Page 46 of The Girl He Crowned

It had hardlytaken any effort at all to unpick all the promises that she’d made that hadcome to nothing, the empty platitudes that she’d mouthed in the press wheneverit had come to election time.

What had takenmore time was making a perfect replica of the pendulum she’d had in her customclock, an elaborate design of intertwined metal roses climbing along a singlependulum shaft. Doing that in secret, without anyone at the business spottinghim, had been tricky.

He had it nowthough, waiting to hang there in judgement the way all the other pendulums hadhung.

Hisownpendulumsat beside him, the one he’d been made to stare at for hours if he lied, if he wasn’teverything he was required to be. He’d spent hours staring at the movement ofthat pendulum, until he hated it, and yet it had helped to make him into theman he was today.

He had YolandaVert’s number thanks to the business files he’d accessed for his own ends. Hecalled her now, making sure that his voice didn’t tremble with the anger thathe felt towards her.

“Ms. Vert, hello.I’m calling from Hales and Co.”

“The clockpeople?” she said. Her voice sounded rich and honeyed, all the better fortelling lies to the public with every breath she took.

“I understand thatyou have been waiting for some additional custom work to the face of the clockyou purchased from us. Something about wanting to add a commemoration of yourrecent re-election?”

“Yes, that’sright. I’ve been waiting weeks for this!”

Actually, it hadbeen no more than a single week, and even that delay had been because he hadn’twanted to take her until it was her turn. It was best to be meticulous aboutthese things.

“We’re very sorrywe couldn’t get to you sooner,” he said, and that was the absolute truth. Hewould have strangled her the moment he’d first met her if he could. “I waswondering… would you have any time to come over with your clock face today?Given how important a customer you are, we want to make a special effort foryou on this.”

“Today? I’m a busywoman!”

Another lie, sinceshe mostly had subordinates do her actual work.

“Well, if youdon’t have time, I believe you’re currently scheduled for an appointment slotin two weeks.”

Again, the literaltruth. He’d rearranged the appointments to make sure that was the case onlyyesterday, being careful not to leave any traces.

“Two weeks! That’scompletely unacceptable.”

He could hear heranger and her entitlement, as if her lies meant that she had the right tospecial treatment. Which of course she did, in one very specific way.

“I agree,” hesaid. “Which is why I want to go out of my way to see you today. I’ll give youmy complete attention.”

There was silenceon the other end of the line, presumably as Yolanda worked out if she caredenough about any of her meetings today to rearrange them.

“All right,” shesaid. “When?”

“I’ll be happy tosee you as soon as you can drive over with the clock face, if you want to comenow,” he said. In spite of his controlled precision, a part of him bubbled withexcitement at the thought.

“Well, I guess Icould come in,” Yolanda said. “Sure, I’ll come by now. I look forward to seeingyou there.”

Not as much as hewanted to see her. He could already feel her throat under the pendulum besidehim, already hear those last gasping breaths.

He hung up. He hada lot of preparations to make before his next victim got there.

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

Christopher rushedto make sure that Harriett Small was safe, driving through the Eddis streets asfast as he dared to the address that had been on Hales and Co.’s client list.He wove in and out of traffic, pushing the car he was in to the limits as hesought to make up as much time as he could.

He felt certainright then that this woman might be in danger. A part of that was because he’dseen Paige’s reasoning. Now that she’d shown him, the pattern in the evidencewas clear to see, with the killer obviously making his way down Hales and Co.’slist of custom orders, killing those women who had bought from them.

Another part of itwas that he simply trusted Paige. Her instincts had already helped the two ofthem to catch multiple killers, and he wasn’t about to doubt those instinctsnow. He’d learned the hard way that she had a good eye for who was and wasn’t apotential killer, so if she said Saul Bennett wasn’t the killer and that thereal killer was still out there targeting the women on the list, Christopherwasn’t’ going to argue.

The more he workedwith Paige, the more he trusted her. From the moment he’d met her, he’d knownthat she was an intelligent, kind, intuitive person, one who had good instinctswhen it came to killers, and who had been through far too much in the past.

He wove throughthe traffic, overtaking a sports car, then skidding around a corner.Christopher didn’t know how much time he might have before the killer struckagain, and he couldn’t waste a moment.

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