Free Dangerous Memories by Angi Morgan

mother. It must have been hard for Joseph to watch her grow up withoutthinking of his wife every day.
    “Why do you think it was unusual to clean the kitchen? Everybody does it.”
    “We had a part-time maid, someone who helped my mother.”
    That wasn’t in the reports. How many other people had been in the house who aren’t in the freakin’ report? “So she didn’t live with you or have a key to the house?”
    “I don’t think so. LuLu watched me when I was sick.And allowed me to play in the downstairs living room while she dusted. She’d let me sit on top of the vacuum and would push me around. I loved staying home from daycare.”
    “Do you remember LuLu’s real name?”
    She thought a moment, cupping both her cheeks with her slender, delicate fingers. Physically growing more tense with each glance around the room. “I can’t. It’s all blurring together.I don’t know what’s real and what’s a dream.”
    “Time to stop.” He took her hands from her face, relieved she let him touch her without jumping out of her skin. “Don’t force it.”
    “Why not try? I’ve remembered more in the last ten minutes than twenty years.”
    “Your dad was right. Your memory has been coming back with a vengeance. You just didn’t realize it.”
    “If you don’t wantme to talk, then you should. Why didn’t you mention you’d seen the file on my mother?”
    “I see the case file on all my witnesses.”
    “Okay then, spill.”
    “I’m not going to tell you what I know.” He wanted to. Wanted to be completely honest for once. “Don’t read any secretiveness into it, either. If I told you, it may change what you actually remember. But I can say that there was nomention of a part-time maid in any reports. She would have been a good person to interrogate at the time of the murder.”
    “Dad would have mentioned her.”
    “Then we assume her information has been removed from the files,” he said, looking a bit worried for once. “Or she’s there and not listed as having access to the house.”
    “So where do we start?”
    “You get showered and dressed.Then we go visit your old house.” He propped his back against the headboard. “I’m not leaving you alone. I’m sticking to you like leather seats on a hot humid day. No buts or arguing. Get used to it.”
    Her cute little dimpled jaw fell open with a little puff of astonishment, but she quickly recovered and retreated to the bath. He heard the water spray and needed to close his eyes. He’d driventhroughout the night. Until they identified her mother’s client, the mysterious housekeeper and this Rainbow Man , he’d be sleeping with one eye open.
    He’d purchased a burner cell to update his office on the train fiasco and ask a pal for a favor. Still hadn’t made the call yet. Sherry would be furious and think he was out of his mind.
    If she hadn’t thought he was nuts for helping Jobefore, she would when he told her that his non-witness was on the verge of identifying a murderer who looked like a Rainbow Man .
    * * *
    “I T SHOULD JUST be a couple of more blocks. We’re going to drive by once to see if we can spot anyone watching the house.”
    Levi spoke in his natural, calming manner. Seemingly unconcerned that Jolene was about to enter her childhood home. A placeshe’d only allowed herself to remember with happy childlike impressions.
    But she saw his eyes, searching the mirror, the streets, watching those walking by just a little longer than normal. His voice might be soothing, but his body spoke a different language. Defensive, ready to strike, protective, fingers tight on the steering wheel, ready to race the car and get them out of there in aninstant. She knew he’d readied his gun at the hotel, verified how many bullets he had one last time before placing it in his holster.
    So many of the things she’d wondered about over the past four years made sense now. She loved the curiosity in his eyes that had seemed to be constantly