Once Stalked

She was brave enough to face down a serial killer. But was she brave enough to put work on the back burner and make her kids’ lives her number one priority?

At this very moment, Bill and Lucy were getting ready to fly out to California.

They were expecting to meet her at the Quantico airstrip.

Riley sighed miserably.

There was only one way to solve this problem – if she could solve it at all.

She had to try.

She took out her cell phone and dialed Meredith’s private number.

At the sound of his gruff voice, she said, “Sir, this is Agent Paige.”

“What’s the matter?” Meredith asked.

There was a note of concern in his voice. Riley understood why. She had never used this number except in dire circumstances.

She gathered up her nerve and came right to the point.

“Sir, I would like to delay my trip to California. Just for tonight. Agents Jeffreys and Vargas can go ahead of me.”

After a pause, Meredith asked, “What’s your emergency?”

Riley gulped. Meredith wasn’t going to make this easy.

But she was determined not to lie.

In a shaky voice she stammered, “My younger daughter, Jilly – she’s in a school play tonight. She’s – she’s playing the lead.”

The silence that fell was deafening.

Did he just hang up on me? Riley wondered.

Then with a growl Meredith said, “Would you repeat that, please? I’m not sure I heard you correctly.”

Riley stifled a sigh. She was sure that he’d heard her perfectly well.

“Sir, this play is important to her,” she said, growing more nervous by the second. “Jilly’s – well, you know I’m trying to adopt her. She’s had a hard life, and she’s coming out of a very difficult time and her feelings are very delicate and…”

Riley’s voice faded off.

“And what?” Meredith asked.

Riley swallowed hard.

“I can’t disappoint her, sir. Not this once. Not today.”

Another grim silence fell.

Riley was starting to feel more determined.

“Sir, it won’t make any difference in the case,” she said. “Agents Jeffreys and Vargas will go ahead of me, and you know how capable they are. They can get me up to speed when I do get out there.”

“And when would that be?” Meredith asked.

“Tomorrow morning. Early. I’ll head for the airport as soon as the play’s over. I’ll take the first flight I can get.”

After another pause, Riley added, “I’ll go on my own dime.”

She heard Meredith grunt a little.

“You certainly will, Agent Paige,” he said.

Riley gasped and caught her breath.

He’s giving me permission!

She suddenly realized that she’d barely been breathing during the conversation.

It took a lot of effort not to burst out into uncontrolled gales of gratitude.

She knew Meredith wouldn’t like that at all. And the last thing she wanted was for him to change his mind.

So she simply said, “Thank you.”

She heard another grunt.

Then Meredith said, “Tell your daughter to break a leg.”

He ended the call.

Riley breathed a sigh of relief, then glanced up and saw that Gabriela was standing in the doorway again, smiling.

She’d obviously been listening to the whole call.

“I think you are growing up, Señora Riley,” Gabriela said.

*

Sitting in the audience with April and Gabriela, Riley was thoroughly enjoying the school play. She’d forgotten how charming events like this could be.

The middle-school kids were all dressed in makeshift costumes. They had painted flat scenery to look like scenes from the story of Demeter and Persephone – fields full of flowers, a volcano in Sicily, the dank caverns of the Underworld, and other mythical places.

And Jilly’s acting was simply wonderful!

She played Persephone, the young daughter of grain goddess Demeter. Riley found herself remembering the familiar story as it unfolded.