Resolved Memories (Sycamore P.D. Series Book 3) Read online

  Resolved Memories

  T. E. Killian

  Copyright © 2013 by Trennis E. Killian

  Cover Design: Kailee J. Jodarski

  Novels by T. E. Killian

  The Sycamore P.D. Series

  Lost Memories

  Accepted Memories

  Resolved Memories

  The Crowley County Series

  No Easy Solution

  A Better Solution

  The Only Solution

  Another Solution

  The Clear Creek Series

  Ryan’s Ruin

  Chase’s Return

  Hunter’s Revenge

  Walking Together Series

  Walking Straight

  Walking Away

  Walking the Line

  www.tekillian.com.

  The Sycamore P.D. Series

  Sarah Thompson married Air Force pilot Harry Newcomb and left her children, Grant and Alison with her sister, Sybil while they went on their honeymoon. Harry told her family that she had been killed in a car wreck in Europe while on their honeymoon.

  Now, twenty years later Sarah Thompson Newcomb is very much alive and suffering from amnesia for all that time. Her husband, Harry, is killed in Afghanistan and she comes back to Sycamore, AZ, to be with his family not knowing that she had any family of her own there. All of these people are thrown together by the mystery surrounding Harry’s death. How do they each deal with their own memories and with each other?

  Resolved Memories – Second in the Series

  A year later, Detective Lieutenant Sonia Nordstrom is trying to solve a series of murders when Wayne Newcomb almost becomes one of the victims. Wayne is still trying to resolve his feelings for his dead father who abandoned him over twenty years ago.

  Wayne is still pursuing Sonia. Can he change enough for her finally to give him a chance?

  Can they come together in time to solve the murders?

  Chapter One

  Wayne Newcomb loved to play golf. He would play it every morning if his job would allow it, but, of course, it didn’t. He wasn’t like most golfers in the sense that he didn’t like to watch others play. He only wanted to play, period. He knew he was better than average. His height and overall body strength allowed him to drive the ball far enough to get close to the green every time, providing his aim was accurate enough.

  Wayne hit his ball and had the satisfaction of watching it travel straight down the fairway and stop rolling just this side of the sand trap.

  He stepped back to watch the other guys tee off. They were all his friends and had been since their first week of freshman year in high school. They had all gone to Sycamore Academy, the local private high school. The other three were sons of prominent business owners in the valley. Wayne’s grandfather owned a large company that operated eight new car dealerships in three states.

  Carl Adams whose dark blond hair was waving in the wind, stood at his tee. He looked at the other two. “I think Wayne is taking unfair advantage of us, guys. He doesn’t have a wife to make him do the nasty tiring stuff around the house, and he doesn’t have kids to wear him down all the time either. He’s just got too much energy for the rest of us.”

  The other two laughed. It was a standing joke among the others about Wayne being single while they all had families. This time Wayne didn’t join in their laughter but none of the others seemed to notice.

  Wayne was getting extremely tired of the same old jokes and teasing every Sunday morning. When he thought about it, though, he admitted that it had never bothered him before. He would just laugh it off and tease them about how he was free to do whatever he wanted and they weren’t.

  Why now? Why did it bother him now? If he were honest with himself though, he knew why. He now wanted what his three friends had. He wanted a family. It wasn’t something that had sneaked up on him either. It had hit him almost two years ago.

  He shook his head in frustration. He knew the very day that it had all started. He’d been in a restaurant having lunch with his sister, Kelly, when a group of police detectives walked into the place. Kelly, of course, only had eyes for one of the detectives, Grant Thompson who she married less than a year later.

  But Wayne took one look at Grant’s sergeant and had been totally mesmerized ever since. Sonia Nordstrom was simply gorgeous. No woman had ever affected him the way she did or as much as she did. At an even six feet, she had stood taller than all but one of the other detectives with her. That didn’t bother Wayne since he was still four inches taller. She was just right! She was Swedish and had the most beautiful white blond hair he’d ever seen. It reached almost to her waist, but he’d only seen it that way a few times. She always wore it piled on top of her head while on duty.

  “Hey, Newcomb, you going to finish this hole or not?”

  With difficulty, Wayne brought his mind back to the present. The others had all teed off and were walking down the fairway toward their balls.

  That had been the eighteenth hole and they were all soon in the clubhouse having a beer. The others began talking about their kids again and Wayne had to get away. He excused himself and all but ran to the restroom.

  As Wayne was leaving the restroom, he almost bumped into another man before he realized he knew him.

  “Hello, Wayne, how was your game?”

  Wayne shrugged and said, “About normal, Dave. How are you? You don’t play golf do you?”

  Dave Robertson was the service manager at the local Newcomb Motors dealership. As general manager, Wayne was his immediate supervisor.

  “Oh, no, I never could hit that little ball anywhere near the right direction, so I gave it up a long time ago.” He laughed. “No, my wife wanted to come here for the brunch, so I packed up her and the kids and brought them here.”

  There it was again. More stories about someone else’s family.

  “Can you imagine how hard it is to bring seven kids into a place like this?” Dave laughed again. “Well, I guess I’d better get back before they get the best of Dottie.”

  With that, Dave went back into the dining room.

  Wayne stood there for a moment. Sure, he wanted a family, but that was ridiculous. He wanted a wife and a couple of kids, not a whole mob like Dave had.

  When he sat back down at the table, the conversation was still on kids. Wayne had had enough. He finished his beer in one large gulp and rose again.

  “Hey, Wayne, where you going? We’re just getting going here.” Bill called out with a laugh.

  Wayne had to come up with something. They were still his friends, he didn’t want to tell them how bad they were grating on his nerves. “I’ve got to go home and get ready for my sister’s birthday party in a little while.”

  Jake laughed. “You think she’ll make it through the party without having to go to the hospital?”

  The others all laughed at that. Kelly was eight and a half months pregnant. Being a thin woman her stomach looked so big that she appeared to be overdue.

  He laughed with them and left.

  As he drove to his house, he thought about his little sister. He couldn’t help remembering that he’d told her countless times while they were growing up that he would always take care of her no matter what. Well, he couldn’t really do much of that anymore. Her husband, Grant, was a police detective who was more than up to the job. In spite of that, she was still his little sister.

  That was another constant reminder of what he didn’t have. She was married and starting a family. Even her husband’s little sister, Alison, was also married and expecting any time. In fact, Kelly had told him yesterday that Alison was already a few days past her due date. Not only
was he the only one of his group of friends without a family, now he was the only one in his extended family without a family of his own. Even his stepmother had remarried. At their frequent family gatherings, he was the only single person there. Great!

  Those thoughts stayed with him through getting ready and driving the rest of the way up the mountainside to his grandparents estate.

  * * *

  Sonia Nordstrom was off duty but she was about ready to call dispatch to report the crazy driver ahead of her. It didn’t look to her like he was paying a bit of attention to his driving. Either that or he was drunk. Either way, she needed to get him off the road.

  What a beautiful car though. It was her dream car, a Mercedes Roadster, a convertible even. She loved that shiny burgundy paint job too. You would think that anyone who had a car like that would love driving it so much that he’d always pay attention to his driving.

  She could see him gesturing with his free hand. Maybe he was talking on his cell phone. Even if he was using Bluetooth, he wasn’t paying much attention to his driving.

  She was reaching inside her purse for her cell phone when the Mercedes turned up the private road leading to the Newcomb estate. That’s where she was going, so she pulled her hand back out of her purse and followed the guy. He drove around the circle drive and through the garage type door into the inner parking court. She followed him. After all, that was where Kelly had told her go to park too.

  Sonia was surprised or maybe not so surprised when she pulled up next to the car and saw Wayne Newcomb sitting behind the wheel. She should have known a rich partier like him would drive a car like that.

  He wasn’t getting out. He was just sitting there staring straight ahead. She could tell that he was talking to himself. Okay! What next?

  She didn’t like the guy. She’d had several run-ins with him over the past couple of years. No, that wasn’t quite right. He was a pest. He was always hitting on her so bad that it was embarrassing.

  She thought about sitting there and waiting him out, but that probably wouldn’t work. She’d be better off if she got out and tried to make it to the house before he caught her.

  Just as she was closing her car door, Wayne looked up and saw her. She almost laughed and almost felt sorry for him at the same time. The expressions on his face were easily readable. First, there was surprise, then pleasure, then fear. Fear? Why was that? Was he afraid of her?

  That rooted Sonia to the spot. She couldn’t move away from her car. Their eyes were locked and he wasn’t moving either. Finally, she was able to break away and start walking toward the back entrance. Wayne jumped out of his car and rushed after her.

  When he was next to her, she kept her eyes straight ahead, continued walking, and said, “Good afternoon, Wayne.”

  He smiled and said, “Good afternoon, Sonia, how are you today?”

  She almost said she had been fine until she ran into him, but she didn’t though. After all, he was Kelly’s brother and Sonia didn’t want to upset her friend by being rude to her brother. “I’m fine, thank you.”

  When they reached the door, Wayne opened it and stepped aside to let her enter ahead of him. “Sonia, I wanted the opportunity to apologize to you and to tell you that I’m thoroughly ashamed of the way I’ve acted toward you in the past. And I also want you to know that I will always treat you the way you want to be treated from now on.”

  When she didn’t answer, he said, “How would you like for me to treat you?”

  She turned to look into his eyes and couldn’t stop herself from saying, “From a distance.”

  With that, she walked on through the patio and into the great room beyond. Wayne was still standing at the outer door with his mouth open. Good! She’d finally made the right impression on him. Maybe now he would leave her alone.

  As soon as Sonia entered through the back door into the great room, Kelly and Alison both called out to her to sit with them. Kelly was sitting in a recliner that looked out of place in that room filled with overstuffed sofas and armchairs arranged into four large conversation pits.

  Sonia knew that the recliner was there for Kelly only. Kelly had been in a terrible car wreck when she was twelve that had killed her mother and left her partly crippled. Her left ankle had been so shattered that even after many operations, she still had to wear a brace to be able to walk at all. Sonia had grown to love Kelly. She was the sweetest and the most refreshing person Sonia had ever known.

  Alison, though, was another story. True, Sonia liked Alison well enough but she was the opposite of Kelly. Alison was a real estate broker who owned her own realty. She was an in your face type of person who seemed to be very good at her job.

  Sonia sat on the sofa next to Alison after leaning over each of the other two women so they could hug her, which wasn’t easy since both women were huge from their advanced state of pregnancy.

  Sonia still had trouble getting used to receiving affection from anyone. After all, she’d grown up with just her dad and three older brothers who were all far from affectionate toward her. But she was beginning to feel comfortable with these two loving women.

  Sonia remembered why they were gathered together today. “Happy birthday, Kelly.”

  “Thank you.” Kelly giggled and pulled her long black hair back over her shoulders. “I’m having a difficult time believing I’m actually thirty years old now. Not too long ago, I thought thirty was ancient.”

  They all three laughed. Sonia liked laughter. She hadn’t done enough of it over the years, and it felt good.

  Kelly had leaned forward in her chair and was massaging her left ankle through the brace. She looked up at Sonia and said, “I’ve had a terrible time with swelling in both my feet, and especially this one.” She patted her belly. “I’ll sure be glad when this little one decides to make his or her entrance into the world.”

  Sonia smiled. “That’s right. Neither of you wanted to know ahead of time whether you were having a boy or girl.”

  Alison giggled this time and shook her head causing her long blond hair to swing back and forth. “No way, we wanted to be surprised.” She patted her belly. “But I can tell you this one has to be a boy. He’s been so ornery for the last nine months . . . and three days.”

  They all laughed again and stood when Mr. Newcomb, Kelly’s grandfather, called them all into the dining room for dinner.

  The three women had barely made it into the marble tiled hallway when Alison yelled so loud that Sonia jumped then stepped over to grasp her by the elbows.

  Alison shouted again. “Stan!” She was looking down at her feet where a puddle had appeared. “Stan! Now!”

  Stan Becker, Alison’s husband was there quickly, picked her up in his arms, and rushed toward the back door. Grant, her brother was holding the door open for them.

  Kelly turned to Sonia and said, “Sonia, would you please drive me to the hospital so I can be there for them? I don’t want to get in their way right now. I’d just slow them down. And I haven’t been doing much driving for the last few weeks.”

  “I would be happy to, Kelly. Do you need any help?”

  “No, I’ll be okay. As long as I move slow and use this dreadful cane. I sure will be glad when I don’t’ have to use it all the time again.”

  Wayne appeared at his sister’s side. “I’ll drive you to the hospital, sis.”

  Kelly smiled up at her brother. “That’s okay, Wayne. Sonia is taking me. I think I can get in and out of her car much better than yours.”

  Sonia muttered under her breath, “She wants to get there in one piece too.”

  Kelly tried to laugh and Wayne just stood there with a puzzled look on his face.

  * * *

  Wayne decided to join the others at the hospital. If nothing else, it might give him some time with Sonia. He really needed to prove to her that he was going to treat her right from now on, if only she’d just give him a second chance.

  He was directed to the delivery waiting room on the third floor.
When he entered the large room with plastic seating, he expected to see only Kelly, Grant, Stan, and Sonia. But he was surprised to see everyone who had been at his grandparents’ estate earlier sitting or standing around the room.

  He looked around until he found Sonia. Jealousy burned through him. Jealousy? Kelly was sitting on one side of Stan and Sonia was on his other side. They both had their arms around Stan and were talking softly to him. Wayne suddenly realized how badly he wanted to be the one Sonia had her arms around. Man! What was he going to do? What could he do?

  He sat down in the nearest chair and began to brood again.

  Grant began pacing back and forth in front of Wayne. He looked up and said, “Hey, man, you’re making me nervous.”

  Grant just grunted but kept walking and didn’t slow down. When he turned around at the other side of the room and headed back toward Wayne, he said, “That’s my little sister in there right now.”

  Kelly hobbled over and grabbed her husband by the arm. “Grant, if you don’t calm down at least a little, we’re never going to be able to keep Stan calm.”

  He stopped and hugged his wife, Wayne’s little sister. That was still difficult for him to get a handle on. Kelly had never even been on a date in her life before she met Grant. Now, she was married and would soon be in there where Alison was, having a baby. That just added more confusion to his already befuddled mind.

  Kelly looked down at Wayne and motioned for him to stand with them.

  When he did, she laid her hand on his arm and said, “Wayne, Sonia told me you apologized to her for the way you’ve come on to her in the past.”

  He nodded and she continued, “Did you really mean it?” He nodded again. “Are you going to follow through with treating her right from now on?”

  He shook his head and snorted. “I would like to, but she just told me to stay away from her.”