Still Water (22 page)

Matt showed her out and said to call him if she wanted to take it further and she thanked him and shook his hand. He hoped that she could work things out, that she was wrong about her husband and that he wouldn’t see her again. He liked her. The quick defiant light in her eyes reminded him of Ella, and he thought that Charlie Thorne, if he was cheating on his wife, was a fool.

At lunch-time he went over to the coffee shop, which was quieter than usual. Sally Brewster slid into the seat opposite and lit a cigarette. She looked around at the handful of people.

“It’s been like this all day. And all anybody’s talking about is the fish that Ella caught. I guess you heard about that?”

“I did.”

“Well, I’m glad for her. She could use some good news. Rather her than Jake Roderick.”

“Jake?”

“He was out there too I heard,” Sally said and she filled him in on the gossip that was going around about what had taken place. “I guess he wasn’t too happy about Ella beating him out on a fish like that.”

“I guess not,” Matt agreed. He finished his sandwich and went back to the office. It bothered him that Jake now had another grudge against Ella, to add to the ones he already had. Towards the end of the afternoon he ran out of things to occupy himself with in the office, and so he turned the answer machine on and went down to the waterfront. Many of the pleasure craft that had been on their moorings earlier were now gone. On others people were still working, adapting their boats in various ways for fishing for bluefin. Matt sat on an iron cleat and watched a man row a dinghy out to a motorboat. He threw coils of line up on to the deck and then climbed up himself and started hauling up what looked like a clutch of stakes. Matt looked on puzzled as to their purpose, until he realized they were harpoons. From other boats came the sound of power tools as long put off repairs were made, and the sound of a motor turning over, finally catching, and a cloud of blue white smoke rising and dissipating in the air.

The first of the fishing boats began returning around five. A

mob of herring gulls wheeled above a dragger as she came towards the dock, and as she tied up, the crew started unloading their catch. A small crowd gathered around to watch, and Matt wandered over and joined the fringes. There were no bluefin coming off, and the onlookers muttered their disappointment. Someone called out to one of the crew, asking if any had been seen. The man straightened up from his task, cigarette in the corner of his mouth.

“Didn’t see a single one,” he said. “Nor did anyone else far as I know.”

The crowd nevertheless moved on to the next boat as it came in. Matt hung about waiting for the Santorini. She chugged across the harbour from the heads, and by the time she docked everybody knew that no bluefin had been seen that day and the crowd had largely disappeared. Matt stood back out of sight watching Ella and her stern man start to unload their catch. Crates of lobsters were lined up on the deck, maybe eight or ten to a crate, their claws bound with bands to stop them fighting and damaging one another. There were three crates.

When they’d finished Ella went to the dealer’s office along the dock and Matt waited for her to come back. He wasn’t sure what he was doing there, except that the return of his old dream had reminded him of how much he’d already lost in his life because he hadn’t laid old ghosts to rest. The distance that had come between himself and Ella was partly of her making, but he knew at least some of it was a response to his reaction when she’d told him outright that she hadn’t killed Bryan. He wanted a chance to talk to her. He couldn’t deny the doubt he’d felt, but he could try to explain it, and he knew there were things about this whole business that Ella hadn’t told him. What he wanted was to bridge the gap. Convince her that they should talk. If they didn’t they would both be losing something precious, and he for one didn’t want that. He just hoped she felt the same.

The sound of footsteps interrupted his thoughts, and Ella appeared. When she saw him on the dock she stopped. He saw the flash of some emotion in her expression, though exactly what it was he couldn’t say.

“I heard about your fish, Ella. I wanted to come down and congratulate you. I’m glad it was you.”

She acknowledged this with the ghost of a smile. “Thanks.”

Neither spoke and in the awkward moment that followed Matt wasn’t sure how to say what he wanted to. Then they both started at once.

“Let me,” Matt said, when they both stopped.

Ella nodded. “Okay.”

“I came here because I want to apologize. I doubted you the other day, and I shouldn’t have.” He held up his hand when she tried to intervene. “Please, Ella, let me finish. I guess I’ve spent too long as a prosecutor. You develop a suspicious nature in that job, maybe it makes a person view the world with a slant that makes everything seem tainted. If I’m honest with you I’d have to admit I was kind of taken aback by what happened between you and Bryan, and the fight you had with Jake. I admit that. But I told you once that I came here because I had an idea that I might build a life here, and I’d started to think you might be a part of that. I’d like it if you were. I’d like to wind the clock back to where we were before this started, if you’ll give me another chance at it.”

She kept her eyes fixed on his as he spoke, and he could see her thinking about everything he said. When he finished she looked away, across the water towards the heads. The sun lit her features and the ends of her hair were shot through with white light. He waited until she turned back to him.

“Matt, you didn’t have to apologize to me. I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did. It was just that when I saw how you looked at me, I don’t know, I felt like you were condemning me.”

“Maybe I have to adjust to the idea of going out with Annie Oakley,” he said.

She smiled. “Look, I’m glad you came down here today. And I’m glad about everything else you said too.”

“So, I get another chance?”

“It isn’t a case of giving you another chance.” She shook her head. “It’s difficult, Matt. I’m not sure this is a good time. There’re are things I can’t explain to you right now.”

“Ella, this isn’t going to work unless we talk. Can’t you try to trust me?”

She appeared to struggle for some way to explain. “It isn’t that I don’t want to.”

“Look, whatever’s on your mind Ella, you don’t have to tell me right away. We can just take it easy, get to know each other again.” He thought he saw something in her eyes, as if she wanted to go along with him, as if she wanted to talk, but he sensed that she needed time, that she needed to trust him first. “Listen,” he said lightly, hoping to make it easy for her to take the first step. “You better take me up on this while you have the chance, there’s a big demand for someone like me around here you know. Successful lawyer type, thriving practice and all.”

She grinned slowly. “There is that I suppose. Of course you’re talking to the owner of a budding shipping empire here, I’m not easily impressed.”

“That’s better. How about dinner tonight? Somewhere quiet, just the two of us?”

As he waited for her to answer a police cruiser pulled over at the end of the dock and Baxter got out. Something about his expression sent warning signals flashing in Matt’s mind and as Baxter started over towards them Ella looked around to see what was wrong.

“I wonder what he wants?” Matt said, but Ella didn’t reply.

When Baxter reached them he offered a kind of apologetic half smile, and wiped a sheen of perspiration from his forehead. He looked at Matt and then at Ella.

“I’m sorry Ella. I have to arrest you on suspicion of having committed the murder of Bryan Roderick.” He reached around his back where his cuffs hung on his belt, and then as if he remembered where he was and who he was talking to be stopped himself. He made an awkward gesture towards his car.

“I’m going to have to ask you to come with me, Ella.”

Once a week Judge Walker presided over hearings in the St. George courthouse, and for the rest of his working time dedicated himself to the chandler’s store he owned and ran on the waterfront. The court dealt with minor cases and covered such misdemeanours as the occasional damage caused by bar room fights among the fishermen, or else domestic disputes that arose from time to time. More serious cases, which occurred very rarely on St. George were referred to the state attorney’s office on the mainland, and if they went to trial they went before a court in Brunswick.

When he arrived at the police department Matt discovered that Baxter had already arranged for a hearing to take place before Judge Walker the next morning, to determine whether there was sufficient evidence for Ella to be handed over to the jurisdiction of the state police so that her case could be dealt with on the mainland. Until then Ella had been housed in the cells which were located in the rear of the building, where she was locked up by a regretful-looking Officer Williams. Matt asked to speak to Baxter in his office.

“So what’s this all about?” he asked as soon as they were alone.

“I didn’t have any choice in this,” Baxter said. “New evidence came to light this afternoon.”

“You found a body?”

“No, we didn’t do that. But we have an eye-witness. Says he saw Ella on Monday night at Bryan’s house. He gave a sworn statement saying he looked through the window and saw Bryan lying on the floor with blood all over him, and Ella standing over him with a gun in her hand.”

Matt was stunned into momentary silence. He felt like his world had been knocked off kilter, and that his hopes for himself and Ella had just been dashed to the ground and stamped into the dirt. When he managed to rearrange his thoughts Baxter was watching him with a sympathetic expression.

“I’m sorry Matt. I called by your office, but you weren’t there.” Matt looked around for a chair, and Baxter sat on the corner of his desk. “Who is this witness?” Matt asked at length. “Name’s Jerrod Gant. Lives out on the north road.” The name meant nothing to him. The shock of Baxter’s news had temporarily numbed Matt’s ability to think. The image that remained uppermost in his mind was that of Ella as she turned to him on the dock when Baxter had arrested her, some kind of silent appeal in her expression. But whether for help or understanding he couldn’t say. He’d told her to go with Baxter, and reassured her that it would be okay, that there had to be some kind of mistake, though the look Baxter had worn had put the lie to this.

Now his brain started to function again, and above all he was angry at himself. In all his years in court one thing he’d learned early on was that the most unreliable evidence of all in the investigation of any crime was often that provided by a witness. Witnesses were prone to human weakness. Unlike, say, hard forensic evidence, witnesses made mistakes, told lies, and sometimes brought their own set of motives to a case. The settlement of a grudge perhaps, or a basic character flaw like racism which had caused many a witness to lie under oath before now. The lesson Matt had learned early on was never accept anything a witness says at face value. Look hard at their testimony and examine it for inconsistencies, or self-serving motives. The fact that he had temporarily forgotten that lesson brought home to him how ready he still was to doubt Ella’s word, despite everything he’d said to her less than an hour ago. It was that more than anything else that made him angry. Now, as he thought about it one glaring question presented itself.

“How come it took thisjerrod Gant so long to come forward?” he asked Baxter. “It’s been nine days since anyone saw Bryan.”

“Gant said he didn’t want to get involved.”

“Didn’t want to get involved? Are you serious?” Matt said incredulously. “We’re talking about an eye-witness to a murder here, not somebody who ran a red light. So what changed his mind? Did he suddenly have an attack of conscience?”

Baxter looked uncomfortable and all at once Matt suspected that in fact Baxter had his own doubts about this Gant character. “You don’t believe this guy do you? This is some kind of smokescreen isn’t it? Come on Chief, what the hell is going on here?”

Baxter rounded on him angrily. You think I’d arrest Ella for no reason? I got a sworn statement here from a man who says he saw Ella in Bryan’s house that night. I’ve had Gant in here half the afternoon going over his story but he won’t budge a goddamned inch. Right now I don’t have any choice but to take him for his word. If he’s lying about this, then let the troopers figure it out.” He stared angrily at Matt, and then he ran a hand back through his short hair. When he spoke again his tone was more conciliatory. “Listen Matt, the way I figure it maybe this is the best thing. This way this whole damn mess gets sorted out before anyone else gets hurt.”

“Anyone else?”

“You heard about Ella catching that bluefin yesterday? Well, Jake was out there too and he was running down Ella’s lines. Bo Waterman saw the whole thing. He already thinks Ella killed his brother, how do you think he feels about Ella being the one that caught that fish? And how long do you think it’ll be before he does something really stupid? This is for Ella’s own protection as much as anything else.”

Matt thought that Baxter believed what he was saying, at least to some extent but that didn’t make him right. “Come on Chief, you can’t lock Ella up and claim it’s for her protection,” he protested.

“That isn’t what I said. Ella’s been arrested because a witness claims he saw her standing over Bryan’s body.”

“A witness you don’t even pretend to believe.”

“Maybe there’s some things that don’t add up, but that doesn’t mean Gant made all of this up.”

Matt wondered if Baxter had some other reason for wanting Ella handed over to the state authorities. He thought about the way Baxter had reacted when he’d raised the possibility of Kate Little being involved in Bryan’s disappearance, and though he didn’t like to think that Baxter would allow his personal feelings to interfere in an investigation, he couldn’t entirely shake off the idea.

But Baxter appeared intractable, and in the meantime Matt could see that it was pointless arguing and he would be better off preparing for Ella’s hearing in front of Judge Walker in the morning. “I want to see Ella, and I want to see a copy of Jerrod Gant’s statement,” he said.