Hazel

16 CONNOR

Sam looked pretty wary when I asked her to close her eyes.

“I need you to concentrate,” I said, and she adjusted her posture.

“Okay. What are we doing?” She shifted as I sat down right behind her on the bed. “You need to tell me why I’m feeling anxious keeping my eyes closed this long.”

“Calm down, Evie Carnahan,” I whispered.

“Oh my God… you’ve seen The Mummy?” She turned to look at me and smiled, and I couldn’t help smiling back. “That’s my favorite movie.”

“Who would’ve guessed?” I turned her head back to face forward.

“Although it has some errors and exaggerations and…” Sam started to ramble.

“Samantha!”

“Okay. Focus.” She took a deep breath.

“What we’re going to do now is a cognitive interview.” I watched her body shift slightly. “Or at least what I remember of the technique from my last training on it, about fifteen years ago.”

“Are you sure you can do this?”

I brushed a strand of hair aside, exposing her ear and neck.

“I guess we’re about to find out,” I said in a low, measured tone. “I need you to breathe deeply and focus on my voice. Only my voice.”

“I’ll try.”

“The idea behind the cognitive interview is that memory isn’t like a photograph or a video stored in some giant mental computer, but rather a set of fragments that can be accessed and reconstructed with the right stimuli.”

“I think I’ve seen that on some TV show.”

“It’s a lot less dramatic in real life,” I replied. “Now I want you to focus on that bathroom. What were you feeling when you walked in?”

Sam sighed.

“I was irritated,” she murmured.

I smiled, remembering how she’d stomped off like a petulant child.

“Why?” I teased.

Sam turned to face me, her narrowed eyes daring me to keep pushing.

“Focus, Miss Riad.” I held her shoulders and turned her back to face forward.

“Let’s start over… what was the weather like?”

“Hot. I remember that’s how she started talking to me.” Sam took a deep breath. “She complained about the weather… she wasn’t from around here. She even had a bit of an accent.”

“Something like mine?”

“No. If I had to guess, I’d say European. Like the tourists who come to the antique shop in groups.”

“Excellent, Sam.” I felt her sigh when I let her know she was doing well. “From there, could you hear the music playing outside?”

“In the distance,” she said thoughtfully. “Maybe I could.”

“Hey, relax.” I touched her shoulders. “There’s no right or wrong answer, okay?”

She nodded.

“When you walked in, was she already there?” I returned to setting the scene, or at least what I remembered of it.

“I don’t know. She appeared in the mirror.” Sam fell silent for a moment. “She was there. I was looking at myself in the mirror when she came out of a stall.”

“I want you to focus on the reflection of the two of you. What can you remember?” I squeezed her shoulders gently. “What was she wearing?”

“I don’t remember.”

I brought my lips close to her ear and softened my tone even more.

“I want you to remember yourself, staring at the mirror, probably irritated because I get on your nerves. Thinking of a thousand ways to kill me slowly.” I felt her shoulders relax.

“At the same time, you’re feeling the heat and the humid air.

The muffled music. She appears in the bathroom mirror and complains about the heat. You share a lipstick.”

Sam breathed deeply a few more times, and I could tell she was ready.

“What does she look like?”

“The cap fell on the floor and I bent down to pick it up. When I bent down, I felt her eyes on me.” She struggled with the memory. “I stood up and looked at her. I noticed she was wearing contact lenses and wondered why anyone would wear brown contacts.”

“Any other details that caught your attention?”

“She said she’d been watching us.” Sam turned to me. “That we were a beautiful couple.”

“So if she knew about us… maybe she was waiting for us,” I concluded.

“Or for you,” Sam countered. “Actually, the way she said it bothered me a little. Like she lingered on it too long. Like it made her uncomfortable.”

“It’s possible. Considering Ammit knew I’d go looking for answers,” I mused. “You did really well.”

“So did you.” She kept her eyes on me. “I’m sorry I lied to you.”

“It’s okay,” I reassured her. “Sometimes I forget it’s only been a few days since we met.”

“Right?” She smiled. “It’s been one hell of a roller coaster.”

“I’m still getting used to the idea of having a partner,” I joked.

“You’re not very good at this whole relating-to-living-people thing, are you?”

“First... that came out really weird,” I shot back. “Second... I know perfectly well how to relate to ‘living people’... And third, you’re not exactly easy yourself.”

She stared at me incredulously.

“You’re the one who came out swinging from day one.”

“Because you broke into the apartment.”

“My apartment!”

“The apartment Mr. Omar kindly rented to me. I could have shot you!”

“But you almost killed me when you suddenly yanked me onto the bed,” she shot back.

I smiled, remembering the chaotic scene.

“And yet you fell onto the bed and slept like a log.”

She threw herself onto the bed, lying on her back.

“I was exhausted!” She propped herself up on her elbows. The dress she was still wearing seemed out of place with the girlish smile she wore. “Didn’t you sleep?”

“Not for a minute,” I admitted. “You wouldn’t stop snoring.”

“I don’t snore!!!”

“Then there must have been some animal roaring under the bed,” I teased, and she threw the pillow at me.

“You’re an asymptomatic gentleman,” she said, getting up and heading to the bathroom.

I let myself fall back onto the bed. My body was sore and my head was throbbing. But I was smiling.

“Are you planning to take a shower?” Sam stuck her head out of the bathroom, and my mind wandered to what lay hidden behind that wall.

“I’d like to.”

“Sorry. The water’s almost out, and there’s no way I’m going to the reservoir to refill it at this hour.”

“I can go.”

“I wouldn’t go there even during the day. I once found a cobra hiding in there.”

I could face criminals, intense shootouts, dangerous chases... but venomous animals were where I drew the line.

“I guess I’ll go without a shower.”

Sam disappeared into the bathroom. I threw myself onto the bed, staring at the ceiling fan.

“You know what? If you don’t mind, we can share.” She appeared in front of me wrapped in a towel. “I can wear my bikini. And you, I don’t know—you can wear underwear.”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea.” I was certain it wasn’t.

“Maybe... but I’m not sleeping next to you when you smell like hookah and straight-guy sweat,” Sam shot back, grabbing her bikini from the closet. “Besides, you’ve still got Mohani’s blood on your chest.”

I stared at the dried blood marks on my skin.

“Well, the offer’s on the table,” she said, heading toward the bathroom. “If you take too long to decide, you’ll go without a shower and I’ll make you sleep on the floor.”

I watched her go in and leave the door open. If I accepted, I’d be testing my sanity. If I declined, I’d be testing my spine.

I took a deep breath and took off my pants, leaving me in just my underwear.

“This is wrong on so many levels,” I muttered to myself.

I walked hesitantly to the door and knocked a few times before entering. Sam was already soaked, except for her hair, which was pulled up in a short ponytail high on her head.

“I’m too old to sleep on the floor,” I said by way of justification, watching her follow my movements toward the shower.

“Get in... I’m going to soap up,” she said, making room for me in the small cubicle. We didn’t touch, but one wrong move and I’d elbow her.

I turned my back to her while she soaped up because I didn’t need to see the foam running down her body. The water cascaded over my head, relieving some of the heat.

“I underestimated how much I needed this,” I said, bracing my arms against the shower wall as the water ran down my back.

“Told you,” Sam said. “Uh... I need to rinse off.”

“Okay.” I turned to let her pass, hoping there was enough space that I wouldn’t accidentally touch any part of her body.

While I was soaping up, Sam called out to me.

“Can you help me? The bikini tie got tangled in the hair that came loose.” She pointed to the tangle at her neck.

I tried to untangle it, but my fingers kept slipping on the wet fabric.

“Just pull the tie,” she complained.

“I know, Sherlock,” I shot back. “I’m trying.”

“You’re making it worse, that’s what.”

“If you think it’s so easy, why don’t you do it yourself?” I muttered. “What if we just cut it?”

“You're kidding, right?” She looked at me incredulously.

“Of course,” I lied, going back to working on the knot.

“Come closer,” she ordered. “You're so far away you're practically in Luxor.”

I obeyed.

“Come here… rinse off that soap before the water runs out.”

She pulled me in, spinning us both until our bodies were practically in the same spot.

“I'm almost done,” I said, praying for my torment to end. Sam held the front of her bikini, making sure it wouldn't fall when I finally undid the knot.

When I finished, Sam tied it again, more carefully, and turned to face me. We were just inches apart. The water ran between us.

If I breathed any harder, our bodies would touch. Sam turned again, the water now running down her neck, following the curves of her body. I could only watch, my underwear proving to be a terrible choice for the shower. I should have worn pants.

Sam looked at me over her shoulder. Not worried about what I might do, but curious to see what I would do.

“I think I'm done,” I said, moving slowly until I was completely out of the shower. I grabbed the towel, wrapped it around my waist, and left still completely wet.

I needed to breathe… I needed time to defuse this bomb in my underwear, ready to explode and cause irreversible damage.