by Alison Stone
“Wait,” Bridget said.
Moses slowed but didn’t turn around. She jogged to catch up to him, fury heating her face. “Why are you here?” She didn’t believe that he suddenly appeared on her family farm the morning her sister disappeared.
Something flitted across his face. She would have missed it if she hadn’t been watching him closely. His eyes widened, as if he were going to make a smart-aleck comment, but instead he said, “Your father came to my family’s farm looking for me. He wanted to know if Liddie was with me.”
“Why would my sister be with you?” The ticking grew louder.
A slow, smarmy smile tilted his lips. “Didn’t she tell you? We’ve been going together. We weren’t doing anything wrong.”
So many emotions swirled and expanded in her chest, making it hard to draw a decent breath. “Neh, she didn’t tell me.” Which left her wondering what else her sister hadn’t told her. “If you know my sister so well, then where did she go?”
The oily expression slid off his face. “Like I told your father, I don’t know. She’s been acting strange.” He glared at her. “Apparently, you Miller sisters are a lot alike.”
“Unless you have something to contribute, I think you should leave.” Bridget glared back at him.
“Cool your engines. I was on my way out.”
Bridget waited until Moses was gone before she turned to her brothers. “Why did Moses come here?”
Elijah shook his head. “He was trying to find out if we knew where Liddie was. He seemed really mad.”
Bridget could only imagine how he had reacted five years ago when he discovered she had left Hickory Lane. Bridget reached out and touched Caleb’s arm and asked gently, “Do you have any idea where Liddie is?”
He frowned. “Did she leave us, too?”
Bridget’s heart broke. Caleb’s face had thinned, lost the roundness of childhood. His eyes mirrored the seven-year-old little boy’s that she had abandoned. The little boy she remembered had loved handing her a bouquet of dandelions he had gathered from the field. Tears burned the back of her nose. She swallowed hard. If she owed her preteen brother anything, she owed him the truth. “I don’t know. I’ll find out.”
Elijah jerked his thumb at her jeans. “Are you leaving, too? Or are you dressed to search for our sister?” Hope softened the hard edges of his accusation.
“Right now, I’m looking for Liddie.”
“Maybe your police friend can help?” Caleb’s voice cracked.
“He’s on his way.” She tapped Caleb’s soft cheek in a rare display of affection. “I love you guys. I won’t go anywhere until we know Liddie’s safe. I promise.”
FIFTEEN
Bridget found her grandfather approaching the barn, his travel hampered by his unsteady footing on the rutted lane.
He pulled his pipe from his mouth. “Is Zach on his way?”
“Yah.” Nervous energy made her shift her weight from foot to foot.
“Do you think Liddie would want us to look for her?” He took another long puff on his pipe, regarding her carefully.
“What if...” She couldn’t shake the sinking feeling that had been haunting her all morning. “What if she’s in danger? What if the people who killed Ashley and Dr. Ryan got Liddie? Maybe they knew where I was and she got in the way somehow.”
Liddie took her phone. She probably left on purpose, right? Bridget reasoned to herself. Her gaze drifted to the road, praying that Zach would hurry up and get here.
“Maybe she went on an adventure. Like you,” her grandfather said, his tone oddly calm.
Bridget felt a smile pulling at her mouth despite the worry eating away at her. “And like you.”
Her grandfather lifted an eyebrow. “You’ve been talking to someone.”
“A lot.” She pulled out the pins holding her bun, allowing her hair to drop into a long ponytail. “He only told me about your adventures out west because he thought it would reassure me that I wasn’t the only one in the family who had dreams outside Hickory Lane. He didn’t mean to betray a confidence. I’m sure of it.”
Her grandfather waved his hand. “You’re an adult. It’s important that you understand your parents and grandparents are people, too. We have lives and dreams outside of our roles in the family.”
Bridget had a hard time thinking of her mother and father as anything more than her parents. Especially her father, who was a stickler for rules. She’d never know their true feelings, thoughts, especially if they deviated from the rules of the Ordnung. “And sometimes you have to admit there are limits to some relationships.”
“I hope whatever you decide to do, you’ll send me letters. Keep in touch. Promise?”
Bridget nodded. “Of course.” She shoved the tips of her fingers into the back pockets of her jeans. “I’m not going anywhere right now other than to find out where Liddie went. I promise I won’t leave without saying goodbye.” She had made the same promise to her brother.
Her grandfather laughed. “Liddie’s off having fun. I’m sure of it.”
Bridget’s phone buzzed in her back pocket. She pulled it out and saw a number she didn’t recognize. It could be her sister’s disposable phone. “Maybe it’s Liddie.” She quickly swiped her finger across the screen. “Hello.”
“Hey, Bridget.”
Her heart leaped. “Liddie!”
“Hey, big sis,” Liddie said, her voice breaking up over a bad connection.
“Are you okay? Where are you? We’re all worried.” The rapid-fire questions allowed no room for answers. “Liddie?”
“I didn’t mean to worry you.” Wind whistled across the line, yet Bridget still detected a hint of sarcasm. Maybe humor. “Don’t tell anyone I called, okay?”
Her grandfather studied her while she talked into the phone. “Mem and Dat are really worried.”
“They’ll be fine. It’s not like I’m leaving for good.”
“Okay, then, where are you?”
Liddie seemed to be muffling the mouthpiece. Was she with someone?
“Tell me where you are,” Bridget said again, this time more insistent.
Her sister came back on the line. “Meet us in front of the neighbor’s driveway in five minutes. We’ll pick you up. And don’t tell anyone. If you’re not there, we won’t stop.”
“Liddie...” Bridget dragged out her sister’s name, a desperate plea.
“I’m not kidding. You’ve been where I am. Do this for me.” Her little sister. Bridget would do anything for her.
“Who are you—” The call ended abruptly before Bridget had a chance to ask her who she was with or to promise she wouldn’t tell anyone. She pulled the phone away from her ear. “Grandpa, that was Liddie. She doesn’t want Mem or Dat to know she called. She’s coming to get me.” She reached out and touched her grandfather’s hand. “I’ll bring her home, okay? I called Zach. He’s on his way. Keep an eye out for him. Tell him I went to meet Liddie in the neighbor’s driveway.”
Her grandfather tipped his head; a smile slanted his mouth. “Go on.”
“Thanks.” Despite the guilt nudging her, she decided against running back inside. “Let Mem and Dat know that I’ll be back after I find Liddie.”
He nodded but didn’t say anything.
Bridget strode across the field, the shortest distance to the neighbor’s house. Phone in hand, she slid her finger across the screen, searching for Zach’s contact information. She should probably let him know about the change of plans herself.
“Where are you going?” her father called from the back porch.
She froze, shocked that he was actually speaking to her. She swallowed hard and waved casually. “I’m headed into town. I’m going to see if I can find Liddie.”
“You’re going to make a mockery of us.” Her father glared at her, his gaze running down the length
of her Englisch clothes.
“I’m sorry, Dat. I have to go.” Bridget bit back the instinct to reassure her parents that Liddie had called her, that she was okay, but she had promised Liddie. Sort of. She smiled at her mother, who appeared on the porch behind her husband.
A whisper of a smile swept across her mother’s face. “Are you leaving for gut?”
“Not right now, Mem. I’ll be back.” Bridget’s heart broke for her mother. Why did Bridget’s dream of becoming a nurse have to come at the expense of her mother’s happiness?
“This isn’t a bed-and-breakfast,” her father called out after her. “You have broken the rules and now your sister thinks she can do the same.” He wrapped his work-worn hands around the porch railing, and even from this distance, Bridget sensed his agitation in his fidgety movements.
Of course, her father blamed her.
Bridget’s face grew hot.
Suddenly anxious that she’d miss meeting her sister, she started to jog across the mucky field, wet from the rains last night.
When she reached the bottom of the neighbor’s driveway, the sun broke through the dark clouds. Adrenaline hummed through her veins. She turned her focus to the phone again and found Zach’s contact information. She was about to call when the deep rumble of an engine vibrated through her. Afraid she didn’t have time for a phone conversation before Liddie arrived, she shot Zach a quick text. False alarm. Meeting Liddie now. She’s with friend.
Bubbles popped up as if Zach was typing. Bridget glanced up as the loud car roared into view. It was painted an unnatural shade of blue. Something niggled at the base of her brain, sending a cold chill up her spine. Instinctively, she snapped a quick photo of the back end of the car and sent it to Zach. She flicked the switch to silent mode and shoved the phone in her back pocket and tugged her T-shirt over it.
The tinted passenger window whirred down, and her sister’s smiling face appeared. She had her hair pulled back in a long ponytail, and she was wearing one of Bridget’s T-shirts.
“What are you doing?” Bridget hollered over the loud hum of the engine.
“Of all people, I thought you’d understand.” Liddie gave her one of her big, infectious smiles.
Bridget tipped her head to catch a glimpse of the driver. He had on a baseball cap pulled down low. He balanced his wrist on the steering wheel and drummed his fingers to the deep bass of the music. She’d have to hold the questions she had for Liddie until they didn’t have an audience.
Liddie tapped her palm on the door frame and craned her neck to look down the road toward the family farm. “Hurry. Get in. Come on—I don’t want to be seen.”
Bridget hesitated for a fraction of a moment before hopping into the back seat. She slid back and buckled her seat belt. She looked up and met the eyes of the driver in the rearview mirror. A knot tightened in her belly. His shifty gaze returned to the road.
“We need to talk, Liddie,” Bridget said.
“I know.” Her little sister seemed giddy. “We’ll go somewhere. Maybe Jamestown?” She deferred to the driver. “Jamestown cool with you?”
“Sure, no prob,” he muttered.
No prob.
That’s when it hit her. He was the man who had been sitting by the pool with Liddie in her courtyard back in Buffalo.
“You remember Jimmy, right?” Liddie said cheerfully.
“From my apartment complex.” Bridget fought to keep her tone even. “Hi.”
Jimmy tipped his head in greeting, but something felt off. Way off.
And his bright blue car. Had it been the same one that nearly ran her over? The incident in the crosswalk had happened so fast that she hadn’t remembered the car, but the sound...
She met his gaze in the rearview again, and the hard set of his eyes made her blood run cold. Bridget slipped out her phone and discreetly sent her location to Zach, then slid it under the seat.
Then she said a quick prayer, hoping she was just being paranoid.
* * *
Zach was relieved to get the texts from Bridget that Liddie was okay. He tried to keep his eyes on the road, but the phone kept dinging. He glanced down at her last text. It was a photo of a vehicle, its license plate clear. A band tightened around his chest, making it difficult to breath. A metallic blue muscle car. Similar to the one that had nearly run Bridget down in the crosswalk.
Then a strange thing happened. Bridget sent him a link to an app that updated her location in real time. With voice commands, he called her back. “Answer, answer, answer,” he muttered aloud to himself. He swerved out into the passing lane, then back into the right lane. When she didn’t answer, he shot her a text via voice commands. Don’t get in that car. Danger.
His gaze kept drifting to his phone in the cup holder. No response.
The app showed she was moving. He muttered to himself and pounded his fist against the dash. He was at least twenty minutes away. He pressed the accelerator and the mile markers ticked by, but not fast enough.
His phone rang. His ASAC. His heart sunk.
“Hey, boss.”
“Hey,” Colleen said, her voice crisp and the conversation to the point. “Where are you?”
“I’m on my way to Hickory Lane. I think we have a problem.”
“What is it?”
“Bridget just sent me a photo of a car that might be the one that tried to run her down in the crosswalk in Buffalo after she first met with me. I need you to run a plate.” His pulse thrummed in his ears. The rearview and side-view mirrors were clear. He changed lanes and passed the snail in front of him.
Come on, come on, come on...
“I can do that. You also need to know that we found video surveillance of a person known to have ties with a street gang entering Dr. Ryan’s cell shortly before he was found unresponsive. The video of the attack appears to be missing.”
“Why are we just finding this out now?”
“I’m of two minds. The doctor’s death is one more case in a heavy caseload. Either it took the officials a while to get around to checking the feed, or someone was paid off to keep the video under wraps.”
“Can you send me the video?” The sign ahead indicated his exit was five miles away.
“I’ll send a screenshot of his face. It was captured at the jail and they found another image of this guy from the alley behind the clinic.”
“Thanks.” Then Zach rattled off the license plate from the photo Bridget had sent.
“I’ll get back to you on that. One more thing. We’ve been following the phone records of the gang members. They indicate communication with someone in Hickory Lane. Any chance Bridget has been keeping up with friends back home?”
“I don’t think Bridget has any gang friends.”
“She’s the sort who takes in stray dogs, right? Maybe a person who wormed his way into her life. Maybe she unknowingly compromised her location.”
“Not Bridget.”
Zach ended the call and pulled up Bridget’s GPS location on his phone. She was moving away from Hickory Lane. He got off at the nearest exit and pulled over to study the map closer. He noted the location and entered it into his GPS.
His phone dinged. A grainy photo popped up on his screen. He stared at the image captured on the jail monitors and the security cameras at the clinic. He didn’t recognize the man. In the photo from behind the clinic, a second man lurked in the upper right corner. Zach squinted and realization twisted in his gut: this guy was sitting by the pool talking to Bridget’s sister right before the Molotov cocktail crashed through the apartment window.
Zach’s tires squealed as he pulled away from the curb.
Bridget hadn’t compromised her location—Liddie had.
SIXTEEN
Sweat pooled under Bridget’s arms. Her eyes darted around the back seat. Panic clouded her thinking. Something felt very, v
ery wrong about all this. She could pull the door handle and jump out of the car. Two things gave her pause: the trees whizzing by outside the window and her younger sister in the front seat. She couldn’t leave her.
Bridget cleared her throat. “Liddie, we should go back. Mem and Dat are worried. We can go for a walk around the pond and talk like we used to.”
“No, I don’t want to go back yet. I want to hang out with Jimmy. You made us leave Buffalo before we got a chance to really get to know each other.” Liddie sounded like a petulant child.
“You were going to go home the next day anyway. You didn’t miss out on much.” Bridget tried to keep her voice even, not let on that she was trying to get away from Jimmy. Should she be worried?
There were a lot of bright blue cars, right? Just because Jimmy was in the courtyard prior to the fire in her apartment didn’t mean he caused it. Were they in danger or were her instincts off?
“Yeah, we’re not going back to the farm.” It was then he took off his baseball cap. Darkness flashed in the depths of his eyes. “And we’re not going to Jamestown.”
Goose bumps raced across her flesh.
“Where are we going?” Liddie asked, the first hint of apprehension replacing her excitement. Then she squared her shoulders.
“You’ll see.” Jimmy’s tone sounded ominous.
“But I thought...” Liddie let her words trail off.
“Why don’t you just take us back home? Our parents are worried.” Bridget did her best to keep her voice calm, not wanting to set Jimmy off.
Jimmy laughed and shook his head.
“Take us back home, Jimmy. I changed my mind.”
Bridget hated the way her sister was trying to cajole this man into doing the right thing, as if she had to be nice while he ignored her request. Bridget felt sick, fearing the situation was escalating quickly.
When Jimmy responded by pressing on the accelerator, Liddie started pleading in earnest, “Come on, Jimmy, stop. You’re scaring me.”
