Page 37 of The Girl He Crowned

“Oh no. Just afew. Our custom line remains utterly unique, in the spirit that our founderwould have wanted.”

He kept the tourmoving.

“Sadly, AldousHales passed a few years ago, but his estate has taken over the running of thebusiness. We’ve gone from a small, family business to something that fits morewith the modern world.”

He opened a coupleof doors, revealing the large workshop space beyond. If the business had startedout as just one man in a workshop, it was anything but that now. There was whatamounted to a production line running across half of the space, with maybe adozen people working on different sections of a clock that looked like one oftheir standard line to Paige. Even the people working there seemed to be doingit in shirts and ties, as if determined to put on a show of quality forpotential customers, although they all wore aprons and work gloves as well.Instantly, Paige found herself wondering if those work gloves would match up tothe ones the killer had worn.

There were clockseverywhere, obviously waiting to be shipped out around the world, or to beplaced in the showroom. There was a whole atrium level of them above, set outwith a couple of design boards, and Paige guessed that it was a space wherecustomers could discuss custom ideas, surrounded by examples of the things thecompany could do.

There were anothercouple of workstations on the ground floor, where people were working on whatappeared to be more custom pieces. Even they were working with modern machinesthat were a far cry from anything the business’s founder would have used.

The presence ofthose custom pieces reaffirmed to Paige that the clocks were unique. If someonehad pendulums identical to the ones in the clocks, the only way they could havethem was if they worked here.

“Well, that’s allfor now, folks. Please, feel free to look around and see if there are any ofour pieces that suit you.”

Gradually, the tourcame to an end. Paige and Christopher hung around afterwards, waiting for thepeople who had been on it to drift away.

Steve was there atthe counter again.

“Can I do anythingfor you both?” he asked. “Has one of our clocks caught your eye?”

Now Paige got outher badge. “Actually, we’re here on an investigation. We need to know aboutyour custom clocks. We believe that parts of them have been found at the scenesof three murders.”

She saw the bloodrun out of Steve’s face, the shock of that news obviously running through himall at once.

“So why did youtake the tour?” he asked.

Christopheranswered that. “Because we needed to know more about this business and how itoperates. We needed to know who might have access to it. Do you keep up to datelists of your customers, your clocks, and your orders?”

She saw Steve’seyes widen at that.

“You want the listas well?”

“As well?” Paigesaid. “As well as what?”

If someone elsehad been looking for the client lists of the company, then that was immediatelysuspicious to Paige. It was exactly the kind of information that the killermight have been able to use to track down the three women, establish exactlywhat kind of clocks they had, and prepare to murder them.

“I… I’m not surethat I should say anything,” Steve said. He’d gone from looking surprised tolooking simply uncomfortable. “I just run the tours and set up a few sales.”

Paige tried to gethim to focus.

“Steve, peoplehave died. Anything you can tell us might help. Who wanted the list?”

Paige saw himswallow as he tried to make up his mind.

“It’s not aquestion of someoneaskingfor the list. It’s… one of our employees, Saul.He got fired a couple of weeks ago. He’d been going through our clientinformation. He stole one of our client order books.”

Meaning that hemight be working his way down a list of the company’s clients, killing as hewent. How many women might be on that list? How many might he kill before hewas done with it all?

“We’ll need thatlist,” Christopher said. “We need to know what he knows, and who he might betargeting.”

Paige could see assoon as he said it that he’d pushed just a little too hard.

“I… I’m not surethat I can. I’m not really meant to give out that kind of information.”

“Even in thecourse of a murder investigation?” Paige asked. She knew it was a long shot. Thiswasn’t like a doctor’s office or a lawyer’s, where every piece of informationrelating to clients was privileged, but a business like this would still wantto maintain its confidentiality.

“Our clients relyon us for our discretion,” Steve said. “I’m really not authorized to hand overthat kind of information. I mean, I don’t even really have access to thosebooks. I input client orders sometimes, but I can’t just get them, especiallynow. I’d probably be fired like Saul.”

---