His grip tightened. “Who was it? Tell me who it was.”
“I don’t know—”
“But you just said it was someone you knew.”
Bradlee winced as his fingers dug into her skin. Almost instantly, his hold on her eased but he didn’t release her.
“I think it was someone I knew. But I didn’t see a face. All I saw was…a shadow.”
Disappointment flashed in his eyes. “Then how do you know it was someone you knew?”
“It’s just…a feeling I have.” Bradlee realized how lame her words sounded, and she felt like weeping all of a sudden. She wanted to help him. More than anything, she wanted to help him.
“A feeling.” Abruptly David released her. All the urgency faded from his expression.
Bradlee ran a hand through her hair. “Ever since the kidnapping, I’ve had nightmares. There’s this shadow standing over my bed, and I know it’s someone I know, but I can’t see a face. Maybe because I don’t want to see it.”
His eyes narrowed at that. “You were only three years old back then. The kidnapping must have terrified you. It’s only natural you’d have nightmares.”
This time, it was she who grabbed his arm. “But I know I saw something that night. I’ve always known it. It’s haunted me for years, thinking that if I could just remember, I might know where you were. I might be able to bring you back.”
“Everyone thought I was dead.”
“I never did.”
“Maybe you should have. Maybe the nightmares would have gone away.”
She caught his arm again when he would have turned away. “I want to help you, David. Please. I…owe you that much.”
He stared at her hand on his arm, then slowly lifted his gaze to meet hers. His eyes were cool and distant, revealing none of the emotion, none of the warmth she’d glimpsed the night before, outside the nursery.
“You don’t owe me anything. And I don’t want your help. This is something I have to do on my own.”
“But, Adam—”
If possible, his eyes grew even colder. “My name is David. David. I’m not that little boy you remember. I’m a grown man, Bradlee. I don’t need a guardian angel anymore. And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll keep your mouth shut. You won’t tell anyone what you just told me.”
“I don’t understand.”
“It’s pretty damned simple. If someone in this house—someone connected to this family—had something to do with my kidnapping, what do you think they’d do if they thought you saw something that night?”
A shiver of fear swept over Bradlee. “But you just told the family that you’re going to find out the truth. Whoever is responsible for your kidnapping is bound to find out what you plan to do. You’ve deliberately put your own life in danger.”
He got into the car and slammed the door. “Go back to L.A., Bradlee. Back to your photography. Let me handle this.”
“You still don’t get it, do you?” She put her hands on the open window of the car and stared down at him. “I’m not going anywhere. Not until I know you’re safe.”
“Just what I need,” he muttered. He gave her an exasperated glance. “All right, get in. I have a feeling you’d be more dangerous going off half-cocked somewhere on your own than staying with me. At least this way I can keep an eye on you.”
“Where are we going?” Bradlee gave him a dazzling smile. He blinked twice before he answered her.
“Just get in. I need to get away from here for a while. When I know where we’re going, I’ll let you know.”
Bradlee, feeling unaccountably elated, hurried around to the other side of the car before he could change his mind. But as she opened the door, she glanced up and her elation faded. A movement at one of the second-floor windows drew her gaze, and Bradlee shivered, certain that someone was standing up there, watching them.
Someone who was not very pleased to see the two of them together.
* * *
BRADLEE AND DAVID were silent as they drove into Memphis. To her surprise, he seemed to know the city fairly well, and as they headed down Poplar Avenue, toward the entrance to Overton Park, Bradlee asked him why he’d driven his car all the way from New York rather than flying.
“I like to have my own transportation,” he replied. “I don’t like relying on others.”
“So I noticed. But you could have rented a car.”
He patted the leather seat affectionately. “Not one like this.”
“She is a beauty,” Bradlee agreed, although quite frankly, she preferred the Porsche—both the rental and the one she had back home.
He pulled into the park and found a spot near the tennis courts. They got out to walk. “How did you know about the park?” Bradlee asked. “You haven’t been to Memphis before, have you?”
“Not in a while,” he said dryly, then shrugged. “Actually, I studied a map before I came. I like to cover all my bases.”
All your escape routes, you mean, Bradlee thought, shivering in the warm morning sunshine. “Tell me about your life in New York,” she said, as they found an empty bench and sat down. It was a weekday, so the park was almost empty. A mother pushing a baby stroller walked by, and David waited until she was gone before he answered.
“It’s a good life,” he said simply. “I know what all of you must think of my—of the woman who raised me, but in some ways—in most, really—she was a good person.”
“I can believe that,” Bradlee said softly. “Seeing the man you’ve turned out to be.”
He stared down at her for a moment, then shifted his gaze, staring off into the distance. “You don’t know anything about me.”
“I know you graduated with top honors from Columbia University. I know you chose to join the public defender’s office instead of some elitist law firm. You obviously care more about the law than you do about money, and that tells me a lot.” Probably more than he realized.
“I’m not as altruistic as you may think,” he said grimly. “Until very recently, I was considering joining one of those elitist law firms. The elitist of the elite.”
“But you didn’t.”
“No, but I could still change my mind. Don’t see me for the person you knew at the age of three, Bradlee. A lot’s happened to me since then. To you, too, I would imagine.”
“We grew up,” she said. “You in New York and me in California. A whole continent apart, and yet here we are.”
As if not wanting to explore the connection, he asked, “So what’s life like in L.A.?”
“Oh, you know. Swimming pools. Movie stars.” He smiled at that, and Bradlee thought, What a nice smile he has. What an attractive man he is. And at that moment, she didn’t think of him as Adam at all, but as David Powers, a very intriguing attorney.
“Actually, it’s taken me a long time to build a career in fashion photography out there. The competition is almost as fierce as in New York.”
“You seem to be doing all right for yourself.” His gaze studied her for a moment, and Bradlee knew that he was assessing her success by the way she looked, by the way she dressed. Her clothes were simple—jeans and a cotton shirt—but they were expensive, carrying exclusive labels that Bradlee had always taken for granted. She didn’t think David did.
She shrugged. “I guess so.”
“Anyone special in your life?”
“Not really.”
“Why not?”
Her gaze lifted and met his. “I guess I just haven’t met the right person. So here I sit with my biological clock slowly ticking away.”
“It’s not too late,” David said. “You’ve got plenty of time.”
“Not if I want a houseful of kids.” She reached down to pluck a blade of grass and run it through her fingers.
He lifted a dark brow in amusement. “A whole houseful? One or two wouldn’t do?”
“For starters, I guess.” She tickled her chin with the grass. David found the motion soothing. Mesmerizing. He’d never known anyone like
Bradlee. She was quiet and restful, and yet he knew there was passion simmering beneath the placid surface. He’d had a glimpse of it last night, when he’d wanted to kiss her and her eyes had told him, Yes, go ahead. But be prepared for the consequences.
David suspected the consequences of becoming involved with a woman like Bradlee Fitzgerald were far greater than he could imagine. Maybe it was a good thing he was engaged.
“I was an only child,” she was saying. “And I always told myself that I would give my children lots of brothers and sisters to play with. They would never be lonely like I was.”
“I was an only child, too,” he said. “Or at least, I thought I was.”
Bradlee’s smile turned wistful. “I’m sorry you never got to meet Andrew. They say there’s a very special bond between twins.”
“That’s what they say,” David agreed. But he’d never felt it. He didn’t feel anything for his dead brother except a passing regret that the two of them would never know each other.
Bradlee tossed the blade of grass away and glanced up at him. “So. We’ve talked about everything except what’s really on our minds.”
He stared at a couple heading toward the tennis courts.
“What are we going to do about finding out who paid Raymond Colter to kidnap you?” she persisted.
“We aren’t going to do anything,” he replied. “I don’t want you involved in this, Bradlee.”
“But I am involved. I may be the one person who can help you find the truth. And I think I know where we can start.”
David swore under his breath. She might not be like any woman he’d ever known, but she had one trait in common with every woman he’d ever known: She was stubborn as hell.
“I’m almost afraid to ask what you have in mind.”
Her impish grin made her seem hardly more than a teenager. David suddenly wondered what it would have been like if the two of them had grown up together. Would they have remained close friends? A line from an Ernest Hemingway novel popped into his head: “It was pretty to think so.”
“I want to be hypnotized,” she said.
“Were you ever hypnotized before? Back then, I mean?”
Bradlee shook her head. “The psychiatrist my parents took me to thought I was too young. And as I grew older, I suppose I just didn’t think about it that much—only when I had the nightmares. I guess in a way, I was afraid to remember.”
“What about now?”
She shrugged. “I’m older, wiser, tougher. I can handle it.”
But in spite of her outward calm, David saw a glimmer of fear in her eyes, and he wondered if she knew what she was getting herself into.
Did he?
* * *
“WE’RE IN LUCK,” Bradlee said, hanging up David’s cell phone. She gave him a broad smile, a smile that was far more confident than the way she actually felt inside. A tremor of fear started in her stomach and worked its way outward, until she was trembling all over. What had she gotten herself into?
The notion of being hypnotized, of unveiling her innermost thoughts and fears to a perfect stranger, was terrifying. But it was too late to back out now.
She smiled again, willing her courage. “Dr. Scott remembers me. She was fairly young when my parents took me to see her after the kidnapping, but she’s semiretired now. Only works part-time. Anyway, she’s agreed to see me this afternoon.”
“Are you sure you want to do this?” The intensity of his gaze made Bradlee even more nervous. She turned to stare out the window of his car.
“I’m sure. It’s the only way I’ll ever know if that shadow really has a face. If I really saw someone in the nursery that night, or if it was just a nightmare.”
“All right, where to?” David asked, starting the engine and backing out of the parking space.
“Her office is downtown, on Union. Get us out of the park and I’ll give you directions from there.”
* * *
BRADLEE DIDN’T REMEMBER Dr. Scott—only her name. And even if she had remembered her, she doubted she would have recognized her. People changed considerably in thirty-two years. In Dr. Scott’s case, she’d been only a few years out of medical school back then, and now she was nearing sixty, gray-haired, stoop-shouldered, but had blue eyes that still gleamed with intelligence.
She ushered Bradlee and David into her inner office and motioned for them to sit. “I got out your file after you called, but I remember your case well,” she said, taking a seat behind her desk. “Primarily because of the notoriety of the kidnapping. I read in the paper that a private detective has located Adam Kingsley. Imagine that, after all this time.”
Bradlee exchanged a glance with David. They’d agreed ahead of time not to reveal his identity. “That’s why I’m here,” she said. “I’ve always had a feeling there was something about that night that’s remained hidden in my subconscious. I’ve had nightmares about it all these years.” Bradlee leaned forward in her chair, her tone urgent. “Dr. Scott, I want you to hypnotize me.”
“So you said on the phone.” Dr. Scott gazed at Bradlee thoughtfully. “Do you know much about hypnosis?”
Bradlee shrugged. “Only that you go into a trance, and it’s possible to remember things from your past. Things you’ve buried.”
“It’s not quite that simple. Hypnosis is not without risk. Anytime you go looking for memories, you may recover more than you bargain for. You have to be prepared to deal with everything that surfaces.”
“I am. This is very important to me, Dr. Scott. Vitally important.”
Dr. Scott studied her for a moment, then nodded. “All right, then. Let’s get started.” She turned to David, “If you would just wait for us outside—”
“No, I want him to stay,” Bradlee said. She glanced at David. “He needs to stay.”
Dr. Scott shrugged. “If that’s what you want, I have no objection.” She motioned for Bradlee to lie down on the sofa, then pulled up a chair facing her. She explained that hypnosis was a form of deep relaxation, and that no one could be made to do anything while “under” that he or she would not normally be willing to do.
David watched the whole process in fascination. Bradlee’s whole body grew lax, her eyes closed, her breathing evened.
“Bradlee, if you can hear me, nod your head,” Dr. Scott instructed.
Her head moved up and down almost imperceptibly.
“Can you talk to me?”
“Yes.” It was barely a whisper.
“You’re very relaxed and so if you have a difficult time speaking, just nod or shake your head. Okay?”
A nod.
They began with more recent events and questions Bradlee had no difficulty responding to. Gradually, however, Dr. Scott took her back to the year of the kidnapping.
“You’re three years old, Bradlee. What are you doing at this moment?”
Bradlee smiled. “My birthday. Having a party.”
David watched the transformation in astonishment. Her face had grown even more relaxed and the years seemed to melt away. There was an innocent quality to her smile, a softness in her voice that could have belonged to a child.
“Who’s at your party, Bradlee?”
“Friends.”
“What friends?”
“Ellen.”
“Who else?”
“Debbie. Andrew. Adam.”
“Who is Adam?”
“Friend. Best friend.”
“All right, Bradlee, let’s leave the party and skip ahead a bit. It’s the night of June 24th. Do you know where you are?”
Bradlee’s brows drew together in concentration. “Car.”
“You’re in a car?”
She nodded.
“Who’s with you in the car?”
“Mommy. Daddy.” A long pause, then, “Angry.”
“Your parents are angry with you?”
She shook her head.
“Are they angry with each other?”
A nod. “Scared.”
&n
bsp; “Their arguing frightens you? Are their voices raised?”
A nod.
“Can you hear what they’re saying?”
Another pause. She frowned in confusion.
“What are your parents arguing about, Bradlee?”
“Money.” When she spoke again, her voice was deeper than a child’s. “Dammit, Mary, I told you I have everything under control.”
“It’s okay, Bradlee. You’re relaxed. Very, very relaxed. Nothing can hurt you. Do you understand?”
Bradlee nodded and murmured something David couldn’t understand.
“You’re at the Kingsley mansion, Bradlee, in the nursery with Adam and Andrew. Can you see them?”
She nodded and smiled. “Funny. Andrew’s funny.” Her voice was childlike again.
“What about Adam?”
Her smiled faded. “Sad. Crying.”
“Adam’s crying?”
She nodded.
“Do you know why?”
She flinched. “Hit him.”
“Someone hit him?”
Her breathing deepened. She couldn’t seem to answer.
Dr. Scott said, “Just nod or shake your head, Bradlee.”
She nodded.
“Who hit Adam, Bradlee?”
“Mother.”
“His mother?”
When she nodded again, David leaned toward Dr. Scott and whispered, “Ask her if it was Adam’s stepmother?”
“Bradlee, was the person who hit Adam his stepmother?”
She nodded.
“Did you see her hit him?”
“Andrew saw.”
“Did anyone come into the nursery while you were there that night, Bradlee?”
A pause. Then, “Adam’s daddy. His mother. Night, night.”
“They came in to say good-night?”
She nodded.
“Who else?”
“My mommy.”
“Not your daddy?”
Silence.
“Did anyone else come into the nursery that night?”
“Adam’s grandmother. Jenny. All night, night.”
“Okay, Bradlee, everyone has come in to say good-night. You and Andrew and Adam are all in bed now. Can you see what’s happening?”
“Dark.”
“It’s dark in the room?”
Kingsley Baby Trilogy: The Hero's SonThe Brother's WifeThe Long-Lost Heir Page 46
