Once Craved (a Riley Paige Mystery--Book #3) Read Online Free PDF Page B

Riley found herself thinking about what she was watching. How
was this different from the times she had used lethal force herself? In the
line of duty, she had killed several killers.
    But this was not
like any of those other deaths. By comparison, it was bizarrely controlled,
clean, clinical, immaculate. It seemed inexplicably wrong. Irrationally, Riley
found herself thinking …
    I shouldn’t have
let it come to this.
    She knew she was
wrong, that she had carried out Caldwell’s apprehension professionally and by
the book. But even so she thought …
    I should have
killed him myself.
    Gail held Riley’s
hand steadily for ten long minutes. Finally, the official beside Caldwell said
something that Riley couldn’t hear.
    The warden stepped
out from behind the curtain and spoke in a clear enough voice to be understood
by all the witnesses.
    “The sentence was
successfully carried out at 9:07 a.m.”
    Then the curtains
closed across the window again. The witnesses had seen all that they were meant
to see. Guards came into the room and urged everybody to leave as quickly as
possible.
    As the group spilled
out into the hallway, Gail took hold of Riley’s hand again.
    “I’m sorry he said
what he said,” Gail told her.
    Riley was startled.
How could Gail be worried about Riley’s feelings at a time like this, when
justice had finally been done to her own daughter’s killer?
    “How are you, Gail?”
she asked as they walked briskly toward the exit.
    Gail walked along in
silence for a moment. Her expression seemed completely blank.
    “It’s done,” she
finally said, her voice numb and cold. “It’s done.”
    In an instant they
stepped out into the morning daylight. Riley could see two crowds of people
across the street, each roped away from the other and tightly controlled by
police. On one side were people who had gathered to cheer on the execution,
wielding hateful signs, some of them profane and obscene. They were
understandably jubilant. On the other side were anti–death penalty protesters
with their own signs. They’d been out here all night holding a candlelight
vigil. They were much more subdued.
    Riley found that she
couldn’t muster sympathy for either group. These people were here for
themselves, to make a public show of their outrage and righteousness, acting
out of sheer self-indulgence. As far as she was concerned, they had no business
being here—not among people whose pain and grief were all too real.
    Between the entrance
and the crowds was a swarm of reporters, with media trucks nearby. As Riley
waded among them, one woman rushed up to her with a microphone and a cameraman
behind her.
    “Agent Paige? Are
you Agent Paige?” she said.
    Riley didn’t reply.
She tried to go past the reporter.
    The reporter stayed
with her doggedly. “We’ve heard that Caldwell mentioned you in his last words.
Do you care to comment?”
    Other reporters
closed in on her, asking the same question. Riley gritted her teeth and pushed
on through the throng. At last she broke free from them.
    As she hurried
toward her car, she found herself thinking about Meredith and Bill. Both of
them had implored her to take on a new case. And she was avoiding giving either
of them any kind of an answer.
    Why? she wondered.
    She had just run
away from reporters. Was she running away from Bill and Meredith as well? Was
she running away from who she really was? From all that she had to do?
     
    *
     
    Riley was grateful
to be home. The death she had witnessed that morning still left her with an
empty feeling, and the drive back to Fredericksburg had been tiring. But when
she opened the door of her townhouse, something didn’t seem right.
    It was unnaturally
silent. April should be home from school by now. Where was Gabriela? Riley went
into the kitchen and found it empty. A note was on the kitchen table.
    Me voy a la
tienda, it read.
Gabriela had gone to the store.
    Riley gripped the
back of a chair as a wave of panic swept over