Material Witness

by Vannetta Chapman

  Shane was barreling down the two-lane now, his siren blaring and his speedometer reading eighty. Hopefully one of the local law enforcement officers would pick up on the fact that it was him and radio Taylor for backup. He was not disconnecting from this call. He’d have to drop the cell phone to pick up his own radio, and he wasn’t going to do that either. At the moment, he was the only life line these kids had.

  Why were the girls on Levi’s property?

  “There’s something we have to do. He’s taking them to the pond. Do you know where that is?”

  “I can find it, Aaron. But I want you three to stay hidden until I get there.”

  “Someone else is here. We couldn’t see who it was. Thomas and Levi were arguing, then Callie and Deborah ran from the wagon to the barn, and then there was a gunshot.”

  If Shane ever had Callie in his arms again he’d never let her go.

  Did she have any idea how dangerous Thomas was?

  Did she have any idea how much she meant to him?

  The steering wheel of the Buick felt slippery in his hand, but he gripped it more firmly. The distance between them was growing shorter with every minute. He would make it there in time. He had to make it there in time.

  This was beginning to resemble Shane’s worst nightmare. He was supposed to confront Thomas alone, with his men circled around the farm. How had so many people managed to involve themselves?

  “Looked like the shot went wild,” Aaron was saying. “Deborah and Callie started running around the corner of the barn as soon as they heard it, so I don’t think they were hit. Levi rolled under the wagon and didn’t get up. I don’t know if he’s okay or not. We were going to go back to check on him …”

  Aaron pulled in a deep breath, and that was when Shane remembered how sick the kid was, how hard this must be on him.

  “But then we saw Thomas go after Deborah and Callie.”

  “What?!”

  “Ya, and he was hollering at them about the treasure.”

  Shane realized this situation was going to be very complicated. Thomas was not worried about being caught. Apparently he also wasn’t worried about being killed. He had one objective — the money — and he was willing to die in order to recover it.

  There was a beep on his phone followed by crackling on his radio. Shane figured it was Captain Taylor. Still he wouldn’t hang up on the kid.

  “Why are you going to the pond, Aaron?”

  “We have to get into position before Thomas gets there.”

  “I want you to wait for me.”

  “Can’t.” The reception on the call faded out, then back in again. “… we saw them.”

  “Saw who?”

  “Callie and Deborah. We were watching, and Thomas must have decided the money was back at the pond. Guess that’s why he’s taking them there. When we left …” Aaron pulled in another breath, and then Matt was back on the phone.

  “When we left he was tying up their hands.” Matt sounded calm enough, but a little out of breath. Why was he winded? “That gave us enough time to get ahead of them. We’ll meet you at the pond. Hurry or —”

  The line went dead before Shane heard the rest of Matt’s sentence, but Shane didn’t need to hear it.

  Hurry or Thomas was going to kill Callie and Deborah.

  He called Captain Taylor as he pulled onto Levi’s property. It had been Taylor who’d tried to beep in while Shane had been talking to the kids.

  He gave the captain the sixty-second version, left it to Taylor to reposition their forces at Levi’s farm, to put his team where he wanted them, including Perla, who had earned the right to be there. Shane didn’t know what had happened to the girls, but he was convinced whatever was about to occur would be over by the time help arrived.

  The girls and the children were in danger.

  Unless Levi had found a way to intervene.

  Shane suspected he knew the identity of the mystery shooter, but the odds of anything going their way in this operation were past calculating.

  Shane wasn’t a hypocrite, but he wasn’t a fool either. As he made his way toward Thomas, as he hurried to help the people he cared about, he began to pray.

  Thomas stepped out on the trail, pulled his knife, and cut the tape that bound Callie and Deborah together. He was careful to leave the tape around their wrists intact. Picking up his bag, he nodded toward the path. “Let’s go,” he muttered.

  Callie almost stumbled as she hurried just ahead of Deborah. She wasn’t nearly as frightened as she was angry. This man had bossed her around for entirely too long. He was large, but he wasn’t a giant of a man like Reuben.

  What made him intimidating was the rifle and the craziness in his eyes. The craziness she had dealt with before. Hadn’t Stakehorn, the original editor of the Gazette, been more than a tiny bit off? And Gordon Stone, the man who had killed him, hadn’t been entirely sane — though he’d insisted he was merely doing his job.

  Then there was Ira Bontrager. He was a sweet old man, but he’d had moments that weren’t lucid.

  Callie had plenty of experience dealing with folks who were one slat short of a fully functional rocker.

  No, Thomas’ craziness wasn’t her main problem — the rifle was.

  Good thing she’d taken a self-defense course.

  She needed to wait for something to divert Thomas’ attention, then she could rush him, knock the rifle out of his hands, and keep it out of his reach.

  Which would be hard to do with her wrists taped tightly together behind her back.

  Hard, but not impossible.

  She couldn’t help herself. She stole another glance at Deborah.

  “Don’t look at her. She’s my insurance that you’ll do what I want. Now both of you — keep walking.”

  As they stumbled along the path leading back toward the pond, Callie felt as if her senses were on high alert. She was aware of every bird settling in the brush, the way the sun’s light filtered through the western trees, and especially the hammering of her pulse in her eardrums.

  No way she was going to die at Levi Hochstetler’s pond.

  Her mind drifted to thoughts of Shane. Was he in love with her?

  The question popped into her mind with the force of a firecracker blazing into the sky on a pitch-black July night.

  She’d pushed the entire notion of love away because she thought she wasn’t ready.

  Ready?

  She suddenly realized you only had to be alive to be ready.

  A beating heart qualified, and she had one — for now.

  What had she been waiting for? Why hadn’t she told him how she felt? Why hadn’t she admitted she was scared? That she didn’t want to dive into life and be hurt again, be left alone again?

  Why hadn’t she rested in his arms while she had the chance?

  God had given her so many opportunities in her life, and she had pushed them all away. She had slapped at his hand like a spoiled child, never satisfied. If she called out to him now, would he hear?

  She slowed on the path, just ahead of Deborah, Thomas behind them both. Slowed and glanced back in the direction of the barn and then toward Deborah.

  “Keep. Walking.” He punctuated each word with a small shove. “I don’t have a lot of time.”

  Deborah’s eyes met hers, and in that moment Callie knew her friend was praying.

  In that moment, she also knew it was the one thing that could possibly save them, because Thomas Hochstetler was certifiably insane. He’d stop at nothing to recover his mother’s lost treasure.

  They’d been over the quilts late last night and again this morning. And they’d confirmed the treasure was not at the pond before everything had fallen apart. A water source certainly did have something to do with the treasure — that was what they were looking for.

  But one thing was certain.

  The treasure wasn’t at the pond.

  Chapter 28

  IT SEEMED TO AARON that he could still hear the sound of the rif
le shot echoing across the hills.

  “Wonder who did the shooting.” Martha’s eyes were wide with alarm, but Aaron knew she couldn’t be nearly as frightened as he was — her heart couldn’t be hammering in her chest like his was or she’d sit down in the dirt.

  “We need to focus on what we came here to do.” Matthew struggled over the final hill with the wheelchair.

  Martha led Max, who acted as if he were on a romp down Shipshewana’s Main Street.

  “No one’s having second thoughts, are they?” Matthew sounded grim, and Aaron knew what he was thinking. He was thinking about Mrs. Knepp and that other lady — the younger one who had been found in the apple barrel.

  “‘Course not,” Aaron said, then he wondered if he said it a little too quickly.

  “I’m not either.” Martha jogged beside them to keep up. “It’s only that my dat is going to kill me if one of us gets —”

  “Killed?” Aaron’s and Matt’s voices were perfectly matched in pitch and sarcasm.

  “All right. It sounds stupid, but you know what I mean.”

  “Ya, we know. That’s why we’re going to be careful. He’ll be coming this way. We know it because we overheard what he said to Miss Callie. We also know he’ll bring your mamm and Callie with him. At least it sounded like he would as he tied their hands. No one else will be in the way. This is our chance to catch him. Our chance to fix what started three nights ago.” Matt positioned the chair in an alcove surrounded by trees and small bushes.

  “It’ll be worth the trouble we’re going to be in,” Aaron agreed. He pulled in a deep, steadying breath. “It’ll be worth it to end this.”

  Aaron was surprised to find he meant it. He’d never been so ready to have something over with. Until this moment, he’d always thought the worst thing in the world was chicken breast disease. (That was how he thought of it — and maybe why he didn’t mind doing the chores out in the chicken coop, after all it wasn’t the chickens’ fault.) He’d been certain it was the worst thing he’d have to live with.

  Now he knew it wasn’t.

  Disease was something you learned to deal with, like rain on the way to school or an overly hard homework assignment. It was something that maybe was Gotte’s wille. He wasn’t sure. He wasn’t old enough to figure that out yet. He’d been this way as long as he could remember — struggling for breath, his body tiring out before his mind did, dependent on others.

  But even Matthew was struggling for breath right now.

  His daed tired out before he was done with the day’s work, and sometimes he had to stop to rest under the big tree at the far side of the fields.

  And Miss Callie was depending on Shane to keep her safe from Thomas Hochstetler.

  Maybe he wasn’t so different from everyone else after all.

  Could be Gotte would even see fit to heal him at some point.

  Or maybe he wouldn’t.

  If there was one thing he’d learned since watching Mrs. Knepp fall face first into the parking lot of Daisy’s Quilt Shop, it was that he did appreciate each and every day that he awoke alive and well. Gotte had given him that, and it was a gift for sure. The fact that he had this disease didn’t keep him from counting a day as a good one.

  “Everyone remember what they’re supposed to do?” Matt asked.

  “I’m staying in the bushes with Max until you signal for me to release him.” Aaron put one hand on Max’s head. The dog settled beside his chair.

  “I’m going to be positioned on the north side. If anything goes wrong, I’ll head back the way we came until I pick up a signal on the cell phone.” Martha pulled it out of her dress pocket and checked it one final time. “Nothing here.”

  “We expected that. Head on back until it works, if we need it. Hopefully we won’t. I’ll set up on the south side and have my slingshot ready.” Matthew glanced around. “You’re sure Max will stay quiet, Aaron? We can’t have him giving us away.”

  “I’m sure. He follows hand signals real well.”

  “All right. If things go as planned, this will all be over by the time Shane arrives. Tonight we’ll be back at home playing Dutch Blitz.”

  “When have things gone as planned? Not since this started,” Martha muttered as she hurried off to hide in the bushes on the north side.

  Max settled beside Aaron’s wheel, and Matt ran around the pond, to the south. Then they all waited. From where Aaron hid, he could barely make out Matt’s shirtsleeve and the white of Martha’s kapp. He didn’t think Thomas would be able to see them unless he looked right at them, and Aaron had a feeling Thomas would have eyes for one thing: what lay directly in front of him.

  How could he believe treasure would be hidden near a pond? It didn’t make sense to him that a quilt would even tell a story — books, yes, but not a quilt. Where would old Mrs. Hochstetler even have hidden money out here?

  He began looking around, trying to puzzle it out. Unless maybe Callie had made the entire thing up. Maybe she had wanted to move Thomas away from the house, away from Levi so he could go for help.

  The pond was surrounded by a few large boulders. Mrs. Hochstetler could have buried something under one of them, but she would have needed help. She couldn’t have moved one by herself. She wouldn’t have submerged a treasure in the water. Would she? Could something remain in water all these years and not be ruined?

  He was so busy turning the questions over in his mind that at first he didn’t hear anyone approaching, didn’t hear the voices in the distance. But he did notice when Max sat up and pressed against the side of his chair.

  Aaron didn’t say anything to the dog. Instead, he put his hand on the top of Max’s head to quiet him.

  Max seemed to understand. He looked up at Aaron, his eyes round and worried.

  Gavin met Shane’s car as he pulled on to the property.

  “Did you fire the shot?” Shane asked. “And why aren’t you at home?”

  “I’ve been watching over Levi since yesterday. And yes, I fired the shot.” They hurried toward the barn as Gavin explained. “I had to do something. The situation was escalating.”

  “Current status?”

  “I don’t know. I heard the call over the scanner for all personnel and called in. Taylor told me to maintain my position until you arrived.”

  “Hold here and scan the area.” Shane hurried toward Levi, who he could see was still crouched under the wagon. Apparently he’d been hiding there since Gavin had fired his weapon to scare Thomas off. “Are you all right?”

  “Ya. I wasn’t sure who was firing.”

  “Gavin did that. The situation seemed to be spiraling out of control, and he wanted Thomas to back down.” Shane knelt by the older man as he checked his weapon. “He explained to me that he’s been staked here since Taylor put him on forty-eight-hour medical leave. Good thing he was. His shot scared your brother away from you.”

  “For all I knew, that crazy bruder of mine had another accomplice — one he hadn’t killed yet.” The words might have been said with some bite, but there was defeat in the older man’s eyes. He stood, took a step, and cringed.

  “What’s wrong with your ankle?”

  “Twisted it is all. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”

  “We’ll help you back to the house, then I’ll go after Thomas.”

  “He headed to the barn.” Levi placed an arm around Shane’s shoulder and began limping toward the front porch. “I tried talking to him. For a minute … for one minute, I thought I was getting through. But then that stubborn look came over his face, and I knew I’d lost him again.”

  Shane needed to be on that trail headed toward the pond. He motioned to Gavin for help. None of Taylor’s men had caught up with them yet. Gavin jogged toward them.

  “Did you see the girls again after they took off around the corner of the barn, Mr. Hochstetler?”

  “Girls? What girls?” He stopped in the open area in front of the house, about twenty feet from the steps.

  �
��Callie and Deborah,” Gavin answered, moving to support Levi on one side. “They were behind the wagon. As you were talking to your brother, they ran around the west side of the barn. You didn’t see them?”

  “No. Your shot rang out, and I hit the ground. Didn’t see anything except dirt.”

  Shane started shifting Levi’s weight from his shoulders to Gavin’s, and they’d just turned him toward the house when, suddenly, the barn exploded. Debris flew into the air and came raining down as far as the steps of the house. Hay, pieces of boards, and nails showered around them. Gavin and Shane forced Levi to the ground in one motion, covering him with their arms.

  When it seemed the pieces had stopped falling, Gavin began checking Levi for injuries. Shane pulled out his cell.

  “The main barn structure is on fire. We’re going to need assistance from Shipshe, Chief.”

  “We’re almost there now. I’ll alert the fire department. Are there any casualties?”

  “No.” Shane disconnected, ice running through his veins. One look at Gavin confirmed that he could handle everything happening with Levi.

  “I’ve got this. His injuries are minor.” Gavin had already begun ripping his shirt and pressing it to the gash on Levi’s forehead.

  “Levi, did you have horses in the barn?”

  “No. They were all in the pasture today.” The man looked dazed, grim.

  Gavin met Shane’s gaze. “He’s in shock. Go on, Shane. Go and find Callie and Deborah.”

  Shane skirted the barn at a trot, rifle in hand.

  Whatever explosives Thomas had used had done their job well. A gaping hole now adorned the center of the western wall, and flames shot out of the roof. Fortunately they’d had rain recently. The wet grasses surrounding the barn would keep the fire from spreading.

  As Shane ran down the path behind the barn, he realized how lucky they were.

  Was it luck? Or had God intervened? His eleven-year-old heart fought with the faith of a man, fought and lost.

  No one was trapped in the barn. Shane was sure of that. The trail was covered with fresh footprints that led away from the structure, led toward the pond.

  And why had Thomas blown up the barn to begin with?