August Unknown

by Pamela Fryer

  Geoffrey removed the ring and placed it on her finger. Her limbs turned warm and ticklish.

  She splayed the fingers on her broken arm, watching the stunning diamond sparkle as it caught the light. It fit perfectly, as though custom made for her.

  “It was my mother’s. My father gave it to me when she died.”

  “It’s lovely.” She sniffled. “But you don’t even know me. I don’t even know me.”

  He shook his head. “I know you, August. I know the person you are inside. If I find out you’re heiress to the Pet Rock fortune or a bank robber on the run, I’ll love you just the same.”

  She choked out a single burst of laughter. “Oh Geoffrey.”

  “I don’t expect an answer now,” he said quickly. “In fact, I don’t want one. I just want you to know that I love you. No matter what you find in your past, no matter how good, bad, or ugly—you have a home here with me if you want it.”

  She slid her arm around his neck and kissed him. He wiped her tears away with his thumb.

  “If I knew for certain there was nothing in my past to keep me from you, my answer would be ‘yes’ right now.”

  He smiled. “That’s good enough for me.”

  She kissed him again, tiny pecks all over his face as she tried to squeeze back what were now happy tears.

  “Hey, yo’s, last chance on the popcorn—” Derek stopped in the doorway. “Whoa, looks like I interrupted something important.”

  Geoffrey rocked back on his heels and stood. “I’ve asked August to marry me.”

  * * *

  It wasn’t the loud snoring that kept her awake. Nor was it her fear of the mysterious woman haunting her memories. She’d hardly given her stalker another thought.

  Geoffrey wanted to marry her!

  Her heart sang with joy, and excitement raced through her blood like a high-speed pinball. He wanted to marry her, even if she had a less than desirable past.

  The enormous dog at the foot of the bed grunted in her sleep and rolled over, nearly crushing August’s foot. Geoffrey had used his cell phone on the ride home to call someone named Howard and inquire about Eunice, but she had no idea Eunice was a two-hundred-pound Mastiff. The gigantic dog was sweet as could be, but had a commanding bark, and August had no doubt the muscular animal could bring down the largest of men.

  Geoffrey’s sweet gesture nearly made her cry again, but she fell into a fit of giggles when the dog rolled, groaned, and let loose a loud flatulence.

  The potted juniper outside the window rustled in the wind and the dog jerked upright.

  “Good girl, Eunice. At least I know you can hear intruders over your own snoring.”

  The dog gazed at her and licked her giant chops. She relaxed, her panting breaths shaking the entire bed.

  “You and I are going to become good friends,” she promised the dog.

  But in the back of her mind, August could not shake the uneasy feeling that with this great happiness would also come great sadness.

  As hard as she tried, the uncomfortable feeling was there, just out of reach: something would keep her from staying in Newport.

  * * *

  Geoffrey’s phone rang as he was driving August back to the Mirthful Mermaid for her shift. He saw the number and knew it was Mike calling about August.

  “Let me call you back in ten minutes.” He didn’t identify his brother-in-law. The last thing he wanted was to make August anxious before her shift. She seemed so happy, gazing at the ring on her finger.

  He pulled into a parking space at the Mirthful Mermaid and snapped the phone shut. “I think we should tell her together.”

  Gran Millie eyed them suspiciously as they came through the door. “All right you two, what’s going on? You look funny.”

  The ring must have glinted because she looked down at August’s hand and gasped. “Let me see that. Oh, my goodness. You’re just a bucket of surprises, aren’t you, grandson?”

  “I asked August to marry me...when we get our lives all sorted out.”

  “And she said yes, of course. I’m so happy you gave her Susan’s ring. It fits you, dear.” Gran Millie looked up with shining eyes. Her voice grew soft and whispery. “I couldn’t be happier. Let me be the first to welcome you to the family.”

  She pulled August into a hug, and then turned to Geoffrey. “I’m happy for you, too, grandson. Nice to see you out of your funk.” She stepped back and dabbed at her eyes. “Don’t think this means you can deliver her late to work.”

  “Does she still get a lunch break?” Geoffrey asked his grandmother.

  “Between two thirty and five, and I’m gonna make sure she takes it today,” Millie answered for her.

  August turned to him. “If you can get away, we could walk out to the end of the jetty.”

  “I’ll try. I’ve got a conference call at two, but I’ll come down after. Don’t go anywhere until I get here.”

  “Don’t worry.” She leaned over to kiss him. A burst of joy jumped in his chest. “I’ll go up to my little room and bolt the door. Derek will be here by then, anyway. His shift starts at two.”

  If only he could be on the receiving end of those sweet kisses for the rest of his life. He tamped down the tension coiling in his belly, anxious to return Mike’s call. Before he could slip away, Gran Millie yanked him into a bear hug.

  “Come here, grandson.” She squeezed the breath out of him. “Congratulations.”

  “Thanks.”

  “I’m so happy, I could just cry.”

  “You are crying.”

  “Oh, go on.” She shooed him away.

  He went back to the car, but sat in the front seat without turning on the engine.

  The heavy tone in his brother-in-law’s voice had put Geoffrey on edge, and when he answered Geoffrey’s returned call, it was no different. Geoffrey was learning to hate Mike’s policeman’s voice.

  “I’ve got something you should see,” was all he would say.

  “Is it bad?”

  “I think it would be best if you saw for yourself.”

  Geoffrey drove to the police station with the dread in his stomach growing more acidic by the minute.

  He sat in front of Mike’s desk and waited while his brother-in-law concluded a phone call, and then got up and closed the door before taking his seat again.

  “I know you have become very fond of August,” he started.

  “Don’t,” Geoffrey said sharply. He took a deep, calming breath. “Don’t talk to me like you’re a doctor trying to find a gentle way to tell me I have three weeks to live. Just give it to me straight.”

  Mike glanced down. He opened a manila folder and handed over a single sheet of paper to Geoffrey. “It took Wendy all of ten minutes to find her this morning.”

  It was a missing person’s report for Emily Atkinson of Astoria, Washington. Geoffrey’s heart froze in his chest. In the center was a photo of August.

  * * *

  “Colin, don’t do this to yourself.”

  He kept his back to his father as he stuffed a change of clothes into a duffel bag. This time, he wasn’t coming home in the same day. He might have to camp out in Newport for a few days until...Hell, he wasn’t coming back until he’d found her.

  “It’s a lead, Dad. My first real lead.” He should have left last night. He would have been in southern Oregon by now.

  “Colin, it’s been three weeks. If she’s alive, why hasn’t she come home?”

  “I’m going to check the hospitals. She could be like that woman in Seattle.”

  “Don’t you think the authorities would have answered the missing person’s report?”

  They hadn’t called about the woman in the Seattle hospital. Colin shook his head, but didn’t respond. It was useless arguing about it.

  “It’s obvious she came out of her lifejacket.” Graham grabbed him by the elbow and spun him around.

  Colin jerked his arm free.

  “No,” he barked a degree too harshly. “It wa
s too small for her. You said so yourself; you had been trying to get her to buy a new one. She couldn’t have come out of it. Besides, that guy said it was unbuckled. She took it off, or someone took it off her.”

  “Colin, you’re setting yourself up for heartbreak again. I hate to see you doing this to yourself.”

  Colin grabbed his bag and zipped it shut with a shrill whirr. He turned around and snatched his car keys from the dresser.

  “Then don’t watch.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  He read the report in silence. By the time he finished, his blood roared in his ears.

  “We shouldn’t treat this as a surprise.” Mike cleared his throat. “We knew there was someone, somewhere, missing her.”

  Geoffrey nodded. It would have been stupid to assume otherwise. It had been stupid to hope otherwise.

  “She’s engaged,” Mike said.

  He swallowed. There was no response to that.

  “When I conducted my first search, this missing person’s file had been closed. She’d been listed as deceased, her drowning ruled an accident.”

  Geoffrey’s stomach flip-flopped.

  “After she found this, Wendy did an inquiry with the sheriff’s office up there. Without revealing anything, of course.”

  He nodded. “Thank you.”

  “Everyone still believes she’s dead. The fiancé is the only one who wouldn’t let it drop. He’s been searching high and low.”

  Of course he was. It was no less than Geoffrey would do, if the situation were reversed.

  “They had a funeral.”

  He leaned his elbow on the armrest and pressed his fingertips to his forehead. Good God.

  “Our hunch she was on a boat that night is correct. From what Wendy could find, her family used to own the fishing and charter fleet her fiancé’s family bought out when her old man retired after a back injury. The two of them—Emily and her fiancé—work with his father.”

  Geoffrey grappled for something to say, anything, other than sitting there like a fool.

  “She holds a captain’s rating.”

  August was engaged. His August. Emily Atkinson.

  “She didn’t recognize anything on Penny Lane.” Nothing except the table. The same kind of table most RVs and campers had.

  “Whatever happened that night, it was enough to completely wipe her memory of sailing,” Mike surmised.

  “Jesus.” Geoffrey’s mind whirled with a million thoughts, but none of them solid, each one more confusing than the last.

  “It’s not so bad. She’s engaged, not married.”

  He lifted his gaze to meet his brother-in-law’s. He almost felt guilty. He would be sick if the situation were reversed, if someone else had found August—Emily—when she was engaged to him.

  “Last night, I gave her a ring.”

  Mike rocked his wooden drafter’s chair backward with a loud creak from the spring. “Then the lady has a choice to make.”

  Geoffrey’s head ached. He took a deep breath and straightened his shoulders. Now was not the time to worry about that. “Do we know anything about her family, her circle of friends? This guy she’s supposed to marry—”

  “Colin Ridgley.” Mike shook his head. “You’re asking if any of her friends have red hair.”

  Geoffrey nodded. He was about to lose his last remaining sliver of composure.

  “The Coast Guard and the local PD conducted a full investigation. Foul play was ruled out.”

  “That doesn’t mean squat to me. If that were true, then why is someone trying to kill her?”

  “You don’t even know for sure someone was in the house that day. And she might have misunderstood what she saw in the alley. When a person has the heebie-geebies already, the mind can play tricks. And we both know she’s suffered a pretty severe head injury.”

  “You think she’s schizo because she took a knock to the head?” Geoffrey shot back. “She’s lost her memory so what else is going wrong in her mind?”

  Mike shook his head and leaned forward to place his elbows on his desk. “No, not at all. I just think she’s sensitive to things. She’s frightened, alone. And even though she has you, she’s alone because she’s lost her entire life.”

  “So she’s conjuring a stalker?”

  Mike shrugged. “She may have seen Stinky Stan. You know he sleeps in the alleys around the Mirthful Mermaid because your grandmother feeds him. Maybe he thought August—er, Emily—was Millie.”

  “No,” Geoffrey said, shaking his head. “I believe her.”

  Mike sighed. A long minute ticked by. “I have a friend in the Coast Guard stationed up in Seattle. I could call him, if you want. Get him to do some checking under the guise of a continued investigation. He owes me a favor.”

  “You did some work for him?” Geoffrey’s voice shook with the thundering of his heart. This was the worst he could have imagined, second only to her being married.

  “I covered for him with his wife while we were in Vegas.” Mike grinned. “So it’s a big favor.”

  Geoffrey couldn’t be convinced to laugh with his brother-in-law.

  “I don’t see how that will help. The woman with red hair is here.”

  “Well, you never know what might turn up. I’ll give him a call.”

  He looked down at the paper in his hand. August’s—no, Emily’s—beautiful portrait stared back. There was a light in her eyes that revealed the deeper beauty and happiness she possessed before this tragedy hit. When she remembered everything, would that light return?

  And the biggest question of all—would she stay?

  * * *

  Colin intended to check the hospital in Agate and the two others in nearby Newport right away, but the first thing he wanted was to see the jetty where Emily’s lifejacket had been found.

  When he’d stopped for gas, the station attendant had known the Mirthful Mermaid right away. “Down yonder at the edge of town. Try some of Millie’s clam chowder; it’s the best you’ll find this side of Boston.”

  He found the place easily enough. The two-story building gleamed like polished lead in the afternoon sun, its wood bleached over the years without so much as an attempt at painting. The only color was a giant blue-green emblem of a mermaid sitting on a sea rock inside a circle, imprinted on the front of the building as though stamped there with an old-fashioned branding iron. A similar carved wooden sign hung over the door.

  Had he not been so anxious, he would have appreciated the place a lot more. Its resistance to modern strip-mall urbanization impressed him. Next to the restaurant was a hardware store literally named Mom & Pop’s. On the other side, a small real estate agent’s office and next to that, Ocean Outfitter, a boating supplies place.

  He parked the Jeep at the far end of the shared lot and flipped open his cell phone. A quick call to his dad to let him know he’d arrived safely would put the old man at ease.

  He’d been too harsh on his father before he left. He knew Graham only had his best interests at heart, but it bothered Colin that he was so eager to give up on Emily.

  He punched the number and brought the phone to his ear as he glanced out the window at the marina on the far side of the narrow two-lane road leading out of town. The only thing to keep him from thinking he was looking at a scenic postcard photo was the gentle movement of masts swaying to and fro in front of Yaquina Bay Bridge, and swirling sea birds caught on a thermal.

  “Hello, Colin?” His father had answered from the kitchen where the phone displayed his caller ID.

  “Hey, Dad. I’m in Newport.”

  Up the road a bit at the far end of the parking lot, a man and woman paused while a car drove by, and then stepped into the crosswalk leading to the marina.

  Colin’s entire world stopped turning. He couldn’t draw a breath. Graham said something, but Colin didn’t hear him.

  He would recognize that flowing, platinum blond hair anywhere, the way natural waves rippled in its lengths, the curl that formed around her sh
oulders. Her slight build, the cute bounce to her walk.

  “Colin, are you there?”

  “I’ll call you back.”

  He snapped the phone shut and jumped out of the Jeep. He ran to the crosswalk and dodged in front of a car. The driver blared the horn and swerved around him. Colin scooted out of the way and held up his hands. “Sorry!”

  When he looked back, Emily was gone.

  * * *

  Geoffrey had been strangely quiet when he returned for her break at three. “How about that walk you promised earlier?” was all he said before taking her by the hand and leading her to the jogging path that wound around the marina and up to the vista point.

  The lunch shift had been another busy one and her feet were aching, but she loved the fresh air.

  “It’s going to be a pretty sunset tonight,” she said as they walked toward the low-hanging sun. Fluffy clouds at the edge of the horizon would glow with rapidly changing colors when the sun passed behind them. Hopefully, she could get a short break to enjoy it.

  Had she always lived in a coastal town where such beauty was a regular occurrence? She must have, because she looked forward to it with a thrill of eagerness she couldn’t explain.

  Geoffrey didn’t comment. “Are you staying at the house again tonight?” he asked, bringing up her mysterious stalker instead.

  Should she, now that he’d proposed? She wondered where they would live if they did get married. The idea of leaving Newport for Portland where he worked saddened her.

  “I suppose I should, if Eunice is still going to be there. I wouldn’t want you footing her kibble bill if she’s not going to make herself useful.”

  Geoffrey didn’t chuckle at the joke, and his mood remained oddly stiff. It wasn’t so much the way he spoke or his choice of words, but August could feel something different in him.

  “Is everything all right?” She reached across with her right hand, and then turned in front of him to walk on his left side so she could hold his hand.

  “Fine,” he answered simply, but there was still a strain in his voice.