Material Witness

by Vannetta Chapman

  “Through the weekend? What happens on Monday?” Esther had started to rise from her chair. She was still holding a sleeping Simon.

  “This ends before the week starts. I wouldn’t be surprised if this ends by Saturday night.”

  “How can you be so sure, Shane?” Deborah asked it quietly, not as a challenge, but out of curiosity.

  “Crowds leave on Saturday. I don’t think he’s going to want to be caught here in a town of six hundred. It’s hard to hide if you’re not one of our own.”

  Chapter 15

  AARON PUSHED HIS WHEELCHAIR over to his bruder as soon as Matt walked through the door of the barn. He didn’t want Martha getting to him first. He actually hoped Martha wouldn’t notice them at all. They didn’t need a girl’s help with this, not that he could see. “What did they say? Could you hear them at all? Because I can’t hear a thing from this side of the partition. That wall Reuben built is solid.”

  “Ya, I could hear. I was standing right outside the window.”

  “So?”

  “So they’re talking about protecting us, like we’re a bunch of piglets that need to stay in a crate.”

  “We are like a bunch of piglets.”

  They both jumped at the sound of Martha’s voice.

  “I thought you were going to the bathroom.”

  “You’re not my mamm, Martha Yoder. In fact, we’re the same age, so don’t be thinking —”

  “Save it, Matthew. They’ll be here in a minute. Hurry and tell us what you heard.”

  Aaron twisted around in his chair and stared at her in surprise. “Us?”

  “Ya, us. We were all three there when this thing started. I figure we’re all in this until the end. And keep your voice low so you don’t frighten the younger ones.” She nodded toward her twin bruders, Joshua, Leah, and Hannah — all of whom were playing a game of hopscotch a few feet away.

  Matthew tugged off his wool cap, ran his hand over his head — front to back, back to front. “Shane was saying he thinks the man won’t stick around past Saturday night or Sunday.”

  “I guess that makes sense. So if we can keep you two from being run over tomorrow, you should be fine.”

  Aaron scowled at her. He didn’t like remembering the car coming at him. It had been a small car, but he’d still felt like a chicken on a chopping block sitting there in his chair, waiting for it to smash him flat on the pavement.

  “They won’t let us go into town tomorrow, even if we wanted to. We’ll probably be stuck out here babysitting or doing chores.” Aaron picked at a seam on his pants leg. For some reason he thought again of the boys in the Western movie. They’d wanted to go on the trail ride, but John Wayne had told them no. They’d had to sneak their way in at first, especially the youngest one. “We’re going to miss the busiest day of the festival, and we’re going to miss any chance to catch this Englischer.”

  “Don’t know how we could catch him anyway,” Matthew pointed out. “All we did today was cause a scene and upset Fred. He was still hollering about what happened to his ice-cream cart when Dat found us and pulled us away from the intersection.”

  “Did you see the way Shane stepped out into the open, steadied his pistol, and almost shot that car? I think he would have taken a shot if so many people hadn’t been around.” Aaron was remembering Shane, but somehow he was picturing John Wayne again. He hadn’t realized it until that moment, but the two men had a lot in common — both carried a pistol, were stubborn, and didn’t have any kinner of their own.

  “Think about it.” Martha flopped onto a hay bale. “When you two showed up, Creeper showed up.”

  “Creeper?” Aaron glanced at her. His mind had been on the Western again. He knew it was a movie — not real life. But John Wayne had been a real man, and Aaron was busy wondering: What would the real John Wayne have done if he were in their shoes? How would he have caught the bad guy? He sure wouldn’t have hung around the barn taking care of bopplin and feeding chickens.

  “Yeah, Creeper. That’s what I heard Miss Callie calling him when we were washing dishes. It kind of fits, for a name.”

  “Gives me the creeps every time I think of him,” Aaron mumbled in agreement.

  “What I was saying was he busted out of hiding when you two came into town.”

  “Maybe that was a coincidence,” Matt said. He’d pulled out his slingshot and was popping it. Aaron noticed he seemed to be practicing with it a lot the last day or so, like he might need it for something.

  “Could be. It’s not like he could have known where you two would be, unless he’d been following you or looking for you.”

  “Why would he be looking for us?” Aaron’s voice squeaked like a mouse. He cleared his throat and tried again. “What did I ever do to him? I’m a kind.”

  “You’re the one who can identify him, remember? Even Miss Callie didn’t see him. She heard his voice, but you saw him at the scene of the crime. You saw him kill Mrs. Knepp.”

  “No, I didn’t. I only saw him stand behind her. Then she fell over.”

  Martha and Matthew stared at him.

  “Okay. I saw him kill her.”

  All three grew silent. The echo of a pebble hitting the chalk outline in the corner and the sounds of the younger kinner skipping as they continued with their game of hopscotch filled the night.

  Finally Martha said what they were each thinking. “The question is, what are we going to do about it.”

  “Don’t see how we can do anything.” Aaron pulled at the seam on his pants leg so hard he tore a small hole in it. “Mamm’s going to keep such a close eye on me, I’ll be lucky if she doesn’t slip a lead rope around my chair.”

  “Unless …” Matt stopped midsentence, but he began popping his slingshot again.

  “Say it. Unless what?”

  “He has that look in his eye,” Aaron mumbled. “Usually means one of us will be in trouble soon.”

  “Unless we pulled the swap.”

  “Oh no.” Aaron began rolling his chair back and forth.

  “What’s the swap?”

  “Last time we did that, they caught us, and we both had extra chores for a month.”

  “But they probably won’t catch us this time, because they’re focused on other things. Even if they do catch us, well, it won’t matter by then.” Matthew was grinning now, and Aaron knew it meant his mind was already made up.

  “Are you going to tell me what you’re talking about?” Martha put her hands on her hips. When she did, she looked older. Maybe they shouldn’t tell her, but before he could decide, Matt was explaining.

  “The swap is where one of us tells Mamm one thing and the other tells Dat something else —”

  “That’s lying.” Martha clamped her mouth shut and crossed her arms.

  “Not exactly. Not if you do it right.”

  “He means, not if you don’t get caught.”

  “Tomorrow Aaron tells Mamm that we’re going to take the cart and pony to Dat.”

  “Wait. You mean you’re staying here tonight?”

  “I think we all are, even our daeds. They’re more worried about nighttime for some reason. Harder to see the Creeper creeping.” Matt grimaced at his own joke, then continued. “Our dat will leave to do chores very early, before it’s full light. Once we’re done with breakfast, Aaron could ask Esther if we can borrow her cart and pony to go and help dat.”

  “And when you never show?”

  “We’ll show, but we won’t stay long. I’ll tell Dat that Mamm wants us back, because she’s worried — which technically will be the truth. Instead, we’ll go into town.” Matt smiled as if he’d figured out the hardest arithmetic problem their teacher had to offer.

  “It’s still lying. Why do you call it the swap?”

  “Because each of us swap a little part of the story out. It’s not lying so much as it is … you know, swapping.” Aaron stopped rolling his chair. “Why are we going into town?”

  “To catch the Creeper. He’ll see
you in your chair, and he’ll come right out.”

  “This is your gut idea?” Martha shook her head, eyes closed.

  “Sure. Because I’m going to be waiting for him this time.” Matt held up the slingshot, and when he threw his arm around him, Aaron started thinking the plan might work. It did sound like the sort of ambush John Wayne’s cook and the boys had set up. He was beginning to wish he’d never seen that movie. There had to be a way to get it out of his head.

  “Are you serious?” Martha asked, hands on hips. “Because this sounds narrisch.”

  “I can see why you’d think so,” Aaron said. “But you haven’t seen how gut Matt is with the slingshot. Mamm doesn’t like him to use it, but I’ve watched him practice. He can hit a squirrel when I can’t even see it. Creeper won’t be any problem for him.”

  “But, we don’t believe in violence. Bishop Elam says —”

  “I know what the bishop says.” Matt’s voice took on a hard edge again. “And I know what this man wants to do to my bruder. I’m not going to aim to hurt Creeper — not permanently. But I will stop him until Shane can get there.”

  Martha sighed heavily, but a mulish look came over her face. “Guess you’re going to need me to come along then.”

  “What? No. We don’t need a —” Aaron almost said the word girl, but the glare from Martha stopped him.

  “Someone has to call Shane when you two set your trap. I happen to know where we can borrow a cell phone.”

  Which pretty much sealed the deal. Now it was a matter of surviving the night, waiting until daylight, and then implementing the swap.

  Aaron could hardly wait.

  Shane had no trouble building a consensus among the men.

  After thirty minutes, they’d hammered out the details. Now came the difficult part.

  “Should we each speak with our families privately?” Noah asked. “Melinda might need some convincing.”

  “I wish we had time for that, but I expect our assailant to call back at any time —”

  “Or show up, if he’s managed to follow one of you out here.” Reuben’s expression was calm, passive almost, but Shane knew he could count on him to help if it came to the safety of the women and children.

  “I have two more men at the border of your property by the road,” Shane reminded him.

  “With us taking shifts outside the house and the barn, the women and kinner will be safe,” Jonas said.

  Jonas had listened well, though he hadn’t said much. Shane had been worried he might have his own ideas about how to handle the situation, that he might want to implement a separate plan. “Are you on board with this, Jonas? If you think there’s another way …”

  “For tonight, I think what you have outlined is gut. My family will need to take it one day at a time. Though we don’t know Gotte’s wille in all things, he will provide direction as we need it.”

  It was the most Shane had ever heard him say. He wasn’t completely happy with the man’s level of commitment, but then he had five children and a wife to worry about. Technically he didn’t even have to be here since they weren’t eyewitnesses to the crime. Melinda was closest to Deborah and Esther. What was the perp’s level of commitment? Would he start chasing down every lead? Shane didn’t know. But it felt right to keep the three families hidden on Reuben’s farm until he caught this guy. Deborah’s close ties to Melinda and Callie were what kept them at Reuben’s tonight, and Shane respected that. So he nodded to Jonas, thanked him, and led the group back inside to face the women.

  The four women were sitting at one end of the table. Deborah and Melinda were poring over a copy of the Gazette. Esther was writing on a yellow-lined tablet, and Callie was holding the baby. Her eyes met his, and he remembered the kiss in the car — remembered it and wished suddenly he could take her away from here.

  Maybe if he took her away the danger would disappear.

  Maybe if he took her away she’d be safe.

  Captain Taylor had left to check with the men on patrol. Gavin walked to the end of the table with him. Tobias, Reuben, Jonas, and Noah took places at the opposite end of the table.

  “We came up with a security plan for the evening.” Shane shared the rotation schedule with them.

  “So we all stay here?” Callie asked.

  “Women and children in the house. Men here at Reuben’s, when they’re not working.”

  “Is that really necessary?” Melinda put down the pen she’d been using to mark items in the paper.

  “Probably not for Deborah and her family.” Shane nodded toward Jonas.

  “There’s a possibility we’re more trouble than we’re worth, with our five kinner. But Deborah and I talked about it on the way over. If it’s helpful for us to stay, then we’d like to stay. We consider you all to be our family.”

  A few seconds of silence passed before Esther said, “Always room for seven more. I vote you stay.”

  Murmurs of agreement sounded around the table.

  “What happens tomorrow?” Esther asked.

  “Can’t neglect the animals at home, so we’ll have to be going back at first light,” Noah said. “At least the men will.”

  “I would rather keep the women and children here.” Shane knew this would be a sticking point. Amish folk were hard workers. You could settle them down for an evening, but come daylight, they wanted to be back at their business.

  “I’m going into town,” Callie said. “That’s the whole point of this ruse, right? We made a list of ways to keep the shop open and secure like you told us to.”

  Instead of answering, Shane eyeballed the men for help.

  “Could be I’ll need the twins to return to the farm with me tomorrow. If everything looks safe,” Jonas added. “They have quite a few pigs that need seeing to.”

  “I can probably do our work alone.” Noah ran his hand under his suspenders.

  Everyone began talking at once, and Shane could feel himself losing control of the meeting. He held up his hands, palms out, to stop everyone. “We can meet back here an hour before sunrise, decide who should stay and if it’s safe for some to leave.”

  “We can’t stay here forever, Shane.” Melinda worried the pen she was holding, spinning it in circles.

  “I realize that, but I still think our perpetrator will make his move this weekend.”

  Melinda glanced over at Noah, who nodded once. “All right. We had some ideas that might help in that area. We think the money he was looking for may have been advertised in the Gazette.”

  Shane felt a twitch at the back of his neck. He held very still, because his first reaction was to reject the idea straightaway. “Listen before you reject an idea,” his father had always said. Shane had been quick to turn away from something as a boy, and it was an inclination he had to fight against as a detective. “Why would you think that?”

  “The first reason is that it’s a sizeable amount of money.” Callie pulled Simon’s baby blanket tighter and snuggled him to her. “I’ve already admitted that my savings account isn’t all that lucrative. Our assailant knows that, because he found my password book.”

  “How much are we talking about, Callie?” Tobias stroked his beard. “If you don’t mind my asking.”

  “I don’t mind at all. You are all risking your lives for me. You have a right to know what this guy is after. I have less than five thousand in savings, and another ten thousand from my Aunt Daisy’s probate in a Certificate of Deposit. Since that wasn’t enough to make him go away, whatever he’s after has to be more than fifteen thousand dollars.”

  “So how does the Gazette figure in?” Shane once again pushed his impatience down. Obviously the girls were excited about this, and they had helped to catch two murderers on his watch — albeit one by accident.

  “Remember when we asked Trent to plant the story so that Stakehorn would think Callie had a lot of money in her safe?” Deborah smiled as if those were the good old days.

  “I remember. I didn’t approve th
en, and please don’t tell me you’re thinking about doing it again.”

  “No.” Melinda shook her head, causing the strings of her prayer kapp to brush against the pages of the paper. “But what if Creeper saw something in the paper, something that made him think Callie had a large sum of money.”

  “Money that in his mind rightfully belonged to him.” Esther crossed her arms and frowned.

  “Since he picked Callie, we’re thinking it must have something to do with either her personally or her quilt shop.” Deborah leaned forward and tapped her finger against the paper. “We looked through the old copies we found on Reuben’s shelf, and we marked anything that could even possibly be misconstrued. It’s what you might call … a long shot, but better perhaps than nothing.”

  Shane wanted to resist their logic, but the women had set the hook in his mouth as skillfully as he could land a five-pound bass with the right lure.

  It was a long shot, but nothing else was working. They had no fingerprints to work with, and so far no DNA had shown up from the crime scene or the Smart Car. He knew the techs would find evidence eventually. Every crime scene contained DNA, but it would take time, and time was what they did not have.

  “I think you might be onto something. I’d like you to show me what you found, and I’d also like to call Trent. See if he has any ideas.”

  “I can do that,” Gavin said, pulling out his phone and stepping outside.

  “We’ll start moving the bopplin over to the house,” Noah said.

  Tobias reached for Simon. Callie was standing up to hand the infant over when her cell phone rang. She pulled it out of her handbag, and all color left her face.

  Shane knew immediately it was the killer calling.

  “Deep breaths, Callie. We went over how to handle this. Let it go the full four rings.” He pulled out his own phone and texted Perla.

  Tobias stepped outside with the baby, and Jonas went next door to quiet the children. Everyone else froze in place, their eyes locked on Callie.

  She answered it the second before it went to voice mail.