Mirror Image

you?”
    Her teeth were chattering so badly she could barely speak.
    “Avery Daniels.”
    “Who?”
    “Avery Daniels.”
    “Avery Daniels? The TV…?”
    She bobbed her head once.
    “Where’s Carole? What—”
    “Carole died in the plane crash, Tate,” she said. “I survived. We got mixed up because we had switched seats on the plane. I was carrying Mandy when I escaped. They assumed—”
    He trapped her dripping head between his hands. “Carole’s
dead
?”
    “Yes,” she gulped. “Yes. I’m sorry.”
    “Since the crash? She died in the crash? You mean you’ve been living… all this time…?”
    Again, she gave a swift, confirming nod.
    Her heart broke apart like an eggshell as she watched him try to comprehend the incomprehensible. Gradually, he released his stranglehold on her cranium and backed away from her.
    She snatched her robe off the hook on the back of the bathroom door and pulled it on, hurriedly knotting the tie belt. She reached into the tub and cut off the faucets, which she instantly regretted doing. The resulting silence was deafening, yet it shimmered with the brassy reverberation of disbelief and suspicion.
    Into that silence he threw her one simple question. “Why?”
    The day of reckoning had arrived. She’d known it would come eventually. She just hadn’t counted on it being today. She wasn’t prepared.
    “It’s complicated.”
    “I don’t give a damn how complicated it is,” he said in a voice that vibrated with wrath. “Start talking to me now before I call the police.”
    “I don’t know how or when the initial mix-up was made,” she said frantically. “I woke up in the hospital bandaged from head to foot, unable to move or to speak. Everybody was calling me Carole. At first I didn’t understand. I was in such pain. I was afraid, confused, disoriented. It took several days for me to piece together what must have happened.”
    “And when you realized it, you didn’t say anything? Why?”
    “I couldn’t! Remember, I couldn’t communicate.” She caught his arm in appeal. He slung it off. “Tate, I tried to get the message to you before my face was restored to look like Carole’s, but it was impossible. Every time I began to cry, you thought it was from fear over the upcoming surgery. It was that. But it was also because I was being robbed of my own identity and having another imposed on me. I was powerless to get that message across.”
    “Jesus, this is science fiction.” He plowed his fingers through his hair. Realizing he was still naked, he grabbed a towel from the rack and wrapped it around his middle. “That was months ago.”
    “I had to remain Carole for a while.”
    “Why?”
    She threw back her head and gazed up at the ceiling. The first explanation had been a breeze, compared to what was coming. “It’s going to sound—”
    “I don’t give a shit how it sounds,” he said menacingly. “I want to know why you’ve been impersonating my wife.”
    “Because someone wants to kill you!”
    Her urgent reply took him by surprise. He was still poised to do battle, but his head snapped back like he’d taken an uppercut on the chin.
“What?”
    “When I was in the hospital,” she began, clasping her hands together at waist level, “someone came to my room.”
    “Who?”
    “I don’t know who. Hear me out before asking me a lot of questions.” She drew in a deep breath, but the words continued to tumble rapidly over her lips. “I was bandaged. I couldn’t see well. Someone, addressing me as Carole, warned me not to make any deathbed confessions. He said that the plans were still in place and that you’d never live to take office.”
    He remained unmoved for a moment, then a smile tugged at the corner of his lips. Eventually, he barked a hateful laugh. “You expect me to believe that?”
    “It’s the truth!”
    “The only truth is that you’re going to jail. Now.” He turned and headed for the telephone.
    “Tate, no!” She caught his arm and brought him around. “I don’t blame you for what you’re thinking about me.”
    “Your worst guess couldn’t even come close.”
    The invective smarted, but for the time being, she had to ignore it. “I’m not lying about this. I swear it. Someone plans to assassinate you before you take office.”
    “I’m not even elected.”
    “As good as, so it seems.”
    “You can’t identify this mystery person?”
    “Not yet. I’m trying.”
    He studied her earnest face for a moment,