Double Blind (28 page)

“I don't know, you're bandaged. But I doubt it. Except the stubby growth from the past week.”

I struggled with a bite of soup. “Maybe when it grows back I'll get some highlights. Maybe go blonde, what do you think?”

I'd never even considered coloring my hair before. It was a good sign.

“I think you'd look beautiful in any hair color.” Mom smiled. “Except maybe pink.”

“Okay, purple then.” I took another bite and smiled back. “This worked, didn't it.”

“Looks like it.”

Wow
. “We did it, Mom. We really did it!”

Now I just had to recover. And I had plenty of money to help me. It was almost more than I could grasp.

“
You
did it,” Mom said.

Evening came—and still no blaring new scenes of murder. Mom and I talked and watched some TV. “I can't believe how . . . blissful I feel,” I told her. “This is amazing.”

I slept through the night.

Late the next morning Mom returned. Her suitcase was packed and sitting in the rental car, she said. From the hospital she would go straight to the San Francisco Airport. “I wish I didn't have to say good-bye.” She leaned over to brush a fingertip across my check.

“Me too. But I'll visit you soon.”

“Promise?”

“As soon as I can travel.”

She hugged me good-bye. A real hug. When she left, the room felt empty.

After lunch Sherry called to check on me. “I talked to your Mom this morning. She's still giving great reports.”

“Yeah. I'm good.”

“Want me to come visit?”

“I'm not much company. Still sleeping a lot, or staring at the TV. But the drugs have worn off, and I'm not letting them give me any more.”

“Does your head hurt?”

“Yeah. But not bad.”

“Wish I had your level of pain tolerance.”

I heard a kid wail in the background.

Sherry sighed. “Great. J.T. just woke up for some reason. I only put him down ten minutes ago.”

I pictured J.T. with his curly hair and blue eyes. Chubby little hands. I couldn't wait to see him and Rebecca as soon as I felt better. Would he even remember me?

The crying grew louder. “Sorry, Lisa, I need to go. I'll call you tomorrow. And we'll need to figure out what time on Tuesday you want to come home. I have a tentative babysitter for J.T., but she needs to know when.”

Suddenly Tuesday seemed so far away. I didn't want to stay in the hospital that long. “I want to go home tomorrow.”

Sherry hesitated. “Really? I thought you'd be spending an extra day.”

“I could. But I don't want to. Or need to. I'm feeling ready to go.”

“Well, okay.”

She sounded a little reluctant. “Can you come get me tomorrow?”

“It's just that the babysitter isn't available then.”

Oh. That was a problem. The hospital was no place to bring a toddler.

“But don't worry, I'll figure it out. If you want to come home tomorrow, I'll make it happen.”

Yes!
“Thanks so much. You're amazing.”

“Yeah, well. So are you, Miss Two-Brain-Surgeries-in-a-Week.”

I smiled and hung up the phone. Soon I drifted off again.

Sometime later a knock on my open door tugged me from sleep. Light footsteps followed. My eyes blinked open. Of all people, Patti Stolsinger gazed down at me.

Oh.

She was wearing the blue silk top. The one in my visions. The one I'd seen stained with blood. My body went rigid. That top. One more detail that was
real.

“Hi,” she whispered.

I lay still, mouth hinged open. Highly aware of my weakness. Why was she here? “Hi.”

She bit her lip. “Don't worry. I'm not here to argue with you.”

Good thing. She'd win.

“Can I . . . talk to you for a minute, Lisa?”

I nodded.

She set down the purse slung over her shoulder and pulled up one of the yellow chairs. I pushed my sleepiness away. I would need my wits about me.

Patti sat and folded her hands in her lap. “Bill wanted me to come. So I could assure you I don't hold anything against you.”

Hilderbrand concerned about
me
? “In other words,
you
didn't want to.”

“No, no, I didn't mean that. I did want to. It's just that he suggested it first.”

“That's nice of him.”

Should I be buying this?

Patti rubbed her palms against her jeaned legs. “After you saw him on Friday and told him the full story, he told it to me. We were both amazed at what you'd gone through. I really had no idea. I knew some of it, of course, but . . . That night at my house, I was too startled to let it sink in.”

“I can believe that.”

She nodded. “Anyway I just wanted to personally say I'm sorry. I know I wasn't very nice to you on the phone. Now I know none of this was your fault. Actually, we're both on the same side. Somebody tried to sabotage the Empowerment Chip—which hurt both of us.”

Yeah, well, it hurt me a lot more than her. But I knew what she meant. Her face and name had been dragged into it. “That's okay. I'm sorry, too. I've never yelled at anyone like that before in my life. I was just . . . beside myself.”

“I get that now.”

We fell silent.

Patti focused on the bed. “I hope you didn't suffer any more of those horrible visions before you got to surgery.”

“A few. They were short.”

“Oh, no.”

I shrugged. “Apparently I survived.”

“But I'm so sorry. What did you see?”

The scenes splashed through my head. “It's not something you'd want to hear.”

“It's okay. Bill should know. And I'll . . . deal with it.”

I gazed at her. “It wasn't much, really. Just . . . the man, washing blood off the knife in his kitchen sink. I saw his gold watch. Really fancy Rolex. The time was 5:35. And the date was tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?”

“Monday, March 19.”

“You mean he had a gold Rolex that shows the day and date?”

“Yeah.”

Shock flattened Patti's expression. She looked away.

What was that about? “I'm sorry. I shouldn't have told you.”

She managed a wan smile. “Oh, it's fine. I just . . . I'm glad all that's out of your head.”

Her stunned reaction ping-ponged in my mind. “Does Dr. Hilderbrand have a watch like that?”

She still wouldn't look at me. “No.”

She was lying. It was written all over her face. Pinpricks went down my back. Why would she lie about this? “No?”

Patti shook her head.

He did. He
did
. My heart turned over. I focused on the bedcovers, fighting to keep a calm expression. Hilderbrand owned that watch. It was real, too.

And she didn't want me to know.

What did this mean?

I shifted my position. What to say to keep her talking? “Dr. Hilderbrand has the chip they took out of me, right?”

She turned back to me. “You bet he does.”

“Has he examined it in the lab yet?”

“He's doing that today.”

Today. What would he find?

What would he think when Patti told him I'd seen his
real watch
?

“He agreed to tell me what he finds out,” I said.

“I know.”

“Do you think he'll really do that?”

She shrugged. “He said he would.”

More than said. It was in the contract. But he'd lied to me before. If he claimed he found nothing, how could I press it?

Patti gazed at the bandage on my head. “How are you feeling?”

“Okay.”

“The new chip?”

My lips curved. “It's good. Working well—and no more visions of your murder.”

“Well.” She shivered. “Glad to hear that.”

The blue silk of her top screamed at me. And the watch . . .

“Is it scary to have enemies like that, Patti? Who'd want to bring down your boyfriend's company and involve you, too?”

She looked at her lap. “Terrifying.”

She sounded so plaintive. For the first time I felt real sympathy for her. Bad enough that she was dating a man who couldn't be trusted not to cheat on her.

“Why do you stay with him?” The question blurted out. I half expected Patti to get up and stalk from the room.

She laced and unlaced her hands. “I love him.”

I watched her face. Waited for her to say more.

“You don't know him, Lisa. I mean, he's brilliant. Look at what he's created. And he's confident and strong. Everything I need . . .”

Except trustworthiness. All the same, I could partially understand. On the outside Patti Stolsinger looked like she had it all. Beauty, health, a good career. But who knew what demons chewed at her self-worth?

My expression softened. “I see.” And I did. Not that I thought she was right.

Patti's mouth opened, then closed. A frown flicked across her forehead. I had the distinct impression she wanted to ask me something but didn't know how.

I waited, but she said nothing.

“Don't . . .
settle
, Patti. Confidence and intelligence are great. But they can never beat out reliability. And gentleness.” I pictured Ryan.

Patti raised her chin in a defensive gesture—then blinked. Her gaze slipped away. She gave a tiny, defeated nod.

A warning light went off in my head. Was Hilderbrand abusive to her? He seemed like such a hard man. It was easy to imagine him losing his temper, especially if she ever confronted him about running around on her.

The false memories of her murder—did they scare Patti on some deeper level? Maybe she thought they were some kind of sign. And now she knew I'd seen Hilderbrand's watch.

I licked my lips. “Patti, are you afraid of—”

“I need to go.” She rose. “I'm sure you should be resting.”

No way could I let her leave yet. I needed answers. “Are you okay?”

“Of course, what do you mean?” She busied herself with returning the chair to its position against the wall. By the time she turned back to me, her anxious expression was gone. She gave me a tight smile. “I wish you the best, Lisa. And I'm very glad to hear the Empowerment Chip is working for you.”

Clearly I would get no more out of her. But her face and body language had said plenty. “Thank you.”

Patti picked up her purse. “Anything I can get you before I go?”

More empty politeness. The vibrations coming off her said she wanted out of there. “No, thanks. I'm fine.”

She nodded.

“I appreciate your coming to see me. Hope to talk to you again sometime. You have my number.”

She managed another smile. “Bye, Lisa.”

“Bye.”

When she left the room, the air thrummed.

MONDAY, MARCH 19

Chapter 33

As I checked out of the hospital late Monday morning I
felt pretty good physically, considering I'd been through back-to-back brain surgeries. But my mind wouldn't settle. I kept going over and over Patti's visit. Something was off. Something important. Like that watch showing today's date. Monday, March 19. Hilderbrand's
real
watch.

Sherry had left J.T. with a pinch-hit babysitter, but not for long. She had time to pick me up and take me home, then had to hightail it back to her own house. Mom had stocked my kitchen before she left, so I'd be set.

In a phone call Sunday night I'd told Sherry about Patti's visit. She was as surprised as I'd been. “I know the watch I saw in that final vision was real,” I said more than once. “Even though Patti denied it. I saw it on her face.”

“That's really bothering you, isn't it?”

“And her blouse. The one I saw her wearing when she was murdered. It was the same one she was wearing when she came to see me!”

“But, Lisa, you already knew some of the details from those scenes were true. Like Hilderbrand's house and street. And his car.”

“But these seem different. I mean, they're personal things Hilderbrand and Patti wear. How could somebody fake that?”

“The same way they faked a lot of other things, like Patti herself.”

“Look at all they do with computer graphics in movies these days.”

I shut up then. But I hadn't been satisfied.

Now on the way home, Sherry and I rode mostly in silence. I lay back against the head rest, eyes closed. It seemed no time at all before I felt us turn off of El Camino. Soon we'd reach my apartment building. I sat up with a sigh.

“You all right?” Sherry glanced at me.

“Yeah. I'm just tired.”

“You're not still worried about Patti's visit and all that?”

This woman knew me too well. “Guess I am.”

“Why?”

Good question. What was wrong with me? I'd been through the surgery—again—and everything was all over. Hilderbrand had kept his word. I should be nothing but happy. So what if Patti owned that blue top? So what if I'd seen Hilderbrand's watch?