Fractured Memory

by Jordyn Redwood

  “One day I’ll tell you why they’re watching over me. It’s not as glamorous as it looks.”

  As soon as Crystal left the room, Julia dashed out of bed. She paced to the closet and yanked the flimsy grocery bag from the bottom of the locker.

  Ben stood from his chair, nearly knocking it over. “Julia, what are you doing?”

  “I’m leaving.”

  She upended the bottom of the grocery bag and spilled her clothes onto the bed. One thing that could be said about Eli was that he didn’t know how to match women’s clothes—at all. A pair of magenta pajama bottoms and a lime-green T-shirt with an autumn scarf tumbled onto her crumpled bed linens. Seriously?

  “You can’t do that,” Ben stammered. “You’re in protective custody.”

  “Am I under arrest?”

  “No, of course not.”

  “Then I’m leaving.” She yanked the privacy curtain around her bed. “And if you open this, it’s not going to be pretty.”

  His shadow hovered on the other side. “Where are you going? Why are you so agitated?”

  Never did she dream she could dress so quickly. She whipped the curtain open. Eli had forgotten a pair of shoes and socks. No phone, of course. Her wallet was likely still at the safe house.

  Julia fumed and pointed at the television with the tantalizing, media-driven hook blazing across the screen. “Instead of asking me why I’m so upset, perhaps you could enlighten me as to what’s going on. Is this what you’ve been hiding from me?”

  “What makes you think—”

  And in that moment, Eli pushed through the door—pair of shoes and socks in hand. He glanced between Ben and Julia, his lips pressed together.

  Julia grabbed the shoes from him. “Thank you, Eli. You read my mind.”

  “What’s going on?” Eli asked.

  Ben pointed a thumb at her with a look in his eye that screamed toddler having a meltdown in the middle of a grocery store. “She says she’s leaving.”

  Julia placed her hands on her hips. “And you, Eli Cayne, are not going to stop me.”

  Eli placed his arms wide as a peace offering. “Like I said before, Julia, you’re not a prisoner, but we do need to accompany you wherever you go.”

  “I don’t need you.”

  The words caught in her throat. She wanted to pull them back. Eli’s eyes softened. She had hurt him—even though she hadn’t meant to.

  “Please, just sit for a minute.” Eli eased the chair away from the bed.

  She plopped herself into the seat her friend Crystal had just vacated. “What aren’t you telling me?” she asked Eli, tears spilling down her cheeks.

  “I’ve told you—”

  Julia pointed to the TV and it took the briefest moment for the information to seep in before his eyes registered an understanding.

  “I’m not keeping anything from you. We don’t know if this woman’s case is connected to yours. The media make their living on speculation.”

  “So you don’t think the Hangman is still out there?”

  Eli stepped closer to her timidly—like a lion tamer to a newly acquired jungle animal. “I don’t know, Julia, but what is your plan exactly? If it’s possible that this is the Hangman and there’s also the hit package that we believe threatens your life—you’re going to manage this on your own?”

  Her head fell into her hands. It was just like before. She wanted to manage her problems alone, but she couldn’t...she always needed someone else. Why was this lesson so hard for her to learn? What was God trying to teach her?

  She reached for the tissue and blew her nose. “Fine. What’s your plan?”

  “A new safe house. I’m here to take you there.”

  “I want someone to check my grandfather.”

  “Already done. I assigned an additional agent to keep watch over him.”

  She put on her shoes and stood up. “Then let’s go. Seems like I’m nothing more than a sitting duck here.”

  “True, but maybe I should get something else for you to wear. People are going to think you escaped from the circus.”

  SIX

  Julia felt the SUV rock forward as Eli closed the tailgate after placing Julia’s suitcases in a vehicle not her own for the second time in forty-eight hours. Life with Eli was an adventure to be sure. He rounded to the driver’s side, got in and buckled up.

  Jace sat behind her in the backseat. Ben and Will were following in a vehicle behind them—for ultimate safety, Eli assured her.

  Julia hyperextended her fingers. The satisfying pop did little to settle her nerves. There was something she needed to tell Eli. Not that she didn’t want to tell him—she just didn’t know if it was a good idea to mention it when he had so much on his mind.

  The gun she packed was missing. It wasn’t underneath her mattress when she went back to the town house to pack.

  Surely, there was a good explanation. One of the agents likely found it and had stripped it from her the way they do when suicidal patients come into the ER. They likely thought it better if they assumed total ownership over her safety rather than let extenuating factors undermine their efforts. It was better to trust those you knew and had experience with under stressful situations. Even though Julia was an ER nurse, none of these agents knew her skill set or could anticipate how she’d act under pressure, because they’d never witnessed her actions under fire.

  “Something wrong?” Eli asked.

  Julia jumped, his words amplified like a megaphone into her mind. The words tumbled from her lips. “I had a gun at the safe house. It’s missing.” Truth was that Julia never had been good at keeping secrets.

  Eli backed the vehicle out of the driveway. “That explains why you’re so distracted.”

  Was he that good at reading her already? “I’m fine...really. A brush with death doesn’t really faze me anymore.”

  Eli didn’t laugh at her remark, though she intended it to be funny.

  “Let me check with everyone to see if someone secured it. That’s likely what happened.”

  “I didn’t take the weapon,” Jace offered.

  “Good,” Eli said. “One down, only twenty more to go. There’re quite a few people that have been in and out of that town house.”

  “And if no one has it?” Julia asked.

  “We’ll have to report it missing.”

  Julia leaned her head against the window. “How far is this new place?”

  “A couple of hours. Up into the mountains. Just outside Estes Park.”

  Julia closed her eyes. It was one thing she didn’t do enough—spend time in the mountains. Springtime in the Rockies was beautiful. The melting snow coursed down the rivers bringing ice-cold water yet renewed life to the valley. Hibernating animals ventured from their winter dens. Estes Park was always rife with elk that held the right of way even over pedestrians.

  Why didn’t she spend more of her free time there? There was nothing tying her to the city. Was it the underlying fear of something she couldn’t remember? Would she always feel this way—alone and scared? Perhaps more than she could even confess to herself.

  Eli cleared his throat. “Julia, there’s something I want to ask you.”

  His voice dropped a trace lower than normal. Do I really want to know what he’s going to ask?

  “Seems like we have a few hours to talk.”

  Julia glanced back at Jace, who tried to distance himself from their conversation by looking out the window.

  “Is there anything more that you remember from your attack? Anything at all?”

  Her breath quickened in her chest, and her body tingled. Why would he ask that now? “Is there something you’re not telling me?”

  “About what?”

  The sun dipped toward the horizon i
n the afternoon light. Julia dropped the sun visor. The beginnings of a tension headache caused her forehead to throb. “About the woman who was found dead today.”

  Eli tapped his fingers against the steering wheel. “What do you want to know? I already told you I don’t think it’s connected to your case.”

  “But you’re not sure.”

  His fingers stilled. “No.”

  A simple statement that said so much.

  “Is that why you’re asking me? Because you think the wrong man is in jail?”

  Eli stared straight ahead with the vigilance of a sniper zeroed in on a target. “I hope not. I don’t think so. The evidence against Mark Heller was substantial. Blood with his DNA was found at every crime scene. He had known affiliations with the first woman who died.”

  Julia nodded. Maybe it was time she stopped hiding with her head buried in the sand. “Will there be a computer where we go?”

  Jace said from the backseat, “We can work to get you something that will be secure if you’d like.”

  “Why?” Eli asked.

  “Did you know that I worked with Dr. Heller?”

  “From investigating your case, I know the two of you both worked in the PICU. But were you more than that?”

  “Not in any romantic sense, but I would have called us friends, which always made it hard for me to believe—” Julia’s throat closed, cinching her voice.

  “I get it. It’s hard to imagine any friend would deceive you, let alone try to kill you.”

  Julia inhaled deeply. “If you had worked with him or seen him care for children, you’d never believe he was capable of doing the things he was convicted of.”

  “Tell me,” Eli prompted.

  Was this Eli’s backdoor way of trying to unlock her memories? “There are physicians who have a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde personality. They’re one way with patients, usually friendly and charming, and yet sickingly awful to the nursing staff. He was kind to everyone. Housekeeping. Unit coordinators. A very gentle personality.”

  “Everyone has a dark side,” Eli said. “I’ve seen the mildest-mannered people do the most heinous acts. There’s rarely the neighbor who says on television after the bodies are discovered, ‘Oh yeah, I had that guy pegged to be a serial killer all along.’”

  Jace laughed from the backseat. “That is so true, my friend.”

  Heat rushed Julia’s face. “Dr. Heller wasn’t that way at all.” Why do I feel such a need to defend him? “There was this little boy with Down syndrome we were caring for who needed a blood transfusion prior to surgery and he had the most rare blood type—AB negative. We were having trouble getting enough on hand for the transfusion, plus enough for his heart operation, and Dr. Heller directly donated his own blood for this patient.”

  Why was she trying so hard to convince Eli that Dr. Heller was a good person when all the evidence pointed otherwise?

  “Yet he has confessed to having an affair with the first victim,” Eli said.

  “What’s that supposed to suggest? That a man who steps outside his marriage is evil enough to kill? Everyone makes mistakes.”

  “Could it not have put his blood donation at risk? Sleeping with multiple people?”

  Julia shrugged. What could she argue against the point? The affair didn’t paint Heller in a positive light.

  Their SUV swerved left over the double yellow line.

  “Pay attention to the road,” Jace said. “We can discuss pertinent matters of the case when we’re all safe and sound.”

  “It wasn’t me,” Eli said.

  “Sure,” Jace replied.

  “No, I’m serious.”

  Julia looked at Eli and could see the puzzled expression on his face. He leaned forward, looking at the dashboard. “No emergency lights on.”

  “Probably just a dip in the road,” Jace said.

  Julia hadn’t realized how much time had passed. The road narrowed to two lanes. The river crisscrossed on either side of the road, its banks swelled with turbulent, frothy water. The young boy who had drowned popped into her mind.

  “Setting aside how you feel about Dr. Heller, have you ever regained any part of your memory from those missing months?”

  Was it time to confess the shadowy figure from her dreams? Julia felt the seat belt tighten against her chest, the car suddenly decelerating. She turned around and saw Jace grip her headrest. Ben’s car, with Will driving, narrowed the distance quickly.

  “Eli, seriously, what’s going on?” Jace asked. “I’m about ready to fire you as chauffer and take over.”

  Even though Eli shrugged, the tense lines of worry that creased his forehead spoke more than his demeanor. “Something must be wrong with the car. Next town we’ll pull over and get it checked out. Should have stuck with the old, faithful Ford Granada.”

  “Why didn’t we take that car anyway?” Jace asked.

  What unnerved Julia was Eli’s silence.

  * * *

  There was something wrong with the SUV, and Eli couldn’t make sense of it. He’d requested this vehicle because it was the newest, safest model on the lot, and now he wished he had old reliable back. Even before the car swerved over the median line and had the unexpected deceleration that almost caused Will to rear-end them—other things had happened he couldn’t quite explain.

  The radio and windshield wipers popped on without explanation. At first, Eli chalked up these minor happenstances to not being familiar with the vehicle.

  Now he worried that all these things grouped together meant something more nefarious. The closest town was still twenty miles, and if something was happening that meant trouble, he didn’t want the group stopping in the middle of this canyon on a two-lane road. Eli reached for his phone—just as he feared—no signal.

  Ben’s voice came over his earpiece. “You guys all right up there?”

  How could he convey his worry to Ben without cluing Julia in that something more than mechanical difficulties were happening to the car? It was almost as if...no, he couldn’t even voice the thought in his head. It was too crazy. “Car’s acting up. Probably should get it checked in the next town.”

  “Should we pull over now? Is it safe to keep driving?” Ben asked.

  Eli felt his heart climb into his throat. “Not safe to stop where we are. Nothing I can’t handle.”

  “All right. Murphy out.”

  The road wound tighter with each passing mile. On Eli’s right was nothing but dark, striated canyon rock and Julia’s worried eyes. This road was built by detonating explosives. On his left, the rushing water swollen by the spring runoff.

  The car sped up, and Eli lifted his foot off the accelerator. Fifty-five miles per hour creeped to sixty. How was this possible when they were climbing uphill, his foot completely off the gas?

  Pulling over at this point was not an option. There was little shoulder on either side of the road. Eli pressed his foot into the brake pedal.

  Nothing happened.

  Eli spoke into his wrist mic. “Ben, next safe place to pull over we need to switch vehicles. We’ll change to your car to continue to the safe house and leave Jace behind with this car.”

  “Got it.”

  “Why do I have to stay behind? There’s a rainstorm coming.”

  What Eli was tempted to do was verbally rip Jace’s head off. The younger agent showed little respect for Eli’s command over the situation and almost seemed fine with them being in this precarious position. Protection took sacrifice, and Jace didn’t seem up to the task.

  “Jace, as soon as we can call out of here, we’ll send someone for you. It’s not like I’m asking you to stand outside in the pouring rain or leaving you stranded without a car.”

  The vehicle’s speed crept up to seventy miles per hour. A hairpin turn was com
ing up on the left. Eli continued to tap on the brakes, and the car refused to respond to any command he attempted to get it back under his control.

  Do I throw the emergency brake? Will that immediately roll us over the guardrail and into the river?

  He yanked the wheel hard left to make the turn. Both Julia and Jace were thrown into their doors.

  “Eli...” Julia’s voice—not commanding in nature, but riddled with fear. It was his job to protect her, and so far in his care his record was abysmal.

  “We’re all right. It’s going to be fine.”

  Even his words couldn’t convince his heart to stop skipping beats. His head felt tight from the rush of blood pounding at his temples. His fingers ached from his grip on the steering wheel.

  Eighty-five miles per hour—the speedometer needle quivered—flirting with ninety miles per hour. Eli rammed his foot into the brake pedal, pumped it several times to get it to engage.

  Julia was silent, her hands pressed together and settled at her lips. In the rearview mirror, Ben and Will’s car had drifted far enough back that he no longer had sight of them.

  “Ben!”

  “I’m here, Eli. We’re having trouble keeping up with you. You’ve got to slow that vehicle down.”

  “I know! I’m trying!”

  Julia gripped the handrail at her head. Jace looked like a wide-eyed child who’d just been put on a roller coaster he didn’t want to ride.

  Another turn up ahead. At this speed, he wasn’t going to make it. “Tighten your seat belts,” Eli ordered.

  The road hairpin turned again, and Eli gripped the wheel to ease them into the curve long before they had to make it, but the wheel was locked in a straight position. He yanked one side of the steering wheel, but it was as if someone had poured superglue into the mechanism.

  There was a brief flash of the guardrail before the bumper pounded into it, the front end of the SUV caved inward. Eli grabbed Julia’s hand. The back end of the SUV flipped up, pushing bile up his throat. A loud pop, like gunfire, filled the car, and Eli felt his face smash into the inflated air bag.

  And then...blackness.

  * * *