by Kim Murphy
“Of that, I am aware.” Phoebe sighed.
Shae detected something wrong. “Is something else troubling you?”
“Nay, I am such a ninny. I so looked forward to sharing my newfound memories with Lee.”
Treat her like any other patient. “Why can’t you?”
“He is working on a case and will be unable to have dinner with me this eve.”
Shae comprehended all too well. And there would be many more nights of eating alone. “Why does that make you a ninny?”
“An Arrohateck woman does not depend on a man to entertain her. Men are oft away on hunting and fishing ventures.”
As Shae had feared, Phoebe was falling for Lee. “Phoebe, I need to maintain a professional distance when it comes to Lee, but there is one thing I must tell you. It’s something I would say no matter who he was. Lee may remind you of Lightning Storm, but he can never be him.”
“Aye. I’m wary, and I shall heed your warning.”
“Good. Then perhaps you’re disappointed because you only have a few friends and social outlets right now. I know you’re frustrated that it’s taking so long to find the answers that you require to get on with your life, but again, time is on your side. It will help you.”
“Life has taught me patience.”
For that much Shae was thankful. Other patients might have been suicidal, and she would have been referring them to a psychiatrist. But Phoebe was a survivor. “I’ll see you next Tuesday. Don’t forget to call me if you need anything before then.”
* * *
On Saturday afternoon, Lee parked the T-Bird in front of Colwell House. By the time he had gotten off duty on Thursday, he had already been awake for nearly thirty-six hours. When he knocked on the door, Phoebe was the one to answer. Her face brightened upon seeing him, and she quickly ushered him to the parlor. “I was pleased to receive your call.”
“I have three days off,” he said. “Of course, I spent most of yesterday sleeping, but I’m your humble servant for the rest of the weekend.”
“Shall I inform Valerie that I may be away for my allotted two nights?”
Direct and to the point. He liked that, but with Phoebe it might not mean anything suggestive at all. He didn’t care. “Why not? I’ll be happy to wait if you’d like to get a few things together.”
“I shall return posthaste.”
Her voice seemed happy, and her step was lively as she left the room. He made himself comfortable on the sofa. From the kitchen, he heard a clatter of dishes and women’s voices, chatting. A soft tread of footsteps headed toward the parlor, and Valerie poked her head in. “Lee...”
He stood. “Valerie.”
She entered the parlor. “Phoebe’s upstairs, getting ready.”
He detected hesitation in her voice. Everyone at Colwell House most likely thought he and Phoebe were lovers. “You don’t approve.”
“It’s not that I don’t approve, but—”
“You can save your breath. I’m sure Shae—”
Valerie signaled a “T” for timeout. “Actually Shae has said good things. It’s nothing personal. I’m the same with all of my girls. Many of them have come from very bad relationships. You’re a cop, for God’s sakes. You’ve seen the bodies of the ones who weren’t lucky enough to make it here.”
Her name had been Marcia—his first case as a detective. Her husband had avoided hitting her face to hide the bruises. “I have,” he agreed. “If you think I should leave—”
“You would, wouldn’t you?” Valerie shook her head. “No, I only want what’s best for my girls. Right now, I think you’re instrumental in Phoebe’s mental health. She’s happy after seeing you, so stay. I just worry that you may find her problems too much to deal with after all of the other pressures you encounter each day, not to mention the risk of your job.”
He sighed. “I’m more likely to be struck by lightning than die in the line of duty.”
“Shae said ‘speeding truck,’ but thanks for indulging an old mother hen. Not all guys take my nosing into their affairs kindly. I wish you would visit sometime when Carol’s boyfriend is here. He hasn’t done anything overt as of yet, so I can’t send him packing, but I sensed trouble from the moment he walked through the front door.”
“I can do a background check, if you like.”
“That won’t be necessary, but I pray that I’m wrong.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Lee detected movement. Phoebe entered the parlor. “I’m ready. Where are we going?”
“How about something relaxing for a change? A walk through a park, perhaps?”
Phoebe’s smile let him know that his plan met with her approval. Valerie bid them goodbye as he escorted Phoebe to the door.
“I thought you were packing a few things,” Lee said.
She held out a small grocery bag. “I have.”
Everything she owned. He chastised himself. He had momentarily forgotten places like Colwell House depended on donations. “Would you like me to carry it for you?”
“I have no deformities. Pray do not behave as if I’m a gentlewoman.”
She was a feminist in any age.
“As you wish.” He showed her to the car and automatically turned down the police radio chatter upon starting the engine.
Once they were on I-95, she relayed what she had uncovered during her Thursday session with Shae. Afterward, they sped along the freeway, and Phoebe stared out the window at the countryside as if absorbing every detail.
“Has it changed drastically?” he asked.
“Aye. I could ne’er have fathomed high rises or cars, but the woods... What happened to the woods?”
“A lot of the forests have been cut down since the 1600s. There are over seven million people in the state now.”
She glanced over at him in shock. “When I feel I’m beginning to know this century, I discover I have yet much to learn.”
“You’re doing fine.”
She returned to gazing out the window. “Do all men hide their weapons as you?”
Lee exited the freeway onto a side road. “Not everyone carries weapons in this time. It’s part of my job. Because of the risks I face each day, I always prepare myself for the worst. I’ve heard of too many off-duty officers shot because they had left their pieces in the car.”
“A warrior would always take his weapons with him as well.”
“Then I guess I’m in good company.” Still, he was all too aware that she feared his Glock. It wasn’t the same fear he had spotted in Shae’s eyes when they were married. Something had happened to Phoebe—something involving a gun where she or someone she cared about had been a victim. All of his training told him to ask questions. Shae claimed the opposite in Phoebe’s case. For the moment, he resisted.
Once outside the park, he brought the car to a halt in the designated lot. He escorted Phoebe along the hilly path. In the gentle April breeze, new spring leaves blew. Phoebe’s eyes lit up upon seeing the aviary and focused on the heron. “Why are they kept in a net enclosure?”
“They have nowhere else to go. All the animals here have had injuries that prevent them from living in the wild.”
She frowned. “I have much in common with them.”
He grasped her hand. “I brought you here to cheer you up, not make you sad.”
She smiled. “I’m not melancholy, for I’m with you.”
Lee could no longer restrain himself. He bent down and kissed her.
Phoebe touched her lips. “Are such displays of affection acceptable in public?”
“Within reason.”
“I shall look to you for guidance.”
He kissed her again, more deeply this time, and she eagerly reciprocated.
Beside them, a throat cleared in annoyance. A stooped, elderly woman sent him a scorching look.
“My apologies, ma’am.” He attempted to keep a straight face. “Didn’t mean to offend you.” Hand-in-hand, they traveled up another hill to the next enclosure. A be
ar lazed by a pond, and a gray fox paced the length of its enclosure.
“The red fox was brought from England,” Phoebe stated, “because the gentry found the gray fox too sly to hunt.”
“Phoebe,” Lee said, hoping his frustration wasn’t evident, “because of Shae’s advice, I’m restraining myself from asking any serious questions, but when you tell me trivia... Sorry, I need to be more patient, but the next thing you’ll be telling me are tales about Powhatan, Pocahontas, and John Smith.”
“Wahunsenacawh.”
Another history lesson. “I’m fully aware that Wahunsenacawh was Powhatan’s familiar name.”
Her brow wrinkled in confusion. “Then why did you mention their names? I met Captain Smith once, but he sailed for England shortly aft my arrival. Pocahontas—”
Lee kissed her once more, cutting off her sentence. “You really don’t understand, do you? I’m trying to help you.”
She pressed a hand to his chest. “Don’t be afraid to ask what is in your heart. You have shared the dreaming with me. You know me better than anyone in this time.”
Next to his brown hand, Phoebe’s pale skin almost seemed translucent. “How can I know anyone else when I don’t know who I am?”
“If you share the journey with me, we shall discover the answers together.”
Why was everything she said cryptic? “We’re a lot alike. I—” Lee caught himself. He had almost revealed more than was comfortable and immediately switched to a detached police officer’s stance. “Usually we can trace people through their ID, fingerprints, or DNA. But there’s nothing on you—anywhere. You almost have me believing that you are from the seventeenth century.”
They continued along the tree-lined path. “I thought the dreaming would show you that I’m being truthful,” Phoebe said. “What other evidence do you require for proof?”
He clasped her hands and faced her. “Phoebe, I can usually spot someone very quickly when they’re not telling the truth. I know you’re not lying, but there has to be a rational explanation. People simply don’t travel through time.”
“Then why would I have no memories of my time here afore being struck by the car?”
He had blown it. She had been opening up to him, trusting him, but as usual when a woman got too close, he shoved her away. “I don’t know. That’s Shae’s expertise. We’re here to help you find the answers.”
In silence, they went up and down the hills, viewing bison, otter, and deer. After lunch, they toured the Japanese garden. Phoebe delighted in seeing the stone lanterns, arched bridges, and water lilies, but she failed to share with him as she had before.
A pergola marked the entrance to the next garden. Wisteria climbed the colonnades and rooftop trellis. For some reason, while walking along the cement path, Lee imagined what the way would be like in the mist. When Phoebe gripped his hand, he envisioned her pacing the length of a palisade like a caged animal. In the night, he crouched low and signaled his location to her with the call of the crow. Lightning Storm?
A whippoorwill responded.
Phoebe’s grip tightened, and Lee shook his head and blinked. The colonnades came into view. “What just happened?” Lee asked. “I saw you pacing and called to you, like a crow.”
“You have not witnessed enough to understand.” She sank to the path and cried. “I thought I’d ne’er see Lightning Storm again.”
* * *
As was Russ and Shae’s tradition on Saturday night, Russ had prepared a romantic candlelit dinner. The blackened salmon with chipotle squash and mango rice had more than filled Shae. Yet... she had been unable to resist having a slice of hazelnut torte. Sprawled in misery on the sofa, she felt bloated.
Russ set the coffee cups on the table. He sat beside her and rubbed her back.
She groaned. “I shouldn’t have had the torte. After all these years, you’d think I’d learn.”
“I’ll get the antacid.”
He got up, but she caught his arm. “Don’t leave.”
“I thought you weren’t feeling well.”
Feeling better just having him near, she ran her fingers through his beard. “I’ll be fine, if you—”
He leaned down and kissed her, while touching her in the places she liked. The phone rang, and Shae started to get up.
“Let it ring,” Russ said.
“What if it’s a patient?”
He kissed her again. “If it’s anything urgent, they’ll leave a message.”
With the phone ringing in the background, Shae wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.
The answering machine picked up. “Shae...”
At the sound of Lee’s voice, Russ broke their embrace and grumbled, “You’d better answer, Shae. If the ex calls, I’m sure it’s something all important.”
Detecting his annoyance, she drew him to her once more. “Lee can wait.” Then she overheard Phoebe’s name. She shifted her mindset and rushed over to the phone. “Lee, I’m here. What’s wrong?”
“Phoebe’s not well. She keeps crying but won’t tell me what’s wrong.”
“Where are you?”
“My place.”
That was a good thirty minutes from her. “Can you meet me at my office?”
He assured her that he could, and the phone went dead.
“Would you like me to go with you?” Russ asked.
“I’d appreciate your company.” She kissed him on the cheek. “Thanks for being understanding.”
Normally, the drive to her office was a good twenty to twenty-five minutes, but in the evening with little traffic, she arrived in fifteen. Lee already waited, and as she got out of the car, he helped Phoebe. Shae unlocked the door and switched on the lights to the outer office. Phoebe had streaked cheeks like she had been crying.
“Phoebe, are you all right?” Shae asked.
No response.
“Russ, can you stay with her while I find out what happened?” He nodded, and she motioned for Lee to follow her into the main office. She turned on the lights and faced him. “Well...”
He began by recounting his visit with Phoebe to the local city park.
Shae paced the length of her office, then back again. “I warned you about bringing her memories to the surface too suddenly!”
“How was I to know that a walk through a garden would trigger something traumatic?”
She stopped pacing. “You told me to butt out of your personal affairs. I did, but Phoebe is my patient. Her personal life is my professional concern.”
“I know what you’re thinking.”
Sometimes she just wished for once that he’d lose his cool, but no, he stood across from her with his detective’s poker face and every appearance of being calm and collected. “What am I thinking?”
“That Phoebe and I are more than friends.”
“I’ve seen the way you look at her.”
“So? I haven’t slept with every woman I’ve had sexual thoughts for. Shae, I’d be lying if I said I haven’t been tempted, but we’re not lovers.”
She calmed slightly. She had never known Lee to lie. “Not...?”
“No, and I avoided the historical parks like you suggested. While she has shared memories with me, I thought a trip to the park would be relaxing for her.”
She waved at him to back up. “Shared memories with you? What do you mean? I thought she was merely relaying what came to her as a result of our sessions.”
He motioned for her to have a seat. Shae took the chair behind her desk, and he sat across from her. “She showed me some sort of ritual. Don’t ask me to explain it because I can’t. All I know is that I was drawn in and shared part of what appeared to be her life in the seventeenth century.”
Uncertain whether she liked the idea of what he might be suggesting, Shae asked, “What kind of ritual?”
“She said that it was similar to hypnosis. She had me light a candle and told me to absorb the flame. I was as skeptical as the look you’re giving me, but when I finally c
oncentrated, I viewed the seventeenth century as myself and Lightning Storm.”
Coming from anyone else, she might have doubted the story. “The explanation is actually very simple.”
“Please enlighten me.”
“It’s not just similar to hypnosis. Phoebe knows how to induce it. She planted the suggestion in your mind.”
His forehead wrinkled. “But it seemed so real.”
“Think about it, Lee. When you’ve called me in for forensic hypnosis, the session is taped so everyone knows that I didn’t ask any leading questions. You’re not the easiest subject, but contrary to what most people believe, just about anyone can be hypnotized as long as the hypnotist knows what he or she is doing.”
The lines on his forehead faded. “Makes sense.”
It also likely explained how Phoebe had recalled Lightning Storm without a session.
“Just one question,” Shae asked, “did you see anything that might help?”
“If it wasn’t real, how can what I remember help?” His expression became pensive.
Aware that he didn’t trouble easily, Shae had to say something quickly. “Because what she planted in your mind is an extension of her own.”
“Nothing, really, except that she loved Lightning Storm.”
His statement didn’t surprise her. If only they could discover who the real Lightning Storm was.
“A word of caution,” Shae added, “before I have you send Phoebe in. I don’t think it’s a wise idea to indulge her further. I think she may be channeling her trauma through you to help ease the pain. You remind her of someone she obviously cared about, so she sees you as a strong shoulder. It would be healthier for her to work through it herself. I know you like to play the tough guy, but the emotional stress could cause a strain on you as well.”
“Worse than what I see each day, doctor?”
“Lee, please... everyone has a breaking point.”
He cracked a grin. “Then I guess I’ll have to relieve my stress in other ways. You’re blushing, doctor. I bet you haven’t told Russ about the way we used to—”
“Shut up.” Silently cursing him, she took a moment to compose herself. “I really should speak with Phoebe now.”