Still Water (31 page)

“Yeah, maybe from Howard.”

“You know the man better than I do Chief. Is he capable of something like this?”

“Maybe.”

“But we’re not going to know what Gant really saw unless we find him,” Matt pointed out. “I don’t suppose you’ve had any luck on that score?”

“Not yet. You?”

“No.”

He had the feeling that Baxter was coming around. That part of the reason he’d stopped by was to open the lines of communication between them again, and if that was true he was pleased. Baxter’s glance fell to the pad on the desk, and his eyes narrowed a little when he read what was on it. He looked up again, and seemed about to say something, then changed his mind. He looked out of the window, and appeared consumed with his own thoughts.

“I have to go,” Baxter said at length, sounding weary and drained. “I think it’s going to be a busy night.” Amidst all the mayhem on the water that day there had been accusations of lines being fouled, and boats deliberately getting in the way of each other. At the door he paused. “You know, you might want to look out for Ella if you can.”

“Chief,” Matt called. Thanks for stopping by.” Baxter stared at him, and then it seemed with an almost imperceptible movement of his head he nodded an acknowledgment.

After Baxter had left, Matt tried Ella’s number, and when she answered he told her he’d heard what happened. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Her tone was leaden. “I just need to get a good night’s sleep.”

There was an awkward pause. Matt had been thinking all day about the way she’d reacted at the mention of Kate Little’s name outside the meeting the night before.

“Matt, I’m really tired,” she said, as if in the silence she’d guessed what he was thinking. “I think I’m going to go to bed.”

“Ella, I need to talk to you.”

There was a long pause, then she sighed. “I know, but not tonight. Please.”

“All right. But it has to be soon.”

“Yes, soon, I promise.”

In the end, because Ella sounded beat, and because he didn’t want to talk on the phone he let it go, and they hung up. Afterwards he sat in the gloom for a while, a nagging worry growing in him as he considered Baxter’s warning about Jake.

It was dark when he locked up the office and went down to the waterfront. He found Ben Harper, still working on his boat in the light of a bulb he’d rigged up. When he questioned him Ben related in detail what had happened that day.

“I’m telling you. It was deliberate. That guy meant that harpoon for Ella,” Ben concluded, without a grain of doubt. “She’s quite a woman, you know. Has anything else turned up about the guy who’s missing?”

“Not yet.”

“Everyone still thinks he’s resting at the bottom of the channel, huh?”

“Something like that. What’s on your mind?”

“What? Oh, I don’t know for sure. I sort of had an idea, but I’d like to check it out first. I’ll let you know.”

“Something to do with Ella?”

Ben shrugged. “What she did out there today took guts. I like her. I’d like to help if I could, but like I said, I need to check this out first.” Matt was intrigued, but when pressed Ben wouldn’t tell him anything else. “It might be nothing.”

He promised to speak to Matt first if anything came of it, and then they said goodnight, and Matt walked on along the docks to clear his head. It was dark and the harbour was full of boats. Across the street the Schooner was busy. Every time the door opened the swell of voices spilled out, and the press of bodies inside could be seen through a haze of cigarette smoke. It was the same in all the other bars and the restaurants in town. He guessed Baxter and his men would have their work cut out that night.

He looked down at the dark water. It was as black as oil, and further out from the dock the lights cast from buildings along the harbour front made patterns that wavered and undulated with the movement of the water. When he reached the Santorini Matt stood for a while looking at the shattered window of the wheel-house. He put his hands on the rail and looked down at the water and a vague disorienting sense of light-headedness washed over him. The boat moved gently, and scraped the dock-side. He took a deep breath, sweat popping on his brow, and then he put one leg over the rail and climbed on board. He planted both feet firmly on the deck, fighting a brief wave of nausea, feeling prickles of cold sweat beneath his collar at the motion beneath his feet. After a moment he went forward to the wheel-house and ran his finger over the jagged hole where the harpoon had splintered the wood as it passed through. When Ella had made her decision to run across the bow of the Seawind it could easily have ended differently, the Santorini run down, the harpoon skewering Ella.

He climbed back to the dock. The Seawindvias, tied up further along. At first Matt thought she was deserted, but as he drew closer he saw a movement on deck. Jake stood by the rail watching him. His expression was blank, impossible to read.

“I heard there was some trouble out there today,” Matt said, but Jake made no response or gave any indication at all he’d even heard him. “Somebody could’ve been killed.”

Jake’s gaze shifted. “Lawyers,” he said with contempt. “You and Baxter and that Judge Walker. You ain’t worth a damn the three of you. Somebody’s already been killed in case you forgot. You think I’m gonna stand by and let her get away with that?”

“Ella had nothing to with whatever happened to Bryan, Jake.”

“The hell she didn’t! What is it with you people? It isn’t enough she threatened him, that Carl Johnson saw her drop him in the sea all trussed up like he was a fucking piece of meat? All this lawyer’s talk about evidence, but even when you get a witness who saw the whole thing, you just talk some more and Ella carries on free as a bird. Talk, that’s all you people do.”

Jerrod Gant has disappeared,” Matt pointed out. “We don’t know what he saw exactly until we speak to him.”

“More talk! But then I guess you’d take her side. You like her don’t you? What I hear, you two are pretty close.”

That has nothing to do with this, Jake.”

“Who the hell do you think you’re kidding. You telling me if you and her didn’t have something going she’d still be walking around after what Gant saw? You think she’s such a sweet thing?” Jake grinned mirthlessly, his lips twisted back. “She’s got you twisted round her little finger ain’t she? What’s she paying you with, huh? You think you’re the only one? Hey, I got news for you Mr. Lawyer. Ella’s been around the block a couple of times.”

Matt clenched his hands at his sides, and told himself not to let Jake get to him. Just stay away from her, Jake. I’m warning you.”

Jake laughed. “What’s wrong? Little too close to the truth? Well, let me tell you something, she ain’t worth it Mr. Lawyer. Hell, she even offered to drop her pants for me if I promised to lay off her. What do you think of that?”

Matt reacted without thinking. Something snapped and he reached out for the rail and vaulted onto the deck. Jake was a little slow to react, but then he suddenly rushed forward, bellowing like a bull. Matt sidestepped and punched him quickly with a short hard jab behind the ear and Jake dropped to his knees with a soft grunt of surprise. His head made a hollow thump when it hit the deck as he pitched forward.

All at once Matt’s anger drained out of him. He was breathing heavily, and his knuckle ached from the blow to Jake’s skull. He stepped closer, wondering if Jake was badly hurt. He reached out.

“You okay?”

Jake seized his arm and rolled over, then pulled Matt close and smashed his forehead viciously against the bridge of Matt’s nose. There was an audible crack, and Matt tasted blood in his throat. He staggered backwards which gave Jake time to get to his feet and throw a punch that caught Matt in the ribs and knocked him off balance. As he crumpled to the deck Jake aimed a kick at the side of his head, which if it had connected would have cracked his skull like an egg. He caught hold of Jake’s leg and leaned his weight in to bring him down. They rolled, both fighting for purchase, and then Jake got up on all fours and scrabbled towards him. Matt rolled out of the way, still a little disoriented. Blood was spraying from his nose in an alarming fashion. Jake was heavier, and Matt knew if Jake got on top of him he’d never shift his weight and he’d probably get his skull smashed against the deck. He kicked out and felt his heel connect with Jake’s cheek. Jake grunted with pained surprise and fell back.

The two of them got up at the same time, both panting heavily. Matt’s shirt was splattered with his own blood.

Jake’s eyes shone malevolently. “What’s the matter Mr. Lawyer, you don’t like hearing the truth about Ella? You know Bryan had her too?” He wiped blood from his mouth. “She didn’t tell you that, huh? He told me all about it. Said she begged him for it.”

“You’re lying Jake.”

“Am I? You sure about that Mr. Lawyer? Why don’t you ask her.”

Matt went to the rail and jumped back down to the dock. He was still leaking blood from his nose, and when he hit the ground a shooting pain flashed through his head. Jake stood looking down on him.

“Stay away from her,” Matt warned.

As he walked away, he heard Jake call after him. “Ask her yourself Mr. Lawyer. You just ask her.”

Matt tried to ignore him, but Jake’s taunt echoed in his mind long after he’d left him behind. He wondered if Jake had been right at least about one thing, that if he didn’t feel the way he did about Ella, would he still have believed her when she’d claimed she didn’t know anything about what had happened to Bryan?

Kate knocked softly on the door to Evan’s office. She couldn’t hear any sound from inside, so she tried the handle and went in. The room was gloomy in the dusk light, and Evan was sprawled on his bed. Quietly she went over. He was lying at an angle, having hauled himself out of his chair then on to the bed where he’d simply collapsed. His thin and useless legs were draped at an unnatural angle like those of a soft toy. She started to move him, then stopped herself, not wanting to wake him. For a while she stood looking down at his sleeping face.

He seemed peaceful, his features smooth and pale. There was none of the restlessness, the pinched creases at the corner of his eyes that were evident when he was awake. His breathing was regular and shallow. The remains of his meal were on the table. He’d chosen to eat in his office. Some soup and bread. He’d had a good day, he’d said earlier, and didn’t want to be interrupted. After he’d eaten she imagined that he’d been overcome with weariness and had simply collapsed and immediately fallen asleep. Beside his empty bowl was a glass and an open bottle of whisky.

As the light faded, Kate allowed her mind to drift. She couldn’t have said when exactly she’d fallen in love with him. She supposed it had been a gradual process. At first it had been fun, having him take her out on dates, three, sometimes four times a week. Eating in the best restaurants, seats at sold out shows, the whole razzmatazz, and afterwards she’d allow him a peck on the cheek at her apartment door. Then one night he’d picked her up and called a cab in the street. No limousine, and maybe for the first time he hadn’t been wearing a suit.

“Surprised?” he’d said. “I figured I wasn’t getting anywhere, so I’d try a new approach.”

She’d been intrigued. This was a whole new side to him. Up until then he’d been polite, gracious, not ostentatious exactly, but never afraid to spend money, of which he made it clear he had plenty. They went to a little Spanish place he knew in the Village. The most expensive item on the menu cost about twelve dollars and Kate had felt way overdressed. But that evening had been a turning point. Evan had loosened up, stopped trying to impress her, and he’d talked about himself a little. They’d drunk two bottles of wine between them.

“That was fun,” she said when he took her home. Then she’d asked him if he wanted to come in for a nightcap. She’d been feeling a little drunk.

He’d kissed her, just briefly. “Ask me again some time,” he’d said and grinned at her.

It was that moment, she thought, that marked a change in the way she felt about him. Funny how such things stuck in her mind. How love had sneaked up on her, insinuated itself into her life and took up residence without her being fully aware of what was happening.

She cast her mind forward, wondering when that had all changed, when she had fallen out of love. That too had been a slow process. Long denied, and much, much more painful. The past few years it seemed as if her life had plunged into a black hole. She’d looked for illusory comfort elsewhere, always in the paradoxical and foolish belief that she and Evan might one day recapture what they had once had. Foolish. Self-deluding dreams.

“What are you thinking?”

Evan’s voice startled her. The room had grown even more gloomy, and she could barely make out his expression. Tears had made wet streaks across her cheeks which she hoped he couldn’t see. She wiped them away. “I came to see if you need anything.”

There was a pause, while he absorbed the way she was dressed. “You’re going out I see.”

“I need to get out of the house for a while.”

“Of course you do.”

Though Kate couldn’t see it, she knew well enough the sneer of his lip when he used that tone. She went to the door and snapped on the light. He blinked, and for a second he looked as vulnerable as he had while he slept. These days that was the only glimpse of the man she’d married she ever saw. She wondered how things had come to this, and why she hadn’t stopped it earlier.

“Who are you meeting?” he demanded.

“I’m not meeting anybody.”

Evan struggled to raise himself, reaching for his wheelchair. Kate didn’t attempt to help, knowing he would only hate her for it. Instead she turned to look out of the window at the gathering darkness. She heard him manoeuvre himself into his chair at last, then the whirr of the motor as he came towards her.

He took a drink from the whisky he’d retrieved from the table and watched her light a cigarette. “Don’t tell me you’re turning over a new leaf.” He smiled mirthlessly.

“Why do you do this, Evan?”

“Do what?”