Pinch Me

Chapter Twenty-Three

Monday morning, Bill drove Laura to her next appointment with Dr. Collins. He sat in the room with her while Dr. Collins once again tried hypnosis. The nightmares about the door and the shadow hadn’t stopped.

If anything, they’d grown more intense, the shadow gaining substance with every repetition.

Unfortunately, by the end of the session Laura hadn’t recovered anything helpful about the dreams, or the rest of her life.

She made another appointment for the next Monday and slumped in her seat on the ride back to Englewood.

“Don’t let it upset you,” he gently chided.

“I need to figure this out.”

“You won’t do it driving yourself crazy. If it comes back, it comes back.”

She rode up to Tampa with Steve to take Bill to the airport Tuesday morning. After checking in, he stood with her in the main terminal near the shuttle that would take him airside.

She felt like she was losing one of her lifelines.

“I’m going to miss you.”

“I’ll miss you, too, sis.” He hugged her close. “I’ll come back in a few months.” He laughed. “Sooner, if you decide to get married.”

She laughed but pushed back the melancholy over that statement. It felt like she’d hit a stalemate in terms of new memories. But that evening, after Rob got off work, they were going to meet at a restaurant on Boca Grande that he told her used to be one of her favorites.

Maybe it would help trigger something.

Later that morning, while she was working at the shop, Det. Thomas called her to update her on the investigation.

“Well, do you want the good news, or the bad news?”

Laura closed her eyes. “Is the good news that you’ve got him?”

“No, but we know more about who he is.”

She sighed. “What’s the good news?”

“The DNA evidence we recovered from underneath your fingernails pinged several hits in the national database. We can link him to several crimes all over the country.”

She swallowed hard. “What’s the bad news?”

He paused. “The other victims were all raped and murdered.”

Her heart pounded in her chest. “How many?”

“Do you really want to know?”

She forced the words out of her mouth. “Tell me.”

“Fifteen. That we know of. Possibly ten others with the same MO, but either no DNA evidence or it was inconclusive. We don’t have any reports of crimes with victims who survived.”

No more untraceable calls had been received at her home line, and no fingerprints were found on the note she’d gotten in the mail. The possibility that the email and letter were just from cranks or a copycat was considered, but not ruled out.

The sheriff’s office was also still running nighttime patrols along her street, usually once an hour if not more often.

“And I’ve got your concealed carry license here. Do you want me to bring it to you?”

She had difficulty processing that while still thinking about the fifteen dead women. “Can Rob get it?”

The detective must have realized how shaken she was. “Sure, just have him call me. Are you okay?”

“No.” That number resonated in her brain. Fifteen dead women.

And she would have been sixteen.

Or twenty-six, if the others were related.

Her hands shook. “I have to go now. Thank you for calling.” The receiver fell from her hand onto the phone. Fifteen confirmed victims? And she was the only one who survived?

Laura couldn’t stand. Her legs shook too badly. Steve walked in and saw her. “What’s wrong?”

She burst into tears as she related what Thomas said.

He hugged her. “Honey, you’re lucky. You’re a fighter. That will always keep you alive. You’ve been scrappy from when you were a kid. This guy isn’t going to get another chance at you.”

She couldn’t stay in the shop and she didn’t want to go home. She told Steve she was going out for a little while to get some lunch and drove into town. Despite his insistence on going with her, she refused.

She needed to be alone, and she’d be in public. What could happen?

Wandering through Merchant’s Crossing shopping plaza, she passed a hair salon. Laura looked inside and saw they weren’t busy, then studied her reflection in the window. The bruises had finally faded and she’d stopped wearing makeup.

Today, she had her nearly waist-length auburn hair up in a ponytail and braided. Before she could chicken out, she walked in and talked to a stylist. The woman made a few suggestions. Laura called Steve and told him she’d be shopping for a few more hours so he wouldn’t worry, but didn’t tell him what she was doing.

Three hours later, Laura returned to the shop.

When Steve saw her new hairstyle, his eyes popped.

“I thought you said you were getting lunch and shopping.”

“Well, do you like it?”

“It’s different.” He stared. “Not bad different, it’s just…I’ve never known you to do anything like this before. It’ll take some getting used to.”

The stylist had scissored Laura’s hair to shoulder length. Still long enough to pull back into a ponytail when diving, but a drastic difference. After cutting it, the stylist colored it, lightening it a few shades and adding highlights, but not all the way to blonde.

Laura felt pleased with the results.

Sarah walked in and stopped short. “Uh. Wow. I mean…” She stared at Laura’s new hairstyle. “Wow.”

Steve still stared. “Rob’s going to flip.”

“Why?”

“He loved your hair long.”

Laura considered that. “Is that why I kept it long? For him?” Mindful of Bill’s comments about her temper, she reined in her irritation.

“No, hon. You kept it long because it looked pretty on you, and because it was easy for you to take care of. You only went to the salon maybe twice a year. You hated getting your hair cut because your mom made you keep it short and styled when you were little. When you were twelve she finally threw her hands up and let you do what you wanted with it, and you let it grow.”

He let out a laugh. “You never do anything because someone else wanted you to, unless you wanted to first.”

Sarah laughed with him. “That’s the truth.”

Rob went to pick up Laura’s concealed carry license from Det. Thomas. When he returned, his captain asked, “How’s Laura doing? I haven’t worked the same hours with you lately and have been meaning to ask.”

“She’s physically better. Her memory’s still spotty. She can work and run the store. Steve hasn’t got her back in the water yet to see if she can still dive or teach because of her ribs. She’s got a lot of her childhood back, but very little recent memories.”

“How are you handling it?”

He shrugged. “I’m just taking it one day at a time. I’m going to date her all over again. That’s what I’ve got planned for tonight. She’s meeting me over on Boca at a restaurant we went to all the time. I’ve already got it set up to have fresh flowers on the table and champagne chilling. Then I’m going to pop the question.”

“You’re going to propose again?”

“No. I’m going to ask her to go steady with me.”

Once the captain quit laughing, he realized Rob was serious.

“She still doesn’t know me. I’m not going to force her to put aside her reservations. I’m hoping she’ll say yes.”

“If she doesn’t?”

He looked at the floor. Despite how they’d mended fences after her blowup, he didn’t want to think about the very real possibility that things might not turn out the same between them once she learned about their BDSM dynamic. “I don’t want to think about that.”

Despite a late accident call, Rob still managed to return to the station, shower, and make it to the restaurant with ten minutes to spare. He was sitting at the table waiting for Laura when a woman walked in who looked familiar. In the dim light, it wasn’t until she was halfway to the table that he recognized her.

In his shock, he forgot to stand and pull her chair out like he’d planned.

“Hi, Rob.” Her voice sounded timid, shy. Definitely not two words that would have described Laura before the attack.

“Um. Hi.” He searched for words. That this truly wasn’t his Laura anymore slammed home. She looked vaguely the same, but the drastic change in hairstyle emphasized the differences. She even walked differently, and not just because of her injuries. She didn’t have the familiar confident, smooth glide.

Her face fell. “You don’t like it, do you?”

He scrambled out of his chair and pulled hers out, helping her sit. “I’m sorry, honey. You look great. I just wasn’t expecting it, that’s all.”

He stared at her for a moment and finally sat down. “What brought this on?”

She shrugged. “I just felt like doing it.” She sniffed the flowers. “These are beautiful. Thank you.” Looking at him she saw the shock still registering on his face and smiled. “Don’t feel bad. Steve’s and Sarah’s jaws hit the floor, too.”

He looked down at his menu. “I’m sorry. Was it that obvious?”

“It wasn’t unexpected.” She picked up her menu and studied it. The waitress took their drink order and appetizers. When they were alone, Laura put her menu down. She reached across the table and touched Rob’s hand. “Why don’t you order for me? Order me something I used to love.”

“To be honest, I’m almost afraid to.” He couldn’t believe he said it, but now that he had, the emotions couldn’t be rebottled.

She pulled back and frowned. “Why?”

“Because physically, you’re the same woman I was supposed to marry in a few months. And that’s about the extent of it. Even though I have a past with you, you’re a stranger. You don’t know me beyond what we’ve gone through the past few weeks, and I really don’t know you anymore. Now I don’t know what to say or do around you. I wanted tonight to be special. I was going to ask if you’d go steady with me. I know that’s stupid, but I was hoping it would give you the time you need to make a decision about the future.”

“Was?”

He didn’t answer.

“Why won’t you ask me? Just because I cut my hair?”

He tried to reply and couldn’t. Finally, “I don’t know. Would you say yes if I did?”

“You haven’t given me the chance to answer. You’re assuming I’ll say no. Don’t you have enough respect for me to give me the chance to make up my own mind? Is this the kind of relationship we used to have, where I just went along with you no matter what?”

That shocked him into silence. The waitress reappeared to take their dinner orders before he could answer. Laura handed her the menu. “I’ll have the grouper Florentine with a baked potato, extra sour cream please, and asparagus.”

She looked at Rob as his grin spread ear to ear. Somehow that seemed to annoy her. “What?” she snapped.

“That’s what you always ordered.”

Laura reined in her temper, not wanting a repeat of their fight Saturday morning. She apologized, he leaned over and kissed her, and they moved past the incident to settle into a comfortable conversation. Rob pulled her concealed carry permit out of his pocket and handed it to her.

“And here’s this.” He smiled, but she noticed it held no humor. “You’re now legal.”

She studied it. Yes, she’d been carrying the gun, actually feeling vulnerable when she took it off for a shower, or to put it in the drawer of the nightstand to sleep. “Thanks.” She slipped it into her wallet. “Not sure if I should hope I do or don’t need to use it.”

Once their food arrived he broached the subject again.

“Would you consider seeing a jerk like me exclusively?”

She laughed, nearly choking on a bite of grouper. “Is that how you asked me the first time?”

“No,” he admitted. “But I feel pretty vulnerable right now, so I felt honesty was probably the best approach.”

She tilted her head, considering. “I guess since you saw me looking like something out of a George Romero flick and still wanted me, I should give you a chance.”

His jaw fell open.

“What?” she asked.

“That’s something you used to say. You love his movies.”

“Really?”

He nodded.

“See? There’s hope then, isn’t there?”

He smiled. “I hope so.”

“Then yes. I think we should.”

“Should what?”

“You aren’t chickening out on me already are you?”

“Huh? Oh! Sorry.” He laughed. “No, I’m not chickening out on you.” He took her hands in his and gently squeezed them. “I would never do that.”

After dinner they walked along the beach, by the Boca Grand lighthouse. It was a beautiful, cloudless night. Under a quarter-full moon, and with only the inky Gulf out to the west, the stars shimmered overhead like a magical blanket. The warm evening was tempered by the cool breeze coming off the Gulf. There were a few boats out in the Pass getting in some night fishing, but other than that, they were alone.

Rob risked feeling for her hand and she let him take it. Almost like old times.

Almost.

Before, he would have taken her home and they would have made love before falling asleep entwined like an ancient puzzle.

Before, they would have deeply kissed before parting and said “I love you” to each other.

Before.

Rob wanted to kill the bastard who took not only Laura’s memory, but his life. His future. The old Laura might never return, and neither might the happiness he used to know.

They stopped by the ruins of the old phosphate docks and she looked across the pass toward Don Pedro Island. “What’s that?”

She hadn’t been out in the boat yet, Steve refusing to take her out on the water until her ribs were completely healed. Rob explained it to her, pointing out landmarks. She never needed a chart close to shore before. She used to have every barrier island, every fishing cove, every sandbar committed to memory.

There was that word again. While her dive knowledge was intact, apparently her navigational expertise was still MIA.

The no-see-ums swarmed and she asked to go home. They returned in separate cars to her condo. Steve had brought Doogie home for her from the shop. When Rob reached for the leash to take him out, she stopped him.

“I’ll take him.”

“Are you sure? I don’t mind.”

“It’s okay. I can handle it.” She patted the small of her back. “I’m legally packing, now, remember?” She smiled, but it held no humor.

She clipped the lead to the Lab’s collar and they went out. Rob kicked his shoes off by the door and waited nervously until they returned a few minutes later.

“See?” She smiled. “I’m getting better all the time.”

They watched TV until the eleven o’clock news. Laura yawned and couldn’t stop. “I have to go to sleep or I won’t be able to wake up in the morning.”

He nodded. “All right. I’ll be right there. I want to check the locks and get the coffeepot set for in the morning.”

She patted his leg and after hesitating for a moment, kissed him on the lips. “Good night, Rob.”

“Night.”

His eyes followed her down the hall. It was strange watching her walk away from him with not only a different gait, but now a different look, too. She wasn’t his Laura.

Then a chilling thought struck him—could he get used to the new Laura?