Had it really only been ten days? It seemed impossible to fall in love over ten short days, but the persistent ache in her chest said otherwise.
She could attribute the dull pain to a seemingly inevitable prison sentence that would strip her of her teaching career and chance to adopt a child.
Except any of those eventualities would be a little easier to face if only Chase had believed her.
“Ten!” Yates said. “That’s right. Ten messages! And you didn’t answer any of them!”
“That’s not true.” Kelly crossed her legs at the ankles, trying to give the false impression that she was in total control. “I called your office last night to agree to meet with you before the hearing.”
“You called after office hours when you knew nobody would be here!” Yates said.
“I’m sorry.”
“Where have you been?”
She met his eyes. “I was looking for the real kidnapper.”
His brows rose slightly, and she knew he was as skeptical that such a person existed as the first time they’d met. “And did you find her?”
“As a matter of fact, I did.” Kelly dug into her purse and pulled out a sheet of paper on which she’d written Mandy’s name and the address of the Dancing Turtle. She handed it to him. “I’d like you to pass this on to the police and get the hearing postponed.”
He held up the paper. “Is this legit?”
“Yes. Mandy Johnson kidnapped that baby, not me.”
He glanced at the paper again. “I assume you have more than just this name and address? What proof do you have that this woman is the kidnapper?”
Kelly’s new policy of being honest all the time, no matter what the fallout, kicked in. “No other proof. Mandy insists she didn’t kidnap anyone. She even has someone giving her an alibi, so it’s their word against mine.”
He didn’t sigh, but his chest heaved up and down as though he was holding one back. “And you honestly think this is worth pursuing?”
“Yes, I do,” Kelly said firmly. “She’s the kidnapper. I’m innocent.”
Yates squeezed the bridge of his nose, then balanced his elbows on his desk and leaned forward. “I’d be remiss as your lawyer if I didn’t explain what could happen if we request a postponement.”
“Go on,” Kelly said when he paused.
“The plea bargain I worked out isn’t good forever. If this goes nowhere, the DA could get seriously annoyed. He could take the offer off the table just like that.” He snapped his fingers. “It’s a very good offer.”
“On the phone, you said I’d have to serve a year in prison.”
“I’ve told you this before, but it bears repeating. If the case goes to trial and you’re convicted of second-degree kidnapping, you could be sentenced for up to eight years. Luckily for you, everyone seems convinced this incident was brought on by stress over your infertility. That’s why the DA reduced the charge to endangering the welfare of a child and stipulated you submit to ongoing counseling.”
Kelly looked left, then right, but there was no way out of this mess. “So I’m supposed to get treatment for a problem I don’t have and plead guilty to a crime I didn’t commit?”
“You can plead no contest.” Yates removed his elbows from the desk and sat back in his chair. “It’s the same as a guilty plea in the eyes of the law, but the plea can’t be used against you in a civil case.”
Her stomach cramped. “Are you advising me to take the deal?”
“I’m presenting the facts as I know them so you can make an informed decision.”
The intercom on his desk buzzed, followed by the voice of his secretary. “You’ll want to take this call, Mr. Yates.”
“Excuse me,” he told Kelly before punching a button, picking up the phone and angling his chair away from her.
The decision she had to make crowded her brain, drowning out Yates’s side of the conversation. Could she really gamble years of her life on the authorities believing her instead of Mandy Johnson? Even Chase didn’t believe her.
Then again, could she give up her hopes and dreams without a fight? No school system would hire a woman who’d done time for child endangerment, and no adoption agency would approve her. Not to mention that pleading no contest would be tantamount to lying and she’d promised herself never to lie again.
Yates hung up the phone and turned to face her.
“No!” she said without preamble. “I won’t admit to something I didn’t do.”
Yates nodded to the phone, a shocked expression on his lean face. “You probably won’t have to. The DA is going to ask for a continuance.”
“What? Why?”
“New evidence, the DA’s office says. The continuance is just a formality. It seems the DA expects all charges against you to be dropped.”
Kelly’s hands flew to her face. “I don’t understand.”
“Neither do I,” he said. “We’ll find out the details at the hearing. You will be there, right?”
“Of course I’ll be there,” Kelly said.
“I’ll see you then.” He looked down at the papers on his desk, and Kelly realized she’d been dismissed.
She walked out of his office, through the building and into the late-morning sun. She breathed deeply of the warm, sweet air, the same way she had that morning after spending the night in jail. But even though her long nightmare seemed to be reaching an end, euphoria wouldn’t come.
Not when the man she loved was back in Indigo Springs, believing the worst of her.
Five wide steps led from the law office to a small city park, complete with benches and a pretty fountain. When she reached level ground, she looked up.
There, beside the fountain, was Chase.
CHASE’S FEET FELT AS THOUGH they were encased in plaster. He’d intended to go to Kelly the instant she emerged from the law office, but confusion and uncertainty froze him in place. She hadn’t looked happy, even before she spotted him, and that didn’t make sense.
Keeping her head high, she walked toward him at a quick clip. She looked lovely in high heels and a summery-patterned dress suitable for court. She also looked remote and unapproachable. He met her halfway, wishing he could turn back the clock and redo the last twenty-four hours.
“It wasn’t necessary for you to come all this way.” Her speech was stiff and formal. “I never planned to skip the hearing.”
Chase winced. Did she really think him so intractable he’d drive hundreds of miles to assure the system had a chance to treat her unjustly?
Of course she did, he admitted to himself.
“That’s not why I’m here,” he said.
She stiffened her shoulders. “How did you find me anyway?”
“I went to your apartment first. When you weren’t there, I called the courthouse and got the name of your attorney. I took a chance you’d come to see him.”
She looked seriously displeased, as though she hadn’t even heard him deny he was in Wenona to make sure she attended the hearing.
“Excuse me. I have to be in court in a few hours,” she said briskly and moved to get past him.
“Did your attorney tell you the DA’s going to ask for a continuance?”
She paused in the act of sidestepping him. “How did you know that?”
She held herself rigidly, her body language communicating that she didn’t want him to touch her. He didn’t blame her. He nodded toward a bench that overlooked the fountain. “Sit with me.”
At first he thought she might refuse, but then she marched to the bench and sat, careful to keep distance between them. A couple with a little girl about two years old sat down on a nearby bench. The girl toddled up to the fountain and dragged a hand through the water, laughing when it splashed into her face.
It was entirely his fault Kelly thought he believed her capable of kidnapping a child not much younger than the little girl, Chase thought.
“My buddy Dave has a brother-in-law who’s a police detective in northeast Pennsylvania,
” he began. “After we got back from Fox Tail yesterday, I got his phone number and called him.”
“Why?”
“Because something about Mandy’s alibi was fishy. You didn’t meet the restaurant owner, but she seemed nervous. So I got Dave’s brother-in-law to pay her a visit.”
She angled her body toward him, her eyes wide and questioning. He could smell her shampoo and the scent that was uniquely hers. He clenched his fist to stop from reaching for her.
“It turned out Mandy had worked at the restaurant only for a week. She and the owner are old friends—that’s why Mandy had the T-shirt. When Mandy found out a woman called the restaurant asking for her, she asked her friend to lie about how long she’d been working there.”
“Did the restaurant owner know about the kidnapping?”
“Not the real story. Mandy told her you’d committed a crime and were trying to blame Mandy because you two look alike.”
Kelly shifted, her expression puzzled. “The restaurant owner retracting the alibi doesn’t seem like enough evidence to get the hearing postponed.”
“It wasn’t. I got a call on the drive up here. Dave’s brother-in-law questioned Mandy this morning, and given what the restaurant owner said, Mandy admitted that she’d lied. That she’d manufactured her alibi. So he had enough to contact the Wenona cops. Once they showed up and started asking her some tough questions, she folded and all but confessed. They’re extraditing her to New York as soon as possible.”
Kelly put a hand to her head, finding it hard to absorb what he was saying. When Spencer Yates had told her the charges against her would probably be dropped, she hadn’t fully believed him. Mandy’s capture changed everything.
“But why would she do it? Why would she take that baby?” It was the question that had bothered her from the start, the one that seemed so unanswerable she’d almost pled no contest to a crime she hadn’t committed.
“Apparently she just lost it,” Chase said. “The baby reminded her of Toby, so the detective thinks she snatched him to prove she could be a good parent. It didn’t take her long to realize she didn’t want to take care of the kidnapped baby any more than she had Toby. That’s where you came in.”
“The wrong place at the wrong time,” Kelly said.
“That about sums it up,” Chase said. “The detective fully expects her to face charges.”
The charges Kelly had barely escaped. Charges that might have landed her in prison if not for Chase.
“You believed me.” The knowledge slowly dawned on her and filled her with awe. “You believed me when I told you I hadn’t kidnapped anyone.”
“I didn’t want to believe you because it meant admitting Toby might also have been kidnapped,” he said. “But, yes, I believed you.”
“But…but then why didn’t you say something after Mandy gave you Toby’s birth certificate? In the car, on the way back to Indigo Springs, you hardly said a word.”
“I was trying to make sense of it all. If Mandy wanted a baby, all she had to do was come back for Toby. I couldn’t figure out why she would lie or why her boss would lie for her.” He shifted, looking uncomfortable. “Her story was credible—and yours wasn’t.”
He seemed to be talking in riddles. “So you didn’t believe me until that detective told you Mandy’s story had fallen apart?”
He shook his head vehemently. “That’s not true. I believed you way before then.” He paused. “I was just trying to figure out why I believed you.”
The apprehension in his voice alerted her that the conclusion he’d reached was vital.
“Did you figure it out?” she asked softly.
“Oh, yeah,” he said, then took her hand and looked into her eyes. “I love you, Kelly. That’s why I believed you.”
Her pulse raced even faster than it had when the cops had arrested her. Her breath caught, making it difficult to draw in air, but she seemed unable to do anything except stare at him.
He wore slacks, a blue dress shirt and a tie. He should have looked professional, but the garments were wrinkled from his long drive to Wenona and his hair appeared as though he’d been running his fingers through it. He looked endearingly nervous.
“You don’t have to say anything right now.” Chase said, his hand tightening on hers. “I know we haven’t known each other for long and that you might have a tough time forgiving me. I know I’m a self-righteous jerk, but all I want is a chance.”
She managed to breathe again because there was something she really needed to tell him. “I don’t think you’re a self-righteous jerk.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “Are you sure about that?”
“Very sure,” she said, smiling tremulously at him, “because I wouldn’t have fallen in love with a self-righteous jerk.”
“You love me?”
“You and Toby and Charlie, too.” She felt tears forming in her eyes. “Most of all, you.”
She reached for him at the same time he wrapped her in his arms, eliciting a warm, allover feeling she recognized for what it was: Love.
She kissed him, letting the feeling sweep over her, knowing perhaps for the first time in her life exactly what she wanted.
She wanted Chase.
A long while later he broke off the kiss, still keeping her in his arms, his eyes earnest. “You didn’t let me finish apologizing.”
A corner of her mouth lifted. “I already told you I don’t think you’re a self-righteous jerk.”
“But I am, to quote my father, an ass.”
“When did Charlie call you that?”
“When he told me he was going to marry Teresa whether I liked it or not.”
Good for Charlie, Kelly thought. “What did you say?”
“I didn’t react too well. But then Teresa said my dad had been afraid to tell me, and I realized I’d caused them a lot of pain.” He paused. “Just like I caused you pain. You felt you couldn’t tell me the truth, either. I’m sorry for that.”
“And I’m sorry for lying to you,” she said. “I won’t do it again.”
“Again? Does that mean you see a future for us?” He leaned closer to her, as though he was hanging on her answer. “You told me before that you love Indigo Springs. Do you love it enough to move there?”
She reached up and stroked his face. “I love you enough to move to Indigo Springs.”
“I won’t rush you,” Chase promised. “I’ll wine you and dine you and do my best to make you forget I ever doubted you. But I should warn you I have a kid who needs a mother. So be aware that, down the line, I’m the marrying kind.”
The little girl and her parents were leaving the park. The child walked between the adults, holding each of their hands as she skipped along. They looked like a happy family, but no more content than Kelly vowed she’d be with the Bradford men.
She smiled at him, amazed that her journey to clear her name had brought her to this happy place.
“The marrying kind,” she repeated. “So am I.”
ISBN: 978-1-4268-3298-7
THE STRANGER’S SIN
Copyright © 2009 by Darlene Hrobak Gardner.
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