by Curry, Edna
“Odd that you never told me or Mama about him,” Sharon said, hurt mixed with irritation in her voice.
Cara glanced at her. “I’m sorry, Sharon. I must have had a good reason not to mention him.”
“I suppose,” Sharon agreed. “And if he tried to kill you, I’m glad I never met him. I’d rather not know someone like that.”
“I wish I’d never met him, either.” If I’d never met him, I wouldn’t have gotten pushed into the river. I wouldn’t have amnesia. But then I’d never have met Mel either. And that’s the best thing that’s happened to me in a long time.
Sharon’s cell phone rang. She talked a minute, then said, “It’s Kenny Barnes, the police detective I told you about, remember? He wants to talk to you but he’s on duty and doesn’t have much time. Can we meet him for supper in a few minutes?”
“Sure,” Cara agreed.
Mel nodded.
Sharon agreed on the meeting place and hung up.
“It’s only a few blocks from here. Do you want to change clothes or anything?”
Cara said, “No, I’m fine. But I haven’t found anything that has my ID on it. I wonder what happened to it all?”
“Maybe you lost it all in the river?” Sharon asked.
“Maybe,” Cara said doubtfully. “I suppose I could have had my purse on my shoulder or arm when he pushed me in. But if we got out of the car to talk, why would I take my purse? I mean, there weren’t any stores there or anything. Wouldn’t I have left it in the car?”
“Yeah, I guess. That makes sense to me. But then maybe the guy got rid of it?”
Cara sighed. “He probably did. If so, I suppose I’ll have to apply for a replacement driver’s license.” She glanced at Sharon. “I do have a car, don’t I?”
“Yes, your car is still parked in its usual spot downstairs in the garage.”
“Thank goodness for that.”
She moved to the bedroom and looked through several drawers, then went back to her desk. She opened several drawers and found a checkbook, credit cards and a savings book. Ah, at last, some financial info! She opened the books, and then gasped and turned to look at Sharon. “I really have this much money?”
“Yes,” Sharon said, grinning at her amazement. “We kids all inherited money from Granddad and more from Daddy separately from what he left Mama. And you didn’t spend much of your teacher’s salary.”
Cara looked at Mel, smiling in delight. “Oh, Mel! Can you believe it! Isn’t it wonderful? I have plenty of money! I can pay back the county for the hospital bill, and Marion for my new clothes!”
Mel and Sharon laughed. Mel nodded and smiled back.
Sharon said, “Well, I’m glad that makes you so happy. But I’m still mad that you were injured in the first place. Come on, let’s go talk to Kenny.”
Cara nodded and carefully tucked the checkbook and credit cards in her purse. It felt so good to be back in control of her life again! She’d go through her financial stuff when they got back. She wanted to know everything about herself and her business, now that she’d found herself again at last.
At the restaurant, the hostess directed them to a back booth where Kenny was waiting for them.
Mel sized him up as Sharon made introductions. Kenny was blond, well built and good looking in a rugged, athletic sort of way. On duty, he looked handsome in his uniform and just a bit intimidating wearing a gun and badge.
He seemed quite interested in Sharon, and Mel couldn’t help wondering if Kenny was more interested in seeing Sharon than in helping Cara.
“We met once at your mother’s house about a year ago,” Kenny reminded Cara.
“Oh, did we?” Cara said, flushing. “I’m sorry, but I don’t remember that, either.”
“No problem. I don’t usually make all that much of an impression on people,” Kenny quipped. “Sorry I don’t have much time. I’ve already ordered,” Kenny said. “The waitress left menus for you.”
They took a minute to decide what to eat and then the two women headed off for the ladies’ room.
Kenny said, “So fill me in on the rest of this story. Sharon told me some of it on the phone earlier.”
Mel once again repeated the thumbnail version of Cara’s ordeal in the river and their attempts to recover her identity and memory.
Kenny said, “Give me the Sheriff’s name and phone number, so I can compare notes and info with him.”
Mel took out one of his business cards and wrote Ben’s name and number on the back. “My number is on the front, in case you want to ask me anything,” he said handing it to Kenny.
“Thanks.” Kenny tucked the card in his wallet.
“The sheriff thinks there’s a possibility the person who shoved her into the water could have been a woman. Do you know of any reason anyone would want to kill Cara?”
Kenny looked thoughtful. “One reason I can think of would be money. The girls and their brother Walter were each left a considerable hunk of cash from their grandfather and more when their father died.”
“Yes, Sharon told us. Who would inherit it if Cara died?”
Kenny shrugged. “I suppose it depends on whether she’s written a will. If she hasn’t, by Minnesota law, if she has no descendants, it goes back up to her mother, then back down to her surviving siblings.”
“I think it’s highly suspicious that Lydia refused to report her missing, don’t you?”
“Not necessarily,” Kenny said. “Lydia’s had some bad experiences with reporters, I’m told.”
“Yeah, I heard about the girls being kidnapped when they were young. I’m sure that would make anyone wary of publicity.”
Kenny nodded. “Luckily that ended well, with both the girls returned home safe and sound. Lots of kidnappings turn out differently, you know.”
“Yeah, I know.” Mel shuddered. “Her family consists of just her mother, one brother and one sister?”
“No, I think there’re also some cousins who live somewhere in Wisconsin, though Sharon seldom mentions them.”
“It wouldn’t hurt to check them out,” Mel said grimly. “Like where they were on the day Cara went into the river.”
“Good idea. I’ll do that. You say the email to Lydia was sent after Cara was in Landers?”
“Definitely,” Mel said. “The sheriff has the time I called 9-1-1 when she went into the river. I found her in my cabin after dark that night, injured and shoeless. There’s no way she was an hour away in Minneapolis sending that email to her mother.”
“I see.”
“Lydia mentioned Cara’s brother, Walter. She said he’d left after a quarrel a couple of years ago.”
“Yeah. Sharon said Walter’s not very business oriented, but Lydia thought he should take over his grandfather’s business anyway. He refused and just took off and doesn’t keep in touch.”
“Do you think he’s capable of trying to kill Cara? Sibling rivalry can be pretty potent, you know.”
Kenny raised an eyebrow. “Sure, but Walter?” He thought a moment. “Well, all I really know about him is what Sharon has told me. She said he’s very bookish, trained to be a college professor. He has his own share of inheritances, so should have plenty of money for awhile, anyway.”
Mel frowned. “He could have gone through it fast. Traveling or maybe gambling? Living on the move costs more than living in one spot. Hotels and restaurants and airfare can add up. If no one knows where he is, he could have been here as well as not. And he’d have known where Cara lived and his mother’s email address and all that.”
“I suppose it’s possible. I’ll try to find out what he’s been up to,” Kenny said.
“Good. I think we need to consider all the angles and possibilities.”
Kenny nodded as Cara and Sharon returned to the table. “Too bad we didn’t know about this email message sooner. We could have tried to get fingerprints off the computer. But now, too many others have handled it since then.”
Sharon frowned. “I’m sorry. I did
n’t think of that. I used it because I was trying to figure out where she’d gone.” She sent an apologetic look to Cara. “I didn’t mean to pry, Cara, but I wanted to check your Visa card numbers and bank accounts to see if you’d been using them.”
“And what did you find?” Mel asked.
“Nothing. No one used them at all. I was hoping you were using them all over Europe, Cara. I really wanted to believe you were bouncing around the Continent, having a good time. When I didn’t find anything, I called Kenny. I was afraid something bad had happened to you. I couldn’t even find any large cash withdrawals you’d made before you left, like you would have done to buy travelers’ checks.”
Kenny explained, “I could find no record that you’d taken a flight to Europe, either.”
Sharon said, “I couldn’t verify whether you’d gone or not, because I knew you kept your passport in your safety deposit box at the bank. And they refused to tell me anything, citing privacy laws.”
“I suppose,” Cara agreed.
“That’s where my uniform comes in handy.” Kenny grinned.
“They let you into my safety deposit box?” Cara asked, frowning.
Kenny shook his head. “No, I’m pretty sure I’d need a court order for that. But they did tell me that you hadn’t signed in to have access to your safety deposit box within the month before you disappeared. That wasn’t proof that your passport was still there, of course, but it did make us very suspicious that you hadn’t gone to Europe at all.”
“I see.” Cara nodded.
The waitress appeared with Kenny’s hamburger and fries, took the rest of their orders and left.
Kenny bit into a French fry and asked Cara, “So you just found your mother today?”
“Yes,” Cara said. “Although I still don’t remember much about her, or Sharon, either.”
A pained look flashed across Sharon’s face, but she said nothing.
Mel put in, “She did remember the kidnapping from her past and also some things about her apartment today, though.”
“Well, that’s a start, anyway. Sharon told me she was worried about you a couple of weeks ago, but your mother didn’t want an official investigation, so that limited what I could do. But I did manage to find out some things, like that you hadn’t been using your credit cards, and hadn’t been traveling, at least not under your own name.”
Mel said, “Several newspapers wrote up articles about Cara, calling her our ‘mystery woman.’ Odd that nobody here saw them.” He pulled a copy of one of the articles out of his pocket and handed it to Sharon.
“I don’t spend much time reading the papers,” Sharon admitted. “This really doesn’t look much like you, anyway, Cara.” Sharon frowned. “There’s a bandage on your cheek and your hair is all straggly and not up in a French Twist like you usually wear it, so I doubt any of our friends would have recognized you from it, either.”
“I see.” Cara seemed to accept Sharon’s assessment.
“Since Mama insisted on keeping this quiet, none of our friends would have been likely to connect the story to you. I’m sorry, Cara.” Sharon reached across the table and put her hand on Cara’s. “I shouldn’t have listened to Mama. I should have insisted on an official search. Then we might have found you weeks ago.”
“It’s okay. Don’t worry about it, Sharon,” Cara said.
Kenny put in, “I did find a couple of your fellow teachers who suggested you had a secret boyfriend, Cara. I hope I’m not telling tales out of school or anything, but I guess if you can’t remember him and he hasn’t come forward, it’s not going to matter if we talk about it.”
Mel said, “He might be the guy who pushed her into the river. And probably the same one who shot at us that night.” Mel explained to Kenny about the shooting that night in Landers, and concluded, “So if you can find him, that would be a big help. He ought to be charged with attempted murder!”
“Could you identify him if you saw him again?” Kenny asked Mel.
Mel shook his head. “No. I was too far away for that.”
“Or get any physical evidence from the shooting?”
Again Mel shook his head.
“Then I doubt we have enough evidence for charges,” Kenny said.
“Unless Cara gets her memory back, you mean.” Sharon said.
“Yes, of course,” Kenny agreed. “If Cara can testify that he pushed her into the river, then we’d definitely have a case.”
“But this guy probably doesn’t know she can’t identify him. I mean, how could he know?” Sharon asked, a worried frown on her face now.
“He might have read those newspapers, too,” Kenny said. “He could have been looking for info and keeping track of her, to make sure she won’t tell on him.”
“So you agree she might still be in danger?” Mel put in.
Kenny nodded. “Yes, I do. But until he tries something else or Cara remembers something, there’s no way to find out who he is or how to prevent him from trying again.”
“What I want to know is, why in the world would anyone want to kill you in the first place?” Sharon asked. “I’ve been thinking and thinking about this, and none of it makes any sense.”
Cara squirmed. She looked from one to another, then blurted out, “That’s what I need to know. Why did this man hate me enough to try to drown me? If we were dating and he wanted to break up, wouldn’t he just tell me so? Or was he afraid of me for some reason? Did I have some kind of hold over him that he would go to such lengths to keep me quiet?” She swallowed back tears of fear and frustration. Mel reached out an arm to hug her close.
Kenny said, “Lots of murders don’t make any sense at the time. Even after we find the killer, we don’t always figure out the motive.”
“I suppose,” Cara said. “When Ben came to see me in the hospital, I asked him what he could charge the person with. He said he didn’t think he could even make attempted murder stick unless I remembered who the person with me at the dam was. He said Mel’s description wasn’t enough to identify anyone and he had no other evidence. No one had seen a car there or anything.”
Mel said, “I was too far away to really identify the person. But I’m quite sure whoever it was did push you into the river.”
“I’m glad you told me that,” Cara said with a shudder. “The doctor asked if I’d tried to commit suicide.”
“Really?” Sharon looked incredulous.
Cara shuddered. “I told him I might not know my own name, but I knew I’d never do that.”
“There’s another thing I haven’t told you,” Kenny said. “There’s a drug problem at the school where you teach. We’re in the middle of an investigation of it, so I can’t tell you any details. But that could also be a motive for killing Cara.”
“Drugs?” Cara said. “But I don’t remember anything about that school.”
Sharon exploded, “Cara would never be involved with drugs, Kenny! How can you even think that?”
“She wouldn’t have to be involved, Sharon,” Kenny said soothingly. “But she might have seen something they didn’t want her to see, be an innocent witness to a deal going on, or something like that. It’s just another possibility.”
Kenny looked at his watch and rose, tossing some money on the table for his bill. “I’ve got to get back to work. I’ll keep in touch, Cara, and I hope you get your memory back soon.” He dug out a business card and handed it to her. “If you remember anything at all that might help, give me a call.”
“I will. Thanks, Kenny. It was nice meeting you,” Cara said, giving him a smile.
“Keep an eye on her,” Kenny said to Mel. “I wish there was more I could do right now. But we’re too short-handed to guard anyone all the time.” He strode out.
Sharon finished her coffee and glanced at her watch. “I doubt Mother is home from her meeting yet. What do you want to do next, Cara?”
Cara sighed and thought for a moment. She felt almost as confused now as she had when she’d first gotten out
of the hospital. “I’d like to go back to my apartment and spend some time on my computer. Maybe I can find out the name of the man I was seeing.”
“Who was probably the same man I saw push you into the Bear Trap,” Mel said grimly.
“Good idea. But I’d be careful about contacting anyone you suspect,” Sharon cautioned. “This person sounds dangerous to me. There’s no telling what he might pull next.”
“Don’t forget Sheriff Ben says we aren’t even sure it’s a man,” Mel cautioned.
“I remember,” Cara said, irritated with them both. She needed time to think, to try to work out stuff for herself. Yet she didn’t want to be alone, either, in case the men were right in thinking the man might try again. She shuddered, remembering the sharp whack of the bullet into the doorway of Mel’s house. Yes, definitely, someone had meant to kill her and probably Mel, too.
They went back to Cara’s apartment. As they were unlocking the door, a door opened just down the hall and a white haired lady peered out at them. “Oh, you’re back, Cara. I was beginning to think you’d moved out.”
Cara looked curiously at her. Was she friendly with this lady? She didn’t remember her at all. She said cautiously, “Hi. Yes, I’m back.”
Sharon said, “Hello, Mrs. Ferguson. How’s your arthritis?”
Well, Cara thought. Apparently Sharon knew this woman, so she was probably okay.
“It was worse yesterday than today,” Mrs. Ferguson said. “My knees always hurt more when it rains. I’m glad the weather’s clearing up.”
“That’s good,” Sharon said.
“You want your cat back now, Cara?” Mrs. Ferguson asked.
Cara looked at her, confused. “My cat?”
“You have Her Majesty?” Sharon asked. “So that’s where she is. Thank goodness!”
“Yep. I got your note asking me to take care of her for you for a few days. I brought her to my place because it was easier than running back and forth. Besides, she was lonesome without you and meowed a lot.”