“Maybe some coffee.”
The nurse laughed. “Well, I guess that’s liquid. I’ll get you some. Maybe some juice too.” She went out the door.
Nicole turned her head and looked toward the window. It was getting light. She wondered how long she’d been here. Maybe she could figure things out if her head would quit hurting. She closed her eyes.
When she opened them again, the sun was spilling into the room. She turned her head from the window and looked at the other side of her bed. The strange man sat there. “Who are you?” She asked in a soft raspy voice.
He dropped the newspaper, stood, and looked down at her. “Darling, you’re awake.” He took her hand. “I’ve been so worried about you.”
“Why?”
“Because I thought he’d killed you. I was afraid I’d never see you again. I couldn’t stand it if anything happened to you, Nicole.” He leaned down and kissed her on the swollen cheek carefully. She became stiff.
He lifted his head and looked at her. “What’s wrong, Nicole?”
“I’m Nicole, and I thank you for that very nice kiss, but I don’t know you.”
“Of course you do, darling. We’re in love and we...” He stared into her blank eyes. “You don’t know me, do you?” he whispered.
“No.”
* * * *
Connor’s heart raced. How could this be? They’d shared so much. She’d been there when he needed someone the most. She’d made him fall in love with her, now she was saying she didn’t know him. “How about our trip to Savannah? How about the wonderful things we shared?” He had to make her remember.
She shook her head.
“What do you remember?”
“I remember being at the mall waiting for my friend Katrina and her fiancé, Cliff. He found me and said Katrina wanted me to come to the dress department. She found the dress she wanted to get married in. She wasn’t there so he suggested we find the lounge. We found it, and I started inside to see if Katrina was there. Things then went black, and I woke up here.”
“When did this happen, Nicole?”
“Yesterday, maybe?” She gave him a questioning look.
Connor reached down and patted her shoulder. “I’m going to find your doctor.”
The nurse came in with a cup of coffee. “This is the second one I’ve brought you. You let the other one get cold.”
“I’m sorry.”
The nurse pulled the bed table across Nicole’s mid-section and raised the bed. “I brought cream and sugar. I didn’t know how you liked it.”
“I think I want both.”
The nurse opened the sugar packet and ripped the top off the little tub of cream. “I see the pictures are still here. Did you look at them again?”
“What pictures?”
“The ones you and Connor Cottingham made in Savannah. It sure looks like the two of you had a wonderful time there.”
She glanced at him. “May I see them now?”
“Sure.” The nurse picked up an envelope from the bedside table and handed them to Nicole. “Now if you want something else to drink before I come back with your lunch, just let me know.”
“I will.” Nicole began thumbing through the pictures. The man had been right. She’d been to Savannah with him. She was staring at a picture of the two of them standing beside a lighthouse. He had his arms around her and she was smiling up at him. In the next picture he was kissing her. How could this be? Why couldn’t she remember this? What was wrong with her?
The rest of the day was hectic. The doctor came in and checked her and told her not to worry, her memory would probably come back. She glared at him because she could remember everything. She knew she was from Atlanta and she was in Macon because Katrina’s fiancé was in some kind of fishing exhibition. She had come to support her friend because Cliff was dead set against children. Katrina was pregnant, and she planned to tell him here.
She knew her parents had retired and moved to Arizona and she lived in Atlanta with her grandmother. She hoped nobody had told Grandma Mildred she was in the hospital. Grandma got upset too easily.
A woman named Lita Mancini came and stayed with her a while. Nicole remembered she’d been there the night before. Another older man came, but he didn’t stay long. He told her his name was Martin Cottingham. The one in the pictures, the one they all called Connor, had not been back since she told him she didn’t know him. She did want to talk with him again. She wanted him to explain what they were doing in Savannah. She also wanted to know just how serious this relationship between the two of them was. He looked like a nice man, but she couldn’t remember a thing about him.
Two police detectives came to interview her. They were disappointed when they learned her memory was gone.
By evening, Nicole was exhausted. She went to sleep before anyone else visited or her memory returned.
Chapter 35
Lita was going into her house when the phone started to ring.
“Lita,” Janice was in tears. “Derrick was on the way home in a private plane. It crashed somewhere in the mountains. Everyone on board was killed.”
“Oh, Janice, I’m so sorry. How’s your mother taking it?”
“I haven’t told her. I’m afraid to.”
“I’ll be right there.”
It didn’t take Lita long to walk to Dora’s house. Janice met her at the door. Lita put her arms around the girl. “Oh, Lita, how could I have been so wrong?”
“What do you mean dear?”
“Derrick called me before he left Michigan. He told me he’d hired Cliff Meeker to beat up Mom.”
“How did he know the man?”
“I think he said they met at some fishing tournament or something. You know how Derrick likes to fish. Anyway, he said Cliff was supposed to make me fall in love with him.” She began to cry harder. “I thought I loved him, Lita. He was a horrible man, and I was so foolish.”
“It’s alright, dear.” Lita folded her arms around the trembling girl.
“I don’t know if it will ever be alright, Lita. The man I thought I loved is a murderer, my brother tried to have our mother killed, my daddy is not my real daddy, and my mother is dying. How can anything be right again?” She broke into sobs.
“Let’s go sit in the living room and let you cry it out, Janice. We don’t need to be facing your mother in this condition.”
“I know.” Her big brown eyes turned to Lita. “How could she have done this to you?”
“I don’t know, honey, but as I said before, we’ll work it out.”
“How can you stand the sight of me?”
“Janice, none of this is your fault. Why should I shun you? When this is all over, you and I will only have each other.”
“What about Nicole? I know you’re crazy about her.” Janice sat on the sofa and Lita sat down beside her.
“I’ll always care for Nicole, but she’ll probably be leaving soon. Her heart belongs to Connor now and they belong together.”
“It’s my fault Elsie had Cliff kidnap her. I’m sorry I was so mean to her, but I was afraid she was my lost sister and I was jealous.”
“It doesn’t matter now. Nicole is safe and she’s going to be fine.” Lita smiled at Janice. “Now, we’re going to get ourselves together and go talk with your mother.”
* * * *
It was almost midnight when Nicole woke up again. The room was lit only by a small light over her bed. She looked to the left and Connor was sitting in the lounge chair. He was too far away for her to touch. She smiled as she looked at him. He looked so handsome with his sandy hair mussed up and his tortoise shell glasses hanging on the end of his nose. The newspaper lay across his lap. She knew he must have gone to sleep reading because he never wore his glasses unless he was reading or working on one of the files at the office.
He probably needed to sleep, but she had an overwhelming desire for him to hold her, if only for a minute. She wanted to tell him she remembered now. She knew who she was and wh
ere she was from. She wanted him to know she wasn’t married and never had been. There was only one serious relationship in her past and that happened a long time ago. The man had decided he wanted his freedom and after he was gone, Nicole hadn’t found anyone special until Connor. Some day she would explain all of this. For now all she wanted was to feel him near her.
“Connor,” she said softly. He stirred, but didn’t wake up. “Connor,” she said a little louder.
He opened his eyes and looked at her. He saw her pained smile and pulled the chair into a sitting position. “Did you want me?” He asked. He acted as if he wasn’t sure how to react to her.
“Can you pull your chair closer to me so I can see you better?”
He folded his paper and put it on the table beside her bed. He then took off his glasses and laid them on it. Pulling the chair closer to the bed, he still seemed to force a smile as if not knowing what to expect.
She took his hand. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
* * * *
He smiled again, still afraid he’d say the wrong thing. The doctor had told him not to rush Nicole. Let her get her memories back as she could handle them. He’d said they might return all of a sudden or they could slip into her mind one at a time.
“Tell me what happened.” She looked at him.
“What do you remember happening, Nicole?” He knew he had to be cautious.
“I was coming to work.” She smiled. “I wore my yellow outfit and my rainbow sweater because I wanted to look nice for you.”
“You always look nice to me.” His heart began to pound.
“Thank you. You’re sweet.” She grinned bigger though he knew it was painful by the way her face twitched. “I remember you said nobody called you sweet and I told you I’d do it again and again. Remember?”
“I remember.” He grinned back. Dare he hope she was recalling their time together? Would she remember how much they meant to each other? Oh, God, please, he prayed silently. I need her so much. Let her remember she loves me, and that I love her.
She went on with her story. “As I said I was on my way to work and I reached the next block after ours when a car pulled up to the curb. Cliff Meeker got out and told me I had to hurry. Katrina was hurt and needed to see me. I believed him.” She closed her eyes. “I was so foolish. I got in the car with him. It was then he told me he’d hit Katrina so hard when she told him she was going to have a baby she fell off the boat. He said he knew instantly that was the answer to his problem of an unwanted pregnancy.” Her eyes took on a sad look. “He said he let her drown because she wouldn’t agree to an abortion. He pretended her fiancé drowned with her so nobody would suspect him.” Nicole shuddered. “When I told him to let me out of the car, he hit me.”
“I’m sorry this happened to you, darling.”
She held his hand tighter. “Did he really kill Katrina?”
“Yes, he did, honey.” With his other hand, Connor reached over and brushed a tear off her cheek. She began to cry harder and he took a tissue off her night stand to wipe her tears away. “They’ve charged him with her murder so he’ll pay for what he did.”
“I never thought he was the right man for her, but she loved him so much she was willing to overlook his faults. She was my best friend.”
“I’m so sorry you lost your friend.” He leaned over the bed and kissed her forehead. “And I’m sorry he did this to you, but thank God you’re alive.”
“I’m glad you’re here with me, Connor.”
He brushed her lips gently with his. He wanted to grab her and kiss her passionately, but he wasn’t about to hurt her bruised and swollen face, or take a chance on causing more pain to her battered body. “Can you go on, darling?”
She nodded. “Cliff took me to this seedy motel. When we got inside he shoved me on the bed and said he was going to rape me, but he didn’t get a chance. Elsie came in. She said she was going to the bank to get some money to pay him then go by your office and see you. She taunted me and told me you’d forget all about our little affair as soon as she showed you what a real woman could do.”
“You didn’t believe her, did you?”
Nicole grimaced again when she smiled. “Of course not. I know you love me.”
“Yes, I do.” He kissed her neck softly. “You’re the only woman in the world I’m interested in.”
She reached up and put her arm around his neck. “Cliff asked her what she wanted him to do with me and she said she wasn’t sure yet. He told her he’d kill me for more money, but she said to wait. She wanted me to be alive for a while. Cliff said that was fine with him because he planned to have sex with me several times before he got rid of me.” She shuddered.
He moved his fingers over her arm. “Did he rape you, honey?”
“Would you still love me if he did, Connor?”
“Of course, I’d still love you. I’d want to kill him more than I do, but I’d still love you.”
“He didn’t rape me.” She reached for him. “I’ll always love you, Conner.”
Connor moved closer to the side of her bed. He raised the head until she was almost sitting upright. He sat on the side of the bed and reached out his arms to her, careful of her bandaged ribs and her bruised body. She moved gingerly as she snuggled against him. After they were comfortable, he whispered. “I’ll always love you too, Nicole. I want to spend the rest of my life telling you how much.”
“Oh, Connor. I want that, too.”
“You don’t have to talk any more, darling.”
“I need to say these things. It’ll help me accept what happened.”
“Then, go ahead. I’m here to listen.”
“Cliff probably would have raped me if Elsie hadn’t told him he couldn’t. She said she’d make me so unattractive no man would ever want me again, especially you.” She took a deep breath and winced.
“Oh my lord, what did she do?”
“She began hitting me. I was about to pass out when I heard him tell her if she didn’t stop, she was going to kill me herself. I guess she believed him because she did stop and told him to put me somewhere nobody would ever find me.”
“Elsie actually did this to you?” He was surprised, but not shocked.
“Yes. After she left to get his money, he put me in the car and we went to the storage units. When he put me inside he told me he couldn’t help feeling sorry for me, but not sorry enough to let me go. He said Elsie promised him more money when she had you hooked. He shoved me down on the concrete floor. Maybe he did feel a little sorry for me because he took my sweater off me before he tied my hands. He shoved it under my head and said, “Now, you have a pillow.” I told him I didn’t want to get blood on my sweater and he laughed.”
She looked at him. “Where is my sweater, Connor? I don’t want to lose it. It’s special to me because you bought it.”
“Lita took it home to see if she could get the blood out of it. I told her not to bother because I’d buy you another one.”
“But I want this one. It reminds me of the wonderful things we did on our special trip.”
“Oh, sweetheart, we’ll take another trip as soon as you’re able and you want to go. I’ll buy you all the sweaters you want.”
She shivered.
“What’s wrong?”
“I was just thinking about what Cliff said when I asked him when someone would let me out. He laughed and told me not to worry about it. Somebody would know where I was when they smelled my decaying body. He then gave me a couple of hard kicks in the chest and laughed as he closed the door.”
She shivered again and Conner pulled her to him. “I’m sorry you had to go through this darling. If I could get my hands on him...”
“I want him to pay for what he did to Katrina.”
“He’ll not only pay for that, he’s been charged with kidnapping you, attempted murder, the assault on Dora Hildebrand, and a host of other crimes.”
“Does that mean it’s all over now?”
“Just about. I’m sure the police will want to talk with you, now that you remember.”
“Of course I remember. Who could forget a thing like that?”
“I don’t know, Nicole. I really don’t know.” He turned her face toward his and reminded himself to be gentle as he softly kissed her lips. “As long as you remember our love for each other, nothing else matters.”
“Of course I love you, Connor. I’ve loved you from the first moment I saw you come into the front office with your glasses on the end of your nose.”
“And I remember how pretty I thought you looked sitting there in that little checked suit of yours with the skirt a few inches too high on your thigh. You looked so appealing telling me why I needed to give you a job. I couldn’t resist hiring you, or falling in love with you either.” He again kissed her gently.
“I’m sorry. I want to kiss you so bad, but I can’t kiss you properly. My mouth is too sore.”
“Don’t worry, darling. It won’t be long until we’re together forever. We’ll be able to do all the kissing we want to.” He grinned at her. “We may even go to Europe where we’ll be able to do something else too.”
“I’m sure Lita would tell you to be sure and use protection.”
“To heck with protection. I can’t wait to marry you and start making a baby with you.”
“Oh, Connor, Grandma Mildred is going to love you. She’s always wanted to be a great-grandma.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Agnes Alexander writes in more than one genre. Her published works are in Western Historical Romance, Mystery and Romantic Suspense. Murder in Georgia, a mystery with some romance is her ninth book for Whiskey Creek Press.
A life-long resident of North Carolina, she counts traveling as one of her passions. She has visited 48 of the 50 States and says Alaska and Hawaii are on her bucket list. Of course, she loves to read, but tries to limit herself to one or two books a week. Besides traveling and reading, Agnes enjoys jewelry making, watching old movies and spending time with her family, especially her two grandchildren.
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Murder in Georgia Page 21