by Alice Sharpe
“And she was there?”
“She came as a mermaid. She had very long hair and it flowed all around her shoulders and down her back and she was wearing all this blue and green like the water. Every square inch of her seemed to shimmer when she moved.”
“It sounds beautiful.”
“It was. She was. She had on a mask so I couldn’t see all of her face, just her eyes, but I knew she was it.”
“She was the one.”
“She was like a free spirit that night.”
“You make it sound like she changed.”
“She did, but that came later. I’ll always have that night, I’ll always remember the woman I met at the party.”
She laid her napkin across the plate. “You loved her.”
“I did.”
“So how did it end?”
“I guess you could say I left her.”
She tilted her head slightly as she looked at him. “But you still have feelings for her.”
His gaze sharpened. “That’s true, I do. She wasn’t the kind of woman a man forgets overnight.”
“Maybe there’s hope you can get back together,” she said. Had anyone ever loved her that way? Had Carl? Was he even capable of that kind of love? Was she?
“It’s getting late,” Simon finally said.
While he went back to his truck to get his luggage and the first-aid supplies in case anything needed redressing, Ella went into a small variety-type store with Simon’s credit card in hand. There wasn’t a lot to choose from, but she did find something to sleep in. They walked down the hall wrapped in their own thoughts.
Ella felt nervous about being alone in a room whose most obvious piece of furniture was a bed, but she told herself to grow up. If she could handle being close to Carl for several days, she could handle one night with Simon. At least she liked Simon.
“Why don’t you use the bathroom first and then I’ll take a shower?” he told her.
She pulled the knee-length sleeping shirt from the gift-shop bag and went into the bathroom, where a cursory look in the mirror revealed a total mess. Even her short hair looked defeated. When it grew out a little, she’d get herself to a decent beauty shop. This cut appeared to have been done by someone with their eyes shut.
A few minutes later, she walked into the bedroom to find Simon sitting in a chair next to a small round table. He looked up at her, his gaze flicking down her body as though he couldn’t help himself. She saw all sorts of things flash in his eyes, things that made her insides sizzle. The T-shirt material suddenly seemed very, very thin.
“You’re not limping anymore,” he said.
“No, my ankle doesn’t hurt.”
“Are you finished in there?”
“It’s all yours.” He got to his feet in one fluid motion, reminding her again of the way he’d clasped her to his side on the mountain, the strength in his arms. As six feet of potent masculinity walked toward her, she had to remind herself to breathe.
Simon paused a step away from her. “Do you need help rebandaging anything?”
“No,” she said, craning her neck back to look up at him. Their posture was perfect for embracing, for kissing; it was only the foot of space between them that sounded an off note. The hammering heartbeat, the flushed skin, the super-sexual awareness—that was all there in spades, and unless she was even more clueless than she thought she was, it was there for him, too.
“I’ll be a few minutes,” he said as he went into the bathroom.
SIMON GAVE HIMSELF a stern lecture about poorly timed hormone attacks as he turned on the shower to cover the sound of his voice. He sat on the closed commode and punched in the number for the P.I. back in Blue Mountain.
“I thought you’d never call back,” Devin Kittimer said as soon as he heard Simon’s voice. Devin was a decade older than Simon, but a job at Devin’s office one summer had been the deciding factor in Simon going to the police academy.
“It’s been a little busy on my end. Did you find out anything about Carl Baxter?”
“He was born in Chicago forty-one years ago. Only child, parents alive but separated. Married Eleanor Thorton a few days after her eighteenth birthday when he was in his mid-thirties. The marriage lasted nine weeks before the split. There’s some question about the legality of the divorce. Anyway, she apparently moved around quite a bit until ending up in Blue Mountain. She probably told you all this a year ago when you guys got together.”
Simon was embarrassed to admit she’d never said one word about any of it. Not a single word. Why had she worked so hard to bury her past?
At any rate, it now appeared Carl Baxter was either her ex-husband or a husband she’d thought she’d left behind. It seemed unlikely Ella was carrying his baby.
Unless he’d come to town and won her back….
“What about Ella?” he said. “Did you call the radio station like I asked?”
“Yes. They have no idea where she is. Her boss was getting worried about her, in fact.”
“So she left without telling them.”
“I gave the guy some song and dance about a sick relative, and then I went by Ella’s house and spoke to a few of her neighbors. Other than the fact that they noticed her house was lit up in the middle of the night, no one had wondered too much about not seeing her. I gather she often worked late hours and spent her free time in the backyard, gardening. No one saw anything suspicious around the time she apparently left.”
“So, it wasn’t a planned trip or she would have spoken to her boss.”
“And stopped her newspaper, which she didn’t. Other than that, the years before she got married are hard to figure. I have a few calls out, should know more tomorrow.
“Oh, one thing, Carl Baxter has a rap sheet a mile long. Mostly B and E when he was a kid, some con man stuff, bad checks, things like that. Got a little more inventive as he got older. Was part of a street gang running juice loans in Chicago. Car theft, et cetera. Did time in Tallahassee Road Prison down in Florida, been out a few months. He’s also had a few aliases. Carl Stickler, Jay Mornajay, William Smith to name a few.”
“Great,” Simon said, running a hand through his hair. “You’ll keep digging on Ella for me? Find out about her parents, if you can, especially her father.”
“Sure.”
“Thanks, Devin.”
“No problem.”
Simon’s next call was to his cousin Virginia, who sounded as though he’d woken her up. She mumbled she hadn’t been able to find anyone who knew anyone else at the hospital where Ella had been treated and a call to the attending physician had not yet been returned.
“I’m not sure how much he’ll tell me even if he does call back,” Ginny cautioned.
After hearing details of what had happened to Ella that day, she added, “This sounds increasingly dangerous, coz. I’m not sure you should allow her to continue this search.”
Allow her? What a concept! Virginia obviously thought he had more control than he did. “She’s determined to find her father. She had a spontaneous memory of him today and dreamed about him, too.”
“Positive stuff?”
“Very. She obviously adores him. She’s very anxious to find him.”
“I wonder why she never told you about him.”
“You and me both.”
“But this is exactly why you should continue to protect her from too much truth. Her memory is coming back on its own.”
“Following a knife fight and a long drop down a cliff,” he reminded her.
“True. Still, play it close to the vest, give her another few days.”
He’d known that was coming, but he’d hoped she’d tell him to spill his guts. “Okay.”
“Call back tomorrow and stay away from steep cliffs and thugs with knives.”
“That’s my plan.”
“You sound bushed. Go to bed.”
He clicked off his phone, undressed and showered. He was too tired to shave and it wasn’t as though he w
as going to kiss anyone anyway.
For a second, he was overcome with the not so distant memory of Ella running her fingers along his jaw while nibbling on his earlobe, whispering what they could do if he wanted to take a few minutes and shave—
He splashed cold water on his face. The Ella that memory belonged to was gone; those times were gone. If she was pregnant with his child, they’d have to figure out a way to parent together, but they couldn’t be together; they’d tried and failed and he’d be wise to remember that. The excited gleam in her eye when she looked at him now made his groin ache with want, but he knew it would fizzle out and die the moment she remembered their shared past.
He let himself back into the room while holding a towel around his waist. He normally slept nude but not tonight. He’d just forgotten to take clean clothes into the bathroom with him.
He’d been away so long, he was pretty sure she’d be asleep. The lights were dimmed and he took a few steps toward his duffel before he realized she wasn’t in the bed; she was sitting on a chair by the small table in the corner. Her face was deep in shadows, though he could see the glistening whites of her eyes as she stared at him.
And then he saw what lay on the table in front of her.
Chapter Six
Holding the towel in place, Simon sat down on the edge of the bed, facing her. Gesturing at the table, he said, “You found my badge?”
“I saw the leather folder sitting in your open bag. I was curious so I looked.”
“It’s okay,” he said.
“My snooping or your lying? Which do you mean? Which is okay?”
“Now, wait a second—”
“Are you going to try to explain why you told me you were a fireman?”
“I guess I’d better.”
“Make it good,” she said, and there was a deadly earnestness to her voice he’d heard before. This was the Ella from before the amnesia, the woman whose middle name was suspicion.
“Do you remember this morning when I suggested we call the police to help Carl and you wouldn’t let me?”
“Yes.”
“It wasn’t ten minutes later that you assumed I was a fireman. It was obvious to me that you had a thing about cops.”
“So you lied.”
“You were shaken and upset and I didn’t know how long we’d be in each other’s company at that point, so I let you reach your own conclusions and went along with them. In other words, yes, I lied and for that I’m sorry.”
She picked up the badge, ran her fingers over the surface and his heart sank. He’d completely zoned out on the fact that Blue Mountain was engraved on the badge.
“Now tell me why you never told me we come from the same town. It’s quite a coincidence, isn’t it?”
“What do you mean?” he said, taking the defensive. He didn’t have time to review every last one of their conversations, but he was pretty sure he was on safe ground. “Are you from Blue Mountain, too?”
“You know I am,” she said.
“How would I know that?”
“I’m sure I mentioned it.”
“Nope.”
“Are you trying to tell me it’s just a coincidence we meet hundreds of miles from home and we come from the same place?”
“Why not?” he said. “Stranger things have happened.”
She got up from the chair and walked over to him, the badge still in her hand. He prepared himself to have it lobbed at his chest, but she shocked the hell out of him by gently handing it over.
“I wish I didn’t know you were a cop,” she said.
Not what he expected. He said, “What does it matter?”
“I don’t like cops. I don’t trust them.”
“Please believe me, I have nothing but your best interest at heart. Honest.”
“Just tell me this. Are you the reason the thought of the police getting involved in my life makes me want to run for the hills?”
“No,” he said, and that was the truth. Whatever had caused her to panic at the thought of police had started way before him. His job had been a bone of contention between them from the moment she found out about it.
Why was it such a big deal to her? It had never made sense to him and it didn’t make sense now. Unless she had a record of some kind, unless she was on the run….
“Are you after Carl? Are you after my father? Are you using me to get to him the way Carl was?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Are you here because you’re a cop?”
“No. I’m here in this room at this moment helping you because of you. Period.”
“Why?”
“Because you need help.”
“And you spend your off time looking for damsels in distress?”
“Not usually, no. For you, I made an exception.”
“Why?”
“You know why,” he said.
“I don’t know anything, remember?”
He took a step toward her and held on to her shoulders, resisting the habit of pulling her into a full embrace. She’d always fit against him perfectly. She was exactly the right height, exactly the right shape, her body a perfect match for his.
If it was just that easy.
“It started in the lobby when we exchanged our first words, when I touched your wedding band,” he said softly. “I felt you tremble. The next day when I saw you disappear over a mountainside, what was I supposed to do, look the other way?”
She cocked her head. The bathroom light spilled across her cheekbones. Between the bandages and the short, dark hair, she almost looked like a stranger.
“Why do I want to trust you so much?” she said softly.
“Because somewhere in your heart you know you can.”
“You could be part of this.”
“But I’m not.”
She blinked quickly. Her beautiful face was scratched and black-and-blue, bandaged, scraped, but there was nothing wrong with her lips. They were as luscious as ever. He knew she wouldn’t stop him if he bent his head and…
And when her memory came back and she recalled the last night they had spent together, the things he’d said to her, the things she’d said to him, the past that lay between them? What then?
He dropped his hands from her shoulders, making sure the towel stayed in place around his waist. “Let’s hit the sack,” he said.
She mumbled, “I could use a stiff drink.”
So could he. But if she couldn’t drink, he wouldn’t drink. There was a baby between them, too, and his gaze dipped to her midsection, where he thought he could detect a new curve against the cotton of her gown.
“Sleep will do us both more good,” he said, dragging his gaze back to her face. “Maybe tomorrow this will all make sense.”
Grabbing his duffel, he changed into clean boxers and a T-shirt in the bathroom. When he returned to the room, he found she’d tucked herself under the sheets. It was obvious she needed sleep. He, on the other hand, had some serious thinking to do. Knowing he’d be out like a light if he darkened the room, he left the lamp burning and settled back against the headboard.
“ELLA? ELLA, WAKE UP.”
Though his voice was a whisper, the urgency in it cut through her sleep like a bullhorn, shattering a dream. Her eyes flew open.
Simon was sitting on the bed beside her, his body tense. As she met his gaze, his finger pressed against her lips and he motioned with his head toward the door.
She heard a very subtle rattle and then the knob slowly turned. She would have gasped but for the presence of Simon’s warning finger.
She met his gaze and he lowered his head to whisper in her ear. “It may be nothing but some drunk trying to get in the wrong room. I’m going out the bathroom window. Lock it behind me.”
“Why are you going to do that?” she whispered back.
“I want to know who it is,” he said as though it was reasonable.
“We could just open the door—”
“Are you forgetting this morni
ng?”
The gash in her hand seemed to spring into flames. No, she wasn’t forgetting, but she wanted to beg Simon to stay. She didn’t want to be alone and she was afraid for him. “Okay,” she said, working to make sure her voice didn’t betray her fears, though those fears were clawing their way up her throat.
Simon quietly slipped off the bed. He pulled on his jeans and shoes, stuck his gun in his waist holster. She followed him into the bathroom, closing the door behind them so light from the bedroom wouldn’t illuminate the window over the bathtub.
“Don’t open the door for anyone,” he cautioned as he stepped into the tub. “Make sure the chain is engaged.”
“No kidding.”
He slid the glass panel back and popped off the screen. All that was visible from Ella’s point of view was a tall overhead mercury vapor lamp illuminating the side of a nearby building.
It took Simon a moment to twist his body through the narrow opening. When she heard his feet hit the pavement outside, she closed the window behind him and relocked it. Back in the bedroom, she double-checked the door before changing back into her blue sweat suit and shoes. When she heard another rattle at the door, she tiptoed across the room, waiting for a signal that it was Simon. Why hadn’t they agreed on some kind of code knock? She stood so close to the wood panel the warmth of her breath bounced back on her face. If anything, her heart pounded harder than it had when she’d been caught on that tree, dangling above the ocean.
Who was out there?
The knob turned.
SIMON RAN AROUND THE PERIMETER of the motel, searching for a doorway back into the building. The only one he found was marked Hotel Personnel and was locked. He had to go all the way back to the lobby to reenter and then make his way cautiously back down the hallway.
The space in front of their door was empty, but he caught a glimpse of a man turning a corner into another corridor several yards beyond it. Staying close to the outside wall, he hurried along, peeking around the corner in time to see the same man push open the doors emptying out into the courtyard pool area.