Murder Tightly Knit

by Vannetta Chapman

Amber almost laughed. Roland Shaw was one person she wouldn’t miss. The man made her feel like a cat being scratched the wrong direction. Though she had to admit he certainly had a passion for his job.

  They’d made their way down the lane and across the Village property to the Pumpkinvine Trail. Usually they walked to the west, but today she tugged Tate’s hand and pulled him east. They would pass the spot where Owen was killed, but it was time. She was too old to live her life in fear, and she didn’t want to be hesitant to approach portions of their town anymore.

  It was time to put the past behind them.

  “What of Uri?” Tate took a swig from his bottle of water. “Do we know any more about why he was living two lives?”

  “No one knows why or even when it began, though evidently his marriage to Olivia was not happy, and I suppose they can trace back the rental records and figure out the dates. The bishop here did meet with Gordon. Gordon didn’t give me all the details, but apparently Uri had a brother named Ben. He died when Uri was newly married. That might be what pushed him over the edge.”

  “Died of what?”

  “Fell out of a fishing boat and drowned. He didn’t know how to swim. That was when Uri first began preparing, taking swimming lessons, learning to shoot with a bow rather than a rifle, and so on. Soon he was stocking up on food and prepping for major disasters.”

  “But he had two lives.”

  “Yes, and Gordon doesn’t know why. It’s all very confusing. Gordon hasn’t been able to locate Olivia yet to see if she has any clue as to Uri’s whereabouts or his alternate life. The bishop is putting out inquiries in other communities, but he isn’t optimistic.”

  “And the other girl?”

  “You mean his wife in South Bend? Turns out they were married, a short civil ceremony in which he used the name Ben Wagler. She’s moved home to a small town in Michigan, but she still refuses to believe that Uri deceived her in any way.”

  They were a good way down the trail now, the sun’s light slanting through the trees. Their habit was to walk thirty minutes in one direction, then turn and return home.

  Amber had looked down to study her watch when she heard Tate pull in a sharp breath. Before she had time to wonder about that, before she had time to be afraid, Uri was standing in front of them. Grasped in both of his hands and pointed directly at them was his crossbow.

  Jesse walked next to Andrew, who walked next to Mary.

  Mary’s time away, the days she had spent with an aunt in Goshen, weren’t talked about. They were all glad she had returned. They were glad she was safe.

  The three were making their way toward the Village.

  Jesse had not had a shift at the Village that day. He’d spent it with his dat and his bruder, working in the fields, preparing their farm for winter. Though the weather was pleasant for late October, it would turn cold soon. The nighttime temperature had already dipped below freezing on several occasions. Together the three of them had weatherproofed the barn. He was actually looking forward to the months of snow, less work, and more time with Hannah.

  Hannah was the reason he was walking to the Village.

  She’d worked late because they were doing a remodel of the coffee shop. The actual remodel was done, but she had wanted to put everything back in place for the grand reopening the following week.

  “Andrew’s offered to buy the ice cream of our choice, right?” Mary had been home for nearly two weeks since Uri Wagler had disappeared. She and Andrew had been as close as two newborn kittens. Apparently they’d grown quite fond of each other during the time Andrew lived away. Mary had been his lifeline to the community, and now it seemed they were considering moving forward in their relationship. Jesse wouldn’t be surprised if there were two weddings in the Miller household in the spring.

  Weddings?

  He hadn’t even asked Hannah yet, but today he would.

  Glancing around at the path covered with fall leaves and the bare limbs overhead, he knew that today was the day. He couldn’t have explained why he’d waited so long. Maybe he needed to have issues resolved at home. Andrew had joined the church the week before, and it finally seemed that their lives were moving in the right direction. His brother’s baptism, representing his commitment to the church, the Ordnung, and their faith, confirmed that he was staying. He was dedicating himself to a plain life, though he’d talked to the bishop about continuing his writing.

  It seemed his brother had a knack with words.

  However, he was serious about learning to do his job the plain way. The cell phone he’d kept hidden in the barn was gone. He would use the phone shacks as needed, like everyone else. And he’d continue writing in his notebooks. If he was going to turn his articles in handwritten, he’d need someone to type his pieces for him. Or hire a tutor to help him with his penmanship. There was still a chance the bishop would approve the use of a computer, especially if the internet was not connected.

  The weight of responsibility on Jesse’s shoulders had fallen away as the leaves strewn along their path had fallen from the trees.

  His family no longer depended solely on him, though in truth he now understood they never had. They’d depended on God and their community and each other, which was the Amish way. Jesse no longer felt the need to have everything taken care of before he dared to marry.

  “Ya, I’ll pay for your ice cream. I received my payment from the newspaper.”

  “You’ll splurge for a double dip?”

  “I think I can handle that.” Andrew nudged her with his shoulder as they walked along.

  “Wind is changing,” Jesse noted. “Coming from the north now. Maybe you should buy her a slice of warm pie and a cup of hot kaffi instead of ice cream.”

  “Good idea, bruder. If you can pull your girl away from her work, you two can join us.”

  And that was when he looked up and saw her—saw his Hannah, running toward them, pale and frightened, waving her hands as if she was terrified they wouldn’t notice her. By the time she reached them, she was speaking so fast that he had to put his hands on her arms and say, “Slower. Deep breaths first, then tell us. Are you all right? What has happened? And why are you so frightened?”

  Forty-Nine

  Hannah nodded her head up and down, trying to draw in deep breaths as Jesse instructed. She wasn’t used to running, and it felt as if something sharp were stuck in her side beneath her ribs. More than anything, she was seized by the fear of what might be happening to Amber and Tate. What she had seen, what might be happening as they spoke, was stealing her breath away.

  She bent over, hands on her knees, and gasped, “He had them. He forced them into the woods and—”

  “Who has them?” Andrew had moved closer.

  “Uri.”

  “He’s back?” Mary looked as if she might faint, or turn and run in the other direction.

  “Ya. He’s back, and he has Tate and Amber.”

  “Hannah, take two deep breaths and then tell us exactly what you saw.” Andrew’s words were calm and direct. Jesse’s hand was still rubbing circles on her back.

  Hannah pulled in first one breath and then the other. Her heart rate began to return to normal, but her hands were sweating and she couldn’t stop the trembling up and down her arms. She straightened and looked directly at Jesse.

  “I finished early. Wanted to meet you on the trail. I was a good distance back behind them.”

  “Tate and Amber?” Jesse asked.

  “Ya. Neither knew I was there, but I could tell it was them. They were close to one another, walking quickly down the trail as they do when they’re exercising. I thought to call out to them, but suddenly Uri jumped out of the brush. He was armed and—”

  “With a bow?” Andrew moved to the left, looking down the trail past them, down back the way Hannah had come.

  “Ya. Looked like a crossbow. I was too far away to hear what he said. Tate and Amber stopped suddenly. Uri waved the bow around and then they all left.”

 
; “Did Uri see you?” Jesse’s voice resembled a growl.

  “I don’t . . . I don’t think so. I ducked behind a tree as soon as I saw the bow. He pointed it at them and shouted something, and then they all walked off into the woods. Uri stepped off the trail last, still pointing the bow at them.”

  “I expect he took them back to his place, maybe even to one of the barns or outbuildings.” Andrew peered down the trail, first in the direction they had come from and then in the direction Hannah had come running from. “I’m going over there.”

  “It’s not safe.” Mary shifted from foot to foot and clutched her arms around her stomach. “He’s crazy. It’s why he left. It’s why he had two different families. Why would he come back?”

  “I don’t know, but I plan to find out.” Andrew pulled Hannah toward Mary. “You two go to Hannah’s house. It’s not far. Mary, stay there until we come and get you.”

  “I’ll run to the Village.” Jesse’s voice was grim, determined.

  “Nein. Go toward town. If you pass anyone with a phone, flag them down and call 9-1-1. Tell the police what’s happened. Tell them to come to Uri’s farm. If they’re there and he tries to leave with Tate and Amber, I’ll think of a way to stall them.”

  “We can’t let you two go alone. It’s dangerous.” Hannah looked from Andrew to Jesse. She realized, as if it were a fresh idea, how much she loved Jesse, and how important Andrew had become to her. Mary was like the older sister she’d never had. Since she’d returned home, they’d become fast friends.

  Now this terrible tragedy was beginning again, and people she loved were in danger.

  The one thought that echoed in her mind was that they were a family, the four of them. “Shouldn’t we stay together?”

  “Go to your house, Hannah. Do as Andrew said.” Jesse squeezed her hands. “Go and wait and pray. I’ll come to you as soon as I can.”

  She wanted to argue with him, but he’d already let go of her hands and was sprinting down the trail. Andrew leaned in and kissed Mary on the cheek, and then he was gone, running through the field, running toward Uri’s.

  Hannah and Mary clasped each other’s hands and watched the brothers until they were out of sight; then they turned and made their way to Hannah’s home.

  Amber stumbled through the woods. Tate walked beside her, his hand holding tightly to hers. Uri followed, close enough that he could lurch forward and strike them with his weapon, far enough that Tate couldn’t wrestle him for the crossbow.

  Tate’s gaze brushed over Amber like a fresh breeze on a summer morning. In that quick look she saw so many promises and so much love that she found herself gasping for a deep breath.

  He loved her and would protect her.

  They would be all right.

  God was still in control.

  Hold tight to the faith and do not fear.

  She had the surreal experience of hearing his thoughts. There was no doubt in her mind that his meaning was coming through loud and clear. Tate didn’t look one bit afraid, though the wheels in his brain were turning.

  He would find a way out of this.

  And why was Uri after them, anyway? What had they ever done to him? She turned to look back and he snarled, “Keep moving.”

  They crossed first one field and then another. When they came up through the back of someone’s property, and she saw that it was Uri’s home, she wasn’t exactly surprised.

  Where else would he go?

  His friends, his community, would turn him in.

  His wife was gone.

  Both of them, though the one in South Bend apparently would have helped him if she’d known how. Amber could almost see her—younger, full of hope, unwilling to believe the facts the police had laid out for her, clutching her dreams desperately to her breast.

  Amber bumped into Tate when they reached the front of Uri’s house. The place looked as if Uri and Olivia had merely stepped away from it. The garden had been harvested and the rows sat waiting for winter. The front door was shut, but the window shades were raised with the late-afternoon light shining through into the rooms. There were no longer any canned goods on the porch.

  This wasn’t a house that had been closed up and left. It reminded Amber of a family that had gone to town on an errand. The house looked as if it expected them to return at any moment. But Uri and Olivia wouldn’t be returning. Amber knew that as surely as she knew he meant to kill them. They were here, with him, and alone. There weren’t even animals in the pasture or the barn. She knew because they were headed toward it.

  “Not the house. Keep walking.”

  The door to the barn had been latched, but it was plain that someone had taken the livestock. She whispered a prayer of gratitude that the horses hadn’t suffered.

  Uri motioned toward the older barn. “That one.”

  Tate turned and faced him when they reached the front of the structure. “We’re not going in there, Uri. You have something to say to us, you say it out here.”

  “You’ll go where I tell you to.”

  Tate didn’t respond, but he didn’t move either, except to shift closer to Amber.

  “You think you can withstand an arrow to the heart? You want to take that chance?”

  “I think you should let us help you.”

  “And how would you do that? By turning me in to the police? From what I read in the papers, your wife already identified me. She couldn’t stay out of something that was none of her business.”

  Amber wanted to stomp her foot. Why was Uri talking about her as if she weren’t there? And why was he threatening them with a crossbow? Was it the same crossbow that had killed Owen?

  “If I made a mistake, Uri, then tell Sergeant Avery. If you’re innocent, stand up for yourself. Straighten him out if you didn’t . . .” She stumbled to a halt as his face turned crimson, not wanting to anger him any more than she already had.

  “Didn’t what? Kill Owen?” He stepped out of the shadows, directly into the final rays of sunlight. It was the first good look she’d had of him since he’d been walking behind them the entire way. Amber nearly gasped at the changes in this man she barely knew. He’d lost weight, even in so short a time, but more obvious than that was the haunted look he wore. Dark circles created a rim beneath his brown eyes, and his hair was practically matted to his head. Where had he hidden for two weeks? And what had caused him to return to Middlebury now?

  “Did I kill him? Is that what you want to know? If he’d stayed out of my business, I wouldn’t have needed to. If he’d stayed away from home, stayed in the city where he belonged, he’d be alive right now.”

  “Everyone has a right to go home.” The words slipped through Amber’s mind. She was surprised to hear them, surprised she’d found the courage to utter them.

  “And I suppose you think home is a picture-perfect place that dropped out of your Englisch books? A wunderbaar place full of love and harmony.” The afternoon had cooled, but Uri reached up and wiped the sweat off his face. “Not every home is. When your wife can’t bear children, when she turns her back on you and everyone else, that’s not a home you would want to go to.”

  Tate held out a hand. “We didn’t say—”

  “Shut up! I don’t care what you do or don’t say. I did right by Olivia. I continued to support her in spite of the coldness in her soul. And that other life, the one in South Bend, the one you ripped from me . . .” He was clutching the crossbow so tightly that Amber feared he’d shoot it inadvertently. His finger was precariously close to the trigger.

  “That life was the one thing I had to live for.”

  Looking away from his intense stare, Amber saw movement down the lane, but she didn’t dare continue looking in that direction.

  “So what are you going to do now?” Tate’s voice was calm and cool, but Amber heard the edge of anger behind his words. “You can’t stand there holding that bow all day.”

  Tate would make his move soon. Amber could feel him pulling himself taut, judging
the distance to Uri.

  “Get in the barn. I won’t say it again.” Uri stepped forward, and at that moment whoever was in the lane dove into the bushes.

  Uri jerked around, and Tate pounced.

  Amber spied a metal bucket sitting on the ground near the barn door. She grabbed it, waited until she had a clear shot, and then rammed it into Uri’s skull.

  She didn’t hear a crack, but she imagined that she felt one. Uri’s fingers released the bow, his eyes drawn down almost in surprise, and then he passed out cold.

  Fifty

  Jesse watched Hannah as she crossed the bridge that spanned the creek on the east side of the Village property. The old wooden structure was once again in tip-top shape. They’d managed to complete the painting and the roof repairs. The red covered bridge seemed to represent the Village—providing a way to cross from the present to the past.

  There were some things about the past that Jesse was more than eager to put behind him, especially the events of the last few weeks. More than that, there were things about the future that he was ready to embrace.

  Hannah looked as pretty as the sunset splaying across the Indiana sky. Yellows, purples, and pinks combined to cast a rainbow over this very special moment.

  When she saw him, Hannah raised a hand and smiled. His heart tripped as he realized again what he was about to do. Though he’d thought about it for weeks—no, for months—now that the moment had arrived he found his palms sweating profusely. His last thought, as Hannah stepped onto his side of the creek, was that it was probably normal to be nervous.

  Hannah was wearing her dark-green dress and white apron. She’d spent the day at her shop and then at the library researching drinks to offer during the winter months. He could tell by the smile on her face that she’d had a good day, and he thanked the Lord for that. Hannah had been through a lot since Owen’s murder, and even before that with Ethan’s death. The stress had taken a toll on all of them. It eased his worry to see the casual, relaxed way she walked toward him.

  “This is my favorite spot along the creek.” She dropped her flowery print lunch bag to the ground and sat beside him.