He Said He Loved Me When He Forgot Me

na's

cating me. At the grocery store, Mrs. Higgins wouldn't

d as a gardener at the Phillips estate, at twenty-five dollars a

my uncle Clement was sitting on the wooden step

y father's yo

p and a used marine-engine business, chasing a quick fortune and lo

id, tapping ash onto my gravel drive. "Says you've been kicking up

dn't look at him; I walk

ng me inside. "Says if I can talk you into signing over the deed, there's a finder's fee in

The neon VACANCY sign in the window hummed f

ng shutters, polishing pine floors, star

drive out of a single slab of driftwood cedar. We cut the letter

t you, Clement?" I turne

is cigarette hal

ha

ty thousand in cash. You take over the thirty-thousand mortgage still on the bank'

To a developer, the lot alone wou

am I supposed to find fifty thousan

en under your floor," I said flatly. "And ten in the safe at the

ut of there like a madman, terrified I'd cha

s, my mother's silver locket, five pairs of warm socks. I took nothing Jay had touched. The flannel shirts he'd worn stayed on their hangers; the

d metal toolbox packed with twenties and hundreds. We signe

sure I'd come to my senses any seco

and his voice came out thin and strange. "This was my brother's place. I never had any right to it

n," I said, zipping t

hy

amed Jay ever liv

ickup and walked out the back door. I took out my pho

when she picked up

nd competent over the noise of a distant city. "God, Gia

lege before she moved out west. Now she was the gener

said calmly. "Can I crash

happened. She didn't ask wh

ney said at once. "And our night auditor just quit yesterda

"I'll call you when

ht to the commercial freig

's, and twice a week he ran an unregistered little fr

n. And he never checked the passenger list. I parked th

ptain Vance stood by the loading ramp of his steel-

outed, pullin

ging halogen work light cutt

t are you doing out

the fold I had taken from the toolbox before I left the inn a

ey, then at the single

Sheriff Miller went to the harbormaster's shed himself. He had your photo. Said you were having som

d not make my hand

losed the r

ice. "You knew my father. You know I'm not crazy. If I s

o into the water, looked at the money for a long moment, and took it. "Your

r plate," Vance said roughly. "Behind the ge

ngway, two blinding high beams ripped t

the flooded potholes and screamed to a

ors fl

even wearing a coat. The wind and rain soaked through

uards in tactical jackets s

nna." Jadon's low command cut