Deep Waters (25 page)

“I know,” Elias said.

“Prime view land. Naturally the developer wanted it. I figured all I had to do was get Gwen to sell me her half-interest. Then I could turn around and sell the whole parcel to the developer.”

“For a small fortune?” Charity clarified.

Leighton shot her a quick glance. “Let's just say for a very nice chunk of change. But before I could make my offer to Gwen, she showed up with those damn Voyagers. I couldn't figure out what the hell she was doing. Then I realized she had to be using the cult to milk investment funds out of people dumb enough to
believe alien spaceships would come to take them away.”

“Did you approach her about selling you her half-interest in the campground?” Charity asked.

“Of course.” Leighton waved a hand. “Figured we could do business together, in spite of the past. Whatever else she was, Gwen was a real first-rate businesswoman.”

“What happened?” Elias asked.

Leighton shook his head. “She admitted up front that she was running a con on the Voyager crowd. Said they were all getting what they deserved. I told her I wanted to buy out her half of the campground. She agreed, provided she could use the property until the fifteenth of August. She said that by the middle of August she'd have collected the money she needed to finance some investments she had in mind. We had a deal. Or so I thought.”

“She agreed to let you buy out her half-interest in the campground?”

“Right.” Leighton mopped his brow again. “I offered her a fair price for her share.”

“You mean you offered her a price based on land values in the current Whispering Waters Cove real estate market.” Elias took a sip of his wine. “Not what the land would be worth to a major resort developer.”

Leighton scowled. “Business is business.”

Elias shrugged. “Water is water, but no two waves are the same. Some break harmlessly against the shore. Others conceal riptides that can carry the unwary out to sea.”

Leighton looked briefly baffled. “Uh-huh. Well, to make a long story short, Gwen came to see me a couple of weeks ago. Said she'd heard the rumors about the resort development. Said the fact that you were here in town, Winters, meant that something really
big must be in the air. I thought she was going to renege on our deal.”

Charity toyed with her fork. “But instead she just raised the price for her share of the campground, right?”

Leighton frowned. “How did you know?”

“I sort of saw it coming,” Charity said gently.

“Wish I had.” Leighton sighed heavily. “Gwen wanted five times what I had offered her for that land. I said it wasn't worth it. She claimed that, based on what she knew about Elias Winters, it was worth ten times as much as she was asking.”

“You let her convince you that even if you paid her five times the value of her share of the campground, you would still make a fortune when you sold to the developer?” Charity asked.

“I know it sounds stupid in hindsight.” Leighton's soft, plump hand bunched into a thick fist. “But it wasn't just Gwen who kept the pressure on. I was getting almost daily calls from the representative of the phony developer.”

Elias watched him. “Swinton?”

“Probably. He kept increasing his offer for the land if I could just get title to the whole piece. He said his people wanted to be certain they could get that one parcel. Said the developer was willing to pay top dollar for the old campground if the deal was handled quietly so as not to drive up the values of the surrounding properties.”

Charity watched him intently. “So you kept upping your offer to Gwendolyn?”

Leighton shuddered. “I told myself I had to get hold of that land, whatever it took. It was like a fever or something. I lost my sense of perspective. Then the developer's representative called again. Offered to make me a partner in the resort deal.”

Elias watched him intently. “All you had to do was put up a large chunk of investment cash, right?”

Leighton closed his eyes. “I went way out on a limb.”

“Let me guess what happened next,” Elias said. “You turned over whatever cash you had on hand, then took out a loan to finance the rest of the cost of your partner's share.”

“That's it in a nutshell,” Leighton admitted. “Got in way over my head. We closed the deal on the morning of the fifteenth. The funds from my account were transferred into what I thought was the developer's business account that day. Gwen came to see me late that afternoon. To gloat.”

“That's when she told you that she had just taken you to the cleaners,” Elias concluded.

Leighton's head drooped. He came to a halt in front of the window and gazed despondently out into the darkened garden. “She took everything I had. I'll have to file for bankruptcy. Jennifer is furious. It's hard to believe, but I'm beginning to wonder if she married me for my money.”

Charity raised her eyes to the ceiling but said nothing.

“You do realize,” Elias said very softly, “that what you've just told us would constitute a motive for murder to some people's way of thinking?”

Leighton whirled around, his eyes huge behind his glasses. “I didn't kill Gwen. God knows I wanted to for a while there, but I didn't.”

“Calm down,” Elias said. “I'm not making any accusations. It's Chief Tybern's job to sort out the alibis. But if I were you, I'd come up with a good one.”

“An alibi?” Leighton was visibly rocked. “But I wasn't anywhere near the campground the night Gwen was killed. You want to know where I was? I went
out and got rip-roaring drunk at the Cove Tavern. I walked home sometime around midnight.”

Elias shrugged. “Like I said, that's between you and Tybern.”

Leighton took a step forward and halted. “I came here because I'm desperate. I'm begging you to give me a piece of whatever action you're putting together for your clients.”

Elias got slowly to his feet. “For the last time, there is no deal. I'm sorry, Pitt. I can't help you.”

Leighton shook his head in disbelief. “There's got to be something left. Jennifer will leave me, I know she will. I hate to admit it, but I … I think she's been seeing someone else lately.”

Charity was alarmed by the dejection in Leighton's face. She glanced at Elias. “The Voyagers are going to get at least some of their money back. Maybe Leighton could put in a claim for the amount he lost, too.”

Elias shook his head. “Leighton's money didn't go into the Voyagers' account or into Swinton's. I checked the recent records, remember? There were no deposits at all on the fifteenth. In fact, there's only a couple hundred thousand total in those accounts. Nothing the size of what Leighton just described.”

“On the fifteenth, Gwendolyn had the escrow company transfer the money I paid for that land into her private account, not her business account,” Leighton said. “It will become part of her estate. We didn't have any kids, but she's got a couple of brothers and a sister. Everything will go to them. They've all hated my guts since the divorce. You can bet they sure as hell won't give any of the money back to me.”

Charity bit her lip. “It sounds like a mess, Leighton.”

“I'm going to have to start over,” he whispered. “At my age. I can't believe it.”

He turned and walked heavily toward the door.

“Don't forget your shoes,” Charity said.

“What? Oh. My shoes.” Leighton got his loafers back on with an effort. Then he opened the door and plodded out into the foggy night.

Silence descended. Charity waited until she heard Leighton's big car pull slowly out of the drive. She met Elias's eyes across the low table. “What do you think?”

“I think Tybern was right when he said that he was up to his ass in suspects.”

“Do you really believe that Leighton might have killed Gwendolyn?”

“He's certainly got a solid motive.” Elias rose to his feet and picked up some of the dishes. “But so do a lot of people, including all those disappointed Voyagers. Ready for dessert?”

“That depends. What are you serving? Habanero chiles stuffed with wasabi ice cream?”

“Relax.” Elias set the dishes in the sink and opened the freezer compartment of the old refrigerator. “Just some homemade lime sorbet.”

Crazy Otis stretched his wings and gave Charity a baleful look. “Heh, heh, heh.”

Charity got to her feet, collected the last of the dishes, and started toward the sink. “Okay, I'll take some sorbet. But just for the record, are you satisfied yet, Elias?”

“No.”

He took the plastic container of sorbet out of the freezer, dipped a spoon in, and turned toward Charity.

“Have a bite,” he said in a deep, sexy voice. “It will clear the palate.”

Charity folded her arms and leaned warily back against the refrigerator door. “I'll just bet it will.”

Elias teased her lower lip with the tip of the spoon. “Open wide.”

The fragrance of lime was fresh and invigorating. Against her better judgment, Charity parted her lips.

Elias smiled slowly. His eyes narrowed as he slipped the spoon into her mouth.

The lime exploded on her tongue, icy fireworks that sent wildly conflicting signals to her senses. She breathed deeply and watched as he took a bite of sorbet for himself from the same spoon.

“Mind telling me what this is all about?” she asked.

“This is about not being sweet.” Elias set the spoon down on the counter and turned back to her. He planted both hands on the refrigerator door on either side of her head.

Charity's pulse went into high gear. A tiny shiver of excitement lanced through her. “What isn't sweet?”

“Me. Us. What we have together. Whatever the hell else it is, it isn't sweet.”

He slid one bare foot between her legs, lowered his mouth to hers, and crushed her against the hard refrigerator door.

11
 
 

The observer must be prepared for the fact that the ripples in a disturbed pool will always crash against the rocks.

—“On the Way of Water,” from the journal of Hayden Stone

Her mouth was still cool and fragrant from the effects of the lime sorbet. Elias felt Charity's lips part beneath his. He heard her small, muffled cry of excitement as she responded to him. The thrill of it reached deep into his body.

“We didn't finish dessert,” she whispered.

“This is dessert. Like I said, it won't be sweet.” He took his hands off the refrigerator door and fitted them to her waist.

He lifted her, pressed her back against the blank white surface, used the weight of his body to pin her. He moved his hands lower. She clutched at him, burying her fingers in his hair, and kissed him with delicate greed.

Heat from a fire hotter than that of the most exotic chile peppers surged through him. Elias cupped the rounded tops of her thighs and squeezed gently. Then he reached down to find the hem of her skirt.

He heard her draw in her breath as he shoved the folds of the fabric up to her hips. She was not wearing stockings. Her skin was supple and warm and incredibly soft beneath his hands.

“Wrap your legs around me,” he whispered.

“This will never work.”

“Hold on tight.”

He felt her answering shiver of response and gloried in it. One firm, curved thigh slid slowly up along the length of his denim-clad leg. The exquisite caress was nearly his undoing. He fought for his self-control.

“Now the other one,” he said against her throat. “You won't fall. I've got you.”

“Oh, my God.” She clung to him as she circled his waist with her bare legs.

The long turquoise blue skirt was a tropical pool of color around her hips. The scent of her arousal was a drug that threatened to destroy the grip he had on his own response.

“Elias.” Charity clenched her thighs around him as he traced a random pattern between her legs. Her fingers dug into his shoulders. “Ohmygod.”

He eased two fingers beneath the edge of the panties and stroked deeply. She was slick and wet and tight. He could feel his erection pushing hard against the front of his jeans.

Charity released his head and tore at his shirt. She got it open and immediately began sliding her warm palms across his chest. Her fingers tangled in the crisp hair. She tugged gently. He sucked in his breath.

“You feel good.” Urgency hummed in her voice. “Very hard. Very strong.”

“Not too big?”

She gave a choked laugh. “Just right. Perfect.”

“You're the one who feels good.” He cupped the plump, hot folds that shielded her secrets. “Soaking wet, in fact.”

“This isn't fair. You have all the advantage. Let's go to the bedroom.”

“No, right here. Unzip my jeans.”

Her hand slipped to the fastening. She freed him, took him into her hand, and then hesitated.

“Front pocket of my shirt. You do it.”