A Plain Disappearance (33 page)

He had no idea how close I had been to bolting out of that pew.

“I went back to the church the day after Christmas and spoke to the pastor. I asked him what I had to do to be like you. He told me, and we prayed together.”

“And then?” I asked, choking back the emotion bubbling in my throat.

“I waited and nothing happened. I thought it might feel like being struck by lightning or being filled with the force. I thought something big would happen, but nothing did.”

I smiled. “I don’t think believing is like being struck by lightning. And having the force would certainly be nice sometimes, but that’s only a George Lucas fairy tale. Faith is a choice, and making that choice is more powerful than lightning. In your case, it is your choice to change your life.” I touched my throat again. “Considering how upset Brock was about it, I’d say that you changed a lot.”

“I’m not like you, though. You would never turn your back on someone. You always reach out to help.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “I want to be the same way.”

The truth was—I wasn’t as perfect as Curt made me out to be. I didn’t always reach out to help. I
did
turn my back on others. My father’s face dominated my mind. When he rejected me, I rejected him right back. I never gave my best effort to fix our relationship. My father wasn’t the only one. Even Billy had reached out to me to make peace, but I hadn’t been able to trust him again completely.

Curt’s face flushed red. “Will you pray with me again? I know that I already prayed with the pastor, but I want to make sure it sticks.”

“You don’t have to keep praying the sinner’s prayer over and over again. When you do it once, it sticks, but I’m happy to pray with you if it will bring you comfort.”

He gave me a crooked grin. “I just think that considering my checkered past, better safe than sorry, you know?”

I smiled. “Okay.” I sat on the bench next to him and bowed my head, gripping the snow scraper the entire time.

I
was an emotional mess when I arrived at the Troyer farm a half hour later. Thoughts of Curt, my father, Sabrina, Becky, and the Troyers mixed with my fears of Brock and Caleb. I called Timothy on the way to his parents’ farm. “Are you home yet?”

He laughed. “Miss me?”

The sound of his laughter put me immediately at ease. There was so much to tell him. How would I begin? “You have no idea.”

“I like the sound of that. I’m turning into your driveway now.”

“I’m not at home. I’m on my way to your parents’ farm to meet Ruth.” I went on to tell him that Ruth and I were meeting Anna at the Gundy barn. Ruth wouldn’t be happy about this because she made me promise not to tell anyone about her and Anna’s secret meeting place, but after the day I had, I felt a whole lot better with someone knowing where we were.

“You think Anna knows who did it?”

“Maybe, but Chief Rose already made an arrest.” I related my adventure with Grandfather Zook at the warehouse. I left out the part about Brock. I wanted to tell him about my encounters with Brock, and later with Curt, face-to-face.

“You promised not to go to the warehouse without me.” Timothy’s voice took on an edge to it.

Another promise I’d broken that day. Not a great track record. “I know, but Grandfather Zook had a great excuse to go there. I thought it would be a lot more believable than if you and I showed up and randomly started asking questions. Can you meet Ruth and me on the side of the road closest to the barn?”

“You want me to go with you to talk to Anna?”

I turned into the Troyers’ driveway. “Yes.”

“Ruth won’t like that.”

He knew his sister well. “I know, but I need you to be there. I’m at your parents’ house.” I couldn’t tell him about his parents’ reaction to Becky’s hair. I decided to wait until after we spoke with Anna.

“I’ll see you outside the Gundy barn,” he said and disconnected.

Ruth waited for me outside of the Troyers’ barn. “Where have you been?” She jumped into my car. “We are going to be late. The walk from the road is only a quarter mile, but it’s still going to take some time in this deep snow.”

I shifted the car into reverse. “Where did you tell your mother we were going?”

She lifted her chin. “I told her the truth. I said that you promised to drive me to see Anna because it was too cold to walk there.”

“Ah,” I said. Apparently, Ruth had already mastered the tried and true teenager trick of telling a half-truth. I backed onto the Troyers’ country road. “And she didn’t mind, considering what’s going on with Becky?”

“She said it was nice, but not to be surprised if Anna’s parents turned us away.” Ruth wrinkled her nose. “She didn’t say I couldn’t go.”

That wasn’t exactly the same thing as not minding.

We drove in silence the rest of the way and stopped at the farthest spot where we could leave my car. I had beat Timothy to the meeting spot.

Ruth unbuckled her seat belt. “Turn off the car and let’s go.”

I pulled on my gloves and removed my cell phone from my purse, sticking it in my pocket. “We can wait for a minute.”

“Wait for what? I’m sure Anna’s already there. She is going to think I’m not coming. I can’t do that to her.”

I sighed. “We are going to wait until Timothy shows up, and we will all go see Anna together.”

“Timothy?” she yelped. “You told
Timothy
about mine and Anna’s meeting place?”

“Not exactly. I told him that we were meeting Anna at the Gundy barn. I didn’t tell him that you and Anna have met there before.”

“What’s the difference? He will know and then so will everyone.”

“Timothy won’t tell,” I said.

“Like you didn’t?” She glared at me and threw open her door.

I yanked the keys from the ignition and jumped out of the car. “Where are you going?”

Tears rolled down her pale cheeks. “Where does it look like I’m going?”

“You can’t go alone. It’s not safe.”

“What do you know about it? I’ve come here every time by myself. This is the first time that I’ve brought anyone, and you betrayed me.”

I locked my car with the key fob and jogged after her. “Ruth, I’m just being cautious.”

She kept going, refusing to even look at me.

We were still close enough to the road for my cell phone to have good reception. Timothy picked up on the first ring. “How far away are you?”

“Ten minutes. Why?”

“Your sister already took off for the barn, and I’m following her.”

Timothy groaned. “I’ll be there as soon as I can. You’d better stick with her.”

“I plan to,” I said and hung up. I tucked my cell back into my pocket.

Ruth gave me a dirty look. “Were you calling your boyfriend?”

“As a matter of fact, I was,” I replied. I wondered what her parents would think if they had heard me. If Becky’s haircut could derail their opinion of me so quickly, maybe they weren’t as at ease with Timothy courting me as I had thought.

We walked the rest of the way in silence. Before long, the familiar stand of evergreen trees came into view and just behind them, the Gundy barn.

A small figure stepped out from behind the Gundy’s barn. Ruth lifted her heavy winter skirts and broke into a run when she saw her friend. I followed at a much slower pace, the events of the day weighing heavily on me. The sun was low in the sky behind the Gundy barn, throwing shadows toward us. I wrinkled my forehead. Another shadow seemed to peek out from behind the barn, but it didn’t belong to Anna.

“Ruth! Wait!” I cried and ran after her.

The shadow moved. Levi Garner emerged from around the corner of the barn, his arms gripping Anna. He held a woodworker’s chisel under the young girl’s chin.

Ruth froze as if she had smacked into an invisible wall. I sprinted to Ruth’s side and grabbed her arm. The cold air pumping into my mouth made my sore throat hurt that much more.

Levi Garner’s lip curled. “I
knew
you would come back here. It’s where it all started, isn’t it? I knew the moment you said that you didn’t think Caleb was the killer that I would have to do something about you. Imagine my pleasure when I found this little girl waiting patiently for you.” He bent Anna’s arm behind her back, and she cried out in pain.

I released Ruth’s arm. “Let her go. If I’m the one you’ve been waiting here for, then fine. The girls have nothing to do with this.”

Despite the cold, sweat glistened on Levi’s forehead. He wasn’t wearing a hat. I hoped that he would catch a cold.

“Ruth,” I whispered. “I want you to take my cell phone and keys and run back to the car.”

Ruth began to sob. “I can’t. I can’t leave you and Anna.”

“Listen to me. It is Anna’s best chance if you run back to the car, lock yourself inside of it, and call for help.”

“I don’t know how to use your phone.”

How did I give an Amish girl a crash course in smartphone use without attracting Levi’s attention?

“What are you two talking about?” Levi’s voice thundered. “You better not think about leaving. The moment one of you is out of my sight, I stab her in the throat.”

Ruth crumbled to the ground in tears.

Okay, plan B. “Levi, you don’t want the girls. You can have me. Let Anna go, and you can hold the chisel to my throat. Isn’t that what you really want to do?”

He relaxed some.

I took three tentative steps toward him, and his hold on Anna tensed up again. I froze and looked Levi straight in the eyes. I needed to attract his attention away from Anna and onto me. If he became distracted enough, then maybe she would be able to wriggle away from him. It wasn’t a great plan, but it was the best I had until Timothy showed up.
Where was he?

“You killed Katie because she figured out that you were cheating the Amish craftsmen out of their fair share of their woodworking sales. You made a deal with them that they would receive sixty percent of the sale of their items, but you lied to them about the prices the items sold for and pocketed the difference.” My voice shook with anger as I spoke because I knew Grandfather Zook was also a victim. “How did she find out?”

He closed his eyes for a moment. “All I had her do was file some of the receipts, and she started asking questions. I told her that she wasn’t supposed to be reading the receipts, just filing them. Later I caught her digging through the drawers as if she were looking for something. I would have strangled her right at that very moment if Nathan hadn’t stepped into the office.”

Tears rolled down Anna cheeks as she listened to Levi give his reason for killing her sister as if it made perfect sense.
Keep it together, Anna,
I whispered in my head.
Keep it together. We can still get out of this. Don’t give up.

“I knew I shouldn’t have hired her, but my son begged me to. He said she wanted to leave the cheese shop because some
Englischer
wouldn’t leave her alone there. He knew the
Englischer
would never come to our warehouse.”

“She told Nathan, didn’t she? She told your son that his father cheated the families in the district.”

Levi dropped the chisel two inches from Anna’s throat. “
Ya
. The stupid girl. My son did the right thing, told her that she must be wrong, that I would never do anything like that. After talking sense into her, he told me. I denied it and told him that Katie must be confused. Before he left, I saw the glimmer of doubt in his eye, and I knew it was all over. I had no choice. I had to get rid of the girl before she made it even worse. What if she reported me to the deacon? Or to the police? I couldn’t have that.”

A new shadow appeared on the side of the barn, and it was moving. I blinked, wondering what I was seeing.
Was it Timothy? Had he heard us and snuck around the other side of the barn?

Jeb Lambright appeared behind Levi holding a tire iron.
What is he doing here? How did he know to come here? Did Levi tell him?
I shivered as I remembered the abuse accusations Jason made against Jeb.

Jeb took two long strides behind Levi Garner and hit the man on the head with the tire iron.

Anna screamed as Levi fell forward and knocked her to the ground, landing on top of her. Jeb dropped the tire iron onto the ground and shoved the unconscious man off his daughter. Anna scrambled to her feet. Ruth ran to her friend and the two girls clung to each other as Jeb stood still as a statue, as if in a stupor.

Timothy burst out of the stand of evergreen trees and took in the scene. “I heard shouting and ran here as fast as I could.” He blinked. “What happened?”

I gave him an abbreviated version.

“We need something to tie him up before he comes to,” Timothy panted.

“I know just the thing.” I ran into the Gundy barn and removed a roll of duct tape from Billy’s backup stash. I handed it to Timothy.

“Silver.” He smiled at me. “Because Billy is a purist.”

“Right.”

Timothy kneeled in the snow and pulled Levi’s wrists together behind his back and secured them with a long strip of duct tape. He then moved to Levi’s ankles. Then, Timothy stood back and admired his handiwork. “It’s not that much different than tying up a cow.”

A few feet away and with tears in his eyes, Jeb Lambright folded his surviving daughter into a hug. He said something to her in their language.

Anna held onto him for dear life.

I looked at Timothy.

He swallowed. “He promised that their life would be different now, and he said that he loved her.”

I watched a father and daughter reunite. It was something I longed for too. Was it possible for me? Would my father risk his life to save mine? I didn’t know. Shouldn’t that be something children should know about their parents?

“Will you call Greta?” Timothy asked, shaking me from my black thoughts.

I gave him a lopsided grin. “Don’t I always?”

Twenty minutes later the sound of snowmobiles broke into the quiet of the winter-washed fields. Chief Rose and her team appeared over the horizon and came to a stop a few yards from us.

The police chief climbed off her snowmobile and removed her helmet. Her brown poodle curls sprang perfectly into place. “Humphrey, when I asked you earlier today if there was anyone else out to get you, you didn’t need to go find someone.”