Deep Waters

ourselves. See if we can turn up a few clues."
    "Clues?" Wariness turned to outright alarm. "Are you nuts? This thing is over. Tybern's a good cop. He wouldn't have arrested Pitt unless he had solid grounds."
    She turned in the kitchen and looked at him over the top of the counter. Her eyes were shadowed with concern. "I don't care what kind of evidence they found in the trunk of Leighton's car. I don't think he killed Gwen and Rick. That means that there's still a killer running around loose. And as long as that's true, you're at risk. Because if Leighton Pitt can prove his innocence, you're the next most likely suspect."
    "The hell I am."
    "It's true, Elias. We have to do something to protect you. We need more information. If Swinton was blackmailing Phyllis, he may have been blackmailing others. It's a reasonable assumption, isn't it?"
    She was doing this for him, Elias reminded himself. He took consolation from that knowledge.
    "Just where do you suggest we start?" he asked cautiously.
    "The old Rossiter place." She dumped the dishes in the sink. "I would feel better if we could find someone else who was involved with Swinton. Someone who may have had something to hide. It will be dark soon. I want to take a quick look around Rick Swinton's little love nest."
    The old Rossiter house was more than a quarter mile from the main road. It was hunkered down in the heavy shadows of a thick stand of fir. The rising slope of a hillside loomed over it, concealing the dilapidated structure from casual view.
    It was a miserable-looking little cabin, Elias thought. Even at night it was plain that no one had done any repairs in years. The eaves drooped precariously over a back porch that looked as though it was on the verge of total collapse.
    "So much for worrying about someone seeing our flashlights," Charity said cheerfully as she walked around the hood of the Jeep to stand beside Elias. "You see? I told you this would be a piece of cake."
    He looked at her. She was dressed in a pair of jeans and a dark sweater. Her hair was tied in a ponytail. There was an air of anticipation and enthusiasm about her that made him distinctly uneasy. "For the record, I want to go down as saying that, while I appreciate your motives here, I'm not real happy with this plan of yours."
    "Did I carp and complain when you searched Swinton's motor home?"
    "Yes, you did. Endlessly."
    "Well, that was different. That night we had half the town parked nearby. Here we're all alone."
    "Charity, this is not necessary. The odds of finding anything here are slim to nothing."
    "You never know. It's a place to start. Come on, let's go inside." She walked determinedly toward the sloping back porch.
    Elias thought wistfully of his original plans for the evening. Food and sex. Nice, basic, elemental things. By now he and Charity should have been in bed. But he could tell that there was no dissuading her from her goal.
    Reluctantly, he followed her to the porch steps. Charity was already at a window. She trained the flashlight at the bottom of the sill.
    "Do you know how to pry open a window?" she asked, fiddling with the latch.
    "Why don't you try the door, first?" Elias crossed the porch to the back door. "I doubt if anyone would bother to lock this place."
    He gripped the knob and twisted firmly. The door opened with a loud groan.
    "Good thinking," Charity said.
    "Thank you. A man likes to feel useful around the place." Elias led the way into the small cottage.
    Charity followed quickly. The scent of mildew was strong.
    "Whew." Charity made a half-choking sound. "It smells terrible in here. Not exactly a perfumed love bower, is it?"
    "No." There was a feeling of unending dampness inside the house, as if it had not been aired out for years. "Maybe Rick's partners liked the sleazy ambience."
    The flashlights picked up grimy gray covers draped over heavy furniture that was probably rotting quietly into the floor. The inside of the brick fireplace was blackened, but there was no sign that anyone had used it recently.
    "Must have been a little chilly for Rick and his friends," Elias said.
    "I suppose they generated their own heat." The floorboards groaned as Charity walked to a doorway and peered around the corner. "One small bedroom and a bath. That's it."
    "What are you looking for?"
    "I don't know. Let's start with the bedroom. I gather that's where most of the action took place."
    Without waiting for a response, she disappeared around the corner. A couple of