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“Who found you after you were attacked, do you know?”
“If they told me, I don’t remember. I was...just in shock when they told me what had happened. And my head hurt so badly.”
“So the police had nothing to go on? No one else saw anything?”
“No.”
“Where did the attack happen?”
Alex shook her head. “I...I don’t remember.”
“I am so very sorry that happened to you, Alex.”
She looked down at the table and nodded, and then wiped at her eyes.
“But you didn’t come here to tell me this, since I was the one who brought it up.”
She looked at him. “I came here to tell you that Jennydidcome by to see me when she was here.” She stopped and looked at him. “Aren’t you mad that I didn’t tell you before?”
“No. I’ll just assume you had your reasons.”
Her expression relaxed. “You keep surprising me, Travis. I think I have you figured out and you throw me a curve.”
“Not to worry. I was thinking the very same thing about you.”
She picked at one of her paint-covered fingers. “It was in the afternoon before she was killed.”
“What did she want?”
“She wanted to know if I had remembered anything from when I was attacked.”
“And what did you tell her?”
“The same thing I just told you. That I hadn’t.”
“Why would she be bringing that up now, after all these years? Or did she regularly check in with you about it?”
“No, she had never mentioned it before, aside from when she came home to help me right after it happened. She never left my side for a long while. And she would talk to me about it, trying to get me to recall what had happened. I think she might have tried too hard because it never worked. I remember she got angry with me sometimes about it.”
“Why? Like you said, these things happen to people who have experienced what you did.”
“Because Jenny would have been strong enough to overcome that, remember every detail, and nail the bastard. Or so she told me whenIcouldn’t do that.”
“A tough older sister.”
“An impossibly perfect older sister.” She hesitated. “But she did...care about me, Travis. I know she did. Through her actions, if not always through her words.”
“But not so easy to love. Your earlier remark about Jenny is making more sense.”
“Ididlove her, despite all that,” Alex said so quietly Devine almost didn’t hear her.
“Is that when Bertie Palmer started to mentor you?”
“Yes. Jenny had to go back to Washington for work. And Mom and Dad were...well, they had a lot going on.”
“They must have been terribly upset about what happened to you.”
“I don’t think they knew how to deal with it. Dad went around angry all the time. I believe he blamed himself for not protecting me. And Mom alternated between going into a shell and then coming out of it to smother me.” She looked out the window at the rain falling from a gray sky, but her expression brightened in spite of the gloomy weather.
