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“Very helpful,” he muttered.
Bethany gave him a sarcastic smile. She buffed her nails on her apron. “I aim to please.”
The woman had been flirtatious at first, but when he hadn’t shown any interest, she had reverted to her true personality—a ballbuster with no respect for authority.
Garrett affected a casualness he didn’t feel. “I don’t suppose Emma told you anything about her accident?”
“A car hit her,” Kyle replied. “But she doesn’t like talking about it—like not at all.”
“Yeah,” Bethany agreed. “And if someone from her past comes around, she bolts.”
His head popped up from between two cars. “She does?”
“It only happened that one time.” Kyle wiped his nose with a crumpled café napkin. “Not sure it’s a pattern.”
“Oh, it is.” Bethany leaned on a car and jumped when the alarm sounded.
Garrett took his keys out and turned it off. “You’re lucky that one was mine.”
And any chance of finding a cat just went to hell. But he’d keep looking if it kept them talking.
Kyle obliged a bare minute later.
“Emma’s cousin Pedro comes in once in a while,” he said as Bethany sauntered to the car next to his and began to lean on it instead. “She lives with him. I think that’s the only reason her mom was cool with her moving out here. He is supposed to keep an eye on her. Doesn’t quite work out that way though.”
Bethany wrinkled her nose. “Oh, yeah. That dude is weird as hell. And he brought that other cousin that one time.That mean girl.”
Garrett frowned, giving up on the sedan and crab-walking to the next car, a dark-blue Tesla. “What happened?”
She shrugged. “Emma froze up for a minute. She tried to play it off, but it was obvious she didn’t feel comfortable. And I can’t blame her. She didn’t recognize that other cousin. So, she lied and turned down their invitation to join them for dinner. She said she had to work overtime.”
Kyle nodded, his expression sad. “Once they were gone, she went and sat in the broom closet for a long time. When I asked if she was okay, she said yeah but that she doesn’t like meeting people from before her accident.”
“I used to think that was because of the scar,” Bethany added, touching her forehead. “Until the cousin came, I didn’t realize she had lost so much of her memory.”
The woman sniffed. “Can you imagine how messed up that is? It must be a constant mindfuck walking around, interacting with people, and not knowing if you’ve met them before. Or worse—if you fucked them. You could run into an ex and not know he’s a douchebag.”
She narrowed her eyes suddenly, giving him a speculative once-over.
“Or maybe your high school nemesis comes round to accuse you of corporate espionage?” he deflected, making Kyle laugh.
But the kid sobered immediately. “Man, I never knew how rough she had it. The headaches are bad enough…”
Garrett mentally added headaches to his running list of Emma’s symptoms.
Would it be that bad to hire a hacker to get her medical records?
He sighed, hands tied by this pesky thing called ethics. At least the accident report would be public information, wouldn’t it? What was taking his PI so long to get it?
“Maybe you could be nicer to Emma now that you know how bad her accident was,” Kyle suggested.
Bethany looked as if she was seriously considering the issue. “Nah, you know what? I don’t think so.”
“Oh, c’mon!” Kyle bleated.
“I don’t think she wants to be treated any different,” Bethany insisted. “Seriously, what would she do if I started being nice to her tomorrow?”
Kyle crossed his arms. “I think she’d appreciate it.”