Deep Waters (27 page)

“I'll come in before I open the shop,” Elias said.

Hank rested one hand on the top of the open car door. “Sort of peculiar, the way you were able to take on two guys in the dark. Not many folks could have managed that.”

Elias shrugged. “I've had a little training.”

“Would that be military training?”

“No. Hayden Stone.”

Hank exchanged a long, silent glance with Elias before he nodded again. “Yeah, that figures. Old Hayden Stone was a bit peculiar, too.”

Charity did not like Hank's speculative expression. “Now what are you implying, Chief?”

“Nothing. Just making another observation.” Hank lifted a hand and got into the car.

Jeff Collings started the engine and drove off toward town. The lights of the car glowed in the fog. They vanished as the vehicle turned a corner in the distance.

“It's cold out here.” Elias took Charity's arm. “Let's get back inside the house.”

“I didn't like the way Hank implied that you might have had something to do with the trouble around here. It's just a coincidence that you were here when Gwendolyn Pitt was killed.”

Elias smiled faintly. “It's Tybern's job to pay attention to coincidences. And you've got to admit that if I hadn't been around, there wouldn't have been the kind of trouble we had here tonight.”

“You can hardly be blamed if Rick Swinton tried to take revenge against you.”

“When one throws a pebble into a pond, the ripples travel outward for a great distance.”

Charity groaned as she stalked up the steps to the kitchen door. “I warn you, Elias, I am in no mood for one of your lectures on the nature of water. We've got other problems on our hands.”

“Such as?”

“Hank is reasonably discreet, but I can't say the same for Jeff. Rumors and gossip spread fast.”

“True.” He met her eyes as he opened the door. “I think it's safe to say that there's going to be a lot of talk about both of us tomorrow. Does that worry you?”

“Of course it worries me.” She stormed through the door and into the kitchen. “Do you think I want people saying that you're connected to the murder of a cult leader and other assorted acts of violence? You're new in town, Elias. It's always easier to blame outsiders when there's trouble in a small place like this.”

He seemed taken back by her words. “That's not the kind of talk I meant.”

“Well?” She planted her hands on her hips and swung around to confront him. “What the heck did you mean?”

Elias closed the door slowly and leaned back against it. He folded his arms across his chest and regarded her with one of his patented enigmatic stares. “I meant that there will be talk about the fact that I was not alone here tonight when those two men broke in. It must have been clear to Collings and Tybern that you were spending the night with me.”

Charity opened her mouth, closed it, and felt the heat rush into her face. “Oh, that.”

“Yes, that.”

“That won't be news to anyone,” she said gruffly. “I told you that Phyllis Dartmoor had already guessed that we were seeing each other, uh, socially.”

“It's one thing for people to suspect that we're dating on a casual basis. It's something else for the local constabulary to find you in my house at two in the morning.”

His serious tone of voice was beginning to worry her. “What's the difference?”

“The first is cause for comment and curiosity in any small town. The second confirms the fact that we're having an affair.”

“Does that bother you?”

“No. Does it bother you?”

She had a sudden, inexplicable urge to laugh. “Elias, are you worried about my reputation?”

“Maybe what I really want to know is your opinion on the matter. Do you think we're dating casually or are we having an affair?”

“Is this a trick question?”

Crazy Otis cackled.

“I don't know.” Elias unfolded his arms and started toward Charity. “What's the answer?”

“Can I circle both A and B?”

He wrapped his powerful hands around her forearms. “Damn it, Charity, tell me if what we have is important to you or not.”

“I'm amazed that you even have to ask.” She put her hands up to frame his hard face. “Elias, you make me a little crazy at times, and I worry about you and that Tal Kek Chara stuff, but I promise you that our relationship is very important to me.”

He pulled her tightly to him. “That's okay, then.”

She waited, crushed against his chest, for him to say that what they had together was equally important to him.

“When I touch you, the water between us is so clear, it's as if it weren't even there,” he muttered into her hair.

Charity stifled a small sigh and wrapped her arms around his neck. With Elias, a philosophical remark on the nature of water was probably equivalent to a declaration of undying passion from another man.

Probably.

She hoped that was true because something warned her that it might be all that she was going to get from him.

A whisper of panic flickered somewhere deep inside her as Elias bent his head to kiss her. She decided it was just leftover nerves from the night's scary events. When Elias's mouth moved on hers, the spark of claustrophobia faded back into nothingness.

But it left its fingerprints in the form of a tiny chill that did not quite vanish. Not even when Elias scooped her up in his arms and carried her back into the bedroom.

“Do you know what it did to me to see that creep's arm around your throat?” Elias said very softly.

“It's okay, Elias. You saved me.”

“Tomorrow I'm going to show you a couple of things.”

“Things? You mean Tal Kek Chara things?”

“Not the whole of it. Just a couple of simple moves that you can use to get out of a situation like that.”

She started to tell him that she had no intention of getting into any more such situations, but she held her tongue. She sensed that he needed to teach her the martial arts moves in order to gain some peace of mind for himself.

“Okay. But nothing complicated, all right? I've never been the athletic type.”

“Nothing complicated,” he agreed. He lowered her gently to the futon and pulled her into his arms.

She allowed herself to relax into the warm safety of Elias's embrace.

She found Newlin hard at work when she walked through the door of Whispers.

“Morning, Newlin.”

Newlin looked up from the display of the latest Suzanne Simmons title that he was arranging on a wall rack. “Hey, Charity. I heard that there was some trouble out at Elias Winters's place last night and that you were there.”

“You heard about it already?”

“Something about two guys breaking in and trying to beat up Elias.”

Charity wrinkled her nose as she went into the back room. “News travels fast around here.”

“Saw Jeff Collings on the way to work. He told me what happened. He said Chief Tybern thinks Rick Swinton hired some out-of-town toughs to kick Elias's ass. Jeff said that it was the bad guys who got their asses kicked.”

“A colorful but accurate summary of events.” Charity stuffed her purse into a drawer.

“Jeff says Elias knows some kind of weird martial arts stuff that Hayden Stone taught him.”

“Uh-huh. He's teaching me a couple of simple moves.”

Newlin came to stand in the office doorway. “Think Elias would teach me whatever it was that he used on those guys last night?”

Charity looked up, startled. The tentative hope on Newlin's narrow face surprised her. “You want to learn that Tal Kek Chara stuff?”

“Is that what it's called?”

“I think so. Has something to do with a philosophy that uses water to make its points. Pretty murky, if you ask me. You'd have to ask Elias for the details.”

“Well, that's just it, see.” Newlin glanced down at the floor and then raised his eyes to meet hers. “He's kind of different. You get the feeling you shouldn't just barge in and ask him anything he doesn't want to tell you.”

Charity smiled wryly. “Aloof is the word you're searching for, I believe.”

“Huh?”

“Aloof, remote, self-contained.” Charity frowned in thought. “Intimidating, perhaps. But just between you and me, Newlin, Elias isn't nearly as unsociable as he appears on the surface. If you want to study the Way of Water, ask him to teach you.”

“You don't think he'd mind?”

“You won't know until you ask. But be warned, you're going to learn more about water than you probably ever wanted to know.”

“Water, huh? Okay. Hey, Charity?”

“Hmm?”

“You and Winters.” Newlin shifted awkwardly in the doorway. “Mind if I ask if you two, are like, well, you know, a couple? I mean, it's all over town that you were with him last night.”

“Ah.” So Elias had been right, Charity thought ruefully. Rumors of a torrid affair were no doubt being swapped at the post office at that very minute.

At least she was maintaining an unblemished record in the scandal department. For a town the size of Whispering Waters Cove, confirmation of a passionate liaison between herself and the new mystery man had to be right up there with walking out on her own engagement party last summer. It was certainly a lot more exciting so far as she was concerned.

“Jeff says you called Chief Tybern from Winters's place at two o'clock in the morning.” Newlin turned a deep shade of red. “And it looked like, well, you know.”

“I know,” Charity said dryly.

Newlin started to back out of the doorway. “Sorry, I know it's none of my business.”

Charity took pity on him. “Don't worry about it. To answer your question, Elias and I are seeing each other socially.”

Newlin nodded sagely. “Socially.”

“Right.” Charity glanced at the order forms on her desk. “How's Arlene?”

Newlin shifted gears with enthusiasm. “Guess what? Bea hired Arlene to help out at the café. She said that business has picked up so much here on the pier that she needs someone to run the new espresso machine full-time.”

“Does this mean you and Arlene plan to stick around Whispering Waters Cove for a while?”

“We're sorta getting used to the place, if you know what I mean. Besides, it's not like the two of us have anywhere else to go.” Newlin hesitated. “It's okay if I keep on working here at Whispers, isn't it?”

“Sure. You're doing a great job, and if business stays brisk, I can keep you on for the winter.”

Newlin's anxious look eased. “Thanks. Well, guess I'd better get back to work.”

The shop bell clanged as someone slammed open the front door.

“Newlin? Newlin, where are you?” Arlene's voice sounded shrill. “Is Charity here yet? Something awful is happening down at Elias's shop.”

“What in the world?” Charity stood in the doorway of the back room. “What's going on?”

Arlene, looking neat and tidy in a Whispering Waters
Café apron, stared at her wide-eyed. “Ted just came running past the café with Yappy. They said some guy walked into Charms & Virtues and took a swing at Elias.”

“Oh, my God, not again.” Charity bolted for the front door.

12
 
 

He who observes a still pond closely will notice that there is no such thing as an isolated event. Everything that happens within the pond affects all aspects of life beneath its surface.

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

Crazy Otis shrieked in outrage as Elias reeled back against the perch. The stand that supported the fake tree limb shuddered under the impact.

Elias hit the floor.

“Take it easy, Otis.” Elias levered himself up on one elbow and gingerly touched the side of his mouth. His fingers came away wet with his own blood. He glanced at the streak of crimson and then looked up at Justin Keyworth, who was standing over him with clenched fists. “Satisfied?”

“No, you sonofabitch. I'm not satisfied.” Justin's blunt features were twisted with rage. His cheeks bore the shadow of two day's growth of beard. His hand-tailored, cream-colored shirt was badly creased and
stained with sweat. “It's your fault, and by God you're going to pay.”

A great weariness settled on Elias. “What do you want from me, Keyworth?”

“I want to know what you said to my father that made him try to kill himself, you bastard.”

“I don't have an answer for you.”

“You're damn well going to come up with one,” Justin said through clenched teeth. “I read Dad's suicide note. It mentioned your name and then said that the past could not be changed. What did you do to him?”

“I didn't touch him.”

“Goddamn liar.” Justin reached down to haul Elias to his feet. “It was your fault. I know it was.”

Otis screamed and flapped his wings in agitation as Elias allowed himself to be hauled to his feet.