CHAPTER THIRTY THREE

Bill’s heart went out to Riley as he watched her staring down at the crowd of reporters far below. He’d seldom seen such a defeated expression on her face.

He touched her on the shoulder and said, “Come on. We’d better go deal with them.”

Riley simply nodded, then started down the stairs. Bill followed her, with Dillard, Ulrich, and Eggers right behind him.

As they made their way down, Bill kept wondering …

What the hell went wrong?

Riley had been so positive that this would be the time and place of the next murder. And her instincts were nearly always right. In fact, she was famous in law enforcement for the reliability of her gut feelings.

Maybe this is my fault, Bill thought.

After all, he had let Riley talk everybody into this stakeout, even though he hadn’t fully shared her conviction.

Maybe he should have overruled her.

But then he thought …

Overrule Riley?

He almost smiled at the very idea. He couldn’t remember ever being able to talk Riley out of anything, not when she’d really set her mind to it.

When they reached the base of the cliff, the reporters crowded around them, shouting one question on top of another.

“Why did you hold a stakeout here?”

“Did anything come of it?”

“We’d been informed that another suspect was in custody.”

“Does the murderer have an accomplice?”

“Is there a copycat killer?”

Bill was surprised with the force in Riley’s voice when she shouted them down.

“No questions! I’ve got a question to ask you!”

Startled, the reporters fell silent.

Riley said, “Who the hell told you anything was going to happen here? How did you know about the stakeout?”

A murmur passed among the reporters as they protested that they had no intention of revealing their sources.

Just then a voice called out from nearby.

“False alarm, folks. There’s nothing more to see.”

Bill turned and saw Bull Cullen emerging from a path that led back into the forest.

An angry sneer took form on Riley’s face, and Bill knew what she was thinking.

This is all Cullen’s doing.

After all, Cullen had been sure all along that Riley’s hunch was wrong. Not only had he been looking forward to seeing Riley fail, he’d obviously alerted the media to make her that her failure was as public and humiliating as possible.

He’d told them exactly where and when to show up.

Worse still, Cullen hadn’t even been at his post during the stakeout. He’d stayed in the woods close to the tower so he’d be able to greet the reporters when they arrived.

That son of a bitch, Bill thought.

He started toward Cullen, his fist clenched and ready to punch the man out.

Riley reached out and stopped him.

“Don’t, Bill,” she said. “Things are bad enough as it is.”

Meanwhile, Cullen was basking in the situation, holding court among the reporters and offering his own full explanation for what was going on.

“Yes, we do have another suspect in custody. A good, solid, suspect. His name is Timothy Pollitt, and we expect to bring charges against him soon. But FBI Special Agent Riley Paige here had her own theory, and we felt compelled to follow up on it. As you can see, it didn’t pan out. But we didn’t want to leave any loose ends.”

He looked at Riley and Bill with a gloating smile and added, “On behalf of the railroad police, I want to thank Agent Paige and her FBI colleagues for their help. Now, of course, the FBI’s work on this case is through, and they’ll be flying right back to Quantico.”

As Cullen continued to talk with the reporters, Riley said to Bill, “We can’t quit yet. We just can’t.”

“There’s nothing left for us to do,” Bill said.

“Yes there is! I’m sure we aren’t wrong. We just made a mistake about the time. We need to find out when the next freight trains will be coming through. We need to keep this stakeout going. Let’s go talk to Dillard. Maybe we can convince him—”

Bill interrupted her.

“Riley, listen to me. Even if you’re right about the killer’s plans, there’s no way he’ll strike here now—not now that reporters have arrived and our cover is blown. Besides …”

Bill hesitated.

“Besides what?” Riley asked.

Bill sighed and said, “I think we need to face facts. In all likelihood, Timothy Pollitt really is the killer. There really is nothing more for us to do here.”

Riley’s stricken expression broke his heart.

Before she could say anything, her phone buzzed. Riley looked at it and rolled her eyes in despair.

“Jesus,” she said. “It’s Carl Walder.”

Bill could hardly believe it.

As if things weren’t bad enough, he thought.

He remembered all too well the countless conflicts Riley had had with Walder. The incompetent, baby-faced bureaucrat had suspended and even fired Riley on more than one occasion.

This is too much, he thought.

“Let me take that,” he said to Riley, taking the phone away from her.

Walder sounded surprised to hear a male voice instead of Riley.

“I’m trying to reach Riley Paige. Who is this?”

“Bill Jeffreys here. Riley isn’t available at the moment.”

“What do you mean, not available?”

“Just what I said,” Bill said.

Bill heard a growl of disapproval.

Then Walder said, “Listen, I got a call from Deputy Chief Cullen of the railroad police a while ago, and he said Paige has gone off her rocker and is determined to pull some kind of cockamamie stakeout even though you’ve already got the killer in custody and—”

Bill interrupted, “It’s over, Chief Walder. The stakeout, I mean. We came up empty.”

Walder growled again.

“OK, then. I hear that Agent Roston is also on Paige’s team. I want the FBI plane back here in Quantico tonight, with the three of you on it.”

“Should we report to you when we get there?” Bill asked.

“No, damn it. I don’t even want to talk to any of you—not yet, anyway. I’ve got to take some kind of disciplinary action against Agent Paige—and from what Cullen told me, against Agent Roston as well. It’s sounds like Roston is a serious loose cannon, following right along in Paige’s footsteps. I haven’t decided what to do yet. Just take a couple of days off, all three of you. That’s an order.”

Walder abruptly ended the call.

Bill shook his head and thought …

He’s mad enough already. Wait till he sees what the media’s going to do with this.

He handed the phone back to Riley and said, “It’s really over, Riley. Walder’s making this personal, and we can’t buck his orders. We’ve got to fly back to Quantico. Right now. Come on, let’s get a ride back to Dermott. I’ll call the pilot on the way.”

Riley nodded silently. As they both walked toward the car they’d arrived in, Bill remembered what he’d said to Riley just a moment ago …

“In all likelihood, Timothy Pollitt really is the killer.”

For some reason, he really wished he hadn’t said that.

Deep down, his own instincts were starting to nag him, telling him …

This really isn’t over.