She decided not to go into the possibility that negative energy created by black-satanic rites could also be having an effect on her, though she wasn't quite sure why.
Who am I doubting? Myself? Or Ash?
"It's a miracle it didn't kill you," he said.
Riley began tying the empty PowerBar wrapper into knots. "I'm still trying to figure out how somebody could sneak up and blindside me. That's not supposed to happen, you know, not to us ex-army types with FBI training to boot."
Slowly, Ash said, "Maybe they didn't have to sneak. Maybe whoever it was…"
"Was already with me? Yeah, the thought had occurred."
"Which, I suppose, explains your reluctance to trust anyone."
"Wouldn't you be reluctant?"
"I'm not arguing. Just saying."
She eyed him, hesitated, then said, "You might as well know. I told Gordon about the attack on Sunday and the amnesia. At least, I'm pretty sure I did, unless that's another memory I can't trust."
Ash didn't appear to be upset by that. "You two served together and have known each other for years; it makes sense that you'd trust him before anyone else. Does he know about the blackouts?"
"No, I haven't talked to him since those started. At least…" She frowned. "I don't remember talking to him. Unless I did on Tuesday afternoon during that missing time. After we had lunch, I walked along the beach to the Pearson house and talked to Steve and Jenny-and the next thing I remember, it was yesterday morning."
He was also frowning. "I picked you up around six-thirty Tuesday; we had drinks and dinner, then came back here. You wanted to do some research online, and I had paperwork to deal with."
"Um…is that usual for us? Both working here?"
"I wouldn't call it usual, but we've done so a few times. Here or at my place."
"I've been to your place?"
A little laugh escaped him. "Of course you have, Riley. But we're usually here at night because my condo is on the small side. I'm keeping an eye out for a bigger place, by the way."
She decided to ignore that last comment. "So…between the time I was talking to Steve and Jenny and when you picked me up here, there are three or four hours unaccounted for. I may or may not have been alone. May or may not have gone to talk to Gordon or someone else."
"Easy enough to check with Gordon, at least."
"Yeah, I'll call him." Riley looked at her half-empty coffee cup and tried once again to gather her thoughts; she seemed able to do so for brief periods, but then they scattered again and she could almost literally feel herself beginning to drift, even despite the calories she had consumed since talking to Bishop.
Minutes ago. Just minutes this time.
"Riley?"
"Yesterday," she said finally, struggling to keep her focus. "After that…vision or whatever it was in the clearing. What did we do?"
"Immediately after? Came back here."
"We did? But wasn't Jake planning to talk to the group at the Pearson house?"
"Yeah. But the background checks turned up nothing, which meant he had no cause to question any of them, no legal leg to stand on. When he called anyway and asked if he could pay them a visit, he was politely referred to their lawyer." Ash shrugged. "Not so surprising a reaction, from a group probably accustomed to…nosy cops."
"And they would be."
"I imagine so. Anyway, Jake was frustrated but hamstrung. There was nothing we could do at the station, and you wanted to do more research in some occult database you knew of, so we spent the afternoon and evening here. We went out for a walk just before sunset, and I tried to teach you the finer points of making spaghetti sauce a bit earlier, but other than those breaks, up until nearly midnight I was channel surfing and you were on the Net. You didn't say, but I got the impression you were looking for something specific."
"I guess you don't know whether I found it?"
"You didn't say."
"Sounds like a boring evening for you," Riley said, bothered by that and not entirely sure why.
"It had its compensations."
Riley was tempted to follow the intriguing tangent but forced herself to focus. "There was nothing new in the investigation in all those hours?"
"Riley, we talked about-" Ash shook his head. "You're right, this is a very confusing minefield. Our memories don't match."
Half to herself, Riley said, "There's probably something profound in that, but never mind. What don't I remember?"
"By late afternoon, Jake called with a positive I.D. on the victim. The house-to-house finally turned up an empty rental where someone was supposed to be, and they were able to match prints found there to those of our former John Doe. Not that it's been much help so far to know who the poor bastard was, since we haven't been able to connect him to anyone on the island or in Castle. As of last night, Jake's people hadn't even been able to contact his family. You don't remember any of this?"
This time, Riley didn't even pause to think about what she didn't remember; she was too busy trying to concentrate. "No. Who was he? What's his name?"
"Tate. Wesley Tate. A businessman from Charleston."
A jumble of thoughts crowded into her mind, and Riley did her best to sort through them. What was real? What memories could she actually claim as her own? "He lived in Charleston?"
"Yeah. Jake's people were still working on the background check when we talked last night, so that's all I know for sure."
"He lived in Charleston, but chose to vacation here?"
"Struck me too. If you live in a beautiful coastal city, why rent a house on an island fifty miles away?"
"Maybe he didn't have an ocean view at home."
"He didn't have much of one here. The rental isn't oceanfront, it's three rows back."
"So he didn't come for the view."
"It's a good bet. Neighbors saw him arrive on Saturday, but nobody seems to have seen him after that. Another weird thing is that it's a big house, not really the sort for a single man to rent. Especially with plenty of smaller houses and condos available on the island. The realtor was under the impression that his family or a group of friends was set to join him later."
"And nobody's shown up."
"Not so far."
Riley drained her cold coffee, then got to her feet, relieved to find her legs relatively steady under her. "I want to take a look at Tate's rental. After that, I think Jake and Leah should meet us at the Pearson house."
Ash was also on his feet. "There's a connection between that group and Tate?"
"If I can trust this part of my memory-yes. A big one."
"You didn't seem to recall a connection last night. What if your memory about this is faulty?"
"I'll jump off that bridge when I come to it," Riley said.
Chapter 17
She called Gordon from Ash's Hummer, using his cell and plugging it into the car charger even before she began to place the call.
"Saves time," she explained to Ash. "It's why I didn't even bother to bring mine; I seem to be pulling energy out of them."
"I gather that's new," he said, not really a question.
"They never last long as a rule but, yeah, the speed they're dying on me is new. At this rate, I'll count myself lucky if the Hummer doesn't die on us."
Ash eyed the vehicle's power outlet and shrugged. "I'll keep the engine running."
Riley placed her call, and as soon as Gordon answered, asked without preliminaries, "Did I talk to you yesterday?"
Gordon, unflappable under even extreme conditions, replied simply, "No. Haven't seen or heard from you since Tuesday morning."
"Damn."
"Why? What's changed?"
"I'll fill you in later."
"Yes," Gordon said. "You will."
"It's okay, I'm with Ash. Will you be home this afternoon?"