Page 20 of Question Everything

“I don’t understand,” she said.

“Your identity was falsified. Do you have any idea why that would be?”

A fuzzy memory seemed to come forward to her mind. Someone who was telling her something about taking on a new name, but as soon as it appeared, it vanished. She couldn’t grab it before it left her thoughts again.“I wish I did know, Kyle. You’ve been so kind, and patient with me. And your family has been so welcoming. I truly don’t know who I am, but I think something about the address on that driver’s license is familiar. It’s like I have a vague feeling that I’ve been there, but I can’t pull up the details.”

“Well, that’s something. Hold on.” He turned back around and punched the address into the keyboard. An image of a brownstone on a Manhattan street filled the screen. “Take a good look. That’s the building. Do you live there?”

“Like I said. It’s familiar, but not clear. I mean, I don’t think I could describe the inside to you at all.”

He pushed back and turned to her, their knees inches apart. “Don’t worry about it for now. Let’s see what the police report turns up on those two men. We’ll figure it out from there.”

“But Kyle, what if I never remember?” Her voice was barely above a whisper.

She looked so scared and vulnerable that all he wanted to do was say something to comfort her. “Well then, you’ll be stuck here with me, at least for the short term. But I have faith in you. I think you’ll eventually be able to pull up the missing information.”

He stood up. “I’m going to get a shirt. I can wait for the report, or I can step outside and talk to the uniformed officers before they go, and honestly, I’m feeling too impatient to wait.” He walked by her and gave her shoulder a quick squeeze before he left the room.

She watched him go and thought about what he’d just said.She’d be stuck here with him, for now.Would that be the worst thing that could happen to her? Maybe not. But she’d have to get her heart to stop racing at that thought, though.

He came back into the office, this time in jeans and a black tee shirt that pulled tightly against his chest, his tattoo covered once more. “I’m going out there. Sit tight. I’ll be right back.”

“Be careful,” she said.

“Don’t worry about me, Mia. I can take care of myself. And by the way, I think I’m going to keep calling you Mia for now, if that’s okay with you.”

She simply nodded.

He smiled and she felt her heart flutter. “Anyway, it suits you,” he said with a wink. In two strides he was out the door.

She lay back on the mattress of the pull-out couch. His woodsy scent was everywhere, and she felt surrounded by a strange sense of calm, despite the new information he’d just shared about her supposed identity. She really did believe that he’d not rest until he uncovered her truth and sent her back into whatever life it was that she’d been living before the accident. She could only hope that she’d be happy to go back, because if she was being honest with herself, she was feeling happy here. She felt enveloped by the warmth his family had shown her andthe immense kindness Kyle had showered on her. She didn’t know why, but she felt as if this wasn’t typical of her life “before,” and she wasn’t ready to leave the safe cocoon he’d provided for her and her daughter. Not yet at least. Especially since she had the increasing sense that whatever lay behind her was not as appealing as what stood before her now. She couldn’t put her finger on it exactly, but she had an overwhelming dread that there was something sinister in her past, something that had made her run. And run she had. Right into Kyle’s arms.

CHAPTER 11

As Kyle stepped onto the sidewalk, he watched the black sedan slowly pull away from the curb. The two uniformed officers, deep in conversation, had begun to walk back to their cruiser. He called out to them.

“Hey, guys. Hold on a minute.” He sprinted over to where they stood in the middle of the street. Once in front of them, he said, “I’m Detective Kyle Walsh. I called in the complaint.”

Kyle watched as the other men relaxed their posture when they realized they were talking to a fellow police officer. He continued, “Did you find out who those perps were?”

The red-headed man flipped through some pages on a small notepad he held in one hand. “Not sure if you can call them perps. It all seemed legit. They claimed to be waiting for a call from their boss. They said they pulled over just to take a break for a few minutes. It checked out, Detective. They had all the right paperwork; IDs were valid, and the car was legally registered to one of them.” He paused, then said, “I’m PO Tom Casey and my partner here is Brad Reilly,” he said by way of introduction. Casey outstretched his hand for Kyle to shake, which he did before doing the same with the other officer.

“I appreciate you both stopping by,” Kyle began. “When I didn’t recognize the car, I became concerned. This is a tight-knit neighborhood, we keep an eye out for one another’s property.” He didn’t want to tell these two anything else; he didn’t feel that they had a need to know about Mia and her predicament.

“Of course, Detective. Just doing our job. If there’s nothing else, we’ll be on our way,” Casey said.

“Sure,” Kyle said. “If I see that car again, I’ll be sure to call it in. Those men probably won’t be back. There are lots of other places for them to sit while on a break from work.”

“Absolutely, Detective. Have a good day.”

Both men tipped their hats in Kyle’s direction, and he watched them get back into their cruiser and drive off. He just stood still for a moment looking around his block. With that black sedan gone, nothing struck him as out of the ordinary. There were Halloween decorations on most of the houses; carved jack-o-lanterns sat on tidy porches and orange and black streamers adorned the lampposts along the quiet street. Autumn leaves were scattered across lawns, a carpet of gold, red, and bronze swirling with the gentle movement of the wind.

He hadn’t given a lot of thought to the approaching holiday, as it was always more of a nuisance than anything else, especially when he first walked a beat after graduating from the police academy. Kids out for some fun, others out for pranks or minor mischief. He could remember when he and his brothers would plan their candy-grabbing strategy to be sure to visit the houses that gave out full-sized chocolate bars and avoid the ones that handed out raisins in small red boxes, then once they were older, buying dozens of eggs to let loose on their unknowing victims. They found their fair-share of trouble in those days, egging houses and toilet papering trees, but they stuck together like glue. It was always “all for one and one for all.” Kyle consistently knew where to turn when he needed something. He knew justhow lucky he was that his family was always there for him, especially now. As if it wasn’t enough that he was on leave from work, he had Mia to deal with.

Mia.It must be terrifying to not know who you were and if you had a family out there somewhere looking high and low for you. Or worse, what if no one was looking for you at all.Or even more extreme, if the people who were looking for you drove an unmarked black sedan and seemed somewhat nefarious.Kyle shook his head. It was time to go back inside and try to figure out who the woman in his house was. For some reason, he felt like she was a ticking clock whose hands were approaching the midnight hour, the time when all hell was due to break loose.

Mia finished dryingthe last of the breakfast dishes when she heard Kyle’s key in the door. She quickly folded the towel and dropped it on the counter, then waited for him to come inside.

“Well?” she asked. “Did you find out what those creepy men were doing?”

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