Page 198 of Secrets Hidden In The Glass

Matthew frowned. “That’s still happening?”

“Yeah. Sometimes. She’s drawing what she remembers when she wakes up.”

“Like what?”

Nate shrugged. “Weird, random stuff that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. The forest and full moon. A roofline and window. The locket she told you about when we visited a few weeks ago?”

Matthew nodded. “Yes?”

“She found it at Just Antiques. Captain Bob found it out in the woods years ago.”

Matthew’s frown returned. “That’s certainly an odd coincidence.”

“I’m starting to think it’s not a coincidence. Sometimes I wonder if she might know what happened to her mother.”

Matthew laced his fingers and settled them on his lap. “Repression is controversial. Some practitioners believe in it—others don’t.”

“What side are you on?”

Matthew leaned his head to the right contemplatively. “There’s a lot we don’t understand about the brain. If we don’t understand, how can we write it off?”

“So, you think her nightmares could be memories?”

“Honestly, Nathan, it’s hard to say. We’ve talked about stress being a trigger for disturbing dreams. Callie’s life seems to be full of it.”

Nate huffed out a small laugh. “You’re not kidding.”

“But we can’t dismiss the possibilities. Repressed memories are thought to be the mind’s way of protecting itself from extreme trauma.”

Nate sighed. “Yeah.”

“Being abandoned as a young child certainly falls into the traumatic category.”

“Yeah,” Nate repeated, scrubbing at his face. “And Detective Sanchez and I don’t have much to work with,” he confessed to the man he thought of as an uncle. “If we could get her to remember—”

Matthew held up a hand. “We’re talking about a very delicate situation, Nathan. Currently, it’s impossible to say what happened to Callie, correct?”

He nodded. “Other than her being here for the Fourth of July parade, then in Hartford, Connecticut, in the middle of the night, yes.”

“Digging for memories the mind refuses to actualize is a delicate process. My advice to you would be not to push. If you would like my help, I’d be happy to see what I can do, but however you two choose to move forward, I’m going to stress caution.”

The last thing he wanted to do was cause Callie any more pain. “Good thought.”

“How are you doing with all of this?”

Nate sighed. “All right. I want to find the answers. I want to make this better for her.”

“We’re all wishing you the best. Callie too.”

He shook his head in a moment of defeat. “I’ll take all the well wishes I can get.” He looked from the floor to Matthew. “I’m afraid we’re never going to know why she ended up in that diner.”

“Have more faith in yourself, Nathan.”

He clenched his jaw. “I guess I’m in a rough place—need a chance to shake off the day. I’m sure you’ll hear about it sooner or later. I pissed off your brother. Bad.”

Matthew smiled. “That’s not hard to do.”

“I asked Thomas for his alibi.”