The Widow - Carla Neggers [56]
“My photography? Why?”
“I was at a gallery in Bar Harbor today. The owner, a man named Walt—”
“Oh, yeah.” Mattie grinned, putting his feet up on a coffee table. “Good old Walt. He’s full of shit, isn’t he? Pompous ass.”
“He thinks you’re very talented.”
“See what I mean?”
“Where do you keep the negatives of the pictures you’ve taken?”
“I burned them.”
Abigail wasn’t sure whether or not to believe him. “When?”
“One night when I was drunk and feeling sorry for myself. Well.” He gave a fake laugh, no hint of self-deprecation. “I guess that describes a lot of nights. It was sometime after Chris was killed. I was living in Bar Harbor—it feels like civilization compared to living out here.”
“Did you destroy all your negatives?”
He hesitated. “I don’t remember.”
“You remember, Mattie. You’re a photographer. Those negatives are your life’s work.”
“I don’t know why I let you in here.”
“You didn’t burn the negatives of the pictures you took the day Dorothy Garrison died,” Abigail said.
He shot to his feet, bolting for the front door, but she intercepted him, grabbing his arm and twisting it behind his back.
He squealed. “Hey!”
“Just calm down.” She eased off. “Running isn’t going to solve anything.”
“You have no right—”
She released him and stepped back. “I want to know about the pictures, Mattie.”
“What’re you talking about?”
Abigail didn’t answer him. She walked into the adjoining dining room, where a dusty faux-crystal chandelier hung above a scratched and nicked dark-stained pine table. “You have a decent setup here.” She ran her fingers over the table. “Keep your day job and work on your photography on your off-hours. That’s your plan, isn’t it?”
He rubbed his arm where she’d tackled him. “Yeah. Yeah, that’s the plan.”
“Why sneak off to the old Garrison foundation to drink in the dark with the mosquitoes?”
He shrugged. “Why drink?”
“Good point.”
“You used to be nicer. When you and Chris were together.”
“Maybe so.”
She started toward the kitchen, off the dining room, but noticed a fat envelope tucked under a clear glass vase on the sideboard, which matched the table. She walked over to it and lifted the vase with one hand and picked up the envelope with the other hand.
“Hey—that’s mine. You need a warrant to search my place—”
“I’m not here as a police officer. I’m here as a friend.” She could see the stack of green bills inside the envelope and fanned them with her thumb. Most were fifty-and hundred-dollar bills. “How much is in here? A thousand?”
“It’s not against the law to have cash in my own house.”
“I thought you said there was nothing here worth stealing. Do the Coopers pay you in cash?”
He snapped his mouth shut. “Get out.” He pointed toward the front door. “Now go, before I call Doyle.”
Abigail made a show of checking her watch. “By my calculations, he should be here soon.”
“What?”
“Doyle and Lieutenant Beeler. I wouldn’t be surprised if they come together.” She replaced the envelope under the vase. “Feel free to tell them we’ve talked.”
Mattie swore at her. He got himself onto a roll and kept swearing, calling her a long, not particularly inventive string of names, but Abigail ignored him as she walked past him to the front door. She held it open with one hand and looked back at him. Something about her expression worked, because he shut up.
She said, “Tell ChiefAlden and Lieutenant Beeler everything you know, Mattie. Whatever you’re hiding, whatever angle you’re playing, isn’t worth the risks you’re taking.”
He held up both his hands, splaying his fingers. “Look at these. Look at the dirt and the dried blood. The calluses. You think I’m playing an angle? You’re fucking crazy. I get up in the morning and I ride my bike to rich people’s houses, and I work my ass off. I’m doing the best I can to pull my life together.”
“Lie to yourself all you want. And to me, if you have to. Just don’t lie to the police.”
“Go fuck yourself.”
On that lofty note, Abigail left, getting to her car and back onto the main road without running into any of her colleagues