Page 83 of In the Arms of a Hero

“That is so fucked up,” Sam said.

Agreeing, Aaron nodded, and their attention turned back to the beleaguered man sitting at the table on the other side of the glass.

“So what happened on the day in question?” Hunter proceeded.

“I wanted a vacation. Away from everyone and everything. During our stay, we had met no one that my wife would’ve even considered enticing. I had gone out for the day, planning to drive to Virginia Beach to go to a boutique pet store that carried the food we wanted for Hercules and Aphrodite. I found the shop with no problem and finished earlier than I thought. Since there was nothing else there I wanted to do, I came straight home. Imagine my surprise when I walked into the house, didn’t see Eileen, and then looked out the back door. There she was, standing on the beach in her skimpy bathing suit with a man I’d never seen before.”

“What were they doing?”

“Just talking, but I could see Eileen was moving closer.” He looked at Hunter. “Believe me, Detective, I had no doubt she was making a move. She laughed and tossed her hair over her shoulder. She leaned in, touching his arm. I knew it was only a matter of time before the two would return to the house, not expecting me, planning on heading to the bedroom. And Isnapped. For the first time, I really snapped.” His brow furrowed as though his words surprised him.

“When you say you snapped, what did you do?” Brad asked.

“I walked upstairs, where we kept a small pistol for personal protection. Then I walked back down the stairs, out the door, and toward the beach. She was so into her seduction that she never heard me coming. I had no intentions of shooting anyone.” As soon as those words left his mouth, he visibly startled, his eyes flying open wide. “I just wanted to scare them! Scare her.”

“And then?”

“Eileen turned and saw me, and she reached out, grabbing my hand that held the gun. The other man threw his hands up and started to back away. Eileen screamed that he’d come to the wrong house, and she was just showing him the beach. As she grabbed my hands, we wrestled for just a few seconds with the gun… and then… God, it went off. I was horrified that maybe I’d shot Eileen, but she simply stood there, with her eyes wide but no blood appearing. Her head jerked over to the man as he fell onto the sand.”

Jon’s gaze dropped to his hands now clasped so tightly as they lay upon the table that his knuckles were white. He slowly shook his head, almost in disbelief. “I just meant to scare them. Scare her. I never meant… I never meant for that to happen.”

“Maybe not, but you didn’t exactly call 911, did you?” Brad prodded.

Jon stared at the detectives, his face scrunching as tears filled his eyes. Then he shook his head slowly. “No. I… I had no idea what to do. Then like so many times in our marriage, I listened to my wife. And things became… tangled.”

“Explain tangled, Mr. Matherson,” Hunter said.

Looking back down at his hands, he sighed. “Eileen comes from a… family with particular abilities to make problems… disappear. She immediately thought of them while I was stillstanding in shock, just staring down at the man on the beach. He sucked in a deep breath and then let it out. “A man I didn’t even know.”

“Did your wife explain who William Gaston was?”

His brow furrowed as lines deepened into ridges, appearing to etch permanently on his face. “Not right then. She later said that he came to the house looking for Harry Malroney. She invited him in to wait.” He scoffed out a rude curse. “To wait? I suppose being out here in the middle of nowhere, my wife’s need for attention was rearing its head again. She said she was just showing him the view of the beach.”

He looked up in the mirror, staring at his reflection, but Aaron always wondered if the person being interviewed realized they were being watched.

Jon continued, “Looking back, I don’t think the man was even entertaining a seduction by Eileen. His body language was more rejection, but he had no way of knowing that would just make her more desperate.”

“So what did you do?”

Jon winced, his hands twisting together. “There were kayaks and small row boats at the rental house. We dragged the body to the dune and hid him underneath an overturned boat. Eileen grabbed a rake from the house and raked the blood from the beach.” His brow furrowed again. “Funny, but there wasn’t much.”

“Did you even check to see if he was dead?” Brad asked, his voice barely containing his anger.

Jon blinked as though the thought had never occurred to him.

Hunter shook his head in disgust. “Tell us about your wife’s family and how they became involved.”

A look of distaste filled his face. “I married beneath me. But I foolishly fell for the same need that she shows others. I thoughtI was her Prince Charming when, in reality, I was just one in a long line.”

Jon’s statement hung in the air, and Aaron leaned closer to the glass, wondering what was coming next.

“Her family comes from Baltimore. I didn’t meet her extended family until the wedding, and it was like serving expensive champagne to a group of people who’d only ever drank bargain wine. We never had much to do with them, but she kept in touch with a few of her cousins.” He heaved another sigh, then seemed to warm to the subject and continued.

“She called her cousin James, saying that he was a man who could make a problem go away. It took hours for him to get to us. We just sat and waited. And argued… more than we ever have before. When James arrived, Eileen told him the bare minimum of what happened. He said we needed to take the body out into the bay, weigh it down, and drop it into the water. He said by the time anybody discovered it, there would be little left of any evidence pointing to us.” Jon licked his lips, then took a sip from the water bottle provided.

The air rushed from Aaron’s lungs, hearing the confessions tumble from Jonathan’s mouth. “He’s giving it all up, isn’t he? And no one has mentioned a plea deal for him… he’s just giving it all up.”

“Maybe, if it’s like he said and his wife was calling the shots, he just wants to purge it all,” Colt said.

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