CHAPTER 29 MATT

29

Matt

MATT SHOVED THROUGH THE door of the sheriff's station with Eisa Heaton under his left arm and tugged Josh Tatum by the handcuffs on his right. All three froze as they stepped inside.

The small space was packed with people.

The chairs under the front windows were full; other people were standing. Voices shouted to be heard over each other. Ed McDougal was holding a package of frozen peas over his right eye as he argued with his neighbor, Ben Molton, jabbing his finger into the man's chest. Stacy and Tracy Bergman, identical twin sisters married to twin brothers, both clutched pairs of screaming infants in their arms as they shouted at each other, red-faced. Conner Evans had one arm snaked up through the flimsy plastic door of the snack vending machine and was beating on the side with his other hard enough to rock it on its feet.

When the crowd spotted Matt, the voices went quiet for a quick moment, then they all started shouting at once, coming at him. Across the room, he spotted Sally standing behind her desk, phone pressed to her ear. She raised an empty palm in some kind of surrender and shook her head in disbelief before turning back to her desktop and scribbling feverishly in her call log.

"I'll be with you all in a second!" Matt shouted over the voices. "I need everybody to be patient!"

That only made things worse. The yelling grew louder. Everyone was on their feet, angrily shoving toward him.

"I've been waitin' the better part of an hour!"

"Someone stole my car!"

"This asshole killed my dog!" Ed McDougal yelled.

Ben Molton shook a bloody arm at Matt. "His damn dog tried to take my arm off!"

"Enough!" Matt shouted over all of them. "I'm not helping anyone unless they've got their butt planted firmly in a seat and their mouth shut. You want to act like a toddler, take it outside. This isn't the place for it!"

Matt didn't mean for the words to come out as harsh as they did. His voice barely sounded like his own. For a quick second, he was reminded of his father, the angry drunken shouts that came before the hitting started. And when he snapped from that reverie, he realized he'd squeezed his eyes shut against a fist that hadn't found him in more than twenty years—his father had driven into a tree on his way home from the Black Moose Tavern—no seat belt, died on impact.

The room had gone quiet again, all eyes still on him.

"Where's Ellie?" McDougal barked before someone else could speak. "Why isn't she here?"

Matt shook off the memory and looked over at Sally; her back was turned, and she was shouting into her phone. He turned back to the older man and lowered his voice. "Take a seat, Ed. I'll be with you right after I deal with this." He lifted Josh's cuffed hands. Ed McDougal seemed to notice Josh Tatum and Eisa Heaton for the first time. His eyes fixed on the blood droplets on the side of Eisa's face, then glared at Josh.

Before he could start asking questions, Matt steered Eisa and Josh through the crowd toward the cell at the back of the room.

When Josh saw where Matt was leading him, he dug his heels in the ground. "No way, I'm not going in there!"

Matt gave him a gentle push forward through the door. "It's only until we figure things out."

Eisa Heaton didn't protest. He led her to the back of the cell and helped her sit on the bunk. He leaned forward and whispered, "This is for your own safety, Ms. Heaton. Just sit tight for me, okay?"

Her head bobbed softly in what might have been a nod, but she said nothing.

He gave her forearm a reassuring squeeze and turned back to Josh. "Let me see those cuffs." As Matt worked the key into the lock and removed them, he said, "Ellie told me to call Harvey Cooper for you. It's best you don't talk to anyone until he gets here, understand?"

The sullen look returned to Josh's face. "I would never hurt Lynn or the kids. Never."

"I know," Matt told him, even though he knew no such thing. "There's one other thing I need to do, and you won't like it, but it's to protect us both."

Josh frowned. "What?"

Matt Mirandized him.

Tears were streaming down the side of Josh's face by the time he finished. He couldn't look at him anymore as he stepped out of the cell and locked the door.

At the very least, that settled the crowd into a nervous silence. All eyes were on Josh and Eisa as Matt made his way over to Sally's desk.

"I'll get someone out," she said to whoever she was talking to before hanging up and glaring at Matt. "What the fuck is going on?"

Matt could only shake his head. "Where is Ellie?"

"We got no radios or cell service, so I've been tracking her car on GPS." She looked at him accusingly. " Yours isn't working." There was a map on one of her computer monitors, and she pointed at a red dot. "Ellie's stopped out on 112 near Lower Falls."

"What's she doing back out there? Isn't that where she found the abandoned car this morning?"

"I don't know why she stopped. She's supposed to be taking Mr. Newton to the hospital in North Hollow."

Matt frowned. "Stork? What happened to him?"

Sally told him.

Matt's body tensed with each word. When she finished, he made sure nobody could hear them and said, "I've got Norman Heaton's body in the trunk of my car."

Sally's phone was ringing, and every line flashed with calls on hold, but she ignored all of that. Her face went white as she looked from him to Eisa Heaton sitting in the back of the cell, then to Josh standing at the bars looking out. "Did one of them …"

"Eisa killed Norman, right in front of me and Josh …" Matt said quietly before telling her the rest.

By the time he finished, her eyes were glassy with tears and her hand was pressed to her mouth.

"Listen," he said quietly, "I can't leave Norman's body in my car. I'm going to take him over to the coroner's office, then come right back and help you deal with all these people, okay?"

She nodded, although she didn't look okay. She looked like she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

He gripped one of her trembling hands and pressed it between both of his. "I need you to do something else. Free up a phone line and try to reach the sheriff's office in Jackson. If you can't get them, try the feds. Get us help. I don't care who. National guard, if you have to." He didn't turn around. It felt like if he did and he made eye contact with just one of them, he'd be applying a spark to a powder keg. "If these people turn on us, we're seriously outnumbered."

"They're our friends," she breathed.

"Not today." Matt had been thinking that for the better part of an hour, and it somehow felt good to say it out loud. "I'm not sure what's gotten into everybody, but it's getting worse fast."

Sally let that sink in, then nodded toward Ellie's office. "What about her?"

Matt followed her eyes through the open blinds.

Wearing an oversize sweatshirt and jeans from the lost and found, the girl from the diner was sitting across from Ellie's desk, looking out at all the people. Her dark hair covered half her face and left the other half in shadows, yet he felt her gaze shift to him when she realized he was watching her.

"Has she said anything?"

"Not a word."

"Just keep her in there until I get back."

Sally's voice cracked as she said, "What if this is happening everywhere? What if that's why I can't get anyone on the phone?"

"Try," he told her. "I'll be right back."