Deep Waters

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