Page 54 of Once Forgotten
As Bill started the car and pulled away from the curb, Riley cast one final glance at the house—at the windows behind which Jilly and Gabriela moved through the routines of an ordinary evening.The case of Sarah Mitchell was closed.But the more personal threat, the one that had wound itself around her family like a constrictor, remained.
*
Leo Dillard sat perfectly still in his one-room apartment, surrounded by the glow of multiple monitors that cast eerie blue light across his angular features.For weeks, he had watched, waited, documented the comings and goings of Riley Paige’s household like a naturalist studying a particularly fascinating species.The alert that buzzed his phone wasn’t unexpected; his surveillance systems were designed to notify him of exactly such an opportunity.
He unlocked his phone, his dark eyes narrowing as he opened the surveillance app.The camera feed—cleverly disguised in an electrical box three streets from Riley’s home—showed exactly what the alert had promised: Riley and Bill Jeffreys emerging from the front door, a brief pause as Riley scanned the street, then both of them sliding into Bill’s sedan.The vehicle pulled away from the curb, disappearing from the frame as it headed in the direction of the main road.
A smile ghosted across Leo’s lips, there and gone in an instant.How long would they be gone?Where would they be going anyhow at this time of day?Quantico?He wondered.If that was it, they’d be gone for hours.
In any case, he wouldn’t need much time.“Just the housekeeper and the girl now,” he murmured to himself, the words barely audible in the silence of his apartment.
Leo rose from his chair, moving to the corner of the room where a nondescript duffel bag waited.He had prepared for this moment with the thoroughness that had once made him an exceptional student.Every item had been selected with careful consideration, every variable accounted for.Nothing left to chance.
His heart rate increased slightly as he zipped the bag closed—not from anxiety, but from a pure, electric thrill of anticipation.After months of planning, of watching Riley from afar, of building this moment in his mind, the time for action had finally arrived.
Leo shouldered the duffel bag and took one last look at the surveillance feed on his phone.The street in front of Riley’s house was quiet, peaceful in the gathering dusk.No one watching would suspect what was about to unfold, how completely one family’s world was about to be upended.
He knew that Riley Paige’s life would never be the same again.