Safe Hearts (Amish Safe House, Book 3) (4 page)

“
No, I'm sorry,” she said
apologetically. “It's a hard time for Beckie. I guess it rubbed off
on me.”

“
That's understandable.”
Ryan gave a thin smile, and Kate wanted to bang her head on the
desk for handling the slip poorly. “You came to this town for some
R and R after your accident, and you get pulled into one thing
after another. It would be a lot for anyone.”

“
I'll be all right,” she
said automatically, then quickly added, “mostly because of you and
the ladies looking out for me. I hope you understand how grateful I
am.”

Even as Ryan stayed a polite distance
from her, he did not hesitate to reach out and lay a hand over
hers. She felt another warm shiver run through every nerve in her
body as she stared into his eyes.

“
I'll be there anytime you
need someone,” he said with such calm commitment that her heart
raced. “Anytime at all.”

Despite the tingling, exciting
emotions that raced through her, there was an ever present shadow
that darkened her thoughts, keeping her from becoming totally lost
in that promise.

I hope you still feel that
way when you find out how non-Amish I really am
.

Deuteronomy 29:
29.
The secret things belong to the
Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to
our children forever, that we may do all the words of this
law.

Chapter 4
.

Kate walked inside the main house
after she had completed her morning chores around the garden, but
as the door closed behind her, she heard the sound of a horse
trotting up the usually quiet road. She turned back quickly and
pushed the door open to see the new visitor.

The buggy pulled up. The
door opened and Beckie stepped out, with a weary smile on her face.
“
Gude mariye
,” she
called out, waving politely.

Kate returned her greeting. “Good
morning!”

Beckie stumbled a bit as she jumped
down from the buggy. She regained her composure and approached
Kate, who was still waiting in the doorway. “I heard you spoke to
Officer Ryan Weaver recently. Did you find out
anything?”

Kate hadn’t exactly been expecting to
become the middleman in such a situation, but she knew the legal
system much better than Beckie or any of the others, and the last
thing she wanted was to see an innocent man like Jeremiah be
punished for a crime he’d never committed.

“
I was actually going to
hitch up the buggy and drive over to see you this morning,” Kate
said. She paused for a moment, and then looked away before
continuing. “Ryan told me where they’re holding him until they
decide if he’ll make bail or not. He said that they usually
restrict visitation until the suspects are moved to the prison, but
he promised to pull some strings, so that we can get in to see him
before that happens. Are you able to go today? Jeremiah’s being
held at the Monroe Correctional Facility.”

Beckie smiled immediately. “That would
be wonderful. Maybe we can hear his side of the story and figure
out what actually happened. Thank you, and please be sure to thank
Officer Ryan as well when you see him.”

“
I definitely will,” Kate
replied.

“
Would you like some time
to get ready, or should we get going right away?”

“
It’s probably best to go
as soon as possible. Like I said, they usually are very restrictive
with visitors and visitation hours, so the less inconvenience we
offer them, the better.”

Beckie nodded. “I completely
understand. Let’s be on our way, then?”

Kate smiled and nodded. “I’ll call a
taxi from the barn. It’s probably thirty minutes or so there,
according to Ryan.”

A short time later, Kate was in the
taxi, looking out at the trees as they blurred by. The motion was
so mesmerizing that it forced her mind to wander back to her former
life. Whenever strange cases or investigations popped up, the U.S.
Marshal inside her always seemed to fight back in order to take
control. The cool breeze of the wind tickled her nose as the
thoughts raced through her head. Kate’s attention was only drawn
back to reality, when Beckie spoke.

“
Excuse me, but since we’re
getting closer to this jail, is there anything we need to know
before we get there?”

“
Not really,” Kate
answered. “There will probably be some security up front that we’ll
have to check in with, but then it should be smooth
sailing.”

“
I’ve never been to such a
place, though. Should I be worried or scared?”

Sometimes Kate seemed to forget what
it was like to know the evils of the world firsthand. “Prison can
surely be a scary place if you’re the one behind the bars, but
we’ll be fine, and so will Jeremiah. They’re holding him in a small
detention facility just until they decide on his bail. Ryan seemed
pretty sure that they wouldn’t post a high bail amount knowing that
he’s from the Amish community. They usually reserve high amounts
for the suspects who are deemed to be flight risks.”

“
That’s a little bit of a
relief,” Beckie replied. She looked forward and stared out into the
deep blue sky. Kate could tell that the entire ordeal was weighing
heavily on the poor woman’s mind. “I just hope they fix this mess
soon. II know one thing about anyone, it’s that Jeremiah would
never hurt another person.”

Kate glanced back out at
the trees. She felt goose bumps forming on her arms as the cool air
grew colder. As the greens and browns of the foliage flew by her
eyes, she saw a sign that read,
Monroe
Correctional Facility: Next Right
.

“
There it is!” Becky said,
pointing into the distance. Kate looked up to see a large, fenced
off enclosure looming past the tree line. She was fairly certain
that they were still miles away from the Monroe Correctional
Facility, but she squinted anyway, hoping to get a look at the
building that sat behind the rows of barbed-wire fences.
Unfortunately, the twisting turns of the road, the dense trees, and
the emerging hills all combined to make it an impossible feat to
see anything of the prison from the road with naked
eyes.

As the taxi approached the first
building, Kate looked out to see a small security shack with a
large boom gate blocking the way. A short, pudgy man in a dark gray
uniform emerged from the small booth. He held a clipboard in his
hand and a radio receiver in the other. “Good day,” he said. “What
brings you to the MCF today?”

Kate rolled down her window. “We’re
here to visit one of the inmates, Jeremiah Steinbeck. Officer Ryan
Weaver called ahead about us. I’m Katie Lambright, and this is
Beckie Fisher.”

The officer nodded, looking down at
his clipboard, and flipping through its pages. “Wait here a
moment.”

Kate watched as the man walked inside
and picked up the phone. After speaking to someone for a few
moments, the man returned. “If you’ll just follow this road up
ahead, you’ll come to the parking area for visitors. Just grab any
spot there and head through the large brown doors.”

“
Thank you so much,” Beckie
said with a smile as the boom gate rose to give them passage. The
taxi’s engine roared toward the visitor’s parking area.

Kate looked out over the facility. She
could now see its little intricacies and the large fields of
nothing but grass and metal fences. The realization that poor
Jeremiah was trapped in such a place, with people that he had no
business being around, caused anguish to creep into her
heart.

They pulled into the small parking lot
and asked the taxi to wait. Kate led the way and headed toward the
large brown doors that the guard had mentioned. She pulled one of
them open and walked in. Kate noticed a look of surprise forming on
Beckie’s face as she examined the room with wide eyes.

The interior looked nothing like the
outside. A large, heavily secured desk sat in the far end of the
main room. Kate walked over to it and spoke through the glass. “Hi,
we’re here to see Jeremiah Steinbeck.” Aside from one guard who had
her back to the glass, only the blinking lights and the buzzing and
whirring sounds from the computers in the office could be seen or
heard.

The chair spun around, and the officer
leaped to her feet. “Hello, there. I just spoke with the guard who
let you in. If you would just sign here by your names,” she said,
handing Kate a clipboard through a small slot in the
glass.

Beckie leaned closer to look at the
paper. “What’s that for?”

“
Oh, it’s just so that they
have a record of every visitor. I’m sure some people have tried
bringing contraband into this place in the past. The guards are
just cautious; they have to be.”

“
Contraband? You mean bad
things?”

“
In here, everything is
bad,” Kate admitted. She scribbled her name on the paper and then
handed it to Beckie to sign. She took the pen and signed her name
before handing it back to the guard.

“
Thanks,” the guard said,
looking at their signatures. “If you both could just follow me,
please.”

The guard unlocked a door and emerged
from the office, before motioning for them to follow her lead. Kate
looked at Beckie and nodded. “Here we go.”

As they reached the end of
a very long, claustrophobic hallway, Kate saw two metal detector
units sitting in the doorway to the visiting area. “If you two
would just please walk through these security terminals, we’ll be
able to get you to see your friend very soon.” Kate nodded to
Beckie, signaling for her to go first. She walked through; not a
single peep sounded from the detectors. Then, Kate passed through
without any hiccups as well. The guard then led them around a
corner toward a sign that read,
Visitor’s
area
.

Kate looked over to see a large row of
glass windows with analog telephones hanging beside them. “Is this
a no-contact visiting area?” she asked, without
thinking.

The guard spun around, a confused look
on her face. “Excuse me?”

“
The phones,” Kate
clarified.

The guard nodded. “Oh, yes. Because
this is mainly a transfer facility, we limit most of our visits to
this area. You can still see and talk to him; you just won’t be
able to communicate without the receivers.”

The whole ordeal bothered Kate even
more now. Not only did she know that Jeremiah was innocent, but she
knew all too well that an Amish man wouldn’t take well to being
locked up like an animal.

The guard stopped and turned to the
women. “He’s waiting for you just beyond these doors. You guys will
have about fifteen minutes with him.”

The guard pushed a lever in the wall,
causing the doors to fly open. Kate exchanged glances with Beckie
and led the way in. As soon as she cleared the doorway, she saw
Jeremiah wearing a bright blue jumpsuit. Seconds later, she heard a
whimpering sound coming from beside her. Kate looked over to see
Beckie rubbing one of her eyes.

“
Let’s go talk to him,”
Kate said, looking at her with a forced smile. “We came all this
way to see him. Let’s not waste time.”

Beckie nodded.

The women walked up to sit down in
front of the small, thick glass. There was a phone on each side.
Kate pulled their receiver from its holster as Jeremiah frowned and
gripped his receiver tightly with his left hand. “Hello,” his voice
said in a grave tone.

“
Hi, Jeremiah,” Beckie
replied. Kate held the phone between her and Beckie’s ears so they
could both talk to him and listen.

“
So, have you heard
anything about what’s going on?” he asked.

“
No, we were hoping you
could fill us in,” Beckie said in response.

“
I don’t really have a clue
what’s going on,” Jeremiah said. “All I know is that they’re saying
they found some poison near one of my machines, and that the guy
must have been bothering me or something, and I lost my temper.
That’s not true at all, though.” He looked down and closed his
eyes.

“
They’re discussing bail
right now, but you should probably try to get yourself a good
lawyer,” Kate said. “It’s ridiculous that they’d think an Amish man
would ever commit a crime, let alone something so heinous, but
Officer Ryan said you were recently on
rumspringa
, and that men on
rumspringa
can sometimes
do something wild.” She broke off and sighed deeply.

Jeremiah sighed too, as he
looked back up through the glass. “I didn’t do this. I barely knew
that
mann
. I’ve
only seen him twice or so, and both times he asked me about the
same thing, I think.”

Kate was curious. “What did he ask
you?”

“
Well, the first time, he
just asked if the Amish would ever shelter someone.”

Beckie and Kate looked at each other
with confusion. “What do you mean?” Beckie said into the
phone.

“
The guy asked me if the
Amish would ever hide someone within their community. I was in
disbelief when he asked; believe me. I told him we would never open
our community to criminals, but I don’t think that’s what he
meant.”