The Stranger's Sin Read Online Free PDF Page B

with Mandy, she stepped into the shower. She wasn’t sure why it mattered except that Chase hadseemed solid and dependable, the kind of man who’d see through a woman like Amanda.
    But she was jumping ahead of herself. She wasn’t yet sure that Amanda and Mandy were the same woman. She’d assumed Amanda was childless because it seemed far-fetched that a mother would kidnap a baby. But then nothing about the devastating events of the past few days made sense. If Chase was involved with the woman who’d perpetrated the crime, that would be good news. Surely he’d have some ideas about where she might have gone.
    As the water streamed down on Kelly and grew cold, a chilling question occurred to her. If Kelly was on the right track and Chase found out the real reason Kelly was searching for Amanda/Mandy, which woman would he be more likely to believe was guilty of kidnapping?
    The woman who was mother to his son, or a complete stranger?
     
    C HASE’S FATHER PACED TO the bay window that overlooked the street and peered into the twilight, a journey he’d been taking with increasing regularity.
    “She’s already an hour late.” He stated a fact of which Chase was only too aware. “Think she stood you up?”
    “It’s starting to look that way,” Chase admitted, internally kicking himself for the way he’d handled his first meeting with Kelly Delaney. He’d sensed she wasn’t being completely honest but had failed to ask where in town she was staying. Tracking her down wouldn’t be that difficult—if she was still in Indigo Springs.
    It had been pure bad luck to get called away on thatnuisance-black-bear call before he got any useful information but he hadn’t anticipated her not showing.
    Any woman who’d go to the trouble of drawing a sketch and showing it around town had seemed a good bet to follow through on her search.
    “Maybe she figured out she was looking for a different woman,” his father theorized.
    Chase shook his head. “I don’t think so, Dad. She has a necklace I remember Mandy wearing. Although I’ve got to admit it seems strange for her to go to all this trouble to give it back.”
    “Not so strange. Some people are good Samaritans. She could be one of them.” His father’s voice caught on the last word and he groaned, his face turning pale.
    “Dad, are you all right?” Chase asked. His father hadn’t seemed well all night, but had waved off Chase’s earlier concerns, claiming he’d overdone the yard work.
    His father swallowed, seemed to take stock of himself, then nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine. Must have been a cramp. I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about.”
    “Ba, Ba,” Toby cried, distracting Chase from his father’s problem. The baby sat on the floor in the middle of the room, his face creased with delight as he patted a large colorful ball. The ball rolled away. He giggled, crawling after it as fast as his chubby knees would carry him.
    “You almost got it, bud,” Chase’s father called, seeming like his old self again. “Keep on going.”
    Toby reached the ball and batted at it, only to have it roll farther away. He laughed wildly, with Chase and his father joining in.
    It was a simple moment, not unlike a thousand others since Toby had come to live with them.
    It brought home how much Chase needed to find Mandy so he could get legal custody of the boy he already loved as a son. He shouldn’t have made the mistake of assuming Kelly Delaney was as desperate to locate her as he was.
    The doorbell rang, surprising them both. His father had kept such a close watch on the window, he would have seen headlights had a car pulled up.
    Figuring their caller was most likely a neighbor, Chase went to the door and pulled it open.
    Kelly Delaney stood there like an answer to a prayer.
    “I’m sorry I’m late,” she said. “I took a nap and fell asleep. I would have called but somebody was using the phone at the B and B.”
    She looked like a different woman than she had at