Still Water by Stuart Harrison Page A

Boston his life had been empty. Since Kirstin had left him and taken Alex with her, he’d gone through a slow awakening, questioning the way he’d been devoured by some need to avenge Paulie. His life had been an empty shell, devoid of any true meaning. He’d begun to think he’d turned a corner since moving to St. George. In his daydreams Alex came to stay, and he got to know his son again, and had a chance to make up for the time that they had already lost. He admitted that Ella had figured in fantasies he’d entertained where the three of them got on like a house on fire, and for once the future had seemed welcoming.
    But now he felt the irresistible pull of forces about to wrench his dreams apart.
    When Matt arrived at the police department, Baxter was sitting on the edge of a desk in the outer office. He looked as if he hadn’t slept much.
    “Ella’s in my office,” he said. “We gave her a cup of coffee. I offered to get her a doughnut or something but she said she wasn’t hungry.”
    “That’s a nice gesture, Chief. Let me have a word with her, then you and I can talk and you can tell me what this is all about, how’s that sound?”
    “Fine by me.”
    As Matt headed for the office Baxter called out and Matt turned back to him. “And Matt? It wasn’t a gesture. I’ve known Ella just about all her life.”
    Matt nodded, chastened by the mild rebuke. There were good cops and then there were cops like Baxter, who lived and worked in small towns where they had grown up and lived all their lives, and who cared about the people it was their job to serve. “Understood. No offence meant, Chief.”
    “None taken.”
    He went through to the office. Ella looked up from her untouched coffee, and she appeared ill at ease. She met his gaze, then her eyes slid away, but a stubborn set to her mouth remained.
    You okay?” He drew up a chair in front of her. “This is getting to be a habit. So what’s this all about, any idea?”
    “Not really. All I know is it’s something to do with Monday night. Chief Baxter wanted to ask me what I did after Bryan left the dock. That’s when I told him I wanted you here.” She paused and looked uncertain. “Does this mean you’re my lawyer now? You being here I mean.”
    The same question had occurred to Matt. It seemed as if their relationship was about to shift again, and he wasn’t entirely comfortable about the change, but for now he let it go. “We can worry about that later. Right now I’m going to talk to the chief, then I’ll come back in here and you and I can talk and we’ll take it from there.”
    “Okay.”
    “Good.” He got up and went to the door, and turned, about to ask her if there was anything she thought he should know about, but somehow he couldn’t bring himself to ask the question. He guessed if there was she would have told him. “I’ll be right back,” he said.
    Outside, Baxter related everything that Carl Johnson had told him. As Matt listened he could guess at the questions that were turning over in Baxter’s mind, probably the same ones that were occurring to him, but which he thrust aside, reminding himself that he had to think of Ella as his client.
    “So, you have any ideas about this, Chief?”
    “Well, I’d like to hear what Ella has to say before I think too much about it.”
    “But you’re making something of this, right? I mean I guess there’s no law against Ella being out on her boat as far as I know?”
    “There’s no law against it,” Baxter agreed. “Listen, I don’t like this any more than you do. But you know as well as I do that I have to ask Ella what she was doing out there. Just about the last time anybody saw him alive, Bryan and Ella were arguing and she was pointing a rifle in his face. Everybody knows they’ve been banging heads over one thing and another lately. So when somebody comes in here with a story about hearing gunshots in the cove where Bryan happens to live, and seeing Ella out in the