Читать книгу Driving Force - Elle James - Страница 13

Gus frowned. “Wait. What? You don’t know who you are?”

The woman shook her head. “No. All I know is what I have tattooed on my wrist.” She held out her hand, palm up.

Charlie gasped and grabbed her wrist. “That’s the Trinity knot.” She shot a glance at Declan. “What are the chances that this is a coincidence?”

“I don’t believe in coincidence,” Declan said, his voice tight, his jaw even tighter. “You don’t know who you are? How did you know to come to Mrs. Halverson?”

The woman nodded toward the tattoo. “The coordinates below the symbol.”

“What coordinates?” Gus stared at the tattoo. “All I see are squiggly lines.”

“They’re numbers in Hebrew,” she said.

Gus wasn’t buying her story. Who tattooed coordinates on her own body? And in Hebrew? Highly unlikely. “How do you know they aren’t a telephone number or someone’s birth date?”

“I had ten days in the hull of a ship to think about it. As you can see, there are two rows of numbers. When I reached the US, I gave the telephone theory a shot. When I called the first one, it played a recording that it was out of service. I got a day care facility on the second one. Given the numbers, I figured they were longitude and latitude. The coordinates pointed to the Halverson Estate in Virginia.” She stared into Charlie’s eyes. “I don’t have any other ideas. If you don’t know who I am, I don’t know where to go from here.”

Charlie studied her for a long time and then shook her head. “I’m sorry, but I don’t recognize you at all.” Her brow furrowed. “But then I wasn’t always privy to all of my late husband’s activities. Perhaps he knew you?”

The woman’s shoulders sagged.

Charlie reached out to her. “I’m sorry. I wish I could help you. It must be very distressful not knowing your own name. In the meantime, we have to call you something.”

“Jane Doe,” Gus said.

“That’s so impersonal,” Charlie protested.

“It’s temporary until we figure out who she is,” Declan said.

The woman in the black dress shrugged. “It’s as good a name as any.” She nodded toward Gus. “And like he said, it’s temporary. Or at least I hope it’s temporary. Until I figure out who I am, I have no home, no identification and no job that I know of.”

“In other words, you’re broke and homeless,” Gus said. “Can’t blame you for chasing down a rich widow. I guess I would, too, in your circumstances.”

Jane Doe’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t want Mrs. Halverson’s money. I want to know who I am. Right now, I have no history, memories or family that I know of. If I had a job, I’m sure, by now, I’ve been fired for not showing up.”

“You said you spent ten days in the hull of a ship,” Declan’s eyes narrowed. “Is that where you were when you came to or discovered you’d lost your memory?”

She shook her head, her jaw hardening. “No.”

Gus leaned forward. “Where were you?”

She didn’t look at him, but stared into Charlie’s face. “I was locked inside a tiny cell in a small village in Syria.”

Charlie’s eyes widened. “Syria?”

“Yes, ma’am. Syria.”

“What were you doing in Syria?” Charlie asked.

Glancing away, Jane shook her head. “I don’t know. All I know is I was held captive. That’s where I woke up without my memory.”