Forget to Remember

way up to the top of the hill where we’re going now, and then all the way down the other side, at the coast.”
    “I’ll buy you dinner at the restaurant—when I get some money.”
    “It’s a bit pricy. I can’t afford to eat there on my salary. Fortunately, I get fed as part of my job. They have good seafood.”
    “Los Angeles doesn’t look familiar to me at all. I don’t think I’ve been here before, at least when I was conscious. I can’t remember ever being in California.”
    “Do you remember where you have been?”
    “Perhaps the East Coast. I think I might recognize places if I saw them in person.”
    “We’re in the electronic age now. We’ve got fancy tools, like the Internet and Google and Google Earth. It’s not quite the same as being there in person, but you might recognize something you see a picture of or read about. We should be able to track you down.”

    CHAPTER 4
    “This was my sister’s room. She’s married and living in Phoenix. You can sleep here.”
    “Look at the view.” Carol rushed to the window of the second-story room. “I can see the whole world.”
    “Los Angeles, the mountains, Santa Monica Bay, Malibu, which is around the curve on the east-west section of the coast. Actually, you can see west to Point Dume, where the coast starts to curve north again, and east past Mt. San Gorgonio, the highest peak in Southern California. The closer peak to the right is in Orange County. In the right-hand corner you can see a bit of the Los Angeles harbor. The total distance east to west is over one hundred twenty-five miles.
    “If you let me use this room, I’ll never want to leave.”
    Rigo laughed. “Fortunately, it’s a very clear day. They’re not all like this.” With the aid of a pair of binoculars, he pointed out Santa Monica, Malibu, the Hollywood sign, the Los Angeles Airport, and the Los Angeles version of downtown, with the tall buildings they’d just been among.
    Carol looked through the binoculars for several minutes. “The map was right. Los Angeles is a big place.” She put them down. “Do you have any other siblings?”
    “Another sister, but she’s also married.” Rigo led the way into his room, where he kept his computer, and fired it up. On Google’s page he typed in “missing persons” and retrieved information on 2.5 million Web sites in a fraction of a second. “You aren’t the only missing person in the world.”
    “I guess that should make me feel better.”
    They studied the pictures on the FBI database first. Carol kept looking in the mirror above Rigo’s dresser. “I wonder how long I’ve had short hair. I picture myself with longer hair. It would help if we had a photo of me to compare with these pictures.”
    “No problem.”
    Rigo took out his digital camera and proceeded to snap several head shots of Carol. He posed her so the shaved spots on her head didn’t show. He enjoyed photographing her because she was very photogenic, in spite of her bruises and lacerations, and she had an entrancing smile. It also gave him a better feel for how she would look when the injuries healed, which would help in identifying a photo of her. He loaded the pictures directly from the camera into the computer and printed copies.
    In addition to the FBI, each state appeared to have a department for missing persons. A number of other organizations had sites with many pictures. Rigo and Carol studied them diligently. Only a few photos came close to looking like Carol, regardless of hair length, but closer study ruled them out.
    They checked several states, including California and those close by. Carol suggested they check other states, including those on the East Coast.
    “Okay, but let’s be smart about it. Judging from your accent, or lack thereof, I doubt that you’re from the Deep South. That would rule out Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and probably Texas. I suspect Arkansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee aren’t good bets either.”
    “What about the northeast? I feel a kinship to Massachusetts, for some reason. Maybe because I like the name—Massachusetts. It has a delicious sound to it.”
    They looked at Web sites for New York and the New England states. They stopped to eat a lunch thrown together by Rigo from what food he could find in the kitchen, but they didn’t spend a lot of time.
    Back at the computer, they kept looking until Rigo glanced at his watch. “I’ve got to go to work. I have to get to the restaurant