Between Two Promises (29 page)

Shaking, he began to unzip the bag, moving gradually should whatever he find inside destroy his world forever. The rotting carcass of a raven lay by his boot. It must’ve fallen from a rafter into the hay pile months ago. He’d uncovered it without knowing. Sighing with relief that that was what he had smelled, he kicked the raven’s remains across the barn and attacked the duffel bag more confidently. Inside he found Aiden’s clothes untouched. Shoved on the bottom, hidden under T-shirts and underwear, was his cell phone, the battery dead.

He tossed the duffel bag aside and hurried for the house, his boots barely touching the snow-covered footpath to the front door. He did not bother to knock. In an instant, the door hung on its hinges. The pain in his right foot from having kicked in the door barely bothered him as he gazed about the small bungalow. The house looked as if no one had cleaned it in weeks. Dishes piled in the sink. Dirtied bowls sat on the counter and kitchen table. A smell of body odor was thick in the air.

Faint light from the windows only distracted him, casting shadows and tricking him into thinking someone—or something—was there when there wasn’t. He twisted about, unsure what to expect. His heart pounded in his chest. Dread left his mouth dry.

He switched on the hallway light and edged his way upstairs.

“Aiden? Aiden Cermak? Are you here?”

The doors to the three bedrooms upstairs gaped open. The master bedroom was unkempt, the bed unmade and dirtied clothes tossed about. A typical bachelor home. Closets were empty of anything peculiar. Underneath beds he found only dust and boxes full of junk. Aiden was nowhere.

“Aiden? Aiden?”

Downstairs in the kitchen, he faced the door to the basement. Locked. He tired of locked doors. The door hinge was decayed, and he needed little effort to jimmy it open with his bare hands. The light switch failed to work.
Click, click
. Nothing. Using what light oozed from the kitchen, he eased down the stairs, his hand sliding along the railing, inching his way into the darkness. The room temperature dropped at least twenty degrees at the bottom of the stairs. He could see the silver of his breath.

Narrowing his eyes to cut through the murkiness, he shuffled along the basement floor, careful to avoid the clutter. He peered around, looking for any sign to help him answer the nagging questions of Aiden’s whereabouts. A heavy stench hovered over him. Mildew, grease, human sweat.

Panic choked him.

A rustle. A murmur.

“Aiden?”

Daniel edged nearer a corner. He screwed up his eyes. Something pulsated there. Something emitting a slight warmth.

He peered at the dark silhouette of what looked like the shape of a man. He pushed aside a few boxes, some old tools, a mop.

Two small white orbs glared up at him. The whiteness belonged to a pair of eyes. Vacant, large, gaping eyes. Unblinking, death-like eyes. Golden eyes. Honey-brown eyes. Eyes the color of the sunset.

Aiden Cermak’s eyes.

He dropped to his knees.

“Aiden, I found you, I found you.”

Daniel threw himself on top of him, incapable of processing everything taking place. He went to gather Aiden into his arms but realized Aiden’s arms and legs were bound with rope and tied to a pillar. “Ach, Aiden. Aiden….”

He stroked Aiden’s curly hair, murmuring how much he had been afraid for him, and noticed the knot on his head, along with the caked blood.

“I’m so sorry,” Daniel whispered, lying over Aiden’s cold body, trying to provide him with warmth. “I’m so sorry this happened to you.”

“Is it you?” Aiden uttered, his voice breaking.

“Yes, yes, it’s me.”

“I… I didn’t think you’d come.”

“I’m here, I’m here.”

“I was wrong,” Aiden murmured into Daniel’s chest. “It wasn’t Reverend Yoder who killed Kyle.”

“I know, I know.” Daniel sniffed back tears. His trembling arms clamped around Aiden. He stripped off his jacket and draped it over Aiden’s torso.

“It was Kevin,” Aiden muttered. “I figured it out on the way to the airport, while he was driving me. I… I had told him about the threats but didn’t give him any details. He knew about everything that happened. How would he know all that, unless… unless he’d… he’d done it? I… I could understand how he might know about the pumpkin, the spray painted message on my door, in a small town like this. But how would he know about the letter left in my mailbox? The one left at the inn? I mentioned it to him. He panicked. He drove me here against my will, and when I tried to fight back, he hit me with a shovel. It was Kevin. He killed Kyle. I… I was right about Kyle not committing suicide. I told you he didn’t. Kevin killed him. I don’t know why. But he killed him.”

Daniel caressed Aiden’s cold cheeks. “Now try to be still,” he whispered. “I got to untie these ropes and get you upstairs where it’s warm and call 911.”

“It was Kevin… Kevin the whole time,” Aiden went on dazedly while Daniel fumbled with the ropes in the dark. “He was the one who threatened me, to get me to stop investigating. On the way to the airport, I figured everything out. All that he knew, all that stuff about the threats. There was no way unless he had been there. Unless he had been the one who had done it.”

“It’s okay now. I’m going to get you out of here. You’re safe now. Nothing to worry about anymore.” Kevin had done a good job ensuring Aiden stayed put. Daniel struggled to untie the ropes.

Fighting back raging curses, Daniel had to get Aiden out of the house before Kevin showed. Kevin would be close on his trail. They were not yet safe. He did not relay that likelihood to Aiden.

“I… I didn’t think you would know where I was,” Aiden said. “I thought I’d die here. I did my best to get out, I really did. After a while, I gave up. I was so weak. I didn’t think you’d ever find me.”

“I didn’t guess until I found that note in your laptop. Why didn’t you tell me someone had left you another threat?” Daniel yanked on the knots. “Why?”

“I thought you didn’t care,” Aiden said, his head lopping to the side as Daniel sat him upright to untie his hands. “I thought maybe you were glad I was gone.”

“I
was
glad you were gone, but not for why you think,” Daniel said. “I admit I had fears about being outed to the community, of losing what I know here. But mostly I feared what might happen to you. Those threats you got last year, I was so afraid whoever made them might come back for you. That’s the main reason why I didn’t want to come back here for Mark’s wedding. That’s why I haven’t wanted everyone to know about us. Don’t you see? I was right all along too. I was right all along. Why didn’t you listen to me? Why didn’t you listen?”

“I thought you didn’t want me to come to Henry because… because you were embarrassed by me. I thought you didn’t love me.”

“I thought you didn’t love me either,” Daniel said. “I thought you left me for good.” He tossed the last of the ropes into a corner and clasped Aiden’s shoulders. “When I realized I mighta lost you forever, I didn’t care about nothing. I didn’t even care about being shunned. The only thing that matters is that I have you in my life.”

“You saved me,” Aiden said, his head wobbling from side to side.

“You saved me once too, remember?” Daniel hoisted Aiden into his arms to carry him upstairs. “I figure I’m returning the favor.”

Just then, Aiden’s eyes widened, and a strange sound emanated from his mouth, like a yelp from an injured kitten. He pointed a shaky finger over Daniel’s shoulder.

“Behind you… behind you….”

Daniel followed Aiden’s gape. The woman from Kevin’s office, Carolyn, edged toward them. Her face twisted in a greasy grin, the snow shovel he had found in the barn clasped in her hands. Daniel’s mind whirled. Why was she there? What was going on?

Carolyn crept closer, a hulking figure emerging from the murkiness. Her eyeglasses reflected the scant light in the basement, giving her the look of a fiery-eyed demon. Something shiny like snot ran out her nose and down her chin.

After a lifetime of the community’s stressing nonviolence, his reflexes lacked the quickness needed to attack. He could not bring himself to strike another human being. Especially a woman. Daniel almost resented his pacifist upbringing.

He spilled Aiden from his arms and stood decisively, his legs and arms spread, protecting Aiden with his body. The shovel rose higher in the air. He was about to lunge for it when, suddenly, a stunted shadow shifted behind Carolyn. The shadow grew larger, hovered closer. It was Kevin Hassler.

His face twisted with something like a pained fury. He held a golf club high over his head. They were both in on it. Ready to strike.

Daniel threw himself on top of Aiden, shielding him from the first blows from these two mad, depraved people. Prayers for da Hah’s mercy fluttered from his lips, beseeching God to forgive him for whatever sins he might have committed. Begging God to spare Aiden Cermak. The man he was willing to die for.

He heard the first blow but felt nothing. Petrified, he examined Aiden to make sure he hadn’t been struck. Twisting quickly, Daniel saw Carolyn falter, drop the shovel, and fall backward.

Kevin stood behind her, the golf club loose in his hand by his side. Sobs broke from him as he dropped the club and sank to his knees by the woman’s head.

Daniel rushed to lift Aiden and carry him to the stairs. He stopped on the bottom step and peered at Kevin, weeping over the woman’s body. A dark puddle formed by her head, where her eyeglasses lay.

“I fell in love with her,” Kevin said between sobs. “I fell in love with her right after I hired her. She was all I ever wanted. Even after she told me everything she’d done, I still loved her.”

Daniel froze, transfixed by Kevin’s mumbling. Aiden’s head lay limp, his eyes closed. Daniel held him snug against his chest. He was near weightless in his arms.

“She didn’t mean to do it,” Kevin said, cradling Carolyn’s head. “She’d never been liked by many people. No one ever took the time to get to know her. They never gave her a chance. Her peers used to taunt her, laugh at her. She was so shy. Even though she was on the high school softball team, and took them all the way to the state championship, they’d still tease her, even her teammates. She thought if she’d befriend the Amish, things might be easier for her. She started hanging out with some rumspringa youth. They shunned her too. She was devastated.

“But one boy didn’t turn her away. Kyle Yoder was the one who bothered to show her kindness. She started following him around. They even became friends, or so she had thought. One day he told her he never liked her and didn’t want to be friends with her. That he never had the heart to tell her to go away. You see, Carolyn had dealt with rejection her whole life. She was always an outcast. Always tossed aside.

“To be rejected by an Amish boy…. It was too much for her. She pushed him in a moment of rage. Kyle fell and hit his head on the ground. He was dead. She panicked and covered him under some horse blankets in the tack room of the Yoders’ barn. She came back later that night with a rope, when she knew the family would be done with farm chores, and hanged him up in the barn to make it look like a suicide. She was able to put everything behind her. Eventually, she got a scholarship to college. She had a future. And then Aiden had to come along last year and dig up Kyle’s death, after so many years.

“She left him those threats, tossed a pumpkin at his house. She didn’t mean any harm; she was desperate. What else could she do? When Aiden came back to town last week, she worried he was going to open up the investigation again. Panicked, she told me about everything. I tried to convince her Aiden was here for Mark’s wedding, and he wasn’t going to investigate anymore, but she didn’t believe me. Her mind was already gone by then.” Moans rose from deep inside Kevin.

“I did what I could to cover up for her. But things got out of hand. I haven’t slept since Christmas Eve. I thought I was losing my mind, too. I begged her to stay away from here, to run and hide. Get away. But she wouldn’t listen. She didn’t care. I couldn’t let us do any more harm. I couldn’t. We’ve harmed too many. I’ve already called 911. They should be here any minute. I knew it would be bad like this. I knew it would turn out horrible. We never stood a chance. They’ll keep us apart from each other now. I’m all alone in the world. All alone again. She was my last chance at love.” He looked at Daniel, who still stood on the steps in disbelief.

“You know what that’s like, don’t you?” Kevin said. “To be alone, without anyone? To be without the one you love?”

Daniel gazed at him through the dimness of the basement. He could hear the screams of sirens growing nearer. He wanted to say, “Ya, I do. I do, for sure, I know,” but he let it be. Turning his back on Kevin and Carolyn, he carried Aiden upstairs into the light, into the warmth, certain he’d never let go of him again.

Chapter Twenty-Six

T
HE
snowcapped Swan Range rippled northward for one hundred miles, from the Bob Marshall Wilderness to the Flathead River. Verdant mountains and hemlocks and cottonwoods reflected in the radiant onyx ponds that dotted the lush valleys. Small snowfields glistened like diamonds under the early June sun. In Jewel Basin, two large herds of Rocky Mountain sheep had come down from the higher elevations and were nibbling on rich lichen closer to the hiking trails that had gone dormant for most of the winter and spring. Fresh footprints of recent backpackers were visible along the trails. Two pair belonged to Daniel and Aiden.