to save April—sent a chill seeping into her bones that had nothing to do with the dilapidated house around her.
Bill moved closer to her, reading the silent horror on her face.
“Leo knows about Peterson,” Riley said, her voice tight as a wire. “He must know about everything that happened there.”
Bill’s eyes darkened. “How? Those files were restricted.”
“He’s bought a good hacker. Or maybe he put it together some other way, but he knows enough to use it.” Riley suddenly felt desperate to be out of this stifling house. “I need to go. Now.”
“We need to go,” Bill corrected, reaching for his keys.
Riley stopped, pivoting back to face him. “No. I’m going alone.”
“The hell you are.” The words came out flat, absolute.
“Bill, listen to me.” She stepped closer, lowering her voice though the forensics team had moved to another room. “This is personal. Leo’s obsessed with me. He took my daughter. He’s drawing me to a place where I...” She swallowed hard. “Where I killed to protect April.”
“Which is exactly why you’re not going alone.” Bill’s jaw clenched, a muscle twitching beneath the skin. “This is textbook, Riley. He’s isolating you. Setting a trap.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” Her voice rose despite her efforts to remain calm. “But what choice do I have? If I don’t follow his rules, what happens to Jilly?”
“If you walk into his trap alone, what happens to both of you?” Bill countered. “What happens to April if neither of you comes back?”
Riley inhaled sharply, her shoulders sagging as if under a sudden weight.
“I’ll stay back,” Bill continued, gentler now. “Keep out of sight. But I’m going to be there, Riley. Even if he sees me, we have to take that risk. No discussion.”
Riley opened her mouth to argue, the desperate fear for Jilly overriding her usual judgment, when her phone vibrated in her hand. She glanced down, expecting April again.
Unknown Number.
She showed the screen to Bill, whose expression hardened. They both knew who it was before she tapped to open the message.
I’m sure April has called by now to tell you about our little chat.
Such a bright girl. I imagine you’re having quite the debate with Bill about whether you should come alone to our meeting place.
To make matters less contentious between you two, please feel free to bring one guest. And I know it’s too much to expect you both to arrive unarmed. Your standard weapons will be fine.
A shudder passed through Riley. The timing was uncanny—as if Leo had been listening to their conversation. Her eyes swept the house, suddenly suspicious of every shadow, every corner.
“How does he know we’re arguing about this right now?” Bill muttered, echoing her thoughts.
Riley began typing a response:
Where is Jilly? Is she hurt?
She hit send, then added:
I’m coming. Tell me she’s safe.
The message showed as delivered, but no reply came. No indication that Leo was even reading her desperate questions.
“Let’s go,” she said, shoving the phone into her pocket. “We’re wasting time.”
Outside, the ordinary afternoon sunlight seemed almost offensive in its brightness, mocking the darkness that had engulfed Riley’s world. She headed straight for her sedan, Bill falling into step beside her.
“I’m driving,” she said, leaving no room for debate. She needed control of something—anything—in this spiraling nightmare.
Bill didn’t argue, sliding into the passenger seat as Riley started the engine. They pulled away from the curb, leaving the forensics team and a patrol car behind.
“That message,” Bill said as they merged onto the main road. “The timing was...”
“Calculated,” Riley finished for him. “That’s how Leo operates. He knows us—me especially—well enough to predict our reactions.”
“It feels like more than prediction. It’s like he can see us or hear us.”
Riley glanced over at Bill. His face was composed, but she could see the tension in the set of his shoulders, the way his hand rested near his holster. And his face was lined with exhaustion.
“That’s what he wants you to think,” she said.
“It’s classic psychological manipulation.
He makes a reasonable guess, and when he’s right, it seems like he’s got some supernatural insight.
And when he’s wrong, we don’t notice because we’re too focused on the times he was right.
” She paused, remembering her lectures at the Academy.
“Leo isn’t psychic any more than I am. He’s just a brilliant amateur psychologist with a talent for getting inside people’s heads. ”
Bill nodded, but his expression remained troubled. “Still. The timing...”
“He knew April would call me immediately after their exchange. He knew I’d most likely be with you because we’ve been working together on this from the start.
And he knew we’d disagree about me going alone because he understands our history, our partnership.
This is what he does—he makes us doubt ourselves, doubt each other. ”
They drove in silence for a few minutes, the suburbs giving way to less populated areas as they headed toward the place where Peterson had died.
The place where she had killed a man to save her daughter.
That night had marked Riley indelibly, had changed April forever.
Now Leo was using it as a stage for whatever sick game he was playing with Jilly as his pawn.
Riley shot another glance at Bill. His eyes were fixed on the road ahead, but his mind seemed far away.
She recognized the look—had seen it in her own mirror too many times.
He was replaying something, caught in a loop of memory.
And she knew perfectly well what it was.
Yesterday Leo had triggered Bill’s trauma over mistakenly shooting Stanley Pope all those years ago.
And a sleepless night and ongoing uncertainty were keeping those thoughts alive.
It remained a raw spot, a wound that had never fully healed.
“It’s not just me he’s getting to,” she said quietly.
“I’m fine,” Bill said, the words automatic.
“You don’t have to be. None of us are fine right now. But I need to know where your head is.”
“My head is on finding Jilly,” Bill said, sounding just a little bit defensive. “Everything else is secondary.”
Before Riley could respond, her phone rang through the car’s speakers. Garner Hogue’s name flashed on the display.
“Damn it,” Riley muttered. She’d almost forgotten that their phones were being monitored. Of course Hogue had seen the exchanges with Leo.
She accepted the call. “Hogue.”
“Paige.” His voice filled the car, crisp and professional. “I take it from your location data that you and Jeffreys are already en route to the Peterson site.”
“We are,” Riley confirmed.
A pause, then: “I’d hoped you wouldn’t repeat yesterday’s impulsive actions.”
“I’m not alone,” Riley pointed out. “Agent Jeffreys is with me.”
“But you didn’t wait for a proper tactical assessment or deployment plan.”
“There wasn’t time,” Riley shot back. “Leo is expecting us. He’s got my daughter.”
Hogue sighed, the sound staticky through the speakers. “I understand your urgency, but rushing in—”
“Save it,” Riley cut him off. “We’re already halfway there. What’s your plan?”
Another pause, longer this time, as if Hogue was choosing his next words carefully.
“I’m deploying a team to establish a discreet perimeter around the location. They’ll maintain radio silence and keep visual contact to a minimum. If Leo is watching for them, I don’t want him spooked.”
“Good,” Riley said, surprising even herself with the quick acceptance. “What else?”
“We’ve got tactical support on standby, but they’ll remain at distance until we have a clearer picture of the situation. And we’re dispatching a negotiator—”
“No,” Riley interrupted. “Leo isn’t interested in negotiating with strangers. He wants me. That’s the whole point of this.”
“Paige—”
“The negotiator stays back,” Riley insisted. “Far back. If Leo sees anyone but me and Bill, we don’t know what he’ll do to Jilly.”
The silence that followed told Riley that Hogue was weighing his options. She knew the protocol—knew what the manual said about hostage situations. But this wasn’t just any hostage. And Leo wasn’t just any unsub—he was a brilliant psychopath fixated on Riley personally.
“Fine,” Hogue relented. “But I want an open line at all times. We need to hear what’s happening.”
“Agreed,” Riley said, though she had no intention of letting an open line dictate her actions if Jilly’s life was at stake.
“There’s something else you should know,” Hogue added, his tone shifting subtly. “Officer Susan Martinez of the Washington MPD didn’t report for her 7 a.m. briefing today. Her husband says she left for work on schedule, but she never arrived. Given what happened to Pope yesterday...”
Riley’s stomach clenched. “You think Leo took her.”
“It’s a working theory. Her husband seems to be in the clear … and frantic. She fits Leo’s pattern—law enforcement, relatively young. We’ve got people canvassing her route to work, checking traffic cams. So far, nothing.”
“Keep me posted,” Riley said, her mind already considering the implications. Had Leo taken Martinez as another pawn in his game? Or had he taken her for some other, more specific purpose?
“Will do. And Paige?” Hogue’s voice hardened. “Be careful. Both of you.”
The call ended, and they lapsed into silence as the landscape began to change, becoming more wooded.
They were getting closer to the place where Peterson had died.
Where Riley had fought desperately in the water to save April.
A place she had sworn never to return to—a promise now broken by the most terrible of circumstances.
Riley checked the GPS. They were less than fifteen minutes away now.
Soon they would know what Leo had planned for them.
What new horror he had devised using the darkest chapter of her past as his stage?
Was Jilly already there, terrified and alone?
Was Leo using her to recreate some twisted version of what had happened with Peterson and April?
Or was this all an elaborate diversion, designed to lure Riley away while Leo carried out some other part of his plan?
She glanced at Bill, worrying that he was as exhausted as she was. They were normally an excellent team. But how much of a toll had sleeplessness and Leo’s mind games taken on both of them? Riley only knew that they weren’t at their best.
As the trees thickened on either side of the road, Riley felt a familiar dread.
What would be waiting for them when they arrived?
In the place where they were headed, Riley had confronted the monster who had once tortured her and later subjected April to some of the same terror.
After Riley had fired the shotgun that ended him, she’d thought she was also ending that story.
But now Leo Dillard had designed some new horror using her own past as his template.
What could she hope could take place there this time—would she even find Jilly alive?