She got into her car and took off. The last thing she felt like doing was driving to Ballard again, but if something happened to Ava while she was at Gardner's house, she'd never forgive herself. Besides, if Gardner had been lying to her, she wanted to know. Her instincts had told her he'd been truthful, but if she was losing her touch, she wanted to be the first to know about it.

Mallory rubbed her eyes and searched the pile of applications for her misplaced reading glasses. Had she had them on earlier when she went down to the kitchen? She couldn't remember. But they weren't on the desk and they weren't in her bag, and they had to be somewhere. Besides, it gave her an excuse to go down to the kitchen and see what was cooking. Literally. She'd bet on vegetable soup and lemon squares but she could be wrong.

“Oh, look who's here.” Mallory smiled when she saw Chloe on a chair at the sink. “Are you helping Trula, Chloe?”

“Uh-huh. I'm helping Trula clean up. But I'm not Chloe.”

“You aren't?”

Chloe shook her head, no.

“You look just like Chloe Caldwell, but if you're someone else, who are you?” Mallory asked.

“My name is Nancy Drew,” Chloe said without turning around.

“Nancy Drew is the name of a famous girl detective.” Mallory tried not to smile.

“I know. Like my mommy.”

“I think Nancy Drew was a little older than you, though.” Mallory helped herself to a lemon square and sat at the table.

“Trula told me. She's going to read one of the books for me ′cause I can't read yet.”

“Well, they're certainly fun books. I read them all when I was younger. Maybe not quite as young as four, though.”

“Chloe has very sophisticated tastes.” Trula winked at Mal.

“Nancy does,” Chloe corrected her. “Nancy has… what you said.”

“Oh, to be four again. It must be fun to just change your name whenever you feel like it.” Mal looked beyond the little girl to Trula.

“You don't have to be four,” Chloe told her. “Grown-ups can change their names, too. My mommy changed her name.”

“You mean, from Emily to Emme? That's sort of shortening her name, like a nickname.” Mallory licked confectioners' sugar from her fingers.

“No, her name wasn't Emily. It was Ann.” Chloe held up her soapy hands and squished them together.

“Ann Caldwell?” Mallory tried to remember if the application had shown Emily or Ann as a middle name.

“No, Ann Nolan.”

“Ann Nolan?” Mallory looked across the room at Trula, who'd turned to stare at Chloe.

“Uh-huh. She changed it before we left California. She liked Emme Caldwell better and she said that sometimes you can change your name if you want to, if you find one you like better. I change mine all the time.” She turned and grinned at Mallory. “So you could have a new name too, if you wanted.”

“I think I'll go upstairs and… think about that.” Mallory was still looking at Trula. “I'll be in my office… looking up names, Trula.”

Trula nodded but appeared too confused to speak.

Mallory couldn't get to her computer quickly enough. She entered Ann Nolan into Magellan Express and waited for the information to be retrieved. She watched in horror as pictures of Silver Hill, California, police officer Ann Nolan came onto her screen. The woman she knew-the woman they all knew-as Emme Caldwell was identified in caption after caption as Ann Nolan.

She read every article, then sat with her head in her hands. Who was this woman really? What was she hiding? Why had she lied?

And what were they going to do about it?

Well, you boys look like you had a fun day,” Trula said as Robert, Kevin, and Nick filed through the back door.

“We had a great day.” Robert kissed her on the cheek as he passed by, causing her eyebrows to rise. “I found my car, Trula. The car I've been coveting for years.”

“Well, that's nice.” Trula turned back to the sink where she'd been cutting the stems off some flowers she'd just brought in.

“Hi, Mal,” Robert said as Mallory came into the room.

“Hi. Um… Robert, could I have a word with you?” Mallory asked.

“Sure. What's up?” He went to the refrigerator and opened the door. To Nick and Kevin he said, “Iced tea, guys?”

“Yes, thanks.” Kevin got out glasses. “Nick?”

“No, thanks,” Nick said. All he really wanted was to see Emme.

“Privately.” Mallory stood in the doorway, her arms crossed over her chest.

“What's going on, Mal? Problem?” Robert persisted.

“It's business, Robert.”

“Sorry, Mal,” Robert said as he poured tea into two glasses. “I'm just so stoked about this car. I'll be with you in a minute.” He turned to Trula. “You know, Prince Charles has a car like this one, only he had his converted to running on bioethanol fuel. He has it specially made from surplus wine.”

“Is that true?” Trula asked, and Robert assured her it was.

“I don't see Emme's car.” Nick looked out the back window, feeling a bit awkward. There was obviously something going on that Mallory didn't want to discuss in front of him. “Did she go somewhere?”

“Actually, you just missed her,” Trula told him. “She left about forty minutes ago.”

“Do you know how long she'll be?” he asked. “I was hoping to say hi while I was here.”

“She's planning on being awhile, wherever she went. Suse said she'd need one of us to pick up Chloe from school.”

“Oh.” He hadn't realized just how much he'd been looking forward to seeing her. “Well, I guess I'll be getting back to my shop. Robert, thanks for a fun day. My first time in a private plane. I could get used to it.”

“Hey, anytime you get a lead on a car like that one, we're in.” Robert slapped Nick on the back. “Seriously. That Aston-Martin is a dream come true for me.”

“In its present condition, that might be a stretch, Robert.” Nick grinned. “But we'll see what we can do for you.”

“I can't wait.” Robert shook his hand, and Nick said his good-byes to Trula and Kevin.

Nick went out to his car and rolled down the windows, thinking how nice it might be to have a new car with all the most up-to-date features like automatic windows and air-conditioning that blew really cold. He might have to break down one of these days and look into picking up something with air bags and antilock brakes. There was something to be said about the latest safety features.

He turned the Firebird around and drove toward the gates, waving to the guard as he passed by. He drove slowly and dialed Emme's phone.

“Hey,” he said when she answered.

“Hey, yourself. How'd the great car search go?” she asked.

“Today Robert joined the ranks of classic car owners. He's a very happy man. I'm thinking if you're going to ask for a raise or a day off, today might be a good day to do it,” Nick replied.

“We'll see what kind of a mood he's in when I get back there. I'm on my way to meet Ava at Congressman Gardner's home.”

“Wow. There's a pitch out of the blue. How'd that happen?”

“Ava called and said she wanted to talk to Gardner about his donor status, and asked me to be there with her. She said she thought my presence might make the meeting more official, and that she'd feel safer if I was there.”

“Safer?” Nick frowned. “Safer from whom? Gardner? He didn't seem like much of a threat to me.”

“I agree, but she told me an entirely different story than the one we got from him. According to Ava, Belle told her that she had identified Gardner as Donor 1735 and that she was on her way to meet with him when she left the art museum in January.”

“What?”

“She said that she spoke with Belle while Belle was driving to Maryland, that Belle was going to Gardner's house to try to talk to him. When Ava didn't hear from Belle, she just figured Gardner wasn't home when she got there and that Belle just continued on back to school. Ava said she's been busy at school and figured that Belle was, too. Until she saw my emails, she wasn't aware that Belle's been missing all this time.”