“Nothing like that.” She traced a finger along her jawline as if drawing her face. “Just feelings, images, flashes of memory. Jennifer said that’s completely normal and that it’s a good sign I’ll recover everything, eventually.”
“Nothing about the car crash or the two men?” His staccato pulse returned to normal. She could handle witnessing a murder, and the fact that it shocked her was a good sign that she wasn’t accustomed to the violence.
“We didn’t go there. Jennifer wanted to lead me back to the events before the crash.” Still watching her face in the mirror, she said, “Do you think that’s why those two men were after me? Because I witnessed a murder?”
“Could be, or...” He pressed his lips together and shifted into Drive.
She jerked away from studying her reflection. “What?”
“We really don’t know, do we? It’s all guessing at this point. Let’s wait for Jennifer.” He pulled forward out of the parking space a little too fast and a car honked at him.
“You can’t do that, Rob. I want all ideas on the table. Jennifer doesn’t want me to wait for her. She wants me to dig whenever I can.” She ran both of her hands across her face. “I’m okay. The whole hypnosis experience was strange. It rattled me, especially when I remembered that dead body on the lawn. But I’m okay.”
“I’m just wondering what you were doing there with a murder victim. Were you also an intended victim? Did the killer hope to get both of you, and you escaped?” He held his breath. If she broke down, he’d have to pull over. If she returned to her semicatatonic state, he’d have to pull over. Hell, he shouldn’t even be driving.
She grabbed her water bottle and shook what had to be lukewarm liquid inside. Then she screwed off the lid and took a sip. “Maybe.”
His gaze slid from the road to her profile, which didn’t look ready to crumble at all. “You keep talking about this lawn. Where was the man’s body?”
She rubbed her bare arms. “It was on some beautiful, beachside estate—one of those lawns that runs down to the cliffs that drop off to the ocean.”
“Yours?” Uneasiness stirred his belly again. Didn’t much sound like the home of an artist.
“I hope not.” She slammed the bottle back into the cup holder. “I don’t know where it was or who owned it, but that place was pure evil. I felt that as if I were standing on the cliff’s edge instead of sitting on a chair inside a therapist’s office in Tucson.”
“I wish this hadn’t all taken place south of the border. It would be a lot easier to track Libby James if she lived in the US. There’s only so much I can do to research you if you don’t have many records here.”
She clapped her hands together and rested her chin on the steeple of her fingers. “But I am Libby James. I’m sure of that now, and that feels good. Thank you.”
“Me?” He drove a thumb into his chest. “You were more convinced of that than I was. It’s a good thing you got that tattoo. That’s what led us to Libby. We would’ve been lost without Rosalinda.”
She closed her eyes and slumped in her seat. “I feel much better now. I really do. I have a name, a place and a reason why I was on the run.”
“Maybe it’s time to turn this over to the authorities.”
“I don’t have much to give them, Rob, and there are those drugs at the accident scene.” She clasped her hands between her knees. “I don’t want anyone else providing the narrative of my life before I have a chance to remember it.”
With what she could give them now, the cops most likely wouldn’t believe she had anything to do with the drugs in her car. He clenched his teeth. Yeah, they might. When he questioned a suspect, he came in with a healthy dose of skepticism, and Libby’s story sounded outlandish on the surface.
He didn’t know what had happened to that skepticism when he first came across Libby. Maybe it was the fear in her eyes. The story of abuse. Maybe it was the knife she was wielding.
She poked him in the ribs. “Why are you grinning? Are you thinking about my explanation to the cops about what happened?”
“Sort of.”
“I hope you agree it’s too early.”
“I’m not going to force you to do anything you’re not ready to do...except eat dinner.” He patted his stomach. “I’m starving, but I can wait until we reach Paradiso.”
“Maybe by then I’ll have an appetite. Seeing that dead man—” she hunched her shoulders and a tremor shook her frame “—was almost like seeing him in person. In fact, it was all so real.”
He stroked her arm with one knuckle. “I’m glad Jennifer helped you. Maybe that session unlocked the door, and the memories will keep flowing.”
“I hope so.” Closing her eyes, she scrunched down in the seat and leaned her head against the window.
Maybe she was trying to access more memories or maybe she was just sleeping. Either way, he left her alone for the rest of the drive back to Paradiso.
She didn’t stir until he signaled to take the exit into town. She dragged her hand across her mouth and blinked. “Are we back yet?”
“Pretty much. Do you want to stop off and change?”
She yawned. “Are you still starving?”
“Ravenous.” His eyes flicked over her body as she uncurled and stretched out.
“Then let’s eat.” She rubbed her chin. “Any drool?”
Just his own.
“No drool. You look refreshed.” He reached over and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Do you feel better about what you learned under hypnosis?”
“Anything, especially something that doesn’t point to my involvement in the drug trade, is going to make me feel better at this point.” She powered
