Page 27 of The Girl He Crowned

“He denies that allegationutterly,” the lawyer said, “and there is a lack of corroborating evidence tosupport your claim. So if that is all…”

“We have questionsto ask in relation to the murder of Melody Smythe,” Christopher said.

“My client has nocomment to offer on those tragic events,” the lawyer said.

Paige could seeHarry sitting there calmly, his expression not giving much away. Even so, Paigethought she could see a flicker of something there at the words: annoyance,even anger.

“Tell me, Harry,”Paige said. “What did you think of your sister-in-law?”

Harry didn’tanswer, but Paige pressed forward anyway.

“Did you like her?Did you get along with her?”

Harry’s lawyermade to answer, but the bar owner shrugged. “You know I didn’t. Honestly, Ifound her pretty annoying. She spent most of her time thinking she was betterthan everyone else.”

He gave Paige apointed look, as if Melody wasn’t the only one that description applied to.

“And your wife didn’tlike her much, either?” Paige said.

Harry shrugged.“You’d have to ask her.”

The lawyer steppedin then. “Are you here to question my client in relation to a crime, or to askhim about how happy his family was at Thanksgiving?”

“I’m trying toestablish whether Mr. Connaught had enough reasons to hate Melody Smythe towant to murder her,” Paige said.

Harry snorted. “Inever laid a finger on her.”

Paige nodded.“Maybe you didn’t, but what about your men? Did they do it for you? Did theykill the other women too? Siobhan Maraty? Debbie Danton? At least one of yourmen back at the bar reacted to the names.”

“Possibly he heardthem on the news, like all of us,” the lawyer interjected. “My client is arespectable businessman. He does not have people killed, as you seem to beinsinuating.”

Paige wasn’tlistening to the lawyer. She was too busy watching Harry’s reactions, trying tosee how he responded to the names of the dead women. There wasn’t the sameflicker of anger that there had been when it came to Melody. There didn’t evenseem to be much in the way of recognition. That was worrying because Paigewould have expected more if he’d had them killed. There had to be a reason forit, and Paige couldn’t imagine that a man with that kind of reason could justbe… indifferent.

“Did you loanMelody any money?” Paige asked. “I know Sadie argued with her over her owingmoney. Was it to you?”

That got anotherflicker of anger.

“Leave my wife outof this,” Harry said, and there was a hint of a threat there.

Paige looked overto Christopher. He nodded. He’d obviously seen how Harry reacted to any mentionof his family too.

“Family’simportant to you?” Christopher asked him.

Harry noddedwithout hesitation. “Family is everything. Even the ones you don’t get along with.What, you think I’m going to kill a member of my family over some debt?”

“So youdidloanher money?” Paige asked.

Harry looked overto his lawyer, who nodded, obviously deciding it was information that theywould find out sooner or later anyway.

“Sure, I loanedMelody money. She didn’t want to go to that husband of hers for money for herfancy gallery. That still didn’t make us good enough for her, though. She hadno respect. So yes, Sadie was pissed with her. And no, she wasn’t repaying meas quick as she should. Kept talking about the art market being depressed.”

“Not paying youback seems pretty disrespectful, too,” Christopher tried.

Harry laughed atthat. “You really do think I’m the kind of guy who has people killed becausethey don’t pay me, don’t you? Oh, I know what my record says. I’ll admit I wenttoo far once with one guy, but even with him, he was breathing afterwards. Deadpeople don’t pay.”

Paige had to admithe had a point about that, but something was still bothering her.

“You keep reactingwith anger every time I mention Melody’s name,” she said.

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