Charity touched her throat as she stared at the two prone figures. A baseball bat and what looked like a tire iron littered the front room.
“Are you all right?” Elias asked. His voice still sounded strangely neutral.
“What?” She turned to gaze at him. “Yes. Yes, I’m all right.”
“Did he hurt you?”
“No. I’m okay. Really. Oh, Elias.” With a cry, she threw herself against him.
His arm closed around her, fiercely protective. The panic receded.
After a moment, Charity raised her head and stared at the loop of leather. “What is that thing?”
“It’s called Tal Kek Chara. I’ll tell you about it some other time.” Elias released her gently. He eyed the shirt she had loosely buttoned around herself. “Why don’t you call Tybern? And then you’d better get dressed.”
Crazy Otis snorted. Charity glanced at him and saw that his cage cover had come partially off during the struggle. He leered at her.
“Dirty bird.” Charity shook off the dazed sensation that had settled on her. “Tybern. Right.” She lunged for the phone on the kitchen wall. “By the way, I’m not the only one who should put on some clothes before the cops get here, Elias. That Tal Kek Chara thing doesn’t even qualify as a thong bikini.”
“I’ll get dressed in a minute.” Elias crouched beside one of the fallen men.
Charity hesitated, her hand hovering over the phone. “Where did you learn to fight like that?”
“Hayden and I moved around a lot out in the Pacific. Some of the places we did business were not what you’d call tropical paradises.”
“I see.” Charity swallowed and started to punch in the telephone number that would summon Hank Tybern.
“I don’t like guests who fail to remove their shoes before they come into my house,” Elias said as he began to go through the pockets of his victims.
Crazy Otis peered out through the bars of his cage. “Heh, heh, heh.”
Half an hour later Charity stood with Elias and Hank Tybern in the front drive. They all watched as Jeff Collings, Hank’s only officer, bundled the handcuffed intruders into the backseat of one of the town’s two police cars.
“A couple of small-time thugs,” Hank said. “Not what you’d call pros.”
“That’s Swinton’s style,” Elias said. “Small time. He wouldn’t have the kind of contacts it takes to find heavy muscle. And even if he did, he wouldn’t want to pay for it.”
“Swinton?” Charity whirled around to look at him. “You think Rick Swinton was behind this?”
He shrugged. “That’s my best guess.”
Hank studied him with a shrewd look. “Be my guess, too. Unless you’ve got some other enemies you forgot to tell me about?”
“None that would go this route.”
Charity scowled at him. He sounded far too philosophical on the subject for her taste. “What does that mean?”
Elias gave her a humorless smile. “It’s a good policy to study the reflections of your enemies in still water. I’ve always made it a habit to know mine well. This was an act of simple revenge, nothing more. Swinton, being Swinton, wouldn’t want to take any personal risks, so he hired someone else to do the heavy lifting.”
Hank folded his notebook and stuffed it back into his shirt pocket. “Got to admit Swinton’s the most likely candidate. Probably wanted to teach you a lesson. He wasn’t real happy with the Mr. Nice Guy role you convinced him to play.”
“No,” Elias agreed. “He wasn’t happy.”
Hank nodded. “I’ll go out to the campground and have a talk with him.”
“I’ll go with you,” Elias said.
“The hell you will,” Hank said dryly. “You let me do my job, Winters. You’ve already done enough tonight. It hasn’t escaped my notice that we’ve had more trouble around here since you hit town than we’ve had in the past ten years.”
Charity was incensed. “You can’t blame any of this on Elias. You said, yourself, he did everyone a favor when he forced Rick Swinton to pay back the money. And it’s hardly Elias’s fault that those two vicious men broke into his house and tried to brain him with a baseball bat and a tire iron. If you think for one minute—”
“It’s all right, Charity.” Elias looked amused. “I’m sure Hank was just making a casual observation.”
“It sounded more like a nasty insinuation to me,” she snapped.
Hank grinned briefly. “Winters is right. I wasn’t implying a cause and effect connection. Just a simple observation.”
Charity glared at him. “Well, it would be more accurate to observe that the real trouble in Whispering Waters Cove started after the Voyagers hit town.”
Hank nodded. “Can’t argue with that. Gwen Pitt and Swinton have plenty to answer for around here, and now one of ’em’s dead. An interesting turn of events.” He started toward his car and then paused. “Looks like I’ll need you to stop by my office again, Winters. More paperwork. Say tomorrow morning?”
“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 in
to 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.
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