by Dana R. Lynn
He hit the ground with a thud, mud splattering his face and drenching his clothes. All of this was minor compared to the agony that shot up his arm as he landed on the gunshot wound. Ignoring the pain, he jumped to his feet.
“Dat! Dat!”
Ben turned and his eyes met the horror-stricken gaze of Sadie. She was struggling to escape from the wrecked vehicle. To his relief, both she and his son appeared to be uninjured, although Nathaniel was crying.
He couldn’t let Sadie get out of the buggy. They were stopped, and a killer was right behind them.
“Nee, stay there,” he called out, his eyes searching the area desperately to see where the biker was. To his surprise, the man who had just tried to kill them was not coming any closer.
The delivery van was beside them. As soon as it passed, they would be in trouble. He opened his mouth to tell Sadie they were going to try and run down the embankment and escape.
The van didn’t pass them. Instead, it pulled to a stop beside them and the driver stepped down and ran over to them.
Mason Green made a U-turn in the middle of the road and roared off in the opposite direction. They were safe for the moment.
How had he known that they were in the buggy?
A chill settled in his heart as he realized that Mason must have located his house and seen them leave. There was no other explanation. He had tracked them like a dog tracking a coon. As soon as he had determined they were away from anyone who could rescue them, he’d attacked.
“Sir, are you hurt? Can I help you folks?”
“Yes!” Sadie cried out from the confines of the buggy. “Stay here, Nathaniel.”
Ben turned to watch her scramble out, her blue denim jeans incongruous with the Amish vehicle. His mind was going foggy with the pain from the combination of his wound and the jar of the fall. Otherwise, he might have been tempted to laugh at the sight. She was so small and slender—she couldn’t have been more than five foot three or four—it seemed impossible that she would be able to bear up under the weight of everything she’d been through the past few days. But she had. Her expression was fierce and determined, her lips pressed together in a straight line. She was not beaten down. His heart was glad.
She strode to where the driver was standing over Ben. “My friend was injured, obviously. He may need an ambulance.”
“I will not go to the hospital.” Ben was adamant. The hospital could do nothing for him. He glanced down at his arm. It was bleeding, but not badly. His jacket had protected it, for the most part. All he required was a bandage.
Sadie gasped. She was staring at his sleeve in horror. Before she could say anything, he swayed on his feet. The delivery van driver grabbed his good arm, lending his assistance.
“Denke.”
“Sure. Listen, I don’t want to tell y’all what to do, but it sure does appear you should listen to the lady here. I can call 911 or I can drive you myself.”
Ben shook his head. “Nee. I don’t need an ambulance.”
“Ben—”
“How’s Nathaniel?” He cut her off, distracting her. “Are you gut, son?”
“Jah, Dat. I’m fine. That man was scary!”
That he was.
The driver was obviously conflicted. “Look, I can’t just leave you sitting here in the middle of the road. Your go-cart or whatever you call it—” he gestured at the busted buggy “—is out of commission. And you all won’t fit on the back of the mare.”
“It’s a buggy,” Sadie replied.
“We don’t ride horses,” Ben said at the same time. Both facts were ridiculous and irrelevant at the moment. “Sadie, if you have your phone, you can call Sergeant Howard.”
She shook her head. “I have it, but it’s not charged at the moment.” That made sense. There was no electricity at his house. “Even if it was charged, we need to get you and Nathaniel out of the cold as soon as humanly possible.”
She was right. He wasn’t as concerned about himself as he was about his son. And about her. She was a target out here. If the driver left, Mason Green might attack again. They had no way of knowing how far away he had gone.
“Could you give us a ride, maybe?” he asked the driver.
Relieved, the man nodded his head. “Absolutely. Where to? Want me to drive you home?”
Ben exchanged a glance with Sadie. They couldn’t return to his house. Not now that they had proof that Mason Green had found Sadie and would kill her if he could.
“Nee. Not my haus. I’d appreciate it if you could drive us to the police station.”
* * *
They received their share of odd looks as they traipsed into the station, that was for sure. To be fair, they probably didn’t see very many bleeding Amish carpenters at the Waylan Grove police station. Nor did they normally see such men accompanied by young women in worn-out jeans and sneakers.
Sergeant Ryder Howard wasn’t there when they arrived, but the chief of police, a lovely African-American woman with sharp eyes and short spikey hair in a stylish cut called him when Sadie introduced herself.
“He’ll be here in fifteen minutes,” the woman assured them. “I’m Chief Sheila Carson. We didn’t get the opportunity to meet the other day when you were here. I have to let you know, your willingness to identify Mason Green might help us actually get him on charges that might lock him up for good.”
“I hope so,” Sadie said, her voice grim. She shuddered as she recalled the moment when Ben had toppled from the buggy. She’d thought for a moment that he’d been dead. “He came after us today and he shot my friend.”
With an exclamation, Chief Carson turned to Ben, scouring him with a keen glance.
“Where were you hit?” she bit out.
“In the arm. I’m fine,” he insisted.
“He refuses to go to the hospital,” Sadie told the chief, frustrated at the stubbornness of the man. Didn’t he realize that the injury could become infected? “If you have a first aid kit, I could look at my friend’s arm while we wait for Sergeant Howard.”
Within five minutes, Sadie and the Mast men were in the conference room, a first aid kit on the table. One of the officers had loaned her a charger, and her cell phone was plugged in. The chief had sent another one of the officers to the cafeteria to bring them something to eat while they waited. She wasn’t that hungry, most likely due to nerves. But neither Ben nor his son seemed to have any trouble eating. Both of them had lowered their heads to pray silently, then they had silently scarfed down grilled cheese sandwiches, dipping them in bowls of steaming tomato soup. Nathaniel had wrinkled his nose at the first bite, and she had held in her laugh with difficulty. Ben had smirked, even as he took another mouthful.
“He’s used to eating soup that was homemade,” he explained. Ah. No doubt the soup was from a can, Sadie thought to herself.
“Okay, let me see your arm.” She made her tone as no-nonsense as possible. He grumbled as he removed his coat, but she refused to give in. The least she could do was tend to his injury. He set his coat on a chair and rolled up his sleeve. Both items were torn where the bullet had hit.
The wound was just above the elbow. Had it been in a place where he’d have had to remove his shirt, she knew he never would have agreed to allow her to care for him. She could tell the situation made him uncomfortable, so she promised to hurry as she pulled on gloves and opened the kit.
When she saw where the bullet had grazed him, she sighed quietly. It was not nearly as bad as she had feared. Still, she was gentle as she cleaned the wound. It might have done better with a stitch or two, but she knew that wasn’t going to happen. She applied a sterile dressing and taped it down.
“Keep this clean,” she ordered him.
“Jah, I know what to do.”
Did he really just roll his eyes at her?
With a small huff to disguise her grin, she g
athered up the supplies, planning to remove her gloves and seal the bloody cloth inside them before discarding them. As her eyes moved to the blood on the white square of fabric, the room faded. Suddenly she heard voices as if from far away. A woman crying, loud harsh sobs, as if her world had shattered and she was left devastated. A man lay on the floor at Sadie’s feet. It was the same man she had seen before, when she’d had a flashback of Mason Green. Now, though, she could clearly see the man. He was definitely dead, a gunshot wound gaping in his chest. His eyes, light brown in color, were open and staring.
He was Amish. She saw the hat lying beside him on the ground. The beard of a married man. No mustache. And again the woman crying.
“Sadie? Sadie!”
With a start, she came back to the present. Ben was standing in front of her, a concerned frown on his face. His left hand was raised, almost as if he wanted to touch her, to offer comfort, but wasn’t sure if it was appropriate or if she’d accept comfort from him.
Nathaniel looked a little upset. She sent him a wobbly smile, desperate to hold the storm of emotions tamped down. For several seconds she battled. Then she made a mistake and looked back at Ben. He appeared to decide to risk her wrath and settled a warm hand on her shoulder.
“I’m here, Sadie. Did you remember something?”
It was more than she could take.
The tears she had dammed up burst forth in a torrent that shook her entire body. She couldn’t breathe, she was sobbing so hard. She tried to stem the emotions, to get herself back under control. She placed both hands over her face, as if she could hide from him. She completely lost the battle when strong arms came around her, holding her close. Ben placed one hand on the back of her head and gently guided her face to his shoulder. She wept, and he accepted her tears, her pain, without a word.
“Am I interrupting something?”
Mortified, Sadie broke free of Ben’s embrace. The shock of hearing Sergeant Howard’s startled voice had the effect of drying up her tears instantly. Turning away, she rubbed her sleeve across her face, trying to scrub off the wet tracks on her cheeks. Not that he didn’t already know she was upset.
A small hand crept into hers. Nathaniel. That sweet child. Without thinking, she stooped and kissed his forehead, letting him know she was fine.
“Nee, you’re not interrupting.” Ben responded to the officer’s question, sounding remarkably calm and unperturbed. How she envied that! “I believe Sadie has remembered something. Jah, Sadie?”
Sergeant Howard’s blue eyes flashed to her, alert. “Is that true? You’ve remembered something? Is it connected to what you remembered before?”
She didn’t want to discuss it. However, knowing it might be important, she nodded reluctantly. “I’m pretty sure it is, yeah.”
Biting her lip, she reached for the water she’d earlier ignored, more to give herself time to think than because she actually wanted it. The moment she took a swallow, though, she realized how dry her mouth and throat were. She gulped down half of the cold water.
When she set the glass down, Ben was still watching her, a slight smile tugging at his lips. She had chugged that pretty fast.
“Are you ready to tell us?”
“Sorry,” she said, grimacing at the question. “I didn’t realize how thirsty I was. I will tell you, but...” She cast a significant glance at Nathaniel.
“Ah, yes. One moment.” The sergeant stepped out the door for a moment.
“Sadie, are you well?”
“Yes, I’m fine, Ben. If it will help them catch this guy, I will gladly tell them.”
Sergeant Howard returned with a female in uniform and approached Nathaniel. “Hey, buddy, I want you to go with Officer Jill for a moment.”
The woman held out a hand and smiled. Nathaniel gave his father a wild gaze but settled when his dad smiled calmly and told him to go.
The moment the two left, all attention returned to Sadie. She cleared her throat.
“Okay, then. Anyway, I don’t know if your chief had mentioned it to you, but Mason Green chased us today and he shot Ben.” She gestured toward the Amish man. Sergeant Howard nodded. Yes, he knew. That made it a bit easier. “So I asked her if I could clean the wound. When I was finished, I was picking up the cloths with his blood on it, you know? But suddenly, I wasn’t here. I had a memory of a woman crying, and I saw a man lying on the ground, dead.”
As she tended to do when she grew anxious, she paced a couple of steps away before turning back to them. “I’m sure it was the same man I saw before, only this time I saw his face. I didn’t see Mason Green, but I saw the man he’d been standing over.”
Feeling as if she had run out of air, she sucked in a deep breath before she finished describing the rest of the flashback, which was what she was positive it was. “The dead man? I don’t know who he was, but he was an Amish man.” She saw Ben straighten out of the corner of her eye, but kept her glance on the police officer.
“Amish?” He flicked a quick glance at Ben. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah. He had the beard, no mustache and a hat like Ben’s. He also had brown eyes.” This was part that really sounded crazy. “I think he had my eyes.”
SEVEN
“What do you mean, he had your eyes?” The question erupted from Ben. When she winced, he realized he’d practically shouted at her. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to yell. I am surprised.”
Actually, he was shocked to his core. The implications of this memory, if it were true and if he were correct, could be devastating.
“I don’t know, Ben. I really don’t. I might be wrong. I probably am. But what if I’m not?”
Indeed.
He wished he could ask Kurt. Kurt had mentioned his sister many times. He adored his little sister. But never once had he hinted that the woman he considered his sibling might have Amish relatives somewhere. So where did that leave them?
“Hold on, Sadie. Are you saying you’re Amish?” Sergeant Howard tilted his head and considered her.
“I have no idea. All I know is that my mother and Kurt’s father got married sixteen years ago. My stepbrother is missing. And Mason Green, the man who I think I might have remembered standing over the body of an Amish man I may be related to has shot my friend, and would probably have killed me and Ben and Nathaniel if he’d not been scared away by the delivery van driver.”
Silence filled the conference room after her words.
“You have to go into hiding until this is over.”
The sergeant’s words dropped like pebbles into the tense silence. Ben watched her face pale. Just twenty minutes earlier, she’d been sobbing in his arms, her heart breaking. He couldn’t bear to see her hurting. An urge to protect her rushed upon him. If the police moved her, what if she was still in danger?
“Let me take her to my community, where I grew up.” The words fell from his lips before he’d thought them through. “That’s where we were headed when he attacked us.”
“I would think that he would find you.”
“How?” Ben challenged. “He has no idea where I grew up. It’s several hours from here, in a different district. And Plain folk are not likely to spill another’s secrets to an Englischer. Not that many know my family. I moved here three years ago, and Nathaniel and I have mostly kept to ourselves. I think Mason Green followed a taxi driver who drove Sadie to my house to the area. If we travel in another vehicle, the chances of him finding us again are slim.”
The man did not look convinced. A knock on the door halted the conversation. Jill, the officer who had taken Nathaniel, opened the door and let the little boy back into the room. Nathaniel went over to sit by a window, clearly worn out.
“Hey, Ryder. Sorry to disturb you. We have a call. All available personnel.”
“We do? I didn’t hear a call come through.” Sergeant Howard thumbed his radio. Nothing happened. “Huh
. My radio appears to be broken. Okay, look, Ben, Sadie. You guys wait here. We will figure this out, but first I need to go and see if I’m needed on this call. Don’t go anywhere.”
He followed Jill out the door. When the door shut, they listened to his hard shoes clomp away.
“I can’t stay here.”
Ben glanced to see that Sadie had moved to his side. His nose caught a faint whiff of her clean scent before he put a couple of inches between them. Unable to help himself, he put a hand on her arm.
“You want to leave?”
She searched his face, her gaze pleading. “I have to, Ben. I think that my memories are starting to come back to me. And I am desperate to keep trying to find Kurt. If they hide me away somewhere, my hands are tied. Plus, I’d be alone. Alone and helpless, with no way to find the truth. I don’t like that.”
He wouldn’t, either.
“Gut. We will wait until the police have left, then we will keep moving toward where my family is.”
Astonishment lit her face. “You still want to go with me? What if I bring danger to your family?”
“Sadie, I was honest when I said I think my old district is the safest place for you. We must trust in Gott. He will protect us.”
She breathed out a half laugh, half sigh. “I don’t even know if I am a person of faith. It feels strange, though, hearing people talking about trusting God. I mean, how can you when so much bad happens?”
“Jah, I felt that way when my wife died,” he murmured, keeping his voice pitched low so that Nathaniel wouldn’t hear him. “For a time, I thought Gott had abandoned us. Abandoned me when He took my beautiful bride and my baby girl.”
“How did you ever trust Him again?”
“I don’t know how I would have gotten through that dark time without Gott in my life. He helped me see that bad things are not His plan, but that He does have a plan. I trust Him to know what is best for me.”
She didn’t look convinced. Given what had happened to her in the recent past, he couldn’t say that he blamed her. How did you explain trusting Gott when your life was in chaos?
