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“I’ll walk you up,” he offered, but she waved one hand in decline.
“I’ll be fine. You probably have somewhere to be. Don’t worry about me.”
He ignored that, lending an arm for her to cling to as she balanced precariously on the icy path. She flashed him a smile once they reached the door.
“Thank you for saving me from a broken neck.”
“You’re welcome.” He waited till she’d unlocked the door. “Are you sure you’ll be all right?”
“Of course.” She kept her face averted, refused to meet his eyes. “Thank you very much. Good night.”
“Take care.”
Kelly responded in kind, then closed the door.
Ross waited a few moments on the porch, leaning on a column as he watched the inside lights flare on. After a moment he slowly walked back to his car, his mind recreating the forlorn beauty of her face when he’d given her the news tonight.
What was Kelly Young so afraid of?
As he drove back to his apartment, Ross ruminated on Sandra Lange, pictured her sad green eyes peering at him, her newly grown silver-blond hair a shimmer of fuzz that feathered her scalp.
“If I could just know for sure,” she whispered to him that first day when she’d hired him to find her child. “Then maybe I could let it all go.”
Since then she’d become like a second mother to Ross, fussing with worry about the hours he spent on her case, the move he’d made from Richmond to Chestnut Grove to facilitate his work here, the time he’d spent following leads that ended in blanks. He’d never known concern like that, especially not now since his mother’s Alzheimer’s had made him a stranger to her. Maybe that’s why he felt an odd responsibility to Sandra, a need to be sure she was all right. She’d become closer to him than his mother and so he did whatever he could to help her realize her goal.
It struck him that his part in this story was over, that he’d done what Sandra had asked, found the child she’d lost. He should be thinking about moving back to Richmond.
But all he could think about was Kelly—a slim, pale woman who held her emotions inside as if she were afraid someone wouldn’t like her if they saw the truth.
He’d just rocked her world with his news. She would need time to think and digest what the knowledge could mean. Ross decided to visit Sandra while he gave Kelly an hour to regroup. Then he’d call, check up on her. Sandra would want him to do that.
But as he drove to Sandra’s, Ross knew that concern wasn’t all he was feeling. Something about Kelly’s reaction—as if she’d drawn her shields up, enclosed herself behind them—bothered him. She was hurting and it was his fault. He should have found a better way to tell her.
Ross admitted what had been lurking in the back of his brain for weeks.
He wanted to see Kelly Young without the shadows clouding her eyes, relaxed, carefree. He wanted to be there to see her when she’d been freed from whatever held her back, he wanted to be the one who saw behind that icy mask of tightly leashed control.
Kelly Young had everything he’d been denied—two parents who had adored her, a job she clearly loved, friends who were nearby whenever she needed them. Her life was full, happy, the kind of tale children’s storybooks were made of. Reaching out to Sandra Lange would cost her so little.
Yet she seemed terribly afraid of even meeting with Sandra now.
Why?
Chapter Two
Kelly leaned against the door and listened to the engine of Ross’s car as he drove away. She was odd man out, alone. Again.
Her friends each had someone special in her life. She had no one. It was a pathetic admittance, but the truth could not be denied. Kelly had no desire to return to the reception. Ross’s news had leeched away the spirit of fun she’d shared with the others. Now all she could think about was Sandra Lange. She was Sandra Lange’s daughter. Sandra was her mother.
The knowledge filled her with unbearable angst that she couldn’t explain. It was fear, she knew that much. But the basis of it couldn’t bear exploring, not now. Kelly moved through the house slowly, scanning each room looking for something she could do to keep her hands busy, her mind occupied. But the big house was as neatly pristine as she’d always kept it. Just like the rest of her life.
Except for this business with Sandra. She skittered away from that. What to do?
Her mind flew to the storage closet she’d been cleaning at the office. Now there was a project that would take her complete attention. So what if it was ten o’clock at night—on a weekend?
She thought about it for the space of two seconds then bounded up the stairs to change her clothes. Clad in a thick gray wool sweater and black pants, she tied on her hiking boots, pulled on her parka, beret, scarf and gloves, then reached for the doorknob. The winking light on her answering machine made her pause.
“Hi, Miss Young. This is Vinnie at the garage. I took a look at your car and—well, I don’t know exactly how to say this. It looks like your steering has been tampered with. What I’m looking at had to be deliberate.” A sigh. “Maybe you better call me tomorrow or Monday. We’ll talk about it then. Bye.”
Tampered with? Surely he was mistaken—overreacting, perhaps. Nobody cared about her car, or about tampering with it. Besides, she kept it in the garage when she was home.
Still, he’d been so definite. Kelly had no idea how steering on a car worked, but she knew Vinnie knew his car stuff. If anybody could fix it, he could. Until then she’d walk back and forth to the office. It wasn’t that far and she needed the exercise after many Christmas indulgences. Kelly pulled open the door and stepped outside.
It was a lovely night—cold, clear, crisp. A promise of things to come?
Deliberately stuffing away thoughts of Sandra Lange, Kelly crunched down the street, admiring the lights and decorations that twinkled in the darkness. Usually she loved the holiday season. Celebrating Christ’s birth, welcoming in another year—they were beloved traditions her parents had taught her to note as milestones. It didn’t matter that the couple was gone now; she kept their traditions alive just the same, as a way of honoring them. Only this morning she’d written about the coming year in her journal.
I hope it’s a year I can move away from the past, put my mistakes behind me and look forward to the future. I need to be free of the fear. Unable to delineate exactly what she was afraid of and unwilling to explore it further, Kelly had stopped there. She only knew that worry had lurked at the back of her mind for years, as long as she could remember she’d had this dream that someday someone would show up and tell her it was all a lie, that nobody cared about her, that she was all alone.
Kelly stopped, turned around and looked back at her house. White Christmas lights glimmered and twinkled under the eaves, above the wooden snowmen her father had created so long ago. Her house, though lovely, was also a reminder of the past. She’d chosen it with Simon, before he’d told her he’d made a mistake, that he didn’t want to marry her. She loved the old colonial with its four big bedrooms, where she’d dreamed of tucking in her own children. Children she wasn’t so sure she’d ever have now.
Was that why she’d hung onto it when he’d left, to keep alive the dream?
The dream was gone. It was time to admit that to herself and stop waiting for Simon to return. He’d made it clear that last morning before summer holidays began.
“I’m taking a new job, a better one, in New York. I don’t want to hang around this pokey place forever, meeting at the diner for lunch, spending Sunday evenings with couples whose only interests are babies. I have big plans.”
Plans that didn’t include her. She knew that now, but then she couldn’t accept that he would walk away without even discussing it.
“What about me, Simon? I thought you loved me.”
“So did I. I’m sorry. I made a mistake.”
A mistake. The words had devastated her.
“I need freedom. You’re afraid of it. You won’t take on the challenge of life, Kelly. You sit in your comfy world at that adoption agency and you spend your days handing out babies. Why? Because everyone expects you to?” His scathing tone had hurt. “You could do so much more, but you’re afraid to venture beyond this place. I wanted to talk about moving, to discuss our future, but then I realized, you see your future here. I don’t.”
In a way, Simon had been right. The thought of leaving this place, of going to a spot where she knew no one, where she was the oddball, where nothing was familiar—that made her blood run cold. The only thing she didn’t understand was why.
The familiar tightness in her chest signaled tension that she didn’t want, so Kelly thrust away the past and sped up her steps. She concentrated on breathing so she couldn’t think of anything else. Within minutes she was unlocking the front door of Tiny Blessings, punching in her security code. She locked it solidly behind her, then climbed the steps to her office. Once she’d removed her parka and winter accessories, she hung them neatly, then glanced around.
Her office was as she’d left it—clean and orderly. No papers marred the blank surface of her desk. Not that she felt like doing paperwork anyway.
What then?
The closet. It was the weekend. She could drag everything into the hall and leave it there till tomorrow. No one would notice or complain, especially not Florence, who wouldn’t come back until four o’clock Monday afternoon.
Kelly picked up her keys and walked into the hall. As soon as she turned the lock, the door burst open and broom handles pushed their way out, one knocking her on the temple.
“Ouch! Stop that or I’ll throw the lot of you in the garbage,” she warned, glowering at them as she propped the offender in one corner. With the brooms and the massive pail out of the way, Kelly could remove several dented, and probably useless, half-full paint cans. That left enough room for her to squeeze inside.
“Okay, now what have we got here?” She grasped the handle of the top drawer of the filing cabinet and yanked, but aside from a groan, the drawer never budged. Kelly tried the bottom one. Locked.
Why would someone lock a filing cabinet they’d left in a storage closet?
“Because they don’t want anyone to look inside, dummy.” She grimaced at her own answer. “So now what do I do? Pry it open?”
She couldn’t think of any good reason why she shouldn’t know what was inside, so Kelly asked herself where she’d find something to pry it open with.
“Florence’s basement,” she muttered and turned to the door.
To her utter shock, the steel door slammed closed in her face.
“Hey!” She grabbed the handle and twisted it but the door didn’t open. “Open this door,” she yelled. “I’m locked inside.”
No answer.
“Florence? Can you let me out?”
But Florence never answered. She’d probably left long ago.
“Wait a minute.” Kelly recalled using her key to unlock the door. The lock was on the outside. She should be able to open the door from the inside. She slid her hands over the knob, tried to find a button, something, that would release the door. She found nothing. The knob would not turn.
Panic began to thrum inside her. There was no way this door should remain closed unless someone was deliberately preventing her from getting out.
“Let me out!” She lifted her hands, clenched them into fists and began banging. After several minutes, the only result she achieved was sore hands.
At least the light was still on. Kelly flopped down on the edge of the file cabinet and wondered how long she’d have to wait. Tomorrow was Sunday. The office would be closed all day. It was unlikely that Pilar, who placed Tiny Blessings’ children, would come to the office—she was a newlywed. And Anne and Caleb hadn’t stuck around after the wedding so she’d hardly come in to take a look at the agency’s books on the weekend. One by one, Kelly ticked off her employees, heart sinking at the realization that she was alone—and going to be here for a while.
But not by herself.
Someone was out there, someone had deliberately closed that door. Rising panic filled her throat and she had to fight for calm. So many questions whirled around her brain—questions like who and why and how did they get into the building.
“It looks like your steering has been tampered with.”
She’d dismissed Vinnie’s words too easily. Now they returned with greater impact. Someone had deliberately tampered with her car? Maybe that same someone had shut her in this room.
Fear crawled up and lodged itself in her brain as a voice sounded outside the door.
“Move out of town, Kelly Young. Forget about the past.” The voice wasn’t clear, but ragged, not unlike a hoarse whisper—a sound made by someone who didn’t want to be identified, or someone with a bad cold.
“Who are you?”
“There’s nothing in Chestnut Grove for you anymore. Leave before it’s too late.”
Leave? But this was her home. She’d been raised here, found friends here, been a part of the church all her life. Where would she go?
“Why? Just tell me why.” She waited for an answer. But the voice was gone. All that remained was an eerie silence filled with foreboding. She was alone—something she’d always dreaded.
Maybe not quite alone. Though the room wasn’t cold, Kelly shivered. She could feel evil waiting just outside that door.
Ross pulled up in front of Kelly’s house and scanned the yard. Three times he’d called her from Sandra’s, three times he’d heard her voice on the machine.
“Maybe she’s more upset than she let on. Please go talk to her,” Sandra had urged him. “I’ll feel better if I know she’s all right.”
Maybe Kelly wasn’t answering the phone on purpose. He got out of the car, walked up the path and rang the doorbell, waited. When she didn’t come to the door, he tried the knob.
“Kelly?” It was quarter past ten. Where would she go?
In a flash the answer was there. Tiny Blessings. She loved her work, was dedicated to finding the perfect home for every child. It had to be emotional, heartrending work and yet in the months he’d spent here he’d never seen her show the least amount of frustration.
Ross had learned a lot about her these past few months. Kelly Young rigidly adhered to every rule and regulation she’d set in place, but perhaps that was simply her way of dealing with the job. And of never making the same mistakes her predecessor, Barnaby Harcourt, had made. Mistakes that had only come to light a few months ago which she’d had to explain to the media. Though falsifying documents hardly classified as a mistake.
Ross knew Kelly was a stickler for routine. But if his revelation about her relationship to Sandra had caused more angst than he realized—He knocked again, twice. Bothered by the lack of response, Ross climbed back in his car and drove the few short blocks to the narrow stone-fronted building that housed Tiny Blessings Adoption Agency.
A big black car sat in front, in the no-parking zone, causing Ross to speculate that Kelly might be meeting someone. He knew from previous visits that Kelly’s office faced Main Street and he could see the light in her office, but no matter how many times he dialed, she didn’t answer the office phone. He parked behind the black car, where it was legal, and pulled on his gloves to protect his hands from the frigid air.
Ross checked the front door. Locked, of course. Kelly wouldn’t dream of leaving the building open to anyone who happened to pass by. Defeated, he returned to his car and sat in the cold and dark, trying to think of some way to contact her. It seemed important that Kelly not be alone tonight. Because of Sandra, he told himself.
From the corner of his eye, Ross saw a movement at the side of the building. He squinted into the darkness, watched a figure slip out an emergency exit door, wait at the edge of the building till a vehicle drove past, then scurry across the sidewalk and plunge into the poorly parked black car. With a squeal of tires it pulled away from the curb, red tail-lights disappearing into the night.
Not a client, Ross decided. Kelly would have let them out the front door. The hair on the back of his neck prickled. Something wasn’t right. People with legitimate business didn’t sneak out side exits.
In two seconds he’d left his car and raced toward the door, which was slightly ajar, thanks to a chunk of ice that had caught in the frame. He dragged it open, stepped into the dimly lit hall and made sure the door was closed securely behind him.
The silence of the place irritated his already cranky nerves. Why didn’t she have some music playing, a radio talk show—something to break the ominous quiet of the old bank building?
Moving with stealth, he walked past the picture displays that lined the walls—Tiny Blessings’ children and their adoptive families. Another time he would have stopped to study them, but Ross glimpsed a sliver of light coming under Kelly’s office door and quickly rapped his knuckles against the solid oak, hoping he wouldn’t startle her.
“Kelly?”
No response. Ross peeked inside. The room was empty, but her coat hung neatly on the coatrack. So she was here. Somewhere.
He stepped back into the hall, wishing he knew where to find the switch that would illuminate the area instead of trying to see in this dim gray-green glow. He jerked to a halt just in time to avoid bumping into some objects littering the hall. What in the world?
Mops, brooms, a pail, paint cans—they were strewn all over. Messy. Now that wasn’t like Kelly. Not at all. He didn’t have time to think it through before his gaze snagged on a chair shoved under a doorknob, holding a gray metal door closed.
Why? his brain demanded. He worked the chair free, grasped the knob and tried to turn. The door wouldn’t open.
“Kelly? Are you in there?”
“Y-yes. I can’t get the door open.”
He heaved a sigh of relief, then concentrated on the task at hand.
“There was a chair blocking it. I’ve moved that but I can’t budge the knob. Is there a lock on the inside?”
“I—I don’t know. Just a minute.”
