Once Craved (a Riley Paige Mystery--Book #3) (13 page)

After Riley and Bill
spent another tedious day at headquarters, she felt the exhaustion creeping in.
The pessimism. It was getting late, and it was about time to wrap things up.
They had been in Phoenix since Saturday under the flimsy pretext that Nancy “Nanette”
Holbrook’s murder
might
be the work of a serial killer. But with every
passing hour, that seemed less likely. And if Nancy’s death had been a one-off,
it was time for the FBI to turn things back over to the local police—and for
Bill and Riley to head back to Quantico.

Of course, if Calvin
Rabbe’s alibi didn’t hold up, she and Bill would have some reason to stay on
the case. Riley hoped that that would get sorted out soon, one way or the
other.

Riley felt tired and
apprehensive when she walked into the computer lab with its daunting array of
screens and equipment. At the center of the vast array of computers sat the
head of the digital tech department, a young woman who simply called herself
Igraine. She was definitely an odd character—hardly the sort of technician
Riley was used to back at Quantico. Special Agent in Charge Elgin Morley had
told Riley that Igraine was a self-described technopagan.

Igraine had
rainbow-dyed crew-cut hair, and her face and ears were pierced with a wildly
colored array of plastic-head diaper pins. Her clothes, by contrast, were
gothic black. Her workstation was decked and littered with amulets and little
circles of colorful stones and crystals.

“What have you got
for me, Igraine?” Riley asked, sitting next to her.

“I’ve got nothing,”
Igraine said. “Oh, lots of murders of prostitutes, naturally. We had a series
of strangulations back in the nineties. But none of those MOs really fit.”

Riley didn’t know
how she felt about this news. The fact was, the seemingly endless number of
unsolved murders and disappearances of prostitutes nagged at her.

Riley asked, “Have
you checked water-related deaths for the past few years?”

“Sure, for two whole
decades. One dead prostitute was found in a creek, but her killer was caught
and convicted. A serial killer murdered one of his victims in a bathtub, but
none of his victims were prostitutes, and he’s on death row now. Other bodies
are found in lakes around Phoenix from time to time. Accidental drownings,
boating and swimming accidents, that kind of thing, and the victims are mostly
guys at that. As for using the lakes for corpse disposal, I’ve turned up zilch.”

“Is there anything
else you can do?” Riley asked

Igraine leaned back
in her chair and let out a groan of impatience.

“You mean, to
magically turn a single murder into a serial? Not without calling upon the
forces of darkness. Frankly, I don’t think the FBI ought to be dabbling in that
stuff. Leave the black arts to the CIA. Believe me, I’ve tried every
cyber-spell I can think of. Anything more, and I’ll make the Uber-Spirit very
angry.”

Riley knew that, in
her own special language, Igraine was telling the truth.

“That’s OK, Igraine.
You can call it a night.”

Riley left the lab
just in time to meet Bill in the hallway.

“What have you got?”
Bill asked her.

“Not a thing. And
you?”

“Well, we’ve checked
out Rabbe’s alibi. He was definitely at his house, at his mother’s charity
event. He’s clean.”

Riley sighed.
Although she’d more or less expected this, it gave her no satisfaction. As far
as she was concerned, Rabbe needed to be put away for good.

“Well, that’s all we
can do tonight,” Bill said. “Let’s get out of here.”

*

About an hour and a
half later, Riley and Bill were sitting together in a booth in their hotel’s
bar. She had just ordered her second bourbon on the rocks. It had been a long
time since she’d had a single drink, but she figured tonight would be okay.
Even so, she knew she’d better take it easy. This would be her last drink for
the night.

Anyway, Riley could
see that Bill needed someone to drink and talk with. At the moment, he was
putting his whiskey away at a markedly faster rate than Riley. For a few
minutes now, he’d been rambling on about the breakup of his marriage.

“It’s hard to let it
go,” he continued wearily. “I mean, twelve years of marriage, two kids and all.
It’s just like a huge piece of my life is getting cut away. And it’s leaving a
big empty space.”

He paused for a
moment and took another sip.

Then he said, “I
mean, yeah, I can see her point of view. Being married to an FBI agent is
tough. But I thought she knew what she was getting into. I was already an agent
when we got married. But little by little, all kinds of resentment started to
kick in. And after the boys were born, she wanted me to get out of the agency
altogether. But what else was I going to do?”

Riley simply nodded.
She understood all too well. After all, she’d recently done her own share of
trying to turn her back on this kind of work. But whether she liked it or not,
she seemed to be in it for the long haul. Teaching hadn’t been enough for her,
and sitting around in an office trying to ignore all the evils in the world was
simply out of the question.

Still, she said
nothing, just let Bill keep on talking.

“You know, I think
maybe at the start, she thought being married to an agent would be romantic and
exciting. But when I got wounded five years ago, she really freaked out. Things
never got back to normal.”

Riley found herself
trying to see things from Maggie’s point of view.

“Well, at least she
worried about you,” she said. “Ryan barely seemed to notice that I had a job at
all. He just couldn’t get used to the fact that I wasn’t the perfect little
social hostess.” Then she thought for a moment and added, “Maybe Maggie’s
ending it because she loves you.”

Bill gave her a
long, curious look.

“That’s the
stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” he said.

Riley started
laughing.

“Isn’t it, though?”
she said.

Suddenly they were
both laughing together. It felt good, talking and laughing with Bill like this.
For years, he’d been her best friend in the world. But the last couple of cases
had taken a toll on their friendship. She’d almost forgotten how close and
comfortable she could feel around him.

Of course, she also
knew that the bourbon was helping her relax.

Steady,
she told herself.
Don’t get
too
comfortable.

Again she remembered
that awful drunken night when she’d called Bill and said they should have an
affair. The wounds from that incident were just starting to heal. She didn’t
want to open them again.

“But enough of my
self-pity,” Bill said. “What’s going on with that girl you rescued?”

 “You mean Jilly?
Well, maybe ‘rescued’ is too strong a word. She’s got a long way to go and
needs a lot of help. I’ve called Child Protective Services a few times to check
in on her. She’s OK, and they’re hoping to be able to take her away from her
father. He really is an abusive man.”

“What’ll happen to
her then?” Bill said.

“She’ll wind up with
a foster family, I guess. Unless …”

Riley fell silent. A
far-fetched possibility started to occur to her. Bill was able to read her
expression right away.

“Oh my God,” he
said. “You’re not thinking about adopting her, are you?”

Riley didn’t reply.
He’d nailed it perfectly, of course. But she was pretty sure that the drinks
were starting to kick in. She was definitely feeling a little tipsy now—and
more than a little wistful about Jilly.

Bill was smiling at
her sympathetically.

“Riley, this can’t
be a good idea,” he said. “God only knows what kind of traumas that poor girl
has gone through. She doesn’t even know what it’s like to be nurtured and cared
for. She’s going to need years of professional help. You don’t have the
resources.”

“I know,” she said,
feeling a catch in her throat.

Bill really was
right, after all. So why did this urge come over her? Maybe it had something to
do with how she’d been thinking about her sister lately. She remembered how
Wendy had sent her a letter some years ago, just to reach out and connect. But
Riley hadn’t replied. Looking back, she didn’t know why. But she regretted it.
And now she had no idea where Wendy was or what had become of her.

Riley couldn’t shake
the feeling that she had abandoned Wendy. Now she didn’t want to abandon
anybody else.

But now was no time
to talk about all that. She just sat there, enjoying Bill’s quiet warmth and
sympathy. Then a strange fantasy started to shape in her mind.

Bill and I would
be the perfect parents for a girl like that,
she thought.

For just a moment,
it seemed so real—she and Bill living as a couple, doing their best to give
Jilly a better life.

“What are you
thinking?” Bill said.

Riley laughed
awkwardly. She wondered if she should tell him. Then her phone buzzed. It was a
text message from April.

Having a great
time! Capitol building today. White House tomorrow! How are U?

Riley smiled. It was
a perfectly timed reminder. She already had a daughter, and a brave and bright
one at that. Now was no time for Riley to tear up her own life and change
everything.

She typed back:

Just fine. U keep
on having fun.

April replied,
Will
do!

Bill said, “A
message from April, I take it?”

Riley chuckled a
little. “How did you guess?”

“Oh, maybe it was
just that proud and loving mother look.”

Bill’s kind words
sounded somewhat melancholy. His smile looked a little sadder now. Riley
guessed that he was thinking about his own boys, and the ongoing custody battle
he and Maggie were fighting over them. She suddenly felt lucky not to be going
through all that with April.

At the same time, it
seemed best to change the subject.

“You know, we’ve got
to file a report with Morley,” she said.

“Yeah, I know,” Bill
said tiredly. “I guess we’ve been putting it off.”

“What are we going
to tell him?”

Bill drummed his
fingers on the table.

“There’s nothing to
say, except that we’re coming up blank,” he said. “We’ve got no reason at all
to think we’re after a serial killer. That means we’ve got no reason to be here
at all. Garrett Holbrook’s going to be disappointed, though. He was really
hoping that we could crack his sister’s murder.”

“Do you think so?”
Riley said.

Bill looked surprised
by the question.

“Sure. How else
would he feel?”

Riley simply
shrugged. The words had been out before she’d thought about what she was
saying. She couldn’t explain what she meant. It was just that Garrett Holbrook
still struck her as a bit of a mystery. She felt sure that there was something
he wasn’t telling them. But now they’d probably never find out what it was.

Riley said, “Well, I
guess we can file our report tomorrow morning. Then we’ll be out of here. Do
you think the FBI will fly us back the way we came, in a company jet?”

Bill laughed.

“Nothing that
ceremonious,” he said. “My guess is we’ll be flying back coach.”

“You’re probably
right.”

She saw that Bill
had finished his drink. She was only halfway through hers, but she figured she’d
had enough. She was feeling a little giddy now. She pushed the drink away. It
felt good to consciously decide to quit for the night.

She and Bill paid
the bar bill. Then Bill escorted her back to her hotel room. They paused a bit
awkwardly outside her door. They maintained a distance of a couple of feet
between them. Riley was sure that Bill was thinking just what she was thinking.
If they so much as hugged, things might get out of control. And neither of them
really wanted that. At least not tonight.

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

Riley felt tears
well up in her eyes.

“And you’re a good
man,” she said. “And a good friend.”

Bill turned and
walked away down the hallway. She went on into her room and sat down on the
bed. She couldn’t help feeling disappointed in their trip. At the very least,
she wished they could have gotten Nancy Holbrook’s killer.

Besides, her gut had
told her that they were dealing with a serial killer. She wasn’t used to her
gut being wrong.

Or am I really
wrong this time?
she wondered.

Rookie cop Robin
Mastin scaled down the underwater cliff side, her flashlight barely breaking
through the surrounding darkness. She was getting close to the base of the
cliff, some fifty feet down, and the visibility was barely three feet ahead.

She and her class
had spent two days combing the depths of Nimbo Lake for a woman’s body. This
was supposed to be their third day of searching, but their diving chief,
Quentin Rosner, was sure there was no body to be found. When they had met here
very early this morning, he had announced that they were going to give it up.

Robin had begged for
the chance to make one more try. She had reminded Rosner that they were doing
this search on orders from Special Agent Riley Paige from Quantico. Rosner had
finally agreed to one more hour, but she knew that the hour was up now.

Riley Paige!
The very name filled Robin with
awe and admiration. The woman was a legend, and Robin wanted to be like her.
And if Riley Paige thought there was a body down here, Robin felt sure that
there really was one. If Robin could find it, she’d make her name even before
she got her technologist certification. Then maybe she could get herself
stationed somewhere with an active underwater CSI team.

That hope was why she
had enrolled in diving school in the first place, even though her friends had
laughed at her. They’d kept reminding her that Arizona wasn’t the likeliest
place to find diving jobs. But Robin had big plans. She’d already become a
master diver, and when she had the CSI certification, she’d move anywhere she
had to go for an exciting career.

Now she swam down
the last few feet, hugging the cliff all the way, examining every square inch
of its surface. As she touched the bottom, she felt an unwelcome tug on the
yellow rope that reached back to the surface. It was Rosner, telling her it was
time to leave.

She felt crushed
with disappointment. She was sure that the search somehow had been handled
wrong, sure that they had missed something.

At Paige’s insistence,
Rosner and the class had pored over maps of what the lake had looked like
before it became a lake. If there was a body, Rosner was absolutely sure that
it lay somewhere on the lake floor.

They’d searched
every square foot without uncovering anything, just pieces of junk and a few
animal bones. One of her classmates had found a rotting carcass of a dog.
Nobody had any idea how it had gotten there. Dogs could swim, after all.

Rosner had laughed
at Robin when she’d said that she wanted to search the side of this particular
cliff.

Robin remembered
what Rosner had said.

“You think she
landed on a vertical surface? Gravity doesn’t work like that.”

She couldn’t think
of an argument against it. Even so, here she was, trying to prove him wrong. It
was going to be humiliating to come to the surface one last time to admit her
failure. But even now, she wasn’t going to be rushed. She scaled the cliff as
carefully as she’d descended, feeling and looking as closely as she could.

About twenty feet
from the surface, a peculiar sensation caused her to stop. She became very
still. Had she felt something real or was it just her imagination?

But there it was.
She had felt a slight current in the water. But where could it be coming from?

She reached up and
felt the edge of a ledge. It seemed that the cliff side was broken by jutting
rocks. The current was coming from somewhere around those rocks.

She rose further to
look above the ledge. The visibility was terrible, no more than a foot. But now
she understood the source of the current. She had found a tiny entrance to a
cave, which might well stretch back for miles under the rock. It might even
drain separately into the river that had been dammed to form this lake.

A theory was rapidly
forming in her mind. Possibly—just possibly—a body dropped from straight above
might have hit this ledge and gotten sucked back into the cave, at least a
short distance.

The entrance was so
small that she had to squeeze to get inside. But she was only in to her waist
when her fingers found something that wiggled under a layer of silt. She
brushed it vigorously and saw that it was black plastic.

Her heart was
pounding now. She remembered that the previous body had been found in a black
plastic garbage bag. Those bags degraded very slowly, especially in cool
temperatures. She struggled to keep her breathing under control. It would be
dangerous to be overcome with excitement at this depth, in this tight space.

She fumbled around
and found the bag’s opening. Just inside, she could see it clearly—a rounded
white bone surface where sutures joined together.

It was the top of a
skull.