She's My Mom

by Rebecca Winters

  Brett eased away from them and wiped his eyes. “Until Mom finds proof, I’ve got an idea. Let’s give a big party next week for all the people who’ve been nice to us since she died.

  “When they’ve arrived, Dad can tell them he has a surprise. Then you come out, Mom. Dad’s detective friends will be watching to see Mr. Stevens’s first reaction. I hope he has a heart attack and dies!”

  His father smiled. “That’s a great plan. If you were thinking of becoming a detective some day, you’ve got the intelligence and imagination for it. But until we get some hard evidence pointing in Jim’s direction, it would put you and your mother at unnecessary risk.

  “Don’t forget that before this day is out, the culprit’s going to learn his two thugs are in jail. When he hears they never got the chance to search for the disks, he’ll send someone else to do it.”

  “If that’s true, then I think Brett’s idea is inspired,” Susan interjected. “We could—”

  “No, Susan.” He cut her off. “I’ve already arranged for twenty-four-hour protection of the house to keep you safe. The last thing I’m going to do is offer you up as a feast to a cold-blooded killer. That’s final.”

  The veins stood out in his father’s neck. He was really upset.

  “All right.” She turned to Brett. “Come on, darling. Let’s go downstairs and make some chicken stir-fry for dinner. Then we’ll get busy on that account.”

  He sent his father a furtive glance. Had his dad noticed her slip about the stir-fry? She wouldn’t have known it was Brett’s favorite meal if she hadn’t recovered more of her memory

  “Okay. I’m coming, Mom.”

  GRADY WATCHED THEM LEAVE. When Mrs. Harmon was upstairs with Susan earlier, she must have mentioned that she’d bought the necessary groceries to make Brett’s favorite dinner. Grady couldn’t remember the last time they’d had it.

  He waited until he was alone before taking out his cell phone to call Captain Willis. His boss needed to hear what Brett had just confided.

  It was funny how you thought you knew everything your child was thinking. All these months, his son had been forced to deal with Jim Stevens, whose questions could be viewed as sinister rather than friendly, yet Grady had been oblivious.

  “Captain Willis here.”

  “Captain? It’s Grady.”

  “Perfect timing. I just got off the phone with Boyd Lowry. We can put the LeBaron case to bed for good. The dental record came out a perfect match with the teeth of the corpse.”

  “You’ll never know what that news means to me, Captain. Have you informed the LeBaron family?”

  “I’m going to do that now. They’ll be relieved to hear he was an innocent victim. It’ll end the nasty rumors floating around. But they have to understand this is an ongoing murder investigation, so nothing will go out to the press until the case is solved.”

  “Thanks, Captain. What was the coroner’s verdict on the manner of death?”

  “A massive wound to the back of the skull, probably made by a pipe. Your wife must have had guardian angels protecting her.”

  “There’s no other explanation.” His throat had almost closed up. “With LeBaron out of the equation, the field has narrowed to four men I know personally.”

  “Matt’s already filled me in.”

  “Except that he didn’t hear what Brett told me after Matt left with Mrs. Harmon.” For the next few minutes Grady confided the information about Jim Stevens.

  “Your son’s instincts are probably right. We’ll find out soon enough. Just in case your wife doesn’t recover her memory, I’ve asked Boyd to find a new expert CPA to get to work on the Drummond account.”

  Grady lowered his head. The captain was only being practical, but the mere possibility that Susan would never remember him, her own husband, was taking a piece out of his heart with every passing minute.

  “Let’s hope this expert finds the problem ASAP.”

  “Boyd’s looking into it now. As for the two who were arrested, I’ve already turned that over to the district attorney’s office. Who knows, Grady? Maybe with a plea bargain we’ll get a name and a motive.”

  “Thanks for all your help, Captain.”

  “We’re family. Talk to you later.”

  He clicked off. Although he was elated over the news that LeBaron had turned out to be a victim and not the perpetrator, another thought invaded his mind. It made him break out in a cold sweat.

  Thank God Brett hadn’t told Mike he’d seen his mother that night at the hotel. Mike would have told his father….

  If Jim was the fiend who’d destroyed so many lives, he would’ve made a second attempt to murder Susan. This time, he’d make sure he succeeded.

  And Grady would never have known about it.

  Unable to deal with that nightmare, he dashed from the room and down the stairs to the kitchen. Making a beeline for Brett, who was chopping green pepper and mushrooms, he gave him a quick hug.

  “Dad!” He pretended to choke and cough. “What was that for?”

  “For being the greatest son who ever lived.”

  “He’s that, all right.” Susan stood at the stove browning chunks of chicken.

  Needing to do something with his excess energy, Grady started setting the table.

  “You’re a lot happier than you were a little while ago, Dad. How come?”

  He told them the news about Geoffrey LeBaron.

  “How sad for him,” Susan murmured.

  “I agree, but it’s wonderful news in terms of the investigation. Knowing he had nothing to do with the crime has unfogged the picture to a great extent.”

  She started cooking the rice. “I read a lot of my textbook today. After we eat, I’m going to dig into the account again. This time it’ll probably make more sense.”

  “When you’re through, let’s watch home movies, Mom.”

  “I’d love that!”

  So would I, Grady mused. Seeing their family together had to jog something in her mind.

  “WHILE YOUR DAD’S IN the shower, I thought I’d come in and say good-night.”

  Brett’s troubled gaze sought hers. “You didn’t remember anything tonight. Not even your wedding video helped.”

  “No, darling. But we won’t let that discourage us, because I’ve remembered you. I’ve recalled certain memories of my brother, and that painting. The rest is eventually going to return. I believe that in my heart. You have to believe it, too.”

  “I do. I just hope Dad can last that long.”

  “If it hasn’t all come back by the time I don’t have to hide anymore, I’m going to see a psychiatrist. Maybe I could be put under hypnosis to discover what’s blocking it.”

  “Dad thinks your mind is scared of finding out what happened the day you disappeared.”

  “I thought that at first. Now I’m not so sure.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “After you brought me home and I found out there’d been trouble in our marriage, I was afraid it had to do with your father falling out of love with me. But I’ve been with him long enough to know that’s not true.

  “He did love me, right up until the morning of the explosion. I can tell he hasn’t hidden anything from me. I’ve never met a more straightforward, honest person in my life.”

  “It can be kind of scary if you’re keeping something from him.”

  “That’s what I’m talking about, Brett. Maybe I am keeping something from him. Something I don’t want to face about myself, and it’s hurting him.”

  “You mean like another man?”

  “I don’t know. I can’t imagine it, not when I love him so much.”

  His eyes searched hers. “I thought you’d been pretending to like Dad all this time to make him feel better. Especially in front of Detective Ross.”

  “No, darling.” She hugged him for a moment. “Amnesia doesn’t work that way. Let’s assume for the moment that you’re the one who can’t remember anything. Mike comes over to the hous
e to see you. You’ve been told he was your best friend for years and years. How do you think you’d react?”

  “Like I do at school when a new student sits next to me in class.”

  “What happens then?”

  “I might like him, but I might not.”

  “Supposing that new student was Mike. Until you’d lost your memory, you knew you’d been best buddies since you were little kids. Would you pretend to like him, even if you didn’t?”

  He blinked. “No.”

  “How come?”

  “Because I wouldn’t know him. I guess if he wanted me to hang out with him for a while I would, until he did stuff I didn’t like, or we didn’t get along and started to fight or something.”

  “What if you liked him right off and got along great?”

  “Then I guess we’d keep hanging out together.”

  “And maybe even become best friends again?”

  “Maybe.”

  “That’s how it happened with your father. I couldn’t pretend with him. I still can’t. But he was so kind and understanding and protective and wonderful, I was immediately attracted to him.

  “Do you realize that during the last six months, no other man has interested me at all? I met dozens of them working at the hotel. Businessmen, tourists. I could’ve had a date every night.

  “There was one employee at the hotel who pestered me constantly to go out with him. He was good-looking, and a lot of the single women would’ve liked to get to know him.”

  “Dad was afraid you might have met someone.”

  “Like I said, I did meet a lot of men, but I had absolutely no desire to be with any of them. My roommates couldn’t understand it. Then one night out of the clear blue, Tina told me there was this handsome police detective at the door asking for me.

  “As I walked past her she said, ‘He’s the kind you want to take home and keep forever.’ So you see, even Tina was smitten by your father, who was a total stranger to her!

  “When I saw him standing there, I swear my heart went crazy, Brett. I can’t explain it, but it happened. Then you let me look at the photo album. As soon as I realized he was my husband, I almost collapsed a second time.”

  Brett broke into a smile. “That’s probably the way you felt when you first met him in California.”

  “I have no doubt of it. The point is, I didn’t have to pretend anything. The more I was around him, the more I knew I wanted to be with him for as long as he’d have me. The truth is, I—I’ve fallen in love with your dad.”

  “When are you going to tell him?”

  “Tonight. But I have to admit I’m scared.”

  “Why? He loves you.”

  She put a hand on his shoulder. “He loves the old me. And I believe he likes the new me. But he’s not in love.”

  “I don’t get it.”

  “Look, darling, I don’t remember him from before, so for me it’s a matter of falling in love for the first time. But that’s not true for your father.

  “Don’t you see? He remembers seventeen years of loving someone else. My body looks like the old me, much of my personality is probably the same, but my mind is unknown to him. If my memory doesn’t fully return, I have no way of knowing if he’ll ever be able to fall in love with me as I am today.”

  “He acts like he is,” Brett grumbled.

  “That’s because he’s in love with the part of me that’s familiar, the part he recognizes. But there’s another part missing. The most important part for him. I know it’s complicated. I don’t even pretend to understand it.”

  He averted his eyes. “The night we brought you home, I said something to him I wish I hadn’t.”

  “What was that?”

  “I told him that if you didn’t remember us, I wanted you to go away. But I didn’t really mean it, Mom.”

  “I know you didn’t, darling. That was a difficult time for everyone. It seems like a hundred years ago now, doesn’t it?”

  “Yeah.” Silence. “Yes.”

  They both chuckled.

  “You two sound happy.”

  Grady.

  She got up from the bed, aware of his intent gaze. “The movie of our son taking his first steps was hilarious. I didn’t say it while we were downstairs, but he reminded me of a really drunk man trying to walk a straight line for the police officer.”

  Brett laughed. She thought she’d get a similar response from her husband. Once again she was wrong.

  “That’s what you said while we were filming him.” His voice sounded far away. “Does this mean you’ve remembered something else?”

  Her eyes caught the pained look in Brett’s. He knew as well as she did that they couldn’t lie to Grady.

  “Yes. While I was comforting him before dinner, I had a flashback of recent memories of him. I was waiting until we were alone to tell you.”

  “That’s fantastic.” He said the words as if he were in a trance. She knew he was happy, and yet…

  “Pretty soon Mom’s going to remember everything.” Brett filled in the gap.

  “I’m sure she is.”

  Susan stole from the room to give them some time alone. She’d already showered, so there was nothing to do but take off her robe and get into bed.

  Grady didn’t come. While she counted the minutes, she suspected that he’d decided to stay with Brett for the rest of the night to sleep off his grief. Whether he acknowledged it or not, grief was what he felt.

  Her inability to remember him had become such a serious issue, they needed to talk about it. She was on the verge of going back to Brett’s room to get him when she saw his silhouette in the doorway.

  “Susan?”

  “I’m awake.”

  “We have to talk.”

  “I know. I’ve been waiting for you.”

  He closed the door. She couldn’t tell if he wore anything beneath his robe. She doubted he was thinking about that right now, but she’d been living for the moment they’d finally be alone.

  To her surprise, he turned off the lamp and got in the other side of the bed. She’d hoped they could look at each other while they talked. Susan needed to see his eyes when she told him how she felt. Those beautiful hazel eyes that revealed so many emotions.

  “You don’t need to hide anything from me,” he began without preamble. “I’m a big boy. I can handle the fact that your mind won’t allow you to remember me.

  “The important person here is Brett. He’s got his mother back. His world is whole once more. Everything that’s happened so far has been a miracle, and I’d be ungrateful to expect another one.”

  Keep talking tough, Detective Corbitt.

  “Grady? What if we decided that when we’re in the bedroom, we’ll live in the present,” she whispered.

  “I don’t follow.”

  His guard had gone up. The old Susan would’ve known how to get through. The new one had to feel her way by instinct.

  “I don’t like secrets any more than you do. If I didn’t immediately tell you about remembering Brett, it was because I couldn’t bear the thought of hurting you again by not remembering you.”

  “Susan—”

  “Let me finish while I have the courage. You were right when you said it’s imperative we live in an atmosphere of truth. What I’m going to say next may shock you.”

  “Go on,” he said quietly.

  “I want you to make love to me. I want it more than you can possibly imagine. However, I recognize that you’re still in mourning. It may be a long time before you’re ready to have a relationship with a woman other than your wife.”

  “You are my wife.” He sounded furious.

  “No. You had a seventeen-year love affair with a woman who looks like me. In reality, I’m a stranger. The you and I who are together at this moment have only had a four-day history.”

  If she was doing this wrong, she couldn’t stop now.

  “In six months, I’ve gotten to know myself very well. If I hadn’t been attracted to
you at the apartment, I would’ve taken you up on your offer to let my roommates come with me. They could have told you I’d never met a man I wanted to be with, so maybe that gives you some idea of the strength of my initial attraction to you.

  “The more time we’ve spent together, the more that attraction has grown. When you said you were going to see about putting me in a protection program, I was so horrified at the thought of us being separated, I realized I’d fallen in love with you.

  “I have no idea what I was like at nineteen. According to you, we were attracted from the very first day. So maybe that’s my true nature. When I fall, I fall hard.

  “The point is, I think I finally made Brett understand that just because I’m in love with a man I’ve only known four days, it doesn’t mean he feels the same way about me.

  “For one thing, I get the feeling that the old Susan wasn’t as aggressive as I am. But maybe aggressive isn’t the right word. Help me, Grady.”

  After a moment, he said, “You’re more decisive.”

  “That probably comes from having to forge my own way since the Benns found me. Is that quality repugnant to you?”

  “Of course not.”

  “Unappealing, then?”

  “No. Just…unexpected,” he said with gut-wrenching honesty.

  “That’s what I mean. I’m not the person you loved. Our son admitted to me tonight that in the first day or two, he wanted me to go away if I didn’t get my memory back. I assume you felt the same way and still do.

  “But I know you well enough to understand that you wouldn’t dream of tearing this family apart for your own needs. At least not until Brett’s grown.”

  “You talk as if you’ve given up on trying to remember,” he said quietly.

  “No, Grady!” she cried in frustration. “Haven’t you heard anything I’ve been saying? I’m in love with you! You could have no comprehension how much I want to be the woman you married. Don’t forget, I sat through an evening of films about our life together.

  “Even though I don’t have an explanation for why the old Susan didn’t tell you the reason she wanted to go to work, I could see that, in every other way, she knew how to make you happy, how to satisfy you.

  “What I’m trying to convey is that I’m under no illusion that you’re in love with me. If my memory doesn’t come back, then all I can do is hope that one day you’ll stop making comparisons and fall in love with the person I am now.”