Page 42 of The Girl He Crowned

The house managerspoke into a walkie talkie that he took from his belt. “This is Yancy. We havea situation. Bring the house lights up. Yes, right now.”

The gloom of theauditorium gave way then to a wash of light. The orchestra continued to play inspite of it, the actors on stage continuing to move through their roles. Paigelooked out over the audience, taking a deep breath.

“Saul Bennett!”

The acoustics ofthe opera house really were superb, so that Paige’s voice rang out around it,even over the efforts of the singers. She could imagine the horror on Mr.Wells’s face as she did it, but there was no time to watch that horror, becauseher eyes were on the crowd below.

Plenty of peoplereacted to the sudden sound, but Paige knew what she was looking for. She knewthe difference between people just reacting to an interruption and someonereacting to their name. Where others glanced up in disapproval, one man startedout of his seat. He wasn’t wearing a mask, and even at this distance, Paigecould make out the features of the man they were here to bring in.

“Christopher,there!” Paige shouted, pointing.

She sawChristopher start towards Bennett, getting between him and the doors, but evenas he did so, their suspect set off in the direction of the stage, hurrying asif he might find a way out somewhere there.

Christopher wasfollowing, while the orchestra continued to play, and a soprano sung a particularlymoving aria up on the stage. Paige looked for a way to get closer to help. Shecouldn’t run back down all the stairs and try to come in through one of theentrances, because that would take far too long.

Paige knew whatshe had to do. Sauer was going to hate it when he heard about it, but Paigecouldn’t see a better option.

Making a decision,Paige ran to the edge of the box she was in, clambered up onto the edge, andleaped to the next. People in the audience gasped. Paige wondered how many of themthought that it was a part of the show, but she didn’t dare focus on anythingother than making it to the next box, and the next. With each leap, Paige felther heart in her mouth. If she misjudged even one, the fall might be enough tokill her.

The box closest tothe stage was lower, the drop into it jarring Paige as she made the jump. Bennettwas running up onto the stage now, obviously hoping to get backstage and loseChristopher. It looked as though he might do it too because Christopher wasseveral paces behind, trying to catch up.

Paige knew whatshe had to do, but it didn’t make it any easier. Perching on the edge of thebox, she jumped.

She hit Bennettwith her full weight, like some kind of pro-wrestler diving from the top rope.She was much lighter than he was, but the impact was still enough to send themboth sprawling from their feet as the crowd cried out in uproar.

The two of themrolled, Bennett coming up on top and trying to throw a punch, Paige bucking himoff again. They rolled over and over together, still fighting, and Paige had amoment to see the edge of the stage approaching before the two of them fellfrom it together, down into the orchestra pit.

They hit a set ofpercussion instruments hard, and Paige was just lucky that she wasn’t the oneon the bottom of the fall. They smashed into a timpani, then rolled off into acollection of waiting cymbals, the crash of it reverberating around the room.

For a moment,Paige could only lay there stunned, but it seemed that Bennett had the sameproblem. He struggled to rise, but Christopher was there then, pushing him backdown. Bennett tried to fight back, but Paige had recovered enough now to goover and help.

Between them, theyhauled Bennett over onto his stomach and cuffed him.

“Saul Bennett,”Paige managed. “You’re under arrest.”

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

Paige stood in thesheriff’s office weathering the full displeasure of Sheriff May in the wake ofthe chase through the opera. She was alone, because Christopher was offfielding a call from Agent Sauer after he had no doubt seen the news.

“What the hell doyou think you were doing?” the sheriff demanded. “You completely disrupted theopera and chased a potential killer through a crowded space. Someone could havebeen killed.”

A part of Paigewanted to just point out to the sheriff that she wasn’t Paige’s superior, andthat Paige didn’t have to answer to her. If she was going to maintain thecooperation of the local sheriff on this, though, she needed to try a morediplomatic approach than that.

“More people couldhave been killed if wedidn’tfind him,” Paige pointed out. “This iscurrently our lead suspect in the Pendulum Killer case. We just wanted toquestion him quietly, but when he ran, we didn’t have another choice.”

“The same wayyou’ve had no choice but to mess with some of Eddis’s most powerful anddangerous people?” Sheriff May asked. “You got into a fight with HarryConnaught.”

“He attacked us,Sheriff.”

“Just rememberthat some of us have to live in this town after you’ve left it to go back to D.C.”

There was sometruth in that, but there was another side to it too. Sheriff May was far tooworried about upsetting powerful people in her town, and as far as Paige couldsee, it was stopping her from doing her job.

“Sometimes peopleneed to be upset,” Paige said. “You’re the sheriff. You should be upsetting aman like Harry Connaught pretty much every day.”

“Easy to say,”Sheriff May said, “when you have the full resources of the FBI.”

“If that’s theproblem, put in a call to our organized crime unit,” Paige insisted. She likedthe sheriff, but her apathy and her fear of offending the wealthy residentsmeant that Eddis’s darker underbelly was able to operate freely.

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