Carol Ericson - Circumstantial Memories

“Do you have another evidence bag for this?” Julia held up the flowers by the end of the yellow ribbon. “It was on my porch when we got home. There was another one this morning, but it’s gone, and I threw away the other two I got in the past two weeks.”

“Looks like you got yourself a secret admirer, Julia. The flowers and the scene in the bedroom are obviously connected.” Will took the bouquet from Julia and dropped it into another plastic bag.

Julia hunched her shoulders. “The flowers were one thing, but why did he get violent?”

“Probably because you didn’t show proper appreciation for the offering this morning.” Ryder draped an arm around Julia, and turned to Will. “Julia stomped on the flowers the guy left this morning.”

“Seems like overkill to me.” Will jerked his thumb toward the bedroom. “Anyone ask you on a date, Julia? Someone you turned down?”

Leaning against Ryder, Julia shook her head. “N-no.”

Ryder clenched his jaw. Was she lying? Why would she lie to protect someone? Julia had been loyal to a fault. Her girlfriends in Paris tried to warn her about Jeremy’s cheating ways, but Julia shrugged them off. Until she walked in on the evidence.

Will grabbed his hat. “Get that lock fixed, and I know you always do, but keep your doors locked. Be aware of your surroundings and be careful going to and from that night class in Durango.”

Julia jerked beneath his arm, and Ryder slid a gaze to her face, which paled. “Anything else?”

Gripping her hands in front of her, Julia told them about the driver of a dark sedan trying to get her to pull over on the highway and the loose lug nuts on her wheel.

“Do you think he might have something to do with the break-in?” Her gaze darted between the three men, settling on Will.

“Maybe. Did you get a good look at the driver?” Will took a spiral notebook out of his pocket and scribbled a few notes.

“No. It was dark. He was wearing sunglasses, which was weird, and he had black hair, but it could’ve been brown.” Julia glanced at Ryder’s hair.

Great. Did she suspect him?

“Just be careful.” Will shoved his notebook back in his pocket. “We’ll run the scissors and the ribbons for fingerprints. Doesn’t help that we’re at the beginning of the summer tourist season. The hotels, B and B’s and dude ranches are already filling up, and we have plenty of strangers in town.”

“I’ll make sure she stays safe.” Ryder clasped Julia’s hands, still wound tightly in front of her.

Will’s brows shot up and Julia stepped back, snatching her hands away from Ryder.

Zack cleared his throat. “Don’t tell me you’re married to Julia, too.”

Will elbowed his son in the ribs. “Let’s get going, Zack. I’m sure Ryder and Julia have a lot to discuss outside of all this mess. We’ll let you know if we find anything, Julia.”

When the Ballards left, Julia peeked in on Shelby and then returned to the scene of the crime to sift through her shredded lingerie.

Ryder propped a shoulder on the door. “Anything salvageable?”

“Not much.” Perching on the edge of the bed, she held up two pieces of a bra, snipped in half.

His gut twisted and he dug his shoulder into the doorjamb to keep from rushing across the room and taking her in his arms. Did this attack have anything to do with her past? He owed her the truth. She’d be safer knowing the truth.

“Zack’s an idiot, but did you have a lot of men coming out of the woodwork claiming to be your husband?”

Julia fell back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. “Yeah. The local papers ran my story and scores of people stepped forward to claim me.” Her hands clawed at the remnants of her underwear.

“I felt sorry for most of them seeking runaway daughters, missing wives, lost sisters. They all came looking for something. They all wanted me to be someone.”

A cold fear cinched the back of his neck. Any of those imposters could’ve fooled her. “How did you rule them out?”

“They had to have proof.” She scooped up the silky material and let it fall on top of her like giant, colorful snowflakes. “And nobody had it.”

“Have you tried to regain your memory?”

“Yep-first a hypnotist and then a psychologist. I’m still working on it. I see Dr. Brody in Durango once a week. He’s a hypnotist, too, but that didn’t work for me.”

“Is he helping at all? Have you had any glimmers of memories?”

She sat up, clutching the shredded underwear to her chest. “Not until today.”

“You mean my telling you about your past triggered some memories?” He held his breath, his heart thumping painfully against his rib cage.

“No. You did.”

“What does that mean?”

“You.” She jumped up and the silky material slid from her body, pooling on the floor. “Just being near you makes me feel…”

She remembered. Ryder took a step forward, but Julia held her hands out, palms forward. The gesture sliced him like a sharp blade. He had to give her time. He had to give Shelby time. Would this new Julia fall in love with him all over again?

“Tell me about Jeremy. How did I meet him?”

He clenched his jaw. He didn’t want to talk about her and Jeremy and their ill-fated relationship, but he represented her only link to her past right now and she deserved to get that back. Warts and all.

“Like I mentioned, you worked as a tour guide at the Louvre. Jeremy worked for the same organization as I do, a covert branch of the CIA, and he went to Paris between assignments.”

Her brown eyes widened. “I was married to a spy? How did we meet?”

“Where a lot of couples meet, at a party.”

She sawed at her bottom lip, a small crease between her brows. “Did I party a lot?”

Not only did Julia party a lot, she was the life of every party she attended. Her wild behavior and expensive tastes attracted a merry band of revelers willing to follow her anywhere.

“Well?”

Ryder glanced at the woman before him, her hands shoved into a pair of faded jeans, a smudge of dirt on the shoulder of her cheap T-shirt.

“Yeah, you did. Your father had passed away the year before and I think most of your…hijinks…came from grief. Anyway, you and Jeremy hit it off and got married a few months later.”

“Short courtship, no wonder it ended in divorce.” She scuffed the toe of her tennis shoe against the carpet. “Were you at that party?”

“No.” If he had been there, Jeremy never would’ve had a chance with Julia.

“The marriage must’ve gone downhill pretty quickly.”

“I’m sorry, Julia. Jeremy cheated on you, and you found out the hard way.”

She shrugged. “It’s not as if I remember the guy, but it’s not easy to hear that Shelby ’s father was a cheat.”

Ryder licked his dry lips. She needed more time. Maybe she’d remember on her own. “Is this ringing any bells?”

“It resounds here.” She clenched her fist and tapped her chest above her heart. “When I started looking for my identity, I had the feeling I didn’t want to find my husband. I wanted to stay lost. Now I know why.”

“Yeah, but we still don’t know why you followed him to Arizona.”

“A package.” Julia gasped and pressed her fingers to her temples.

“What?” Ryder’s head jerked up. “Do you remember something?”

Sinking to the bed, Julia massaged her head. “I just had a flash of memory-a picture of a small flat package wrapped in white paper and tied with twine.”

“Have you ever had a flash of memory like this before?” Ryder settled on the bed next to her, running a hand down her stiff back.

“Only once, but it was a word that came to me, not a picture.”