Hannah took Abigail’s arm and they walked out behind the farmhouse.
* * *
At least, they were giving him three days, Elijah thought. That was more time than he’d expected. He almost laughed thinking how upset Thomas Nolt would be having to put up with him for a few more days. Eli gazed over the others at the gathering. He wondered if anyone had seen the awkward encounter with his father.
No. The men were chatting and putting the tables away, the women cleaning.
He continued to look around, checking for Hannah regularly. He did not see her. Nor Abigail. Nor Thomas, for that matter. In fact, Elijah hadn’t seen Thomas since the meal had begun, and that surprised him since the entire day his old friend had been quite intent to make certain that he and Hannah did not get within a stone’s throw of each other. Thomas was hiding something, of that Eli was certain. He feared it might have to do with the horrible things happening to Hannah. He could indeed picture Thomas as the man atop the fleeing steed he’d spotted racing off from the cottage. But what he couldn’t imagine was Thomas knocking Hannah to the floor and hurting her. In fact, he couldn’t imagine Thomas causing Hannah any harm whatsoever. Thomas cared for Hannah greatly. That was not debatable. Still, where was Thomas? Why wasn’t he keeping a better eye on Hannah? Or perhaps they were together now? Eli had to admit he didn’t like that idea one bit, and it made him all the more anxious to find them.
But first he needed to talk to the other friends of Jessica’s. With only three days, he had no time to spare. So far, the only thing he had to go on was a big pony sale and a journal that, from the stairwell, he had overheard Hannah telling Thomas she knew nothing about. Two things, which added up to nothing.
Elijah moved toward the other group of teens—Daniel, Kasey and Geoffrey. Daniel Hostetler was easy to pick of the three. The Hostetler family had been around forever, every one of them tall, lanky and dark-headed. And interesting that no one other than Thomas had bothered to mention that Jessica had had a boyfriend. He wondered what else they hadn’t told him.
Eli approached them quickly.
“Hello, Daniel. I’m Elijah Miller. I went to school with your sister Miriam. I heard she married and moved away to Indiana.” Eli reached out his hand and gave the kid a firm shake.
“That’s the truth.” The teen avoided looking him in the eye but returned the handshake with gusto.
“I’m Geoffrey Payne.” The other boy stood from the fence and offered a hand to Elijah. “My family moved here from Ohio a few years back. We live on the other side of your cousin John. John told us that you’re a cop—Internal Affairs, ain’t so?”
Eli nodded.
Geoffrey smiled. “And this is Kasey Phelps. She’s staying with the Lapp family for the year.”
“Hi.” Elijah shook her hand. “I understand you all were close friends to Jessica Nolt?”
Kasey and Geoffrey nodded with long, sad faces.
“I’m hear to look into—”
“Jah, we heard why you are here from John Miller,” Geoffrey interrupted. “But we don’t know anything.”
“That’s for sure. We don’t know anything,” Daniel said. “I used to see Jessica a lot. We courted, you know. But she broke it off with me. Didn’t see her much after that.”
So, were they courting or weren’t they? Elijah listened to the strained inflections in Daniel’s voice.
“Did you see her last week?” he asked the group.
“No.” They all shook their heads, but looked away. Elijah had a suspicion that one or more of them were not telling the truth now. Maybe all of them.
“Did you know if she kept a journal?” He continued with his short list of questions.
“A journal?” Daniel repeated, forcing out a nervous laugh. “Like something you jot down thoughts in?”
“Yeah, a journal.”
“I don’t know anything about a journal. Do you?” Daniel looked at his friends.
They shook their heads. “No.”
“So, when did you last see—?”
“Oh. Gash. Sorry. I hear my Dat calling,” Daniel interrupted. “Have to go help. I’ll find you guys later.” The tall boy ran off, down the green, grassy hill and toward the long line of buggies getting ready to depart before dark.
“He still gets really upset talking about Jessica,” Kasey said.
“I understand.” Eli nodded. “But maybe you can tell me more about her?”
Kasey nodded. “She was so nice, a really good girl. Always trying to help people. I still can’t believe she’s gone. I keep thinking she’ll be sitting there with us, coming to the next singing, you know?”
“Did the four of you hang out often?”
“Sure. Almost every Saturday,” Geoffrey said.
“What did you guys do?”
“You know, the usual courtin’ stuff. Dinner in Strasbourg. Sometimes we’d see a movie. A couple of parties. But none of us really like that sort of thing so much.”
“Did you go with Jessica into the city the night before she died?”
“No. That was a Monday night. I work at the SuperMart on Mondays until eight,” Geoffrey said. “Every Monday.”
“Me, too,” Kasey added. “Anyway, Jessica had her accident in the barn, didn’t you know? She didn’t go out.”
Elijah chose to change the subject. “What’s in the city?” he asked them. “Why might Jessica have wanted to go there?”
“Well, a few weeks ago, Jess started spending time with an Englischer friend she met at a Rumspringa party.” Geoffrey shrugged. “Supposedly the girl was from Philadelphia.”
“Does this Englischer friend have a name?”
“Brittney,” Kasey said.
“Brittney Baker,” Geoffrey said.
“You remember her last name?” Kasey looked at Geoffrey with a wounded expression. “You never remember anything.”
Geoffrey shrugged. “Sometimes I remember stuff.”
Kasey jumped off the fence rail and pouted. “Yeah, he remembers because she’s drop-dead gorgeous. Very exotic looking—long dark hair, long legs, big eyes.”
Eli tried not to smile at the lovers’ spat. “And she’s from Philly?”
“That’s what Jess said. We never really talked to her. Only saw her once at that one party.” Geoffrey emphasized the important words to Kasey.
“But you think Jessica saw her again?” he asked.
“She told us that she did.” Kasey narrowed her eyes. “Hey, why so many questions about Jessica’s friend? She died in the stable, right?”
“Her clothing and other evidence suggest that may not have been the complete truth,” Elijah said carefully.
The two kids looked at each other, but didn’t say anything else.
Eli frowned. “Sorry for all the questions. The police are just trying to do a little more research since it’s not clear exactly what happened. Um…but you must have talked this through with the local police and your deacons, right?”
“No,” Kasey said with a thoughtful air. “You’re the first person to ask us anything.”
Geoffrey nodded in accordance.
Eli thought back to the illegible notes in Jessica’s investigative file. Maybe they were illegible because the conversations never actually took place. “Was Jessica close with any other Amish in this area? Any other teens?”
“She was friends with everyone. But she and Daniel were steady, you know,” Kasey said. “She spent all her free time with him—well, until she broke it off.”
“So she did break it off?”
“Jah. He was crushed. Thought she’d found another beau.”
Like mother, like daughter. “And when did that happen?”
“Just a few weeks ago.”
It sounded to Elijah as if Jes
sica had met her friend Brittney about the same time as when she broke things off with Daniel. He pressed his lips together, wondering how hard it would be to find this Brittney Baker of Philadelphia. It would be important to speak with her. “One last question. Did Jessica keep a journal that you know of?”
The kids shook their head with vehemence. “In this Ordnung, you aren’t allowed to keep journals. Too much inward reflection.”
“Right. But it doesn’t mean that no one has one.”
“It means that Jessica didn’t have one,” Kasey said back.
“Okay. Thank you.” Elijah pulled out his phone and sent a quick text to Tucci, asking him to dig up any information he could find on a Brittney Baker living in Philadelphia. When he finished, he saw other men in the distance clearing away the tables and benches. It was time to go. And he should lend a hand with the work and thank his cousin John. “Well, if you think of anything else, I’ll be at the Nolts’ for another night or two.”
He turned away and headed toward the buggies. He still had not spotted Hannah or Thomas, and this was starting to make him nervous. Everyone should be gathered below ready to head home. Where were they? He spotted Abigail by her horse and buggy. She was talking to a young man, but it was not Thomas. Eli scanned the farm. It was growing dark. The sun had begun to set and cast an orange-red glow over the land around him.
There. At the top of the hill behind the farmhouse, he spotted a man large enough to be Thomas. He needed to tell him about his father’s decree and the three days. Moving quickly, he rounded the house and started upward. But as he climbed higher he saw that the man was not Amish. Or at least not dressed Plain but only wearing a black Amish dress hat like the one Nicolas had found in the woods the day before. He was tall, and gripped a small rod or a stick of some sort in his left hand.
A spurt of adrenaline shot through Elijah. Was this their shooter come to seek Hannah out again? Or did he already have Hannah? Elijah tore up the big hill. No way would this guy get away from him this time.
NINE
Elijah knew the land, and on the other side of that hill was nothing but open fields in every direction. There was nowhere for this man to go. No road to hide a car on. He would have him.
Elijah was close enough now to see that the man was tall, but fair and much too thin to have been Thomas. He spotted Elijah coming at him. He turned immediately and headed over the back of the hill. It didn’t matter. There was nowhere for him to go. Elijah was nearly there.
He topped the hill and looked down over the vast pastures on the other side. He saw cows and sheep and goats and acres and acres of grassy fields. There was no man.
Impossible. Impossible. It was as if he’d chased a ghost. Only he didn’t believe in ghosts. He’d seen someone and just like yesterday that person had vanished.
Defeated, Elijah dropped his gaze to the ground. Beside him in the grass he saw the stick. It was the right size to have been the one the man had carried. He must have tossed it aside in his flight.
Elijah picked it up. It was nothing special, just an ordinary stick one would find on the forest floor. Fresh dirt clung to the small end. Elijah’s focus switched back to the earth. Perhaps the tall man had been digging. To his right, he found not a hole but several deliberate markings drawn into the rich soil. Elijah stepped back and studied the image. It was a symbol he knew well—a Dutch hex sign. Hex signs came in many forms but his one was in the shape of an eight-pointed star. It was encompassed in a large circle except for the north point, which extended beyond the circle’s arch.
He studied the symbol for a moment, wondering what kind of message could be meant from it. The meaning of Dutch hex symbols had long been a source of confusion, even in Lancaster where these painted designs often hung on houses and barns. Many believed them to be nothing more than a decorative pattern. In fact, some of the patterns were sewn into quilts or painted on wood and sold to tourists. But other folks thought there was some religious attachment to the symbol. But what that religious significance was no one seemed to agree over. Still, this uninvited man who’d been watching over them had taken the time to draw it into the ground and in a manner of speaking had lured him up there to look at it. Perhaps it was some sort of clue? A warning?
Elijah pulled out his cell phone and snapped a picture of the design. He messaged it to Tucci with a message.
In addition to Brittney Baker. Check this out. Another uninvited visitor. Male. Thin. Over six feet. Fair skin. Ran off, but left this symbol where he was standing. Please reference. Will call later.
A few seconds later, Tucci wrote back that he would.
Leaving the hilltop, Elijah turned back to the crowd on the other side of the farmhouse. And at long last he saw Hannah and Thomas standing with Abigail. Well, at least Hannah was safe. But this case was getting more complicated by the minute, and Eli was beginning to think that three days would never be enough to figure out the mysteries of Willow Trace.
* * *
Hannah stood away from the others, pretending to busy herself folding and refolding a quilt that she and some of the other women had spent the afternoon working on, all the while staying close enough to listen while Elijah and Thomas talked.
“I have a meet with the elders this evening,” Thomas said to Elijah. “Mother wants to tag along and chat with the other women. If you and your sister would be good enough to take Hannah back to Nolt Cottage, we’d welcome both of you as our guests tonight.”
“We’d be delighted to take Hannah home,” Abigail answered quickly.
“Denki,” Hannah said to Abigail. She did not look at Elijah for fear Thomas would see those feelings in her, which she did not want exposed.
“I will join you soon.” Thomas turned and left them.
Abigail smiled and sang a sweet tune as she checked the hitch and reins, readying the buggy for the drive home. Hannah hoped they would allow her to sit in the back. She couldn’t imagine a twenty-minute ride giving Elijah Miller the view of her bare neck. She was uncomfortable merely thinking of it. Even now as he took the quilt from her hands to place it in the carriage, she felt herself trembling with nerves.
“Here you go, brother.” Abigail handed him the reins. “I hope you remember how to drive.”
“Huh? Where are you going?” His face showed genuine confusion.
“Mr. Phelps’s cousin from Indiana is visiting for the spring. He’s a widower,” she explained. “He’s asked me to Strasbourg this evening for an ice cream.”
“You’re going on a date?” Elijah’s eyes widened.
“We call it courtin’.” She smiled at Hannah. “Make sure he doesn’t traumatize my mare, would ya? I’ll see you all first thing in the morning. Thank Thomas for his kind offer, but my house is much closer to Strasbourg than yours. I like Mr. Phelps, but I don’t know if I like him enough to drive me all the way back to Nolt Cottage. Anyway, once he sees that Hannah is five times sweeter and prettier than I am, he’ll be inviting her for an ice cream. So I might as well enjoy the attention while I can.”
“Not so.” Hannah blushed. How could Abigail say such a thing?
Abigail gave her brother a hug and headed down the long line of buggies toward the Phelps family.
Elijah turned to her and offered her a hand up into the buggy. His light touch over her fingers sent a tingle across her arm.
“You enjoyed the gathering?” she said.
“I did.” He moved in beside her and tapped the reins to Abigail’s mare, urging the horse forward.
They rode in silence, one by one separating from the other family buggies. Evening was upon them. The sun had sunk low and filled the sky with a purple glow. Every so often he glanced at her, his eyes bright and his smile dazzling in the evening shadows.
“So, it was gut to see your family?” she repeated, feeling that such a long silence had be
come awkward.
“Yes. It was fine.” His head dropped a little. “Although my Dat came to the gathering, ya know?”
“I did not know,” she said with a smile. “I did not see him there. But he came to greet you. How nice—”
“He didn’t come to greet me, Hannah,” Elijah interrupted. “He came to say that I have three days to find out whatever I need to know and then I have to leave whether I’m finished or not. So now might be a good time for you to tell me all about that journal and everything else.”
“Yes. I would have done so this morning but Nana came in. Then you and Mr. McClendon went to the stable to…” A dry lump filled her throat. “So, how did you know about the journal?”
“I could hear you,” he explained. “I could hear you and Thomas talking this morning over breakfast.”
“Everything?” Heat crept up her neck as she remembered Thomas’s jealousy and innuendos of her feelings toward Elijah.
“I heard what I needed to hear,” he said.
What was that supposed to mean? She turned away, her face flushing with warmth. She was thankful Mary and Margaret the gossips weren’t there to see her blushing.
“And a good thing, too,” he continued, oblivious of her embarrassment. “With only three days to figure out what’s going on around here, I can’t afford to waste a second. Neither can you. Don’t play games, Hannah. I need to know everything, so start talking. Don’t leave out a thing.”
“I do not play games, as you say.”
He cut his eyes at her. He was not happy.
“I have wanted to tell you, Elijah. It’s just that…” She pressed her lips together. “I didn’t realize the danger.”
“Obviously.”
“You have to understand we thought we were doing the right thing in protecting our traditions and keeping all of this out of the press. Seems ignorant now. I apologize.” She looked off into the evening, thinking sadly about her stepdaughter. “In any case, I don’t know about a journal. When the man last night asked for one, it was the first time I had ever heard of such a thing. But that doesn’t mean she did not have one. Maybe her friends would know about it. I saw you talking with them.”
Plain Secrets Page 8
