Recovered Secrets. Jessica R. Patch
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a former SEAL too. He looked into your case when you were in a coma, but obviously nothing turned up.” With these new developments, it was time to try again. “But they have skills that can get us information far faster than the local sheriff’s department. How about I call them again. Maybe we can dig up some information on Dr. Sayer, Peter Rainey and those Latino men.”
Grace gnawed the tip of her thumb. “I’m up for anything that gets me answers. He said others might know I’m alive. Why does that feel ominous?”
The sheriff rounded the corner on foot. Cord Freeman was a hulk of a man and as rough as a corn cob. A few years older than Hollis’s thirty-two years and serious about everything. He nodded at Grace, lingering a bit longer than necessary—like most men in town. She was striking and exotic. “Grace, Hollister.”
“Hey, Cord,” Hollis said.
Cord eyed his gloves, then Grace’s. “I see you’ve been playing CSI. I’m going to assume you weren’t dumb enough to disturb the evidence.”
Hollis’s jaw twitched but he reined in his temper. Cord had a point. “I’m not a complete idiot.”
Cord raised a dark eyebrow. Amusement gleamed in his eyes. He was mad, but not livid. “Well...at least you admit you’re half an idiot.” He smirked. “What’d you find?” Cord asked a million questions and scratched his head. The coroner arrived and Cord followed him to Grace’s. Hollis held Grace back with him. “I know things feel like they’re crazier than ever, but let’s look at it like the glass is half full. We now have a few pieces of information. Names. We can make this dog hunt.”
She reached up and lightly touched his cheek, no longer wearing the gloves. He hadn’t shaved this morning, but his stubble didn’t seem to bother her. “Hollis, I don’t know what I would have done—what I would do—without you. I will never be able to repay you.”
He caressed the hand resting on his cheek, his heart swelling and aching in unison. “I don’t want to be repaid, Grace. I just want you to know who you are.” And who she might belong to. He wanted her unlocked from this prison of her mind. Free to... He wouldn’t go there. “I’m going to call Locke and have him see if his sister can help us. If I can’t reach him, I’ll call Wilder directly.”
More deputies showed up and filed into Grace’s house. Her brow turned worried. “I hope this doesn’t mess up business for Tish. She’s worked hard to build this inn after Ed died, and having a shooting on the property isn’t exactly the picture of cozy and safe. What if they see the cadaver?”
Cadaver. A word that flowed off her tongue like it belonged there. She might be in the medical field...but he held reservations. A man with no identification found Grace...and wanted the doctor. Said he could be trusted. Two obvious bad guys wanted said doctor as well. Why would Grace know about this person’s whereabouts? Could Dr. Sayer be in the Witness Protection Program? He liked the idea of Grace being a marshal a whole lot more than a woman with a seedy past—possibly criminal. Hollis couldn’t imagine Grace would desire to return to that environment if her memories surfaced. He was there the Sunday she walked to the front and gave her heart and life to God. She was a new person now. But the needling inside him intensified. Reminded him of his own past.
Mary Beth had been a bright and shining star when he’d moved to Cottonwood to take over the SAR several years ago. He’d fallen fast and thought she returned those feelings, but after a year she claimed she didn’t know who she was and needed to find herself. Whatever that meant. She’d asked for three months, and Hollis had agreed with hopes she’d return from New York ready to move forward in their relationship.
But instead, she’d decided small-town life wasn’t for her. It was mundane. Too small. Not enough excitement. She ought to be here now. Mary Beth would have more excitement than she could handle.
She’d broken Hollis’s heart, and all but told him he wasn’t enough. He’d managed to get over the fact that his dad had walked out on his family, but Mary Beth stomping on his heart seemed different. Didn’t matter now. It was water under the bridge. Which reminded him. “I’d like to take a boat out and check river levels.” He peered into the sky. “I don’t see this letting up.” They had levees in place, but if this didn’t level off soon, he wasn’t sure what would happen. Being a water town had its perks, but also its fears.
“The rain or what’s happening to me?” Grace muttered.
Truthfully?
Both.
* * *
Grace watched as they discreetly carried the body of Peter Rainey from her home. She answered additional questions for Sheriff Freeman, though she had only so much to offer. After that hoopla wore off and a crew had come in and cleaned for her, she and Hollis sat on her worn gray couch and he made a call to Locke and then to Jody Novak, Locke’s sister. They put her and the team at Covenant Crisis Management on Speaker and Hollis relayed everything that had happened.
Wheezer, their computer analyst, had jumped on the search and according to the team, if there was something to be found he would find it. Grace hoped so. Once again, she prayed and asked God to reveal her past so she could move forward.
“Okay,” Wheezer said over the speaker, “I have a pretty large list of Dr. Sayers. Cutting down to female. Less of a list. I’m going to filter the search to doctors who went off-grid in the past two years. It’ll take a minute, but when I have something, I’ll call you.”
“Hang in there,” Wilder Flynn, the security team director, said to Grace. “We won’t stop until we have answers. If you need us there, Hollister, say the word. I can send a team member or personally fly in.”
“I appreciate that, Wilder. For right now, I think we can manage.”
Grace did, too, but flying blind was dangerous. Anyone could be against her. She wouldn’t recognize an enemy from an ally. They hung up and she offered to make coffee.
Hollis grinned. “I never turn down coffee.”
Grace actually laughed. As she headed for the coffee pot in her kitchenette, she glanced inside her bedroom and a sudden wave came over her. A memory! Like a scene from a movie playing in full color in her mind.
Grace was dressed in a long black evening gown, her hair swept to the side. She had her arm looped into a man’s and as she gazed up, it was Peter Rainey’s face. He laid his hand on hers, and that’s when she noticed the engagement ring. Peter leaned down and kissed her. “You look beautiful, Max,” he said.
Then the memory was gone. Fade to black.
She fumbled the carafe and it slipped from her hands, crashing to the floor. Hollis jumped up from the couch. “Grace?”
“Sorry... I uh—I dropped the coffee pot. Don’t come over here. Glass.” She rushed to the small pantry and retrieved a broom, but her hands shook. What did this mean? Had she been engaged—married even—to Peter? His betrayal could have been adultery. She’d had little moments of memory pops over the past six months but nothing this big. This substantial. This confusing. Grace went to task sweeping up the glass shards.
“What startled you?” Hollis asked.
Heat ballooned in her cheeks. She couldn’t hide this from Hollis. But everything in her wanted to keep it buried. “I... I had a flash of a memory. A snippet really, and it unnerved me. Came on so sudden.”
Hollis ignored her warning about the glass and leaned over the breakfast bar, resting his elbows on it and putting himself eye level with her. “What was it?”
“I’m not sure what it meant,” she whispered as she dared a peek at him. Solemn eyes. Jaw tight. As if bracing himself for the worst news. What would be the worst news to Hollis? Had she once loved Peter? He’d never mentioned any feelings. Granted, he hadn’t had much time before he was murdered. It was as if someone knew he would talk, and they were shutting him up.
Instead of revealing the secret, she changed