Free Lost Identity by Leona Karr

under her disbelieving scrutiny. “Patricia Louise Radcliffe.” She mouthed the name underthe picture, and then, with a sense of frightening detachment, she read the article.
    “Perry Reynolds.” Her lips quivered. She was bewildered why his name had brought more of an emotional response than hearing her own name. “Why do I remember his name and what he looked like, and I can’t remember my own?”
    Dr. Duboise shook his head. “I don’t know, Trish. But I’m confident that one of these days you’ll tell me.”
     
    A NDREW LEFT WORK EARLY , too keyed up to get any work of his own done. When he’d returned to the office after lunch, he’d contacted Dr. Duboise, and then used the Internet to glean some information about Atlantis Enterprises, the company that Patricia had inherited from her late father, Winston Radcliffe. The following year she had created a partnership with Perry Reynolds and the assets of the company were worth several million dollars. Andrew stared at reports that listed a staggering net worth for both partners.
    When he realized fully that Patricia Radcliffe was the woman who had been sleeping in his lumpy bed and wearing his faded clothes, he felt like someone who had been the butt of a very poor joke.
    When Andrew arrived at Havengate later that afternoon, Trish was in her room, lying on the bed and staring at the ceiling. He knocked softly on the open door, and she sat up quickly.
    “Andrew,” she gasped. “Thank God, you’ve come. Tell me what to do. I must be this Patricia Radcliffe person, but I don’t even know her. How can I take over the life of someone when her name doesn’t even seem familiar?”

    “Hey, take it easy. No need to panic,” he said in a gentle, reassuring tone.
    “It’s not true. I’m not that person.”
    Andrew looked at her in disbelief. He had expected that once Trish learned her identity, there would be some kind of a breakthrough in her memory, but if the name meant nothing to her, she was still as much in the dark as ever. “Patricia Radcliffe doesn’t mean anything to you at all?”
    “It’s a name, that’s all. I don’t have any sense that it belongs to me. That news item was like reading about someone else.”
    “You don’t remember anything?” he asked as he sat down on the bed beside her. She was wearing the inexpensive white shorts and simple summer top that he had bought for her.
    “Yes, I did have a momentary recall.” Her lips trembled. “When I heard the name Perry Reynolds, a sudden image of a man flashed in my mind for a split second. The article said he was her business partner.”
    Andrew noted that she said, her business partner, not my business partner.
    “When Dr. Duboise said his name, the image of a graying dark-haired man with a round face flashed across my mind. And I heard horrible sounds of thunder and roaring water.”
    She shivered and Andrew’s arm went around her waist. “But that’s wonderful, Trish. Don’t you see? It’s a beginning.”
    Her anxious gaze dragged across his face. “The paper said this man is missing, too. Do you think this Perry Reynolds is the one making me afraid to remember who I am?”
    Andrew was wondering the same thing, but he knewbetter than to indulge in any idle speculation. “What does Dr. Duboise say?”
    “He warned me about jumping to any conclusions, but I can’t help it.” She leaned her head against his shoulder and he tightened his embrace. “It’s really strange. I was almost tempted to show up at that memorial service, just as an on-looker. What do think would have happened if I’d walked in on the service?”
    “Oh, maybe a half-dozen people would have fainted away.” He knew she was serious, but he decided to make light of it.
    “Dr. Duboise said he would alert the authorities that I’d been located, so they’ll call off the service, but no information would be given as to my whereabouts.”
    “Good.” He was relieved that she wasn’t going to be