“Honey, I love this kitchen. I could cook in here all day long,” her mother said before going to the refrigerator and taking out a bottle of cream soda pop.
Valerie couldn’t hide a smile. Ever since she was a teen, she loved cream soda pop and always had it on hand.
Her father, George, came through the back door, bringing with him a gush of chilly wind and leaves from the yard. Her attention shifted to a lone leaf dancing across the tile floor. The leaf stopped at her right foot.
“Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle.”
Hearing her father’s usual phrase of surprise, Valerie fought to pull herself away from a pending vision to shift her attention to her father’s voice complimenting every cabinet door he was testing. “You like it, Dad?” Her father was a carpenter and she’d taken his guidance and suggestions, but he hadn’t seen the finished results, until now. When he continued appreciating how she’d kept with wood-grained cabinets and white appliances, she beamed.
“I think your aunt Ruby would have been amazed at the gem that had been buried beneath her piles of junk,” he said.
She beamed with pride as her family complimented the restorations and her hands-on work before leading them through the living room and up the stairs to the second floor. When they reached her bedroom, her mother collapsed in the large comfy chair beneath the large window. “Oh, what’s in here?”
Valerie watched her mother run her fingers along the emerald green velvet material of the jewelry box. Taking the box and explaining it was a gift from Sarah when her mother asked what was in the secret compartment, Valerie did a double take. She only now noticed a tiny cord neatly hidden within the folds of the lining and lifted it to reveal a one-inch well on the bottom of the jewelry box.
“Oh,” she said, using her fingernail to flip up a piece of paper and unfolding it. Tuning out their curious voices, Valerie read what appeared to be a statement and a handwritten invoice showing a breakdown of very large sums of money. She initially thought about calling Sarah to let her know that either she or the jeweler left two documents inside the box but then realized the woman was still vacationing.
When the front doorbell rang, she refolded the papers and put them back inside the jewelry box back and followed her family downstairs.
Lynne’s husband Thomas came through the door balancing several bags containing cartons of Chinese food, so Valerie put the papers out of her mind, happy to focus on her family for the evening.
***
Valerie
It was almost midnight when Valerie bid goodnight to her family and made her way up to her bathroom. As exhausted as she was, she couldn’t fall asleep after a relaxing bath. She kept thinking about the documents in the jewelry box sitting on the arm of the chair. Picking up the box, she removed the documents and studied them more carefully.
The page from a journal listed a handwritten statement showing dates and the transfer of large sums of money. When she unfolded the very bottom of the paper, Valerie’s eyes widened in surprise.
It was a receipt showing some twenty million dollars deposited into an account of…Congressman Roy Owen. “What is this…?” She smoothed out the invoice and noticed there was writing on the back. To her surprise, it was Glen Walker’s familiar scrawl and, initially, she thought it was some doodling—something he often did.
But it was what Glen had doodled that was surprising, to say the least.
He’d drawn a flowchart of sorts from several government accounts, with one being educational grants. There was also a notation of a partnership circled that Glen had referred to as “the Hill.” It didn’t make any sense to Valerie until she recalled her lunch date with Sarah and the latest email she’d received from her. Had she missed something? Was there a message that was now tugging on her mind?
As she let that lunch date play back in her mind, Valerie ran her hand across the velvet material of the jewelry box. She recalled wanting to open it in the restaurant, but Sarah rested her hand over across hers and stopped her from opening it and suggested she open the box at home. She also recalled Sarah’s cryptic comments that she encouraged Valerie to look around the packed restaurant.
“I saw how busy it was when I first walked in the place and…”
Staring across her bedroom at the wall as if watching that scene play out, Valerie recalled the feeling that someone had been watching her from the moment she entered the restaurant. The customers were a mixed bag of business professionals and neighborhood casual diners, but there was something about the two men seated nearest the table she and Sarah shared that stood out. Perhaps it had been their inscrutable expressions or the wired earpieces disappearing into the lapels of their suit jackets that made them stand out.
As she and Sarah had eaten, the feeling of being watched persisted. Occasionally Sarah would send a covert glance in their direction. The two men were obviously Secret Service.
As she’d headed to the door to leave and passed their table, she’d noticed they’d also ordered the scrumptious crab cake special but hadn’t eaten any of it.
Now that she’d replayed that scene, it dawned on her that they really hadn’t paid that much attention to her, but they’d definitely been watching Sarah.
***
Valerie
As she’d done every night for two weeks since the last time she saw JD, Valerie went to bed with the crystal around her neck. She hoped to see him again. Try as she might, she just couldn’t forget his face.
When her eyes finally drifted closed, she welcomed the feeling of floating as she fell into a deep sleep.
And as quickly as that, she was in a trance walking along a trail again. It was a serene fall setting. It was daytime, and the chill in the air was as real as it was in her world. She spotted a wooden bench that beckoned her to sit. She was tired and sensed she had traveled far.
She remained there until the sun was beginning to set. JD hadn’t come to her, but oddly, she felt his presence. Perhaps he was watching her from afar but was afraid to approach.
When the wind picked up and circled her ankles, she gathered her peacoat closer to her body. As the fading sun began to cast a brilliant orange and yellow glow all around her, she stood up and watched it dip behind the horizon.
The realization hit then that JD wasn’t coming.
I shouldn’t be sad. I won’t be sad.
With that resolve, she began walking back up the trail when another gust of wind kicked up. It was so fierce she had to grab her calf-length skirt to keep it from billowing up with one hand while struggling to keep her shoulder-length hair from whipping across her face with the other hand.
Scant seconds later, the wind settled down, and she looked around wildly, feeling as if she’d been cast out of a tornado. Unfolding her skirt from her clenched fist, she was surprised to see several leaves had been caught within the folds of her skirt. She brushed them away except for the last leaf, which was brilliant amber brown. She held onto it by its stem between her forefinger and thumb. Although it was getting dark, she was in no hurry to leave but began walking back up the trail, absently twirling the brown leaf.
Rounding a bend at the end of the trail, she came upon a clearing and was surprised to see a large facility just ahead. Curious about the structure, she walked toward it, noticing there were two large stone pillars flanking a high black wrought iron gate.
It was a stately complex with manicured lawns and a large water fountain in front. Walking through the opened wrought iron gates and nearing the entrance, she spotted several individuals whom she believed were medical personnel because they were all wearing blue scrubs, hurrying from the building to a parking lot off to her right.
They all passed within inches of her, not glancing in her direction. She knew they couldn’t see her, so she continued walking toward the building, when the leaf she’d held loosely between her fingers was suddenly whisked away by a gust of wind. She paused, watching it take flight and begin floating up and away, much higher and steadier th
an she would have expected. She began to think the perfectly shaped little leaf had a direction because when it finally stopped, it plastered itself on one of the many tall windows of the building.
Not seeing any harm in going inside, she walked up the stone pathway, climbed the wide steps to the entrance, and then pushed open the heavy beveled glass doors.
Once inside, she saw that it was indeed a medical facility.
She walked uncertainly down a wide corridor, invisible to the throngs of people busily going about their duties. Taking in her surroundings, she admired the marble floors that gleamed along her path. Tasteful paintings lined the walls, and large plants with glossy green leaves were situated inside window alcoves.
As she neared a massive reception desk, she overheard several staff members talking excitedly about a patient. As she continued, she couldn’t help but wonder why she’d been brought there.
Is it possible JD is here?
Had her trance brought her to him if he couldn’t come to her?
He was hurt, after all.
She came to a bank of elevators. Her heart raced at the possibility, and when the closest elevator whooshed open, it seemed to be inviting her to step inside its polished interior. It didn’t register to her as odd that she hadn’t pressed a button or that no one had stepped out. The elevator arrived and appeared to be waiting for her.
Did she dare step inside?
As she pondered that question, several medical personnel rushed around her, seemingly glad the elevator was there, so she went inside, too.
Standing along the left inside wall invisible, she faced them as they chatted. They were young, and she guessed they were probably residents, interns, and nursing students. She smiled as two males chatted about the overtime included in their paycheck, while a nurse complained that her overtime pay was just barely enough to buy her son a computer because there weren’t enough computers in his school.
Hearing that reminded Valerie of all the rejection letters she had sent to schools. “I have to find out what Glen started,” she said aloud, just as the elevator came to a stop.
Stepping out with the others onto the sixth floor, she found herself standing in a wide corridor as the medical personnel staff took off in different directions. This floor, she noticed, was equally as beautiful as the main floor. She began walking with no destination in mind until she heard something causing her footsteps to halt mid-step. She strained her ears to listen until she heard it again. It was her name.
Someone was calling her name—a male voice, a familiar male voice.
It was JD calling out for her, she thought excitedly and raced down the corridor, looking right and left. Eerily, his voice echoed and bounced off the marble walls without a point of origin.
“JD? I’m here, JD. Where are you?” she called out as she wandered the halls.
Chapter Fourteen
JD aka Cade
JD had been sitting on the wide ledge of the window in the solarium, staring out the window. It had become his favorite spot.
He was extremely tired today, but no worse than yesterday or last week, for that matter. The exhaustive battery of tests and physical therapy that was meant to strengthen his muscles only caused him more pain than…hell, he couldn’t even remember what.
On the other hand, he believed the therapy he was doing must be working because his arms and legs were becoming stronger, and yesterday he’d stayed on the treadmill for thirty minutes at a fast, uphill pace. His physical therapist, Travis Lowe, told him that his recovery would shorten as his physical strength improved.
Travis had suggested that, perhaps, JD was in good physical shape before.
Before what? JD thought sourly, struggling to control his anger and frustration because he couldn’t remember anything before waking up from a coma. His first memory was of a vaguely familiar song and off-key singing around him. He had no memory of before.
He didn’t know who he was. All he knew was that he had been shot and as a result had been in a coma for several months and was in the sanitarium.
Every day, his frustration levels increased, as did the migraines that were so painful, they zapped him of his strength. He’d spent his days flipping through magazines the nurses brought him. He could identify things like cars and furniture, and he knew he liked and admired women. The constant pain in his back and chest made it difficult to concentrate, and the scars disfiguring those areas brought on another source of pain, such as wondering why someone would shoot him. What kind of person could I have been to receive such a deadly fate? he wondered
Most of all, he wished he knew his name.
The notebook in his lap lay open, and he read again what he’d previously jotted down. His eyes flew across words that didn’t make any sense—words that were foreign yet familiar to him. He didn’t know where the words came from, but on the advice of the psychiatrist, he wrote them down anyway. Uncapping the pen dangling in his hand, he began drawing on a blank page until he heard a familiar finger snapping.
Glancing up, he spotted Travis, his physical therapist, dancing his way into the solarium. He watched Travis dance and snap his fingers to the music spilling out from his headphones.
Everyone stopped what they were doing to watch Travis’ antics. Dressed in green scrubs, bright white running shoes, and a little over six feet tall, Travis was a big jokester, except when it came to pushing his patients through the intense rigors of physical therapy, then he was all serious business. He was a good listener too.
Travis’ voice boomed as he took the hand of a patient in a wheelchair and twirled the giggling woman around before continuing across the room. When he spotted him, JD nodded in greeting as Travis removed the headphones and came over to him. “Hi, Travis.”
“Hi yourself, JD. What’re you writing today?”
“Not writing, just sketching,” he said, cringing at the name that had been given to him. He watched as Travis angled his head to look down at his spiral notebook.
“Hey, you got skills, man.”
JD sent Travis a doubtful look. “Just lines and curves, that’s all.”
“I’m serious, JD. Do you recognize what you’ve drawn here?”
JD stared at what he’d absently scrawled on the paper. His thick, jet black eyebrows lifted in surprise. “It’s that leaf stuck in the corner of the window there,” he said, hitching his thumb over his shoulder to the window behind him.
“What leaf, dude?” Travis asked, taking the notebook and flipping through the pages.
JD turned and, no longer seeing the leaf, shrugged his shoulders. “Guess it blew away.”
“Well, from all accounts, I’d say this is a perfect leaf. You see, JD, this is just what I was talking to you about yesterday. Things will come back to you, and now we know you can draw.” Travis said. “So, look, now that you’re up and moving about, it seems all these giggling females around here think you’re some kind of good-looking dude, but I wouldn’t go so far to say that.” Travis snorted and rolled his eyes. “Anyway, it got me to thinking that if you do light their fire like that, then you might have a string of hot babes out there looking for you. They’re probably waiting to get a booty call from you, huh?”
“Booty call.” JD lifted an eyebrow, recalling Travis giving him highlights of his own booty calls over the past few weeks. “I doubt that, Travis. The fact that I’m still here proves I’m not important to anybody for a booty call or anything else. This sucks, man. It can’t be possible that I’m in this world all alone, ‘cause I don’t feel that way.”
“Give it some time,” Travis said.
“I don’t have time. I can’t live in this place forever.” JD dropped his head back against the window. “I know I belong in a home, not this high-priced sanitarium. But the fact that nobody has shown up to claim me as their husband, brother, son, or booty call proves this sucks.”
“I see you haven’t written down any names in your book.” Travis tapped the notebook. “I’ll bet there’s a fine, s
exy honey pot out there looking for you right now.”
JD shook his head, no. “No names have come to my empty mind,” he said, getting up from the window seat and moving away. Feeling depressed, the last thing he needed was for a manly man like Travis to see him cry. It just wasn’t cool in his book, if he had one, he thought. Crossing his arms over his chest, JD turned and stared out the large window. His attention was drawn to the gathering of leaves caught up in a wind gust outside along the walking trail.
When a chill came over him, he thought someone had opened one of the large windows, but that was impossible because the windows didn’t open. But the draft circled his shoulders. In fact, it was so powerful he turned to Travis, certain he must have felt the sudden draft too. That didn’t seem the case since Travis continued flipping through the pages in his book, unconcerned about a sudden temperature drop in the room.
Turning back to the window, his hand splayed on the window when another leaf appeared and began spinning in mid-air. JD blinked and wondered if that was the same leaf he’d drawn. He was unable to take his eyes off the leaf, and only when it glided purposefully down towards the walkway leading to the entrance of the facility did he look away.
Oddly shaken and believing he was experiencing an effect from all the medication he was on, JD turned to find Travis was now chatting up a pretty nurse.
Picking up his notebook and pen, JD glanced back at the large window one last time before waving at Travis as he walked out of the solarium.
***
JD aka Cade
Back in his assigned room, JD was lying on his back in the bed and staring at the window across the room. He’d already decided he wasn’t going to mention that craziness about the leaf to anybody. He feared they’d think he not only had amnesia but that he needed to move to the psychiatric unit which he learned was a couple floors up.
He was not only tired of struggling to remember things, he was also physically tired. The complications he’d suffered from the bullet that ripped through his body had left in its wake more than scarring and ripped tissue. He suffered nerve damage and a painful cough that he was told would, in time, subside.
Finding Cade (Dream Catcher Series Book 1) Page 12
