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revelations that would have made her hard and cold before her time. But every night, she could walk into this cozy room with its antique brass bed, the turn-of-the-century French armoire, the floral wallpaper and crisp, ruffled linens, and she could feel pampered and soothed.

    But tonight, it wasn’t working.

    She sat up in bed, propped against half a dozen pillows, Tammy’s latest reports spread across the duvet. And the facts she saw there in black and white disturbed her.

    Name : Lisa Mallock
    Age: 45
    Previous occupation: Registered Nurse
    Military history: Nurse in army hospitals, 23 years
    Divorced : Ex-husband’s name, Earl Mallock
    Children: One daughter, Christy, age 10, full custody
    Credit rating: Excellent

    Savannah continued to scan the report. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Lisa Mallock appeared to have led a responsible, productive life, until a year ago, when she had begun to move from one place to another about every three months. She had left her long-standing, well-paying job at the Veterans’ Hospital and had worked for a string of temp agencies, providing in-home nursing for less than half the money. Why?

    Usually, people didn’t pull up stakes and move households every three months just because they got an itch. Being on the run was a lot of work, especially with a child. What was Lisa Mallock running from? More importantly, whom?

    Earl Mallock seemed the likely person. Mothers were seldom given full custody of a child, unless the court deemed the father unsuitable for some reason.

    Savannah thought of the man who had sat, sipping coffee and eating cookies in her den. Brian O’Donnell... biological brother in search of his sister.

    Tammy had said that he checked out, that he was who he claimed to be.

    All the same, Savannah decided to proceed carefully, paying close attention to that voice inside that was warning her about this situation. She had no intention of being a pawn in some bitter ex-husband’s game, or anyone else’s for that matter.

    From what she could see on paper, Lisa Mallock was a decent person, a hardworking mother.

    Someday the devils who were chasing Lisa would probably catch up to her; that was the way life usually worked. Savannah might not be able to prevent that from happening, but she sure as hell didn’t want to be the cause of it.

    Saturday afternoon, at one-thirty sharp, Savannah stood in line outside the gymnasium with her three dollars in hand, eager to see “The Snow Fairy Queen” pageant in all its glory.

    With the golden California summer sun beating down on her dark hair and perspiration pooling in the cups of her bra, it wasn’t easy to get into the “winter” mood, but she was trying.

    Fifteen minutes later, she was allowed in and found herself an excellent, if uncomfortable, seat on the bleachers...four rows back in the center.

    As the giggling cast of dozens scurried about on the makeshift “stage,” wearing pink satin, ruffles of stiff netting, glistening with bits of iridescent glitter, Savannah felt a twang of regret. Here she was, forty years old, no kids of her own, not even a marital prospect on the horizon.

    Loving children, she hadn’t exactly planned her life this way. Like most women she knew, she had nurtured fantasies of home, hearth, husband, and a handful of hellions. But “Life” had a way of happening while you were busy coping with the present and dreaming about the future. And when today’s problems were settled and tomorrow arrived, it seemed to always have a new set of concerns all its own. Either way, she was discovering that the “future”-once it had arrived-wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

    Shaking herself out of her somewhat depressing reverie, Savannah searched the crowd for the hundredth time, looking for the red-haired woman whose picture she had seen on Dirk’s computer screen.

    But the moment the presentation began, it was Christy Mallock who first caught her attention.

    The child, who