Amish Protector

by Marta Perry

  Her hands strained against each other painfully. Then, suddenly, they relaxed under his. She let out a long breath.

  “Yah. I’ve told you too much not to go on. The thing is that the police were never involved. The mother left me with them, leaving a note asking them to take care of me. So that’s what they did.”

  He considered it, frowning. “They didn’t tell anyone?”

  “Just Jessie. They were on their way to visit her when it happened.”

  “But even if the mother asked them, surely the authorities had to be involved. You’re saying they didn’t even try to find her?”

  “They didn’t.” Her face firmed, and she looked at him as if defying him to argue. “They did what the mother said and took care of me. Loved me. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

  “I think the law might see it differently.” The bishop, of all people, had been hiding it all these years—not just from the church but even from Joanna herself. How could he reconcile that with his position?

  “We’ll never know, because it won’t come up.” She snapped the words, pulling her hands away. “I’m the only one concerned, and I’m not going to make any complaint to the law.”

  “Joanna, make sense. If someone broke into the building looking for that—” he gestured toward the necklace “—it must have something to do with that woman in the hospital.”

  She straightened herself, and he thought she was trying to gain control of herself. “You’re right. That doesn’t make any sense.” She pressed her hand against her forehead. “I’m that ferhoodled that I’m not thinking straight. It couldn’t have anything to do with what Daad told me tonight. After all, no one else knew about it, and even if they did, why would anyone care?” Her hand closed over the chain. “It must just be a coincidence that the break-in came now, ain’t so?”

  Noah’s head was starting to spin again. They’d been spilling out so many secrets that probably neither of them was thinking logically. “Most likely that’s all it is. Stores get broken into. Everyone knows that. You’re the one who thought there was something to tie the two things together.”

  “Yah, but that doesn’t make any sense. I was so upset...hearing about how I came into the family, knowing I wasn’t related to them, after all...” She struggled for a moment before going on, and his heart twisted in his chest. “The worst of it was seeing Mamm crying, almost hysterical because she was afraid of losing me.” She put her hand over her lips as if to hold back the words, and her eyes filled with tears.

  “Stop now.” He touched her hand again, very lightly, fighting for composure. “We’re both too tired to figure anything out tonight. We’re arguing both sides at once. Go and get your things, and I’ll walk you over to Etta’s. There’s nothing else you can do now.”

  Joanna nodded, obviously glad to drop it. “Denke, Noah. I won’t be more than a few minutes.”

  She disappeared into the bedroom. He resolutely shut his mind to everything but what to do next. The back doors were taken care of, and Joanna could lock the front when they went out. He gave one last look around as Joanna came back out of her bedroom, carrying a small bag.

  “Komm,” he said, taking the bag. “You’ve done all you can. Tomorrow you can tell Jamison the whole thing and let him figure it out.”

  Joanna stopped halfway down the stairs, turning to face him. “What are you saying? I’m not going to tell Jamison this story. Do you think I want to get Daad and Mamm in trouble?”

  His jaw tightened at this closing of her mind to facts. “Joanna, think about it. You have to tell him. There’s that woman in the hospital. This might be what he needs to identify her.”

  “Nonsense.” He could almost see her temper spike. “How could that help him? We already decided it couldn’t have anything to do with her. I won’t have my parents harassed by the police. What they did was done to protect me, don’t you see that?”

  She turned and marched down the stairs and across the shop, apparently thinking that settled everything. Well, it didn’t. He caught up with her at the outer door, grasping her arm to keep her from going out.

  “You can’t ignore it, Joanna. You could be putting yourself in danger. What if the intruder was after that necklace? What if you were here when he came in? Use a little common sense.”

  She yanked the door open. “Go out,” she snapped. “My common sense is telling me that I don’t want to hear another word. This is my business, not yours.”

  He wanted to pull her right back inside and keep her there until he could convince her. But he couldn’t. Jamison was sitting in the police car, watching them. And even if he weren’t, this wasn’t the time or the place. Too many painful secrets had been pulled into the open tonight.

  Nodding, he stepped outside and waited while she locked the door. When she’d finished, she snatched her bag away from him and hurried across the street. He saw Etta open the door, and Joanna vanished inside without a backward look.

  * * *

  BEFORE SHE COULD leave behind Etta’s abundant hospitality the next morning, Joanna had to fend off multiple attempts to discourage her from going back to the quilt shop alone. Much as she appreciated Etta’s helping hand the previous night, she really just wanted to get back to normal.

  The bright sunshine seemed to forecast another beautiful fall day, and above the town the ridges were blanketed in gold and orange. After very little sleep, the clear light assaulted her eyes to the extent that she longed to retire to her own bedroom for a nap, but that wasn’t going to happen. One way or another, she’d have to cope with the aftermath of too many storms hitting her at once.

  Pausing for a moment outside the shop, Joanna glanced at the autumn display in the front window. It was just as appealing as it had been when she arranged it, and beyond the window, the first few rows of quilting fabric were as they should be. From this vantage point, no one would guess that the shop had been broken into.

  She should feel relieved, but she couldn’t quite manage that. Still, it could be a lot worse. An image of broken windows and paint-splattered quilts crossed her mind, and she chased it away while she inserted her key in the lock. A careful glance at the hardware store told her Noah wasn’t in yet.

  That was just as well. She hadn’t yet decided how she felt about him after the baring of so many emotions. After picking up the newspaper that lay on the stoop, she tucked it under her arm and went inside.

  “Aunt Jessie?”

  Calling out wasn’t really necessary. If Jessie had arrived, she’d make her presence felt. At the first sight of her aunt, she’d have to intercept her, so that she didn’t try the blocked door.

  The sunlight picked out the few things that were out of place in the shop...an emptied drawer on the floor, a stack of receipts strewn across a display of place mats, the place where the cash box normally sat. She dropped the newspaper on the counter, hung up her sweater and bonnet and set about putting things to rights. If they were going to open today, the faster the shop was returned to normal, the better.

  The sound of a buggy drawing up in front proved to be her brother dropping off Aunt Jessie. She reached the door in time to wave to Zeb, her youngest brother, as he grinned and drove off down the street...hoping to see a couple of his friends on this unexpected trip to town, she supposed.

  But there was something even more important than the break-in to be addressed first. “How is Mamm?” she asked, holding the door as her aunt came in.

  “Better this morning.” Aunt Jessie gave her a cursory glance and then a second, more intent look. “What...”

  “Someone broke into the shop while we were out in the evening.” She said it quickly, wishing she could get it all out on one breath. “But thank the Lord there wasn’t much damage—just to the back doors and the cash box.”

  Jessie walked quickly to the back counter, her gaze swiftly darting from side to side. She reached the
checkout counter and ran her hand across it, touching the smeared surface where the police had checked for fingerprints. “They took the cash box?”

  “No, the police did that—something about keeping it for evidence. The lock was broken in any event, so we couldn’t have used it.” Shaken by the gray look on her aunt’s face, she grasped her hand. “It’s not so bad, really. They only got the money that was in the box.”

  “Yah. Could have been worse.” Jessie pulled her hand away, always determined not to show emotion. “What about upstairs?”

  “Not much.” She almost blurted out her conviction that her bedroom had been thoroughly searched, but she managed to hold back. “The box under your bed wasn’t touched. They took the cash in the kitchen jar, but that was all I could find missing.”

  As for telling Jessie anything else...that required some thought. In the clear light of day, she felt sure that the break-in didn’t have anything to do with her parentage or with the woman in the hospital bed.

  Jessie slapped her hand down on the counter, making Joanna wince. “Ach, the nerve of them!” She stared at Joanna. “And you—you came back and found this all alone. Why didn’t you call us?”

  “I would have, if I could have been sure Mamm wouldn’t hear and be disturbed. I didn’t want her any more upset.”

  “No, I guess not,” Jessie said grudgingly. Since the thieves weren’t here to vent her wrath on, she’d have to find someone else. “What are the police doing about it? Tell me that.”

  She had to admit she didn’t know. What would they do to find the thief?

  “The hardware store was robbed, too. The police brought Noah to see what was missing, and it was just his cash box, as well. He blocked the broken doors for me, so I didn’t have to worry about anyone else getting in.”

  “You didn’t sleep here last night!”

  “No, no, Etta asked me to stay there. And don’t say I should have come home,” she added, trying to fend off an argument. “I’d have woken the whole house coming in at that hour. Anyway, by then I was ready to drop where I stood.”

  Jessie nodded reluctantly. “Kind of Etta. She’s probably telling her morning coffee regulars all about it.”

  “We couldn’t hope to keep it quiet anyway. News travels fast in River Haven.” Joanna reverted to the worry that lurked in the back of her mind. “You’re sure Mamm doesn’t need a doctor?”

  Her aunt’s face softened. “She will be all right as long as she knows you still love her.”

  “Of course I do.” She blinked back tears. “I just don’t understand why they didn’t tell me the truth instead of saying my mother was a distant cousin.”

  “Yah, it’s easy to see that now, but then... You were a baby. You wouldn’t understand any of it. It was all your daad could do to insist you know you were adopted.”

  “I grew up,” she pointed out. “If I’d known even for the past few years, it wouldn’t have been such a shock.”

  Aunt Jessie seemed to wrestle with the words. “You can’t understand what it was like. Your mamm was grieving so much after losing a baby that we feared she’d never recover. That’s why she was so convinced that God sent you to her. Whenever your daad suggested you were old enough to know the truth, she got so upset again... You saw her last night. We couldn’t do it. And we were afraid you might be taken away if it got around. They might say your parents had no right to you.”

  Joanna wrestled with that question, her concern deepening. “What if it turns out the woman in the hospital is my birth mother’s kin, what then? The police...”

  “You can’t tell the police.” Aunt Jessie was as shaken at the idea as she had been when Noah suggested it. “I know it would be wrong to lie, but you don’t have to volunteer any information, do you?”

  Joanna had a feeling that there was something wrong with that reasoning, but it gave her a way out of a potentially difficult situation. “I guess not.”

  Her aunt gave a quick nod. “Gut. Now, let’s try to forget it for the moment. We’d best get ready to open.” She stopped. “Or can we open today?”

  “I meant to call the chief’s office and make sure it’s okay. I guess I’d better do that.” She pulled the phone toward her, flipping open the newspaper as she did. Her hand froze when she saw the photo at the top of the front page. It was a picture of the woman in the hospital bed.

  Jessie, sensing something amiss, moved to look over her shoulder. Joanna heard her release her breath in a soft hiss.

  “So that is the woman.”

  “Yah.” She scanned the article quickly. It didn’t name the quilt shop, though everyone local would know it was hers. “I didn’t know the police were going to release a photo to the newspapers. The chief said he didn’t want to, but I guess he didn’t have a choice.”

  “Seems like the best way to find out who she is.” Jessie’s cross response to anything she didn’t understand or approve of was normal for her. “Better than fooling around with any blood tests.”

  “We’d best bring the other cash box down, I suppose. And I should make that call.” She picked up the phone, hoping to encourage Aunt Jessie to head upstairs, and was pleased when she did.

  In a few minutes she was connected with Chief Jamison.

  “Joanna, I should have called you earlier. Is everything all right? No more problems?”

  Suppressing her doubts, she tried to reassure him. “Aunt Jessie is here now, if you want to come by and talk to her. And is it all right if we open today?”

  “I don’t see any reason why not.” He chuckled. “You might get some extra customers for curiosity’s sake.”

  “We’ll take their money anyway,” she said, trying to sound untroubled. “I see that you put a photo in the paper today.”

  “Yeah, and it’s being just as much of a nuisance as I thought it would be. Dozens of calls, none of them much use, but we have to check them out anyway.”

  “If it leads you to her family, it will be worth it.” She wondered again why no one seemed to be looking for the woman. She must have family or friends who were worried about her.

  “I hope.” He didn’t sound confident. “One good thing is that the papers in the bigger towns are picking it up. You’ll notice that I didn’t mention any connection to the Amish.”

  “All the Leit will appreciate it. We don’t want any publicity.”

  “You won’t get any from us. I have to go now but tell your aunt I’ll stop by to see her later today.”

  “I will. Denke.”

  She hung up, realizing that Aunt Jessie was coming down the stairs.

  “Well? Did you ask him what he’s doing about the break-in?”

  “He’s going to stop by later to talk to you, so I thought you’d like to get the information straight from him. And we can open, so we’d best get moving, ain’t so?”

  That was the best thing to happen anyway. Aunt Jessie was probably more capable of coping with Jamison than she was, and her thoughts were so entangled right now she didn’t know what she might say.

  * * *

  AS JAMISON HAD PREDICTED, the shop was busier than it had been in weeks. To give people credit, most of them bought something, although enough of them were just plain nosy to sour Joanna’s mood. She had to admit that it hadn’t been that cheerful to start with.

  By afternoon, needing a break, she slipped out the back, crossing to the small paddock next to the stable. Princess came over to nuzzle her hand, and Noah’s buggy horse stuck his head over the fence, too, just in case any treats were being given out. Reminded by their nudging, she went into the stable, reaching automatically for the metal can that held carrots. She had pulled out two carrots when the memory struck her.

  That night—the night she’d found the woman on the stairs—she’d found the can on the floor with the lid off, carrots tumbled out of it. She’d intended to tease her brothe
r, but in all the excitement she hadn’t thought of it from then until now.

  She went back out to the paddock slowly, distracted from what she was doing by the thoughts that tumbled through her mind. Did the placement of the pail mean anything? If someone unexpected had been in the stable that night...

  Princess snorted, craning her long neck around the corner post in an attempt to reach what Joanna held forgotten in her hand.

  She managed to chuckle. “There now, Princess. You have your mind on your stomach, as usual. All right, I have a treat for each of you.” She held out the carrots, one on each palm to avoid a disagreement, and the horses nibbled delicately in a taste test and then downed them in a few bites.

  “Greedy creatures.” Noah’s voice spoke behind her, and he reached around her to push their heads away as they tried to convince her they needed more. “You looked as if you were a thousand miles away just now.”

  Joanna tried to ignore the awareness that slid through her at his voice. “Maybe I was.” She turned toward him, frowning. “The night that the accident happened, before I found the woman, I went in the stable to check on the mare. The can that we keep carrots in was on the floor, open. My brother had stopped by to feed and water. He’d never leave it that way.”

  Noah seemed to grasp the implication quicker than she had. “You think someone else was in there. The woman?”

  “Maybe, but why?” Her head was starting to spin again. “If she was looking for me, what would she be doing in the stable?”

  “That’s another question you can ask her when she wakes up, ain’t so?”

  Joanna nodded. Noah clearly didn’t suspect the thought that had crept into her mind even while they were talking. What if someone else had been in here—someone watching the woman or following her?

  That was a foolish thought, wasn’t it? Too foolish to mention even to Noah. There’d never been a hint of anyone else with the woman or of anything suspicious about her fall. She was imagining things, and she knew why. She was trying to connect that with someone breaking into her home and searching through her things the previous night.