In Plain View (Amish Safe House, Book 2)

by Ruth Hartzler

  Kate was sure this man was a monster, but that wasn’t the part of his statement on which she focused at that very moment. Water and food - she would have a chance to escape if she could overcome the guard who would be delivering her meal. The only problem standing in her way, however, was the fact that tightly bound shackles secured both her ankles.

  Kate wondered what the Amish would do in this situation. The answer came to her at once – pray, and trust in Gott. Kate was a Christian, but until she lived with the Amish, she had never relied on God or trusted Him to any degree. However, spending time in close contact with the Amish had changed her in more ways than she had imagined. She now prayed every day, not because it was expected of her, but because she wanted to spend time with God, telling Him all her worries and fears.

  God was always on the mind of every Amish she knew – God consumed every Amish person’s whole existence. And while Kate knew she would never live without electricity, the internet, or television, she had come to appreciate the lack of regard for self and pride, and the slower pace of life, both of which allowed time to reflect upon one’s relationship with God above all else.

  Kate was setting her problem before God, when the lock on the door turned.

  This was it. She had to be ready. As the sound of metal scraping against the door grated on her nerves, she dropped her arms to the sides of her body and rolled her fingers into the tightest fists possible. Then, she slid backward in the chair and pretended to be lifeless. Her head fell to her chest, and silence engulfed the small dungeon.

  The sound of the large, iron door opening echoed throughout the chamber, and light shone on Kate, but she did not so much as flinch. She heard the guard’s voice. “Hey, you. Wake up!” Kate heard him as he approached her seemingly lifeless body. “Hey, lady! What are you doing?”

  Silence answered his questions. She could feel his breath on her face as he examined her. He gently grabbed her shoulder and carefully shook her body. “The boss is insistent you eat and drink. Please, wake up, lady!”

  Without any warning, Kate lunged to her right, throwing the man off guard and causing him to fall forward onto her. She raised her left hand under his chin and cradled the back of his head with her right hand. Then, she pushed with every ounce of strength she could muster into that left hand, pinching his nerve and rendering him unconscious. “Always protect your pressure points, man!” Kate uttered quietly under her breath.

  Leaning forward, she searched the body for the key to her chains. The man’s weight was painful, and he was difficult to reposition, but she eventually uncovered the key in one of his pockets. Once Kate had gently pushed the unconscious guard off her, she wasted no time in unlocking the cuffs around her ankles and searching the body once more. She found a stun-gun but no pistol. Kate grabbed the stun-gun, tucked it into her waistband, and exited her prison.

  Kate peered cautiously around the corner, but she saw nothing but a long, empty hallway. She needed to find the exit, and she wasn’t even sure where to start. As Kate left the safety of the room in which she had been locked, she heard what sounded like two men having a conversation. She crouched close to the floor and put her ear to the corner of the wall.

  “Hey man, where’s Perry? He was just supposed to give that girl we caught some food and then take over my post. I need to get outta here to get home before my wife does.”

  “I don’t have a clue, bro. I’ll keep an eye out here until you return if you wanna go see what’s up.”

  Kate heard footsteps drawing near. Slowly falling back, she used her hand to guide her as she continued along the wall. Kate found what felt like an opening, and then she disappeared into a broom closet. The footsteps grew even louder.

  Like a tiger hiding in the darkness, she watched the guard as he slowly passed by, clueless that he was about to become prey to his own victim. As his back faced her, Kate lunged up from the closet and jabbed him in his side with the taser, dropping him to his knees immediately. The loud thud drew the attention of the other goon.

  Retreating once more into her cubby hole, she took out the next guy using the same technique, while he checked his unconscious friend. Kate slowly dragged both men into her former prison and locked all three guards in their own holding cell.

  As Kate made her way through the maze of mansion walls and rooms, she finally saw her chance at freedom. The door was most likely guarded on the outside, and this worried her. As she slowly stepped toward the exit, a set of footsteps crashed down behind her.

  Kate saw a guard on patrol making his way down the steps directly behind her. Without thinking, she jumped beside the staircase and waited. The man carried a large, automatic rifle nestled in between both of his arms. After reaching the first floor, the man slowly walked toward the door, glancing out the windows that lined it. Silently, Kate crept backward up the stairs, maintaining a constant eye on the guard. When he was out of sight, she turned around on the second floor landing.

  Suddenly, a pair of hands gripped her, and the arms of her new captor grabbed her shoulders. “Where do you think you’re going? White is gonna be very unhappy. How’d you get up here anyway? Weren’t you locked in the hold?”

  Kate refused to give the guard any satisfaction, and kept silent.

  The doors to the central office burst open as the guard pushed Kate forward. The disturbance caused everyone in the room to stop what they were doing and stare at the two visitors. The only noise that she could hear came from Mr. White. His fiery eyes looked up at her, as anger boiled over his visage. “You know better than to walk into my office uninvited,” he snapped at the guard.

  “I’m sorry, sir. I caught this wench trying to escape and thought you’d want to see her immediately.”

  “You could have called it in over the radio.” The anger seemed to dissipate slowly as he spoke to his guard. “Well, I suppose you just did me a huge favor, so this time you’ll walk out of here. Next time, however, make sure you call it in first.” His stern voice appeared to strike fear into the guard. The guard nodded to his boss and left the room, leaving Kate to face the man by herself. Logan whipped his hand around in the air at the others in the room, as if to tell them to leave. Everyone except Kate and White silently left the room. The large doors closely tightly behind her.

  “So, how did you get in here?”

  “I told you. I chased my dog.”

  “No. How did you get in my office right now?”

  Kate put a confused expression on her face, to imply that she was brought to his office against her will. “I was dragged here.”

  “No. Listen to me when I ask you a question. You’re really starting to get on my nerves. How did you get out of the holding cell and make it past all of the guards on the first floor?”

  Kate thought quickly. “The guard who brought me my food said he felt bad for me, so he unlocked my chains and helped me get to the front door, before he took off in a different direction. Once I realized there were guards standing right outside of it though, I unintentionally ran backward into the man who brought me to you.”

  “Very well. Looks like I have another weed to yank out of my garden.” White stood up and slowly walked over to her. “So, a farm girl wanders onto my property, interrupts my business, and then tries to escape? What do you think an appropriate punishment would be for that?”

  The man looked at Kate and folded his arms, as if undecided what to do.

  In a flash, Kate lunged at White. She pulled the stun-gun from her pocket with and thrust it at him. The two fell backward together, and she ended up on top of him, keeping the pressure against his skin. After a brief struggle, Logan’s body fell limp, and Kate climbed back to her feet.

  Now what?

  At that moment, Kate heard a commotion coming from outside. She rushed to the window, and saw several cop cars lined up inside of the mansion’s gate. Kate looked around for a way of escape, and saw that one of the windows had a fire escape strapped to it. She lifted the window and then slowly shut
it, just as the doors to the office opened.

  Safely hidden from view just outside the window, Kate glanced down to see how high up she was. The ladder would get her to freedom, but just as she was about to make her way down, she heard a familiar voice from the room.

  “What on earth happened in here?”

  Kate peeked around the window and watched as Ryan crouched near the body of White, feeling for a pulse. “He’s alive,” Ryan said to another officer. “Looks like we might have ourselves a vigilante. He must be a tough one too, if he took out this guy.”

  His radio buzzed. “Sir, we have three guards unconscious in what looks like some sort of dungeon or something.”

  “All right, I’ll be right down. Let me cuff this guy and make sure he finds his way to a cruiser.”

  Kate smiled. She turned to the ladder and slid down to safety. The grounds were covered with police, but she was able to sneak toward the gates unnoticed. Kate slipped into the darkness of night.

  Acts 28:3-5.

  When Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and put them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened on his hand. When the native people saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer. Though he has escaped from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live.” He, however, shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm.

  Chapter 15.

  Battered and likely to bruise, Kate limped a little as she walked away from the hectic scene at Logan White’s mansion. Sirens and chaos could still be heard in the distance as she approached her hiding place. She pulled out the burner cell phone she had bought recently for the purposing of calling taxis, and called one now.

  Kate let out a sigh of relief. It was all over now. Logan would be arrested, and Kate was confident the police had followed the cell phone trail all the way both to Lucas Caden’s residence and then the mansion. All she had to do was get a taxi into town, change back into Amish clothes, and call another taxi, to hide her trail.

  When the taxi drove past the vicinity of the mansion, Kate glanced to her left to see numerous cop cars and news vans littering the street. Someone was being escorted out in handcuffs as the taxi waited at the lights. It was Logan White. He looked to be resisting and arguing with Ryan, who appeared to be struggling to hold the suspect in his custody. The light turned green, but she continued watching as another police officer assisted Ryan in throwing the kingpin into the back of a cruiser.

  All went smoothly, and Kate finally arrived at her cabin under the cover of night, with the Kauffman household none the wiser to her actions.

  The next morning, Kate was working in the garden. Rose was on a buggy ride with Samuel. The very thought made Kate smile widely, even though her face ached – every part of her body ached.

  Kate watched with some trepidation as a police cruiser drove toward the house. Ryan climbed out of the car, a smile decorating his handsome face. “Good morning,” he said.

  “Good morning,” Kate responded, wondering what Ryan was going to say.

  Ryan’s smiled widened. “Are Isaac and Beth here? I wanted to speak to you all at the same time.”

  “No, they’re gone to town,” Kate said. “What news do you have?”

  “We solved the murder of Ethan Jackson last night.”

  Kate leaned forward and did her best to look surprised. “Really? Who did it?”

  “The victim was a hitman for the suspect, Logan White. We received the victim’s cell phone in the mail from an anonymous source, and used that to track down a friend of his.”

  “Wow, that’s wonderful,” Kate said. “What a lucky break with the phone. Come to the porch, and I’ll make us some meadow tea.”

  Ryan followed Kate to the porch, and he sat on one of the comfortable chairs. Kate soon returned with some meadow tea and plate of whoopie pies, which she set in front of Ryan, before taking her seat next to him.

  Ryan ate a whoopie pie before speaking. “That was good.” He turned to smile at Kate. “The friend led us to this guy, White, who has known affiliations in organized crime. We have reason to believe he was opening up a branch nearby. The evidence shows that the vic was embezzling or extorting money from the boss, so he had his goons take him out for his crimes. A hitman and crime boss are both off the streets, not to mention all of his goons are going to be joining him in prison. Plus, the station and the state will each get a split of the resources he just left behind.”

  “That’s great; it really is. I feel so much safer already.” Kate smiled, sincerely relieved to hear the news. “That was good of the victim’s friend to help the police. Is he in trouble?”

  “No,” Ryan said, “but why the interest?”

  Kate was relieved that Lucas Caden would not be charged – after all, she had implied to him that he wouldn’t be. Yet her question had aroused Ryan’s suspicions. Kate thought fast. “It’s nice when people help the police,” she said, silently chastising herself for not thinking of something more convincing to say.

  Nevertheless, Ryan appeared to be distracted. His expression suddenly changed and he seemed to be clouded in deep thought. “Hmm,” he said. “I didn’t even put it together before.”

  “What?” Kate asked in surprise.

  “The phone. I had chalked it up to just some random person finding the phone and sending it to the police in lieu of a lost and found or something.”

  “That was probably the person’s intention,” she added.

  Ryan shook his head. “No, it definitely wasn’t. It was the same person who knocked out Logan White moments before we even arrived. They even used the fire station as the returning address to throw us off. You should have seen those firefighters when I showed up, and asked them who found the murder victim’s cell phone.”

  Kate’s brow furrowed as her concern increased.

  “What person? What are you talking about? The crime boss was already unconscious when you arrived?”

  Ryan nodded. “And that’s not all. This man infiltrated a walled mansion, complete with at least twenty armed guards, cameras, and a security booth at the gate, and then he still managed to not be identified. Even Logan White wouldn’t say who did this.”

  The revelation surprised her. “Maybe he doesn’t know who it was. The guy probably knocked him upside the head pretty hard or something.”

  Ryan shook his head. “No, I’m sure he remembers everything; I could tell when I questioned him. I kept asking him how one man could sneak into his mansion, take out some of his guards, and then escape without being so much as seen. He laughed hard, like I’d said something overly funny. Then, he said something even weirder.” Ryan paused and repositioned himself on the rocker.

  “What was that?” Kate asked.

  “He said, ‘One man could never have done this.’ So, the logical follow up was to ask how many people were involved. He kept saying only one was involved. It made so sense at all.”

  “Maybe he did get a harder knock on the head than you thought,” Kate said.

  “Perhaps.” Ryan shrugged.

  “I don’t see why you’re taking it so hard though,” Kate said. “Did the man steal some of the evidence or money or something?”

  “No, I’d say he’s a vigilante, and he’s a man in trouble.”

  Kate was confused. “Why would he be in trouble? With the police, you mean?”

  Ryan shook his head. “No. Logan White doesn’t suddenly have amnesia or something. He is withholding the vigilante’s identity for one reason; so he can be the one that finds him first.”

  “I’m sure Mr. White will be in prison long enough to forget about it,” Kate said, “and when he does get out, I’m sure you guys will be keeping an eye on him to make sure he doesn’t come back here anyway.”

  “Of course, but without knowing the identity of this vigilante, we don’t know who his target will be. The only clue to the person’s identity is a stun gun that was left behind at the mansion.”

&n
bsp; Kate’s heart sank into her stomach. The stun gun: she had forgotten it. Kate had not worn gloves to the mansion, and she was afraid that she had left fingerprints behind. She was in the habit of wiping off fingerprints, but everything had happened so fast, that she could not even remember if she had wiped them off after Logan White had gone down.

  Kate took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She had to compose herself and act normal.

  Ryan was still talking. “I just got off the phone with the crime lab. They found a partial print on the Taser gun. The tech’s examining it now. He said he had two patterns matched in AFIS, but the rest has been difficult due to the quality of the print left behind.”

  “What does that mean?” Kate asked, although she already knew the answer.

  “It means it’s inconclusive right now, and unless he can make several more matches, the print is as good as useless.”

  Kate rose to her feet, prompting Ryan to follow. “I need to get on with the farm chores. If you’d like to keep me company, you’re more than welcome to.”

  Ryan nodded in agreement and followed her down the steps. Kate scooped up a basket from the table before they left.

  Kate walked over to the chickens, and checked their water supply. She looked at the animals and smiled. “Hey guys, are you ready for some treats?” She dumped a handful of corn into their yard and watched as they dug through the hay for the delicious bonus to their meal.

  Ryan watched her with a smile. “You really love those things, don’t you?”

  “The chickens?”

  “No. I meant the animals in general. I can tell you’ve grown up around livestock most of your life.”

  Kate was unable to suppress a giggle. If only he knew the truth.