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is a favorite of hers.” Kelly didn’t know if that was true, but it could be. “She’d want it back.”
    “Then why not leave the necklace with Chase Bradford?”
    Kelly repeated the name as though she’d never heard it before. “Chase Bradford?”
    “He’s a really good guy,” Sara said, marking the thirdtime today somebody had vouched for Chase’s character. First Chase’s father, then the restaurant owner and now Sara. “I’m sure he’d help you. He and Mandy were living together until she left town.”
    Kelly noted that Sara used the past tense. She warned herself to tread carefully because her guess was that Sara and Chase were friends.
    “I could get Chase on the phone for you,” Sara offered, bolstering Kelly’s theory.
    “Thank you but I’d really like to hear what you know about Mandy,” Kelly said.
    Sara had opted to sit in a chair beside Kelly rather than behind her desk. She angled her body and leaned forward at the waist, balancing her elbows on her thighs.
    “Why come to me?” Sara sounded as though she was cross-examining a witness. “How can I possibly help you find Mandy?”
    Kelly fought to keep her cool. “I heard Mandy interviewed with you for a job.”
    “That’s true,” she said slowly. “But who—?”
    “I also heard Mandy was upset you didn’t hire her, that it had something to do with her references. I thought you still might have them.”
    “Her references, you mean?” Sara asked, successfully sidetracked.
    “Yes.” Kelly nodded for emphasis. “I thought someone she used as a reference might know where she is.”
    “She was of the opinion she shouldn’t have to give me any.” Sara sounded bewildered by the assumption. “She made quite a scene about it, in fact.”
    Kelly’s brain raced, speculating about what might havehappened next. Could Mandy have turned to an employer who didn’t ask questions? Or, in Aaron Hirschell’s case, possibly require any documentation at all?
    Once Kelly made the intuitive leap, another theory took hold. No, not a theory, a conclusion.
    Mandy was on the run from something. Maybe Mandy Smith wasn’t even her real name, the way Kelly Delaney wasn’t hers.
    It takes one to know one, she thought.
    “Do you know if she was friends with anybody in town?” Kelly asked. “Or anywhere she used to hang out?”
    “I saw her a couple times at the Blue Haven.”
    Kelly recognized the name as belonging to a pub on Main Street.
    “But let’s backtrack,” Sara said. “Who told you Mandy applied for a job with me?”
    Kelly shifted in her seat, concluding she had no choice but to tell the truth. Sara would surely figure out if she lied. “Charlie Bradford.”
    “Charlie?” Sara looked shocked. “If you know Charlie, why haven’t you talked to Chase?”
    “Chase doesn’t know where she is.” Before Sara could point out that Kelly had given the impression she’d never heard of Chase, Kelly stood up. “Thanks for your time. I won’t take up any more of it.”
    Kelly squelched an urge to sprint for the exit, proceeding as though panic wasn’t squeezing her lungs. She didn’t take a deep breath until she was across the street from the law office in the sunshine of a lovely summer afternoon.
    She wasn’t cut out for a life on the run, she thought as she composed herself. If she didn’t show up for herpreliminary hearing next Friday, however, a bench warrant would be issued for her arrest.
    She headed for the Blue Haven with purpose in her step, praying that Mandy had confided her plans to somebody who worked there and wishing she wasn’t so alone.
    She wished she could confide in Chase Bradford, who had a compelling reason of his own to find Mandy.
    But even though Chase’s father, the restaurant owner and the lawyer had vouched for him, Kelly couldn’t afford to trust anybody with her freedom.
     
    C HASE DISCONNECTED THE cell-phone call, swung his Jeep from the two-lane road into the gravel parking lot adjacent to a