Anathema (34 page)

In the end, it was surprisingly easy to arrange. When Asia arrived, Hannah told her she needed migraine medication and needed to run home for it. The detectives were out slogging in the mud and searching the woods behind the house for Caitlin. Hannah simply told Asia she ’d be right back, then drove to the house, packed her things, and went to wait at the coffee shop with her suitcase. She bound her hair up in a bun on the back of her head, then sat at a table by the door to wait.

“Hannah?”

She looked up at the sound of a woman’s voice. Ellen Long stood in the doorway. The old anger surged at the sight of the woman’s face. Hannah had always believed Ellen knew more than she would admit to. “Ellen.”

“Mind if I sit down a minute?” Without waiting for an answer, Ellen slid into the chair across from Hannah. “I’d heard you were back in town.”

Hannah laced her fingers together in her lap. The woman had lost the bloom of beauty she’d had the last time Hannah had seen her. She was dressed in too-tight jeans and a top that revealed ample cleavage, and her features had a hard cast. “I’ve been back a couple of weeks.”

“I was hoping to run into you, see how you’re doing. I never got a chance to tell you how sorry I was.” Ellen’s words spilled out but held not an ounce of emotion. It was as if she’d memorized them and waited for the chance to spew them out.

Hannah held her tongue as her resentment grew. She had enough to worry about without listening to Ellen cry alligator tears.

Ellen fidgeted when Hannah didn’t reply. “Reece stopped to see me the other day. He says you’ve left him. That’s too bad.”

Why had Reece stopped to see Ellen? For the first time, Hannah wondered if Ellen and Reece were connected in some way. The thought hadn’t crossed her mind.

“How well do you know Reece?” Hannah asked. A secret smile flitted across Ellen’s face so fast that Hannah wasn’t sure it had come at all—until she saw the self-satisfied expression in the woman’s eyes.

“His mother introduced us.”

“His mother?” Reece had been a foster child of Trudy’s.

Ellen nodded. “I was taking quilting lessons from Irene Beitler. I met him there.”

Irene was Reece ’s mother? Hannah wanted time to process the news. He’d never told her, yet he ’d told his mistress? Even Matt hadn’t seemed to know. Even though Hannah longed to be free of Reece, the thought scalded her. “And had an affair?” Hannah could see it was true by the way Ellen looked away. “So why are you telling me this?” Her rage nearly choked her.

Ellen shrugged. “I just wanted to clear the air. Let you know Reece and me go back a long way. Make sure you’re not longing to reconcile. I don’t want to play second fiddle again.”

“I think Reece might have a say in that. What makes you think he wants you back?” Hannah heard the roar of a truck. Glancing out the window, she saw Reece behind the steering wheel. “I’ll ask him about it now.” She rose and walked past Ellen’s shocked face toward the truck.

Everything she thought she knew wasn’t true, and she couldn’t see through the deep water to the bottom. She reached the truck. When he grinned, she nearly fled, but she forced herself to return his smile and climb into the truck he was driving—one she’d never seen before. He took her cell phone and tossed it out the window. She was alone with him, and she didn’t know if she’d live to see tomorrow.

RAIN DRIPPED FROM the brim of his hat, and Matt lifted a mud-coated boot from the muck. No one had located any sign of his daughter. Even Ajax hadn’t found a scent. That had to mean she ’d been taken somewhere in a vehicle, and the realization made his mouth dry up.

He glanced at his watch. Nearly noon. His baby girl had been gone an eternity. He ’d prayed all morning for God to keep her safe, to keep her from being frightened. He motioned to Blake. “I don’t think she ’s out here. Any word on Reece?”

“No one has seen him. He might have ditched the truck and gotten another vehicle.”

“Let’s call off the search out here. I’m sure he ’s got her.”

“You’re probably right.”

Matt and Blake tramped through the mud back to the farm. Buggies and cars lined the road as far as he could see. The Amish community had poured out to help him. He ’d never look at them the same again. Matt saw them as friends now, friends who cared.

Everyone was coming back to the yard now that the search had been called off. He found himself searching for Hannah’s bright head. He knew the news had rocked her hard. And it had probably ended any future they might have had. Instead, they would engage only in a long, bitter battle over Caitlin’s future.

His fear and deceit had ruined everything. He didn’t like the person he’d become. He’d always told himself he feared nothing, but instead of trusting God to work things out, he ’d run scared, told countless lies, and put his daughter in harm’s way. And he ’d been stupid to boot.

He didn’t see Asia’s familiar red car. Asia stood talking to Sarah and Gina under the shelter of a giant tulip tree, but rain still dripped onto their heads.

Gina rushed to him, and he embraced her. “Oh, Matt, I’m so sorry!” She was sobbing so hard she could barely talk. “A friend from church called me.” She swiped at the tears on her cheeks. “We ’ve got to find her, Matt.”

“I will. I’m calling off the search in the woods, though. I think Reece has her.” A foggy disorientation muffled his thoughts, but he focused on his sister’s face. “You went to confront Vanessa?”

“Yeah, but Blake was there, Matt. And I saw a bunch of stuff in her garage. I think she and Blake are behind the robberies in town. I just turned around and left. I’m leaving him.”

Matt found no joy in discovering that his suspicions about Blake were true. “I’ll tell the captain.”

She put her face against his chest. “If only I hadn’t brought Caitlin here!”

“It’s not your fault, Sis. If Reece has her, he could have taken her from your house just as easily.” It was his job to keep his daughter safe, and he ’d blown it. He glanced around the yard again. “Where ’s Hannah?”

Asia wrinkled her nose. “I’ve been wondering that myself. She left here two hours ago to go get some migraine meds. I thought she ’d be back in fifteen minutes. Maybe she had to lie down a few minutes.”

Matt knew Hannah well enough by now to know she’d crawl on bleeding knees to help those she loved. “I can’t see her doing that.” Something was going on, and every nerve in his body tightened in response.

“Me neither, to tell you the truth. I was trying not to worry.” Asia pulled her cell phone out of the purse slung around her shoulder. “I’ve got a good signal here. So if she had a breakdown, she could have called me.”

“I hope Reece didn’t find her,” he said. His pulse galloped as he thought it through. “If she thought Reece had Caitlin, would she go back to him?” Even before he saw Asia’s face change, he knew the answer. “Of course she would,” he said. “In a heartbeat.” He wanted to hit something. “Reece would call her and taunt her with the fact that he had their daughter.”

“
Their
daughter,” Asia said. “Do you think it’s really true?”

“I think so. I’ve got to find Hannah.” He called Ajax and ran to the SUV.

IN THE WASH of daylight, Reece looked older, harder. His hair was grayer and coarser, especially the straggly beard he’d grown. His jowl seemed softer too, but the same hard light shone in his eyes. Hannah had to look hard for it, though. His jovial smile would have masked it completely from someone who didn’t know as well as she just what he was capable of.

“You look good, hon,” he said. “Take your hair down.”

“Not now,” she said before she thought.

“Take it down
now
.”

The hard tone of his voice and the way the amiable mask vanished told her to obey. Slowly, she reached up and began to pull the pins from her hair. She’d thought he would hide his true colors at least for a little while. His eyes spoke of a further slide into madness. When her hair lay on her shoulders, she leaned forward to grab her bag from the floor and drop the pins into it.

Reece’s fingers plunged into her hair and wrapped around the locks. “No one has hair like yours. I’ve told you never to wear it down for anyone else.”

Using her hair as leverage, he dragged her across the bench seat until she was close enough for him to release her hair and slide his arm around her.

Her scalp stung, but she said nothing. He seemed calm at the moment, and she didn’t dare complain. With the overpowering scent of his familiar cologne nearly asphyxiating her, Hannah’s strength and courage waned. What made her think she could outwit him? Whenever she was around him, he sapped her will and determination. Her life would slide into the same old nightmare, and she would be helpless to prevent it.

No. She had Caitlin to think about. The little girl needed her protection. Hannah saw no evidence of Caitlin in the vehicle. Could he have merely used the situation to bait Hannah? She prayed that was true. It would be easier to escape if she wasn’t frozen with fear for her daughter.

“So where are we going?” she asked in a bright voice. From the corner of her eye, she saw his quick glance as though he couldn’t figure her out.

“You’ll see. I’ve got a surprise for you. Things are going to be different, Hannah. You’re going to obey me this time. We ’re going to be the model family.”

“Family? Are we going to go find our daughter?” The words nearly gagged her, but she got them out in a loving tone.

“Maybe.”

“Why did you take her away from me, Reece?” The words poured out of her in spite of her resolve not to annoy him. “I wanted her so much.”

“I didn’t want to share you with anyone else. Now I see I was wrong about that.”

The craftiness in his glance frightened her. He had some kind of plan, and she feared for Caitlin. Where was the little girl? Surely he hadn’t left her alone somewhere.

“If she’s been adopted, how can we find her and get her back?”

“You leave that up to me.” He reached a dirt road that was only wide enough to allow a single car to navigate. “Where were you when I called?”

“At the farmhouse. Working on the quilt.” The lie came too easily to her lips. What kind of a Christian was she that she could smile and lie without compunction?

“Liar!” His fingers squeezed her arm hard enough to leave bruises. “I followed you. I know you were looking for Caitlin. You know I have her. That’s why you came, isn’t it?”

“No!” She tried to pull away, but his grip was too tight. “Do you have her? We thought she just wandered off into the woods. That’s where Matt was looking. How do you know Caitlin?” She thought her subterfuge had worked when he didn’t ask why she lied.

But his attention was on something else. Glancing in the rearview mirror, he accelerated around the curve, then whipped the steering wheel. “Did the detectives follow you?” he snarled.

“No, of course not. I was careful to make sure I was alone.”

The truck fishtailed in the mud, then slid into a wide spot between some shrubs. Ahead was an abandoned covered bridge. He drove over the grass toward it. “Hang on,” he said. His grip fell off her shoulders.

This bridge had never been restored, and Hannah immediately spotted the missing planks and rotted girders. Any minute she expected the truck to plunge through the floor of the bridge and into the creek below, running deep with cold water from the storm. She’d never seen the water so high. The tires rumbled on the planks, then Reece wrenched the wheel to the right and rode the passenger side tires up onto the side, where the frame looked stronger.

Hannah caught another glimpse of the water below through gaping holes in the structure of the bridge. She gripped the armrest on the door. Her pulse pounded in her head. They weren’t going to make it. The openings in the bridge passed by in a dizzying blur when Reece accelerated. The light at the other end grew larger, then the truck lurched over the last of the uneven boards. The tires found purchase in the rocky dirt at the other end and gave the truck traction through the last few feet.

Reece guided the truck to a stop in the shelter of underbrush. “Lost them,” he said with a smug grin.

“I never saw anyone.”

He stretched his arm across the top of the battered bench seat. “You haven’t kissed me yet, Hannah. That will tell me how sincere you are.”

Her stomach roiled. How could she cover her revulsion? She ’d known it might come to this. The distance between her lips and his wary smile seemed as vast as the Pacific Ocean. Her muscles froze in place, pressing her back into the safety of the cracked leather seat. Any minute he would reach across the chasm and grab her. It would be all she could do not to scream, and he would know. Know she ’d rather die than touch him.

A siren blared in the distance. His head whipped around, and he peered back through the trees. “We ’d better get going. This can wait until tonight.”

Somehow she would have to find a way to get Caitlin to safety before then.

twenty-four

“Religious services are held every other Sunday in a
different home. Each family takes a turn hosting the congregation.
It adds to the sense of community.”

—HANNAH SCHWARTZ,

IN
The Amish Faith Through Their Quilts

M
att saw Asia’s car parked outside the coffee shop and breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of it. But why would Hannah stop to get coffee and spend hours there? The panic came again, and he knew something was wrong.

He and Ajax went to the car and peered inside. The locks were down, and the car held only a computer bag in the back, probably Asia’s. Inside the coffee shop he saw only two men with an open briefcase between them at the back table. The barista had just come on duty and hadn’t seen Hannah. Not good. Matt didn’t want to face the truth, but he knew it.

Reece had Hannah.

No doubt in his mind. But how to find them? He’d tried her cell phone half a dozen times, but she had it switched off. Reece had been a detective. He knew how to evade law enforcement. Chances were, he’d ditched his truck and gotten other wheels. Matt drove to the jail and went to his office. He checked the list of stolen vehicles. Most would likely turn up once the kids who’d taken them for joyrides sobered up. But one stood out. An old red pickup. It had been taken two days ago. About the time Reece would have been making his plans.