CHAPTER 71 MATT

71

Matt

AT THE SIGHT OF Addie on the stairs dressed in only a towel, Gabby's face darkened. She spun on her heels and started back toward the car. "I'm going to look for my daughter. Unless you want me to take Josh, too, I suggest you get his ass out of the car."

She made it halfway down the front steps when her phone dinged with an incoming text. "It's from Riley …" Her voice trailed off as she read it. "She says she's safe, with friends. Not to worry about her."

"What friends?"

Even as Matt said that, Gabby was frantically typing back with both thumbs. He stepped over and read over her shoulder. Gabby had barely gotten the word who? off before Riley's next message came in: Evelyn Harper and her brother. I'm fine. We're at the rec center in Barton. A bunch of people from town are here.

"What the fuck? Evelyn Harper?" Gabby muttered as she typed.

Matt was confused. "I thought she didn't get along with the Harper girl?" He thought of the roadblock, the shooters. "How did they get to Barton?"

"I … I don't know …" She was frantically typing back.

From her spot on the recliner, Ellie cleared her throat. "This the same Harper who lives out on TR-138 in one of those shotgun houses?"

Matt nodded. "Yeah. The one with the sagging porch and blue tarp up on the roof. Neighbors call us at least twice a week with noise complaints."

Mother is permanently parked in front of the television, and the father closes down the Black Moose Tavern whenever he's not changing oil at the Smart Lube. I picked up the daughter about a year ago for shoplifting. She tried to steal some bread and mayonnaise from the QuikMart. The owner didn't press charges. I paid for the food so she could take it home."

"Sounds like a lovely family," Addie chimed in from the stairs. She'd been listening in. Gabby's glare was enough to get her moving. "All right. Going to get dressed."

Another message came in: They closed the roads right after we got out. I'm safe. Don't worry about me. Stay where U R. I want U 2 B safe 2.

This didn't make Gabby appear any less worried. In fact, she looked worse. She clicked on her daughter's name, then the small map that appeared on the screen. An hourglass appeared, spun, then said, Location not available . She quickly typed back: Are you with her parents? Who drove?

No response came. After about half a minute, she got Message cannot be delivered .

Gabby swore, and Matt caught her arm before she could throw her phone out into the street. "She's okay, that's what matters."

From the back seat of his cruiser, Josh Tatum stared at him. Beside him, Sally's body slumped against the window. The front seat was empty. Matt's heart thumped. "Where's the girl?"

He saw her a moment later. She was standing off to the side, her back turned, looking up at Mount Washington.

"Is that her?" Ellie said from behind him. "The girl from the diner?"

"Yeah."

"We should get her inside."

"What about Josh and Sally?"

Ellie drew in a deep breath as she considered that, blew it out slowly. "I have a freezer in the garage. We can put Sally in there until it's okay to move her to the morgue. With Josh …" Her voice trailed off as she looked around the room and settled on the radiator. "We'll cuff him to that until outside help gets here and can haul him off to county or maybe the pen up in Barton."

The smoke from the fire in town had turned the sky to the west black. Matt could smell it, thick with timber and God only knew what else.

"How bad is it?"

Matt told Ellie about the fire station. "Without help, we'll lose all of Main Street. If the wind kicks up, there's a good chance it will spread to some of the houses. From there …"

"It will spread to the mountain," Ellie finished. "Nobody wants a wildfire, but that could help us. That might be how help finds us."

Knowing Riley was safe didn't seem to make Gabby feel any better. She turned away from them and thumbed in another text, swore when it didn't go through, and tried again.

Matt got a better look at Ellie's face. Although most of the blood had dried, she had a nasty cut on her cheek, another above her left eye. "We need to get you cleaned up. You might need stitches."

She shook her head. "First we get Sally out of that car. She deserves that much. I've got a nice quilt upstairs we can wrap her in until we find something better. We'll get your cruiser off the street, there's room in my garage. Then we'll deal with Josh and—"

The silent girl turned around and started toward them. It was the first time Ellie had seen the girl's face, and the sight of her took the woman's breath away. "Did her prints come back?"

"No. Sally got them in the system, but we lost communication before she received the results."

"So we still have no idea who she is."

"She hasn't spoken yet."

But that wasn't true, was it? Matt thought of the words she'd planted in his head, somehow told him without speaking aloud.

"Does ‘Hope not ever to see Heaven. I have come to lead you to the other shore; into eternal darkness; into fire and into ice' mean anything to you?"

The wild look Matt thought had left Ellie's eyes returned, if only for an instant, then vanished again. Because she recognized those words. She was staring at the girl, and he was pretty sure she recognized her, too.