Paige had seen this kind of behavior when she’d interviewed psychopaths. Nothing in the world was their fault. The world existed for them, and anything that got in their way was inherently evil, maybe even to be destroyed. There was a level of narcissism to many of them that wouldn’t accept that other people might have valid concerns or opinions that differed from theirs, even about their own lives.
“You know,” Zint said. “You’re pretty easy to read. What was it for you? Broken home? Daddy left? No, more than that. Daddy died. Ah, I see now. He died, and you’ve spent your life since trying to live up to what you think he would have wanted for you. Trying to be the big, tough FBI agent. It hasn’t worked, though, has it? You feel doubts sometimes, wonder if you’re good enough for all of this. You wonder if you really fit in, or if your colleagues accept you.”
Paige sighed, quite deliberately. “I might not know much about magic, but I know about cold reading, and about guessing until something hits home. If you’re hoping to impress me, why not try something else? Like giving me an alibi for last night?”
“Why should I have to give you an alibi?” Zint said. “I haven’t done anything. I’m sick of people just accusing me of things. Are you planning to go to the press with your little accusations about me? Are you going to try to damage my reputation more?”
Paige was starting to get the impression that Mark Zint really was delusional. She tried to go off in new directions, trying to get any information she could out of him.
“I noticed that you have an aquarium in your home,” she said. “Did you get the creatures there from Exotic Aquatics, by any chance?”
Paige wasn’t interested in the answer so much as in how Zint reacted when she said the name of the store. He flinched slightly as she said it, as if there were something there that he was worried about. As if he didn’t want her asking more.
“What is it, Mark?” she asked. “What is it about the name of that store that makes you react? Maybe it’s because you bought a tank full of sharks there yesterday?”
That got a look of surprise, as if he’d been expecting something else. It was an intriguing reaction, and not exactly the one that Paige had been expecting.
“You clearly have some relationship with that store,” Paige said. “So what is it?”
“I don’t have to answer any of your questions,” Zint said. “You don’t have any proof of anything. Just guesswork.”
“It’s true that you don’t have to answer,” Paige said. “But if you keep refusing to tell us anything, it just makes you look more guilty. Tell me about Clarissa Bale. What about Mylene Jacques?”
With each name, she found herself watching Zint’s face, trying to see if there was any reaction. Did he know them? It was impossible to be sure.
“You want me to admit to knowing two dead women now?” he said. “I bet they were just as bad as Sienna. I bet they deserved everything they got.”
The more Paige heard from him, the less she liked him, but she still didn’t have the proof she needed. She certainly didn’t have the confession she might have hoped for.
“I think I’d like my lawyer now,” Zint said.
It meant that Paige had to step outside, waiting while Zint made a call to get one in there.
She wasn’t entirely surprised when a woman in a sharp suit eventually showed up at the interrogation room. She was in her fifties, with dark hair, steel gray eyes, and sharp features that didn’t have a hint of give to them.
It occurred to Paige that he’d probably gotten a woman as a lawyer deliberately, right around the time the sexual harassment allegations started to land. It was a fairly transparent tactic that had become far too common, trying to tell juries and the media that, if one woman trusted him, he couldn’t be that bad.
“Allison Savage. I’m Mr. Zint’s legal counsel. I want to know on what grounds you’re holding my client.”
Christopher stepped in then, obviously deciding that if Zint got backup, Paige should have some too.
“On the grounds that he fits the profile of a serial killer we’re hunting for, that he sent death threats to one of the victims, and that he refuses to provide an alibi for the time of her murder,” Christopher said.
“And do you have any physical evidence to tie him to this murder?” the lawyer asked.
“Once we have his DNA and prints, we’ll compare them to anything found at the crime scenes.”
“And have you found those things at the crime scenes?”
Christopher hesitated just for a moment, obviously not willing to come out with the truth in front of the lawyer. Zint was quick to pick up on it.
“That’s a no, Allison. Classic denial body language.”
“Then you don’t have enough to keep holding my client,” the lawyer said.
Paige was worried then. Were they going to have to let Zint go in spite of everything that pointed to him? That didn’t seem right. Apparently, Christopher felt the same.
“We get to question your client for twenty-four hours,” he said. “I intend to use every minute of that. Or he can give us some answers now and save us all the trouble. Get him to give us an alibi, and he can walk out of here. Otherwise, I have to think that he’s hiding something.”