He knew to be cautious. Memory retrieval could be a tricky business; there was always the potential for recovering false memories.
“You said you were reading. What’s the book?” he asked. “Try hard to see the cover … a picture … the color of it … the author, anything you can recall. Think, now.”
There was a deep, heavy thumping in Mitch’s chest as he awaited her answer.
Penny, eyes still closed, took her time responding. Eventually she said, a bit dreamily, “It’s dark blue, and there’s water and boats on the cover. That’s all I can remember.”
Mitch tamped down his excitement as his thoughts branched off into multiple paths. Leaning forward, making sure not to crowd her, he contemplated the best way to further his inquiry without influencing Penny’s answers.
“Do you remember what kind of boats?”
Penny shook her head solemnly like she’d been a disappointment. “No. I was just in my bedroom, reading that book. Oh, what was it?”
The desperation in her voice was raw. Even though she had her eyes closed, Mitch kept a neutral expression as he weighed different options to jostle her recall.
“Talk to me about your room,” he eventually said. “What does it look like?”
Penny lowered her chin to her chest, still deep in thought.
“Oh yes,” she said. “I see it now. My bed, all the blankets, I should have picked them up like Mom asked me, and—”
She stopped mid-sentence, and her eyes flew open like she’d been jolted awake. If ever a look cried out for help, it was that one, and the significance of the moment put Mitch on high alert.
“Penny, what are you thinking about right now? What are you remembering?”
Penny blinked rapidly as if dust had gotten in her eyes and she was trying to clear away the unpleasant sensation. Her hands flew to her mouth. She swallowed several shaky gasps.
“Blood,” she sobbed. “I saw blood, so much blood.”
“It’s okay, it’s all right.” Mitch touched Penny’s arm to soothe her. “You’re safe here. I promise.”
Her eyes closed again, mouth puckered as if enduring a bitter taste.
“I wasn’t alone.” She said it quietly, as if she were physically in the apartment where the murder took place and was trying to keep her presence in this memory a secret.
A sharp jolt ripped through Mitch.
“Say that again?”
“I wasn’t alone,” Penny repeated in a breathy voice.
“You weren’t alone in Rachel’s apartment?” he asked, seeking clarification.
Penny’s eyes opened wide, more frightened than before.
“She’s on the floor. I saw her. I saw her face,” she said in a murmuring voice. “I was with her, but I … I … wasn’t alone.”
Mitch went blank for a few seconds. He was torn between several possibilities: probe deeper, run to Grace, or find the nurse to confirm exactly what had been said. Before he could decide, he saw something shift in Penny. The transformation came on so subtly that if he hadn’t been laser-focused on his patient, he’d have missed it entirely. She touched her temples, as if enduring a headache. Her shoulders went back as she sank into her bed. He could see her body relax like the air had been let out of it.
“Penny, is everything all right?” Mitch asked hesitantly.
Tilting her head this way and that, she regarded Mitch in a curious, assessing manner, as if she did not know what to make of him.
“And you are?”
Her voice was different, deeper, more assured. The tone was somewhat conversational, though she breathed an air of mistrust into her question.
“I’m Dr. Mitch McHugh.”
Instinct told him to forgo the informal moniker of “Dr. Mitch” he’d given himself moments ago. The girl’s eyes brightened.
“So you’re the new doctor I’ve heard so much about. Well, lucky, lucky me.”
She checked him over from head to toe. Mitch managed a tight smile.
“Can you tell me whom I have the pleasure of addressing?”
“It’s me, silly. It’s Eve.”
A dark gleam flickered in the girl’s eyes. Mitch’s heart sank. For a short time, he had stood on the precipice of discovering something truly astounding about the night Rachel Boyd was murdered, but Eve had come rolling in like a great cloud, summoned by Penny to sweep across the landscape of her subconscious, hiding everything within her protective fog. Mitch had to admit, if she were borderline and not DID, it was a brilliant bit of role-playing. Her switch from Penny to Eve, subtle shifts in body language that could easily go unnoticed, occurred in textbook fashion for how alters often appeared.