The Amish Midwife's Courtship and Plain Truth

by Cheryl Williford

  “I appreciate the hospitality and your help. I’ve got a gym bag in my office and an extra set of clothing. Would you mind bringing them to me, as well?”

  “Will do.”

  Zach felt a surge of relief. He had planned to hang out in the Amish area late into the night to make sure Ella didn’t have any strange visitors. Staying at Tyler’s house meant Zach could come to Ella’s aid at a minute’s notice.

  “What about Corporal Hugh Powers?” he asked Zimmerman. “Has anything new surfaced on him?”

  “I questioned him extensively, but he kept to his story. The guy’s exhausted and worried to death about his wife. He seems to be the doting husband, although we both know that can be faked.”

  “Did he mention having PTSD?”

  “Roger that. He was forthright about his condition, although he’s so distraught that it’s hard to say if it is caused by his deployment or by what happened to his wife.”

  “How’s she doing?”

  “Still on a ventilator and unable to talk. No one is offering any encouragement. Her kidneys started to shut down. They’re watching her blood pressure and are concerned about infection.”

  “Have you seen her parents?”

  “The dad visited early this morning. He’s cranky and complains about everything that’s being done. I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt and blaming it on his love for his daughter.”

  “Have you gotten a sense of how he and the husband get along?”

  “Both men are emotional wrecks. The tension is high and one of the nurses said they’ve had words. I can’t tell you if there’s a true animosity or just the fatigue and worry that comes when a loved one is in critical condition.”

  Zach looked at his watch. “Let me know if anything new surfaces.”

  “Will do. I’ll be in touch.”

  After disconnecting, Zach called Sergeant Abrams. “Any success with Daniel Fisher?”

  “He’s a strange one. I’m not sure if he’s really Amish or just pretending to be in the fold to keep his father happy. We’re running a ballistics on the rifle. Seems a coincidence that both he and Levi Miller own the same type of gun.”

  “Actually, it makes sense. The Model 94 is a good hunting rifle. Perfect for deer or wild boar, and it’s a dependable weapon, yet fairly inexpensive. The Amish use their rifles to hunt for food. Seems the 94 would be a good choice.”

  “You might be right.”

  “Did you question Daniel about his past relationship with Mary Kate?”

  “He says he knew who she was and that’s it. Do you think he was jealous of Levi?”

  “It’s a possibility. Or he could be a protective older brother who’s concerned about his sister’s marriage. He comes back to Georgia on the pretense of helping his dad. Maybe he saw Levi and Mary Kate together. Her father said Levi had been hanging around. Of course, Levi’s story is that he was inquiring about the twins. His wife is pregnant, and they’re worried the condition the twins have could be passed to their own baby.”

  Abrams picked up on the direction Zach was headed. “So Daniel sees Levi with Mary Kate and suspects his brother-in-law might be involved with her again?”

  “Stranger things have happened. Lots of folks jump to the wrong conclusion. Daniel seems to be a bit on the hotheaded side. I can see him getting aggravated and feeling that he needs to defend his sister’s name.”

  “So he tries to kill Mary Kate?” Abrams asked.

  “He could have followed her to the clinic. The storm works into his plans. He cuts the electricity, hoping the doc will think it’s an area-wide power outage. She leaves the house to tend to the generator, and he confronts the twins’ mother. Maybe he wanted to scare her or threaten her, and everything goes south. Emotions could have run wild. He fires without thinking through his actions.”

  The officer let out a stiff breath. “I see what you mean. We’ll hold him for another hour or so and see if his story changes. Something needs to break soon.”

  “We’ve got bits of information. Somehow they have to fit together. Stay in touch.”

  After Zach disconnected, he called CID headquarters. Sergeant Raynard Otis answered.

  “Hey, Ray, it’s Special Agent Swain. I’m interested in talking to law enforcement in Alabama that would have jurisdiction over an Amish community. As I recall, it’s located not far from the town of Harmony.”

  “Yes, sir. You’ve got that right. Special Agent Colby Voss was involved in a case near there. Give me a minute and I’ll access the information.”

  Zach stretched back in the chair and waited. His eyes wandered to the picture of Quin Jacobsen on a table behind Ella’s desk. He needed to find more information about her husband’s death.

  Ray came back on the line. “I found it, sir.” He provided the name and phone number of the lead officer. “Sheriff Lewis Stone should be able to help you.”

  “Thanks, Ray. I’ve got another request. A research physician died in Memphis about eight months ago. He was attending a medical conference and drove his rental car to one of the bridges that span the Mississippi River. Supposedly, he jumped, and his body washed up on shore some days later. I want to contact the law enforcement agency that handled the case.”

  “Do you have more information, sir?”

  “Only the doctor’s name. Quin—or Quinton—Jacobsen. He lived in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and worked for a Harrisburg research center that studied genetic diseases affecting children, primarily Amish children.” Zach hurried to Ella’s desk and leaned over the invitation he’d seen the night before. “The name of the facility is the Harrisburg Genetic Research Center.”

  “I’ll do some checking and get back to you.”

  After disconnecting, Zach called the Alabama sheriff. He introduced himself and stated the information he needed. “Do you know a Daniel Fisher? He supposedly has lived in an Amish community near you. Medium height. Kind of bulky build. Probably five-eleven and two hundred pounds. No distinguishing features or marks that I was able to see. His sister may live nearby, although I don’t have a name for her.”

  “I know Fisher,” the chief quickly replied. “He built a little house on the edge of the Amish community. Far as we could determine, he wasn’t living the Amish life. He’d come into town at times and do some odd jobs to make money. At first, he seemed like a hard worker, but the longer he stayed on a job, the lazier he became. A number of times he argued over the pay he received, declaring that he’d been promised a higher wage. I’ve known some of the construction bosses who hired him. They’re God-fearing men who are known for their honesty and the care they provide their workers. I trust them and their business practices. A couple of the firms fired Fisher after he put up a fuss.”

  “Were other Amish men working construction?”

  “A few do at times, especially when money is tight. Farming is hard work. In the lean years, when crops don’t do well, we see a number of Amish lads looking for employment to support their families. A couple guys work as volunteer firemen. They get paid when they go out on a call. The Amish ladies sell their produce and baked goods at our Saturday farmers’ market. Some of them take in sewing and alterations.”

  “But Fisher didn’t seem like part of the Amish community?”

  “That was the way I saw it. He was standoffish and could be surly at times, which, as you probably know, doesn’t fit the Amish mold.”

  “Did you ever suspect him of illegal activity?”

  The chief hesitated a moment and then pulled in a deep breath. “Funny you should mention it. We had some petty thefts in the local area. Not big-ticket items, but small things that could be easily pawned in one of the neighboring towns. A few GPS systems were lifted from unlocked cars. A woman’s purse was taken when she was in the gym. We later found her wallet and handbag in a city trash can. Th
e credit cards hadn’t been used, but two hundred dollars in cash was gone.”

  “Did you suspect Fisher?”

  “He was seen in town that day. I didn’t have any witnesses or evidence, but it made me wonder. I talked to him about where he’d been and listened as he provided a lame excuse about walking to town on a back road. Seemed suspicious to me, but I never found anything that tied him to the robberies.”

  “Did he mention his father or sister or an English woman named Mary Kate Powers, all of whom are from Freemont, Georgia?”

  “Not that I recall, but he does have a sister in this area. Elizabeth Glick. She and her husband are good people. If only Daniel had taken after them.”

  Zach disconnected with a nervous feeling in his gut. Fisher didn’t fit the Amish mold, yet would he have broken into the clinic and attacked two women in cold blood? Something didn’t add up.

  Resting his head back in the chair, Zach closed his eyes and let his thoughts wander. Sometimes when he was stuck on a case, if he gave his mind free rein the answer would come like a flash. Today, all he got was confusion.

  His cell rang. He checked the monitor before he connected and greeted Sergeant Otis. “Hey, Ray. Thanks for getting back to me.”

  “I’ve got contact info for the Memphis agency that handled the death investigation for Quinton Jacobsen.” The sergeant provided a name and the police department’s phone number.

  “Good work, Ray. I owe you.”

  “Negative, sir. Just doing my job.”

  Zach smiled as he clicked off. Ray was a good man and an asset to the CID.

  After tapping in the phone number he had provided, Zach pulled out his notebook and made a notation of Officer George Davis’s name and number.

  A receptionist answered and redirected him to Davis’s private line. Zach groaned when the call went to voice mail. He left an overview of the information he needed, along with the call-back details.

  “I’d appreciate any help you could provide,” Zach added before he clicked off.

  He spent the next thirty minutes checking emails on his phone. Hearing a car turn into the clinic driveway, he peered through the window and then hurried outside to meet Tyler.

  “Thanks, buddy.” Zach took the clothing and burner phone. “You’re fast and reliable.”

  “Turns out we had an extra phone in the office that we didn’t use on a previous case. That meant I didn’t have to stop at the PX.” Tyler handed him a key. “This is to the front door of my place. I need to run a few errands in town. See you whenever.”

  Zach slipped the key into his pocket and placed the gym bag and extra clothing in his own car as Tyler headed back to Freemont.

  Seeing Levi on his front porch, Zach hurried to talk to the Amish man about keeping the phone as security for Ella. Thankfully, he agreed, and after giving Levi a short course in cell phone usage, Zach returned to the clinic.

  He downed the last of the water and settled onto the couch with a sigh, realizing how tired he felt. He’d gone too many hours without any shut-eye.

  After stretching out his legs and leaning his head back, Zach closed his eyes and drifted into a light sleep.

  Visions swirled through his slumber. He saw Ella lying on the floor of her clinic, bleeding from a gunshot wound. Another doctor leaned over her, doing CPR. Zach rushed to her side, but hands held him back. He fought off their grasp and screamed for someone to save her. But when the doctor stepped away, Zach could see her face. It wasn’t Ella, but his mother.

  He jerked awake and sat up, unaware of where he was for half a second until he got his bearings.

  His cell phone rang. Reaching for it, he connected to the call and listened as the Memphis cop identified himself.

  “I pulled the file on the case to be sure my information was correct,” the officer went on. “Mr. Jacobsen attended the seminar held at Saint Jude’s Medical Center. He stayed at the Peabody Hotel downtown. When we traced his steps the night he disappeared, he had gone out to dinner with colleagues and had returned to the hotel, claiming he was tired.”

  Zach pulled out his notebook and pen and jotted down some of the facts.

  “At approximately 8:00 p.m.,” the cop continued, “Dr. Jacobsen changed his return ticket for a flight later that night and checked out of his hotel. Security cameras spotted his car heading on I-55 over the Memphis-Arkansas Memorial Bridge forty minutes later. He parked the rental on the far side of the river. Sometime that night, he must have hurled himself into the water.”

  “Who alerted you to his disappearance?”

  “Dr. Ian Webb. He was Jacobsen’s assistant. Webb tried to contact Jacobsen the next morning to verify the time they would drive to the airport together. When Jacobsen didn’t answer, Webb became worried. He talked to the front desk and was even more concerned when he learned the researcher had checked out of the hotel the night prior. Webb called Jacobsen’s wife. She hadn’t heard from her husband. We found the abandoned rental car later that day. Search teams scoured the banks of the Mississippi, hoping to uncover some sign of the missing man. The following day, a couple of fishermen found him tangled in some debris along the shore. We notified the wife, but she was already en route to Memphis.”

  “Dr. Ella Jacobsen flew to Memphis?”

  “No, sir. She drove.”

  Zach let out a stiff breath. “That’s got to be a two-day trip. Probably more than nine hundred miles.”

  “She insisted her husband would never take his own life, but we hear that a lot. I’m sure you do, as well. Mrs. Jacobsen was adamant that he hadn’t taken his life and became openly hostile at our attempts to help.”

  “Did she provide an explanation for her antagonism?”

  “She kept saying her husband was working on a cure for a new disease and focused on helping children who suffered from the disability. She couldn’t believe that he would have jumped from the bridge. He was afraid of water and didn’t know how to swim. As I recall, she couldn’t, either. She said he never would have chosen that type of death. Bottom line, she refused to accept our findings and became somewhat belligerent, so much so that we had to warn her to control her outbursts.”

  “How’d that go over?”

  “Not well. She stormed out of my office and said she refused to accept suicide as the cause of death.”

  “Have you heard from her since?”

  “Not after the body was released. She had him buried in Pennsylvania, then sold her house in Carlisle and moved South. We told her to keep in contact, but she failed to do so. Glad someone else is looking into the death. For some reason, I haven’t been able to get the case off my mind.” The cop sighed. “It might sound strange, but I keep wondering if she knew more than she was willing to reveal.”

  Before Zach could comment, the door from the hallway opened and Ella stepped into the waiting room, wearing a broad smile and a fresh outfit. Her hair was damp, indicating she had probably showered.

  Zach hadn’t figured her for being a suspect. Had he been too focused on her pretty face to think of her as anything but an innocent bystander?

  “She’s in the middle of it, I feel sure,” the officer stated before he disconnected.

  As much as Zach wanted to ignore the last phone call, he had to use caution. The Memphis police considered Ella a person of interest. What was wrong with him? He’d never been suspicious of her. Was he losing the investigative skills he needed to find the assailant before he struck again?

  Levi Miller, Hugh Powers, Daniel Fisher and even Bob Landers could be involved in some way. What about Ella? Could she be involved, as well?

  Chapter Eleven

  Trouble. The look in Zach’s eyes told Ella something was wrong. Terribly wrong.

  “Did you get bad news?” she asked, almost afraid to learn what was causing his sour express
ion.

  Earlier he had been concerned about her well-being and had insisted she rest. Now, his face was filled with questions and suspicion.

  “Just tracking down some information.”

  “About Daniel Fisher?” she asked.

  “The Freemont police are questioning him.”

  She glanced out the window to the Miller house. “I hope that doesn’t cause Sarah more upset.”

  When Zach didn’t answer, Ella took a step closer. “I’m fixing something to eat. You must be hungry.”

  “Anything would be appreciated.” He got up and started to walk away.

  She grabbed his arm. “Look, I don’t know who you were talking to on the phone, but something’s going on, and I have a feeling it involves me. Why don’t you just come out with whatever is bothering you?”

  He stared at her for a moment and then nodded. “You’re right. It involves you and your husband. I contacted the Memphis police who handled the investigation of his death. They said you drove there, and you were adamant that your husband couldn’t have taken his life.”

  “And that bothers you because I stood up for my husband?”

  “What do you know that you weren’t willing to tell them?” Zach demanded.

  “I know how my husband reacted to stress. He became more committed to finding answers. That was the type of person he was. I’ve never seen him morose or despondent.”

  “I thought you said he wasn’t acting like himself.”

  “He was upset about the data that was collected on the children he had treated. There was something about three sets of twins. I told you that. They didn’t respond like the other children. That’s why I called the research center in Harrisburg when I first suspected that Shelly and Stacey had CED. I wanted to make sure the protocol hadn’t changed and that the treatment was the same as Quin had determined more than a year ago.”

  “If your husband was upset about the findings, he may have blamed himself. Did the twins get worse? Did any children succumb to the disease?”