Page 13 of Once Silenced

“Has to be,” Riley confirmed, her instincts as an investigator flaring up like a beacon.“It’s too precise, too deliberate to be a coincidence.If the numbers were just random, they would have led us anywhere, to any spot on the globe.But the location is specific, a spot in The Blue Ridge Wilderness Park, in the same state as both of the murders.That’s got to be checked out.”

Bill rubbed his chin, then looked directly at Riley.“Last night, Riley, we talked about this.I thought you were going to step back, to let it go.”

She felt a twinge of guilt at his reminder; she hadn’t promised to step back, but she understood she’d probably left him with that impression.

“I’m sorry,” she said, her voice quiet but firm.“But this...this could be big, Bill.If the team hasn’t pieced this together yet, it could be the break they need.”

“Alright,” he conceded, a sigh escaping him.“But you shouldn’t call it in.We need to do this together.”

“How do you mean?”

“Meredith is probably still at his desk,” Bill said, the edges of his words softened by the quiet sigh that accompanied them.“He’s always grinding away at this hour.We do need to tell him what you and the girls figured out.“

“Do you think I should call him and try to explain?”Riley asked.

“No, I don’t think you should do this alone,” Bill replied.“Meredith will want to hear about this firsthand, but he’s less likely to fire you if we go there together.I’ll message him that we’re on the way.”

“Then let’s go,” Riley replied, the resolution clear in her voice.It was a tone that spoke not only of the urgency of their discovery but also of her own internal struggle—the constant balancing act between her roles as an agent and a mother.This was the life she had chosen, or perhaps it was the life that had chosen her.

She rose from the table, feeling the familiar surge of adrenaline that came with the prospect of a breakthrough.It coursed through her as she straightened the crumpled quiz sheets that had innocently transformed her dining table into an impromptu war room.The answers her daughters had scribbled down were now potential keys to a killer’s mind—and Riley knew all too well how to navigate that kind of psyche.

CHAPTER SIX

After the half-hour drive back to Quantico, Riley and Bill walked into the BAU building together.The corridors inside were alive with the muted energy of ongoing investigations, the low hum of the never-sleeping beast that was the heart of FBI operations.

“Does Meredith know we’re coming?”she asked Bill.

“I sent a message that we were on the way to speak with him, but no details,”

Riley took a deep breath; there was no turning back now.She had asked to be part of this investigation, and Meredith had said “no.”Defying a direct order hadn’t been unheard of back when she was an active agent, but had no place in her recent role as an Academy teacher.

Reaching the familiar threshold, Riley paused.

“Ready?”Bill asked in a low voice.When she nodded, he pushed the door open, revealing Meredith hunched over his desk, the sleeves of his shirt rolled up, his tie hanging loosely—the very image of dedication after ordinary working hours.

“Paige, Jeffreys,” Meredith intoned, looking up with a flash of annoyance.“This had better be important.”

“Agent Paige has worked out some information you need to know,” Bill explained.“We didn’t want to try to explain it by phone.”

“Then sit,” Meredith grumbled, an eyebrow arched in demand for an explanation.“But be quick.As you can see, I’m busy.”

They both took chairs in front of his desk, then Riley leaped into her explanation.

“Sir, this is about that case we talked about yesterday,” she said.“The murders in Slippery Rock and Roanoke.”

Meredith’s expression darkened, and he squinted with displeasure.

“I thought I told you to stay away from that,” he said.

“I know, sir, but … well, as I told you yesterday, the murder of Margaret Whitfield is a personal issue for me.And I found something I think you and the team investigating that case you need to know.”

“Go on,” Meredith growled.

“Sir, I suppose you know that sheets of equations were pinned to each victim’s body.”

Meredith nodded silently.

“They’re not random class assignments or ordinary quizzes,” Riley explained.“The answers to two of the equations, one from each sheet, are different from the others.When you put those two together, they carry a message.They’re map coordinates, and they correspond to a specific location.”

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