CHAPTER 18 MATT

18

Matt

MATT SAID NOTHING AS he eased down the steps at the Tatum house, carefully placing his feet as close to the wall as possible to avoid any noisy boards. He pulled back the slide on his gun to chamber a round, cursing himself for not readying the weapon earlier. In the otherwise silent house, there was no mistaking that sound, and he expected to hear something from Josh—movement, the draw of a breath—something, but the downstairs had gone as quiet as the second floor.

When Matt reached the bottom step, he came around the corner into the living room cautiously at a low crouch, hugging the wall, his finger on the trigger guard. Josh wasn't in there—Matt spotted him outside through the open front door, sitting on the stoop with his back to the house.

Matt slipped his finger from the guard to the trigger and tried to steady his breathing. He'd never shot anyone and didn't want today to be the first. "Josh, I need to see your hands! Raise them slowly, put them behind your head, and interlace your fingers!"

Josh didn't do that. Instead, he turned and faced Matt. The man's face was red and streaked with tears. He tried to speak between sobs. "Why … would Lynn do that?!? How could she? I was only gone for maybe twenty minutes! If I'd known … I … I never would have left her alone. Never! You gotta believe me!"

He spotted the gun in Matt's hand and swallowed; quickly started shaking his head. "It wasn't me, Matt! I'd never hurt them!"

Matt kept his finger on the trigger, but lowered the weapon, pointing the barrel at the ground. He reached behind his back with his free hand, took out his handcuffs, and held them out. "I don't know what happened here, Josh, but we'll straighten it out. Until then, I need you to put these on."

Josh glanced at the cuffs but didn't take them. "Lynn was in a bad place. She hated her job, wasn't sleeping well. I finally got her to see a doctor in Portland, and he put her on a slew of medications. I thought they were helping, they seemed to—for a little while anyway. But the last couple days …" He faced Matt dead in the eyes. "If I thought for a second she'd ever hurt the children, I never would have left her alone."

Matt's mind flashed to what he found upstairs—both children facedown, under the water. Lynn crouched over the side, her head submerged. "So Lynn … drowned Gracie and Oscar, and you …" He let that word hang in the air.

"She drowned them, then herself," Josh told him. "When I came home, I found them all like that and I called you. I didn't even go in the bathroom. I could tell they were …" His face twisted, he tried to choke back the tears, but couldn't. Josh buried his head in his hands and sobbed.

Or you drowned all three.

Or she drowned the children, and you killed her.

Lynn's problems were no secret. You couldn't hide something like that in a town this small. But kill her own kids?

She wouldn't be the first.

People did some terrible things under emotional distress.

Matt had known Josh since grade school. Lynn nearly as long. He couldn't picture either of them killing anyone. When they were kids, Josh cornered a mouse in Matt's garage. Matt had a shovel out, ready to bash it into its next life, and Josh had stopped him, trapped it in a bucket, and walked it a half mile up the mountain before letting it go.

Josh was crying again.

Matt holstered his weapon and went to the man, gently cuffing his wrists. "Just until we get to the station, okay?"

"Yeah. Okay."

Josh didn't protest as Matt helped him to his feet, walked him down the sidewalk, and placed him in the back of his cruiser.

He took out his phone and checked the screen—two bars. Not as strong as usual, but better than nothing. He dialed Ellie—she picked up on the third ring, and he told her what happened. When he finished, neither of them spoke for a long time.

"Did you Mirandize him?" Ellie finally said.

"What? No." Matt ran a hand through his hair. "I don't think he—"

"It doesn't matter what you or I think. We need to do this by the book. Are his clothes wet?"

Josh thought about that but wasn't sure. "I don't think so."

"You don't think so," she repeated under her breath. "When you get him to the station, Mirandize him, inspect and bag his clothes. You said Lynn was soaked and there was water all over the bathroom. You can't drown someone like that without making a mess. If there's a drop of water on him, make a note of it. Take photographs before it dries out. Write everything down." Her voice faded a bit toward the end, but not enough to keep him from hearing.

Matt glanced at Josh in the back of the car. "What if he changed clothes before I got here? After he …" He looked up at the house. "I should go and look before they dry out, too. I—"

Ellie cut him off again. "You don't set foot in that house, do you hear me? I want you to lock the front door and tape it off. We need to preserve the scene. We're not equipped to deal with a homicide. I've gotta call someone in."

"Closest FBI office is Portsmouth. That's an hour and a half away," Matt pointed out.

"I'll try the Jackson sheriff's office first. They have a crime lab. If they can't send someone, we'll have to wait on the feds, no choice."

"The kids are still in that bathtub …"

Static rolled over the line, then faded away. When Ellie spoke again, Matt had trouble hearing her at first, then she came back stronger. "I know it's horrible, but the best thing you can do for them is to preserve the scene."

And they're part of the scene , his mind reminded him. He blinked, and the image of those two small bodies under the pink bubbles flashed in his mind. Getting a conviction is how we make things right by them.

Through another wall of static, Ellie said, "When you get to the station, I want you to call Harvey Cooper. Tell him what's going on, and tell him I said I want him to come down and represent Josh."

"Josh didn't request an attorney."

"That's good, because we don't have a public defender to give him. We'd have to pull one from county, and that's not happening on a Sunday."

"But Cooper does family law, doesn't he?"

More static, then: "I don't care if he practices tribal law for the wetlands of New Guinea. Can't risk a potential prosecution coming apart because Josh didn't get representation. Cooper can hold things together until the courthouse at county opens tomorrow. Hopefully when CSI concludes their investigation, the findings will back what Josh told you, but if they don't, we need to be ready. Mirandize him, bag his clothes, call an attorney. Got it?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"What a clusterfuck," Ellie muttered.

In the car, Josh had gone quiet. He was staring down at the floorboard. When he looked up, Matt turned away from him and asked Ellie, "Are you still with the abandoned Honda?"

"I was. Figured I'd wait for the tow truck to get here, but Sally just called me and said there's some kind of disturbance at the library. I'm heading over there now."

"The library?" Matt said. "What the hell is going on today?"