Still Water (42 page)

All of them, except Penman who couldn’t move, rushed to the side, but the water was settling and all they could see was the mirror image of the hills and woods.

Finally, one of the men went forward to look for Jake, but when he came back he shook his head, mystified. Jake was gone.

Ben Harper looked towards the surface when he heard the sound of the screws as they bit, making the water boil and churn and from below he watched puzzled as his boat sped away, digging a deep furrow in its wake.

Minutes earlier he’d been searching among the craggy rocks that formed a landscape of small canyons and holes in the area. He’d been working his way in a grid pattern and now he was close to where the seabed fell away sharply at the beginning of the channel. The bottom of the boat was visible a hundred yards to his right, a broad white marker on the surface. Something caught his eye and he looked down at a narrow crevice twenty feet below. Behind his mask his expression creased into a puzzled squint as he peered across the distance, trying to make out what he saw. He could see an indefinable shape protruding from the crevice, perhaps part of a larger whole, but without his glasses he found it difficult to distinguish what he was looking at from the surrounding rocks. He wondered what had caught his attention, and then as he moved and the angle altered, sunlight pierced the depths and something flashed. He thought he saw what might be a metal clasp and maybe wire. He checked the time, and his gauge, and saw that he was almost out of air.

It was then that he heard the launch start and when he looked it was speeding away. He looked down again at the thing that had attracted his attention and made his decision. He had time for one quick look. He swam down and when he reached it he saw that he’d been right about the wire and clasp. The bundle was caught in between some rocks. Whatever it contained had been wrapped in canvas and secured with the metal wire and clasp. He put his hand on it, but couldn’t feel the shape of what was inside, then grasping it he tugged to try and free it. It was stuck fast, but he adjusted his grip and tried again. He was aware of how much oxygen the effort was costing him. He stopped, and checked his gauge which now showed empty. One last time he tugged, and the bundle moved, breaking off a jagged sliver of rock where the wire had caught fast. Once free of its resting place the bundle felt heavy, and it sank and rested on the bottom, and as it did Ben ran out of air. He gulped and kicked for the surface, the long shape lying inert below him. It appeared to be about the size of a man.

Judge Walker sat behind his desk, clearly taken aback by the events of the day. “Jesus H Christ,” he said. He got up and went to one of the tall windows that looked over the square. Outside the sun was low in the western sky and the statue of Oliver Wake cast a long shadow in the twilight across the dusty grass. “I don’t know what the hell has happened to this town lately,” he commented in a voice weary with resignation. He thrust his hands in the pockets of his pants. You know how many people I had before me in court yesterday? Fifteen. Fifteen for Christ’s sake! I never had that many cases to hear in one day in all the years I’ve been doing this job. Hell, I don’t think I’ve had fifteen cases in a month before now.”

The judge looked at Matt and Baxter, and as if he couldn’t find any words to express what he felt he just shook his head.

“You know Russ Williams arrested Kyle Perrit this morning? Got him locked up in a cell over at your office.”

“Kyle?” Baxter said. “I didn’t know about that. What’s he done?”

“He took a shotgun and blew out a window at Bill Hodgiss’s house. Could’ve damn well killed somebody.”

Baxter was astounded. “Kyle did that? Him and Bill Hodgiss have been buddies for thirty years. What the hell would he do a thing like that for?”

“Seems Bill rented out his boat to bunch of sports fishermen from the mainland. The deal was if they caught a fish Bill stood to take a share of whatever they got for it, plus the eight hundred dollars a day he was making renting his boat. Kyle claims there was a school of four hundred pounders out there and the way he tells it he was about to harpoon one when Bill cut across his bow.”

Judge Walker shook his head in disbelief. “Thirty years of friendship. Gone over a goddamned fish! Now this.” He folded both hands on his desk and broached the subject it seemed as if he’d been avoiding. “Will somebody please explain to me what the hell is going on around here?”

The judge already knew what had happened out by the cove, what he didn’t know was how come Baxter and Matt had been there. It was Baxter who explained what they’d learned, firstly from Jordan Osborne and then from their conversation with Kate and Evan Little. When he came to the part about Evan Little hearing shots and a boat in the cove that night the judge frowned. Then Baxter went on to relate the theory Ben Harper had come up with.

“Are you trying to tell me that you think Ella and Kate are somehow both mixed up in this together?” the judge said. “Did Harper find anything?”

“He ran out of air,” Matt said. “But he made three dives without coming up with anything.” In fact when they had gone back to pick Ben up from the water he’d confided to Matt that he had seen something just before he’d been forced to surface. He’d claimed he didn’t get a good enough look at it to be sure what it might be, though he’d given Matt a vague description and idea of its size. The words he’d used were that it was ‘some kind of canvas bundle wrapped in wire’. He wouldn’t be drawn any further than that until he could go down again and bring it to the surface which he planned to do in the morning. Matt had asked him not to mention it to Baxter for now.

Judge Walker’s eyebrows knitted together in a puzzled frown. “What did Ella have to say about all this? You’re her lawyer Matt. Seems a little odd you being out there looking for evidence that would convict your own client?”

“She doesn’t know, Judge.”

Judge Walker contemplated the seeming paradox inherent in Matt’s actions that day, then he picked up the copy of Jerrod Gant’s statement that was on his desk. “So, right now there’s still no other hard evidence against Ella or anybody else, except for this. Seems like Gant may have been telling the truth all along. You think Ella was in the house that night?”

“I guess we won’t know that until somebody talks to him,” Baxter said.

“Any sign of him yet?” But neither Matt nor Baxter had made any progress on that front. The judge shook his head. “And now Jake’s gone too.” He let that hang for a moment, but nobody seemed keen to comment. The crew of the Seawind had related everything they’d seen and heard, but they couldn’t, or wouldn’t, speculate as to what had become of Jake. He’d simply vanished.

“I asked Ben Harper to take a look around the shoreline in the morning,” Baxter said. “Maybe he fell over the side or something.”

The judge appeared unconvinced, but he let it go. “All around I’d say this is pretty much a goddamned mess. Question is what do we do about Kate and Ella now? I guess we ought to place them both under arrest on suspicion of murder. Let the state boys find Jerrod Gant and sort this thing out before anyone else gets hurt.” He looked at them both, waiting for any objections, and when there were none, he sighed. “Where are they now?”

“I talked to Doctor Laine a little while ago,” Baxter said. “Kate had a few cuts but she’s okay. She went home, but Anne’s keeping Ella in overnight to keep an eye on her.”

“Well,” Judge Walker said resignedly. “Might as well leave it until the morning, I don’t suppose they’re going anywhere tonight. I’ll call the state attorney’s office tomorrow and get them to send someone over here.”

Ella was sleeping when Matt arrived at the clinic to look in on her. Anne Laine took him inside her office. “Helena’s sitting with her.”

“How is she?”

“She hasn’t said anything coherent yet. I don’t think she’s aware of what happened. She’s in shock, and she took a nasty crack on the head when she fell, but I think she’ll be okay.”

Matt detected a hesitant note in her voice. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”

“No. Well, it’s just that she did say something.”

He wondered if Ella had made some semi-conscious confession. He recalled her pale features after Baxter had hauled them both aboard Ben’s launch. Her hair had been plastered to her skull, her lips had a bluish tinge and her flesh had a waxy texture. He’d thought she was dead until she’d begun coughing up sea water.

“After she was brought in, she kept saying your name. Over and over. I guess she was delirious.” Anne paused. The chief told me what you did out there, you know. That was pretty brave.”

“He would’ve done it if I hadn’t gone in first.”

“Maybe.” She pursed her lips thoughtfully. “But the chief is a good swimmer.” He wondered how much Baxter had guessed, and what he’d told Anne. When he didn’t say anything she smiled. “Do you want to see her?”

“No, I just wanted to make sure she was okay. I should get going.”

“Do you want me to tell her anything when she wakes up?”

He shook his head. “No.” What message could he leave? That she was about to be arrested?

After Matt left the clinic he went back to his office. It was growing dark by the time he unlocked the door and the first thing he saw was the light blinking on the machine, and when he played back his messages he heard Ruth Thorne’s voice.

“I just called to make sure you hadn’t forgotten about Charlie,” she said hesitantly. “But I heard some things about what happened today, and I guess you might be tied up so don’t worry about getting back to me.”

He groaned, and checked the time then picked up the phone and called her number. He remembered that the ferry company had told him Charlie wasn’t working that night, but he hadn’t yet told Ruth about that. He figured she’d made a mistake about the day. She answered almost straight away.

“This is Matt Jones, Ruth. Can you talk right now?”

There was a pause, then she said in a low voice, “Hi, Mr. Jones. Matt I mean. Charlie’s taking a shower. He’s getting ready to leave.”

“He’s working?” Matt asked.

“Sure. Don’t you remember?”

“Yes, I remember.” He thought quickly, wondering what was going on. “Look don’t worry about it, it’s taken care of. I’ll call you when I know something.”

“Are you sure this is still okay?” Ruth asked sounding worried. “I know you have a lot on your mind right now.”

He was almost tempted to tell her that she was right, he did have a lot on his mind, but he’d made her a promise, and she deserved to know what her husband was doing when he was supposed to be staying over on the mainland. For now he didn’t tell her that Charlie wasn’t even scheduled to be working that night, since he didn’t know what that meant, instead he reassured her again that he was on top of it.

He called Ben next at the inn and while he waited for the call to be put through to his room his eye fell to the desk calendar beside the phone. A date circled in red reminded him with silent irony that the election to decide who would be the next mayor of Sanctuary Harbor was due to be held the next day. Before he could think about that any further Ben came on the line and Matt asked him what time he was planning to leave the harbour in the morning.

“First light. Around five thirty.”

“I’ll meet you at your boat,” Matt said. There was a pause then Ben asked him a hesitant question.

“Did you say anything to Chief Baxter about what I saw?”

“Not yet. Let’s wait until we know for sure what it is.”

“Okay. See you in the morning.”

After he’d hung up he went down to his car and drove out to where Ruth and Charlie Thorne lived. On the way he reasoned that he didn’t know what else he would have done that night anyway. It was a long time until morning, and somehow he didn’t think he would sleep even if he had the chance.

Matt sat in his car along the street from the Thornes’ house, waiting for Charlie to appear. He was thinking back to his conversation with Ella in the cemetery. She’d accused him of having narrow vision, unable to accept that sometimes life wasn’t a black and white issue. He thought she had been implying that Bryan’s death had been an accident and the dumping of his body somehow able to be explained. She had also implied that she hadn’t told him the truth because she had known how he would react.

He wondered about that. If he was right, Ella had thought he would never condone concealing a man’s death. But Kate and Ella obviously believed their actions were in some way justifiable. Were there any circumstances where he might have agreed with them? A few weeks ago the answer would have been unequivocally no. But now he wasn’t so certain.

He recalled the feeling he’d had in the cemetery, that he was missing something. And Ella’s expression before she’d left, the words she’d spoken You’re so sure, aren’t you, that you have this right,” seemed to give the lie to his theory. He’d had the same feeling later that night, when he’d run down to the cove from his house and stood on the sand looking out at the water. Something that was staring him in the face, but for some reason he was blind to. Perhaps tomorrow, when Ben made one more dive, all of his questions would be answered.

Across the street a door opened and Charlie Thorne emerged from a house carrying a duffel over his shoulder. He paused briefly to kiss his wife, then Ruth watched him go and closed the door, and Matt wondered if she was thinking this might be the last time she played out this ritual of domestic routine.

Matt followed at a distance as Charlie Thorne drove out to the ferry dock near the processing plant, a little way out of town. When he reached the parking lot Charlie locked his car, and it occurred to Matt that maybe he had switched shifts, and that he was working after all, but Charlie didn’t board the ferry. Instead he headed for a car parked on the edge of the lot, and after a quick surreptitious look around he got in the passenger side. A moment later the car pulled out and Matt allowed it a head start before following, though since he’d recognized it the moment he saw it he could guess where it was headed.