August Unknown Read Online Free PDF Page B

found the strength to ask.
    “The bodies of two men were found this morning. A woman
matching your description is still missing.”
    The room began to spin. August’s stomach churned.
    Officer Gaffney flipped open the folder and sorted through
until he found an eight-by-ten photo of a young woman with shoulder-length
blond hair. “According to the grandmother, this photo is quite old.”
    “That isn’t August,” Geoffrey said.
    She breathed out her fear in a whoosh, relieved and at the
same time strangely disappointed.
    “August?” Officer Gaffney passed a quizzical glance from one
to the other.
    “I didn’t like the name Jane Doe. I was born in August—at
least we think so. Jocelyn figured it out.” She held up her right hand. “My
birthstone ring is a peridot.”
    “Well, Miss August, I can’t say this is bad news. It’s never pleasant
to notify someone they’ve lost a relative.”
    “I’m glad it isn’t me, too.” She chewed her lower lip, trying
to force back tears. Though the two dead men weren’t related to her, the tragic
news still made her ill.
    “There is something I remember,” she volunteered hesitantly. “Though
I don’t know how it will help you.”
    They both looked at her with expectant expressions. She let
her gaze drift over the photo of the missing woman. “This morning when I looked
at myself in the mirror, I wasn’t surprised to see what I looked like. I recognized
myself.”
    “That’s a good sign,” Officer Gaffney told her. “You’ll
probably recognize other people and things you know, too. It’s just a matter of
time, and getting you up and out of this bed.”
    “When you’re released, I’ll be happy to take you wherever you
want to go.” Geoffrey smiled sheepishly. “If you trust my driving.”
    “That might not be necessary,” Officer Gaffney told them. “I’m
going to take a thumbprint and run it through the Department of Motor Vehicles.
There’s a good chance we’ll know your real name before you’ll need to.”
    Worry sat like a lead ball in her stomach, but August allowed
him to take her print. She didn’t know why, but the thought of discovering her
identity before she remembered what happened to her sent needles of ice prickling
up her spine.

 
     
    Chapter Four
     
     
    August toyed with her food—a strange concoction that was
supposed to be stew—until it was so congealed the mystery chunks no longer slid
easily across the plastic dish.
    She couldn’t get over the uneasiness that had started her
insides quivering when the sheriff said he was going to run her thumbprint
through the DMV database. In the back of her mind, fear lingered. Was she a
criminal on the run? A frightened wife fleeing an abusive husband? She looked
down at the faint tan line on her wedding finger.
    “Not hungry?”
    She looked up to find Geoffrey in the doorway. She hardly knew
him, but already the sight of him gave her a thrill. His comfortable smile and
timid charm almost seemed to ease her aches and pains.
    He was handsome in a unique way. The things she liked about
him weren’t the typical things she suspected women observed in attractive men.
He had a nice physique and the toned body of a man who exercised, but she
admired the kindness in his smile that reached all the way to his eyes, and the
graceful lines of his strong hands. He possessed the same thick blond curls Jocelyn
did, and probably found them just as unruly. His brows and the clipped beard he
kept trimmed into neat lines were darker brown which, contrasting with his
blond hair, gave him a sun-bleached, surfer look. His eyes were a rich, cocoa
brown that made her want to smile when he gazed at her warmly. The mint green
polo shirt and faded denim jeans he wore today added to the casual flair of a
man who was confident of his looks.
    He grinned as he entered the room, pulling a paper bag from
behind his back as if it were a surprise. “You look a lot better.”
    “I feel a lot better, thanks to the