“Yeah, okay. See ya.”
Just as they pulled up to Pleasant Lane, Jesse’s phone rang and Nicole’s number flashed across the dashboard. Evie’s hand darted out and hit the green Accept button.
“Nicole! Hey! I was just about to call you.”
“Evie, hey, are you with Jesse?”
“I’m here. We were just on our way back to the house to call you. I—”
“Wait.”
“What?”
“Your voice . . . Evie.” Nicole gasped. “Your voice.”
“What about my voice?”
“Nothing. For a second it sounded like—”
“Like I was back to normal?”
“Yeah . . .”
“I—I remember, Nicole. My—my memory’s back.”
“Holy shit! How? Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I think I’m okay. I’m fine, I just—You could tell from my voice?”
“I mean, yeah. You were talking a little like a polite cyborg before. But hold on one second. I just saw Melanie Burns on the street. She confessed to pushing you down the stairs.”
“What?” echoed around the cab of the truck. She looked over at Jesse, his shock mirroring hers before a dark cloud of rage passed over his features. Melanie was lucky there were three thousand miles between herself and all three-hundred-plus pounds of him.
“God,” Evie sighed. “She just can’t—She did. She did push me down the stairs.”
“I knew it!” Jesse pulled the truck to a stop right in front of Miss Leona’s, and the three of them sat there and listened to Nicole’s whole strange encounter with Chef Burns.
“This is insane,” Evie said. She was having trouble breathing again. There were still some gaps in her memory, but parts of that night were very clear.
“What exactly happened?” Jesse asked.
“I don’t know if she followed me or what, but she was in the stairwell as I was coming down. We got into an argument about the way she’d treated Tiffany, and then when I tried to walk away, she shoved me.”
“We have to go to the police.”
“Damn right we do. I’m coming back and we’ll go speak to them first thing in the morning.”
“Hi. Sorry to interrupt. But can we slow down for a minute here,” Vega said from the back seat. “Hi, yeah. You’re possibly experiencing spontaneous recovery after a massive head injury. I think you’re still in the middle of a pretty intense panic attack. Maybe don’t jump on a red-eye tonight.”
“She does have a point,” Nicole said.
“Nicole, let us call you back,” Jesse said, his voice oddly calm.
“Yeah, okay. Call me back soon.”
Jesse ended the call. “Thank you,” Vega said. “Let’s get Evie inside. I’d like to properly examine you and then we need to call Dr. Zordetski. Even if she doesn’t need to see you right away, she needs to know. And I’m pretty sure Miss Leona would like to know what’s going on as well.”
“That’s a good idea,” Jesse agreed.