Brandon McCaul looked at the woman in front of him, the grown up version of the girl he used to know years ago in high school. She was so sure of herself back then, so smart and caring. How could she have gotten herself into a situation like this? She must have had some issues, but they never showed back in school. He remembered her on stage, acting in the plays; he rememered her at the dances, was never without a dance partner; he remembered her tutoring him in math, how quick she was with problem solving; he wondered what had happened to that perfect girl from years ago...
Her bright green eyes were still there, and her gorgeous thick brown hair. She'd added a hint of reddish streaks in it since then, but it was still the same long hair he'd wanted to touch for so long. Her body had grown too, she'd filled out nicely, her breasts were very full now. He remembered measuring his hand on them from across the room, watching her on stage one night. He figured they'd just overflow his fingertips then, now they would take two hands to cup them comfortably. Her skin was white and creamy, her arms showed a bit more meat on them now than he could remember back then, so she'd added a couple pounds but she wore them well. Her hips curved out nicely and her stomach and waist were still slender. She was just stunning to him, despite the bruises and scratches of her recent mishap.
He'd done some research at the precinct the night before, to find out about Holly Tansen, nee Grace's, past. He'd known from the second he saw her that it was Holly Grace from high school, but he had to make sure. Everything he could do to help her would change everything for him. He finally had a chance with her if his suspicions were correct. He found out that Jason was her first marriage, and that she was no longer working at a job she'd been at for eight years. He'd thought it strange that someone like Holly would just up and quit her job, unless something else was going on that he hadn't discovered yet.
Holly stared back at Officer McCaul. His face was so calm and yet she could sense a feeling of loneliness or loss of something in his eyes. His perfect blue eyes. For a moment her mind flickered back to years before she'd met Jason, back when she was in school, those eyes looked so familiar to her for a split second and then the memory vanished.
She studied his face, his little crinkles next to his eyes, his strong nose, his full lips...
"Holly?"
Holly snapped out of her daze and blinked.
"Yeah?"
"You okay? You look perplexed." Officer McCaul's voice was so soothing. Reminded her of someone, but sounded deeper.
"Mmmhmm, I'm fine. Just trying to remember things." Holly's voice sounded distant to Brandon.
He wondered if she remembered him. He wondered if she still had the 'secret admirer' letter's he'd sent to her, if she'd even kept the roses on those Valentine's Days.
"Okay, well I had some questions for you, do you think , you're up for it?"
"Sure, I'm fine, really." Holly lifted a hand to brush her thick brown hair of the side of her face. "Go ahead, ask away."
"Well, first of all, I wanted to see what else you may remember from the day before the accident."
"Accident? That's what you're calling it?" Holly gasped in suprise.
"For argument's sake, until we can one hundred percent confirm everything, it leaves no bias that way, that's all." Officer McCaul was very apologetic and reached out to touch Holly's hand to comfort her.
"Okay, well, the day before the accident, um, let's see..." Holly thought for a second, running a finger through the ends of her hair nervously. "Well, if I start from the morning, Jason got up and left for work before I got out of bed, which is normal. I got up at seven and made the bed. Then I went downstairs and put a load of laundry in, and had my breakfast. When the laundry was done, I hung all of Jason's shirts out on the line and then had a shower. After that, um, I guess I sat down at the computer for a bit." Holly scratched her hand where the IV was attached, irritated at the fact that she had to be confined to this hospital bed.
"You left for work after that?" Officer McCaul prompted.
"Um, no, I'm not working right now." Holly's gaze lowered to her hands and she fidgeted nervously again.
"Okay, that's no big deal, what happened next?"
"No big deal? I lost my job! I lived for my job, I was up for a promotion, but in order to get it, I had to stay late some nights and Jason had to make his own supper and he'd call my work to ask where I was and my boss would tell me to go home and look after my husband, and Jason had burnt the butter on the frying pan and it was smokey all over and I thought the kitchen was on fire!" The words spilled from Holly's mouth uncontrollably, they weren't thought out, they were just blurted before she could even stop them.
"He can't cook for himself?" Brandon hadn't meant for it to be spoken aloud, but it just hit him in the face so hard. He had lived on his own for seven years now and he thought himself a pretty good cook. What guy can't cook to save his life? It didn't make sense to him at all.
"No, I have always cooked for him, and before that his mother took care of him. He needed me at home to make supper and he missed me so much that he'd call work to ask how much longer I'd be, and my boss used to tell me just to go. There was no way I was going to get that promotion I was working so hard for, and then one day, my boss called me into his office, told me the position had been filled and that regrettably, he didn't need me anymore. It didn't make any sense at all, I was an asset to the company - he'd told me that himself. How could they not need me anymore?" Holly's eyes filled with tears as her bad memories came flooding back to her.
Brandon moved closer to her and offered his shoulder for her to cry on. She took it without hesitation. He was the only person in her world that she could trust right now, and she needed him to help her get away from her murderous husband.
Brandon's hands rubbed gently up and down Holly's hospital gowned back. The ties were tied loosely and patches of her pale skin peeked through. His fingertips brushed the bare skin momentarily and then on the second pass, lingered a bit longer.
Holly inhaled deeply to try to quell her tears, and a familiar scent filled her senses. She remembered that cologne, but from where? She couldn't place it, but she knew she trusted that scent at one point in her life before and it comforted her that her officer smelled so trustworthy.
"Is there anything else you can think of that happened the day before? Or even a week or so ago, anything that seemed out of place, or not quite right?" Brandon prodded. He needed to get this investigation underway properly soon if he was going to free this poor woman from her murderous husband.
"I don't know. Everything was always perfect. I can't think of anything that might have upset him to do this."
"Holly, do you have children?" He asked, remembering what Jason had told him in the police station about them trying toget pregnant.
