Dark Crossings (6 page)

Even if she made it back into her yard, it would take her a
while to get the key out from under the rock where she kept it. Her pursuer
could easily catch her and hit her with that spade. There was no time to hang
something in the trees—no time for Ben to come. Maybe it was Burt Commons. That
looked like the spade she’d taken with her to confront him. Surely not Elam! And
the diamond thief had what he wanted, didn’t he?

She heard the person running again. If she beat this monster
out of the forest, she could shout for Ben and run across the bridge. But would
she make it? Her heart was pounding, she was nearly breathless, and she felt a
stitch in her side. Daring a quick look back, hearing but not seeing her
pursuer, Abby made a desperate decision.

When she neared the hollow log, she hit the ground and belly
crawled into its depths, lying there, panting and praying. If he had seen her,
she was trapped. The little knife she held would be useless against the blade of
that spade.

She tried not to breathe so hard. It was filthy in here, with
slugs and crawling things. She was so tensed up that her calf muscle cramped,
and tears ran down her cheeks at the pain. But she stayed silent.

At first, her haven muted outside sounds, but then she heard
his footsteps again in the dead leaves. Close. Very close. Then stopping.

She sucked in a big breath when he passed by the end of the
log, hesitated, then turned, evidently looking around. She could see he wore old
running shoes and worn jeans under the hemp sack. He must have taken that sack
from her garden. Maybe he’d been watching her for a long time. She willed Ben to
come looking for her before this man—he was pretty thin, like Burt Commons or
Elam—could find her hiding place.

She jumped when something hit the log. The spade? Dust, dirt
and bugs rained down on her. She shut her eyes and jammed her finger under her
nose so she wouldn’t sneeze. Had he figured out where she’d disappeared to? Was
he going to chop into the wood to get to her? Maybe he’d peeked inside and seen
her feet.

But, blessedly, he walked away. She couldn’t see him, even
peering out the little crack in the log, but she heard his footsteps scuffing
through the leaves, then fading. Or was that a trick? Though she wanted to crawl
out and bolt—if she could even run on her cramped leg—she stayed put, catching
her breath, trying to build her courage.

But it was anger that roiled through her. How dare someone
invade the places of her heart—her home, garden and woods, even the bridge the
other night! Who hated her that much to make her want to cower and suffer? What
had she done?

Trying to flex her sore leg, she lay there for what she judged
was about a half hour before she crawled forward and stuck her head out. What if
he was waiting for her near or even in her house? If she saw Ben’s truck was
still at his place, she was going to head straight for the bridge and run across
it to him.

As she limped past her house, she saw her hemp sacks thrown
atop the tall pile of logs with her crop of turkey tails, the spade thrust into
them. Worst of all, a piece of paper had been punched over the handle and now
flapped in the breeze. Abby could clearly make out the large, crudely printed
words in
Deutsch
and English:
Raus Jetzt! Get out!

CHAPTER SEVEN

O
NCE
AGAIN
Abby ran to
Ben. A fleeting thought crossed her mind—that the Lord kept throwing them
together despite Amish law that they must keep apart. And she needed Ben now
again, desperately.

She rushed to the rear door of his house so she couldn’t be
seen from across the river. Someone must have hiked into the woods behind her
house. Getting a car over there was nearly impossible, and the bridge was too
rickety to take such a heavy weight. The old road could be approached from
behind only by a roundabout drive from town.

Abby pounded on his back door with both fists. He opened it
with a large, half-carved piece of wood in his hand. She threw herself into his
arms.

Though she slammed into him, at first he didn’t budge. Then he
dropped the piece of wood. As she pressed herself against him, her cheek to his
chest, he closed his arms hard around her. He pulled her inside and slammed the
door, leaning back against it. She heard only her ragged breathing and his heart
beating hard.

“What happened?” he whispered, his chin atop her head as he
clamped her full length to him, her hips pressed to his, her breasts flattened
against his chest.

“A man draped in a hemp sack with a hemp mask—gloves—chasing
me. Swinging my spade like he wanted to cut me down.”

Ben’s body tensed. “Did he follow you across the bridge?”

“No. Chased me down the road beyond the bridge and through the
forest. I hid in a hollow log. When I ran home, I saw he’d left me a note in the
garden that said get out. In
Deutsch
and
English!”

Ben squeezed her tighter, then tipped her back to look down
into her eyes. She realized she was smudged with dirt from the hollow log, but
that hardly mattered. His intense gaze made her light-headed. Her knees nearly
buckled, but his legs were strong and firm against her quaking ones as he
propped her up.

“You stay here,” he said. “I’ll go over and look around. Is
your house locked?”

“
Ja,
but who knows what he’s done?
Ben, I will not just leave my house and garden at harvest time and run like a
rabbit, though I guess that’s just what I did. I know I can’t stay here,
but—”

“We’re going to lock you in right now. I’ll just look around
over there and bring the threatening note back for evidence. You’ve got to get
help from the sheriff. He said he’d be away the rest of the day, but back
tomorrow. First thing in the morning, I’ll follow you into town. I have a
meeting with Bishop Esh and the church elders set up then.”

“That’s great. But what about tonight?”

“When I get back from checking your place, we’ll talk, decide
whether this is aimed at you—or at me.”

“At you? You think it might be Burt Commons? He threatened both
of us. Maybe he’s picking on me to get to you? Or it could be Elam Garber.”

“So he was the one you turned down? If it’s Elam, the bishop
can deal with him better than the sheriff, though I don’t want to see anyone put
under the
bann
.”

“But taking that diamond from my bedroom doesn’t seem like
something either Burt or Elam would or could do. Commons wasn’t even around
then. It has to be someone else.”

“Would you just listen?” Ben demanded, suddenly sounding angry,
almost desperate. “That’s what we need to talk about. I’ll be back in a couple
of minutes.”

But still he seemed to be clinging to her. She hugged him
again, her arms around his back, his clasping her waist.

“Now you listen to me,” she told him. “If there’s someone over
there, don’t get into a fight—not for me.”

He lifted one hand to tip her chin up so she was looking
straight into his eyes. “I’m in a fight for you already, a fight with myself,”
he whispered. “Stay put now, make yourself at home, and I’ll be right back.”

She nodded, making the hand clasping her chin bounce. But he
didn’t pull away, didn’t leave. Then it happened, just as she’d dreamed of so
many times.

He lowered his lips to hers, slowly, as if to give her time to
turn her head or back away. It was as if they were merely taking a taste of each
other, but things turned crazy wild as he took her mouth, again and again. She
tilted her head so their noses didn’t bump. Their mouths fit perfectly, slanted
sideways, open and so needy and natural. Nothing mattered but his touch and
kiss. She clung to him to stop the swaying of the world.

He pulled back before she wanted him to, setting her away at
arm’s length as if she had burned him. “My fault,” he said, breathless. “I
wanted that—and you. Lock yourself in and watch out the windows….”

He glanced through the kitchen window himself, as if he were
being chased, then banged out the back door, picked up a piece of firewood and
hurried toward the bridge.

* * *

F
RIGHTENED
FOR
B
EN
’
S
SAFETY
, Abby kept her
nose glued to the side windows for at least a quarter of an hour. Only when she
saw him striding back across the bridge did she think to wet a paper towel and
wash her face and hands. She finally glanced around his large, wood-paneled
living area with its dominating, raised stone hearth. This old place needed
work, a woman’s touch, but it suited his needs.

On the big table and two end tables, and on two of the three
chairs, lay various types of wood, tools, sandpaper and jars of stains. And
displayed in a corner cabinet were four completed boxes, with their satin
finishes and creature carvings so real they looked as if they could take flight
or swim through the waves….

She let him in the front door.

“You didn’t bring the note back,” she said.

“It wasn’t there, nor your hemp sacks, or any kind of mask.
Though I saw your spade leaning against the back door, neatly stowed next to
your hoe and broom.”

She stamped her foot in frustration. “In other words, things
are just as if it never happened, as if I’d made it up.”

“Abby, I didn’t mean that. Though if I thought you were
creating dangers just to run into my arms, that would be fine with me… I’m
kidding. But this is no kidding matter.”

“My enemy is very tidy,” she mused as she looked back across
the river through the side windows. “He arranges things nicely, whether he’s
making diamonds or pieces of paper disappear.”

“Let’s sit at the kitchen table. I need to explain some things
before you go to the sheriff and I see the bishop. This has gone too far.”

She nodded, but hoped he didn’t mean too far between the two of
them.

* * *

B
EN
FELT
REALLY
NERVOUS
. He hoped he wasn’t dooming
Abby if the Amish learned she was in close contact with someone under the
meidung
. And he was finally going to tell her the
truth about what had happened in Cincinnati. He had hoped to keep her admiration
for him building, but he had to protect her at all costs. He had admitted
everything to the sheriff and the bishop, but somehow, confessing all this to
Abby was going to be worse.

He poured two cups of reheated coffee and plunked down a plate
of glazed doughnuts he’d bought in town. “This is nothing like your delicious
food,” he said, trying to keep his voice light and his spirits strong. “And
sorry, but not a mushroom in sight.”

She took a sip of her coffee and stared at him over the edge of
her cup. He wanted to vault over the table to hold and kiss her again. She
seemed watchful, maybe distrustful of what was coming. Such a bright, beautiful
woman, and here he was probably going to blow it all.

“Abby, I haven’t told you everything about my life in the
world, though Sheriff Freeman knows and I explained things to Bishop Esh. One
reason I came back here was that I lost my job in Cincinnati. Someone robbed the
store where I worked of a fortune in gems and jewelry, and the owners and police
there decided it was an inside job, meaning someone on the staff—”

“I know what that means.” Wide-eyed, she put her coffee cup
down with a clink. “So they are blaming you?”

“I’m under suspicion, still under surveillance by the police
and an insurance investigator.”

“Then it’s them!”

“I’m not sure. Abby, I vow to you, I had nothing to do with it.
Unfortunately, I had been in the store earlier that night to drop off some boxes
they needed the next morning. I had been given the security code, which I
punched in. Although I left without touching a thing I shouldn’t, I was the last
one in there before the theft. My fingerprints were here and there, and some of
my boxes were used by the thief or thieves to carry out their loot. And just a
couple of days before, I’d watched one of the owners, Mrs. Tornelli, get into
the safe, so they thought I could have seen the combination.”

Abby looked both angry and sad. “I see. I guess they don’t get
it—that even though you left the Amish, you would tell the truth.”

“Thanks for that, but I’m not done. I think Mrs.
Tornelli—Triana—told the police detective and the insurance investigator to keep
an eye on me, even here.”

“So that has to be it! The arguing on the bridge, the lost
diamond carefully taken back. Maybe the detective and investigator were watching
you that night I heard the voices. They got angry I shone a light on them, and
took off.”

He thought it unlikely. But he might as well get everything
out, and then let the chips fall where they may. He took a swig of lukewarm
coffee and interrupted whatever she was going to say next with, “There’s
more.”

Abby sucked in a sharp breath, then just stared at him, her
lush lower lip quivering.

“This is going to sound prideful,” he told her, “but Triana
Tornelli came on to me, and—”

“Came on to you? Came here, you mean?”

“No. She tried to seduce me—suggested we have an affair, a
secret lovers’ meeting without her husband knowing it, and I turned her down. We
were not lovers. She held some power over me, and I needed her goodwill,
but—”

“Ben,” Abby said, reaching across the table to cover his
clenched hands with one of hers, “I have a confession, too. I got on a computer
in the library bookmobile and saw the Tornellis’ picture.”

She looked as if she’d just confessed to a mass murder. Despite
his own grief, he had to bite his lower lip to keep from smiling. How genuine
and generous his people were, and he’d had to jump the fence, then return, to
realize it. Open, honest, Abigail was more precious than pearls to him.

“You did?” was all he could manage at first, since his voice
had choked up. “But were you going to ask or say something more about her—her
and me?”

“Ben, I believe you. You think I don’t get it, after all the
times I hung around, that she could want to do more than kiss you? But the thing
is, if she did get those investigators after you, was it because you turned her
down or because she’s wanting you to take the blame for whoever took their
expensive stuff? It has to be someone else who worked there that stole the
jewelry!”

Abby leaned across the table as if there were others around to
hear, and lowered her voice. “I also looked at the prices for jewelry on their
website—sky-high, completely crazy costs. But we now have some other
possibilities for who dropped the diamond and then stole it back. Can that
female insurance person afford diamond earrings?”

“Never saw them on her, but—”

“But maybe she’s been paid in some Tornelli goods instead of
just money. Now, in the really pretty picture of her online, Mrs. Tornelli wore
emeralds, but I’ll just bet she has diamond earrings, right?”

He felt both relieved and elated. This Amish girl was on his
side. She was thinking clearly. She had accepted what he’d told her at face
value. Man, not that the Plain People’s ways were perfect, but he’d lived in the
big, bad outside world too long! Abigail Baughman would be called naive by the
modern folk, yet what was wrong with trust—trust and love?

“Right,” he said. “But however great a picture she takes,
neither she nor any woman I have ever met could hold a candle to you.”

Abby blinked back tears. They held hands, both hands, leaning
toward each other across the table. “And here I’ll never have a picture taken of
my face to prove that,” she said, her tone teasing, her fingers trembling
despite the little smile she wore.

He could not believe how she was backing him up. Inner strength
radiated from her, warming him—heating him. But if he pulled her over here into
his lap, they’d never finish this conversation and decide what they must do,
especially tonight. It was getting dark outside, and he’d hardly noticed.

“So,” Abby went on, when he just stared at her, “my thief could
be either of those women, or Mr. Tornelli, too. Are the insurance woman and the
police detective thin? The Tornellis looked pretty slender.”

Ben shook his head to clear it, then realized she would think
he was saying no. “
Ja,
they’re all in good shape, as
auslanders
put it. Are you saying your pursuer
today was thin?”

She nodded. “But then so are all the others I can mention to
the sheriff. Elam, Burt Commons. You know, I just assumed my thief and stalker
was a man, but maybe not. I think someone must have been pretty slender to get
through my basement window. But now the next question—why? If it’s Elam or Burt
Commons, I guess I know. Elam wants me to sell my house to the gun club in town,
and he’d get a cut of the sale. Plus he’s upset I turned down his proposal to
wed him. Burt is furious I intervened when he was after you. But, land sakes,
why would the outsiders be after me, if it’s them?”

“Maybe whoever was on the bridge arguing thought you were
watching them, then when you took the diamond… I don’t know. I do know you
either need to stay here all night, or I’m going to take my sleeping bag across
the bridge again and camp out in your kitchen or front room.”