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Some asshole had hit Emma with his fucking car and left her for dead. He knew the men of Verdant Falls were always gunning it down those fucking dirt roads in their 4x4s.
Hell, the driver didn’t even have to hit her to do thedamage they had done. A lot of those roads ran along steep ravines. Emma might have seen headlights and jumped out of the way, the driver passing none the wiser that he’d almost killed her.
God, he couldn’t imagine what Emma’s mother Mariana had gone through.
Back then Mariana Mendez had a reputation. Garrett had always thought it was unfair, the way people had talked about her love life. Small towns disapproved of anyone single with an active sex life.
Mariana had Emma young too, at sixteen or seventeen. She hadn’t been done growing up herself. Most of the town had condemned her for it. The rest—the single male part—vied for her attention.
It wouldn’t have been unusual for Mariana to be out all night back then. Far more likely than her very responsible college-bound daughter. How long had it taken her to realize Emma wasn’t just out with friends, butmissing?
Unwilling to wait for his PI, he called the number attached to the police report.
“No, I never had a viable suspect,” Jesse Warner said when he finally got him on the line and explained his interest in the case.
Warner, a former deputy and now the town sheriff, had been a good six or seven years ahead of him in school. They hadn’t been friends but had been aware of each other in that way reasonably popular guys in small towns were.
“Did anyone get bodywork on their car in the aftermath?” he asked.
Jesse harrumphed. “If they did, it wasn’t in Verdant Falls or any of the neighboring towns. We checked and made sure the local mechanics knew to call me if anyone brought in a car with damage consistent with a hit-and-run.”
“Shit,” he muttered. “I guess I was imagining that she saw the car and jumped out of the way.”
“Afraid not,” Jesse said with a sigh. “There was crushing damage to her left side.”
Garrett closed his eyes, struggling to hear what Jesse said after that.
“Could you repeat that?” he asked after a minute.
“I said it could have still been a drunk. You know how people arealways tearing it up on those dirt roads. And the Mendez women are tiny. The fucker might not have even noticed he hit Emma and just drove on.”
Garrett wanted to protest, but he could see that exact scenario happening. Verdant Falls wasn’t financially depressed, but every Colorado town had that segment of hard-drinking roughnecks.
Warner must have shifted around, the sound of fabric rubbing against the phone’s receiver. “You said you ran into Emma recently and that’s how you found out?”
“Yes,” he said. “She ended up working in my building.”
“And she didn’t remember you?”
Garrett tapped the blotter on his desk with his pen. “No, she did not.”
“That’s a shame.” Jesse sighed. “I was hoping Emma would recover her memories someday. Accident or not, what happened to her never sat well with me. I guess Mariana was right. She’ll never get those memories back.”
Garrett leaned back in his chair. “She’s that sure?”
“She must be. She’s the one who has had the most contact with the doctors, right?”
He grunted, making a mental note to check the credentials of all the doctors who treated Emma back then.
“I still wonder if Mariana made the right move,” Jesse continued after a beat. “She moved one town over about a year after the accident. I know Stella was young and needed a lot of care, but Mariana did have friends here who could have helped no matter what she thought…”
“Stella who?” Garrett asked with a frown.
“Emma’s little sister.” Jesse hummed. “I guess you don’t know about her. She’s like four or five years old now. Mariana found out she was expecting around the time of the accident.”
Garrett rubbed his forehead. “No. I hadn’t heard about her. Do you keep in touch with Mariana?”
He wasn’t aware he’d touched a nerve until Jesse hesitated, his tone changing. “I still check in with her from time totime. We used to spend time together back in the day, but I wasn’t quite done playing the field yet so she moved on.”