CHAPTER 38 MATT

38

Matt

"YOU PLANNING TO BE that child's new daddy, Deputy Maro? Rather than your own baby?" Mrs. Nguyen called out from across the street.

Asian, in her sixties, she'd grown up somewhere in California and moved to the Bend when her husband was struck by a drunk driver crossing Mulholland outside Santa Monica and confined to a wheelchair. He'd passed away two years ago, some complication related to his spine. She was wearing a wrinkled pink evening gown, barefoot on her lawn. Black eyeliner stained her cheeks. She looked like she'd just returned from a night on the town that had gone horribly wrong.

Matt stared at her, dumbfounded. "Everything okay, Mrs. Nguyen?"

She was holding something in her hand, but Matt couldn't make it out.

"You need to do the right thing by Addie Gallagher. That's what you need to do if you want to make things okay."

"I think you should get back in your house."

Mrs. Nguyen shrugged. "You should stop playing with the help and take responsibility for your mistakes. Addie's child is going to need a father. Its real father."

From the corner of his eye, Matt caught a glimpse of Gabby, realized she hadn't gotten in the car. She'd loaded Riley inside and was standing next to the open door. Her eyes were red, rimmed with tears, and her right hand was balled in front of her mouth. It was one thing for her and Matt to talk about the rumors surrounding him and Addie in private; it was another thing entirely to hear one of her neighbors spout it out as fact. There were no secrets in small towns; rumors and gossip spread faster than wildfire. True or not, they still stung.

When Gabby's eyes shifted from Mrs. Nguyen to him, when he saw the hurt there, he wanted to tell her it wasn't true, just like he had every other time it had come up. He wanted to assure her he had been and would continue to be faithful—just like he had every other time it had come up. He wanted to hear her say, I know , as she had every other time it had come up . But something about the way she looked at him told him she wasn't quite so sure anymore.

Matt turned from her, even though he knew that was a mistake. Guilt pulsed behind his temples, not because the rumor was true, but because his actions subjected Gabby to this. Her life had been hell. She'd been through so much, aside from his mistakes, and she deserved better.

Gabby gasped, and when Matt looked back at Mrs. Nguyen, she was holding a knife.

She raised it to her neck.

Matt started toward her, but she stopped him with a glare. "Not another step, Deputy."

She slipped the blade of the knife under the single shoulder strap of her dress and sliced. The thin fabric gave with little effort, the strap snapped, and the dress fell, pooled at her feet. Mrs. Nguyen stood there, naked.

Matt opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out.

Mrs. Nguyen gripped a handful of her black and silver hair, pulled it tight, and sawed through it with the blade. She dropped the clump at her feet and went to work on more. "Children who grow up without a father in their life are scarred, broken. Unwanted. Unloved. Life is hard enough when you don't begin the journey with some sort of handicap. Don't ruin that child's life before it starts, Deputy. You owe it more than that. My father left when I was two. I should know."

"You should go inside, Mrs. Nguyen," Matt told her. "Just set the knife down and go inside."

Another chunk of her hair fluttered from her fingers, caught the breeze, and spread out over the lawn. She quickly sliced away more until her pale scalp was visible in several places, until her hair was no longer long enough to grip, then she closed her eyes and raised her face toward the sun. "No, today's not the day to be cooped up inside. I think I'll go for a walk. It's beautiful out, don't you think?"

The knife slipped from her fingers and embedded itself in the ground less than an inch from her foot with a soft thunk . The naked woman turned and started down the sidewalk, whistling some song Matt didn't recognize.

A long, silent minute went by before Matt managed to say, "Get in the car, Gabby."

Gabby watched Mrs. Nguyen vanish over the hill about a hundred feet down the road. "Shouldn't we stop her?"

Matt wasn't sure of many things at that moment, but he did understand stopping that woman was the least of their problems. He shook his head. "We need to get back to the station."