Page 91 of Close Her Eyes

Mathias said, “Hallie, there is no us.”

She flew at him. It was so fast that Josie barely had time to register it. Hallie was small, lithe, and lightning quick. One moment she was on the other side of the room, glowering at Mathias, and the next she was on him, knocking him back, clawing at his face, punching his chest.

He flailed, his arm knocking into Josie’s side, sending her staggering away from them. The knife slipped from her hands and clattered to the floor. She doubled over, pain replacing her breath. Fighting through it, she tried to stand up straight. Mathias held his forearms over his face, fending off Hallie’s punches. Getting nowhere, she started kicking him in the shins. Momentarily, he dropped his arms. Josie saw where Hallie’s nails had left three bloody slashes down his cheek.

“Hallie,” he grunted. “Stop!”

But she was beyond listening, beyond reason. The sounds coming from her were more animal than human. It wasn’t even rage. It was something worse. Josie took a deep breath and shored herself up. She was about to lunge for Hallie when a battery of Bly police officers burst through the door. The strident shouts of her fellow officers had never sounded so good. Hallie was subdued in a matter of seconds. Josie found a chair and stumbled toward it, collapsing into it as she watched Hallie being dragged away.

“It was for us, Mathias!” she screeched. “For our family!”

Cyrus remained in the small kitchen. Mathias had retreated to a corner when the officers pulled Hallie away from him. He cowered, both hands up in a defensive posture. Josie tried to call his name, but couldn’t get enough air to speak yet.

Cyrus looked at her. “You okay?”

She gave him a nod and a thumbs-up.

He holstered his weapon and walked over to Mathias. Slowly, he extended a hand. “It’s okay now, Mathias.”

From behind his hands, Mathias regarded him warily.

Cyrus’s face softened. “I’m serious. It’s okay. Hallie’s in custody. You all did the right thing.”

“How—how did you know?”

Josie lifted her cell phone from her pocket and waved it.

Mathias lowered his arms. “Thank God,” he breathed. Then he crumpled to the floor, sobbing. Josie felt every single one of his tears like a barb to her heart. He’d lost so much. Everything, really. His whole life had been an uphill battle—from birth to this moment—and now, with Dermot gone and Hallie in custody, he’d won that battle, but been left with nothing.

Cyrus looked over at Josie. She was tired. So tired of loss. Maybe he saw it in her eyes. Or maybe his own losses sent him kneeling in front of Mathias. He gathered him into his arms and put a hand to the back of his head.

“Everything’s going to be okay, now,” Cyrus told him. “I promise you that, son.”

FORTY-EIGHT

The sky was a perfect blue. The temperature flirted with the fifty-degree mark. As Josie made her way through the cemetery toward Mettner’s grave, birds swooped and flitted all around, calling to one another in a symphony. Even in the place of the dead, the day was gorgeous. She moved carefully, at an easy pace. Her ribs were healing nicely, and the pain wasn’t that bad anymore. She’d be able to return to work soon—although work without Mettner there was impossible to imagine. Noah and Gretchen had told her how strange it was, how unnatural it felt, how the awkwardness hung over the room whenever Amber was there. She’d returned to work a few weeks after Mettner’s funeral. She kept to herself, only talking with the rest of them when necessary.

Josie still hadn’t given her the message.

Tell Amber I…

If she pressed her palms together, she could still feel his hand in hers, the life bleeding out of it.

Josie saw the dog first. Blue, Luke Creighton’s bloodhound and the Denton PD’s new K-9 consultant, sat at attention a few feet away from Mettner’s grave. Directly in front of it stood Luke. His broad shoulders were slumped, head bent toward the ground. There was no stone yet, only a profusion of flowers and some rocks that his nieces and nephews had painted and placed there.

We love you, Uncle Finn, read one of them.

It nearly broke her into pieces.

Blue’s tail thumped as Josie drew closer. She stopped to greet him, kneeling so she could soak up his wet kisses and nuzzles. When she finished, she walked over and stood beside Luke.

He looked down and smiled at her.

Josie said, “I didn’t know you really knew Mett.”

“I didn’t know him well,” Luke said. “But after that Collins case, he approached me. Said that you told the team it was okay to like me.”

Josie laughed. “That’s not how it went down. I just told them that we should leave the past in the past, was all.”

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