Material Witness

by Vannetta Chapman

  “We felt it was best if we shared what we know tonight. We have all prayed about it, and we agreed that another evening shouldn’t pass with this secret in our possession, since rightfully it is yours. If you would like other members of your family to be present —”

  “No. They’ve been through enough.” Levi looked tired, ready to be done with whatever they had to say. “I spoke to them again today, and they all agreed it would be best if I handled this matter for the family.”

  Melinda caressed the quilt she was holding, the quilt that had been lovingly stitched so many years ago and had eventually led to such tragedy.

  Sensing the direction of her thoughts, Deborah spoke up. “We asked Shane, Gavin, and Callie to be here because they have sacrificed much in the past few weeks to keep us all safe. Of course, if you’d rather this be a private matter, I’m sure they would understand.”

  Levi shook his head. “We owe everyone in this room, Deborah.” He clutched his hands around the coffee mug. “I’ve spoken with Shane about this, but the way I see it, he could easily have killed Thomas a week ago by the pond.”

  Putting his hand into his pants pocket, he jingled his change, then continued. “The night you two came here and showed me Thomas’ picture, asked me if I knew him, I told you I did not. You might think I lied to you, but I didn’t. The man in that picture — he wasn’t my bruder. He’s nothing like the boy I grew up with. I saw the resemblance, but I couldn’t believe — didn’t want to believe it was him.”

  Clearing his throat, he pushed on. “Because you didn’t kill him when he was threatening Callie, because of that, I will have time to try to win my bruder’s heart. Time to pray for him and time to minister. We owe you a tremendous debt, Shane. Andrew and Callie as well. Whatever you have to say, I welcome hearing it.”

  “Gavin was injured by Thomas, as was Callie.” Sadie was not one given to emotion, but she accepted the handkerchief her husband handed her. “It is as it should be, with everyone here welcome.”

  Melinda looked at Esther. They had agreed Esther should begin with the telling of what they’d stayed this evening to share. “When I first noticed the unusual stitching of your mamm’s quilt, I took it to Melinda. Together we were able to figure out that the borders were German script and Amish proverbs.”

  “Ya, it’s very unusual.” Sadie shook her head. “Levi’s mamm was known to be eccentric.”

  “We believe it was more than that.” Melinda picked up the story. “The design of these quilts is also unusual. Elizabeth sewed many quilts in her life — beautiful quilts for her children and grandchildren. Quilts for charity auctions and for weddings. They were all done in the traditional Amish patterns.”

  “But these aren’t,” Sadie said.

  “Correct. These three, which were left to us in the will, were done differently,” Melinda said.

  “They resemble storybook quilts,” Callie said softly. It was the first time she had spoken. “I’ve had time to research them more thoroughly since the afternoon at the pond, since Thomas’ arrest. Traditionally they were used to convey a secret, something the quilter wanted passed on to others but didn’t want known openly …”

  Silence settled around the room as Sadie and Levi considered the idea. Melinda could see them struggle with the concept their mother would hide something from them. “Perhaps she had a good reason for not wanting to write it on a piece of paper. Maybe it could have fallen into the wrong hands.”

  “Like Thomas’.” Levi’s frown was growing more pronounced, his forehead wrinkling as he tried to follow their reasoning.

  “Like Thomas, but not Thomas.” Melinda adjusted the strings of her prayer kapp. “Remember these quilts were probably stitched before Thomas was born. Perhaps there was someone else she didn’t trust in the family, or it could have been that she was paranoid about robbers or banks —”

  “You’re talking about a hidden treasure.” Gavin sat forward, placed his palms against the table.

  “Yes.” Deborah looked across at the young man who had become a friend to so many within their community. “The quilts tell the story of a treasure that is hidden, kept for safekeeping here on the homestead.”

  “You can’t be serious.” Levi stood, walked to the coffeepot, and refilled his mug.

  “Actually we’re very serious.” Esther spoke quietly, firmly. “No doubt Thomas knew about it. I don’t know how. Perhaps he heard your mother mention it at some point. Maybe he overheard a conversation, but these quilts definitely tell about a treasure that is hidden, and they describe an exact location.”

  “I don’t believe it.” Levi set his mug on the counter a bit harder than necessary, its contents sloshing over the side. “Mamm left plenty in the bank to run the farm. And she wasn’t greedy with what she left in the will. What more could there have been? Why would she do such a thing? How would she do such a thing all those years ago?”

  Shane stretched his arm across the back of Callie’s chair. “While we were staying at Reuben’s the girls shared with me what they thought they knew, and I can’t say whether it’s valid or not. Obviously they’ve made more progress since then. What do you know about your grandparents? Or your great-grandparents?”

  Levi ran his fingers through his beard. “Not much. My folks came from Pennsylvania to start over. Their parents didn’t come west, but planned on joining them once they were settled. Never had the chance. They died from influenza.”

  Gavin scratched at the day’s growth of beard on his jaw. “You say there’s a map on those quilts?”

  “Yes.” Deborah glanced down at the quilt she held. “There’s a key of sorts. Once you learn the key, it’s quite easy to read.”

  Gavin shrugged. “So read it to us.”

  Chapter 31

  ESTHER’S MIND WENT BACK to the day she’d driven to Melinda’s, the day she’d first placed her quilt beside Melinda’s and discovered the edges matched. It was like the parable in the Bible, where the woman had swept her house many times to find the lost coin.

  But no one had been searching for these pieces.

  No one had realized anything was lost.

  Still, now the pieces were found.

  As they all knelt around the three quilts that were laid out on the floor carefully lined up together, she wondered what else would be revealed this evening.

  Melinda pointed to the first square, to the delicate stitching, and began to tell the story. Her hands moved over the panels of the quilts as she spoke.

  “Elizabeth and Adam married in 1938.” She pointed to the small dates stitched into the corner of the block, below the double wedding-ring square. “After their first year of marriage, they moved west with a small group of Amish from the Pennsylvania community.”

  Melinda’s hands hesitated over a square depicting an Amish woman in a prayer kapp — no face was stitched, much like the Amish dolls she sewed for Hannah. The woman on the quilt pattern was boarding a bus.

  “Ya, that’s right,” Sadie whispered. “I remember her telling me once about the trip. It took two days, and then their things hadn’t arrived yet as they were supposed to. However, there was an Amish community here already. The community took them in and allowed them to stay in their houses until their belongings arrived.”

  “No real secrets yet,” Levi muttered.

  Melinda continued. “The land was gut here. Gotte blessed them with fertile fields, gut harvests, and their first boppli boy.”

  “Me?” Levi asked.

  “No.” Melinda’s voice fell to a whisper. “The year was 1940.”

  Her fingers once again traced delicate stitches that were the same color as the cloth they adorned. Finally she tapped another date stitched into the fabric. “This child lived less than one year.”

  Esther could practically read her freinden’s thoughts. Was that why Elizabeth had always had a soft spot in her heart for Aaron? Did she understand the pain of worrying over a sick child?

  “Would explain the box of infant
clothing I found once,” Sadie said.

  Melinda moved to the top of the quilt again. “Five rows in all — the first describes their marriage and trip. The second, the trials that accompanied their move. The third, the help they received from their new community. The fourth the blessings of the land. And the fifth the birth and death of their first child.”

  When Melinda finished speaking, Esther took up the story, moving on to the second quilt. “Trials found Elizabeth and Adam, even in Shipshewana. News arrived that Adam’s parents …” she hesitated, looked at Levi instead of at the quilt squares. “Your grandparents died suddenly.”

  “Of the influenza,” Levi whispered.

  “The year was 1941. Though there was death, there were also gifts. Your parents’ many blessings were …” Esther looked to Deborah, who shrugged. They’d made it to the middle of the second quilt, the panel Deborah and Callie had been looking at the day Thomas had ambushed them. The quilted square obviously depicted water — blue material with blue stitching, so Callie had been able to convince him the money was hidden at the pond. “Your parents’ many blessings were —”

  “Showered,” suggested Deborah.

  “Ya. The blessings were showered on them, but then a relative arrived.” She pointed to the next panel where a dark figure was stitched against a cloudy sky. “This person was bent on destroying all they had.”

  Levi stood now, running his thumbs under his suspenders. “I suspect that would be referring to my onkel — my dat’s only bruder. He would appear every year or so when I was young.”

  Accepting his handkerchief back from his wife, Levi wiped at the perspiration beading on his forehead, which appeared despite the growing coolness of the evening. No one had thought to add wood to the fire in the stove in the corner of the room. Esther thought of asking Shane to attend to it, but they were nearing the end now, and the end would take them back outside.

  “I thought it odd that he never stayed.” Levi was talking to them, but it was obvious his mind was back in that other time. “He never came into the house, never stayed long enough to share a meal.”

  He walked to the counter, took a sip of his coffee, now cold. “When I was a teenager, my dat hired a driver. He was gone for nearly a week. It’s the one time I remember him leaving the farm for more than a day. He returned with my onkel in a wooden coffin. We had a proper Amish burial, here in our district, but I never learned anything about him.”

  “The bottom panel of this quilt indicates there was a time of peace and prosperity.” Esther looked to Deborah, who turned to the third and final quilt.

  “This quilt describes blessings from the hand of God.” She drew their attention to each of the squares. “Family, faith, crops, rain, freinden, health. All the things for which we are grateful are sewn into the panels on this quilt. Each panel has an appliqued picture and two other things —”

  “A date and a tiny symbol.” Sadie’s nose was practically touching the quilt.

  “What’s this stitched here?” Levi asked, pointing to stitching above the bottom right border of the quilt.

  “The numbers one, nine, five, two.” Esther ran her fingers over the delicate stitching. “It’s difficult to see and not noticeable unless you’re looking for it. You have a gut eye, Levi.”

  “Why is it there?”

  “We think that’s a code, perhaps, since it’s stitched into the bottom right-hand corner.”

  “Could it be the year that the quilt was made?” Sadie asked.

  “No. The quilts were made after the birth of Levi. We know that because he is shown in the blessings of family. The final square of the last quilt.”

  “1955.” Levi stood over the quilts, staring at them as if they were a snake that might strike at any moment. “My sisters were born 1945 through 1950. I was born in 1955 when my mother was thirty-five years old. Thomas was born a year later, and he was her last. We were her only two boys.”

  “You said this last quilt has something else in each panel.” Sadie was practically kneeling in the middle of the quilt trying to look more closely. “I don’t see anything.”

  “A small blue stitch. Elizabeth’s symbol for water. It’s in each panel.”

  “Are you sure you’re not making this up?” Levi paced the room in agitation. “Seems a big stretch to me. For one thing, these quilts go against our tradition. Mamm knew that, which is probably why she kept them in a trunk. It’s prideful to make such things. I suppose it’s wrong to destroy them now, but I honestly don’t know what to do with them, and I’m not sure I buy into the hidden-message idea.”

  Deborah looked to Callie for help.

  Callie stepped in. “For some reason, Elizabeth felt a need to tell this story and to tell it this way, Levi. Perhaps she thought she was protecting you. As you know, I’ve worked with Bishop Elam in several situations regarding Deborah’s, Esther’s and Melinda’s quilts. He’s a wise and fair man. He’ll be able to counsel you on what to do about your mother’s quilts — if you think they should be returned to you. We have all agreed that we will honor your wishes in that matter. It’s in our legal rights to give the quilts back to you, but at the very least, this is something you would want to pass down to your children and grandchildren.”

  “It’s curious that your mother involved Callie in the will.” Esther still wondered about that. The quilts she understood, but Mrs. Hochstetler’s reasoning eluded her.

  Shane had been sitting on the couch, leaning forward to watch as each woman took turns explaining the story of the quilts. Esther wasn’t at all surprised when he reached into his pocket and pulled out a sheet of paper. Nor was she surprised when the sheet of paper turned out to be a copy of the will.

  “Callie provided me with a copy of your mother’s will, Levi. She received a copy of the portion that pertained to her. The wording is interesting. ‘Daisy Powell’s niece, Miss Callie Harper, is to receive the three quilts in the chest next to my bed. Once restored, they may be sold at Callie’s discretion.’ ”

  “Perhaps Elizabeth didn’t want interference from the bishop,” Esther said, though in her heart that didn’t feel right either. She had known Elizabeth Hochstetler for years, and the woman had closely followed the ways of the church.

  “Or maybe she knew that Callie would have the means to research storybook quilts.” Melinda’s eyes widened as she stared first at the quilt in front of her, then at Levi. “Elizabeth did things methodically, whether it was quilting or canning. Do you remember the year she grew three different types of bell peppers and she insisted on canning all the green ones first, then the red ones, then the yellows?”

  Sadie laughed. “Oh, I remember. She was quite adamant about how things were to be done.”

  Shane looked back down at the paper. “She wanted each of you ladies involved. The will specifically says, ‘Money from the sale of the quilts will be split five ways — one portion each to Esther Fisher, Deborah Yoder, and Melinda Byer, who will each help with the restoration, and one part to Callie, who will oversee the sales.’ Perhaps because she knew you each had a passion for quilting. Maybe she knew you’d find the messages she sewed into each panel.”

  “I quilt adequately to warm my family, but I’ve never had the gift that you all do.” Sadie held up her hand to stop the protests from Deborah, Melinda, and Esther. “I probably would have left the quilts in the trunk.”

  “I don’t understand this last part,” Gavin said, reading over Shane’s shoulder. “ ‘The final portion of money will be deposited in the previously established account at First Bank Shipshewana to be used as arranged with my banker, Mrs. Barnwell.’ ”

  “I was curious about that,” Shane admitted. “I talked to Mrs. Barnwell, but she guards her clients’ business dealings well. She wouldn’t tell me anything without a judge’s court order, and I wasn’t able to get one since Thomas is already in jail and no longer a threat to anyone.”

  “She’ll tell us once we find the money,” Esther said.

  Eve
ryone stopped what they were doing, turned and stared at her. “Well, isn’t that obvious? Elizabeth wanted someone to find the money. At first she wasn’t willing to tell you because of your onkel, Levi.”

  “And later she was waiting for Thomas to have a change of heart.” Deborah glanced at Callie, who was nodding in agreement.

  “But the will,” Esther’s voice gained confidence as the final piece of the puzzle fell into place. “The will was her safety measure, in case Thomas didn’t turn around before she died.”

  No one said anything for the space of one, then two minutes.

  It was Gavin who stretched, then looked at the clock. The tiny hands were approaching nine, and Esther knew everyone was growing tired. It had been a long day. So when he stated the obvious, she felt herself jump.

  “Sounds like we should go treasure hunting then.”

  Chapter 32

  LEVI IMMEDIATELY BEGAN shaking his head, and Melinda knew he wasn’t going to go for it. Disappointment flooded through her and she wasn’t sure why, other than she wanted this to be over. Tonight. She wanted this terrible thing that had begun the first evening of the Fall Festival done and forgotten. Of course it wouldn’t be.

  Shane had already explained that Aaron could be called in front of the judge if there were questions about Thomas’ plea bargain. As far as the first murder, Mrs. Knepp’s murder, her son remained the prosecution’s primary material witness.

  “I still don’t believe there could be a treasure,” Levi was saying. “The story you tell, it sounds believable enough, but someone else could look at the quilt and tell a completely different story. It’s like a child’s yarn. To go traipsing around in the dark, after all these years, chasing after such things …”

  He continued to stare at the quilts from across the room. Sadie stood and went to him. “I think it might be better if we put this to rest tonight, Levi.”

  “Why? We have no need of a treasure. Gotte has provided well for us and our children.”