Page 15 of One Little Memory (Cherry Valley Novella)

Jo woke with a start. She rolled over, but the bed was empty. It was light outside. She put her hand out, but Phoenix’s side of the bed was cold. How long had he been gone? She hadn’t heard him leave. Hadn’t woken up. She must have been exhausted. Usually, she was a light sleeper.

She froze. Was that true? Yes! It was. She knew that about herself.

Her memories were starting to return. She tried not to get too excited, but it was hard.

Being in this void, this blankness, was awful.

She needed to know her own name. Know things about herself.

Everyone took it for granted that they knew things about themselves.

It was brutal when she couldn’t even answer if she liked tea or coffee.

She closed her eyes once more and breathed deeply and evenly. Maybe if she tried, she might be able to remember something else. She let her mind drift and her body relax.

It was dark.

Raining.

Fear. She was afraid. The sound of metal hitting bone. Metal hitting metal. Fighting with her car. Falling. The snap of the seatbelt across her chest as she plummeted down the side of that embankment. The shock of pain as her head collided with the door.

Her eyes popped open as her heart rate soared. She was gasping for breath as she sat up and tried to make sense of what she’d remembered, but it wouldn’t come together. It was all in disjointed bits. She groaned in frustration.

The cell phone on the nightstand went off. She glanced over at it. Phoenix . The name appeared on the screen. She reached over, unplugged it, and answered. “Hey, Phoenix.”

“Hey, Jo. How are you feeling?”

“Okay. Sore but not too bad.”

“Good. Listen, I’ve convinced the fire department to pull your car up the embankment. I’m gonna swing by and get you in about twenty minutes. Is that enough time?”

“Um, sure.” Glancing around the room, she realized she needed a shower and something to eat.

“Don’t worry, I’m bringing breakfast.”

She grinned. “Then it’s definitely enough time.”

“See you shortly.”

After hanging up, she put the phone on the nightstand and made her way to the bathroom.

Her hair was sticking up in spots so she decided to wash it again.

Eighteen minutes later, she was standing in the doorway wearing jeans and a dark green sweater when Phoenix pulled up the driveway.

He came over to the apartment with a brown paper bag in hand.

“What’s in the bag?” she asked. She’d woken up starving.

He smiled. “I stopped by the diner and got breakfast.” The day was sunny and warm. “Want to sit outside?”

“Sure.”

He went into the apartment and got the cutlery. Then he opened the sliding doors and went out to the patio at the back. There was a little table and two chairs. He sat down, and she joined him. He took out the first container. “Two eggs over easy with corned beef hash and potatoes.”

“Sounds good.” She had no idea if she’d like any of it but, at the moment, her stomach was gnawing on itself, so chances were excellent she’d eat it.

Phoenix got settled, and they started to eat. “Did you remember anything else?”

She chewed thoughtfully. “Just flashes. Sounds. That type of thing. None of it is clear enough to identify anything. And I still can’t remember my name or anything about myself other than I’m a light sleeper. Breakfast is good though, so I guess I like eggs.”

“It will come.” He smiled. “Glad you like the eggs.” He glanced at his watch. “We’re going to meet Jory and Aiden at the site. They’re going to try to pull your car up. At the very least, they will go down and check it out. We’ll see if your purse really is gone.”

She nodded. Suddenly, her stomach didn’t feel so great. The food felt like it had congealed into a lump. What would they find? She closed her eyes and heard the sickening thump again. Cold sweat broke out between her shoulder blades and she shuddered.

“Are you okay?”

Phoenix’s deep voice reached her ears. She opened her eyes. “I keep remembering a sound. I—I think it’s the sound of metal hitting bone. I—I think I might’ve?—"

“Phoenix?” a male voice called.

He swore as he stood and moved around the side of the cottage. “Mr. Marchand, Lloyd. What can I do for you two?”

“We want to know what’s going on with the investigation into my brother’s death,” the voice said.

A second male voice said, “You don’t seem to be doin’ much investigatin’.”

Jo’s heart rate soared.

"You seem to be sittin’ on your ass,” the second voice added.

“Investigations take time,” Phoenix explained. “We are exploring all avenues with regard to your brother’s murder. No one is sitting around doing nothing. You just have to trust me on that.”

The first man spoke again. “I guess I don’t have a choice but Phoenix, please keep me informed.”

“I will. You gentleman take care of yourselves.”

That voice. The cold, clammy sweat covered her entire body.

Her hand shook. She put down her fork. What the hell was happening to her?

She closed her eyes. The image of a man standing in the rain filled her mind.

His face plastered on her windshield for just a second.

Eyes wide in shock. Mouth in a big O . Then darkness.

Rain. The shadowy figure standing over her.

Taking her purse. A scratching sound. Tin.

Everything faded, and she opened her eyes. Phoenix was standing across from her, watching her. “What did you remember?”

Did she tell him? Did she dare? Maybe she was wrong. Things were all so jumbled up. Maybe she didn’t really hit that man with her car. “I—I’m not sure. More sounds. Something tinny and a scratching sound.”

His green eyes studied her, and she knew he didn’t believe she was telling him the truth. That was fair. She wasn’t. She needed time to process the memories to make sense of them.

“If you’re finished, we can go.”

She nodded as she stood up. “Were those men here about your investigation?”

“Yeah. One of the hazards of living in a small town. People come to my home when they want to know what’s going on.”

She put her food in the garbage can and rinsed the cutlery in the sink. Phoenix locked the sliding doors, and they made their way out to his police vehicle. Twenty minutes later, they were pulling up to the site of the crash.

Phoenix parked the truck off to the side, away from the other SUV and the massive tow truck. “Stay here. I want to talk to the guys first.”

She nodded and watched him get out and walk over to the group of men standing at the side of the road.

He was taller than most of them and better built.

He was wearing a pair of faded jeans that hugged his butt and a short-sleeved black T-shirt that seemed to cut into his biceps.

A badge clipped to his belt winked in the morning sunshine.

He was sexy as hell, and his voice sent shivers down her spine.

But the best part about Detective Phoenix Halston was his beautiful green eyes and his smile.

Both of them made her insides turn to jelly.

And yet, they also made her feel safe. She’d known him for less than forty-eight hours, and she trusted him with her life, which was why she did not want to tell him that she’d hit someone with her car.

She just couldn’t give up that safe harbor.

Not yet. Not until the rest of her memory came back.

She needed Phoenix too much to risk losing him at this moment.

He must have sensed the weight of her stare because he looked in her direction and then beckoned her over. She got out of the SUV and joined the men.

“Jo, this is Jory, Aiden, and Judson.”

She nodded to the men absently. Being this close to the edge of the embankment was distracting. She needed to see the car. Her car. She moved closer and peered over the edge. Phoenix grabbed her arm.

“It’s not stable,” he warned.

She nodded. “I just need to see.”

He moved with her but kept holding on to her arm.

She peered over the edge. It was a long way down.

The stump of the tree that she’d originally been balanced against was about thirty feet down, and the car was another sixty or seventy feet beyond that.

Her dark blue BMW. She stared. It wasn’t her car. It was a rental.

“A rental.”

“What?” Phoenix asked.

“That’s not my car. My car is white. That’s a rental.” Her gaze met his.

His eyes narrowed. “You sure?”

She nodded. It wasn’t a memory exactly, just something she knew.

Jory stood beside her and looked over the embankment. “I hope you took out insurance.”

She looked up at him and burst out laughing. They all started laughing along, and it was a few minutes before anyone could speak.

“So, are you guys going to bring it up?”

Aiden shook his head. “No. There’s been too much rain. The embankment is totally unstable.” He pointed to a couple of areas where she could see the ground had slid down the hill.

Disappointment raged through her. She thought she was going to get some answers, and now she was stuck again.

Jory took a phone call and then gave a thumbs up. Aiden smiled. “Chief Vickers just gave the okay to lower us down. We’ll go check out the car and see if we can find anything. The rig should be here in about twenty minutes.”

“That’s great. Thanks, guys. This is a big help,” Phoenix said.

The vise-like grip on Jo’s shoulders eased. Maybe she would get her answers after all.

An hour later, she watched as both Jory and Aiden were lowered down over the side of the embankment. They were wearing their fire gear minus the tanks. It took a while for them to get to the bottom, and Jo felt like she’d held her breath the whole time.

“See anything?” Phoenix asked into a walkie-talkie.

“Dude, give us a minute,” Jory responded. He waved, and then they got down on their hands and knees and looked inside the car. They dug around a bit but came out empty-handed. “No paperwork in the glove,” Jory said.

Aiden moved around to the back of the vehicle. “No plate.”

“Say again?” Phoenix demanded.

“No plate. The license plate is gone.”

“Shit.”

Jo started scanning the hillside as did Phoenix, but then it hit her. The sound. The tin sound and the scratching. “Someone, the man that was at the car, removed the plate. I remember the sound. I couldn’t place it at first, but now I remember.”

Phoenix swore again. Jory and Aiden spent another ten minutes walking around the car, checking things out, but nothing turned up.

“Sorry, man. I know you were hoping for something to help you out,” Jory said as he went by on his way to the fire truck to change out of his gear. He offered a sympathetic smile to Jo.

“Thanks for trying,” she said. She wanted to cry. The disappointment was just so overwhelming. “I’m going to go sit in the truck, if that’s okay. I’m starting to ache a bit.”

“I’ll be there in a minute,” Phoenix said and then went over to speak to Jory and Aiden.

Jo sat in the truck and stared out the side window. What did she know? The car was a rental, and she was pretty sure she hit someone with it. Someone else hadn’t helped her when she crashed. They’d stolen her purse and taken the license plate off the car. What did that mean?

“Someone wanted me dead,” she whispered.

Or, at the very least, they assumed she was going to die, and they wanted to make it very hard to identify her body.

And if she knew this, then chances were excellent that Phoenix knew it.

But did he know she’d hit someone with her car?

Wait. How had Gus—what was his last name?

Marchand. Gus Marchand. How had he died?

Holy Toledo! Had she killed Gus Marchand?