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“No, but we can’t trust my memory.” The pizza sat like a lump in her stomach. She pushed her plate away, took her antibiotic with a glass of water, then reached for the computer. “I’m sure some of the information out there will point us in the right direction.”

Doc finished eating the rest of the pizza, then he rose to take their empty plates to the sink. Her blistered feet didn’t hurt nearly as much as they had earlier. She credited Doc’s tender care for that.

He’d brushed off her compliment about being a nice guy. And yes, her memory was lacking a true comparison, but she was drawn to him. Her soul soaked up his strength, his protective streak, and his caring. Were those traits she hadn’t experienced firsthand? Maybe. It seemed as if Tristan was a poor example of her taste in men until now.

Yet without her memory, it wasn’t fair to keep focusing on how attractive Doc was. How much she liked him. How much she cared for him.

Forcing herself to concentrate on the task at hand, first and foremost remembering what she’d witnessed that had sent her fleeing from gunmen, she typed in the name Larry Archer along with his profession of horse trainer.

Several articles bloomed on the screen. The top hit sporting a headline that read: Murphy Steals Trainer from Competitor.

Doc came up to look over her shoulder. “Which competitor?”

She had a bad feeling about what they were about to learn. And as she clicked on the article and her fear turned out to be correct. “Larry Archer used to work for Howard Lock, the owner of Savior’s Journey.”

“Is that a common practice? To poach employees from the competition?” Doc asked.

“I have no idea, but based on the fact that this made the news, I would say this is not something that’s done on a regular basis.” The more she learned about her father, the less she liked where this was going. Scanning the article didn’t help make her feel any better. “According to this, Hank and my father argued about his offering Larry Archer a huge raise to come work with Fiona’s Folly.”

“The article is from two years ago,” Doc said. “That would be well before either horse had proven to be successful.”

“Maybe Larry had trained a previous horse who had gone on to win races.” She exited that screen to look at the other articles. “See here? This states Larry Archer had worked with Rich Strike, a horse that went on to win the Derby in 2022. From there, he was hired by Howard Lock to work with Savior’s Journey, but within a year, my father hired him to train Fiona’s Folly.”

“I guess the feud between Lock and your father goes back further than we realized.” Doc’s expression was thoughtful. “It seems to me like Howard Lock has a reason to seek revenge on your father. Maybe even to the point of setting this all up to make him look guilty of something he’s not.”

“Revenge can turn ugly.” Was she grasping at the unlikely possibility of her father not being involved? Maybe. She didn’t want to believe someone she had been close to could do something so awful.

Yet there also had to be a good reason she couldn’t remember the man who’d raised her. Especially knowing her mother had passed away ten years ago. Had the memory of her father become too painful? She desperately wished she could remember.

“I think we need to head to your father’s farm very soon,” Doc said.

She tore her gaze from the screen. “I thought you wanted to wait for Rex?”

“It’s going to be dark by the time Rex gets here.” Doc scowled. “I think we need to check the place out while it’s still light enough for you to see clearly and hopefully to remember what happened.”

“Just the two of us?” She hated to admit she wasn’t convinced this was the right time to go to the farm. “There are likely some staff taking care of the horses. They’ll be feeding and watering the animals and getting their stalls ready for the night. It’s not like we’ll be able to get in unnoticed.”

“Okay, so maybe we try another angle.” Doc seemed determined to take some sort of action. Not that she could blame him for wanting to be done with his task of guarding her so that he could return to his normally peaceful and quiet life. “We know you were in the Kentucky River. Maybe we head to the place where you came out to see if that sparks a memory.”

“You think I was on a boat and jumped overboard.”

He hesitated, then shook his head. “I’m not sure if you were on a boat or if you ran to the river and jumped in. We know the general location of where you came out, within a mile or so of my cabin. Backtracking based on the current might give us another place to search for clues as to what happened.”

“I remember running.” She tried to sort out the newer memory of running through the woods to end up at Doc’s cabin to an older one. Had she run toward the water? From where? The farm?

Or someplace else?

Despite taking the antibiotic on a full stomach, she felt sick again. She must have swayed a bit because Doc lightly clasped her shoulder. “Are you dizzy?”

“A little.” She tried to shake it off.

“I think you should lie down for a while.” Doc’s expression was filled with concern. “I’m sorry. I’ve been pushing you too hard. You were just discharged from the hospital earlier this morning after being treated for a serious infection.”

“I’m okay,” she protested, not wanting to be viewed as a burden.

“No, you need to rest.” He glanced out the window and sighed. “I keep forgetting how early the sun goes down this time of the year. There’s barely an hour of sunlight left. We won’t have time to search the countryside for the place you may have entered the river. And it’s silly to head out to your father’s farm without waiting for Rex.”

“Are you sure?” She couldn’t deny that the events of the day had worn her out. First getting out of the hospital, then attending the race, and finally running through the cemetery.