Page 38 of The Girl He Crowned

“Do you have alast name for Saul?” Christopher asked. He was right; that was who they neededto focus on.

“I’m sorry,” Stevesaid, “I don’t know. That would be in his employee files, but I can’t give youthose, either.”

“I understand,Steve,” Paige said, working to placate him. “We wouldn’t want you to get intoany trouble over this.” They also wouldn’t want anyone to say that they’dobtained the information in a way that they shouldn’t. They needed thisevidence to stand up in court. “Can you tell us whowouldbe able toauthorize something like that?”

“One of the Halesfamily, probably,” Steve said.

“I thought AldousHales died some time ago?” Christopher said.

Steve nodded. “Buthis family are still involved in the business. Edward Hales helps to run thingshere. I can give him a call and see if he’ll meet with you, if you like?”

Paige nodded. “Thatwould be good, thank you.”

The sooner theymet with him, the sooner they could get the information they needed and try tosolve all of this.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Paige felt a noteof frustration as she and Christopher sat in not entirely comfortable high backedchairs outside the broad wooden doors of Edward Hales’s office, in front of adesk for a PA behind which a middle-aged woman in a dark pantsuit sat, typingon a computer. The last thing she wanted to do right then was wait when sheknew that there was a killer still out there somewhere.

“It shouldn’t belong now,” his PA said. “With this visit being unannounced, we’re having toreschedule a couple of things. Can I get the two of you anything?”

“How about thefull name of an employee who was fired last week?” Christopher tried, flashinghis best smile, the one that always made Paige feel a little weak at the knees.She could tell that his heart wasn’t in it, though, not after the news of thesplit from his wife. The PA was obviously able to tell too, returning his smilewith a professional one of her own.

“I’m sure Mr.Hales will give you that information if he’s able to,” she said.

Paige was about toargue when the door opened, revealing a man in his thirties, wearing a suitsimilar to the one Steve had worn downstairs. He was of slightly above averageheight, which meant that he was far taller than Paige, with dark hair and thinbut good looking features. His smile seemed rather more genuine than his PA’sas he gestured for Paige and Christopher to come into his office.

“Please, come in.I’m sorry to keep you waiting, but I had a client meeting scheduled shortlythat I’ve had to delay slightly.”

He led them into alarge office that had grandfather clocks standing at each corner of the room.There were bookshelves set around the walls, some containing ledgers and boxfiles, others holding books on the history of clockmaking. A large desk stoodat the center of the room with a computer atop it and a couple of comfortablelooking chairs in front. Paige took one, while Christopher got the other.

“We’re very sorryif our being here has disrupted your business, Mr. Hales,” Christopher said,“but it’s vitally important.”

“I’ve seen thenews,” Edward Hales said taking a seat on the other side of the desk. “I takeit this is about the man they’re calling the Pendulum Killer?”

There was a faintnote of distaste there as he said the name.

“You don’t likethat name?” Paige asked, catching it.

“Well, as you canimagine, that kind of thing attracts exactly the wrong kind of publicity for abusiness like this,” he said. “And in any case, I’m not sure that I agree withthe whole business of giving serial killers nicknames, sensationalizing whatthey do.”

It was an argumentthat Paige had come across plenty of times before, often while discussing herformer studies on serial killers with those who didn’t have the same need toknow more about them. It was an argument that giving serial killers strangenames led to living in fear of them. Paige hoped instead that it helped to understandsomething about them, leading to a greater chance of catching them.

For now, though,she had to focus on catchingthiskiller, and that meant getting accessto the information they’d come here for.

“We understandthat a staff member here was fired recently for stealing client files,” Paigesaid.

“That’s right,”Edward replied. He looked slightly pained by the mention of it. “It was allsuch an unfortunate business. We keep our client files confidential, bothbecause they contain designs for any custom work they want produced and becausemany of our clients are wealthy individuals who trust us as much for ourdiscretion as for our clockmaking skills.”

Paige nodded. Shegot the feeling that this business relied on its old-fashioned image to do a lotof its business, from having employees working on clocks in suits to the waythey interacted with customers. Of course discretion was going to be a big partof what they did.

“What was theemployee like?” Paige asked. “Saul, I think his name was?”

“Saul Bennett,”Edward said. “He was a good worker. He treated clockmaking as an art, not justa job. Well, he could afford to.”

“Saul’s well off?”Paige asked.

Edward nodded.“Family money, I believe. His parents insisted that he got a job, and for themost part, I’m thankful that he did. He was a very good clockmaker until hestarted to get… erratic.”

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