Page 59 of A Future To Remember

“Are they getting worse?” he asked.

I knew he meant the nightmares. “Yeah. I’m starting to remember more detail. Wherever I was before I landed in this town, Levi, it was someplace bad. Like, really bad.”

To my surprise, he leaned over to rub his shoulder against mine in a small show of support. I leaned back, and we continued to stare at the red glowing grid inside the metal framework of the space heater as the warm air soothed what ailed us.

“What time is it?” I asked after a bit.

He left my side for a moment and returned with his phone. “Three-thirty.”

“Dammit. Sorry, Levi. You’re not getting any sleep around me.”

He yawned. “It’s cool. At least I’m not out there on a night like this.”

I bumped his shoulder. He was such a nice guy. It was unfathomable to me that anyone couldn’t see what a good soul he was. “I’m working on a deal for you,” I told him.

“Whaddya mean?”

“I mean, the sheriff and I have a deal: If I solve his dad’s murder, then you get the reward money.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him turn a surprised gaze on me. “Solve his dad’s murder? You mean the famous Sheriff Cash Senior?”

I nodded.

“What’re you, some kind of detective?”

I grinned. “Kinda. Apparently, the same bump on the head that caused me to lose my memory has made me psychic.”

He snorted out a laugh. “Yeah, right.”

“It’s true.”

He turned to look at me again. “You believe in that stuff?”

I looked at him and offered a lopsided smile. “Yeah. I do. It’s how I know you’re trying to get to L.A.”

Levi’s eyes practically popped out of his head. “How’d you know that?” he barked, his tone accusing.

I tapped my head. “Like I said. Psychic.”

He glared at me. I was surprised I’d angered him.

“What’s the big deal if I know you’re headed to L.A.?”

“I don’t want anybody to know that.”

“Okay, I can respect that. I won’t tell a soul. But you and I both know that if you don’t get out of this town, you’ll die.”

He stared at me again, the shock of my having said the quiet part out loud written all over his face. He didn’t confirm it, but I knew he’d been contemplating suicide. I kept seeing a hangman’s noose in my mind’s eye when I looked at the area around his left shoulder. It hung under a small dark cloud that seemed to follow him everywhere, and without knowing how, I knew that those two symbols meant depression and suicide.

He turned his attention back to the space heater. “L.A.’s expensive.”

“I know. Which is why I made the deal with the sheriff.”

He scowled. “How’re you gonna solve a murder that’s twenty-five years old?”

I tapped my head again.

“You already know who did it?”