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60

Matt

MATT BURST THROUGH THE doors of the sheriff’s office, quickly looked around. Everyone was gone. Even Addie Gallagher. The space was silent save for a soft whimper coming from the cell in the back.

Although sun streamed in through all the windows, the cell was dark, as if the shadows had all gone there to wait out the day.

Josh was nothing more than a silhouette pressed so tight against the brick of the wall on the left he might have been part of the original design. He sucked in a breath. “I tried to stop her, but I was too slow. I just … she hadn’t moved the entire time we’ve been in here. I didn’t expect her to …”

When Matt drew closer, he saw her on the floor, kneeling awkwardly behind the bars, lifeless. Held in an upright position by some freakish act of gravity. Her face was slick with blood, the flesh swollen, pulpy. The whites of her eyes were blinding against the dark red, and her mouth hung open like a black maw.

Josh sunk deeper into the shadows. “I didn’t touch her. She was on the bench. She’d been there, so quiet for so long I nearly forgot she was even in here with me. Then she jumped up and ran headfirst into the bars. Didn’t even try to slow down, like she meant to run through them or something, then she dropped. Landed on her knees, like she is now, and started banging her face into the metal. I … I grabbed her hair, tried to stop her, but …” His arm peeled away from the dark, he held out his hand. There was a clump of gray hair twisted in his fingers. He let it go, and it floated to the floor.

An image of Josh’s wife kneeling next to the bathtub popped into Matt’s head, his dead children floating beneath the water.

Matt cleared his throat. “Josh, I need you to step to the back of the cell, face the wall, and put your hands above your head.”

“I didn’t do this, Matt. I didn’t hurt her. You’re not pinning this on me.”

“Move to the back. Do as I said.”

Matt took out his handcuffs and keys and waited for Josh to move away before unlocking the cell door. He carefully stepped around Eisa Heaton’s body and got the cuffs on him, cinching them tight enough for Josh to let out a groan.

“This is on you, Matt. She clearly needed help, and you locked her in a cell. You let this happen. Who’s next? Me? You gonna get me killed?”

Behind him, Gabby screamed. She was at the door with Sally, her hand over her mouth.

Sally stepped closer. Her angry gaze jumped from Eisa Heaton to Josh Tatum. “You mother—”

“Sally, get that girl,” Matt interrupted. “Don’t let her out of your sight.”

Sally nodded and went back outside.

“Riley …” Gabby muttered softly before running to Matt’s office.

“Come on.” Matt gripped Josh’s arm and turned him toward the door.

“I want that lawyer you promised me. I’m supposed to get one, right? Where is he? Or is that a sham, too? You just buying time until you find a way to put a bullet in me? You sure look like you want to.”

“I’m keeping you safe.”

“The fuck you are.”

When Gabby returned from Matt’s office, her face was white. “She’s gone.”

“Where would she go? Why?”

“Your window is open. I don’t know. Maybe home?”

Sally came through the door with the girl. One hand on her shoulder, the other holding the hood of her sweatshirt. “We need to go. The fire crossed the street. We got maybe a few minutes.”

The girl took it all in fast, then wrapped her arms around herself.

Matt shuffled Josh toward the door. “Everyone in my cruiser. Now.”

Gabby didn’t move. “I’m not going anywhere without Riley.”

“We’ll find her, I promise,” Matt assured her. “Right now, we need to get someplace safe.”

“Ellie’s house is our backup,” Sally said. “She’s got a generator, radio, landline. If she can’t find us here, that’s where she’ll go.”

“Send Riley a text, tell her to meet us there,” Matt told Gabby.

“I thought texts aren’t working?”

“Some are. You never know. She couldn’t have gone far.”

“What about her?” Sally said, pointing at the body of Eisa Heaton.

Matt just shook his head.

Outside, the air was acidic, thick with smoke. Matt loaded Josh in the back seat, and Sally got in beside him. “Somebody has to ride back here.” She shrugged. “We can’t all fit up front.”

“Don’t hurt him.”

“I ain’t making no promises.”

Gabby rounded the car while frantically pecking away at her phone, Matt and the girl beside her.

Matt didn’t see Stu Peterson or the others until he twisted the key and started the motor.