Still Waters Read Online Free PDF Page A

see clear into her soul if he wanted to. That made him one dangerous man.
    “What time did you find the body?” he asked, his voice at once loud enough for her to hear clearly but quiet enough so his words wouldn't reach beyond the deputies.
    “I—I don't know,” she stammered. “I wasn't wearing a watch.”
    She could have added that her Rolex was reposing in a pawnshop in Atlanta, but she doubted the man in front of her would have cared. He didn't strike her as the sympathetic sort. His face could have been carved from stone for all the emotion it showed.
    “We figure it must have been about eight-thirty,” Deputy Kaufman said, recovering from the speechlessness Elizabeth had inspired in him.
    “That was more than two hours ago,” Dane said sharply.
    Kaufman rushed to the lady's defense. “She had to get a buggy ride from the Hauers' to her place to use the phone. You know how Aaron Hauer is about getting involved with outsiders. I don't imagine he hurried any. And then we had to wait for you. . . .” The deputy's explanation trailed off pathetically as his boss fixed him with a steely glare.
    Dane turned that same look on Elizabeth. “Did you see who killed him?”
    “No. I didn't see anybody, except . . .” Her voice faded away as her gaze flicked toward Jarvis. She rubbed a hand across her mouth.
    “He was like that when you found him?”
    “No. He was inside the car. I opened the door to talk to him and he—”
    She pressed her lips together and gagged down the lump of fear and revulsion that clogged her throat. She couldn't stop the tremor that rattled through her body or the image that flashed through her head—Jarvis falling dead at her feet.
On
her feet, to be precise. His head had landed smack on her toes. The blood from his wound had colored her feet so that she hadn't been able to distinguish her skin from the straps of her red sandals. Bile rose in her throat, and she shivered again.
    “So he looked just like this when you left here?” Jantzen asked, all business, no compassion.
    She forced herself to glance again at the dead man, expecting to see his glassy eyes staring at her in surprised disbelief, but all that met her gaze was a helmet of oily red hair. “No. That's not how he looked.”
    Dane turned to his chief deputy. “Who moved the body?” he demanded in a tone that did not invite confession.
    Kaufman shuffled his feet on the gravel and cracked his knuckles. “Jeez, Dane, you didn't see him,” he mumbled. “We couldn't leave him that way; it wasn't decent.”
    “Decent?” Dane questioned, his voice deadly calm.
    The deputy swallowed hard. “We just turned him over, is all. Hell, it wasn't as if the killer had left him right there.”
    Dane arched a brow, his temper in grave danger of boiling over. His voice grew even softer. “No? How do we know that, Mark?”
    Kaufman closed his eyes, wincing. All his explanations stuck in his throat.
    Dane turned on his heel and started to walk back toward the Lincoln.
    Elizabeth's mouth dropped open as Jantzen's words sank in. Furious, she bolted forward.
    “Just what do you mean by that crack?” she said, impulsively grabbing hold of his arm as she caught up with him.
    He looked down at her with disdain, his gaze lingering on her hand, pale and perfectly manicured against his tan skin. Elizabeth felt a shudder of awareness shake her. As casually as she could manage, she removed her hand from his arm and took a half-step away from him. The word “dangerous” drifted through her mind again. She lifted her chin and matched him regal look for regal look.
    “Are you implying I had something to do with Jarvis's death?”
    “I'm inferring that you may not be telling us the truth,” he said. “We won't know for certain until we question you.”
    Anger flashed in her eyes like quicksilver, and she took a deep breath, obviously intending to tell him just what she thought of him and his theory. Dane casually turned away and motioned for