witness the questioning.”
Jamie frowned. “An officer? Not you?”
“I’ll be observing, yes, but not in the same room.”
Her heart was racing. She didn’t know why. She didn’t know him well enough to want him there; wouldn’t any officer do? “Why wouldn’t you be in the same room?”
“I’m working the case—I’m invested in a way the officer witnessing wouldn’t be. A neutral witness is best so there’s no reaction to what you might reveal.”
“And you might react.”
He nodded, and she watched his pulse jump at his temple.
Her own jumped in response, then jumped again for reasons that had nothing to do with the case, and everything to do with the look in his eyes. “So it’s videotaped, and I can do it anywhere I’m comfortable, and you’ll be nearby even if you’re not in the room.”
“I’ll be there, too,” Kate said.
“You can observe,” Kell was quick to say. “But no family members or anyone connected to the case can be in the room during the session. The rules are set up to make sure the memories recalled are clean, not influenced by observers or by suggestion, that sort of thing. Otherwise, anything recalled is considered tainted, and anything turned up during a follow-up investigation questionable.”
“But as long as the rules aren’t broken…” Was she that strong? That brave? Would she be able to live with the memories if they came flooding back? Would she be able to live with herself if she didn’t give Kell’s suggestion a try? She wanted so badly to help; she always had.
All these years, she’d felt so impotent, unable to remember details with enough significance to break the case. Because of her own frustration, it wasn’t hard for her to understand that felt by the victims’ families. Their accusations had stung, yes, but she’d never taken them to heart. And now she had a chance to give them the one thing they most needed.
How could she not at least try?
Kell had been holding her gaze all this time, and he finally spoke. “As long as we follow the rules, this is our best shot to shut down this nightmare for good.”
We. He’d said we.
Jamie knew her mother was as torn as she was, and that Kate’s vote would most likely be no. She didn’t want her daughter to have to suffer the horror the refreshed memories could bring. As a mother, that was her right. Kate didn’t care that her baby was an adult.
But Jamie was an adult. She was the one who had to make this decision, weighing her mother’s worries and Kell’s assurances against her own counsel.
Really, though, there was only one course of action her conscience would allow her to take—and it would be as much for the other victims as for herself.
“I’ll do it.”
4
W HILE J AMIE AND HER mother talked privately in the air-conditioned cab of Kate’s idling Suburban, Kell walked to the far end of the covered porch where the air stirred by the overhead fan had more room to move.
It was hot, but it was August, and it was Texas, the Chihuahuan Desert swath of West Texas to be precise.
He’d lived in Texas all his life. He’d grown up in Austin where his parents and younger brother still lived. His youngest brother had moved to Houston to work after graduation, exchanging the landlocked central Texas heat for the Gulf Coast humidity. Complaining about the state’s weather was as much a part of being a Texan as waving the Lone Star flag.
But the heat sweating its way through Kell now was of a different sort. A heat wrapped up in pink scrub bottoms and long nimble fingers and an intelligence that wouldn’t quit. Jamie Danby was an amazing woman, and his gut knotted up thinking of what she’d been through.
Even more gut-wrenching were the questions he kept asking himself. What if the hypnosis backfired and Jamie got burned? What if he got his man, brought him to justice, yet Jamie spent the rest of her life scarred worse than she was now?
He adjusted his sunglasses, staring at the
Jamie frowned. “An officer? Not you?”
“I’ll be observing, yes, but not in the same room.”
Her heart was racing. She didn’t know why. She didn’t know him well enough to want him there; wouldn’t any officer do? “Why wouldn’t you be in the same room?”
“I’m working the case—I’m invested in a way the officer witnessing wouldn’t be. A neutral witness is best so there’s no reaction to what you might reveal.”
“And you might react.”
He nodded, and she watched his pulse jump at his temple.
Her own jumped in response, then jumped again for reasons that had nothing to do with the case, and everything to do with the look in his eyes. “So it’s videotaped, and I can do it anywhere I’m comfortable, and you’ll be nearby even if you’re not in the room.”
“I’ll be there, too,” Kate said.
“You can observe,” Kell was quick to say. “But no family members or anyone connected to the case can be in the room during the session. The rules are set up to make sure the memories recalled are clean, not influenced by observers or by suggestion, that sort of thing. Otherwise, anything recalled is considered tainted, and anything turned up during a follow-up investigation questionable.”
“But as long as the rules aren’t broken…” Was she that strong? That brave? Would she be able to live with the memories if they came flooding back? Would she be able to live with herself if she didn’t give Kell’s suggestion a try? She wanted so badly to help; she always had.
All these years, she’d felt so impotent, unable to remember details with enough significance to break the case. Because of her own frustration, it wasn’t hard for her to understand that felt by the victims’ families. Their accusations had stung, yes, but she’d never taken them to heart. And now she had a chance to give them the one thing they most needed.
How could she not at least try?
Kell had been holding her gaze all this time, and he finally spoke. “As long as we follow the rules, this is our best shot to shut down this nightmare for good.”
We. He’d said we.
Jamie knew her mother was as torn as she was, and that Kate’s vote would most likely be no. She didn’t want her daughter to have to suffer the horror the refreshed memories could bring. As a mother, that was her right. Kate didn’t care that her baby was an adult.
But Jamie was an adult. She was the one who had to make this decision, weighing her mother’s worries and Kell’s assurances against her own counsel.
Really, though, there was only one course of action her conscience would allow her to take—and it would be as much for the other victims as for herself.
“I’ll do it.”
4
W HILE J AMIE AND HER mother talked privately in the air-conditioned cab of Kate’s idling Suburban, Kell walked to the far end of the covered porch where the air stirred by the overhead fan had more room to move.
It was hot, but it was August, and it was Texas, the Chihuahuan Desert swath of West Texas to be precise.
He’d lived in Texas all his life. He’d grown up in Austin where his parents and younger brother still lived. His youngest brother had moved to Houston to work after graduation, exchanging the landlocked central Texas heat for the Gulf Coast humidity. Complaining about the state’s weather was as much a part of being a Texan as waving the Lone Star flag.
But the heat sweating its way through Kell now was of a different sort. A heat wrapped up in pink scrub bottoms and long nimble fingers and an intelligence that wouldn’t quit. Jamie Danby was an amazing woman, and his gut knotted up thinking of what she’d been through.
Even more gut-wrenching were the questions he kept asking himself. What if the hypnosis backfired and Jamie got burned? What if he got his man, brought him to justice, yet Jamie spent the rest of her life scarred worse than she was now?
He adjusted his sunglasses, staring at the
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