Page 130 of The House Beyond the Dunes

“A personality split,” I say. There have been occasions when I’ve lost time. “The doctor at the urgent care thought I had an issue with sleepwalking, so he prescribed pills to help me sleep. He blamed it on anxiety.”

He clears his throat. “You weren’t sleepwalking last summer.”

Last summer. I took off the week of the Fourth of July to work on my dissertation. I remember I accomplished precious little and slept most of the time. I chalked it up to burning the candle at both ends. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

He sips his coffee as if he needs something to do. “I’d read Stevie’s diary a dozen times but didn’t really believe her story, so I ran her car license plates. Your name popped. I wasn’t surprised she wasn’t using her real name, but I was irritated she left me with a diary full of what I thought was fiction. It wasn’t hard to gather facts on Lane McCord.Finally, I visited your coffee shop, and you didn’t even bat an eye when you looked at me. You were either one hell of an actress, or you really didn’t have a clue.”

“I don’t remember seeing you.”

“The shop was packed. You were moving at full steam. Reminded me of Stevie at Joey’s Bar.”

“Why didn’t you say something?”

He shakes his head. “What was I supposed to say? Tell you about Stevie? Us?”

“Maybe. I don’t know.” I shove fingers through my hair. “You know how crazy this sounds, right?” I meet his gaze, hoping he’ll start laughing and say this has been an elaborate hoax.

“Then I realized Iverson was sniffing around you.”

“You came back to the coffee shop again?”

“I hung around outside.”

“Why?”

He sighed. “Because I realized he knew exactly who you were. Stevie had been on his radar since that counseling session. He must have figured out you had a dual personality when he saw you in the Norfolk coffee shop.”

“I was pictured in an article in late November. He could have seen it.”

“How did you end up working in the shop near his office?”

“I transferred from the Virginia Beach store to the one located on Kyle’s office block. I kept telling myself the new location would be a nice change.”

“Maybe that was Stevie.”

I shake my head. This all sounds so far-fetched.

“At first, I thought Stevie was working an angle,” he says. “So, I returned to the coffee shop again. There were no traces of Stevie in you.”

“Did you know what Kyle was planning?”

“I knew he was at that shop a lot, but I didn’t realize he was taking you to the beach house until after you two left. I was almost at the beach house when I got the call you two had fallen. Like I said. The last few miles were hell until I saw you were alive.”

I stare into eyes so filled with worry and guilt. “I don’t remember you. I’m sorry.”

He clears his throat. “Don’t be.”

I swallow and fall back to all that I’ve read about personality splits. “A dual personality is created generally when the patient is under the age of five. It occurs after extreme trauma and is a survival tactic.”

“That’s what I’ve been able to piece together. I’ve done my share of reading on it in the last month.”

I glance at his hands, but don’t remember them on my body. “Why did you start sending me her journal after the fall?”

He sips his coffee as if he needs a moment. “I wanted you to remember. I figured this was going to be the last chance to find Nikki.”

Is he here for me or Stevie? Or is he here to determine if I had anything to do with Kyle’s death? “You’re a cop. How do I know this isn’t your way of figuring out if I killed Kyle?” I shake my head to release tension in my neck and shoulders. “The medical examiner ruled Kyle’s deathundetermined. Did you say something to him?”

“First, I’m not a cop anymore.”

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