The Memory of All That (18 page)

Chapter 36

They spent the morning on the dock observing the wildlife. After the deer family melded back into the forest, Marnie spotted a mother duck with a string of ducklings trailing behind her. They popped in and out among the reeds some distance down the shore. The binoculars made them seem as if they were within arm’s reach.

“Is there a daddy duck?” Jonathan wanted to know.

“Yes,” David answered. “There’s a daddy duck somewhere. He’s just not with them right now.”

“Maybe he had to go to work,” Jonathan surmised.

“Maybe.”

In a clearing not far away, a rabbit appeared to be eating the new shoots of grass that were thriving because of the spring weather. Occasionally, it would sit up and look around, nose twitching, alert for any danger that might be coming its way.

Finally, Jonathan became bored with the surroundings.

“Can we go skip rocks?”

David and Jonathan skipped rocks across the water, David’s skipping two or three times, Jonathan’s sinking immediately. Marnie stayed on the dock, occasionally lifting the binoculars to observe what might be foraging for food on the bank across the way.

“We’re hungry,” David called. “We men are ready for lunch.”

“Yeah, we men are ready for lunch,” came his little echo.

After a break for sandwiches, Marnie asked Jonathan what he wanted to do next.

“I want to play in the dirt!”

His answer surprised her, but after she thought about it, she realized he had no chance to do what most boys his age did—to play outside in the dirt, to dig and not worry about what an adult was going to say. The women in his life before now—Ruth and Mrs. Tucker—weren’t likely to let him do that, and Marnie herself hadn’t been a part of his activities.

David pulled two rocking chairs from the living room onto the front porch, and Jonathan settled himself in the yard directly in front of them. He used twigs and rocks to build streets for his toy cars, arranging them over and over.

“He did this last fall when I brought him up here,” David said.

“Did I come?”

“No. You said you had enough of the place the one time you had been here.”

Marnie sighed and leaned her head back against the chair.

“When I saw the rug with the city streets on it you bought him, I thought he must have told you about playing this way in the dirt. It’s sort of a fancy and cleaner way of playing the same thing.”

“If he did, I don’t remember it. I just picked out something I thought he’d like.”

“And he does. I feel guilty for not noticing he didn’t have many toys appropriate for his age. On the weekends we usually go play somewhere, but I hadn’t thought to shop for him.”

They sat silently, rocking in their chairs, while they watched Jonathan. Finally, David spoke. “I wish the sun would hurry and go down.”

She looked at him curiously. “Why?”

“So it would be time to go to bed.”

Marnie was sure she blushed at the statement, but she felt the same way.

They could hear the sound of an approaching vehicle in the distance. “Jonathan, someone’s coming. Come up here on the porch.”

Jonathan snatched up a couple of cars and mounted the steps.

When a green pickup truck rounded the last turn, David said, “That’s Chad Everett. I wonder what’s up.”

The older man parked beside David’s SUV, got out, and approached the cabin.

“You folks look like you’re enjoying the day,” he said as he walked toward them.

“We are that,” David replied. “What brings you out here?”

“You have a phone call. Your mother called and asked me to have you call home. She said it ‘might be important’ but wasn’t an emergency. That’s what she said, ‘might be important.’”

“Thanks for driving out here to tell me, Chad. I’ll be to the store shortly to call her.”

They watched Chad get in his truck, circle the area, and leave.

“Do you want to come with me or stay here?” he asked Marnie.

“Let’s go, too,” Jonathan begged. “Please?”

“Do you want us to stay here?” she asked.

“No. It’s fine to go with me. Jonathan,” he said, turning to his dust-covered son, “brush as much of that dust off as possible and then go in and wash up.”

“I’d better go and use a washcloth on him,” Marnie said.

When they were in the vehicle headed toward the country store, Marnie said, “I wonder what might be important but isn’t an emergency?”

“I’m hoping it has something to do with finding Ray,” David said tersely.

“Can you use your cell phone when we get to the store?”

“Not likely. Even when I can get through from there, I usually end up with a dropped call. I’ll use the Everett’s phone.”

When they arrived at the store, Dina said, “David, you go on back in the office and use the phone there. It’ll give you some privacy.”

“Jonathan and I will get a couple of sodas and sit out front to wait for you,” Marnie told him.

They went to the cooler where Jonathan picked out an orange drink.

“That looks good, Jonathan. I think I’ll get one, too.”

She went to the counter to pay, and Dina, a little friendlier than she had been earlier commented, “You’re lucky to get a seat on the bench today. Usually old Mr. Gretchem and his buddy Silas Moore sit out there and watch the cars go by, but Silas went to Boulder to visit his daughter and Mr. Gretchem’s arthritis is acting up, so he stayed home.”

Marnie and Jonathan were sitting on the long wooden bench, drinking their orange sodas and watching the cars go by, when David returned. He sat down beside Marnie, sighed, and looked off into the distance.

“So what is it? Did someone find Ray?”

“No. It didn’t have anything to do with Ray,” he answered.

He turned toward her with a serious look on his face. “Marnie, I know you can’t remember anything, but there are some coincidences happening, some things leading us toward Phoenix.”

“Like me recognizing the Suns on TV?”

“Yes, like that. My mother said there was a phone call this morning from a detective with the Phoenix Police Department. He wouldn’t tell her what was going on, but she assumed it might have something to do with Ray, so she called me. The detective wanted to talk to you, not me, and left a number for you to call.

“At this point in the story, I still assumed it had something to do with Ray. Maybe he was in jail there or something.”

“Should I call and find out?”

“I took it upon myself to call for you. I explained to the detective that you are my wife and have been ill and suffering from amnesia. I told him you really couldn’t remember much of your past, only a few odd moments that didn’t amount to much.”

“So, did he tell you what’s going on?”

“Yes, yes he did. It seems as if a woman in Phoenix has disappeared. Her name is Martha Kelley. Her landlady reported her missing. She’s been gone for weeks, but the landlady thought she was traveling for her job. When she found out the woman wasn’t working, she called the police and reported her missing. The police went through the apartment and found a slip of paper with your name and cell phone number on it. When they couldn’t get anywhere with the cell number, they traced it. The cell phone company gave them your contact information. They want to know what you know about it.”

“My goodness,” Marnie breathed. “Somebody in Phoenix was calling me? I wonder what for.”

“The only thing that comes to mind is maybe Ray dumped you and took off with someone else and that woman was calling you for some reason.”

“If only I could remember,” Marnie said, needlessly. “But her name, it sounds familiar, like I ought to know her.”

“There’s only one thing we can do,” David said. “We’re going to Phoenix. I told the detective we’d be there tomorrow.”

Chapter 37

“Detective Mendez? I’m David Barrett. My wife and I flew into Phoenix last night and checked into a hotel. I decided I want to find out more about the missing woman . . . Martha Kelley.”

Marnie paced the floor as she listened to David’s conversation with the police detective he had spoken with the day before. She had been on edge ever since they landed the night before. After speaking to the detective in charge of the investigation, they had rushed back to the cabin, packed, and drove back home. When they reached an area where there was clear cell phone reception, David called his secretary and had her make reservations on an evening flight to Phoenix and book a hotel room.

Marnie was fine until they landed, when it seemed as if a buzzing started in her brain and wouldn’t stop. Scents and sounds threatened to overwhelm her as she tried to take in everything around her. When they deplaned and reached the concourse, she turned to the left without thinking, and David grabbed her by the arm.

“Let me see which way we go to get out of here,” he said, glancing at the signs.

“It’s this way,” she answered confidently.

“You’re sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure.”

“Then you must have flow here before,” he replied.

“I guess I must have. I think I know my way around here,” she said, standing there in the flow of people headed this way or that, “and this is the way to go to get out.”

Sky Harbor Airport felt like home to her, like she had been there many times. That’s when the energy started buzzing through her, like she had a jillion things to do and keep track of, except she couldn’t think of a single one of them now. It made her nervous, and she wondered if her memories were going to come bursting back with no warning. She held on to David’s arm as they made their way to the rental car booths.

Later that night, as they were falling asleep, Marnie told David about the feelings she had been having. “Do you suppose I flew into Phoenix with Ray and that’s why the airport seemed familiar?”

“I know Ray flew out in his small plane, but he could have flown it to any major city, then you two could have taken a commercial flight to Phoenix. That would have been a good way to throw us off the trail. Ray’s plane hasn’t been located anywhere, so I’d say it’s a distinct possibility you did just that.”

Marnie was replaying the scene at the airport in her head as she listened to David. She hoped if she went over it enough times something would click and she’d remember any other time she had gotten off a plane there.

“Yesterday when we talked, I told you I’d get back to you. Let me tell you why I’m so interested, Detective Mendez. An employee of mine, Ray Boling, stole something from my company—company secrets, you might say—and disappeared. There have been signs he might be trying to sell those secrets to a firm here in Phoenix. I’d like to find out if this Martha Kelley is involved some way. Maybe she is with him . . . I don’t know. It’s important that I find Ray Boling and get my property back before he sells it to one of my competitors.” He paused as he listened to the man on the other end of the connection.

“I’m afraid I can’t tell you that. It’s top secret . . . involved with the government.”

As she listened to the conversation, Marnie watched the city out the window and tried to put together the jigsaw of clues and make sense of what was happening.

“Maybe this Ms. Kelley was a go-between for Boling and a buyer. That’s what I want to find out.” David’s voice was growing impatient. “Uh-huh. Yes.” He listened for a minute without speaking. “You say there
were
signs of a struggle? Uh-huh.”

Marnie’s anxiety increased when she heard violence was involved, and she began pacing as she trembled with apprehension.

“No, I have no idea why Ms. Kelley would be calling my wife. Neither she nor I know Ms. Kelley. The name doesn’t ring a bell. Would it be possible for my wife and me to see the place where you found the paper with her name and phone number on it? Perhaps there is something else there I might recognize as having significance to the matter. Yes . . . yes, I have a pad and pen . . . go ahead.” David scribbled an address.

“I’ve got it. I’d like to meet with this landlady. I have a picture of Boling, and I’d like to see if she recognizes him . . . if she’s seen him with Ms. Kelley.”

When David got off the phone, he turned to Marnie. “Come sit down, and I’ll tell you what I found out.”

She was shaking so hard when she sat down across the small table from him that he moved his chair closer to her and grasped her hands in his.

“Shh. It’s going to be OK.” He tried to soothe her, but it did no good. “Why are you so upset? Are things coming back to you?”

“Maybe. There’s something . . . I don’t know what. Oh, David, I’m so frightened!”

“What of?”

“That’s just it, I don’t know,” she squeezed his hands and held tight. “David, you told the detective you have a picture of Ray Boling. I don’t remember his name, but maybe seeing his picture would bring something back to me.”

David reached into the open briefcase sitting on the table and drew out an employment form with a picture of a square-jawed, sandy-haired man, in his late thirties, and placed it in front of Marnie.

She immediately cried out and shrank back against the chair.

“You recognize him?” David said, excitedly. “I don’t know why I didn’t show you a picture before. That’s what you needed to start your memory working again!”

“David, he’s evil! I don’t remember anything except I’m so scared of him. He made me . . . he made me . . .”

“What? What did he make you do?”

“I don’t remember, David,” she held her hands up to her spinning head. “I still don’t remember! I just know he wanted me to do something, and I was frightened and didn’t want to do it.”

“Calm down, sweetheart. Calm down. It’s coming back to you,” he said in a composed voice. “Don’t be upset. It’s all working out now. It’ll be OK.”

“But, David, you said there were signs of a struggle, and now she’s missing. What if . . . what if Ray . . . killed her? What if I’m involved in a murder? What if that’s the trauma that made me lose my memory?”