Page 44 of The Girl He Crowned

“I…”

“They caught youtaking client information. At the time, they thought it was so you could set upas a rival operation, but it wasn’t for that, was it?”

Paige could seethe fear there on his face again. They were getting too close to the truth forhis liking. There was definitely something about the information that he didn’twant to talk about.

“It was so thatyou knew who to kill, wasn’t it?” Christopher said.

Bennett reactedwith fear again, but not with guilt. Paige could tell the difference.

“No, of coursenot.”

There wassomething wrong about all of this. Paige had sat opposite many killers by now,many genuine psychopaths, and Saul Bennett simply didn’t give her theimpression of being the same as them. There was something too worried abouthim, too afraid of the authorities.

Sheriff May lookedin. “My guys have found something.”

Paige went outsideto speak with her, leaving Christopher to keep working on Bennett.

“What is it,Sheriff?” she asked once she was safely out of the room.

Sheriff May heldup her phone, showing pictures that had obviously been taken by the evidenceteam inside Saul Bennett’s property. There were pictures there of driverlicenses, passports, and letters to banks, all in different names. Paigespotted one that appeared to be Debbie Danton’s.

“We’ve seized hiscomputer, and we’ll work to get into it,” Sheriff May said. “But this lookspretty incriminating.”

It did, but not,Paige suspected, when it came to murder.

She headed backinto the interrogation room, taking Sheriff May’s phone with her and putting itdown in front of Bennett so that he could see the photographs.

“A search team isin your home now,” she said. “Would you care to explain all of this, Saul? Bearin mind that Sheriff May thinks that you have all this as some kind of sicktrophy of your kills.”

That got anotherflash of fear from Bennett. “No, it wasn’t like that! I just… I just copied afew details and-”

“My client won’tbe saying anything further,” his lawyer interrupted in a warning tone.

Bennett wentsuddenly silent, but the little he had said was enough to confirm Paige’ssuspicions.

“Identity theft,Saul? Is that it? You saw the rich clients at the clockmaker’s and you decidedthat you could make money from their information?”

The lawyer spokeagain. “As I’ve said, my client won’t be saying anything further.”

Paige gestured forChristopher to follow her outside. He nodded and rose, going with her to thespace beyond the interrogation room. Sheriff May was there, still looking inthrough its one way glass.

“I don’t thinkit’s him,” Paige said.

Christopherfrowned. “Are you sure? There’s plenty of evidence to connect him to thevictims, and this business of identity theft could just be a smokescreen.”

“Look at him,Christopher,” Paige insisted. “This isn’t our killer. I’ve sat with serialkillers, and they aren’t like him. They don’t react like they’re terrified ofeverything. There isn’t the hostility in Bennett that I’d expect, or the coldness.I think he’s just a petty conman trying to steal identities and make whatevermoney he can.”

“You’re joking?”Sheriff May said. “You want us to let Bennett go because he doesn’tfeelrightto you?”

“And becausethere’s a better explanation than murder for why he stole the client details,”Paige said.

Sheriff May didn’tlook happy now. “No, you’re wrong. This is a suspect without an alibi, withplenty to connect him to the victims. Maybe all of the ID stuff is about him tryingto collect trophies, or maybe the victims all found out what he was trying todo, so he had to kill them.”

Paige shook herhead. “These weren’t crimes of necessity. This wasn’t someone trying to covertheir tracks. Trust me, this isn’t our guy.”

“You cause chaosin the opera house and now you don’t think the guy you took down there is thekiller?” Sheriff May said. She shook her head. “No. This is the killer. We’reholding Saul Bennett, and we’re going to charge him.”

Paige looked overto Christopher. “This isn’t the killer, Christopher.”

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