Deep Waters

that caught my eye."
    Startled, Charity broke her silence. "What empty tape player?"
    It was Tybern who answered. "Found it in a half-open drawer. Doesn't mean much because there was no tape in it. Apparently Gwendolyn Pitt routinely recorded her business meetings. We found a box of tapes, but I doubt if they'll be of much use."
    Charity frowned. "I suppose it would have been too much to hope that she had taped her own murder."
    "Afraid so." Tybern smiled wryly. "No one ever makes things easy for the people who have to clean up the mess. Well, that's my job. To clean it up. Meanwhile, now that we've taken care of the formalities, I'd like to say thanks on behalf of a lot of people, Winters."
    "Forget it," Elias said.
    Charity glanced at him. "What did you do?"
    Hank raised his brows. "Don't you know? Thanks to Winters, the Voyagers are going to get back most of their money."
    "What are you talking about?" Charity demanded.
    Elias shrugged. "Let's just say that Rick Swinton decided to make amends."
    "I don't believe that for one minute," Charity said.
    "Neither does anyone else." Hank chuckled. "Everyone knows it was Winters who somehow convinced Swinton to do the right thing and put the Voyagers' funds into a trust account to be dispersed by the bank. No one's dumb enough to ask Winters just how he pulled off that neat little trick."
    Charity was dumbfounded. "Swinton turned over the funds?"
    "Yep." The lines around Hank's eyes crinkled. "I had a talk with Seth Broad down at the bank around noon. He says that Swinton walked in with Winters right behind him at about ten-twenty this morning and announced he wanted to see to it that the Voyagers got their money back."
    "Amazing," Charity breathed.
    "Swinton had a couple hundred grand wired in from a Seattle account and signed it over to the bank's trust department," Hank continued. "He also very kindly provided the bank with a list of the amounts each Voyager had contributed to the so-called cause. The trust department will take it from there."
    Charity looked at Elias. He gave her his mysterious smile. His eyes warned her not to say too much.
    "That's just terrific," she said brightly.
    "You can say that again." Hank picked up his thick, white coffee mug and took a long, weary swallow. "Not all of those Voyagers were from out of town, you know. My cousin's daughter got involved with Gwendolyn's crowd. Turned over a thousand bucks to her. That money was supposed to help pay for this year's college expenses."
    Charity grinned. "So Elias is a local hero, hmm?"
    "If he decides to run for the town council, he'll be a shoo-in." Hank chuckled. "Hell, I'll vote for him myself."
    "That won't be necessary. I'm not interested in politics." Elias got to his feet. "If you're finished with us, Chief, we'll be on our way."
    "That should do it," Hank said. "If I have any more questions, I'll give you a call."
    "Do you have any suspects yet?" Charity asked.
    "Just between you and me," Hank looked at her over the rims of his reading glasses. "I'm up to my ass in suspects."
    "Come on, Charity, you know he can't talk about the case." Elias took her arm in a firm grip. "Let's get out of here and let the man do his job."
    She managed to keep her curiosity in check until they reached the sidewalk in front of the station. As they walked toward her car, she gave Elias a sidelong glance. "So, you just took a quick look inside Swinton's motor home to see if he was there last night?"
    "He wasn't."
    "You don't say. I've got to hand it to you, Elias. That was very, very smooth. You told Chief Tybern the truth without quite telling him the whole truth."
    "Trust me, Tybern didn't want the whole truth. He's smart enough to know that some things are better left alone. He's satisfied with the results this morning."
    "In other words, he doesn't intend to ask you to explain the method you used to persuade Rick Swinton to turn over the Voyagers' funds to the bank."
    "I didn't lay a hand on Swinton."
    "Hah. You may not have touched him, but I'll bet you intimidated him something fierce."
    "Some people are easier to intimidate than others." Elias reached down to open the car door. "I just mentioned to him that keeping all of the money he had siphoned out of the Voyagers' account could look like a pretty good motive for murder to some people."
    Charity blinked. "Whew. You play rough."
    He straightened and braced one hand on the roof of the car. His eyes met hers, searching without betraying his own thoughts.