More Than Memories (2 page)

His head shot up to stare at her. “When?”

“Two years ago.” After an unsure pause, she
explained. “A car accident, or maybe it was tampering, but the police never
decided.”

“How horrible.”

She shrugged, looking away. “I didn’t know them
that well. Just those two years.” What a lie. They were her world, the only
people she’d known. “I mean, I should have known them all my life.” Molly was
surprised to see her pain reflected in Trent’s eyes. Could he possibly
understand what she’d been through?

“Mol, I’m so sorry,” he whispered, and he meant it
– they both could tell that.
Oh no
. He really did know her. The trueness
of it hit her, taking her breath away. For some reason this hadn’t felt real to
her until this moment. Hot tears stung her eyes but she bit down on her lip to
stop them. Shocking her even more, Trent reached across the table and placed
his hand over hers, a warm and friendly gesture. This is what she’d come
looking for. She longed to walk around to his side of the table and lean into
his arms, almost as if by instinct. If only she could stop time with his hand
on hers...

“I can help,” he said.

“But I’m sure you have a life of your own to
live.” She suddenly felt like a lost puppy tagging along with the first
friendly stranger it found. While she wanted, and maybe needed his help, she
wasn’t sure if it was asking too much.

“I’m a cop, and I know a few good detectives. The
Anderson case is cold, but now you’re here to help solve it. Don’t you want to
know why you and your parents disappeared? I’ll help you.”

She almost laughed. “You can’t take time off to do
this, and it’s been two years since the accident.”

“I don’t care.” His determination wouldn’t sway.
“I’ll ask to use some of my vacation. I’ve got over a month accrued.”

“Don’t you ever take time off?”

“No, haven’t had a reason to. But now I want to
help a friend. Maybe you’ll remember your old life, but if you don’t, maybe we
can find out what really happened to your parents.”

She pulled in a long, deep breath. “Okay.”

Back in her room an hour later, Molly went in the
bathroom and stared at her reflection saying her name several times. “Molly
Avery Anderson.” She’d tried that many times without results, so this time she
added, “Trent Williams.”

This name sent her head and heart twirling.
Rethinking her day, she wondered if fate had sent her into that police station.
Of course, she had visited several other stations and towns before that one,
but it’d been a gut feeling that she’d find the help she needed there.

Turning, she walked from the bathroom and stood
looking around the hotel room. It was clean and impersonal, the way these rooms
usually are. She felt a connection between this room and her life—she didn’t
feel comfortable in either. However, it felt like a good place to sit and talk
to Trent simply because it wasn’t too personal.

Meeting Trent and hearing him say how she was
different made her look at herself anew. She’d taken on her mother’s style, she
supposed, since she didn’t remember dressing the way Trent described.

He knocked and her stomach tightened as she went
to the door and opened it. He seemed shy coming in, without the hat this time,
and his hands in his pockets. “I got the time off pretty easy.”

“Good. It’s really nice of you to help me out like
this.” She felt clumsy and sat down in a chair by the table, gesturing to the chair
across from her. He, too, looked uneasy.
She said
frankly,
“I want to know the facts about that day, when I disappeared.”

“Okay. On July 23, 2007 your house was found
empty. A neighbor went inside because the door was open. He could tell all of
you tore out of there in a hurry, leaving it a mess. Drawers were open, things
thrown around, clothes missing. He called 911, said he had a funny feeling
about it.”

When Trent paused, she asked, “No note? No call to
anyone?”

“No. Nothing. That’s why most people think you and
your parents decided to skip town for some reason, though we never found that
reason.”

“And that’s all there is to it still?” She
couldn’t believe that. She wanted answers.

“There were traces of blood on the floor.”

Blood?
Did she hear him correctly? “Whose?”

“We don’t know that either. Everyone in town was
tested for a DNA match.” He watched her closely to say, “I even got tested. We
couldn’t get a DNA match on anyone that knew you. It appears likely it was a
relative, though, because it was close, but not exact, to DNA taken from
samples in the house.”

“I’m completely puzzled. I have no idea what
happened.” If it didn’t match any of them, who could it be? She didn’t have any
relatives that ever visited her in California. Of course, there could have been
relatives before that.

“Unless the police missed someone in Ridge City,
which could happen, someone was there that other people didn’t know about,
someone from out of town.”

“Why did you say the police might have missed
someone in Ridge City?” she asked.

“It’s possible someone was there and lied about
it, but it’d have to be someone who usually wouldn’t visit you.”

“Oh.” She paused for a long minute. “I suddenly
don’t want everyone knowing I’m here, not right away. You’ve told me so much. I
don’t know what to think.”

Trent looked like he wanted to touch her, reach
out to her. He didn’t, of course. Maybe she was being silly.

“That’s fine,” he said. “Just in case someone is
looking for you, it might be a good idea. And maybe you’ll remember now that
you’re back in your hometown.”

“Hometown?”

He looked puzzled now. “Oh, I was going to ask you
about that. Mol, you lived your whole life here.”

Molly felt stunned and knew it showed. Why had her
parents told her they moved around often? She had to blink back sudden tears.

Looking up, Molly saw the concern on Trent’s face.
She couldn’t miss how rugged and handsome he was, or how he made emotions swirl
through her. She didn’t remember feeling attraction in the last four years. Her
neighbor in Redding sure felt it for her and wasn’t shy about it. She just didn’t
feel the same, and had tried to tell him she only wanted to be friends. She
needed friends.

“I searched all over for you.”

Why would you do that?
She didn’t respond,
and was glad she didn’t when he continued.

“We followed all kinds of empty leads.”

She realized he was speaking as a police officer.
All this time, she’d wondered why no one seemed to miss her.

“We got coverage in the news, sent your pictures
to police here and in Washington, California, and Idaho.”

The conversation lagged. She didn’t want him to
leave, though. “So who are you, Trent Williams?”

“Me?” Trent studied her like she was somehow the
answer to her own question. “I grew up here, too, on a farm a little ways out
of town with my one sibling, Alicia. I grew up wanting to be a cop, and now I
am. That’s about it.”

She didn’t believe that. “I’ve noticed a few
things about you.”

He gave her a small, slow smile. “So tell me.”

“The way you stand.” She pulled her body up
straight, demonstrating, and started laughing without any unease at teasing
him. It made him grin.

“It’s not about being cocky, you know. I know what
you’re thinking. But stand up and I’ll show you.”

She rose, arms folded across her chest because she
felt like she was under a microscope now that his attention was on her.

“See?”

“I don’t get it.”

He gave her a nudge and caught her by the arm
before she stumbled. He pointed down to her feet. “Put your feet out like
this.” He nudged her again. “It’s about safety. Now pretend you have a gun
under this arm and you don’t want me to get it.”

“Can I run?”

He didn’t smile or laugh, so she looked up at him,
wondering what he was thinking. She had to look away so his eyes wouldn’t
hypnotize her.

“Put this foot back. It’s your gun leg.” He tapped
her thigh. “Keep this side of your body turned away.”

“So if I ever carry a gun, I’ll know how to keep
it safe,” she said.

“Well, now you know why cops stand the way they
do.”

She liked that smile of his. It felt so nice to be
laughing and talking with someone like him. They sat again and he told her
about Mark Stone, his friend and fellow cop, who was a few years older than him
but single as well, so they hung out often and had things in common. He told
her, “We’re the only single guys on the force in this one horse town, so we
stick together.”

There was a hint of loneliness in his voice that
made her want to reach out to him. She didn’t feel so alone anymore with him
sitting by her. This time, it was her that reached for his hand. Their gazes
met and held until he cleared his throat.

“I came here meaning to tell you something
important.” His tone scared her, so she reminded herself she’d come to Ridge
City to discover who she was. “The department is reopening the case now that
you’re back. It’s strange anyway, but it’s even more complicated now that we
know your parents died. This could possibly be a double murder.”

The uneasiness she noticed when he had first
arrived returned, and she had to say, “I don’t know why we left.” She didn’t
add that it could be her fault. Or maybe she did something awful that forced
them to leave. She felt in her heart it couldn’t be true, but she didn’t
remember. One look at Trent’s eyes told her he didn’t know, either.

“We don’t know much at this point, but I’d like to
answer these questions for all of us.”

Did he trust her? And could she trust him? Her
words were about to gush out, when he said, “I’ll let you go to bed now, but
I’ll come back tomorrow.”

They rose in unison and slowly walked to the door.

“Goodnight, Molly, and welcome home.”

Molly couldn’t help the grin on her face as her
brown and tan horse trotted beside Thunder, Trent’s charcoal colored stallion.
They rode side by side at the edge of the pasture, next to the tree line. “I
know how to do this. I still can’t believe it!”

Trent had told her how
much they used to ride together and she’d been intrigued. The experience felt
new and yet familiar when she placed her foot and swung up on Galaxy like she’d
been riding for years.

She was too afraid to
venture away from her parent’s home in California, but riding through the
countryside took her mind off her problems and new worries
that coming
to Ridge City had brought. Sitting atop the horse, sh
e
felt free
and happy, and she wondered, even hoped, the feeling was a
memory of how she felt years ago when she rode.

“This sure beats yesterday,” she said with a
giggle and then realized her slip. “I mean, this is a lot more fun than
visiting the police station.”

She had been thinking about how nervous she was at
first. Now Trent wore casual clothes and they laughed with ease.

“Galaxy sure was happy to see you,” he said. “And
you hopped up there before I showed you how, so you must remember some things.”

He
had
noticed. Molly tingled with pride in
herself. It felt so good knowing she could do something. She smiled at him.
“Things like walking, riding a bike, and I guess riding a horse.”

While Trent smiled back, it wasn’t a sure smile as
he searched her face. He seemed to shake himself and look away. Maybe, when
she’d felt so comfortable about mounting the horse, he thought she remembered
everything. If only she could.

Molly looked down at Galax
y’s
shaking tan
mane as they rode. When she first saw the horses and how
majestic they looked dancing around each other, she knew she loved to ride.
Maybe she didn’t remember, but she felt it. The horse had whinnied and danced
when Tr
ent b
rought her from the pasture to see
Molly.

“Did I tell you that Alicia let you help name
him?”

“Really?” Molly loo
ked f
orward
to meeting his sister, sometime. That name still didn’t bring any emotion back
except anxiety about meeting someone who had known her so well.

She patted her horse and breathed in a deep breath
of moist forest smell. She wore blue jeans and a pink sweater, enjoying the
soft feel of it since warmer weather was on the way. Spring daffodils bloomed
beside their trail. The tr
ees were still
wet
from a recent rain, but everything was budding or starting to bloom. The sun
shone through
the leaves fo
r parts of the day,
and the wind wasn’t as cold as when she first arrived.

“Yesterday and today went by so fast,” Molly mused
out loud. “Everything went by so slow in California.”

“Life here did, too.” He didn’t look at her so she
couldn’t see the emotion in his eyes, but his soft tone sounded sad.

Trent n
odded to
their right and they turned the horses to follow the trail, winding uphill
through the pine and oak trees. He moved his horse ahead of hers on the path
lined with ferns. Water drops fell out of the tree branches, landing on them
and creating their own personal rain shower. Molly
giggled.

“It’s beautiful here,”
she told Trent, knowing she did
n’t need to. She could see how much he
loved the land and his horses.

“We spent half our childhoods out here in these
woods.”

“Was I a tomboy?”

“No, but you didn’t mind getting dirty.” He got a
gleam in his eyes, and she wanted to stare but needed to watch where she was
going. He said, “I feel a little selfish, keeping you all to myself. Other
people are going to be glad to see you. My sister Alicia has been waiting for
you as much as me.”