by Curry, Edna
“I see.”
“It’s been more than a few days. Cats are expensive,” Mrs. Ferguson complained. “There’s her food and the litter—”
“I’m sorry,” Cara said. “I’ll pay you back for taking care of her, of course.” She opened her purse and pulled out some bills, handing them to Mrs. Ferguson, who tucked them into her bosom with a smug smile of thanks.
“I’ll get your cat and her stuff.” Mrs. Ferguson disappeared back inside her apartment, leaving the door wide open.
“I’ll help her,” Sharon said quickly and hurried after the woman.
Cara shrugged and went on inside her own apartment.
Mel followed her. “Aren’t you curious about your cat?”
“I don’t remember any cat,” Cara said, irritated. How was she supposed to have feelings for a cat she didn’t remember? People were expecting the impossible of her and it was getting harder and harder to keep her temper about it.
She dropped her purse on the table and moved to her desk. Opening her laptop, she booted it up and was soon absorbed in reading her email.
Mel watched her a moment, then asked uncertainly, “Do you want me to leave?”
Cara looked up, suddenly feeling totally lost and vulnerable. He was going to leave her here? Panicked, she asked in a small voice, “Do you want to leave?”
“No,” Mel said. “I don’t want to. But I will if that’s what you want. I still feel you’re in danger. I hate leaving you here alone.”
Ah, he did care about her. Cara smiled. “You don’t have to be back at work until Monday, do you?”
He shook his head, meeting her eyes.
She said softly, “Stay here with me, then, Mel. At least for tonight.”
He took her in his arms and lowered his mouth to hers.
Several hot kisses later, she pushed him away, saying, “Now isn’t a good time for this, Mel. Sharon will be back any minute and I’d better work on this.”
“Okay.” Mel went back to the sofa and picked up the television remote control. “Let me know if I can help with anything.”
“Okay.”
Sharon came back carrying a cat and a bag of supplies. The cat leapt out of her arms and ran to Cara, rubbing her body against Cara’s leg and meowing.
“Well, I see how I rate,” Sharon said with a laugh. She carried the supplies to the kitchen.
Cara stopped typing and looked down at the cat, then reached down to pet her. The cat jumped into her lap and curled up, purring. Cara smiled and laid a comforting hand on the cat’s back. “She is a pretty thing, isn’t she? And I think she knows me.”
“She definitely knows you,” Mel agreed.
Sharon came back and said, “I set up her litter box in the bathroom, Cara, where you always kept it.”
“Thanks.”
“Are you going to stay at Mama’s tonight? She said she was expecting you.”
Cara looked up from her computer and shook her head. “I don’t want to. Tell her I’m fine here.”
“She’s not going to like that.”
Cara shrugged. “I can’t help that. I want to see what I can find out from my e-mail. Besides, Mel is staying tonight.”
Sharon raised an eyebrow and grinned. “I don’t think I’d better tell Mama that. Goodnight, then.” She gave Cara a hug, wiggled her fingers in a goodbye to Mel and left.
Mel locked the door after Sharon and put on the safety chain. He moved back to the sofa, feeling restless. He watched Cara as she returned her attention to her laptop. “Are you learning anything?” he asked.
She looked up and chewed her lip. “I don’t know. A lot of this is making very little sense to me. I feel like I’m reading someone else’s mail.”
“Have you found any clue to who you might have gone to Landers with that day?”
She shook her head. “No. I think I’m too tired to do anymore tonight. Let’s get some sleep and I’ll try again in the morning.”
“Bed sounds great to me. It’s been a big day.”
She led the way into her bedroom. Mel glanced around the beautifully appointed room. She had solid cherry furniture and matching floral patterned drapes and bedspread. She pulled back the spread to reveal pale peach sheets. “This is sure a lot nicer than what we slept in last night, isn’t it?” he said with a little laugh.
“Yes, I guess it is, at that,” Cara agreed. “Does my having money bother you?”
“Not especially,” Mel said. But with a sinking heart, he realized that anything he could offer her would be less than she already had. So how could he ask her to leave this luxury behind and live with him in a small town? What woman would do that?
They settled into her bed and made love like it was for the last time. Mel was afraid it probably was their last time. He’d go back to Landers and she’d stay here. Oh, they’d promise to keep in touch, maybe date for a while. But there was no doubt in his mind, now that she knew who she was, she’d choose to stay here. The knowledge made his stomach knot with dread. He would lose her.
~ * ~
Mrs. Ferguson closed the door after Sharon and the cat and shuffled over to her roll-top desk. She rummaged through it until she found the number she’d written down the day a man had come by, saying he was a friend and was looking for Cara. She picked up her telephone and punched in the numbers.
“She’s back,” Mrs. Ferguson told the man who answered.
“Is she alone?”
“No, a man’s with her and her sister is here, too.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
“You promised me a nice bonus if I’d call and let you know when she came home.”
“Don’t worry. You’ll find the money in your mailbox tomorrow,” the man told her.
“Good luck on your date with her,” Mrs. Ferguson said with a crackly laugh and hung up. The man must be pretty anxious to see Cara if he was willing to pay someone to watch for her return. “Things sure have changed since I was a girl,” she told herself and shuffled off to the kitchen to brew herself a cup of tea.
~ * ~
Barry hung up the phone after talking to Mrs. Ferguson. He frowned thoughtfully. Cara’s return to her apartment must mean that her memory had returned. Otherwise, how would she know she lived there? So had she also remembered him? And that he’d been the one on the cliff with her? How could he find out?
If her sister was with her, Cara definitely knew who she was. But who was the man with her? Maybe the guy he’d seen her with in Landers? The one the waitress said she was living with. She hadn’t lost any time hooking up with someone new.
How much time did he have before she sent the police to his door? Should he simply stay out of town and hope Cara hadn’t remembered him, or make sure she didn’t? But if she’d already fingered him, that would look pretty suspicious to the cops. It would really have to look like an accident this time.
God, this whole damn business might still blow up in his face. How had he bungled it so badly?
~ * ~
The next morning Mel was up before Cara was awake. He went down to the corner store and bought groceries for breakfast, then made coffee and started the bacon and eggs cooking.
“Ah, an early bird made breakfast,” she teased when she appeared, freshly showered. Her hair was up in a French knot. She moved to him and went into his arms for a kiss.
“Yes, I did. Coffee’s poured. Sit down.” He served them both and sat opposite her, then commented, “You changed your hairstyle.”
She smiled. “I didn’t even realize what I was doing. I was thinking and my fingers just put it up this way, like it was the natural way to fix it. Do you like it?”
“Yes. Another skill returning, perhaps?”
“I think so.”
She finished eating, then he cleaned up the kitchen while she began going through the mail Sharon had left on her desk. Sharon had marked which bills she’d paid and which were still pending.
Cara opened a letter, then frowned. “Mel, look at this. It’
s a letter from the principal at my school. He’s accepting my decision not to renew my teaching contract for this fall.”
“Well, I guess that solves the problem of your not remembering how to teach,” Mel said. “You don’t have to worry about breaking a contract if you didn’t sign one.”
“True,” Cara said, puzzled. She chewed her bottom lip. “But I wonder why I decided not to renew my contract. He sounds puzzled, too, as though I didn’t give him any good reason for not renewing.”
Mel shrugged and put the last of the dishes into the dishwasher.
“I wish I could remember why I did that. Or if I had any other plans.”
“I’m sure that’ll all come back to you soon, Cara.” Mel wondered how long she’d tolerate having him stay with her. How could he protect her if she told him to leave? He had no right to stay with her.
Besides, he had a business to run. He couldn’t just forget about that.
Would her family and Officer Kenny be much help if this nut returned? The thought of her alone and afraid made him sick.
Lydia called and Cara talked to her for awhile, but didn’t give in to her mother’s request that she stay with her until she could consult some doctors.
She hung up with a sigh. “I don’t need any more doctors. My memory is gradually returning, as that hospital doctor said it would. That’s good enough for me.”
“Whatever you want to do is fine with me, Cara.”
Mel watched her go back to her laptop. After she worked awhile without saying anything, he said, “If there’s anything I can do to help, just let me know.”
Cara looked thoughtful. She glanced at her bookcase. “I wonder if I had any pictures of him.” She moved to the bookcase and pulled out several photo albums. “Let’s see what we can find in these.”
They carried the albums to the kitchen table and began going through them. The first two had pictures that were obviously years old, taken in high school and college. A much younger Cara and Sharon appeared with friends in various school settings. “I’ll look at them later,” Cara said and pushed those books aside.
The next one seemed to have more recent pictures. At least Cara looked very similar to the way she did now, including her long hairstyle.
There were several pictures of her with different young men.
“Do you recognize any of them?” Mel asked.
Cara shook her head. “No. Nothing comes to mind. They may as well be pictures of someone else.” She sighed and pushed the album aside.
“Maybe we should ask Sharon to look at the pictures? She could probably tell you who some of the people are.”
Cara nodded. “That’s a good idea. She could eliminate mutual friends and relatives. And if I kept this guy a secret as she seems to think, it would be probably be someone she doesn’t recognize.”
“True. Unless…”
“Unless what?” Cara frowned at him.
Mel said slowly, “Unless you don’t have any pictures of him at all. He may not have let you take one if he was being that secretive about your relationship.”
She shrugged. “I suppose. Although I can’t imagine that I didn’t take a snapshot of him at some time or other. These albums show that I took lots of pictures all the time.”
Mel asked, “Do you want to call Sharon to ask her to look at these today?”
“I suppose we should take them to her apartment. Maybe seeing another familiar place will help spark some memories.”
“I’ll call Sharon and see if it’s okay.” She dialed her sister, talked a bit and then hung up. “Sharon has a couple of showings that she has to do today. She’s a real estate agent and Sunday is a busy day for her,” Cara explained. “She said to come over this evening.”
“So what do you want to do in the meantime?”
She moved over to sit on his lap and smoothed back his hair. Planting a kiss on his brow, she asked, “How about ordering in Chinese for lunch and then spending the afternoon making love?”
Mel grinned. “Now, that’s my kind of lazy Sunday afternoon!”
“Mine, too.” She wriggled her bottom on his lap.
With a groan, he wrapped his arms around her tightly and stood, then carried her back to her unmade bed. He laid her on the silky soft sheets and began taking off her clothes between kisses. Each new bit of soft skin he uncovered got its share of kisses and licks.
She reached out and frantically began unbuttoning his shirt and unzipping his trousers.
Soon the only thing touching their skin were those expensive, smooth, high count sheets that felt like silk.
Ah, yes, it definitely was a delightful afternoon.
Hours later, Mel awoke from the nap they’d both needed.
Cara wasn’t in bed. He showered, got dressed and went out to the living room to find her once again on her laptop, engrossed in email. She was dressed in soft beige slacks and a cashmere sweater. He was having trouble getting used to this new Cara who so casually accepted designer clothes and luxuries he’d hardly ever seen before.
“Finding anything interesting?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Nothing new. Do you want to go to Sharon’s now? It’s already almost dark.”
“So it is. Are you getting hungry?”
“Yes. But I doubt there’s anything edible here besides what you bought this morning. Well, maybe there are some sodas and non-perishables. But Sharon said she cleaned out my refrigerator the first week after I left.”
“Come on, I’ll take you out to eat before we go to Sharon’s.”
“All right.” She grabbed her purse, locked her apartment and they walked down to the street toward his car, hand in hand. It was totally dark now.
Cara shivered and moved closer to Mel. “It’s sure dark along here. Shouldn’t there be a streetlight?”
Mel glanced up and down the block. “Yes, there’s a pole, but the light is burned out, or maybe the bulb’s broken. Probably by kids using it for target practice.”
“I don’t like the dark,” she murmured.
“I know,” Mel said. He pulled her into his arms, stepped back into the shadow of the building and kissed her, then smoothed back her hair and looked into her eyes. “You’re safe with me, Cara,” he whispered. “I love you so much.” He nibbled her lip and kissed her over and over.
She leaned into him and kissed him back. She opened her mouth to tell him she loved him, too, but he slipped his tongue inside and she was lost in the erotic sensations that gave her. Lifting a hand, she stroked his hair back and gave as good as she got.
A sudden loud explosion slammed them both against the doorway of the building. “Get down!” he yelled, trying to hold onto her.
Cara screamed as her body connected with the hard brick wall. She dropped to the sidewalk. Pain whipped through her.
Mel rolled to cover her body with his and ducked his head as debris fell around them.
Chapter 14
“Are you okay?” Mel asked, pushing himself off of her and sitting up.
“I think so. What happened?” Cara sat up, pulled some debris from her hair and brushed the dirt off her arms. The acrid smell of explosives and dust hung in the air
“Someone blew up my car.” He winced and put a hand to his knee, which hurt. Flexing it, he decided it wasn’t broken, he’d just scraped it on the cement. Blood seeped through his torn pants. He rose and helped Cara to her feet. “You’re shaking,” he said, hugging her close.
Cara’s voice shook, too, but sounded determined. “I’m okay, really.”
People seemed to come from everywhere, shouting and asking questions.
“You guys all right?” a heavy-set black man asked them, eyeing them curiously. “I called the cops. Someone should be here any minute.”
“Thanks.” Mel looked around at the crowd of bystanders. “Did anyone see anyone around my car or anything suspicious?”
“Not me,” a couple of people said.
“I just heard the noise and came to see wha
t happened,” another said. “What a mess!”
A squad car pulled up and another siren sounded nearby. Soon officers were taking pictures, asking questions of everyone and filling out their reports. A tow truck arrived to haul away the mangled remains.
Mel and Cara went to the precinct with the officer. A stern, no-nonsense man, he questioned them in detail about the incident. His office was cluttered and smelled of stale coffee and cigarette smoke. Cara couldn’t help wrinkling her nose at the odor emanating from the discarded pizza boxes in the full waste basket beside his desk. The officer noticed her looking at it and frowned at her as though to say his eating habits were not the subject of this meeting.
“Do you have any idea who would bomb your car?” he asked Mel in a suspicious voice.
Mel frowned at the man. Did he think they were in a gang and having a fight with a rival or something? “We think it may have something to do with an earlier attempt on Cara’s life in Landers, Minnesota.”
“Oh yeah? What happened there?”
“I saw someone push Cara into the river.”
The officer eyed him suspiciously. “Did you report it?”
“Yes, I reported it. I’m sure Sheriff Ben can give you all the details,” Mel said shortly. He gave him the sheriff’s phone number and a short synopsis of the rescue attempt and Cara’s narrow escape from death.
“Hmm. Well, it does sound possible that that person might have discovered that you survived and be making another attempt. But why do they want to kill you?”
Mel frowned at the man. Did he think they were involved in some criminal activity or something? “That’s what we’re trying to find out. We talked to one of your officers, Kenny Barnes, about this earlier today.”
“Yes, I heard from him just before you arrived. He’d heard about your explosion and asked to be allowed to help with this. He’ll be here shortly.”
“That’s good,” Mel said, relieved that someone who already knew them would be working on helping to solve this for them. At least Kenny hadn’t treated them like criminals.
“I’m sorry, Mel,” Cara said. “I hate that you’re getting mixed up in this. I’m sure they only meant to hurt me, and now look what happened to your car.”
