Still Water (9 page)

“I’m not here looking for a client, Chief, if that’s what you’re thinking. Ella’s a friend, that’s all.”

“I wasn’t thinking that,” Baxter said, but Matt would have bet otherwise.

“So, what exactly happened? I heard something about a fight on the dock?”

Baxter looked thoughtful, even worried. “Yeah. I should’ve seen it coming I guess. Ella and the Roderick boys have never been exactly what you’d call on the best of terms, but looks like things have gotten worse. Jake and Ella got into an argument today. Ended up with Ella taking a chunk out of Jake’s skull with a length of wood.”

“Ella did that?” Matt tried to picture it. He knew that she was tough, and he could easily see her standing her ground in an argument, but it was a giant leap from there to imagining her braining somebody in a physical fight.

“Ella doesn’t deny that she hit him,” Baxter said. “But I spoke to the doctor and Jake’s going to be okay. He’s not going to press charges either. He kind of lost enthusiasm for that idea when he thought about how it was going to look when people read in the paper about him being beaten up by a woman.”

Matt was still trying to figure out what could have happened. “She must have had a reason if she hit him. She must have been protecting herself.”

“Ella was defending her livelihood if you want to look at it that way. Somebody emptied the traps she hauled today, every last one of them. That’s a lot of work for no result.”

“Jake did that? He admitted it?”

Baxter shook his head. “Didn’t need to. It was him all right.”

“Why would he empty her traps?”

“Happens sometimes. People get into disagreements about who ought to be fishing where, or else it’s some personal grudge getting settled. Usually it’s just a couple of trap lines that get cut, or maybe a small string stripped. Doesn’t normally run to this kind of thing. There’s a kind of code the fishermen stick to. They have their own set of rules. A little messing with another man’s traps is one thing, it’s not going to send him to the wall so the bank sells his boat and he can’t make a living. Something like this is stepping way over the line.” Baxter frowned, and his worried expression deepened.

“What made Jake cross the line?”

“You were at the meeting the other night, weren’t you? So I guess you know all about this marina plan of Howard Larson’s. The Rodericks and Ella have been butting heads over that for a while now. There’s been a fair bit of bad blood between them, and now Bryan’s missing. People are starting to talk.” Baxter saw that he’d lost Matt. “You did hear about that?”

For the past couple of days Matt had been helping Henry dig the foundations for the shed to house the cider press, and he’d only been into town a couple of times to check his messages, of which there had been none. He’d heard about Bryan being missing, and that there was a search going on in the woods, but he hadn’t connected it any way with Ella.

“What kind of talk?”

Baxter sighed. “I thought you’d know. Seems like that’s all anybody’s talking about on the docks.” He related how Ella had threatened Bryan with a rifle during an argument the night Bryan had vanished. “She doesn’t deny any of it.”

“She threatened him?” Matt echoed incredulously. “What does that mean exactly?”

“The way Ella tells it they were arguing, and Bryan looked as if he was about to get on her boat. She got her rifle and told him he ought to think about it first, as it would be the last thing he ever did. Or words to that effect anyway. Though she says the gun wasn’t loaded,” Baxter added.

Matt shook his head. “Wait a minute, you’re not suggesting that this has anything to do with Bryan’s disappearance are you?”

“It isn’t just a case of what I think. I’m saying that people are talking, and Jake isn’t the kind to stand around and do nothing when he gets an idea in his head. Ella said that was the last she saw of Bryan, and there are witnesses who saw him walk away. Right now I don’t know what happened to him.”

“I think I better talk to Ella now,” Matt said.

“Help yourself.” Baxter pointed towards a door. “She’s in my office right over there.”

Ella appeared surprised when she saw Matt. He drew up a chair in front of her and sat down. Though he was disturbed by what Baxter had told him, especially the part about Ella threatening Bryan with a rifle, he determined not to let her see it. He told himself he didn’t know what kind of pressures she’d been under lately with the election and harassment from the Rodericks, and he dismissed the idea that Ella knew anything about Bryan’s disappearance. He smiled, guessing that she would welcome the sight of a friendly face.

“How’re you doing?” he said.

She managed a wan smile in return. “I’m okay I guess. Why are you here?”

“I heard you had some trouble, and I thought maybe I could help. I just talked to Chief Baxter. Jake isn’t pressing charges.”

Ella didn’t seem surprised, but she peered at Matt as if she was trying to figure what he was thinking. “I shouldn’t have hit him. I guess everything that’s been happening lately got to me more than I thought.”

“Baxter told me about your problems with the Rodericks. How long has it been going on?”

Ella shook her head in a weary gesture. “Months. Three, four maybe. I’ve always had trouble with them, but since I decided to stand for election things have been worse. I’ve had phone calls when there was nobody there. Once my truck wouldn’t start and when I opened the hood I found the battery had been taken. Footsteps behind me at night once or twice, but nobody there when I called out. That kind of thing.”

“Did you report any of this?”

“What? A wrong number, a couple of hang-up calls. Somebody walking in the street at night?”

Matt could see her point. Individually none of the incidents amounted to more than petty theft and nuisance value. Collectively intimidating perhaps, but difficult to prove.

“I think somebody tried to break into the Santorini a while back. Maybe they were planning to foul the engine or something,” Ella said.

“And you think it was the Rodericks?”

“I’m pretty sure. I think the calls and the footsteps following me were more Bryan’s style, but they’re both as bad as each other one way or another.”

“Is that what you and Bryan were arguing about on Monday?”

Ella met his eye with a level gaze, the different shades of her eyes a little disconcerting. “Yes.”

“Baxter said you threatened him with a rifle.”

“It wasn’t loaded.”

“But you pointed it at him?”

“Yes.”

“You know there’s talk about this now that he’s missing.”

“I heard.”

Matt waited, half expecting her to add something, though he wasn’t sure what. Was he expecting her to deny her involvement? He was reminded of the feeling he’d had over supper with Ella and her mother, that Ella had something on her mind. Had it been this she was thinking of? He recalled how later that night she’d questioned him about his feelings over what happened to Paulie, and his attitude toward the justice system. He wondered if there was a link. She was watching him, and from her expression he thought she had guessed what he was thinking.

“You should have told me about this before,” he said, knowing he sounded like he was admonishing her.

“Before what? Before I took things into my own hands you mean? You think I was wrong to do what I did?”

“I just don’t think pointing a gun at somebody is the answer.”

For a second she was furious, it showed in the light in her eyes which seemed to harden to a fine point, and then it was gone and she just looked weary.

Matt wished he’d kept his mouth shut. He imagined she didn’t need somebody to censure her right now, what she needed was his support. There was an awkward silence. “Listen, you’ve had a tough day. You don’t need to stay here any longer, let me take you home.”

She hesitated, then at last nodded. “Thanks.”

On the way out Baxter asked Ella if she was okay. He warned her that if anything else happened with Jake, she should come to him before she started handling things the way she had that day. Ella promised that she would.

“You take care,” he said.

At the door Matt glanced back inside. Baxter was watching Ella, wearing a thoughtful, vaguely troubled expression.

It had been a long day, and Baxter was getting ready to go home when Russ Williams told him there was somebody to see him. It was past eight, and Baxter was hungry. The incident between Jake and Ella had left a bad taste in his mouth, and a residual feeling of unease. He thought if Bryan didn’t show up soon there was going to be trouble for sure. He didn’t feel like handling any more problems that day.

“Can’t it wait until the morning?”

“It’s Carl Johnson, Chief. I think you’re going to want to hear this.”

Baxter sighed. “Okay, bring him in.”

Carl Johnson was wearing jeans and a sweat-stained T-shirt, and he looked as if he’d come straight from the dock, or maybe the bar. Mingled with his fishy stink, Baxter could smell liquor on his breath. They shook hands. Carl’s were bony and callused, his eyes watery blue.

“What can I do for you, Carl?”

“Well, the thing is Chief, we’ve been away for a couple of days. Just got back this afternoon and I heard about what’s been going on.”

Baxter didn’t follow. “What’s been going on?”

“About Bryan. I heard he was missing.”

Baxter perked up. “You’ve seen him?”

“Well no. Least not exactly.”

“Not exactly Carl?” Baxter wasn’t in the mood for any cryptic puzzles. “If you know anything about this, just get it out, all right?”

“Well, we … that’s Billy Pierce and me,” Carl explained. “You know Billy works for me? We were leaving the harbour on Monday night. Isn’t that the last time anybody saw Bryan? Anyway, we were heading north-east towards Coffins Shelf and we saw Ella’s boat out there. The Santorini.”

At the mention of Ella’s name Baxter held up a hand. “Wait a minute.” He waved Carl to a chair and sat down himself. He wasn’t sure where this was heading, but he wanted to make some notes anyway. “Russ, do you have a pencil, this damn thing’s busted.” Russ Williams looked in his pocket and passed him a pen. Baxter took a sheet of paper from a drawer. “So, you saw Ella. What time was this?”

“Around three fifteen a.m.”

Tell the chief what you heard,” Russ interrupted, and Baxter shot him a look to let him know he was the one asking the questions.

Carl frowned. “Oh yeah, that’s right. About an hour or so earlier I thought I heard something. A rifle shot.”

“A shot?”

That’s what it sounded like. Maybe more than one but I’m not sure ‘cause Billy was using the winch and I couldn’t hear anything. I remember I slowed down the boat to listen because I wondered who was out shooting at that time of night.”

“And this is when you saw Ella?”

“No that was later.”

“So where were you when you heard this shot?”

“Off Stillwater Cove, about a quarter of a mile out I guess.”

“So you heard a shot, what happened after that?”

Carl shrugged. “We picked up a school of mackerel on the fish finder. Usually we don’t get so lucky just coming out of the harbour like that and it seemed like too good a chance to pass up, so we started to set a net. It took us a while but we got a few of ‘em. Seems like they’d scattered as if something had spooked them. Maybe sharks. Anyway, by the time we’d hauled in the net we were coming round past the cove again, only further out this time. That’s when we saw the Santorini.”

This was around three fifteen you said?”

“About then. She was running without lights. I thought maybe she was in trouble, so we slowed down.”

“You’re sure it was the Santorinil1 You said she wasn’t showing any lights.”

“Sure,” Carl said. “We were pretty close and I was using glasses. Besides, I spoke to her on the radio.”

“You spoke to Ella?”

“Yep. Like I said, I thought maybe something was wrong. Anyway, when we slowed down Ella went back to the wheel-house and put on her running lights. I asked her if everything was okay, and she said she was fine. Something about a loose connection. Then she came about, and started heading back in the direction of the harbour.”

Carl fell silent. Baxter pondered what Carl had told him, which as far as he could tell didn’t mean a thing. He wondered if he was missing something. Russ Williams was practically squirming in his seat, itching to butt in.

“Is that it?” Baxter said at length, a little irritably.

Carl scratched his chin. “Well, she had something hanging off of the davit.”

“What was it?”

“Couldn’t see it properly. It was kind of long and narrow. Looked like some kind of bundle or something.”

There was another silence that went on for several seconds. “You mean like a trap?” Baxter prompted.

“No, it was too big.”

“Well, how big was it, this thing?”

“Five, mebbe six feet. It was hard to tell.”

“About six feet?” Baxter said, aware that he was starting to sound like a damned parrot.

Carl nodded slowly. “Yeah. About your size.” He hesitated. “At the time I didn’t think much of it I guess. I mean, I was a little curious that’s all. But later, I’started wondering what she was doing. She was acting kind of strange having her lights off and all.”

“I thought she had a loose connection?”

“Well, that’s what she said.”

You didn’t believe her?”

“I don’t know. I got the feeling she didn’t want to be seen.”

Baxter sat back in his chair, and tapped Russ’s pen against his teeth. “What happened then?”

“Well, nothin’ I guess. It looked like she was heading back towards harbour.”

“What about this thing you saw? This bundle or whatever?”

“Well, I can’t be sure. But I think it was still there. Her hauler was on the other side of her boat from where we were.”

That’s it?”

Carl hesitated. “Like I said, at the time I didn’t think too much about it, so we headed off ourselves. But I remember looking back a few minutes later and it seemed like Ella had stopped again.”

“Why do you think she would do that?”

“Could be all kinds of reasons I suppose.”