Page 43 of The Girl He Crowned

She heard thesheriff sigh. “Look, you’ve got a suspect in my interrogation room. Let’s focuson him.”

It was obviousthat she didn’t want to face up to the problems in her town, but Paige wasn’tthere to help her fix all of them; she was just there to try to catch a killer.

“Can you get asearch warrant and send a team to search his house?” she asked.

Sheriff Maynodded. “I’m ahead of you. I have a couple of deputies heading there now.”

That was good, atleast. It meant that Paige could focus on trying to get something out of SaulBennett in the interrogation. She headed over to the interrogation room withthe sheriff. Christopher was there outside, looking worried, so Paige let thesheriff go ahead into the interrogation room to talk to Bennett and theexpensive looking lawyer who had joined him.

“Sauer isn’thappy,” he said. “He’s saying that if we don’t solve this today, he’s going topull us, and put new agents in.”

“He can’t dothat!” Paige said. Too much rode on this now. If this didn’t turn out to betheir killer, then Sauer was going to take their jobs, maybe even more.

“The trouble isthat he can,” Christopher said. “After the opera house, he probably thinks hehas all the proof he needs for the performance review.”

The thought ofthat made Paige feel sick. Her actions might be about to cost Christopher hiscareer, as well as her own.

“Christopher, I’msorry,” Paige said.

Christopher shookhis head with a slight smile. “For what? You did what you had to do to find andstop a potential killer. Now we just have to try to get a confession from him.”

They headed intothe interrogation room together. Sheriff May stepped out as they came in.

“I’m going tocheck on my team.”

Saul Bennett wassitting upright, looking rather bruised after his tumble into the orchestrapit. His lawyer was a Latinx woman in her forties, with tightly bound darkhair, slender features, and a serious expression. Judging by how expensive hersuit was, she was a long way from being just an overworked public defender.

Paige andChristopher went to sit opposite Bennett and his lawyer at a solid lookingtable there. The lawyer was speaking even before they could finish sitting.

“I am JustineHernandez, of Hernandez Associates, and I demand that you release my client atonce. You have assaulted and arrested him without any evidence that he hascommitted a crime.”

Christopher tookthis part. “We know that he took details of three women who were subsequentlymurdered from his former employer’s files. He worked as a clockmaker, andpendulums were found at the scenes of the women’s murders.”

“That is allcircumstantial,” the lawyer said. So far, her client hadn’t replied to any ofthe questions.

“Then there’s thefact that he ran,” Christopher said. “We merely wished to question Mr. Bennettabout his potential involvement in the murders, but as soon as he saw us, heran. Would your client care to explain that, Ms. Hernandez?”

“You’d run too, ifyou had a couple of people chasing you, Agent,” the lawyer said, as if it weresimple cause and effect. Yet that cause and effect were the wrong way around inthis case.

“He startedrunning as soon as I called his name,” Paige said. “No one was chasing him atthat point.” She looked Bennett squarely in the eye. “What are you so afraid ofthat you ran as soon as you saw the FBI, Saul? What makes you feel soguiltythat you had to run?”

There was a flashof guilt there, but also fear. Paige was convinced then that Saul was utterlyafraid that some facet of his life would be found out. Was it that he’d killedthree women?

Saul shook hishead. He obviously wasn’t going to answer.

“All right,” Paigesaid. “Where were you yesterday, evening, from four until seven? What about theday before at around six pm, and three days ago at one pm?”

“How am I meant toremember all of that?” Bennett retorted, in a rough voice.

“You don’tremember where you’ve been for the last couple of days?” Paige countered. Shefound that hard to believe. If it were weeks ago, then certainly, people mightnot remember, but over the course of two days, he should have been able toremember some part of it.

Bennett shrugged.He was hiding something, but what? There was something strange about him as hesat there. He looked scared. He certainly didn’t have the cold calculation thatPaige expected from this killer.

“Why did you takeinformation from Hales and Co.?” Paige asked, trying to get to an answer thatway.

The lawyer steppedin. “You have no evidence that my client did so.”

Paige sawChristopher lean forward slightly towards Bennett. “That’s what you were firedfor, though, wasn’t it Saul?”

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