A Plain Disappearance

by Amanda Flower

  Tanisha’s hand flew to her throat. “How gruesome.”

  “I hoped that I would find some kind of clue as to what happened to Katie, but the whole scene is covered by snow.”

  “What’s inside of the barn?”

  “That’s where it becomes really strange.” As we walked around the side of the barn I filled her in on Billy—who he was and how he was involved in the case.

  She stopped and held up a hand. “So you are telling me that this guy who fixes everything with duct tape—and I mean everything—is an escaped convict and has been hiding in Amish country for nearly twelve years.”

  “That’s what I’m telling you.”

  She raised both palms toward the sky. “See, Mom doesn’t want me to go back to Milan because she’s afraid it’s not safe for a girl on her own, and look at you—exactly how many people have been killed since you moved here?”

  “Please don’t tell your parents. The last thing I want them to do is to come down here and get me.”

  Tanisha played with the zipper on the parka she borrowed from Beck. “Does your dad know any of this?”

  I narrowed my eyes. “Why would he?”

  She held up her hands in surrender. “I know the ‘dad’ talk is off-limits.”

  “That’s another thing that hasn’t changed in my life.”

  Tanisha opened her mouth as if she was about to say something else, but then she snapped her mouth closed again. Fine with me. If it was about my father, I didn’t want to hear it.

  We slipped through the broken barn door, and a scraping sound like a piece of metal moving across stone filled the air. Tanisha tugged on my sleeve and opened her mouth. I held a finger to my lips and moved farther into the barn.

  The scraping came from the far end of the barn close to where Billy had stashed his extra car parts and became more pronounced as we crept in that direction. A large pen stood between us and the auto graveyard. We stopped. Inside the stall, a thin man bent over and then straightened. Then he did it again. I craned my neck and could just make out the handle of a shovel in his hands.

  “He’s digging something,” Tanisha whispered in my ear.

  I held my forefinger to my lips again, urging her to stay quiet. Then I felt for my cell phone in the pocket of my winter coat but didn’t remove it. It would take Chief Rose the better part of an hour to reach the Gundy barn, more than that if she was outside of Appleseed Creek. I couldn’t turn and leave. The man in the stall could be the killer. Chief Rose would never forgive me it I let him escape without catching a glimpse of his face.

  I cupped my hand over Tanisha’s ear and whispered, “Go wait outside the door and stop him if runs out.”

  “What if he tries to hurt you?” she hissed.

  “I’ll scream and you come running.”

  Her eyes grew wide, her voice hoarse. “I don’t think this a good idea.”

  “I have to see who it is.”

  She grimaced, but nodded and carefully walked back to the door. When I saw that she had stepped outside, I tiptoed closer to the man with the shovel, stopping to pick up a tire iron from the stack of Billy’s car parts, its heft reassuring in my hand.

  Through the six-inch wide slats that surrounded the stall, I had a clear view of the man. Puffs of his breath were visible as he threw shovelfuls of near-frozen earth into a wheelbarrow. I shivered in my thick coat. The hole he dug was at least two feet deep. I saw the sheen of metal as his exertion revealed the top of whatever had been hidden in that spot. He ran the back of the shovel across the top of the metal object, making that scraping sound again that Tanisha and I first heard when we stepped inside the barn.

  He straightened up suddenly, as if sensing my presence. “Who are you? What are you doing here?” he demanded.

  I held the tire iron in front of me. “I think you’re the one who should answer that.”

  “I’m not the one sneaking up on people.”

  “I’m not the one digging a hole in a barn I don’t own.”

  He paused, eyeing me. “How do you know this isn’t my barn?”

  “Because it belongs to the Gundy’s, and they’re Amish. You’re not.”

  He didn’t have a response for that. He stepped into the light for a better look at me. In turn, I was able to get a good look at him. He was a gawky teen, maybe eighteen or nineteen years old with glasses and braces. He wore his sandy-brown hair long and it flopped into his eyes and curled around his ears.

  His eyes glowed with recognition when he saw me, but I didn’t recognize him. Could he have seen me in town and remembered me even when I hadn’t noticed him? There weren’t too many redheads in Appleseed Creek, so I tended to stick out in most places around town.

  He focused on the tire iron and then looked down at his shovel. “Who are you?”

  “My name is Chloe. Now, it’s your turn.”

  “Forget it. I’m not telling you anything.” He turned the shovel around in his hand so that the blade end pointed to the sky.

  My fingers began to cramp from holding the tire iron so tightly. “You won’t tell me what you’re doing here, or what it has to do with Katie Lambright’s death?”

  He gripped the handle of the shovel like a sword. “I didn’t have anything to do with Katie’s death,” he shouted. “I would never hurt anyone, especially her.”

  I stepped back. “If that’s true, why don’t you drop the shovel?”

  He looked at the shovel as if seeing it for the first time, his eyes suddenly wide. He lowered it and drove the spade into the dirt ground of the stall until it stuck there.

  “What are you digging?”

  “It’s none of your business, and you’d better leave. Now.”

  I shrugged as if what he said didn’t bother me, but inside my entire body trembled. Thankfully, about thirty feet and the wall of the stall stood between us. I could run out the door before he reached me. I removed my cell phone from my pocket. “Maybe you would like to tell Chief Rose and the police, then?”

  His chin jerked upward, then he ran out through the back of the stall. The kid must have been a track and field sprinter because he was on the other side of the barn before I found my footing. I dropped the tire iron and gave chase, but no way would I be able to catch him.

  But Tanisha could. She dove at the teen’s feet like she was back on her college volleyball team and he was the ball. Instead of bumping him over the other side of the net, however, she grabbed him around the ankles. He went down like a felled tree. On landing, he pinned his own arms under himself.

  Before he could roll over, Tanisha sat on the boy’s back. “My old volleyball coach would be proud of me if he had seen that dig. I jumped three feet.”

  “It was impressive,” I said, bending down to examine the kid’s face. “Did you hurt him?”

  “How could I have hurt him? He landed on snow.”

  I stepped around the prostrate teenager. He was trying to hold his face up out of the snow, but with little success. “What’s your name?”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  Tanisha bounced on his back. “Come on, kid. Spit it out.”

  The boy winced and groaned. “Will you tell her to climb off of me?”

  I crossed my arms. “No, not until you tell us your name.”

  “So you can tell the police?”

  “That is the idea.”

  He squirmed back and forth. “Then forget it.”

  Tanisha dug her knee into his back and reached into the pocket of the kid’s jeans and removed his wallet. She waved it at me. “I say we check his ID.”

  He kicked at her with his long legs, bending them back and trying to smack her with his heels.

  She slapped at one of his boots. “That’s not very nice. You cut that out.”

  I took the wallet from Tanisha’s hand and opened it. The picture ID inside read Jason Catcher.

  Jason. I knew that name. Was he the English boy Katie had called a friend?

  Jason began to thrash bac
k and forth. “I can report you both for assault.”

  Tanisha snorted. “What are you going to tell the police—that a girl sat on you? Please.”

  I rifled through his wallet some more. Behind the driver’s license was a Harshberger College ID. That’s why he recognized me. I held it up for him to see. “You go to Harshberger, then.”

  “So what if I do.”

  I shrugged. “I just find it interesting since I work there.” I peered at the card. “It says you’re a freshman.”

  “So. Is that a crime?”

  I tucked his IDs back into the wallet. “No, but vandalizing property is.”

  He twisted his neck. “Vandalizing what? I didn’t do that.”

  “What do you call the great big hole you were digging in the barn?”

  “That’s not vandalism. No one cares about that barn anyway.”

  “That’s something you will have to talk to the chief about. She may not agree.”

  Tanisha smacked at his foot as he tried to kick her again. “Now, why were you digging a hole in the barn?”

  “Get her off of me. I can’t breathe. She’s crushing me.” His squirming became more violent.

  Tanisha’s brow shot way up. “Did he just call me fat? Because I think he just called me fat.” She bounced on his back.

  Jason gave up the fight. “Ooph.”

  Tanisha was far from fat, but as a tall, muscular athlete she wasn’t a lightweight either. I held out a hand to my friend. “Climb off of him. He’s no good to us if he can’t breathe.”

  “I’m freezing, too, lying on the snow like this.”

  “Poor baby,” Tanisha muttered.

  “Tee.”

  She took my hand, allowing me to hoist her up. “Fine.”

  Jason grunted as he struggled to his feet. “Give me my wallet.”

  Tanisha turned to me. “I think you should hold onto it,” she said.

  The kid scowled. “If I’m pulled over while driving home, and I don’t have my license, I will be in deep trouble.”

  Tanisha brushed off the snow Jason had kicked onto her. “That sounds great to me.”

  I gripped the wallet. “I’ll give it back to you when you tell me why you were digging in the barn.”

  “Because I was told to.” He held out his hand. “Can I have it back now?”

  “Who told you to?”

  He dug a fist into his side. “That wasn’t a condition. You keep cheating.”

  Tanisha snorted. “This kid has a lot of nerve.” She scanned him up and down. “That will work for you in prison, buddy.”

  Jason paled. “Who said anything about going to prison?”

  “Whoever killed Katie is going to jail,” I said.

  “I told you already—it wasn’t me.”

  I crossed my arms and cocked my head. “Tell us about your relationship with Katie Lambright.”

  “This has nothing to do with Katie!” he bellowed.

  Tanisha put a hand over one ear. “Geez, kid, there’s no reason to break the sound barrier.”

  “Katie was your friend, wasn’t she?” I asked.

  He glanced away, and tears sprang to his eyes. “She was my best friend.”

  Tanisha stuck a hand on her hip. “Your best friend was an Amish girl?”

  A tear slid down Jason’s nearly frostbitten cheek. “Please give me my wallet, so I can go home. I knew I shouldn’t have come here.”

  I held out the wallet to Jason and he ripped it from my hand. Without a backward glance he took off and ran across the field.

  “Why did you give it to him?” Tanisha asked.

  “Because it was his, but I didn’t give it all back.” I waved Jason’s student ID at Tanisha before slipping it into my pocket. “The chief will be able track him down with this. I’ve seen her in action. It’s impressive. We did have an important victory here.”

  Tanisha jumped from foot to foot. “What is that?”

  “He left whatever he was digging up in the barn.”

  Tanisha let out an excited gasp and ran for the barn door. “Let’s go see what it is.”

  Inside, we stared into the two-feet-deep hole in the barn’s dirt floor. “It’s some kind of safe-deposit box,” I said. “Help me pull it out.”

  We dropped to our knees on either side of the box, reached inside the hole, and tugged.

  “This thing weighs a ton,” Tanisha complained.

  I agreed, but focused on the task before us. “On the count of three. One, two, three!” We yanked the box from the frozen earth, wrestling it out of its hole, and set it on the ground.

  Tanisha blew out a long breath. “Is this how the Amish bank? By burying their wealth, underground?”

  “I’m not sure this belongs to an Amish person.” With my glove, I wiped dirt away from the box’s latch and lifted it. It stuck at first, but then gave way.

  “I guess whoever buried it didn’t think that it needed a lock underground,” Tanisha said.

  I lifted the heavy lid and peered inside. A folded cotton sheet covered the contents. I found a windshield wiper in one of the milk crates and used it to move a piece of the cloth back to reveal a framed photograph and a wad of money held together with a rubber band.

  “Are those hundred-dollar bills?” Tanisha asked.

  I nodded.

  She reached for the money with her bare hand.

  I grabbed her wrist. “Don’t touch it.”

  Tanisha pulled back. “I would guess that’s at least a thousand dollars.”

  “If they are all hundred-dollar bills, it’s a whole lot more than that.” I knelt for a closer look at the photograph without picking it up. It was a picture of a middle-aged woman and man. In between then was a younger, thinner version of a man I recognized. “That’s Billy,” I said. “The guy I told you the police were looking for.”

  “Why would he bury all this?”

  “I guess he wasn’t really ready to give up his old life, the one he had before he went to prison.” I sighed. “I wish there was some clue in here about where he may have gone. He might lead us to Katie’s killer.”

  “He might be Katie’s killer,” Tanisha said. “This time capsule, or whatever it is, is giving me the creeps.”

  “Why didn’t he come here first to collect this before he fled?” I wondered aloud. My fingers had gone numb from the cold. Slowly, I stood up. “We’ve got to take this box with us.”

  “Isn’t that tampering with evidence? You know they show old CSI episodes on television in Italy too.”

  “If we don’t, Jason might come back and take it, and Chief Rose needs this for the case.” I removed my cell phone from my pocket, and speed-dialed the chief’s number. Again, I got voice mail. We couldn’t sit around all day until she decided to check her phone, and I didn’t believe this merited a 911 call. “She’s not answering. We have to take it with us.”

  Tanisha shook her head. “We can carry it a few feet, Chloe, but not a mile. It will take forever.”

  I spotted a piece of metal—sheeting from a car door. All the innards of the door had been removed. I tapped it with my boot and it moved easily. “Let’s put the box on this piece of metal.” Tanisha helped me hoist the box onto the old car door.

  Inside one of the milk crates, I found several large bungee cords.

  “What are you going to do with those?” she asked.

  “Watch.” I secured the box to the sled with one set of bungee cords. Then used two more bungees to make pulls on either side of the car door.

  “What is it?” Tanisha asked.

  I handed her one of the pulls. “A sled.”

  “Wow,” Tanisha said. “You’ve really gone country. That or you’ve been watching a lot of MacGyver reruns. We get those in Milan too. If I needed to, I could make a small bomb with a paperclip and gum.”

  I pulled the makeshift sled toward the door. “Let’s hope that particular skill does not become necessary.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  We stepped
into the Appleseed Creek Police Department and set the box on the floor. Tanisha glanced around the sparse room. “They could use a decorator in here,” she whispered.

  The door that led into the interrogation room opened and Chief Rose stepped out. “Sorry I missed your call. I was in the middle of a traffic stop.” She pointed at the box. “What do you have for me, Humphrey?”

  “Something Billy left behind.”

  She narrowed her eyes, which were outlined in bright blue. “You mean Walter.”

  “It’s simpler to call him Billy. That’s who he is to us.”

  She shrugged and glanced at Tanisha. “Who is this?”

  “This is my friend, Tanisha. She’s visiting from Italy.”

  The chief raised an eyebrow. “You’re Italian?”

  Tanisha shook her head. “I’m teaching over there. Love your eyeliner, by the way.”

  “Thanks,” the chief drawled. “Did Walter leave this gift for me?”

  I shook my head and told her how Tanisha and I found the box. Then I handed her Jason’s college ID.

  She arched an eyebrow. “He gave this to you?”

  Tanisha suppressed a smile. “We borrowed it for you.”

  Chief Rose snorted and knelt by the box. She pulled a pair of latex gloves from her pocket, and as she slipped them on said, “I would have preferred you leave the box there and hang around until I had showed up. This evidence has now been compromised.”

  I flushed. “We thought that he would come back and take it.”

  The chief scowled and picked up the wad of money with a whistle. “Looks like this was Walter’s getaway stash. He must have buried it in the Gundy barn when he first moved to Appleseed Creek.”

  “Why didn’t he take it with him before he disappeared?” I asked.

  Chief Rose stood and leaned against the side of the desk. “There are a couple of possibilities. Either he didn’t leave of his own free will or he was too spooked by finding or killing Katie Lambright.”

  “Do you really think he did it?”

  The police chief sat at her receptionist’s desk and flipped Jason’s ID on the desktop. It spun until it came to rest in the middle of the flat surface. “I think he could have and that’s enough for me.”