He glanced at Miriam. “I have to respond to this.”
“What can I do to help?”
“Just stay in the car.” He shared his intentions with his dispatcher, turned his SUV around and flipped on his lights and siren. In a matter of minutes, he was pulling up to a ramshackle house on the far edge of town.
The clapboard structure had been white once, but peeling paint and bare boards had turned it a dull gray. The yard was devoid of grass, but a tricycle and several toys leaned against the rusting chain-link fence. Several of the windows were covered with aluminum foil. Two others boasted broken shades but no curtains.
A young woman in jeans and a blood-spattered yellow T-shirt sat on the steps with a towel pressed to her face. There was no sign of her attacker. Nick handed the keys to Miriam. “If anything happens, if you feel unsafe at all, I want you to get out of here. There are deputies on the way for backup, so don’t worry about me.”
She grasped his arm. “I’m not leaving you here alone.”
He opened the door and got out of the vehicle. Turning to her, he said, “Lock the doors and do as I say.”
Miriam’s first impulse was to assist the young woman. She couldn’t sit by and do nothing when someone was so clearly in need of medical assistance. She took the keys from Nick. “I’m a nurse. I can help.”
He shook his head. “Not until I know it’s safe.”
The words were no sooner out of his mouth than the screen door of the home banged open. A thin man with slicked-back hair started yelling at the woman. “Look what you’ve done now. You brought the cops down on us. How could you do this to me?”
The woman scrambled out of his way. Nick closed the vehicle door and approached the scene. “Stop right there, sir. I’m Sheriff Nick Bradley, and I just want to talk to you.”
The man threw his hands up in disgust, spun around and reentered the house before Nick could stop him. The woman collapsed on the bottom step still weeping. Nick approached her and asked, “Are you all right?”
“Don’t take him to jail. My husband is just upset because he’s been out of work so long. He’s been drinking today, but he almost never drinks. I’ll be okay. Honest, I cut my head when I fell.”
Nick didn’t take his eyes off the door. “Does he have any weapons in the house? Does he have a gun?”
“We don’t have anything like that. I’m sorry someone called you. I’m fine, really I am.” She tried to stand, but her legs gave out and she plopped back. She tried a second time and succeeded, but she wobbled. Nick reached out to help steady her.
From along the corner of the house, Miriam saw the husband approaching with a long thick piece of wood in his hand. He was out of Nick’s line of sight.
In that instant, she saw a terrifying scene beginning to unfold. The man rounded the corner of the house with the club raised over his head. Nick was in danger. Miriam pushed open the door and yelled, “Nick, watch out!”
Nick caught sight of the man an instant before it was too late. From his crouching position, he launched a sideways kick that landed square in the middle of the man’s chest. His heavy boot connected with a sickening thud. The husband tumbled backward, the board dropping from his hand.
Seconds later, Nick straddled him using an arm lock to hold him down while he snapped on a pair of handcuffs.
Miriam’s heart started beating again. Nick was safe. The emotions she’d kept bottled inside exploded into her mind. She pressed a hand to her mouth to keep from crying out. She cared about Nick. Deeply.
The wife started screaming hysterically for Nick to let her husband up. It was clear Nick had all he could handle. Miriam had to help. She jumped out of the car and rushed to the wife, placing herself between her and Nick. She grasped the woman’s arms and held on.
“It’s all right. He’s going to be all right. Don’t make things worse for him. Calm down.”
Nick growled, “Miriam, get back in the car.”
“Everyone take a deep breath. This doesn’t have to end badly if everyone keeps their cool.”
A movement at the window shade in the house drew Miriam’s attention. The frightened faces of two small kids looked out on the scene. She forced the woman to focus on her. “You’re scaring the children. You don’t want that, do you?”
It was the first thing that seemed to get through to the distraught wife. “No, don’t let them see this.” She turned her face away from the house.”
“Miriam, get back in the car, or so help me, I’ll arrest you, too.”
She ignored him. Concentrating on keeping the wife calm, Miriam spoke quietly to her. “The children have already seen this. They are going to need you to reassure them. You can’t do that if you end up in jail for assaulting a police officer. Do you have someone you can call? Do you have a family member or a pastor who can come over and help take care of the children?”
The woman shook her head and started sobbing again. “Danny and the kids are all the family I have. Please don’t arrest him.”
Miriam glanced toward the car, where her mother was watching with wide worried eyes. Looking at the young mother, she asked, “What is your name?”
“Caroline. Caroline Hicks.”
“Caroline, my mother is here. Is it all right if she goes inside and stays with the children for a little bit?”
Caroline nodded, but she couldn’t take her eyes off her husband. Miriam motioned to her mother. When Ada reached her carrying Hannah, Miriam said, “Mamm, would you please go into the house and stay with the children. Caroline, what are their names?”
“Danny Jr. and Mary Beth.”
Her mother nodded. “Ja, I will see to the kinder.”
“Danki. We won’t be long.”
Knowing that her mother would be able to soothe and calm the frightened children, Miriam focused her attention on Caroline. This woman wasn’t much different than the confused and frightened teenagers who showed up at Mariam’s door in the middle of the night.
Nick lifted Danny to his feet and led him to the steps, where he allowed him to sit and regain his breath. Danny looked up at his wife. “I’m sorry, Caroline. Please forgive me. I’ll never do it again, I promise.”
Caroline reached toward him. “I know you didn’t mean it, Danny.”
Miriam held back her opinion of men who hit women, and women who stayed with men who hit them. She knew the situation was never as black-and-white as it seemed. The best thing to do was to separate Caroline from Danny and get her to concentrate on what was best for her and for the children.
Taking her by the arm, Miriam led her down the block to a neighbor’s vacant front porch. She stayed with Caroline until Nick’s backup arrived. With a second and then a third officer on the scene, Miriam felt comfortable leaving Caroline in the hands of people who had been trained for exactly that type of situation. She walked toward the house and saw her mother putting Hannah’s carrier in the SUV. Looking around, she asked, “Where is Nick?”
“In the house. He said we were to go home, and he would have someone bring him by to pick up the truck later.”
Miriam glanced toward the house. She didn’t feel right abandoning him. “All right. I’ll let him know we are leaving now.”
She walked up the steps and entered the shabby, rundown building. She spotted Nick sitting on the stairs and talking to Danny Jr. The boy looked to be about five years old. Both he and Nick had their hands clasped between their knees. Neither one noticed her. The little girl sat with a female deputy on the sofa.
Nick said, “This sure was a scary day, wasn’t it?”
The little boy looked ready to burst into tears again. He nodded quickly.
Nick drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. “There is no way I can make it un-scary for you. Sometimes bad things happen and it’s nobody’s fault.”
“It might be my fault,” the boy whispered.
“I’m pretty sure it wasn’t, but why don’t you tell me why you think it might be.”
It wa
s a good response. Miriam waited to see how Nick was going to handle the child.
“I was making too much noise with my dump truck.”
“I used to have a dump truck when I was a kid. Is yours yellow?”
Little Danny shook his head. “It’s red.”
“But the back tips up, right? So you can dump your load of blocks or dirt?”
“Yup. I was dumping rocks on the stairs.”
“I’ve done that.”
Danny slanted a questioning gaze at Nick as if he wasn’t quite sure he couldn’t believe him. “You have?”
“More than once. And sand, too. My mom wasn’t very happy with me when I did. Can I see your truck?”
Danny nodded and tromped upstairs. He came down in a few moments with the red plastic truck in his arms. He sat on the floor near Nick’s feet and began rolling the truck back and forth, picking up the gravel scattered across the floor. Nick said, “I imagine you could carry a ton of rocks in that thing.”
“Yeah. I dumped my load on the stairs, but they rolled down and Dad stepped on one with his bare feet. He got real mad about it. Mom started yelling at him to leave me alone, and then...” His voice trailed away to nothing.
“And then something bad happened, didn’t it?” Nick waited patiently for the child to speak. He wasn’t rushing the boy or trying to put words in his mouth.
Danny Jr. rolled his truck back and forth for a while, then he rolled it into the stair step. He looked up at Nick. “Dad pushed Mom. She fell and hit her head on the step. There was blood everywhere.”
Nick laid a reassuring hand on the boy’s small shoulder. “Your mother is okay, Danny. It wasn’t a bad cut. Does your dad get mad often? Does he hit your mom?”
Danny Jr. shook his head. “No, so I know this is my
fault. I wish he could get a job again. He was happier then.”
“Has your dad hit you? Has he hit your sister?”
“No.”
Nick nodded. “Danny, I’m going to tell you something that I want you to remember. It is never okay to hit someone, especially a woman or girl, or a boy like you. It doesn’t fix things. It only makes things worse.”
“Yeah, I kind of knew that.”
“I could see you were a pretty smart kid as soon as I met you. Your dad is going to need some help. He needs help dealing with his anger. I’m going to see that he gets that help.”
Miriam was impressed with Nick’s compassionate handling of the situation. This was a new side to him, one she was glad she had a chance to see.
“Are you going to lock my dad up?” Danny Jr. asked.
“I’m afraid so. It’s the only way we can get him the help he needs. Your mom is going to need you to be strong for her.”
“She’s going to jail, too?” He was close to tears once more.
“No. I don’t want you to worry about that. A friend of mine who is a social worker will come and talk to your family about how to deal with being angry without hurting anyone. Now, your mom is pretty upset. She’s going to be crying, but I want you to be brave for her and show her that you aren’t scared. Can you do that?”
“Maybe.” Uncertainty filled his voice again.
“If you don’t feel brave, that’s okay, too. There are lots of times when I don’t feel brave.”
“But you are a cop.”
“Even cops get scared.” Nick rose to his feet and held out his hand. Danny Jr. took it. They crossed the room to where Mary Beth was sitting holding a doll clutched to her chest. Danny Jr. offered his hand. She took it and jumped off the sofa. Nick led them outside.
Miriam held open the screen door for him. “Are you sure you don’t want me to wait for you?”
He shook his head. “I’ll have a lot of paperwork to do after this. It’s best if you take your mother and the baby home.”
“All right. I’ll see you later.” She started down the steps toward his SUV.
He handed the children over to their mother, who was waiting by the squad car. As Nick had predicted, she burst into tears and hugged them both tightly. Inside the squad car, her subdued husband fought back tears as he said goodbye to his family.
Nick followed Miriam to his SUV. He stood beside the door as she got in. “The next time I tell you to stay in the car, Miriam, you’d better do it.”
His stern tone rankled. It wasn’t as if she had been a liability. Maybe she had overstepped the bounds, but she hadn’t been able to stand by and do nothing. She didn’t want to respect Nick’s authority or his abilities, but she couldn’t deny how well he’d handled himself and the child just now. There was a maturity to him that was both calming and attractive. His compassion for the young boy touched her deeply. Nick had become the kind of man she could admire.
Alarm bells started going off in her head. There was no way she was going to fall for him again. She couldn’t let that happen. It was easier to go back to being mad at him than it was to face the slew of new emotions churning in her brain. She scowled at him. “Fair enough, but the next time I see somebody about to swing a two-by-four at your head, I just might keep my mouth shut.”
He pressed his lips into a thin line. “Okay, I owe you a debt of thanks for that one.”
“Don’t mention it,” she snapped back.
Nick blew out a deep breath. “I’m sorry if I sound edgy. You may not want to believe this, but I still care about you. I don’t know how I could have lived with myself if something had happened to you because I brought you here.”
He was right—she didn’t want to hear that he still cared about her.
When she didn’t reply, he nodded in resignation. “Okay, thanks for your help and now get out of here so I can worry about my job without worrying about you and your mother’s safety.”
Miriam sketched a brief salute, started his truck and drove out of town. As he did, his words kept echoing in her mind. He still cared about her. What did that mean? Did it change anything? Oddly enough, it did. A small part of her smiled in satisfaction at the thought that Nick still had feelings for her.
They hadn’t driven very far when Ada spoke. “There is so much sorrow in the world. Will those children be okay?”
“It’s hard to say. If the family accepts and benefits from the counseling, then yes, I think they’ll be okay.”
“Do you think Hannah could have come from such a home?”
“I hope not, Mother.”
Chapter Eight
Miriam didn’t know if she was disappointed or relieved when Nick didn’t come by the following day. Although he called several times to check on Hannah, Miriam was left to sort out her feelings about Nick without having to face him. No matter how she tried, she couldn’t see a clear path ahead of her.
That she was still attracted to him was becoming increasingly clear. That she told herself she didn’t want to revive those feelings didn’t help. It was as if her body was waking up after a long sleep. She had been moving through life, but the texture had been missing. When Nick was near, she noticed everything, from the brilliant color of the sky to the deep timbre of his voice. She was becoming aware that her life was lonely.
After having destroyed her brother and Natalie’s chance at happiness, she hadn’t believed she had a right to reach for that same kind of happiness. So why was she suddenly thinking about what it would be like to love and be loved in return?
Miriam’s emotions stayed in a state of turmoil over the following two days, but at least Hannah was doing better. Her episodes of fussiness and spitting up had passed. She began sleeping up to four hours at a stretch and woke up alert and eager to interact with anyone who would spend time talking to her. She was well and firmly on her way to embedding herself in Miriam’s heart.
When Thursday evening rolled around, Miriam wasn’t surprised when Nick’s SUV pulled into the yard. Tonight was the night the note said Hannah’s mother would return. Miriam knew Nick wanted to be here.
She was on her knees planting rows of black-eyed Susans along th
e front of the porch. Her mother was watering the rows she had finished on the other side of the steps. Miriam sat back on her heels.
Nick rolled down his window. “Can I park in the barn? I don’t want my presence to scare anyone away.”
“Go ahead. There should be room beside the buggy.”
“Thanks.” He strode to the wide barn doors, pulled them open and then drove his truck inside. After closing the door, he walked across the yard. He wasn’t wearing his uniform.
Miriam’s heart beat a quick pitter-patter when he smiled at her. She sternly reminded herself he was only being friendly and only here because of Hannah. She asked, “Do you think she will show?”
He stuffed his hands in the front pockets of his jeans. “Your guess is as good as mine. I’ve ferreted out the time and place of a local hoedown if she doesn’t. It will give us a chance to ask around among the teenagers and check more buggy tires.”
Hoedowns were gatherings of rumspringa-aged teenagers that involved loud modern music, dancing and sometimes drinking and even drug use. Amish parents often turned a blind eye to the goings-on, but their children were never far from their prayers. Until a child had a taste of the outside world, he or she could not understand what temptations they would have to give up to live orderly, devout Christian lives in their Plain community.
Ada said, “Supper is almost ready, Nicolas. I hope you like chicken with dumplings.”
He patted his stomach. “It’s one of my favorites, but you remembered that, didn’t you?”
She grinned. “Ja, I remember that you and Mark could put away a whole chicken between the two of you and leave the rest of us nothing but dumplings.”
Chuckling, she went into the house. Miriam rose to her feet and pulled off her gloves. Now that the time was finally here, she didn’t know if she could let Hannah go.
Nick tipped his head to the side. “Another killer night?”
A Home for Hannah Page 9
