Liz Johnson - Stolen Memories

“I’m just sorry that he found you. But I swear, I won’t let it happen again. We’ll find him and you’ll be safe.”

He liked being right at her level as emotions flickered in her eye, first relief, then uncertainty and finally resignation. She didn’t have a choice but to see this through. But maybe knowing she wasn’t facing it alone helped her to find some strength.

He stood, and her eye grew wide. “You’re not leaving, are you?” The pitch of her voice rose, her hand clenched into a fist around the brace and bandage between her thumb and forefinger.

“I was just going to grab a chair. My legs will fall asleep if I stay in that position too long. All right?”

A chagrined smile fell into place as she nodded. But her grin was immediately broken by a yawn that cracked her jaw.

As he carried the chair from the corner, the urge to ask her about the baby he’d seen in the security video battled with the voice telling him that she needed rest. If she heard about a missing baby, she wasn’t going to get a minute of sleep. He needed her mind fresh and prepared to remember anything that might surface when the U.S. Marshals arrived.

Still the voice that demanded to know the whereabouts of the missing child poked at the back of his mind.

He didn’t have to cannonball into the question. He could dip a toe in. He could just check the temperature.

Sitting down, he was almost directly on her level again. Her eyelid had drooped, the lines of tension on her face vanished in the peace near sleep.

“Julie?”

“Hmm?” The sound was little more than a hum in the back of her throat, her eyelashes barely fluttering against pale cheeks. For the first time, he noticed a path of freckles running across her nose. They were close together on her nose but turned sparse as they reached her cheeks. She embodied both the innocence of youth and the fear that was very adult. And it twisted into his stomach.

“I got a call today from a marshal, who is interested in your case. She wants to talk with you tomorrow.”

Her brows furrowed, eyes still closed. “About what?” Her tongue sounded thick, like every word was a fight to get out.

He pressed his finger and thumb around his mouth, scraping at the dark shadow growing there. “I’m not sure exactly. She wonders if you might be able to recognize someone that she’s been investigating. I suppose she wants to know everything you know.”

“Ha.” There was genuine humor in her shallow laugh. “That’s not much these days.”

A smile that matched hers fell into place for just a moment. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to just laugh with her? But it would do neither of them any good so long as someone was after her and a baby was missing. “Julie, do you remember anything else about that night?”

“Like what?”

He let out a slow breath, praying for the words that would neither frighten nor mislead. “Were you alone that night? Was there anyone else with you?”

The shallow rise and fall of her chest stopped for a long heartbeat. “I can’t remember anything.” And then just before her breaths turned deep with sleep, she sighed. “Yet.”

FOUR

Zach slammed his car door behind him, hustling between parked vehicles toward the hospital doors. Checking his watch, he pulled on his jacket as he reached the main entrance. The deserted main entrance. He was supposed to meet the marshals there at ten-thirty. He’d been running a little late, but maybe they had been, too.

Maybe they wouldn’t show at all.

Was it wrong that he’d been hoping for that all morning? He just couldn’t shake the suspicion that this interview wasn’t best for Julie. He was almost certain it would be useless for Serena Summers and her partner.

Just as he straightened his tie and ducked his head inside to make sure they weren’t waiting for him there, a nondescript navy blue sedan pulled into the parking lot. It angled into the nearest parallel lines before both the driver’s-side and passenger doors popped open.

A tall guy with dark, wind-tossed hair stepped out from behind the wheel. He wore a dark gray suit and a pressed white shirt, his shoulders pushing at the seams of his coat and not because he was excessively brawny. He had a sturdy build, and he walked with his chin high and back straight. That had to be McCall. Serena had said she was bringing her partner with her.

Serena—all graceful movements and willowy lines—met up with McCall at the front of the car. She stepped in front of him when the passage was too narrow for them to walk side by side, and the big guy’s eyes never left her form. It wasn’t an outright assessment of his partner, but there was something in his eyes that revealed a strong emotion between them. Maybe it was just respect.

Maybe not.

Zach stepped from beneath the cement overhang to greet them. Reaching out to shake the thin woman’s hand, he said, “Marshal Summers?”

She had a firm grip and an easy smile. “Call me Serena.” Nodding her head, she indicated the man at her side. “This is my partner, Josh McCall.”

McCall’s shake was even tighter than Serena’s had been, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. Zach gave back as good as he got, and a flicker of admiration appeared in the other man’s eyes, if only for a second.

“Zach Jones, Minneapolis P.D.”

“Good to meet you.” Josh let go and put his hand into his pocket, hunching his shoulders against the brisk early spring wind.

Serena’s eyes shifted toward the sliding glass door, but Zach didn’t move to lead them inside to his witness. To his Julie. First, he had questions that required answers. And the hospital waiting room wasn’t the place to find any kind of privacy.

“I know you’re eager to talk with Julie, but you should know that she doesn’t have any memory of the night she was attacked.”

Josh and Serena shared a quick look, their eyes meeting in a flash and tearing apart just as quickly. Josh cleared his throat, but it was Serena who spoke. “None at all?”

Shaking his head, he frowned. “As of two o’clock this morning, she can’t remember a thing. Including that she was carrying a baby the night that she was attacked. And I haven’t told her about that yet.”

Two sets of eyebrows rose in unison before Josh responded. “You know that’ll have to come up today, right?”

A gust of wind picked up Serena’s long ponytail, whipping it back and forth over her shoulder. She wrestled it back into place with her free hand, the other clutching a brown folder to her chest.

Shivers ran down Zach’s arms, the cold stealing its way to his skin, joining the doubts bombarding his mind. He wanted to find the missing baby just like the marshals, but would telling Julie about the child really do anyone any good? He battled a vision of her terrified features when she learned what he’d seen in the video. She’d be horrified to discover that a baby had gone missing from her care. That kind of emotional trauma could just be a setback on her road to healing—and to ultimately uncovering what really happened that night.

Whether Zach’s doubts played across his face or she was a pro at reading people, Serena leaned toward him. Her movement was barely a few inches, but it caught and held his attention. “I bet you’ve become pretty close to your witness.” Her voice was low and a little husky. “We don’t want to scare her, but we’re dealing with something bigger than one missing child.”

He’d figured as much.

Josh didn’t bother changing his body language, his stance firm and unmoving. “We just need to ask her a few questions. Your witness—”

“She’s a victim.” At Zach’s interruption, Josh’s chin snapped up, so Zach continued, “She’s not just the only witness, she was beaten to within an inch of her life. She can’t recall her name or where she lives or who her family is.” His words picked up speed as his pulse did the same. “As if one attack wasn’t enough, someone snuck into her hospital room last night and tried to kill her again.”