Still Water (24 page)

“Thanks.” As Matt started to leave, he looked back towards the meadow where all the stakes marked out the lots. “I guess if this all goes ahead, things will pick up for you,” he said.

“Could be. That’s what some say anyway.” The man lit a cigarette. “These places’ll be gone though.” He gestured towards the building where he worked, and the others on either side.

“Gone?”

“There’s plans for berths on the river here. Over yonder’s going to be some new buildings for the likes of us here.” He pointed to a piece of land further up river, beyond a belt of beech trees.

The man sounded less than happy at the prospect of moving to a new building, which Matt didn’t understand since it occurred to him that anyone currently working here would get a good price for the land they were occupying. Including Jerrod Gant. But when he said as much the man shook his head.

“These places are all leased. Howard Larson owns most of this land around here. I guess in the end it won’t make much difference what happens. If the marina gets built we’ll get more business, but then Larson will make us move and you can bet we’ll be paying more rent in the new places, so we’ll likely be no better off anyway.” He shrugged. “What can you do?”

The man wandered back to his work, and Matt looked thoughtfully back at the building that housed Gant’s Marine.

They were waiting for him by the time he arrived at the courthouse. The hearing was being held in Judge Walker’s office, and as Matt came down the corridor Baxter was at the other end talking to Howard Larson. When they saw him they broke off their conversation and Baxter came to meet him at the door. “Ella’s inside.”

“Was that Howard I saw just then?”

Baxter looked around, as if he wasn’t sure and needed to check. “Yeah,” he said and didn’t volunteer anything else.

“Something to do with Ella?”

Baxter stared at him. “Why should it have anything to do with Ella?”

“You tell me.”

Baxter ignored the question and opened the door. “We better go inside.”

Ella looked both relieved and a little anxious when she saw him. He gave her a smile of encouragement, and after he’d shaken hands with the judge he went over to where she was sitting on a big leather couch.

“I was getting worried,” she said.

“Sorry I’m late. Just sit tight and don’t worry. Answer whatever questions you’re asked truthfully, okay?”

Ella bit her bottom lip, then nodded.

“You’ll be out of here soon,” he promised.

Judge Walker was thin and stooped, and he was mostly bald. He looked to be in his sixties, and for the hearing he’d come dressed in a grey suit which he wore with a blue shirt and a badly knotted maroon tie. The gaze he fastened on Matt, however, was scrutinizing and intelligent and Matt decided he shouldn’t be fooled by appearances. The judge sat down behind his desk and put on his glasses. In front of him were the papers concerning the charges against Ella, including the witness statement made byjerrod Gant.

He began without preamble. “Let’s get on with this thing.” He looked at Ella, and said, You okay there Ella? Anything you need?”

“I’m fine thanks Judge.”

“Right, just so you know, we’re here to decide whether there’s enough evidence to proceed with the charge that Chief Baxter here has brought against you. If we decide there is, all that means is that your case will be handed over to the jurisdiction of the state attorney’s office on the mainland.” He peered over his glasses. “That means we’ll have to hand you into the custody of the state police, Ella. Do you understand?”

She glanced at Matt. Yes.”

The judge turned his attention to Baxter. “I guess it’s you first Chief.”

The facts of the charge Baxter laid out were straightforward enough. As evidence supporting it he listed the threat Ella had made to Bryan, the testimony of Carl Johnson, but most damning of all, Gant’s statement. Matt listened without interruption. Baxter spoke without looking at either Matt or Ella, and when he’d finished he seemed glad about it.

Judge Walker made notes as he listened, but made no comment, then he looked to Matt. Tour turn Counsellor.”

“First of all Judge,” Matt began, “I’d like to start with the argument Ella and Bryan had that night. Ella isn’t denying it happened, but plenty of people saw Bryan walk away afterwards. It doesn’t mean a thing.” He went on to state that the rest of the evidence, such as there was, was entirely circumstantial, and that without corroborating evidence it was worthless.

“What about this statement of Gant’s? That’s corroborating.”

“Judge, I don’t believe that statement is worth the paper it’s written on.” He explained how he’d gone to Gant’s house and spoken with his wife the night before. “I mean first off this man claims he witnessed a murder, and at the time he doesn’t do anything about it, then he doesn’t even mention it to his wife, which you have to admit is pretty strange.”

“I don’t know, there’s a few things I don’t mention to my wife,” the judge cut in and Matt smiled. Judge Walker waved a hand. “I take your point. Go on.”

Then there’s the fact that Gant waited for ten days before he decided to make a statement. He claims he didn’t want to get involved, but he doesn’t give any credible explanation as to what changed his mind. None of this makes sense.”

“In my experience people often don’t make much sense,” Judge Walker commented. He looked at Baxter. You’re pretty quiet there, Chief. Don’t you have anything to say about this?”

Baxter glanced quickly at Matt. “I’ll admit it’s been bothering me too. But I went over this with Jerrod for a couple of hours yesterday. He swears it’s the truth Judge. I don’t see what option

I had but to bring Ella in.” He turned to Ella. “The fact is I’m worried about you as much as anything, Ella. This whole thing looks to me like it might blow up and I don’t want to see anyone get hurt.” He turned back to Judge Walker. “There’s already been trouble between Jake and Ella, Judge. I hate to think how he’s going to react if he hears I let Ella go after this.”

“We’re not here to do what Jake wants,” the judge reminded him.

“I know that. But we don’t know that Jerrod Gant is lying. I just think we ought to hand this over to the state police. Give things a while to calm down.”

Matt shook his head vigorously. “Come on. Since when do we start locking people up because it seems like an expedient thing to do? If the chief here really thinks Jake could be a problem, it’s him he ought to be locking up, not Ella.”

“Now hold on there,” Judge Walker said to both of them. “What we ought to be concentrating on here is Jerrod Gant’s evidence, since that’s what this all swings on. I’d like to talk to him myself.”

“He’s gone Judge. His wife doesn’t know where he is, and neither does anyone else. I went by the place he works from and his boat is gone.” Matt gathered from Baxter’s expression that this was news to him. “And if nobody can question Gant about what he claims he saw, that has to make his evidence unreliable.” He picked up his copy of the statement. “Gant says he just happened to be in the vicinity of Bryan’s house when he heard a shot, and he even knows exactly what time it was, which is pretty convenient as it ties in with what Carl Johnson already heard. Then he looks right in a lit window and sees Bryan Roderick on the floor with Ella standing over him with a gun? I mean, come on.”

“Judge,” Baxter interrupted. “If Matt here thinks Gant is lying, he ought to cross examine him in court.”

The judge waved a hand to silence Baxter. The state attorney’s office aren’t going to thank us for handing them this thing without there being some kind of reliable evidence, Chief. I want to hear what Matt has to say. So, you don’t believe him. But why would he make up a story like this?”

“I’d like to ask him that myself. But I can’t do that because he’s conveniently disappeared. This whole thing looks like a set-up to me.”

“A set-up? This is St. George you’re talking about Counsellor, not Chicago. Why would anyone want to set Ella up?”

“Maybe someone who’d like to see her out of the way. Jerrod Gant’s business isn’t doing too well, but he works from a building on the inlet on the south shore. If Ella is charged and handed over to the state police she won’t have a prayer of winning the election next week. Gant has a lot to gain from seeing that marina go ahead. Everybody here knows that Ella is opposed to the plan.” Matt paused, letting the implication of what he was saying sink in, then, looking at Baxter, he added, “Maybe other people might have their reasons for wanting to see Ella out of the way too.”

“Other people?”

“The thing is, Judge, this whole thing with Gant’s statement feels wrong to me, and without it there’s no real evidence against her, in fact the truth is there’s no real evidence that Bryan is even dead. Right now, we don’t know what happened to him. But even if he is dead, Bryan must have had his fair share of enemies. I don’t think enough has been done to look at who else might have had a reason to want to kill him.”

Baxter looked sharply at Matt, suddenly suspicious of what he was getting at. He started to say something, but the judge held up his hand. “Wait a minute, Chief. I haven’t heard from you yet Ella. I’d like to hear what you have to say about all of this.”

“I don’t know why Jerrod Gant gave this statement Judge, but I swear that I did not kill Bryan Roderick. If Gant really did see anybody in that house that night, it wasn’t me.”

The judge nodded slowly, and looked thoughtful. “Okay,” he said after a while. “I have to agree with Matt about what Jerrod Gant says he saw. It all sounds a little fishy to me. Especially since he’s up and taken off someplace. So, until he shows up and we can question him I don’t think we’ve enough evidence to warrant turning Ella over to the state authorities. Even if we did, my guess is that Matt would have her out again within the day anyway, based on what we have here. But I can’t just ignore Gant’s sworn statement either. So here’s what I’m going to do. Find Jerrod Gant and bring him here so that I can question him, let’s see if this thing holds water or if he really is playing some dirty game to stop Ella being elected. I’ll give you a week, until the day after the election. If you haven’t found him then or he hasn’t turned up by himself we’ll pass this over to the state and they can decide what to do.”

He looked at Ella. “That’s the best I can do Ella. The fact is, if Matt is right about Jerrod Gant I’m afraid releasing you isn’t going to help a hell of a lot. People are going to hear about this anyway and make up their own minds. Unless Matt can find Gant before the election and prove he was lying, he may just have scuppered your chances anyway. But in the meantime, you’re free to go.”

Ella hung up the phone after speaking to her mother. She turned to Matt. “So what happens now?”

“Like the man said, you’re free to go. I don’t think the judge believed Gant’s statement any more than I did.”

“But it doesn’t matter, does it,” Ella said bitterly. “Maybe I didn’t have a lot of chance of winning the election before, but this pretty much seals it. Judge Walker was right. People are going to know what’s going on and a lot of them are going to think there’s no smoke without fire. I know the way their minds work.”

Matt didn’t argue. Even though Ella wasn’t under arrest any more some of the mud was going to stick. He didn’t say so, but if Gant turned up and he stuck to his testimony, Ella was going to have to worry about a lot more than just losing an election. Ella guessed that he was worried and asked why.

“The fact is I don’t know for sure why Gant lied. I’m only guessing that it had anything to do with the election.”

“What other reason could he have?”

“Maybe he didn’t lie about everything he saw that night,” Matt said. “I’m not suggesting that he really saw you in that house, but maybe he saw someone. Could be he even believes it was you.”

Ella worked out what that could mean. “You’re saying I could still be charged.”

“If Gant sticks to his statement.” Matt allowed a moment or two for Ella to absorb what he’d told her. “Of course there’s a way to beat this,” he went on, ‘so that Howard doesn’t win the election and you don’t face a murder charge.”

“And what would that be?”

“All we have to do is prove to everyone that you didn’t kill Bryan. Which means I have to find out who did.”

He waited for her to say something, but she just looked at him and he couldn’t figure out what she was thinking.

“Ella, you said on the dock that there were things you couldn’t explain, and when I asked you what really happened that night you avoided the question by telling me that it wasn’t you Gant saw in that house, and that you didn’t kill Bryan. I believe you on both counts, but I think you know more than you’re telling me.”

She stared at him, and her eyes were the smoky, half grey, half green colour they became sometimes. She appeared torn with indecision.

He took a chance and pressed her. “What happened that night Ella?”

She reached a decision and gave a small shake of her head. “I don’t know.”

She was lying, and that knowledge weighed heavily on him, but her chin had a stubborn thrust that told him no amount of persuasion from him would change her mind right then.

“I’m sorry. I have to go,” she said.

When Ella got home her mother was pale, her expression pinched with worry. Ella made her sit down. “Did you take your medicine?”

Helena dismissed her question with a wave of her hand, as if it was of no importance. “I’m fine, don’t fuss. What about you Ella? Are you all right?”

Ella assured her that a night in jail hadn’t been so bad. “The food was fine, and everybody was nice to me.” She made it sound as if she’d spent the night in a motel. In fact she had found the experience terrifying and more disturbing than she could have imagined. To have somebody close a door and turn the key in the lock, and know that person controlled your freedom,

controlled everything about your life; when you ate, when you slept, how you filled your day, when you saw the sky and breathed fresh air, was a sobering lesson. It was hard enough being confined to the jail in town, where at least she knew her jailers, she couldn’t imagine how it would feel to be locked up in a prison on the mainland. It was something she couldn’t contemplate.