Page 43 of Fatal Witness

Mae groaned.

“What’s wrong?” Dani asked.

She pressed her hand to her forehead. “My door was open—that’s why I called 911.”

She squeezed her grandmother’s hand. “You remembered.”

Mark leaned forward. “Did you see the person?”

“No.”

There was a light knock at the door. “Breakfast is here,” a nursing assistant called as she entered the room with a tray. “Would you like me to help you with this?”

“I’ll help,” Dani said.

Mark stood. “I’m going to touch base with Alex while you’re eating.”

“You just don’t want to hear me fuss about the food. And I don’t need any help. Probably can’t eat it anyway since I’m pretty sure it doesn’t have a smidgeon of salt on it.”

“Be good,” he cautioned as he left.

“I’m afraid you’re right about the salt,” Dani said, reading the sheet on the tray. “Says here salt-free.”

“Let’s see what it is.” Mae lifted the lid and made a face. “Powdered eggs and oatmeal. Ew.”

“The oatmeal might not be too bad with brown sugar.” She searched the condiments. “I’m afraid you’ll have to settle for white sugar, but they did put in a packet of seasoning blend that you can put on the eggs.”

Mae took a few bites of her food and laid her fork on the tray.

“You need to eat more than that if you want to get out of here.”

Reluctantly she picked up the fork again. “Maybe if you fill me in about your life, I can get some of this stuff down,” Mae said as Mark returned to the room.

Dani was quiet for a minute, collecting her thoughts.

“If you would rather, I can leave,” he said.

Dani wasn’t much for talking about herself, and it surprised her that she didn’t want him to leave. It also surprised her that she found him entirely too attractive. “You risked your life for me, so in a way you deserve to hear what I have to say.”

He pulled the only other chair in the room to the bed. “Yes, ma’am.” Then he turned to Dani. “Just pretend I’m not here. And I won’t listen, if you’d like.”

She chuckled. Sure, he was just trying to put her at ease, but it had worked. “I’d like that very much, but how do you propose to do that?”

“I can put my fingers in my ears...”

This time she laughed out loud, then she sobered. “It was my fault you got hurt last night, and it looks like you’ve been drawn into my problem, so you may as well listen.”

“Never take the blame for someone else’s evil intentions,” he said.

If he was trying to make her feel better, he’d succeeded. Dani took a deep breath. “First, let me say that I remember very little about my life here. It’s like there’s a curtain over my brain. Once in a while it will lift, and I get a fragment of a memory. Even then I’m not sure if it’s a true memory or something my mind wants to believe.” She glanced at her grandmother. “I’d hoped that when I saw you, the curtain would lift for good. I even thought that seeing your house would trigger memories, but so far it hasn’t happened. Maybe if I visited where I lived with my parents...”

Mae gripped her hand. Concern showed in her eyes. “It’s going to be all right.”

Mark leaned toward Dani. “Do you remember anything about the night your parents died?”

Dani shook her head. “Like I said, every once in a while, I’ll see a scene—not of that night, but something like the time myparents took me on a picnic. I have a memory of walking with them and my mother stopping to take photos.” She looked at Mae. “Did I make that up, or would she have done something like that?”

“Neva loved to take photos,” Mae said.

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