Pinch Me

Chapter Twelve

“This might sting a little,” the PA warned as he carefully snipped at the stitches on her forehead Monday morning.

Laura winced, but kept her eyes closed, her hand clamped around Rob’s. She was definitely going home today. Due to the size of the gash in her forehead and the urgency of her condition upon arrival, the doctors in the ER who treated her had used stitches that wouldn’t dissolve.

The plastic surgeon’s PA studied the result. “I think you’ll have minimal scarring,” he said. “But you need to follow the care instructions. You can call our office to schedule a follow-up appointment for us to evaluate it and go over your options.”

She blinked her eyes to clear them after they’d watered in pain. “Thanks.”

Rob took the sheet and glanced through it. “We’ll follow it to the letter.”

She squeezed his hand again. The comforting, protective way he’d said it only reinforced her trust in him.

He’d already packed everything, including the dozens of cards and the flower arrangements and stuffed animals, and loaded everything into his car. He’d also got the prescriptions for anti-anxiety meds and painkillers filled. All they were waiting for was the final paperwork releasing her. Even the deputy had been sent home.

“Det. Thomas will meet us at your condo,” Rob told her once they were alone again. “He wants to be there when you get home in case any memories are triggered.”

She nodded, nervous. As anxious as she felt to get home, she wasn’t oblivious to the problems that presented. Her first firearm lesson was already scheduled for Wednesday. Sully would drive down and pick her up from the shop late that morning. Rob, unfortunately, had to work, but had assured her that Steve had met him before, and that Bill would go, too.

Left unspoken, she knew Rob meant Steve wouldn’t let her go off with someone if he wasn’t sure of their identity.

Despite her nerves, and, admittedly, her fear, she couldn’t help but be fascinated by the landscape as Rob drove her home to Englewood. Rob had taken charge of gathering all the release information for her. She was too overwhelmed and exhausted to process any of it.

It was a relief to have him there taking care of her, and she wasn’t afraid to admit it.

Their little community was located on the Gulf of Mexico, straddling the thin strip of land between the northern end of Charlotte Harbor and the Sarasota County line.

“It’s beautiful,” she said as they crossed the bridge at El Jobean. When she looked past him, she could see south to the harbor.

“You love it here. You grew up here.”

“Where did you grow up?” In retrospect she felt bad that they hadn’t talked more about Rob’s family and history.

She didn’t miss his pained expression, but his voice hid it well. “Phoenix.”

“Your family’s there?”

“Yeah.”

He didn’t elaborate. “How long have you lived here?”

“I’ve been in Florida since I started college at eighteen. I went to USF up in Tampa. I moved here after graduation and getting a job with the county fire department. I’ve been here ever since. About eleven years.”

“Have I met your family?”

His fingers tightened around the steering wheel. “No.”

After a couple of minutes, she had to ask. “What happened with them?”

“My father is a big-shot attorney. My two older brothers didn’t bother thinking for themselves and went to work for him. I didn’t want to be a lawyer. They basically disowned me.”

“That’s horrible.”

“Yeah.” He took a deep breath and let it out before glancing over at her. “Your parents sort of adopted me when we started going out.”

“Did we invite them to the wedding? Your family, I mean.”

He let out an amused snort. “We were still debating it. You were of the opinion we should at least send an invitation. If nothing else, to let my brothers know about it in case they wanted to come. But neither of us held high hopes for my parents coming.”

“And your opinion?”

“I could care less if they know or not. I think it burns my dad’s bacon that I managed to put together a great life for myself without becoming a lawyer.”

“Are you happy being a paramedic?”

They slowed to a stop for a red light. He looked at her and nodded. “Yeah. It’s not the most pleasant job in the world at times, but I help people. I make a difference. Sometimes I save lives. The one life I save makes up for all the times I get puked or peed or shit on by a drunk.” He smiled. “And if I hadn’t stuck to my guns, I never would have met you. And I wouldn’t give you up for anything.”

Det. Thomas was parked in front of her condo when they arrived. He stepped out of his car when Rob parked next to him.

Laura studied the complex from behind the safety of the windshield while Rob walked around and opened the door for her.

Nothing. It felt familiar, but beyond that, no memories.

Thomas walked over. “How are you feeling?”

She slowly nodded, her eyes on the building. “I’m okay.”

The men stood there until she realized they were waiting on her to get out. She unfastened her seatbelt and slowly turned, both men reaching out to help her from the SUV.

Rob kept a steadying, comforting grip on her arm. “If it’s too upsetting, you tell me immediately, okay?”

She nodded but didn’t reply.

He led her toward the door, the unit in the middle of two others. After Rob handed the key to Thomas to unlock the door, she closed her eyes as the detective let the door swing open.

“Are you okay, honey?” Rob asked.

Laura nodded again before opening her eyes. In front of her lay the spot where she almost died.

Thomas walked in first and turned on the lights in the living room as well as opened the blinds. She hesitated at the door and steadied herself on the doorjamb. Then, after taking a deep breath, she carefully stepped through.

Bright sunlight filled the room while Laura stood in the front hall and looked around as if in a stranger’s house.

Then again, I am a stranger.

But she recognized it. It was the living room she saw in her dream the night before.

Pictures lined the entry wall. Going from one to another, Laura touched each one in turn, whispering names to herself she’d learned while in the hospital. There was a picture of her and Bill standing in front of his airplane.

“That was taken when you flew out to visit him shortly after your parents’ funeral,” Rod softly explained.

It was obvious they were siblings, almost twins in appearance. He was two years older than her. According to Carol, they grew up with almost no sibling rivalry. She paused in front of it for a moment and caressed the outline of the plane.

Rob gently touched her arm. “Shayla went to the store for you and stocked your fridge. She got you everything we could think of that you like.”

“Thanks.” Laura focused on the rest of the living room. She let out a little laugh. “Laura. Loren. Leah.” She turned to him. “How do you all keep us straight?”

He smiled. “We manage.”

Her decorating taste ran to tropical pastels, corals and mints and light yellows. Her couch was upholstered in these colors, and the end and coffee tables were white with flecks of color.

“Everyone came over yesterday,” Rob said. “They cleaned it up. They reframed a couple of the pictures that fell and broke. And…” She turned to him as his voice choked. “They got the blood cleaned up,” he softly said.

She returned her focus to the pictures for a moment, trying to absorb everything. No hard and fast memories returned, but more static swirled around the abyss, as if pieces wanted to lock themselves into place and just couldn’t quite fit.

After a few minutes she took a deep breath and turned to Thomas. “Please tell me what happened.”

The men exchanged an uneasy glance before the detective spoke up. “We think you either knew, or recognized, or didn’t feel threatened by the guy, at first. It looks like you opened your door for him.

“Your next-door neighbor said he heard yelling before he heard screaming. It looks like once the guy went after you, you fought back tooth and nail. We think maybe he hit you from behind and stunned you, but you had a lot of defensive injuries and fought back.”

He pointed to her hands. “You peeled some of your nails down to the quick. That’s why we think he ended up trying to strangle you first instead of raping you. You got in a few licks of you own. He probably wasn’t expecting you to fight like that.”

She looked at her hands, examining them while he continued talking. “We were able to get scrapings from under some of your nails for DNA evidence. Your neighbor heard the fight and came over, found the door unlocked, and rushed in. It surprised the attacker and he took off out the back door.”

He pointed down the hallway. “We think since he knew you had a back door, he probably scoped out the place beforehand.”

“Why would he attack me if I have neighbors?”

“He might have thought all your neighbors were either gone or wouldn’t hear anything. The neighbor on the other side is a snowbird. They’re not here. And Tom Edwards and his wife were gone for two weeks and returned that Friday morning.”

She stared at her hands, the implication slamming into her. “I would have died,” she whispered. “I would have died if they hadn’t come home.”

Rob protectively draped an arm around her shoulders. “Laura—”

“No, it’s okay.” She stared up at him. “I need to hear all of this. It happened. Not hearing it won’t help me.” She returned her focus to Thomas. “You think he came around before he attacked me. He thought I’d be alone.”

Thomas nodded. “Likely. According to Rob, neither of you noticed any suspicious activity. If the guy knows where your shop is, he might have followed you home, watched for a day or two for patterns, and then struck when he thought you were alone.”

“Wouldn’t he see their car was back?” she asked.

“They said they took an airport limo home.”

“Oh.” She had a thought. “Is my car out there?”

“Yes, it’s the Toyota,” Rob said. “The truck. On the other side of where I parked.”

She disengaged from his arm, went to the door, and opened it. There, next to Rob’s Explorer, sat a silver Toyota Tundra with a double cab and a matching topper on back.

“That’s mine?”

“Yeah.”

She felt no recognition.

Disappointed, she closed the door and turned to them. “I don’t remember anything.”

Rob struggled to keep his own emotions in check as he watched Laura walk over to her bookcase and study the contents. They were filled, floor to ceiling, with DVDs, CDs, and books. “You’ve got several boxes of books in storage that you didn’t have room for.”

When her parents had died in a car wreck a little over a year earlier, Rob had suggested she move in with him. She’d politely refused, not because she didn’t want to, but because she said she was afraid of making the decision out of grief.

She was always strong and independent, two of the many things he loved about her. There was never any ego involved in their relationship. They were as comfortable together as they were secure apart.

She trailed her fingers over some of the spines. “I like a lot of different authors, huh?”

“That’s an understatement.” Her taste in books was as eclectic as her taste in music. She loved everything from Stephen King to Charles Dickens, and from Mozart to Meat Loaf. Her movies ranged from Dirty Dancing to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Alien.

She was, before, unpredictable and indescribably unique. Willing to try almost anything once, both in their vanilla and kinky lives.

She stopped in front of a picture of the two of them with Doogie. “You said he’s okay?”

“I decided to leave Doogie at my place. He’s still a puppy, but he’s a moose. I was afraid he might hurt you and didn’t want to distract you right now.”

“He’s definitely a moose,” Thomas said. “I’ve met him.”

She stared at the picture. “In case it distracted me from maybe remembering something about the attack.” She glanced at him.

He nodded.

Doogie was definitely a momma’s boy and missed her terribly. Any time Rob mentioned her name, Doogie’s ears perked up and he would run to the door, looking for his mom.

After a couple of minutes, Laura sat on the sofa and looked around. She sat like that for a while before speaking. “I can’t remember any of it. Only what I already told you.”

“That’s okay,” Thomas assured her. “If it comes back, it comes back.”

“But you need me to testify.”

“Believe me, we’ve got enough physical evidence, we can make a DNA conviction stick with no problem.”

“If you find him.”

“We will find him. There has to be someone out there who knows who he is. You put up a hard fight. He took a hurtin’.”

“I didn’t fight hard enough, apparently.”

Rob walked over and knelt in front of her, taking her hands in his. “You are not to blame here. I want you to stop thinking like that.”

“But I let the guy in, didn’t I?”

“Laura,” Thomas said, stepping closer, “we don’t know who he is. He might have been someone you know. He might have worn a disguise, like a pizza man. It doesn’t matter why you opened the door because he was here on a mission.”

She took a deep, shuddering breath and let Rob help her to her feet. “Can you show me the rest of the place?” she asked.

It broke his heart how she sounded. Tentative, afraid. Weary.

Defeated.

“Yeah, sweetie.”

It took her half an hour to make her way through the entire three-bedroom condo. One bedroom was her office.

He watched as she suppressed a shiver as she looked at the desk, and computer.

“Something?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I saw this in a dream.”

There was a third room, a spare bedroom where her brother or other friends or relatives stayed when visiting. Her bedroom had a master bath, and she spent several minutes in there going over the items on the counter and in the medicine cabinet.

Before, she was a fairly plain dresser. Jeans, T-shirt or blouse, slacks, shorts. She wanted fast and functional, something she could wear around the shop. But she loved bright, wild nail polish.

Rob watched as she examined the various bottles with names like Smokestack, Passion Flame, and Indigo Dreaming.

“You said it was like having tattoos you could take off when you got bored with them,” he offered when she didn’t speak after several minutes.

She looked shocked. “I have tattoos?”

Rob laughed. “No, hon, you don’t,” he assured her.

The nurses had removed her nail polish while she was in the coma, after her nails had been scraped for DNA evidence. When Laura rubbed at her fingers, Rob noticed she had switched her engagement ring to her right hand.

Thomas caught his eye and slowly shook his head at Rob, his message clear. Don’t say anything.

Rob took some comfort that Laura was still wearing it.

Thomas stepped out to give them a few moments alone. Laura looked at the other items—men’s deodorant, shaving cream, an electric shaver, another toothbrush. Then she looked at Rob.

“I stay here a lot,” he explained. “Depending on my shift. You’ve got a lot of stuff at the house, too. We go back and forth all the time.”

Laura nodded. “That makes sense.” He followed her back to the living room.

Det. Thomas looked at his watch. “I’m not trying to rush you, but maybe we should take her over to the shop.”

When both men looked at her, she finally realized they were waiting for an answer. “What?”

Rob stroked her hand. “We’re wondering if taking you to the shop will jog anything.”

“Oh.” She looked dazed, confused.

Overwhelmed.

Just when he thought his heart couldn’t break any more, it did. He’d do anything, including taking her place, to fix this for her.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t fix it. All he could do was swallow back his own emotions and provide the strongest support he could for her.

She nodded. “Okay. If you think that’s best.”

Rob handed Thomas his car keys and asked him to take her out while he used the excuse of closing the blinds and turning off the lights. He also phoned Steve and told him they were coming, and asked him to warn everyone to not react to how she looked.

“I’ll prepare the staff.”

“Prepare yourself.” He watched Thomas helped Laura into the Explorer.

“Yeah.” He hesitated. “Carol said she looks pretty bad.”

“Not as bad as she did.” He yanked the blinds closed. “We’ll see you in a few.”

Laura’s father had founded the dive shop over thirty years ago. Eight years prior, she bought him out and added bait and tackle. Its success grew, and she added on to the original building. She had four employees in the store, two boats, and a full-time captain who also ran fish and dive charters in addition to Steve Moss. Carol, who was a retired accountant, worked part-time and helped with bookkeeping duties.

Everyone stood waiting outside in the parking lot when Rob and Thomas pulled up. Before Rob could get out, Steve had already stepped forward and opened her door.

“How are you, Laura?” he practically screamed as he reached in to help her out.

“I got beat up, Steve. I didn’t go deaf.” Rob and Thomas both froze as they watched the interaction. Laura’s eyes widened as stepped out and looked up at Steve. A smile lit both their faces. “I know you!” she squealed.

Rob felt a twinge of envy that her first spontaneous recognition of someone wasn’t him, but Steve was over thirty years older than her and had been her father’s best friend.

Laura began crying. “I know you.” She wrapped her arms around Steve and sobbed. “I know you!”

Rob didn’t intervene. If she had a memory, he didn’t want to interrupt in case it stopped her from remembering more. Carol walked over to him and patted him on the back.

“He’s like a dad to her,” she whispered in his ear. “It’s okay. Don’t take it personally.”

He nodded but didn’t reply.

Laura’s spirits rose at the revelation, then quickly plummeted again when she realized she didn’t recognize anyone else. When she walked into the store with Steve, closely shadowed by Rob and Det. Thomas, she remembered different items for sale and their functions.

Steve quizzed her about basic diving safety rules and she answered them all correctly. He moved into some more advanced areas and they discovered her knowledge remained intact.

“Well, it seems you’re all right on your diving. At least you can teach,” Steve laughed. He realized what he said and turned to Rob. “Sorry, son. It’s just—”

“I know, Steve. It’s a mixed bag. It’s okay. I’m just glad she’s alive.”

Thomas patted Rob on the shoulder. “Call me if she remembers anything about the attack. You’ve got my cell. I don’t care if it’s in the middle of the night—call me.”

“I will.”

Rob ordered them all Chinese take-out for lunch. They ate it at a table on the dock behind the shop. When Carol and Steve finished they excused themselves and left Rob alone with Laura.

Laura’s nervousness had abated somewhat in the quasi-familiar setting. At the condo, she felt like she’d walked uninvited into a stranger’s home. Here, at least, she felt connected in some small way. She still knew her business, to a certain extent. And she knew Steve’s name and a lot of things about him, even though some of her memories of him still seemed murky.

She’d caught herself looking at his hands for any signs of recent injury. Over the last few days in the hospital, any time a man came near her she looked at his hands, wondering who the attacker was. It could be anyone, including someone she knew well.

What scared her even more than the possibility of never getting her memory back was the thought that her attacker might be someone she dealt with on a daily basis. If so, as long as her memory was gone she could be exposing herself to danger.

Can I ever trust anyone again?