Page 16 of The Girl He Crowned

For now, though,it meant they could go in and actually talk to him at last. Paige led the way,stepping into the room first with Christopher following immediately behind her.Sheriff May stayed outside for now, but maybe that was a good thing. She wouldprobably want to complicate things with questions about the drugs at the partyand right then, they needed to focus everything on the murders that had beentaking place in the town.

Paige took amoment or two to observe Wright as she sat down opposite him, both to get animpression of him and to give him time to understand the seriousness of thesituation. He looked worried, but also like he was still coming down fromwhatever he’d taken. He certainly didn’t look happy to be there in the custodyof the FBI.

Paige’s silencegave him the opportunity to talk and he took it.

“Why me?” he demanded,as Christopher took a seat next to Paige. “All those people at the party, andI’mthe one you decide to arrest?”

Did he reallythink that this was about the party and the drugs, or was he just hoping thatit was, so that he could deflect from the murders?

“We weren’t thereto break up the party, Tom,” Paige said. “We were there to speak to you.”

“To me?” he shookhis head, like he didn’t quite get it. “Why? Look, if there were drugs there,not that I’m saying that there were, that had nothing to do with me.”

Did he reallythink that was going to work?

“This isn’t aboutthe drugs, either,” Christopher said.

Paige caught thelook of pure relief on Tom Wright’s face as he said that. Even more relief thanshe might have expected from someone who had just been generally caught up in aparty where there happened to be drugs. Had he been expecting them to go after himfor that part of this because he had some greater involvement?

Paige could haveasked, but right then, that side of things wasn’t a priority. Sheriff May couldquestion Wright afterwards about the party if she wanted. Paige needed to focuson establishing whether this was the man who had killed two women so far ornot.

“Whatisthisabout?” Wright asked.

“You work on theconstruction team repairing the old bridge, right, Tom?” Paige asked.

“Yeah, I guess.”He didn’t sound as though he wanted to admit it.

“You’ve beenhelping to repair the brass fittings, and doing some woodwork too?” Paige said.She wanted him to confirm the skills that his boss said he had. The skills hewould have needed to make the pendulums hanging above the victims.

“That’s right.”Wright looked confused now. “Is this about something to do with my job? DidWillis say something to you?”

There was a flashof anger as he demanded that, and now that she heard it Paige found herselfwondering if maybe Mr. Willis’s paranoia wasn’t entirely unjustified. Maybehe’d had legitimate reasons to be worried about anyone overhearing him talkingto them. Maybe he was worried about what Wright would do to him if he foundout.

“We’re moreinterested in the access you had to the scaffolding around the bridge,” Paigesaid, dodging the question.

“What, why?”Wright demanded, still sounding angry. “What’s this about?”

“This is aboutDebbie Danton, the woman who was murdered under the bridge yesterday,”Christopher said, in a serious tone. “It’s about Siobhan Maraty, a womanmurdered in a local park the day before.”

Paige caught thelook of horror that flashed across Wright’s face as Christopher made thataccusation. Was that horror at being found out, or horror at the idea thatanyone could think it of him?

“You think Ikilled someone?” Wright said. “I never killed anyone. The most I did was…”

He trailed offwithout finishing, but doing that instantly caught Paige’s attention.

“The most you didwas what, Tom?” Paige asked.

He shook his head,though. “I don’t have to answer. You can’t make me incriminate myself.”

He said it in theslightly stilted tone of someone who wasn’t entirely sure that it was true.

“That’s right,”Paige agreed, keeping her tone calm and reasonable. “You don’t have to answerour questions, but if you choose not to do so, it looks worse for you. It lookslike you’re hiding something. We already have several things potentiallylinking you to the murders.”

“I never killedanyone!” Wright repeated hotly, as if that were enough to exonerate him.

Paige gave him asecond or two, hoping that the silence would give him a chance to think aboutjust how much potential trouble he was in. She watched him as he sat there,twitching and nervous, barely looking at her. She felt certain that he washiding something. Now, it was just a question of getting to the truth of it. Sheneeded to find out exactly what he was holding back.

“Where did youdisappear to from your job?” Paige asked after she thought she’d given himenough time to think about the potential consequences of the situation. “Wherewere you in the time when you weren’t on the site at the bridge?”

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