Forget to Remember

there for a while, and yet you don’t have a trace of an accent.”
    “I can speak English English.” Carol was confident she could imitate Winston Churchill. She lowered her voice. “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”
    “Bravo.” Ernie and Tina clapped. “You’ve got to pass this information on to Frances.”
    “I’ll call her right after dinner.”

    CHAPTER 6
    Frances was doing a routine check of her e-mail on Tuesday morning when one caught her eye. The subject was “Carol Golden.” She quickly read the rest of it:

    Hi Frances,

    I am a probate attorney in Chapel Hill, NC. I first heard of you 2 years ago when the daughter of one of my clients went missing. I have been checking your website weekly since then since you are in the business of identifying dead people, hoping that if Cynthia Sakai (the missing girl) is dead that someone might have contacted you to identify her body. I believe I even emailed you information about her at one time.

    My clients are a wealthy couple in Chapel Hill—excuse me, were a wealthy couple because they were both killed in the crash of their private plane in the Atlantic about a month ago, along with their son, Michael. About a year ago they each made an addendum to their wills to the effect that I, as their executor, would have 2 years to find Cynthia. If I don’t find her the estate goes to charity. That leaves me with a year to find her.

    Your website says that you’re looking for the real identity of the girl called Carol Golden. I followed your link and studied the photo and description of Carol. Although this may be wishful thinking on my part, I have hope, however slim, that Cynthia might still be alive and that Carol might be her.

    In addition to the photo, which bears a striking resemblance to Cynthia, and her description, which is also close, the fact that Carol may have spent time in the UK is of great interest as Cynthia was working in London when she disappeared.

    If Carol is Cynthia, this would be a win-win situation, to say the least. Carol would recover her identity (not to mention the money, which is 8 figures), and her grandmother, who lives here in Chapel Hill, would be overjoyed. Not to mention my satisfaction at carrying out the wishes of my clients.

    Let me know your thoughts on this.

    Yours sincerely,
    Paul Vigiano
    Attorney at Law

    His address and phone number were also enclosed. Frances liked to strike quickly when she had a lead. She checked her watch—it was early afternoon on the East Coast—grabbed her phone and punched in the number given by the attorney. A woman answered with the generic greeting, “Law Offices.” Frances gave her name and asked to speak to Paul Vigiano. She was put on hold. She checked her watch again and was interested to note that Mr. Vigiano answered the phone within thirty seconds.
    “Frances—hi. Paul Vigiano. I’ve been looking at your Web site so long, I feel I know you.”
    “Hello, Mr. Vigiano. I have a vague memory of receiving an e-mail from you before, but that was quite a while ago.”
    “Almost two years. But now we’ve really got something to talk about. Is Carol, as you call her, recovered from her injuries?”
    “She’s doing very well. She still has some scars on her face and head, but they’ll heal.”
    “Good. How would you describe her personality?”
    “Outgoing, warm. To my surprise, she doesn’t seem particularly depressed by the loss of her memory and identity, but she is determined to recover them again. She’s active rather than passive. She won’t sit around waiting for someone else to help her.”
    “That sounds like Cynthia, or at least what I remember about her and know about her from her parents. She was involved in everything.”
    “What about her coloring?”
    “Her father’s Japanese. I would say her coloring matches the picture of Carol.”
    “How long has it been since you’ve seen her?”
    “I haven’t seen her since she was in high school. She was away most of the time when she attended college in Massachusetts. She went off to London two years ago, as I mentioned in the e-mail, and disappeared almost immediately. Her parents went over to look for her, and I hired a detective to help them, but we turned up nothing.”
    “Do you have a fairly recent photo of her you could e-mail me, so I can compare it on