The Stranger's Sin

by Darlene Gardner

  “What!” His mouth gaped open, and he shook his head. “My dad and Teresa aren’t involved.”

  “Are you sure?” She’d gotten the opposite impression at the festival, when Charlie had been overly interested in Teresa’s whereabouts. Just yesterday Charlie had told her Teresa was considering moving to Philadelphia. He’d claimed to be concerned that she’d be making a mistake but Kelly thought he was more worried about losing her.

  “Of course I’m sure,” Chase said. “They’ve been friends for years but that’s it. Besides, my mother hasn’t even been gone a year.”

  Kelly didn’t believe love followed a timetable, but now wasn’t the time to discuss it, especially with Chase so uneasy over the prospect of meeting Jasper Johnson.

  “Then I must be wrong.” She put her hand over his and squeezed, disguising her own nervousness. With her preliminary hearing fast approaching, she had as much at stake as Chase did. “Ready?”

  Inside the building the teenage boy behind the ticket counter directed them outside to the track. “Yeah, J.J.’s here. Ask around. He won’t be hard to find.”

  On the track a small contingent of men wearing red Scooters T-shirts shuffled young thrill seekers in and out of go-karts, making sure their seat belts were secure, then helping them unstrap. The most impressive employee was a muscular fair-haired man in his twenties who resembled Jim Waverly, but about twenty percent inflated.

  “I think that big guy over there might be him.” Chase spoke into her ear, the apprehension in his voice hinting he’d also noticed the man’s resemblance to Waverly. It followed that a woman who’d been involved with Waverly would also find the muscular, blond Scooters’ employee attractive.

  “Hell, no. I’m not Jasper Johnson.” The blond snorted when they finally got his attention. He spoke in a loud voice to be heard above the roar of the go-karts. “J.J.’s over there with the tattoos.”

  The man he indicated was a wiry five foot six or seven, with thick forearms decorated with what looked like tattoos of eagles. He had a receding hairline and appeared to be in his late forties or early fifties, easily twice Mandy’s age. He said something to one of his co-workers, then skirted the line of chatty teenagers, disappearing around the side of the building that housed the video games.

  Chase thanked the muscular blond, then took Kelly’s hand. “Let’s go.”

  She had to hurry to keep pace with him as they followed the path the man had just taken. She shared his urgency. Although the go-kart complex was entirely fenced, she was irrationally afraid Jasper Johnson would disappear.

  Instead he was leaning against the side of the building, one leg bent at the knee and braced against the concrete, smoking a cigarette. He regarded their approach warily.

  “Are you Jasper Johnson?” Chase asked. The building blocked some of the noise, making it possible to talk without shouting.

  The man grimaced. “Aw, hell. I only missed the one time.”

  “Missed what?” Chase asked.

  “The probation meeting.” Jasper Johnson’s already small eyes narrowed. He did not look friendly. “You’re a cop, aren’t you? Because you sure look like a cop.”

  Chase didn’t deny what was essentially the truth. “I’m here as a friend of Mandy’s.”

  Johnson straightened from the wall, his posture tense. “Where is she?”

  “We were hoping you could tell us,” Chase said. “We’re looking for her.”

  “And you think I know?” Johnson made a disbelieving sound, then resumed his position against the building and took a long drag of his cigarette before answering. “Hell, I haven’t seen her since I got out of the joint. Must’ve been a year and a half ago.”

  That was the same time frame Heffinger had given. Kelly quickly did the math. Toby was a year old, which meant that eighteen months ago Mandy would have been three months pregnant. If Johnson’s estimate was correct, he couldn’t possibly be Toby’s father.

  She produced Mandy’s broken necklace and showed it to him. “Is that when you gave her this?”

  His tough-guy expression faltered before he quickly resurrected it. “She said she was going to keep that. Did she give it to you?”

  “No. She lost it. Why? Does it have special meaning? Is that why you had it made for her?”

  “How’d you know I got it made for her?” he demanded, his face turning red. “Did she tell you I ripped her last one off her neck? ’Cause that’s not true. It was an accident!”

  The quick flare of Johnson’s temper hinted otherwise. Kelly took a step closer to Chase before offering an explanation. “Helene Heffinger told us about the necklace. That’s how we found you. She said you showed her a drawing and commissioned her to reproduce it.”

  “So what? A father’s got the right to give his daughter a necklace.”

  “You’re her father?” Chase sounded stunned.

  “She told you I was dead, didn’t she?” Jasper Johnson’s voice was harsh. He nodded at Chase. “You her boyfriend?”

  “Ex,” Chase said. “Have you been in touch with her lately? Maybe have a phone number for her?”

  Johnson took another drag of the cigarette, the smoke filling the air between them. “I’ve been trying to find her myself. We’re having a bit of a…misunderstanding.”

  “What kind of misunderstanding?” Kelly asked, but figured it had something to do with the necklace he’d ripped off Mandy’s throat.

  “She didn’t accept my apology, okay?” Johnson threw the cigarette butt on the ground and stomped it out with his foot. “Why all the questions? Why you looking for her? What’s she done?”

  Chase didn’t hesitate. “She ran out on me.”

  “You and me both, man.” He walked back toward the go-kart track, not even bothering to say goodbye, smoke lingering behind him.

  “Did you get the feeling Jasper Johnson is the reason Mandy was going by the name of Smith?” Chase asked.

  “Most definitely,” Kelly said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he was in jail on an assault charge.”

  “If that’s true,” Chase said, “Mandy should have told me about him.”

  “Maybe she was embarrassed,” Kelly said. “It’s not always easy to tell someone you have a parent in prison.”

  He gazed steadily back at her, realizing instantly what she’d admitted. “Your father?”

  “I lost track of him a long time ago, but no…” She’d been so young all she remembered about him was her mother’s assertion that he wasn’t interested in being a father. “I was talking about my mother.”

  “She’s the reason you went into foster care when you were only eight,” he said, a statement not a question.

  If he’d asked what crime her mother had committed to land her in prison, Kelly might have skirted the question. Because he’d focused on the lost little girl she’d been, she found herself wanting to tell him everything.

  “She stabbed another woman to death. They were at a party and they’d been drinking pretty heavily. She claimed self-defense, but witnesses said they’d been arguing. Over a man, I think, although that was never clear.” She took a breath, determined to finish the story. “She got thirty years to life. It might have been less but she had a rap sheet. Shoplifting, DUI, drunk and disorderly. That kind of thing.”

  Motors hummed and teenagers shouted, but she barely noticed the background noise. Her focal point was his face. She waited, barely breathing, for him to regard her differently, the way most people did when they found out about her mother.

  He took hold of her hand, a simple gesture but one that spoke volumes. He squeezed gently, offering her his support. “Do you keep in contact with her?”

  “I visit her once a year on her birthday, but that’s it,” she said, finding it easier to tell the rest of it. “I was never a priority in her life so I can’t let her become one in mine. Being related by blood isn’t enough. Some people just aren’t cut out to be parents.”

  “Like Jasper Johnson?” he asked.

&
nbsp; “Yes,” she agreed. “And Mandy. I’ve spent only a few days around you and Toby but I can already tell the best place for him is with you.”

  She couldn’t gauge what impact her reasoning was having on him, but needed to make him understand. She took a step closer to him, wanting to make sure he heard her above the hum of the nearby go-karts. “That’s why you can’t go to DPW. Even if there’s only a chance they’ll take Toby away from you, you can’t risk it. You have to keep him with you.”

  “I know,” he said.

  His statement represented such a huge departure from his previous position that she needed to make sure she’d heard him correctly. “You know? When did this happen?”

  “Just now. When we met Jasper Johnson.”

  “So let me get this straight. You no longer feel like it’s your duty to report to DPW that Mandy abandoned her child?” she asked.

  “That’s right,” he said, quite an admission from a man who usually viewed the world through lenses that filtered every color except white and black. “My duty to Toby is more important.”

  “Is that why you didn’t tell Johnson he had a grandson?”

  “That’s why,” Chase said, steel in his voice. “This doesn’t mean I’m going to stop looking for Mandy. I’m not. If I don’t find her in another week or so, I’ll hire a P.I. I have time.”

  He was right. Now that he’d let go of his stubborn insistence to do things by the book, Toby could stay exactly where he was. Chase did have time.

  But for Kelly, time had run out.

  “Now I have a very important question to ask you,” Chase said, his countenance grave.

  She peered at him, hoping it wouldn’t be a question she couldn’t answer truthfully.

  His expression suddenly cleared, his eyebrows dancing. “Wanna race me? I’m hell in a go-kart.”

  The conclusion he’d come to regarding Toby had lightened his mood, but Kelly’s heart was heavy because she’d made a decision of her own. She smiled at him anyway, determined to enjoy what was left of the evening.

  “You’re on,” she said.

  A short time later as they raced their go-karts around the course and through the winding turns, they took their eyes off the track at regular intervals to grin at each other. The wind whipped through Kelly’s hair, along with the certainty that she’d come to the right conclusion.

  She’d yet to decide whether to return to Wenona for her preliminary hearing, but every day that passed brought her closer to being a fugitive.

  With that prospect looming over her, she couldn’t in good conscience continue to keep company with the law-enforcement officer who had found his way into her heart.

  Chase might have altered his stance on reporting Mandy’s abandonment to DPW, but the essence of who he was hadn’t changed.

  That’s why she needed to leave Indigo Springs.

  Tomorrow.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  THE HOMEMADE BLUEBERRY scones at the Blue Stream Bed-and-Breakfast were so renowned that rumors abounded of townspeople booking a room just to experience the breakfast that came with it.

  The last time Kelly had stayed at the B and B, she’d arrived for breakfast so late in the morning that all the scones were gone. She’d made sure that didn’t happen today, showing up in the quaint Victorian-style room where breakfast was served in plenty of time to nab one of the rich, savory pastries.

  She transferred the scone to a piece of flowery china, poured herself a cup of fragrant coffee and sat down at an empty table. Then she picked at the treat, unable to judge its merits because her taste buds were as numb as her heart.

  She glanced at the clock on the wall, surprised to see that ten minutes had gone by since she sat down. Ten minutes that took her closer to leaving Indigo Springs.

  She could only afford to linger a little while longer over breakfast before it would be time to gather her meager belongings and set off for the bus station. Her destination was Harrisburg, the city where Mandy had been living when she met Chase. It was the only place Kelly could think of that might yield clues to Mandy’s whereabouts.

  Kelly didn’t fool herself that Mandy was in Pennsylvania’s capital, waiting to be found. She’d dismissed the idea earlier, but with the hearing only two days away she had no recourse but to cover the same tracks Chase had. She planned to question people who’d known Mandy, hoping Chase had missed something the first time around.

  She’d be forced to use some of her finite supply of cash to rent a car and check into a hotel. She didn’t want to think what would happen when she ran out of money—or if she didn’t find evidence to exonerate her.

  “There she is, Toby. There’s Kelly.”

  Wondering if she was hearing things, her head jerked up at the familiar voice. But there was no mistaking the baby’s sweet face or the gray-haired man holding him. Charlie waved, then strode to her table.

  “Good morning, Kelly,” he said, as though meeting over scones at the Blue Stream B and B was a regular occurrence.

  “’Morning, Charlie.”

  Toby held out his arms, effectively conveying his meaning. Kelly took him from Charlie, gathering him close and breathing in the scent of baby shampoo. She had no trouble interpreting the nonsense words he was babbling.

  “I’m glad to see you, too, Toby.” She looked over his head to Charlie. “What are you two doing here?”

  “We came to have breakfast with our favorite girl, didn’t we, bud?” Charlie chucked Toby lightly under the chin. “After Chase left for work this morning, Toby went room to room searching for something. I finally realized it was you. So here we are.”

  The anecdote touched her. In the time she’d spent with Toby, she’d learned she didn’t have to be related to a child to love him.

  Charlie placed a small container of dry cereal and a bottle of juice in front of Toby, then told Kelly, “Be right back.”

  The little boy picked up some of the O-shaped cereal but not with his usual gusto. He sniffled and laid his head against her chest, his small body warm against hers. She kissed his soft hair, trying not to think this would probably be the last time she held him.

  Charlie returned to the table shortly, a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and a plate containing a blueberry scone in the other.

  “I thought only guests got scones.” Kelly expected him to make a joke, perhaps along the lines of the owner not being able to resist him, possibly even suggesting she’d propose if she wasn’t already married.

  “The owner’s father is a friend of mine,” he said.

  Kelly blinked, a bit taken aback by the very un-Charlie like answer, then asked, “Have you had the scones before?”

  “I love them,” he said. But his pastry, like Kelly’s, sat untouched on his plate. Toby, too, ignored his cereal.

  “Is Toby all right?” she asked.

  “I’m not sure,” Charlie said. “I’m afraid he might be coming down with something. What do you think?”

  She laid a hand on his forehead, which felt cool to the touch. “He doesn’t have a fever but he seems listless. It’s probably just a little cold, but you should keep an eye on him.”

  Charlie nodded.

  “How are you?” she asked.

  “Fine,” he said quickly. Too quickly.

  “Really?” she ventured. “Because it seems to me that’s something’s wrong.”

  “Wrong? What could be wrong?”

  “I don’t know, but you’re not your usual cheerful self.” She laid a hand on his arm. “It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it, but I’m a good listener.”

  He closed his eyes briefly, seeming to debate her offer. When he spoke, it was clear the words didn’t come easily.

  “We drove past Teresa’s house on the way here. There’s a for sale sign in her yard.” Charlie rubbed his forehead as though his head hurt. “I knew she was thinking about selling, but I didn’t think she’d go through with it.”

  “Is she planning to leave town?”

/>   “Her daughter wants her to move to Philadelphia.”

  “And you want her to stay in Indigo Springs,” Kelly finished.

  He nodded miserably, confirming what Kelly had suspected all along. Something was going on between Charlie and Teresa.

  “Then tell her you love her,” she advised.

  He almost knocked over his coffee, managing to right the mug at the last moment. “How do you know I love her?”

  “Because of the way you look when you talk about her,” she said. “But some women need to have it spelled out. Teresa might be one of them.”

  “Teresa already knows I love her.” He lapsed into silence, staring down at his hands, then mumbled. “That’s not why we’re having problems.”

  “Then what is the problem?” Kelly asked gently.

  He raised his head, and for the first time since she’d met him she noticed the wrinkles on his face. “The worst time of my life was when my wife died. Teresa was greatly affected, too. They were closer than sisters. But she hasn’t even been gone a year. How would it look if I took up with her best friend?”

  “Who cares how it looks?” she retorted.

  “I care,” he said. “How could Teresa and I be truly happy if our being together hurt other people?”

  “Who would it hurt?” Kelly tried to make sense of his rationale and arrived at the only possible conclusion. “Are you talking about Chase?”

  The way his eyes flicked away from hers told her she’d guessed right. Charlie rubbed a hand over his jaw. “He loved his mother.

  “He loves Teresa, too,” Kelly said.

  “That’s not the point. You’ve gotten to know him. Do you really think he’d approve of me being in love with another woman only nine months after his mother died?”

  “You don’t know for sure that he’d disapprove,” she said, even though she’d seen his shocked reaction to the possibility the other day. But Chase had altered his position on DPW and Toby. Maybe he wasn’t quite so hard-line as they all believed. Maybe she could talk to Chase and make him understand that love was precious, no matter where—or when—you found it.

  “I can see in your face that you want to help, but you can’t,” Charlie said. “I told you about Teresa in confidence. I need you to promise you won’t mention it to Chase.”