More Than Memories (15 page)

“Maybe there’s a good reason you didn’t.”

Maybe, but she needed to know that reason. Her
parents had kept the basement door locked and told her there were only old
tools and painting supplies below. Since she’d trusted them, she never thought
of snooping until after they were gone. She looked back down at the photo
album.

“We had Mrs. Moore that year.” She remembered her
teacher, the field trip. Excited, she kept turning the pages, but the rest
didn’t bring back any memories. “I don’t remember these. Isn’t that weird?”

“Well, now that you’ve found these, you can keep
going over them. I’m sure more and more will come back to you.” He spoke over
his shoulder now as he looked through other boxes and stacks.

“You’re right.” She decided things were moving
along better now, and she remembered her decision not to try too hard. “It’s
when I’m not trying to remember that something just clicks back on. I won’t
push so hard.” She picked up the albums to place them back in the box and saw a
paper lying in the bottom.

“Trent, come look at this.” She held it out.
“Cindy Talbert, and it has a number. Think this could be the Cindy Dean who
left the house to me?”

“Let’s call and ask.”

“Just like that? She could lie. Shouldn’t we check
into her or something?” Molly knew Mark would do research for Trent. She didn’t
want to mess this up - their first real lead.

“I can identify myself with the police department.
I think we should jump on it now.” As he spoke, Molly saw the large packet of
papers he held in his hand.

“What did you find?”

He motioned toward the step and she sat down and
took the stack.

“But where? You looked in the cabinet already?”

“No.” He sat down next to her. “That’s the weird
part, it was under the cabinet. I saw a corner sticking out.”

“Looks like legal papers.” She looked over the
first page and flipped through quickly, then returned to the front of the
divorce papers. “I don’t understand. I mean, this doesn’t make sense.”

“It might explain some of this.”

“This is about my mother. And a man I’ve never
heard about, that I know of. He must have been her first husband.” The
information sounded almost too strange to be true. “Mom married Dad when they
were both young, our age. Imagine how young she must have been when she married
this man.”

“Seventeen, I think it says.”

Molly shook her head. Her mom had so many layers
and secrets. She hurt again, missing her, and wishing she could get to know
her, not just the memory of Ellen.

Ellen’s ex-husband was named Kenneth Webb, a name
that meant nothing to Molly. Her parents hadn’t mentioned it, but she couldn’t
say if she knew about her mother’s previous marriage before she lost her
memory. She flipped through the settlement, knowing Trent’s trained eyes would
see more than hers, but she felt compelled to read it. From the corner of her
eye she saw Trent sitting, leaned back on the door frame. She felt he was
waiting for her to see something, whatever it was that caught his eye.

That’s when it clicked, hit her like a giant fist
to the chest. The dates. The papers were dated one year after her birth, unless
her parents had lied to her about her birth date.

Kenneth Webb wasn’t a stranger. He could be her
father. Tears in her eyes, she looked up to see Trent intently watching her,
ready to come to her side once he saw she would let him. Just before her tears
spilled onto her cheeks, he pulled her into his arms, stroking her hair.

“It doesn’t change things – about your parents,
your family, growing up. This man wasn’t a part of your life, Arnold was your
father.”

“You’re right, it’s just a lead,” she said the
word to convince herself. “Speaking of leads.”

She glanced at the paper in her hand with Cindy
Talbert’s number and suddenly started upstairs. Startled, Trent followed and
took the phone she handed him. She was covering, he knew. Pushing ahead so she
wouldn’t have to think about it right now.

Molly decided they were one step closer to the
truth. Two steps, really, because Kenneth Webb and Cindy Talbert were two
leads. She watched Trent call and introduce himself as Detective Trent Williams
from the Ridge City police department. “I’d like to talk to you about Arnold
and Ellen Anderson.” After a minute, Trent said, “I’m not investigating their
deaths. I’m helping their daughter, Molly.” Another minute later, after a
couple ‘yes,
ma’a
ms,’ Trent hung up.

“What happened?” Molly thought they had rushed things
and the women had hung up on him.

“She asked if we’re here, and wants to come talk
in person.”

“Now?”

“Yes, apparently she lives a few miles from here.”

Molly turned and went to the living room to sit
down. They still had the job in the basement, but what else could they find?

Someone knocked, they locked eyes, and Trent went
to the door. He welcomed Cindy inside while Molly stood back.

Cindy Talbert entered silently. She stood much
shorter than Molly, but the only thing Molly noticed was her dark hair that
looked just like mom’s. The older woman hesitated as well as she searched
Molly’s face. Cindy stared at her and Molly felt so close to knowing something.
Finally Cindy asked, “Molly, did your mom tell you about me?”

“No, not that I remember.”

“I think you’d remember. It seems like she’d
explain about me after you moved here. She told me a little about your memory
loss, but we still weren’t on the best of terms.”

“How did my parents know you?” Molly had so many
questions and didn’t know where to start.

“Ellen was my sister. I’m your aunt.”

Molly and Trent glanced at each other and back at
Cindy.

“I probably have a lot to tell you, but first, how
did you meet a detective from Ridge City?”

Molly gestured to the living room and asked if
Cindy would like anything to drink. She declined curtly.

When they sat, Molly retold how she went to Ridge
City looking for answers and discovered her life there, and that her parents
had hid so many things from her. Trent must have sensed that she needed his
support. He sat close and took her hand. Cindy listened intently, nodding here
and there during the story.

“Your turn,” Trent said. “Are you Cindy Talbert
and Cindy Dean?”

“I’m afraid so. Two different failed marriages.”
She didn’t explain further.

“Why did you help the Andersons?”

Cindy sighed, seeming to weigh her options. “I
feel I owe Molly the truth, but I don’t want to get into legal trouble for
helping my sister.”

“I introduced myself as a Detective to make sure
you’d talk to me, but I’m helping a friend, not trying to arrest anyone here.”
Trent said. “We just want to know what happened.”

Molly leaned forward, not wanting to push for
answers, but she knew this was her best lead. Slowly Cindy nodded and looked
out the window for a minute. They watched Cindy fall into the past. After a
long, thoughtful pause, she said, “Well, I’ll tell you everything I know and
we’ll see if it helps. It started with a man named Kenneth Webb.”

Molly glanced at Trent. “Is he my father? Birth
father, I mean.”

Surprised, Cindy said, “Yes, she told you?”

“No, we just found her divorce papers in the
basement.”

“Papers don’t tell the whole story,” Cindy said.
“Don’t be mad at her.”

“I don’t know what I should feel about all of
this, especially since I don’t know much of my life or why all this happened.”

Trent scooted closer to Molly, resting a hand on
her back, and told Cindy, “Start from the beginning. Did you know Molly?”

“No, I have to say I didn’t. Ellen and I had a
stupid fight during her first marriage. I didn’t want her to marry Ken, she
thought I was jealous. An age old story, I suppose. Well, there’s more.” She
stopped and fidgeted, clearly torn about sharing this part.

“It’s okay,” Molly tried. “It’s the past. I just
want to understand everything.”

“Fine, okay. They split up for a while, before
they got married mind you, and Ken and I got together, just for a few weeks. He
didn’t tell her until later on, during their marriage, and that caused even
more problems in a rocky relationship. Things really fell apart for them. And
of course she wouldn’t forgive me. Or trust me, so she didn’t want me around
her family at all. I knew from my parents that Ken got violent after that. He
didn’t think it was his fault, or anything he could control. He didn’t take his
medicine all the time.”

“Medicine? For what?”

“He got crazy ideas. That’s all I know. He was
normal when we dated, but I think he took his meds then. With Ellen, he wasn’t
doing so well. He’d accuse her of cheating on him, or turning him into the
government. All kinds of crazy things. Ellen became scared enough to leave him
while she was pregnant. She thought he might hurt the baby,
you.”

She wondered why her mother needed to hide all
those things. Was it out of shame?

“Then she met Arnold?” Trent asked.

“Yes. It was several years before we started
speaking again. She didn’t want to hear ‘I told you so,’ and I didn’t actually
want to say it. I just tried to help her, but it took time. We never did visit
each other, but we called. I would have come, but she didn’t want to remember the
past.” Cindy spoke with an apologetic expression, her eyes soft and almost
shiny. Yet Molly was thankful she told the story truthfully. Cindy added, “She
started fresh with Arnold and they didn’t want Molly knowing about Kenneth.”

“How did my family end up here, in your house?”
Molly asked. Cindy looked around
and half
smiled.

“I put it on the market, planning to sell it. Then
Ellen shows up one day. They took over the payments and stayed here. When they
died, I left it to you.”

“But what happened?” Molly pressed. “Why were we
here?”

“I don’t know. Ellen wouldn’t tell me. They didn’t
want anyone knowing they were here.”

“Cindy,” Trent tried to keep his tone friendly.
“Why didn’t you check into it? At least find out if anything weird happened in
Ridge City?”

Cindy rubbed the back of her neck. “I didn’t want
to know. I suspected they were hiding from Kenneth. Since it was a sore spot
between us, I didn’t push her to explain. She stressed she was keeping Molly
safe – that’s why I assumed it had to do with Kenneth. Didn’t it? Oh, you don’t
know, either.”

Molly shook her head, and Cindy said, “I guess I
wasn’t much help.”

“No,” Molly said, “You were. Now we have a good
lead to follow.” Her words brought on a long, awkward silence. How strange that
she had just learned about this Kenneth Webb and now it was possible that he
caused all or part of this.

Molly thought Cindy was about to rise and leave,
but instead she said to both Molly and Trent, “Do you think he killed them?”

How horrible. Molly didn’t want to answer. Cindy’s
question voiced their thoughts and that answered it,
along with their silence.

“Molly, I regret not being a part of your
childhood. When Ellen and I were girls, we talked about growing up and living
next door to each other, raising our families together.” Emotion crinkled
Cindy’s face, her first real emotional response since walking through the front
door. “I’ve been divorced three times, Ellen’s dead. I’m glad you’re looking
for the truth, and I hope you find it. Just remember the important things in
life.” Her eyes went toward Trent, and her plea touched both Trent and Molly,
so much they couldn’t speak. They walked her to the door, where Cindy turned
and grabbed Molly in a hug. “I’ll let you decide if you want to call me or not.
You have my number now. I’d like to hear about your life, and how this turns
out.”

Molly nodded, unable to speak. “I’ll call you, I
will.”

Trent shut the door after Cindy and pulled Molly
into his arms, surrounding her, holding her tight and caressing her back. She tried
to speak but only gasped before she started crying.

“I know, I know.” His hoarse whisper revealed his
emotion, his own state of near tears. “I know what’s most important to me, and
I’m never letting go again. I never want to let you out of my sight.”

She grabbed fistfuls of his shirt, trying to hang
onto him even tighter. She didn’t remember this kind of fear. Molly knew what
waking up alone felt like, without any recollection of who or where she was.
She spent two years getting to know her parents, trying to remember them, but
she never thought she’d lose them, until she did. So now she felt consumed by
the knowledge that somehow she might lose Trent.

How much grief can one person endure? And why did
she get so much of it?

Trent kissed her hair, her forehead, and his lips
found her mouth. Knowing him like this felt so natural, she stopped caring if
she remembered the things before. She wanted him with her, and she had him, and
at that moment, that’s all she cared about.

He kissed her dizzy and it took concentration to
realize they were standing in front of the door. She tried to wave towards the
stairs but only succeeded in rocking that direction. “Upstairs,” she whispered.

Trent paused to look at her with swirling brown
eyes, trying to see through his glazed look.

“I don’t like standing right here.”

A smile started on one side of his mouth. He
kissed her between steps until they reached the bottom of the stairs. She
grabbed his hands, walking backwards, pulling him. They made it to the top,
then embraced, holding each other so tight they could both feel the other’s
body heat through their clothing.

Four years of loneliness crashed through her and
any thought processes ended right there. She heard him say her name between
kisses, but she didn’t stop to listen. He grabbed her face with both hands and
stared at her with wide eyes. She stared at his swollen lips instead of looking
him in the eye.