Bloody Ties (Serenity's Plain Secrets Book 8)

by Karen Ann Hopkins

  “Another long day?” Nancy asked in a country drawl that I usually loved to hear. Today, I hardly noticed.

  “Looking that way.” I forced a smile. “Thanks. I might see you at dinnertime. We’ll see how the day unfolds.”

  The redhead’s face brightened. “I have your favorite, chicken and dumplings, on special tonight.”

  My face loosened and I smiled in earnest. “My mouth is already watering.”

  “Bring your hunky husband in with you. I haven’t seen him all week.” Nancy’s brow shot up and her mouth twisted wickedly. “I swear, Serenity. You must keep that man locked up in the bedroom or something.”

  I chuckled, feeling my cheeks burn as I turned to leave. “I don’t have to lock him in there. He stays willingly.”

  Nancy’s cackling laughter followed me out the door. The usual banter with Nancy had lightened my mood a bit.

  Now, as I joined Ryan on the steps, sudden apprehension made me stiffen under his intense gaze.

  I knew those muddy brown eyes too well. He was about to give me bad news.

  2

  Serenity

  Ryan matched my strides as we headed toward my cruiser. Without words, I’d already gathered that he’d walked to the diner from the precinct.

  “What’s on your mind?” I tried to sound casual.

  I cast a sideways glance his way. Ryan was as tall as Daniel and just as muscular. But Daniel had a construction and excavating business and his physique had been created by heavy lifting on the job, while Ryan was gym freak. He spent most of his free time working out with weights and body building equipment. The results were the same, but I figured it was a lot more sensible to get a job done while staying fit.

  “I don’t like the new guy,” Ryan said in a low voice.

  I stopped and stared. That’s not at all what I expected him to say. “You are the new guy.” I worked hard to keep a straight face.

  “Hah, funny. You know who I’m talking about. Jerome bugs me.” The problem with working with a friend was that they were all too comfortable airing their grievances about everything and anything. I already had the exact same problem with Todd, who I’d known since we were kids. It made being the boss especially difficult.

  People passed by us, going into and out of the diner. I smiled, saying a quick hello to a woman who made eye contact. I lifted my chin, motioning for Ryan to follow me to my car. When we were finally seated and had some privacy, I said, “Not only is Jerome a good cop, he’s also a team player and willing to go the extra mile on every case he’s assigned to.” I hardened my look. “So, what’s the real problem?”

  Irritation flashed across Ryan’s features. His Irish roots always gave him away. The man had a short fuse and a terrible poker face. “He’s a little too by the book—you know what I mean.”

  Ryan glanced out the window, looking around. He was on edge. Nervous energy puffed off of him like invisible smoke. My insides clenched. Ryan’s negative aura was getting to me.

  Inhaling and then blowing out slowly, I leveled a firm look at Ryan. “Don’t let our friendship make you forget that I’m the sheriff in this town. I want everyone to follow the rules, even you.”

  Ryan shook his head, completely dismissing my words and tone. “That’s not what I mean. Come on, you know me better than that.” He ran his fingers through his short brown hair. “Jerome and I went out on a call this morning. It was a domestic case. A man shoved his wife and she called 911.”

  “Sounds like a typical case. Did you get the wife to file a report?”

  He laughed a little in a low, agitated voice. “Oh yeah, but only after Jerome pressed her to do so.”

  I tilted my head, trying to picture the scene. The sunshine spilling through the windows was warm and peaceful, lulling my nerves. “How did you want it to go?”

  Ryan sat up straighter, facing me. “It wasn’t cut and dry. The woman had thrown an iron skillet at her husband. The chunk missing out of the drywall was right about where his head would have been.” He snorted, rubbing his chin. “The couple began fighting over the bills and it escalated to accusations of infidelity, which frankly, after talking to both of them, I don’t see either one as the cheating type.”

  I couldn’t remain silent. “And what is the cheating type?”

  Ryan frowned, scratching the side of his neck. “Hey, this isn’t about me and CJ. I might not be the greatest person, but I’m a pretty good judge of character.”

  I couldn’t argue with him about that. In the past, his gut instincts saved us on several occasions and helped us wrap up too many criminal investigations to count.

  Flicking my hand, I encouraged him to continue.

  “Serenity, all they needed was a good talking to, and that’s what I did. After about ten minutes, they were both calm and ready for reconciliation. The woman admitted that she’d gotten carried away, and regretted that she’d nearly decapitated her hubby. The man apologized for shoving his wife, with the side note that he was simply protecting himself. We could have gone home without any paperwork and the couple could have gotten back to their dysfunctional relationship, but no. Jerome fucked it up when he got the woman alone and convinced her to file a report.”

  Sighing, I slumped back. I understood all too well what Ryan was talking about. As cops, our job wasn’t just to maintain law and order by making arrests. We spent an awful lot of time counseling people. With little psych training, we often found ourselves in situations where we had to be mediators and psychologists. Some of us were better at it than others. Ryan was a people person. He genuinely liked getting involved and helping people. That was probably his strongest asset, but he was also someone who left too much up to fate and didn’t always like following the rules. This personal domestic call was the perfect example of how two law officers might handle a case differently.

  “Whenever any kind of abuse is committed, whether it’s spousal or any other relationship, the victim has the right to file charges and should be encouraged to do so. How many times have cops left the scene and found out later that the violence escalated to serious injury or death to the victim? Every violent act must be taken seriously,” I warned.

  From the uptight look on Ryan’s face, he was only half buying what I was saying. “True, but this time it was mutual. There’s just as much a chance that this woman will do harm to the man as the other way around.”

  “The laws protect everyone. No one said you should be gender biased about violence. I’ve known some extra scrappy women who’ve proven to be really dangerous.” I took a gulp of my coffee and set it back down in the cup holder. “It sounds like Jerome went a different direction than you wanted to go on this one.” I shrugged. “Didn’t it work out all right in the end?”

  Ryan barked out a short grunt of laughter. “If you call the end of an eighteen-year marriage with four kids still in the house a good ending, then I guess so.”

  I pressed my fingers to the small throb at the side of my head. “What do you want me to do, Ryan? You know how it is. We live in a far from perfect world. You can’t control the fact that a couple has serious problems and their argument turned physical.” I let out a long breath. “As far as I’m concerned, Jerome acted accordingly. They need counseling and supervision, and they’ll get it now. Perhaps their marriage can be saved and if not, I’m sure the family will be better off in the long run. It’s terrible for children to be raised in a home where the parents are constantly fighting.”

  As if nothing I said registered at all, Ryan blurted out, “Why can’t we still be partners? We worked great together.”

  I had been waiting for him to ask and was ready. “I work on my own a lot, and when I need a partner, Todd’s my man. I told you that on day one. With your experience, I need you working independently from me. It makes the department better, and also takes some of the pressure off of me. It’s a sign of my trust in your
abilities that I’m willing to give you so much responsibility straight off from your hiring.”

  “I don’t like Jerome, and that doesn’t make for a good partnership,” Ryan said firmly.

  Ryan had strong instincts and he was my friend. That’s why this conversation was bothering me so much.

  I licked my lips. “You don’t have to like him. Hopefully, over time, your relationship will improve.” I hesitated, hating to bring the subject up, but knowing it was the right time. “Your precinct captain said you were in on the latest round of RICO arrests—that you told him you wanted out, fearing for your life after the detective work you did on the Moretti family cases. That’s when you called me. Captain Turner hated to let you go.”

  “Yeah, what of it?”

  I was used to Ryan’s belligerence. At times he could be quite the pain in the ass. “Sounds like a lot of heads are rolling in Indy. Do you want to tell me about it?”

  Ryan suddenly smiled. “Nothing much has changed since you left. Captain Turner is on the up and up, but there’s enough in the ranks with direct ties to the Moretti’s that it made me uncomfortable to stick around. Like I already told you, I was in pretty deep myself with undercover work for a while. The feds are tightening the net around the city, and I didn’t want to be there when it blows.”

  Ryan sounded tired, which was unusual. Everything he said made sense. I’d dealt with some of the politics when I was on the job in Indy. The major difference between us was that I’d been cautious to walk a very straight line, something that Ryan wasn’t always so diligent about. He had such an outgoing personality that everyone thought of him as a friend. Friendships with the wrong people could cause complications quickly in the underground world we were supposed to police.

  “I heard there’s substantial drugs making its way into the city, and that the cartel is developing a firm base there—maybe even working with the Moretti’s.” I hoped I could keep Ryan talking. He was known to become tight-lipped when he got into uncomfortable territory.

  “Hell, Serenity. You don’t know a fraction of what’s going on in Indy.” His eyes locked onto mine. There was warning in those brown depths. “If you love your husband, friends, and this town, it’s better if you stay ignorant.”

  I was about to ask Ryan to clarify what he meant when my phone went off. It was Todd. I quickly read the text. A car had hit a buggy in the Amish settlement. The bishop had requested that I come straight away.

  My heart rate sped up. Was someone I knew in the buggy? Was anyone hurt or worse? With a racing mind, I started up the engine. The biggest question swirling around in my head was why the bishop would ask for me personally. Accidents sometimes happened in the settlement and I wasn’t usually summoned. With everything else on my plate, I certainly didn’t need trouble in the Amish community.

  I feared that the long stretch of relative peacefulness might have just ended.

  I glanced at Ryan. His face was expectant and his posture was ready for action. “How would you like to drive out to the Amish settlement with me? There’s been an accident, and maybe something else is going on.”

  Ryan flashed a brilliant smile. “Just like the old days—you and me working a case together. You can count me in.”

  Somehow, I didn’t think this would be like our past cases. Even though our relationship was strained, it was nice to have Ryan sitting next to me once again.

  3

  Daniel

  Father tapped his finger on the passenger window and avoided looking at me. A glance in the rearview mirror and I found the opposite with Ma. She stared directly at me.

  Clearing my throat, I tried to keep my voice level. “Maybe Zeke’s changed. Did you ever consider that?”

  Father came suddenly alive. With a loud snort, he flashed angry eyes my way.

  “Ach, the boy has always been a troublemaker—worse than you. He’s tainted by the outside world, and we will not allow him to live among us.”

  I ignored Father’s wrath and glanced again in the rearview mirror at Ma. “What do you think Aunt Melinda would say to all of this? He was her only child. Even though she died a while ago, I’d like to think she would have welcomed her son back.”

  Ma flicked her hand in the air. “She knew better than the rest of us about Zeke’s dark side. She never stopped loving him, but she gave up on the boy many years ago.”

  Other than Father’s annoying tapping, the cab fell into a strained silence. I returned my gaze to the neat farmsteads we passed by as we drove back into the settlement. Taking my parents to the doctor’s office was not on my schedule today. The out-of-the-blue call had surprised me, but I’d readily volunteered to make the trip when their regular driver had cancelled on them last minute. After Father’s heart attack the year before, he had to have regular checkups. Eating healthy and getting a lot of exercise wasn’t a problem for the stubborn man, but going into town for a doctor visit was another story altogether. The pleading sound in Ma’s voice on the phone call had made me drop everything at the building site, jump into my Jeep, and head to their home.

  Ma was happy to see me. Father definitely wasn’t. He’d thought he’d gotten a pass to miss the appointment and I’d ruined his good mood by showing up to play chauffer. His gruff, unthankful attitude was annoying enough, but getting onto the subject of my cousin’s return to Blood Rock had really set Father off.

  Zeke and I were the same age and when we were kids, we’d been nearly inseparable. He had an easy going, happy-go-lucky personality that made him very likable. Truth be told, the two of us had been known to get into some trouble occasionally. Like the time we were supposed to be picking up hay bales at the Yoder’s and we’d ended up at the Blood Rock fairgrounds, watching a tractor pull instead. It would have been a minor infraction for a teenager from the outside, but for us, it was a big deal. We’d both been whipped by our fathers respectively, and shunned by the community for three weeks. No regrets by either of us. The fun we’d had that night had made the punishment worth it.

  I held in the smile that threatened to spread on my lips. Zeke was my only relative that encouraged me to leave the Amish. He had his own ideas of escape, but that’s where we had been different. My high strung and temperamental ways propelled me straight out the door, without any plans at all. I was impulsive and fancied myself in love with an outsider, and those things were my undoing. Zeke on the other hand was very much in control of his destiny. He was a thinker and he had a plan of action that he carefully and diligently followed through to the end. It was nearly a year after I’d left the community that he’d had enough money saved and connections made with outsiders in Indianapolis. His departure had been so sudden and efficient that it hardly even impacted the congregation. Of course, his folks were devastated, which was expected. A few years after he left, my uncle passed away. Zeke didn’t make it back to Blood Rock to say goodbye or console his mother. For all our closeness growing up, Zeke never sought me out either. Whenever I tried to locate him, I’d come up empty every time.

  My cousin had basically just disappeared into thin air. I never thought I’d see him again—until today.

  The jolt of excitement I’d experienced upon learning that Zeke was in town had been quickly doused by my parents’ opposite reaction. Their feelings seemed a little harsh after all the years of their nephew’s absence.

  Not wanting to argue with Father and Ma, I swallowed hard. My relationship with them was already a bit shaky. It was probably best if I just kept my mouth shut. But I couldn’t do that.

  “How is Zeke coming back any different than my return into your lives?” I dared to ask.

  Father snorted loudly. “The decision to allow you back into our lives wasn’t an easy one. Zeke is a different story altogether.”

  “Why?” I persisted.

  Father snapped his mouth closed and stared out the window. When I looked back at Ma, she too was avoidi
ng my gaze.

  When my eyes returned to the road, I spotted a black mound on the side of the road. Leaning over the steering wheel, I squinted to get a better look. “Dammit!”

  “I appreciate the ride, but I’ll not have you cursing in my presence,” Ma reprimanded.

  “A horse is down. There’s been an accident,” I told her as I grabbed my cell phone and dialed 911.

  Father rolled down the window and craned his neck to look. My heart pounded inside my chest as I handed the phone to Ma and pulled off into the grass. “I’ve already dialed the emergency number. Talk to the dispatcher and request an ambulance.”

  “Land sakes, we don’t even know if anyone is hurt yet,” Ma exclaimed.

  “Better make the call. It doesn’t look good.” Father was already out the door and I quickly followed his lead.

  The crumpled buggy finally came into view. I passed my father and reached the wreckage first. The horse was already dead, and it was for the best. Both of the poor creature’s front legs were broken. If it were still alive, it would be suffering horribly. The way its neck snapped backwards, I guessed it was broken as well. Averting my eyes from its shiny black fur, I heard a soft groan. I dropped to my knees and pushed aside a broken piece of frame. Mary Ester Lapp blinked up at me.

  “Are you all right?” I offered her my hand and she readily took it, rising to her feet.

  Other than a gash on her forehead and wobbly legs, she appeared to be okay.

  “Where’s Lester?” she croaked out.

  My best friend was with his wife? I quickly scanned the buggy debris, not seeing him.

  “He’s down here, Daniel!” Father shouted.

  “Can you stand?” I asked.

  Mary Ester nodded vigorously with tears in her eyes. “Go help him,” she urged.

  I covered the few meters to the edge of the embankment. It wasn’t a steep drop, but there was a stand of trees at the bottom. Lester was moving and slowly climbing back up the hill. I slid past Father and went to meet Lester. Bracing my arm around his shoulder, I supported his weight.