Secrets in the Grave (Serenity's Plain Secrets Book 3) (14 page)

“Why, what are you into?”

“I’m currently in the Amish community. I’ll be here a little longer. Just leave the papers on my desk.”

“Will do. Need any help?” Todd lowered his voice to a more serious tone.

“Naw, not this time. I’ll see you later.” I hung up.

I turned into Jonas Peachey’s driveway. The van was nowhere to be seen. I’d purposely taken the long way around to the farm to give the medicine man time to get there before me. Since there was no sign of the van, I could only assume that he had somewhere else to go before he returned home.

It worked in my favor and I smiled at my luck.

Darkness had settled over the farm by the time I rapped on the door. A lone bird whistled in the distance and a cow mooed. Otherwise the countryside was broodingly quiet.

The door opened a crack before it flung wide open.

“Sheriff Adams. I wasn’t expecting you. Come in,” Ada Mae said, ushering me in to the house and closing the door behind me.

I glanced around the room. Esta was at the kitchen table, cutting celery with a large knife that would have been frightening for my sixteen-year-old niece to weld. Verna sat beside
her little sister with a knitting hook in her hand and yarn in her lap. Some kind of liquid bubbled to the top of a pot on the wood burning stove. My mouth watered. It smelled delicious.

“If you’ll excuse me, I don’t want this chicken noodle soup to boil over.” Ada Mae left me standing by the door to hurry to the pot and stir it. “Esta, go ahead and drop the celery in. Be careful. It’s extremely hot,” Ada Mae cautioned, turning her attention back to me. “What brings you by, Sheriff?”

I took a few steps away from the door. The kitchen was brightly lit with several lanterns. It felt rather cozy, different from when Jonas had healed Mervin and the taint of creepiness had crawled all over me.

“I’m sorry to bother you at dinnertime, but I have a few questions. Do you have a moment for me?” I asked.

“Of course. It’s no bother at all. Jonas is making his rounds this evening, so he won’t be back until later. It’s just me and the girls. I hope you’ll join us for dinner,” she said pleasantly, taking the spoon from Esta and shooing her towards the hallway.

Verna stood up, gathering her knitting supplies in her apron. The teenager smiled at me, then touched Esta’s shoulder, mumbling something in German to the girl.

“I’m going to clean my room, but I’ll be back soon,” Esta promised.

I smiled at the girl’s tactics, watching her join her sister and turn the corner. Both girls were striking, with the dark hair and blue eyes of their father. I wondered what Robyn had looked like. Unfortunately, the Amish didn’t allow portrait pictures. The only evidence that a person existed after they died were memories and their children.

I sat down on the nearest chair, turning to Ada Mae. “You were there for Esta’s birth?”

She continued stirring the soup as she dropped in what appeared to be a pinch of salt. “Why yes, I was.” She met my gaze. Her eyes were sad and her back slumped. “I try not to think about it. It was a very difficult time for all of us. Robyn’s death was so unexpected.”

“What do you think happened?”

Ada Mae sighed heavily and put the spoon down. She sat down in the chair beside me. She seemed defeated.

“It was strange. Everything was going smoothly, except maybe she’d been laboring a little too long. After Esta came out, Robyn was bleeding much heavier than she should have been. Jonas became alarmed and sent Gloria to call for help.” She shrugged and met my gaze. “Sometimes there are complications during childbirth. I remember my
Mammi
Lily delivering twins when I was only a young girl. The mother died a couple days later from an infection. Nobody knew for sure why she became sick. Robyn’s story is similar. Even the doctors at the hospital couldn’t give us a specific reason for her loss of so much blood.”

Ada Mae’s voice had a calming quality to it. If she weren’t Amish, I could easily picture her working as a nurse. There was just something about her easy-going manner that reminded me of Todd’s fiancé, Heather. She was an Emergency Room nurse.

It was more than likely impossible to find out exactly what caused Robyn’s death ten years earlier. Even the doctors at the hospital where she was taken were vague in their answers, feeling that the fact she was Amish and hadn’t had any prenatal care with a professional had probably contributed to her death in some way. I’d been told that the original doctor who had tried to save her life was now working in California, and
his notes agreed with the coroner’s conclusion. I was beginning to feel like I was chasing a ghost.

Changing gears, I took a chance. “It’s come to my attention that Jonas was treating Irene before her daughter’s death. Do you know anything about this?”

Ada Mae nodded. “He was treating Fannie, too. Ever since Irene’s husband passed away from cancer, the Kuhns’ women were having issues sleeping at night. I prepared a special chamomile tea to help them rest.”

Her words sparked a memory of my earlier conversation with Wilma. “Besides the chamomile, were there other ingredients in the tea?”

“I added a small amount of wild lettuce. It works well with the chamomile to soothe a person’s mind, and it helps relieve Irene’s asthma. The peppermint makes it taste better. It’s my special ingredient.”

“Does Jonas know as much about these plants as you do?”

Ada Mae smiled, shaking her head. “Not so much. Even he admits that.”

I heard the girls’ footsteps coming down the staircase, combined with giggling.

A gunshot blast sounded as the window beside the front door shattered. The girls screamed and Ada Mae exclaimed something in German.

“Get down.” I motioned to Ada Mae before I turned to the girls standing in the door opening from the hallway. “On the floor!” I ordered.

I had my gun in hand and was up against the wall in a fluid movement. Adrenaline rushed through my veins as I peeked out into the darkness through the window opening. The farm had no yard lights, my view obstructed by the murkiness of
nighttime and shadows stretching down from the barn. I held my breath. There was silence.

The gunning of the car’s engine was like a slap to my face. I grabbed the handle of the front door and flung it open. I tried to jog a few times a week, so I wasn’t in terrible physical shape, but I hadn’t had to rundown a criminal in a while.

The rear lights of an older model sedan disappeared around the bend as I reached my car. I shoved the key into the ignition and flung the car into reverse.
Thunk, thunk, thunk
.

“Dammit,” I growled, putting the car into park and jumping out. The back tires were flat. I could see the slashes.

Ada Mae was hesitant as she approached me. The two girls were peeking out the front door.

“Do you have any idea who shot at your house?” I asked, pulling the cellphone out of my pocket.

Ada Mae shook her head. Her face was pale and her mouth gaped open.

I focused on my phone, realizing that the woman wasn’t in the proper state to have a conversation.

“Todd, put out an APB county wide for a dark colored, four-door sedan,” I said into the phone.

“Is that all you got? Where are you?” he replied, his voice tense.

“That’s it. I’m going to need a ride. I’m out at Jonas Peachey’s farm in the Amish settlement. It’s on the east end of Burkey Road, not too far from where Naomi was shot.”

“Got it. I’ll let dispatch know. Do you need any personnel—medical help?”

“No. We’re good here,” I said curtly, hanging up.

The pounding of hooves on the pavement echoed and I raised my head. A horse and buggy blended into the night,
but I could follow their approaching movement by sound alone. When the buggy turned into the driveway, the definition of the horse became clear. I glanced at Ada Mae who took the few steps to stand beside me.

Jonas’ pale eyes shone out from the buggy before I saw his features. The sight of those freaky eyes made my heart rate speed up again.

Jonas pulled the horse down from a trot to stop beside us. He nodded at me. “I wasn’t expecting you, Sherriff. What brings you by?”

My eyes narrowed as I stared at the man. His hair was messy and the top few buttons on his blue shirt were unbuttoned, allowing me to catch a glimpse of black hair on his chest. I gauged his age to be somewhere around forty-five, but he had the swagger of a younger man.

“I wasn’t expecting to see you in a buggy, Mr. Peachey,” I said. When his brows rose, I took a breath and stopped myself from giving too much away of what I’d seen earlier. “When I was driving over here, I got turned around and ended up on Route Ten. I could have sworn I saw you riding in a minivan,” I lied.

“Yes, you probably did. Benjamin, one of the drivers, picked me up from Joseph Bender’s farm this afternoon to run errands in town with a couple other community members.” He smiled with a shrug. “It’s cheaper to pool our resources and share the cost. I left the horse and buggy there until I returned.”

Was the guy that smooth or was he telling the truth? It was hard to tell. His eyes were locked with mine, displaying either honesty or intense dominance. His story did make sense, though.

“
Da
, you won’t believe what happened,” Verna called out from the house. An instant later, she ran up to her father with Esta chasing after her.

Jonas lost the smile and his eyes widened in alarm. He shifted the handle of the buggy into park and hopped out in front of Ada Mae.

“What’s happened?” he asked her. His voice rose to a higher pitch.

Ada Mae replied to Jonas in their language. I could only guess from the excited inflections in her voice and her finger pointing at the front of the house, she was telling him about his window being shot out.

When she finished speaking, Jonas turned back to me. “Did you see who did this?”

“It was a navy blue or black, four-door sedan that sped away. I don’t believe they fired the shot from the car, either.” I motioned to my own car. “Slashed my tires. They were smart enough to do it as insurance that I wouldn’t pursue them.”

“You keep saying
they
. Did you see more than one person?” Jonas asked.

“No, I didn’t see anyone. It’s just a feeling, I guess,” I answered truthfully, staring at my deflated tires.

“I have an idea of who might have done this,” Jonas said slowly.

I met his gaze and he didn’t look away. “Go on,” I urged.

“Joseph’s son has had a couple of run ins with a group of rowdy English teens. That’s why I was there. He wanted to talk to me about it,” Jonas said.

I tilted my head. “Do you mean the Joseph Bender who’s married to Katherine?”

“Yes, that’s the one.”

“Is it Eli who’s having these problems?” I asked. When I said the name, my heart fluttered. He was the boy who was originally courting Naomi before she decided to run off with my nephew. I knew Amish communities were small worlds, but this was ridiculous.

Jonas nodded. “It seems these boys forced his buggy off the road the other night. Luckily, Eli was only bruised. The horse needed stitches and the buggy a new wheel, though. There was another incident where the same boys shoved Eli at the stockyard during an auction.”

All the information swirled around in my head like a mini tornado. What any of this had to do with the broken window behind me or Fannie’s death, I had no idea.

“Why would Joseph call you and not the bishop or even Moses Buckner? Better yet, here’s a novel idea—why not report these incidents to my office?” I crossed my arms in front of me.

“One of the boys is Benjamin’s son. Joseph asked me to talk to the man about the situation before we called you. Aaron and Moses are aware of what’s going on.” Jonas leaned forward in a conspiratorial way. “My people like to govern themselves.”

I snorted. I was already aware of how the Amish took matters into their own hands. I heard the cruiser slowing down before I saw it pull into the driveway. I was grateful that Todd didn’t come roaring in with the sirens blaring. The horse stomped and looked over its shoulder at the approaching vehicle.

“Girls, please take Remington to the stable and unhitch him. I’ll be there shortly to help brush him down,” Jonas told his daughters. He turned to Ada Mae. “I have a few bags in the buggy. You can take them to the house.”

Ada Mae and the girls went to work, leaving me waiting alone with Jonas while Todd parked beside my car.

“It’s nice that your sister is here to help you raise your younger children,” I commented.

Jonas puckered his lips. “Yes, I’m blessed to have Ada Mae. I don’t know what I would have done without her following my wife’s passing.”

The car door slamming shifted my gaze from Jonas to Todd. He strode purposely towards us.

“I put the APB out. Haven’t heard anything yet. With that kind of a vague description, we’re not working with much,” Todd said. He came to a stop in front of us.

I introduced the two men and explained to Todd what had happened.

“What’s the game plan, boss?” Todd asked me. Jonas appeared to be waiting patiently, but his piercing gaze betrayed him. Those light blue eyes sparked with intensity.

“I guess it’s not too late to have a talk with Eli Bender,” I said.

“Oh, man. You’re kidding me,” Todd exclaimed.

“I wish it was a joke,” I said.

I’d discovered on the job a long time ago that the same people had a tendency to keep popping up in criminal investigations, so I wasn’t as surprised as I should have been.

“I’ll have a tow truck out here tomorrow morning to get my car,” I told Jonas over my shoulder.

Jonas acknowledged my statement with a lopsided smile. “I hope you find the answers you’re looking for, Sheriff.”

I didn’t look back. Chills crawled over me at his words.

14

DANIEL

“T
his is perfect. Should I write you a deposit check to hold it for a couple of weeks until I move in?” Elayne asked.

Her voice broke through the haze I’d been in since Serenity had driven away. I looked warily at the brunette. She changed a lot since she’d left the Amish. In those days, she was quieter, more likely to listen than to chatter like a magpie. Looking at her made up face, short skirt, and cleavage-revealing blouse, it was hard to believe she had ever been Amish. Funny. Serenity didn’t wear makeup and had her hair in a ponytail most of the time and she was raised on the outside.