Dangerous Depths by Kathy Brandt Page B

her.”
    “Who would want to hurt Elyse?”
    “I’m betting she was into something that
threatened someone.”
    “You really think anyone would try to kill
her over the environment? I seriously doubt it,” he said.
    “People kill for all kinds of reasons,” I
said. “Did Elyse talk to you about anything she was up to?”
    “You know, Elyse. She is always fighting one
cause or another. Lately it was a lot of talk about that kid,
Jillian.
    “What did she tell you?” I asked.
    “Elyse was concerned about Jillian’s parents
sending her to that school. She said she was going to talk to them
about it. Certainly nothing so extreme that they would feel
threatened. Though I suppose they might have worried that Jillian
would simply take off if Elyse convinced her to. I know she’d spent
a night on Elyse’s boat. She’d had a fight with her folks. I guess
a parent could get pretty upset about their kid being gone all
night.”
    I remembered the night Jilli had stayed with
Elyse. She’d come over there on the verge of tears. We fixed dinner
together. By the time we’d finished eating, Elyse and I had found a
way to make Jilli laugh.
    “You’re way off base here snooping around her
office, and there is nothing more I can tell you,” Reidman
said.
    “I want to know what Elyse was doing. I don’t
think she’d object to my being in her office.”
    “You need to let it go, Hannah,” he said. I
wondered why he cared.
    “What difference does it make to you,
Alex?”
    “None at all,” he said. “Is Dunn going along
with this?”
    “I’m not letting this go until I find out
what happened on the Caribbe .” I avoided the question about
Dunn.
    We walked out together, Reidman making a
point of engaging the lock and pulling the door closed behind us.
Kind of proprietary, I thought. Maybe a bit too protective. Fine. I
had what I needed. Besides, I could get back in if I wanted.
    Reidman was heading down the sidewalk as I
climbed into the Rambler. When I passed the bank a block down from
Elyse’s office, Edmund Carr was just opening it up for the day and
holding the door for Reidman and a few other anxious customers. I
honked and waved. Carr smiled and waved back. Reidman ignored
me.

Chapter
9
    It was almost ten by the time I snuck into my
office. I hoped Dunn wouldn’t notice. Fat chance.
    “Good morning, Detective.” He stood at the
door, hands on his hips.
    “Morning, Chief. Sorry I’m late. Kind of a
long day yesterday. I overslept.”
    “No need to be making excuses. Alex Reidman
called. He said he ran into you at Elyse Henry’s office.”
    Christ, he must have called Dunn the minute
he’d walked into the bank.
    “What’s his problem?” I asked.
    “I believe he was concerned that you were
trespassing, Detective.”
    “Jeez, I knew the guy was a control freak but
this is silly. Elyse is a friend.”
    “I know, Hannah, and I know what you were
doing. Let it go. Snyder has been chomping at the bit to get out of
the office. I want you to focus on those thefts. Stark and Mahler
have already gone over to the west end. But they can’t conduct
their investigation without help. Snyder’s waiting for you down at
the dock.”
    I tried not to blame Dunn for being so
shortsighted. We were notoriously understaffed in the department,
and he’d been getting a lot of pressure about the boat thefts.
People were worried about the effects on tourism. But dammit, why
couldn’t he see that there could be someone out to get Elyse? I’d
help investigate the thefts, but I wasn’t about to let it interfere
with finding out who had sabotaged the Caribbe. Besides, I
was sick of being told to “let it go.”
    When I got down to the docks, Snyder had the Wahoo gassed up and was hobbling around on deck cleaning the
damned boat. He didn’t see me coming. He was reaching for something
down in the hold when he suddenly stood up and bent over, held onto
his side, and grimaced.
    “Snyder,” I said, stepping onto the