by HELEN HARDT
“I’m afraid—”
“Please, let me finish. My wife and child are my whole world. I’ll do anything for them, and I’ve got my hands full at the moment with…other issues. Daphne needs help—help I can’t give her. You’re good, and you’re here. She won’t have to be away from the baby more than an hour or so at a time if she goes to therapy here in Snow Creek. You’re the best choice.”
“I can’t—”
“Please, Doctor. You’ll never be threatened again. My father is dead.”
“I’m not the best choice, Mr. Steel.”
“You are.”
“I have a history with your family.”
“Can you recommend someone else, then? Someone who can come to Snow Creek and treat my wife? He or she will be handsomely compensated.”
“I cannot. Not in good conscience.”
Life sometimes threw you curve balls. This was one of those times. I was the head of the Steel family now, and the job of protecting my family was mine.
My family included my wife—my wife, whose medical records I’d read, nearly making myself ill, and subsequently burned to keep them from her forever.
This was the legacy left to me by George Steel—the man who sired me.
The man who created the Steel empire.
Now it was up to me to make it bigger. Grander.
And to protect those who were mine.
“I understand your issues with my father, Doctor,” I said calmly and devoid of emotion. “Believe me, I had my own issues with him. But this concerns my wife, and I’ll do everything I can to see she gets the best treatment available. So it may interest you to know that my father left everything to me. All of his money…and all of his guns.”
Chapter Fifty
Daphne
“You can get my records from Dr. Mitch Payne,” I said to Dr. Pelletier after he’d closed his office door, giving us privacy for our first session. “He’s in Westminster.”
“I’ll do that,” he said, “first thing tomorrow morning. You’ll have to sign a release on the way out. For now, what can I help you with, Mrs. Steel?”
“This is difficult for me, Doctor,” I said. “It took me a while to get comfortable with Dr. Payne, and now I need to begin again.”
“If you feel you should be seeing Dr. Payne, I certainly don’t want to interfere.”
“No. I want to see someone here in town. Dr. Payne is in Denver.”
“I’m sure your husband could arrange for him to have an office here in Snow Creek,” Dr. Pelletier said.
A touch of snideness laced his voice. Or was I imagining it?
I cleared my throat. “No, I’m sure you’re very competent, Doctor. I’d like to talk, if I may.”
“Of course. That’s what I’m here for. Please, proceed.”
“I have a history of anxiety and depression. I was…hospitalized most of my junior year in high school. Apparently I was bullied by a couple of girls at school, and they beat on me a little, but not enough to do any significant damage.”
“I see.”
“The problem is that I don’t remember any of this. Apparently I got a concussion and lost the memory of the incident plus a couple days before.”
“Retrograde amnesia,” he said. “Not uncommon from a concussion, especially if the patient loses consciousness.”
“I probably did, though I don’t know for sure.”
“Of course. Because you don’t remember.”
“Well, I wouldn’t remember anyway if I lost consciousness.”
He smiled. “True. So what brings you in here today? Are you having trouble dealing with your prior hospitalization?”
“No. I mean, sort of. I don’t remember most of that year, and I always thought it was because of the medication I was on.”
“What medication was that?”
“I don’t know, honestly. I was a minor at the time. I pretty much did what I was told. You can get those records from Dr. Payne.”
“Yes, of course.”
“Anyway, just the other day I remembered something. Or I should say, someone. Or…more than one.”
“What did you remember?”
“The patients who were at the hospital with me. Only I didn’t remember their names. I don’t think I ever knew their names, or I never bothered to learn them.” I quickly relayed the information I’d remembered about each person.
“So you knew them only as these nicknames you made up.”
“Yes. Correct.”
“And you have no doubt that this is a real memory?”
I widened my eyes. “You mean there’s such a thing as a fake memory?”
“The human mind is a delicate thing,” Dr. Pelletier said. “It’s hardly infallible. Sometimes we make up scenarios to fill in what we don’t recall. It’s a defense mechanism and is well documented. You can actually be certain that something is true, when in fact, it didn’t happen at all.”
“You mean because I have a history of mental illness.”
“Not at all, Mrs. Steel. This is common in people who don’t suffer from mental illness. Most everyone does it to some degree.”
I sat, my jaw dropping. Truly? Could I have made up those patients at the hospital?
I shook my head. “These people were real. I’m sure of it. Once I remembered them, I remembered everything about them. Except, of course, their names, but I don’t think I ever knew them.”
“Surely the doctors and nurses at the hospital called them by name.”
“I don’t know. I don’t recall.”
“Mrs. Steel, trust me. The doctors and nurses called these patients by name. They did not call them paperboy and deli owner’s daughter. How do you know this girl’s father owned a deli, anyway?”
“I’m not sure.”
“There must be some reason you remember her as being associated with a deli.”
“Honestly, I don’t know.”
“Did you ever go to a deli?”
“Yeah, when I lived at home with my parents. There was this great New York–style deli a few miles from our house. We went there a lot for lunch on weekends. I used to love to watch the workers slice the meats to put on sandwiches.”
Dr. Pelletier nodded and made some notes.
“How can I prove to you that this memory is real?” I asked.
“Nothing can be proven without factual corroboration.” He continued writing.
“Then let’s get the factual corroboration.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Why?”
“Because records of other patients are strictly confidential. I can’t access them unless I’m a treating physician on the case. This is especially true where minors are involved.”
“Oh.” I bit my lip.
“But let’s go on the assumption that these memories are real,” he said. “Why do you think you’re remembering them now?”
“That’s kind of why I’m here,” I said. “Dr. Payne told me my memories might come back, and when they did, there would probably be a reason.”
“There can be,” he said. “What’s been going on in your life lately?”
I sighed. There was no easy answer to that question. What hadn’t been going on?
“I have a week-old baby whose life has been threatened twice. A good friend of mine is missing. Another friend died at my wedding eight months ago, and we don’t know why or who was behind it. My husband is always working. Oh…my mother attempted suicide after I told her I was pregnant and getting married.”
Dr. Pelletier stopped writing and met my gaze. “I see we have a lot to talk about, Mrs. Steel.”
Chapter Fifty-One
Brad
My flight to Arizona was uneventful. My PI had located Larry and his girlfriend, Greta, in a bed-and-breakfast in Sedona. And yeah, I walked in on them while they were doing it.
Not a sight I ever wanted to see again.
“Steel! What the fuck?” Larry rolled off Greta and wrapped a sheet around hims
elf, leaving her totally exposed. What a gentleman.
I averted my eyes. “Get dressed, both of you. I need to talk to Larry alone.”
“We’re kind of in the middle of something here,” Larry said.
“Believe me, I can’t unsee that. This is important. You have two minutes.”
“Now listen here—”
“Larry, you listen here. I’m not just a friend anymore. I’m your brother-in-law, and I need your help. I’ll make it worth your while.”
That got him. I could almost see the dollar signs in his eyeballs.
“All right. I’ll be with you in a minute.”
I closed the door and waited in the hallway.
True to his word, Larry came out dressed in jeans and a Queen T-shirt, his feet bare.
“Get some shoes on,” I said.
“What for?”
“We’re going for a walk.”
Larry rolled his eyes but went back in the room, returning a few seconds later wearing Chuck Taylors. “Let’s go, then.”
Sedona was a beautiful city with its perfect red rock formations. I wanted to bring Daphne and little Joe here. They were both so beautiful. They belonged in a place like this.
“Can we stop for a bite?” Larry asked. “I need to carbo-load.”
“Too much information, man,” I said. “But sure.”
We found a small sandwich shop, ordered, and got a table.
“What the hell was so important that you needed to interrupt me fucking my fiancée?”
I widened my eyes. “Fiancée?”
“Yeah. I proposed last night. Greta accepted.”
“Congratulations, man.”
“Thanks. She’s coming to Phoenix with me when I start law school in the fall.”
“Cool. So you’ll be a kept man like Simpson?”
“Nah. I’m not going to make Greta work when I’ve got seven figures in the bank.”
“You’re a better man than he is, then.”
“Yeah, you don’t have to go too far for that.” Larry sipped his Coke.
I lifted one eyebrow. “Oh? What makes you say that?”
“Come on, Steel,” Larry said. “You’re not blind.”
No, I wasn’t. Perhaps I hadn’t given Larry enough credit. I’d always considered him the least intelligent of our little group. Of course least intelligent among the Future Lawmakers was still damned smart. He’d gotten into law school.
“Anything you want to tell me, Lar?” I asked.
“Nothing you don’t already know.”
I nodded. “We’ll get to that. For now, I have a simple question for you.”
“Shoot.”
“Did you pay for Daphne’s hospitalization?”
His brows nearly flew off his forehead. “What?”
“You heard me.”
“Hell, no. My dad has insurance.”
“His insurance is pure indemnity, not one of those newfangled HMOs. It only paid eighty percent, and his share amounted to over a hundred grand.”
“Where did he get that kind of money?”
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out. My first thought was you.”
“Nope. He never asked.”
“Of course,” I said more to myself than to Larry, “because he doesn’t know you have money.”
“Right.”
“Okay, then. Who does your father know who could have given him that kind of money?”
“How do you know he didn’t just pay it himself? Over time?”
“I have his financial records.”
Larry opened his mouth, but I gestured him to be quiet.
“Before you freak out, I found them in my old man’s files. I didn’t get them myself.”
“Why the hell would your father—”
“I have no idea. I can only guess that he had Jonathan investigated after Daphne and I told him she was pregnant. He kept files on everyone, from what I can see.”
“On your friends too?” Larry wrinkled his forehead.
“Oh, yeah. There’s one on everyone in the club. I haven’t looked through them yet. I’m more concerned with Daphne at the moment, and also finding Patty and figuring out who’s responsible for Murphy’s death.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold up. What’s up with Patty?”
“She’s missing. For two days now. She went shopping in Snow Creek and never returned.”
“Snow Creek? Someone invaded that little town? Hardly a hub for criminal behavior.”
“Apparently it is now.”
“And still no information on what happened to Sean?”
“No, and I’ve had the best investigators on it. My father hired them after the wedding. But I need to get back to why I’m here. Who does your dad know who could have paid for Daphne’s medical bills?”
“I have no idea, man. We weren’t exactly close. I didn’t see my dad a lot, and I hardly ever saw Daphne. I never really knew why she ended up hospitalized for so long that year.”
“You don’t know what happened to her?”
“Only a little. The story I heard was that she was bullied by a couple of girls.”
He didn’t know. Unless he was lying.
But maybe he wasn’t.
Maybe, to keep the truth from Daphne, Jonathan and Lucy kept it from everyone else as well.
Except…Wendy knew.
A conversation from months ago speared into my head.
“You and I, Brad. We’re connected. We’ll always be connected. Someday, we’ll have that baby that was stolen from us in high school.”
“No, we won’t.”
Her miscarriage had been tragic, but it had also been a blessing in disguise. I didn’t want to be bound to Wendy through a child. If I could excise her from my life with a sharp scalpel, I would, and I’d live with the scar, no matter how deep.
And it would be deep.
“Oh, we will. You can’t avoid destiny, Brad.”
“My destiny lies with someone else.”
“Daphne?” She shook her head. “There’s so much you don’t know.”
“I know everything.”
“About her year in London?”
I didn’t want to discuss Daphne with Wendy, but I couldn’t resist shoving it in her face. “She told me all about it.”
“Then you know she wasn’t actually in London.”
“As I said, she told me all about it.”
“That’s sweet. Really. But there’s no way she told you all about it. There are things even she doesn’t recall.”
“What the hell are you talking about? If you know something, you better fucking tell me.”
“Sorry, you set the rules, so you get to live by them. You said no more deals. You want to know the truth about your sweet little slut? You won’t get it out of me. Besides, it’s not my story to tell.” She turned and flounced toward the doorway.
“You’re telling me,” I said to Larry, “that you don’t know what happened to your sister?”
“Sure I do. The bullies. But that’s it. Dad didn’t tell me much else. I was already in college, and he was dealing with Daphne in the hospital. We didn’t talk about it.”
“Would it surprise you to know that Daphne doesn’t remember what happened to her?”
“No. Dad told me about the concussion.”
“Would it surprise you to know that the problem was way more than a couple of bullies?”
His eyes widened slightly.
“And would it surprise you to know that Wendy seems to know what happened?”
He let out a guffaw at that one. A true guffaw. “Steel, nothing that Wendy knows or does ever surprises me. It sure as hell shouldn’t surprise you.”
“You really don’t know what happened to Daphne?”
“Only what my dad told me. Are you saying that’s not what happened?”
“Not at all. I’m just wondering where your father got that kind of money to pay his share of Daphne’s medical bills.”
“He didn’t ge
t it from me.”
“Would you have paid it if he’d asked?”
“That’s a moot point, Steel. He didn’t ask. He doesn’t know I have money.”
“I got my answer.”
Larry was right. It was a moot point. Why did it matter that Larry wouldn’t have paid for his half sister’s medical bills? Who really cared, in the long run? I already knew that Larry, Tom, and Theo were all profit-driven.
I didn’t understand it, and I probably never would. Money had never been an issue for me. I had it in abundance.
I cleared my throat. “I found Theo at your place in the city a few days ago.”
Larry lifted his brow.
“He said he was looking for you. Does he have a key to your place?”
“Yeah. We all have keys to each other’s places, you know, if we need to crash.”
I nodded. “Did you know he visits Wendy at Piney Oaks?”
“Yeah.”
“And that he’s using my name?”
“Why would he do that?”
“I have no idea. I thought you might.”
“Dude, I’m clueless.”
Yeah, he was. In more ways than one.
“Have you been to see Wendy?”
Larry shook his head. “We were never that close. She’s more in tune with Theo and Tom. And, of course, you.”
“She and I were over a long time ago.”
“I get it, man. I do. I’m just not sure she does.”
“True enough.”
“You two sure were hot and heavy back in high school, though. Or have you forgotten about how you were joined at the hip and made out during passing period every damned day? Like you couldn’t wait until school was over.”
“We were kids.”
“It wasn’t that long ago, man.”
“Larry, trust me. It was a lifetime ago.”
He didn’t have any more information for me. I’d found out what I’d come for. He hadn’t paid for Daphne’s hospitalization, and he didn’t know who had.
None of this had anything to do with finding Patty or solving Murph’s case.
I’d come down here because of my own curiosity about Daphne’s father. Did it really matter who had paid for Daphne’s treatment? What mattered was that she’d gotten the treatment.
