again to pace the floor. “No matter what I find out, I’ve got to know what has happened to me. I can’t go through life being this lost person.”
“The one thing we haven’t talked about is drug use.”
“Drug use!” She stopped pacing and stared at her husband. “Don’t tell me I used drugs, too!” she said, dreading to hear David’s answer.
“No, not to my knowledge. But that doesn’t mean you might not have done so after you and Ray left. You might have used something so powerful it knocked you out and left you with no recollection of your past.”
“Oh my God! I hope not!” She put her hands over her face. “Please God, don’t let that be it!” She dropped her hands. “Couldn’t Doctor Means test my blood and find out?”
“I asked him that. He had the sample he took the first night sent here to the local hospital to check for anything relating to your illness, but the local lab can’t test for illegal drugs. It would have to be sent off to another lab for that.”
“I guess I want to know. I mean, I don’t really relish knowing, but I need to know.”
“I think it’s too late now to do that. It’s been too many days. Whatever you took would be out of your system by now.”
Marnie resumed her pacing. “Don’t you have any idea where we went when we left here?”
“No, I don’t know where you went. That’s exactly what I want to know. From what I can piece together, you packed a suitcase and met him at Pine Crest Mall. Your car was found in the parking lot. You must have gotten in his car and drove to a small airfield just east of town. He kept a small plane there, and his car was found in the hangar a few days after you two disappeared.”
“He was a pilot?”
“Yes. He had mentioned it before, I think, but he didn’t talk much about it. After he hatched this plan, I don’t think he wanted people remembering that he could fly. Anyway, he had kept a plane out there for several months—rented a hangar to keep it in out of the weather and away from anyone spotting it and connecting it to him. The man who rented out the space called the plant looking for him a week or so after you and he went missing. Seems Ray owed rent on the hangar, and the owner wanted paid. Ray’s car was inside where the plane had been. So he flew out of here, that much is certain, but where he went I don’t know. We assumed you were with him, but we didn’t know for sure. As far as we knew, he could have killed you to keep you from telling the authorities anything about his plans.”
“Didn’t he have to file a flight plan or something?”
“At a small field like that, the pilot doesn’t have to file anything. Mostly agricultural flights, what they used to call crop dusters, fly out of there, and local pilots who take a plane up on a pretty afternoon for the fun of it. Folks who fly to neighboring towns for the high school football and basketball games keep planes out there, or rent one from the man who owns the place. That’s about all.
“Where you went, I don’t know. Why you’re back, I don’t know. How you got back, I don’t know.”
“And what happened to me to cause me to lose my memory neither one of us knows.”
Chapter 19
When Marnie woke up the next morning, she felt as if some of her burden had been lifted.
How odd that I feel better, she thought, since I found out so much bad stuff about myself yesterday.
At least it was out in the open—those reasons why everyone thought the worst about her. She was sure she hadn’t heard about all the bad things she had done, but she got the general idea. And although anybody else would have been depressed upon hearing all David had told her, in a way she was relieved that her past was no longer a secret. She hoped there was nothing else to surprise her and that she had heard the worst. She would hold on to that thought, anyway, unless told differently.
She had spent the last week getting well, worrying about who she was and what
“The one thing we haven’t talked about is drug use.”
“Drug use!” She stopped pacing and stared at her husband. “Don’t tell me I used drugs, too!” she said, dreading to hear David’s answer.
“No, not to my knowledge. But that doesn’t mean you might not have done so after you and Ray left. You might have used something so powerful it knocked you out and left you with no recollection of your past.”
“Oh my God! I hope not!” She put her hands over her face. “Please God, don’t let that be it!” She dropped her hands. “Couldn’t Doctor Means test my blood and find out?”
“I asked him that. He had the sample he took the first night sent here to the local hospital to check for anything relating to your illness, but the local lab can’t test for illegal drugs. It would have to be sent off to another lab for that.”
“I guess I want to know. I mean, I don’t really relish knowing, but I need to know.”
“I think it’s too late now to do that. It’s been too many days. Whatever you took would be out of your system by now.”
Marnie resumed her pacing. “Don’t you have any idea where we went when we left here?”
“No, I don’t know where you went. That’s exactly what I want to know. From what I can piece together, you packed a suitcase and met him at Pine Crest Mall. Your car was found in the parking lot. You must have gotten in his car and drove to a small airfield just east of town. He kept a small plane there, and his car was found in the hangar a few days after you two disappeared.”
“He was a pilot?”
“Yes. He had mentioned it before, I think, but he didn’t talk much about it. After he hatched this plan, I don’t think he wanted people remembering that he could fly. Anyway, he had kept a plane out there for several months—rented a hangar to keep it in out of the weather and away from anyone spotting it and connecting it to him. The man who rented out the space called the plant looking for him a week or so after you and he went missing. Seems Ray owed rent on the hangar, and the owner wanted paid. Ray’s car was inside where the plane had been. So he flew out of here, that much is certain, but where he went I don’t know. We assumed you were with him, but we didn’t know for sure. As far as we knew, he could have killed you to keep you from telling the authorities anything about his plans.”
“Didn’t he have to file a flight plan or something?”
“At a small field like that, the pilot doesn’t have to file anything. Mostly agricultural flights, what they used to call crop dusters, fly out of there, and local pilots who take a plane up on a pretty afternoon for the fun of it. Folks who fly to neighboring towns for the high school football and basketball games keep planes out there, or rent one from the man who owns the place. That’s about all.
“Where you went, I don’t know. Why you’re back, I don’t know. How you got back, I don’t know.”
“And what happened to me to cause me to lose my memory neither one of us knows.”
Chapter 19
When Marnie woke up the next morning, she felt as if some of her burden had been lifted.
How odd that I feel better, she thought, since I found out so much bad stuff about myself yesterday.
At least it was out in the open—those reasons why everyone thought the worst about her. She was sure she hadn’t heard about all the bad things she had done, but she got the general idea. And although anybody else would have been depressed upon hearing all David had told her, in a way she was relieved that her past was no longer a secret. She hoped there was nothing else to surprise her and that she had heard the worst. She would hold on to that thought, anyway, unless told differently.
She had spent the last week getting well, worrying about who she was and what
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