Page 23 of Please Remember

"No, I'll get it," I say, quickly setting the items on the counter and moving towards the door.

Relax, Jax. It's not like the guy who did this will knock politely and ask to take her back as his hostage.

Opening the door, I hold back my annoyance at seeing Detective Parsons' face behind the storm door. My heart races, and I hide my shaking hand behind the open door. "Morning."

"Hi, Jax," Detective Shields says, and I glance down to see her hovering behind his large frame. "May we come in?"

"Of course," I say, moving to the side and letting them into the house.

Allie appears and instantly bristles. "Oh, hello."

"Hi, Allie," Detective Shields says. "How are you?"

"I'm doing okay. Still trying to adjust to everything, I suppose, but at least I know what the sun looks like now. That's a plus."

The female detective gives her a warm smile while Parsons just wears his neutral face. I can never tell if he's annoyed, angry, content, orhappy. He seems to possess only one facial expression. At least that I've seen.

"You aren't working?" Parsons asks me.

It's ten in the morning on a Monday. It's a logical question, but everything this man does puts me on the defensive. Probably because he peppered me with question after question about what I did to Allie for years.

"I'm taking time off to help Allie adjust to being back," I say. "I'll be returning to work next week."

"Helping her get reacclimated. That's a very nice thing to do," Shields says.

"We were hoping to take you with us for a bit, Allie," Parsons says.

"Where are we going?" she asks and glances down at her sleeping attire.

Shields smiles, and I can't help but notice how pretty the woman is with her dark hair pulled up in a bun on the top of her head, making her dark brown eyes stand out. She wears very little makeup, and she doesn't need to. She's a natural beauty.

"We want to drive around the other side of the woods to see if you can recognize where you were being held."

"No," I say. "Why would anyone want to go through that again?"

Allie looks at me and gives me a reassuring smile. "I can try. It was dark, and I only saw the back of the house. But if it helps catch whoever did this, it's worth it. I feel bad there's a cop outside all the time."

The friendlier detective gives her a sympathetic nod. "We understand what we're asking is a lot, but it's worth a shot to see if we can't find out where you were and trace it back to the owner. The person who likely did this. If we can find him, maybe we can end this nightmare for you both."

"Let me go and find something to wear," Allie says and walks into the bedroom.

I look at them with my jaw clenched. "I want to come with."

"No," Parsons says, the sunlight from the window reflecting on his bald head. "We need her to feel free to say whatever comes to her mind as she remembers running through those woods. Your presence will just complicate matters and cause unnecessary stress."

"You still think I had something to do with this, don't you?" I ask.

He says nothing, waiting to see my reaction. He thinks I’ll slip up and say something incriminating.

Shaking my head, I want to strangle him. "What will it take to clear my name? Huh? I called you as soon as she showed up here. I took her to the hospital. If I had anything to do with this, don't you think I'd have just taken her back without letting anyone else know? Oh, and how about everyone who was with me when she disappeared? That's not enough for you?"

"Jax—"

"Allie is my world; I would die for her. You wasted years focusing on me for no reason other than you had nothing better to do. Or you believed her mother who never got along with Allie in the first place. The fact she was locked up for over seven years can be attributed to your lack of actual investigating. You were so determined to pin it on me that you stopped looking anywhere else."

"Jax, I think it's obvious we're not concerned you're a threat to Allie. And for what it's worth, you're no longer a suspect. You're on a list, yes, but everyone is. We're going back through everything and looking at it with fresh eyes. We know you have an alibi, and you have witnesses to your whereabouts. Just give us some time to comb through it again."

I sigh and roll my eyes. "I don't like this."

---