The Stranger's Sin by Darlene Gardner Page A

him,” Charlie said. “God knows he loves that boy, but I think the only thing stopping himfrom going to DPW is we can’t be positive Mandy’s not coming back. Not after three weeks.”
    “What has Chase done to try to find her?” she asked.
    “Everything but poll the community, but that probably wouldn’t help anyway,” he said. “Mandy didn’t socialize much. She didn’t talk about out-of-town friends, she doesn’t have any family Chase knows of and Smith is probably the most common surname in the United States. He didn’t have a whole lot to go on until you showed up.”
    Guilt spiraled through Kelly for not revealing everything she knew, but she couldn’t afford to trust anybody when a mistake could land her in prison. “I’m afraid I haven’t been much help.”
    “I know. Chase told me about it last night. On the way back from the hospital,” he added wryly, “not on the way there.”
    “Did she have any friends in town? Maybe they know something.”
    “She took a dislike to Indigo Springs right off the bat, so she didn’t try very hard to fit in,” Charlie said. “About the only effort she made was getting that waitress job.”
    Kelly’s heart started to pound. If Mandy had held down a job, her employer would have records for tax purposes, maybe even references. If Kelly got names, she might find somebody who knew where Mandy was.
    “Where was she a waitress?” she asked.
    “Angelo’s. Serves the best food in Indigo Springs, if you ask me,” he said.
    “Was that the only place she worked?”
    “Only place I know of,” he said, “although she didapply for a job with the new lawyer in town. I remember because she was mad as a hornet when Sara didn’t hire her.”
    “Mad?” Kelly thought that was strange. “Not disappointed?”
    “Definitely mad. She went on and on about something or other. References, I think it was. Yeah, that’s it. Something about her references.”
    Another avenue to explore if Kelly couldn’t find the information she needed at the restaurant.
    “Are you hungry?” Charlie asked. “I could get you some breakfast.”
    “No, thanks,” she said, her mind already plotting ahead. If Angelo’s was open for lunch, somebody should be at the restaurant as early as ten or eleven o’clock. “I’m staying at the Blue Stream B and B. Breakfast comes with the room.”
    Considering she hadn’t used her room last night, she might as well get something for her money.
    “Let me finish my coffee and I’ll drive you back to town,” he said.
    “Oh, no. That’s not necessary. It’s such a beautiful morning, I can walk.”
    “A gentleman doesn’t let a lady who spent the night on a sofa because of him walk back to her hotel,” Charlie said. “Isn’t that right, Toby?”
    Toby looked up from his toy and grinned, then said something in a language only he could understand.
    “See,” Charlie said. “Toby says I’m absolutely right.”
    “In that case, how can I refuse?” Kelly said, but guilt laced her smile.
    One Bradford male was just as charming as the next—and she was lying to all three of them. The fact that she didn’t have a choice was small comfort.
     
    A DRAWBACK TO LIVING IN a town known for its surrounding mountains was that there weren’t many flat places to push a baby stroller.
    Charlie Bradford and his late wife hadn’t considered the terrain when they bought a vacation home in a hilly, tree-lined neighborhood. Neither had they looked for a place with sidewalks. But then Charlie hadn’t anticipated ending up spending his retirement from the post office as a widower with primary care of a baby.
    He didn’t mind looking after Toby. He did mind that the only place relatively level enough to stroll him, weather permitting, was downtown Indigo Springs’s sidewalks.
    Especially because his lack of options had enabled one of the most beautiful women in town to find him.
    “I hate that you didn’t call me last night,” Teresa Jessup said,