Page 12 of The Girl He Crowned

“We are,”Christopher said, holding out his badge. “You’re Mr. Willis?”

“Throw it over,”he said. “I need to know it isn’t fake. Your partner too.”

Paige looked overto Christopher and saw him shrug, as if to tell her to go along with it. Itseemed like a strange request to comply with, but still, she was willing totrust Christopher’s judgement on this. Paige took out her badge, and as shewent to grab it, the movement must have flashed her gun, because Mr. Willistook a step back towards the SUV, looking suddenly panicked. Was he really thatparanoid about all of this? In that moment, this seemed less like a potentialthreat, and more like someone who was simply very scared of talking to the twoof them.

“I’m just reachingfor my badge,” Paige said. She grabbed it and threw it his way. He caught itgingerly, as if expecting something bad to happen the moment that he did, andthen stared at it. “I’m Agent King, this is Agent Marriott. What’s all thisabout, Mr. Willis? What’s with the… precautions?”

Paige had to stopherself from saying the word “paranoia.” It wouldn’t help to get him to open upto them. It didn’t matter what this looked like from the outside if it madeperfect sense to the construction boss.

“In a town likethis, it pays to be careful,” Mr. Willis said. “So many rich people around, andnot all of them got their money honestly, you know? A lot of people with thewrong kind of connections. It could cause a lot of trouble for me if I say thewrong thing, maybe even mean that I end up like that poor woman. Nobody likes asnitch.”

He made it soundas if the whole town were in the grip of organized crime, where any word to theauthorities would be punished with sudden violence. Did that fit with whatPaige had seen of the place? She simply didn’t know. She knew about serialkillers, not mobsters.

“So we’re meetingout here so that we won’t be seen by anyone?” Christopher asked.

Mr. Willis lookedaround again. “There could be people watching from anywhere. Especiallysomewhere public.”

“We could have metyou at your offices,” Paige suggested. “That would have been private, and it’sa space under your control.”

Willis looked ather with obvious incredulity. “That would beworse. Guys go intoconstruction, often they do it because they can’t get work elsewhere. Maybethey have trouble in their past. The last thing they want is to see their boss talkingto the authorities.”

He made it soundas if that were obvious, even though it hadn’t been to Paige. Paige couldunderstand the psychology of it, though, with an in-group wanting to avoidobservation by authority figures, and clamping down on anyone who broke thebond between them, but it also made her wonder what they had to hide.

“That doesn’texplain why you didn’t want to talk on the phone,” Christopher said.

That got anotherof those nervous glances, as if checking the alleyway for any sign of someonewatching. “Like I said, you never know who’s watching, or listening.”

Now Paige found herselfwondering just how paranoid this man was. Some concern over being seen as asnitch… well, that might have been normal, just the result of someone genuinelyworried about the repercussions of talking to them.Thismuch caution,though? Either Eddis was a lot more corrupt under the surface than it looked,or Willis had issues with paranoia on a worrying scale. That might make him aless than credible witness.

Even so, it wasstill possible that he had seen or heard something that might be helpful to theircase. Paige had to find a way to get that information out of him withouttriggering more of his paranoia, so that he clammed up or left without tellingthem whatever he thought was so important that he didn’t dare to say it overthe phone.

“No one is listeningnow, Mr. Willis,” Paige said, in a gentle tone. “Whoever you’re scared of, wecan only protect you if you talk to us.”

“I’m not scared ofanyone,” Willis said, but his tone suggested otherwise.

Paige realizedthat she couldn’t bring up that fear then, though, because Willis was too proudto admit to it. There was something combative about his whole tone and manner,and Paige had to allow for that. Pushing too hard in that direction might makehim leave, just to keep from confronting the fact that hewasafraid.

“No, of coursenot,” Paige said, trying to match his tone and his body language as closely aspossible in an effort to start to build rapport. “You’re being responsible, doingthe right thing by everyone, trying to help as much as you can. We understandthat. But if you really want to help, then you need to say whatever it is thatbrought you here. Something obviously worried you enough to make you want tomeet up like this.”

She saw himswallow, and for a minute, Paige thought that perhaps she might have doneexactly what she’d been worried about and pushed too hard. Then she saw himnod.

“You’re right,” hesaid in a careful tone. “I came here because… well, it’s about one of my guys.”

That caughtPaige’s interest.

“One of yourguys?” she said. “You mean one of the men working on the bridge?”

She saw Willisnod. He still seemed a little reluctant, but maybe that was understandable now.

“I keep a prettytight grip on my sites. I want to make sure that everything is going accordingto plan, especially when we have a tight schedule to keep. I watch everythingpretty closely.”

Paige foundherself wondering if the same caution and even paranoia that he’d beendemonstrating so far was in play when he was on his construction sites. If so,it was likely that he didn’t miss much of what went on.

“Does that meanthat you saw something?” Christopher asked.

“It’s not what Isaw, it’s what I didn’t see,” Willis said. “One of my guys just… I don’t likesaying this, but he disappeared off site for a couple of hours in the evening.”

“What time in theevening?” Christopher asked.

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