Forget to Remember by Alan Cook Page B

from both Rigo and
Adam to drive her home. It almost seemed as if they were competing
for her attention. She suspected competition formed a significant
part of their relationship.
    She made it up the hill, puffing slightly
less than she had several days before when she had started walking,
and strolled the long driveway that went between two other houses,
to where the Ramirez house was set near the edge of the cliff.
Ernie and Tina weren’t home yet. She knew this because a FedEx
package was sitting at the front door. They had given her a key.
She unlocked the door and carried the flat cardboard container
inside.
    Only then did she glance at the address on
the package. She did a double take. Her eyes weren’t playing tricks
on her. The package was indeed addressed to Carol Golden. How could
that be? She looked for the address of the shipper. It was Paul
Vigiano’s law firm.
    Recovering from her initial shock, she
wondered what Paul, as he wanted to be called, was sending her. She
tore off a cardboard strip and flipped up the flap to get to the
contents. There were several computer-printed pages and an
envelope. She glanced at the first page; it was a letter from Paul.
Without reading it, she looked at the second page and realized it
was an airline E-ticket. The passenger’s name was…Cynthia Sakai.
Was this some kind of a joke?
    She quickly tore open the envelope. The
first thing she saw was a considerable quantity of
bills—twenty-dollar bills. There was also a small plastic card. She
pulled out the card. It was a driver’s license from the state of
North Carolina. Her picture was on it—one of the pictures Rigo had
taken of her, except her scars had been erased. The name on the
license was Cynthia Sakai, and the address was Chapel Hill.
    Carol went back to the letter. Below the
usual addresses, dates, and such at the top of a business letter it
read:
     
    Dear Carol,
     
    I talked to Elizabeth Horton about you and
she wants to meet you as soon as possible. The enclosed ticket will
allow you to fly to Raleigh-Durham using the name Cynthia Sakai.
After all, this may be your name! The driver’s license will serve
as your identification. It is a legitimate North Carolina license
and nobody will question it. It isn’t the license Cynthia had when
she disappeared, but that disappeared with her.
     
    I have made reservations for you at a local
hotel. All your expenses will be paid while you’re here. To cover
any incidental expenses you might have I’m enclosing $500.
     
    It’s in the best interests of all of us
(you, Mrs. Horton and myself) that we establish whether or not you
are actually Cynthia Sakai without delay.
     
    Please feel free to call me if you have any
questions. I look forward to seeing you on Monday evening. Somebody
will meet you at the airport.
     
    Yours sincerely,
    Paul Vigiano
    Attorney at Law
     
    Carol looked at the driver’s license again.
It said she had been born on August 10, 1984, which would make her
twenty-five years old. That was all right with her. It sounded like
a good age. Could she really do this? By using a fake driver’s
license, she’d be breaking the law.
    She felt guilty. She’d probably always been
a law-abiding citizen. Her fingerprints weren’t on file. But almost
anything she did broke the law. Just by living she was probably
breaking the law because she didn’t have the documentation the law
required. When she looked at the problem like that, it didn’t
really matter what she did. A growing excitement and anticipation
inside told her she was no longer worried about the law.
    She heard a noise at the front door. Tina
and Ernie were home. She stuffed everything back into the cardboard
container and ran up the stairs with it. She placed it in the
drawer of the dresser in her room, underneath the underwear Tina
had bought for her. She wasn’t sure why she was doing this. She
only knew she wasn’t ready to discuss it with them.
     
    CHAPTER 9
    The alarm went off at