by Anna Schmidt
“Where would I find Mr. Harmon?” he asked of no one and at the same time everyone.
Fred jerked his head toward the rear of the train. “Private car three cars back,” he said. Then he waited for the man to leave and signaled two other male performers to follow him. The three of them gave the stranger a head start and then trailed him back through the train.
It had already been an unsettling day. Levi had returned from his walk into town accompanied by the local police chief. They had gone into the payroll office and closed the door. Minutes later Jake had emerged, slammed his hat onto his head and strode off toward town even as the last of the railway cars snapped into place and the conductor signaled that it was time to be on board.
The women who had been watching the loading of the last wagon and speculating about Jake’s sudden departure, had no choice but to get on board. Now yet another law enforcement officer had arrived.
“Federal agent,” Lily whispered to Hannah. “Something’s up.”
Hannah thought about the invoices and the discrepancies in amounts paid. Was Levi in trouble? “Where are Fred and the others going?”
“To protect Levi and make sure there’s no trouble, I expect.”
Moments later, Levi and the agent walked back through the car, followed closely by Fred and his two friends. All of the men seemed intent on the same mission as they looked neither left nor right but headed straight into the next car forward…the payroll car. The women all crowded onto the platform connecting the two cars jostling each other for the best position to see what was happening.
Hannah had once gone into a movie theater to search for Caleb and his friends, and had been struck by the lack of sound while actors clearly in distress poured out their stories through gesture and expression. Watching what unfolded in the next few minutes behind the closed glass door of the payroll car was a little like that.
She saw the agent approach Chester who was sitting at his desk. Chester stood and began shouting and gesturing wildly. He started toward the door but Fred and his men blocked the way. The agent took out a pair of handcuffs and put them on Chester, who crumpled back into his desk chair and began to cry. Then he raised his head and began pleading with Levi.
And all the while Hannah watched as Levi stood stone still, arms folded across his body, with no discernible expression on his face. Then he turned, saw the women crowded outside the door and abruptly turned the other way then exited at the far end of the payroll car. Hannah saw his shoulders slump just before he went through the far door and realized that what she and the others had taken for indifference was in fact an emotion so strong that he’d barely been able to hold himself together.
She pushed her way through the gaggle of women returning to their seats and entered the payroll car.
“Got it covered,” she heard Fred tell the law officer. “We’ll be in Baraboo by supper time. The three of us can take turns keeping watch on him until then.”
Chester raised his head and spotted Hannah. “Why don’t you question her?” he sneered. “Ask her what she was doing here late at night—with the boss.”
Hannah felt the heat of embarrassment rise up her neck until it flamed bright pink in her cheeks.
“You are?” the agent asked not yet looking up from the small notebook where he was fanning through pages, apparently searching for some piece of information he needed.
“Hannah Goodloe,” she murmured.
He glanced her way and then his eyes widened. “You’re Amish?”
“Yes.”
He whipped off his hat. “On a circus train?”
“Yes.”
“She worked here same as me,” Chester said. “Had keys same as me.”
“But was not here stealing from us for the past year—same as you,” Fred said sarcastically. “My understanding is that it was Mrs. Goodloe who uncovered the evidence,” he added, speaking to the agent but smiling at Hannah.
“That was good detective work, ma’am,” the agent said.
“And what about Jake? Anybody think to look at him?” Chester continued to rant.
“Looked at him and cleared him,” the agent flung over his shoulder. “Now shut up.” He gave Hannah an apologetic smile. “Was there something you needed to tell me, ma’am?”
“No. I just…” She peered past him to the platform outside the rear door where she could see Levi leaning heavily against the railing, his eyes closed as he raised his face to the wind. “Mr. Harmon seems to be in some distress. I thought perhaps a glass of water?”
The federal agent nodded and Hannah rushed to the water cooler. It burped and gurgled as she filled a cup and then balancing it carefully, headed for the door.
“Allow me,” Fred said and pulled it open for her, giving Levi the sign that all was under control before allowing the door to close behind her.
Hannah handed Levi the water and it sloshed over his fingers a little as he drank it down. “Thanks,” he mouthed, the sound of his voice carried away on the rush of wind that snatched at her skirts and prayer cap.
Hannah nodded but did not go back inside the payroll car. Instead, she stood by waiting to see what Levi might do. He had returned to the position of holding on to the guardrail, his head bent, his shoulders slumped. And then she was certain that she saw a tear fly from his cheek on the wind.
“I accused Jake,” he said, as if he couldn’t quite believe it. “My oldest and dearest friend and I accused him of stealing from me.”
She opened her mouth but words would not come.
“I ruined a friendship and for what? Some missing money?”
“How did you find out it was Chester?”
“I didn’t want to think it was either man, but after the way Jake looked at me and then just walked away, I knew I’d made a terrible mistake. I just couldn’t figure out how Chester had pulled it off.”
“And how did he?” Instinctively, she knew that it was best to let him talk, to let him relive the whole story.
“He created a couple of front companies. It’s not hard to do—pick a name and file some paperwork. And then if there was a vendor he knew dealt only in cash, those were the ones he targeted. He would rewrite the order for his dummy company charging twice what the vendor charged, then he would submit the invoice to Jake who would give him the cash to pay the vendor—himself. Chester would pay the true vendor and pocket the rest.”
“But you told Jake that you wanted supplies to be ordered from Danvers regardless of the cost.”
“Because Jake was the only one who could hand out the cash,” Levi said. “What was I supposed to think? How could Chester pull this off—especially for so long—without his help? I thought that they were in this together.”
“But Jake didn’t know?”
“Chester explained the orders from his dummy company by telling Jake that Danvers couldn’t supply in the amounts we needed. Earlier, he stole the cash by changing the numbers on the invoices—a one turned into a four…like that. But that became too risky so he set up the companies and once he did that, stealing got a whole lot easier.”
He still wasn’t looking at her, just flinging his story out to the wind as if in doing so he might be rid of his shame.
“Did Jake say anything before he walked away?” She was suddenly afraid that the man Levi depended on the most had left for good.
“He said that I had changed and it wasn’t for the better.” Levi dropped his chin to his chest and his knuckles faded to white as he gripped the railing and a shudder ran the length of his body. “He won’t be back and the truth is, I don’t blame him.”
Hannah stepped forward and placed her palm on his back as much to steady herself as to comfort him. But when she felt his shoulders heave she left it there and moved so that she was blocking him from view of the others. “It’ll all work out,” she crooned, moving close enough so that her mouth was close to his ear. “Everything will work out.”
And silently she prayed that it might be so.
Dusk was settling in by the time they arrived in Baraboo, but Hannah was determined to see Caleb as soon as possible. Levi was occupied with the business of Chester’s arrest and she hadn’t wanted to trouble him with her problems. But as always, he had made all the necessary arrangements.
“Mrs. Goodloe?”
A gray-haired woman dressed in a lavender business suit was waiting on the platform. She stepped forward and offered Hannah a firm handshake. “I am Ida Benson. Levi asked that I arrange to take you and your in-laws out to the farm as soon as you arrived. I do hope this mode of transportation suits?”
She pointed to a black hack hitched to a gray horse. Standing next to it was a man dressed in plain clothes who nodded at her but did not come forward.
“This will do just fine,” Hannah assured her then turned to introduce her to Pleasant and Gunther.
“Come and meet Matthew Harnisher,” Ida said. “Caleb has been staying with Matthew and his wife, Mae, and their four children.”
“You are Amish?” Gunther asked, eyeing the buggy and then Ida’s lavender suit.
“No,” she explained. “But Matthew and Mae are Old Order Amish—like your family.” She made the introductions and then while Matthew supervised the loading of their luggage, the three of them crowded into the buggy—Pleasant and Hannah in back and Gunther sharing the driver’s seat with Matthew.
“Your boy is well,” Ida told Hannah, grasping her hand and commanding her attention.
“But?”
Ida nodded, clearly relieved that Hannah had understood that physical wellness was not the entire story. “He is…anxious about seeing you again. He knows he did wrong and yet…” She searched for the right words. “It may take some time, Hannah.”
“I understand,” Hannah assured her. But as she stared at her father-in-law’s straight unyielding back on the ride from the station to the Harnisher farm, she couldn’t help but wonder if understanding would be enough.
It hardly mattered in the end for as they drove into the yard of the farm, Matthew’s wife, Mae, came running down the steps to meet them.
“He’s gone,” she called. “The boys and I searched everywhere, but he’s not here.”
Levi had meant to go with the Goodloes when they went to collect Caleb. He had thought to ease the way for the boy. Gunther was old school and would not take kindly to the trouble the boy had put them through. He was given to lecturing—as Levi’s stable help had complained more than once over the past several days. And Levi well remembered that at young Caleb’s age, the very last thing a boy would heed was a lecture.
But he would have to leave that to Ida and Matthew. His first concern had to be his business. The local police had met the train and taken Chester into custody. He would spend time in jail until a trial could be arranged. In the meantime, Levi would meet with his lawyer and build the case. The more he thought about what Chester had done, the angrier he got. And when he realized that Chester’s betrayal had resulted in Levi accusing Jake, fury turned to rage and he was bent on seeking his revenge.
When it had been only money he had lost, he had thought he might be able to handle the whole thing himself. But when the policeman had questioned Jake, and Levi had seen the look of utter disbelief and disappointment on his friend’s face, he had known that Chester had stolen something far more precious.
At least in the midst of all this trauma he could take some comfort in knowing that Hannah was being reunited with her son. Although that reunion also had a dark side in that it meant that far too soon the Goodloe family would take the first possible train back to Florida.
A wave of loneliness washed over Levi like the surf breaking on the beach on a stormy day. The feeling was so overpowering that it took his breath away. He was a man who many would say had everything anyone could hope for—money, power, friends. But he had destroyed his best friend’s trust and after his parents had died he had willingly—and foolishly—walked away from the family he had left. Over the years, he had stayed in contact with his brother, Matt, but his letters to his grandparents and his sisters had all been returned unopened. Many times Matt had urged him to come home to Wisconsin and start a family of his own, but what kind of life could he offer a wife and children? What kind of stability?
And so the circus people had become his family. Ida and Lily, like sisters to him. Hans, Jake and Chester, like brothers. But now Jake was gone. Chester had betrayed him, and truth be told, he knew none of the others thought of him as “family.” He was their employer—a benevolent one to be sure—but hardly their brother. If he were gone tomorrow, what would he have left as his legacy? A circus? A mansion in Florida?
Levi had dismissed his driver outside the police station, saying he needed to walk, and for the past two hours he’d been wandering aimlessly, trying to bring some order to the chaotic thoughts that raced through his mind. It was dark now and he found himself on a country road far from the railway station and far from the compound that served as the summer quarters for the circus. He heard the wail of a train whistle moving east and recalled how, as a boy, a similar whistle had been like a siren’s song for him.
He realized that he had wandered all the way out to where his grandfather’s farm—Matthew’s farm now—bordered the road. It had started to rain so he shoved his hands into the pockets of his trousers and hunched his shoulders against a north wind as he recognized that the person he most needed to see was at that farm. Hannah.
Turning a corner, he made out another solitary figure limping badly along the road ahead of him. “Wait up,” he shouted, and the person started to run, then stumbled and fell.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” Levi said as he caught up and knelt down. He saw that this was a boy, hatless and dirty. “What happened?” he asked.
“Nothing. I fell.”
“Falling isn’t nothing,” Levi said. “Did you twist your ankle?”
The boy nodded.
“Where were you headed?”
“Train.” He choked on the word and Levi realized the boy was crying. “But I just heard the whistle and now it’s gone and…”
“My name’s Levi,” he said calmly as he gently probed the kid’s ankle for the possibility of a broken bone. “And you are?”
“Caleb.”
Levi put it together then. The plain clothes, muddy now from the two falls, the hair that hung straight and limp covering the boy’s ears. The proximity to Matthew Harnisher’s farm. He could take him back there but what was to keep the boy from trying to run again? From making the same mistake that he had made all those years ago? “Well, Caleb, tell you what. How about I help you get to my compound so we can have my doctor take a look at that ankle?”
“I don’t think I can walk.”
“Good point. Well, then let’s just wait here. Somebody’s bound to come along.” Levi scooted his back up against the lower boughs of a sheltering evergreen tree, plopped his hat on the boy’s head and then wrapped his arms around his knees. “Amish, are you?”
Caught off guard, the boy nodded.
“Me, too. Wanna hear a story while we wait?”
Again the nod.
It was quickly decided that Gunther and Pleasant would stay at the farm with Mae and the boys while Hannah went with Matthew to search for Caleb. There was little doubt which way he’d headed. Matthew’s son, Lars, admitted that Caleb had told him of his plan and even tried to get Lars to join him.
“He’ll have cut across that pasture and the cornfields beyond and eventually come to the road back toward town,” Matthew said. “We’ll find him along the road.”
Hannah nodded, no longer sure of anything. She wished Levi were with them. He would know what to do, what to say to Caleb to convince him to come home with her. As the horse trotted along the narrow road, Hannah did the only thing she knew to do in such circumstances—she prayed for the wisdom to know what words would change Caleb’s mind about a life better than theirs in Florida once they found him. If they found him. If he
would listen.
“Are you warm enough?” Matthew asked, jarring her from her meditation and back to the reality of their journey. It had started to rain again.
“Yes. Thank you for doing this. I hope that Caleb has not been thoughtless or unkind.”
Matthew laughed. “On the contrary. The boy was so good-natured and helpful with chores and all, that we found him a good addition to our family.” He let the horse amble along, reins slack.
Hannah fought against the urge to ask him to go faster.
“It was only as the time got closer that he changed,” Matthew said.
“What time?”
“Your arrival. He got quieter then, nothing much to say, although he continued to tend to the chores and help Mae out around the house. Just went inside himself some and seemed to spend a good deal of his time following me around.”
“He misses his father.”
“Ja. That’s what I told Levi.” He tightened the reins and clucked softly to the horse as he peered ahead.
“How do you know Levi?” she asked more to keep the conversation alive than anything else.
Matthew glanced at her, his features shadowed by the dark and the wide brim of his hat. “He’s my brother.”
Hannah was certain she had heard him wrong. “You mean that you are friends—that…”
“Blood brothers,” he said. “I see he did not tell you this.”
“No.” Her mind raced with myriad thoughts—Levi was Amish? But the last names were…
“He changed his name after he left the farm.” He chuckled. “I tease him that he showed little imagination. Harmon and Harnisher. For a circus man, I thought he might have done better.”
“How old were you when he left?”
“Just twelve. Levi was fourteen. He would have been baptized that year.”
“You must have been very sad when he left.”
Again the chuckle. “I was very angry to be sure. He was supposed to be the man of the family and now that would fall to me. Your boy and I talked about that some. About that responsibility coming on so suddenly and all.”
