by Debby Giusti
Serpent had found her again. The last thing she thought of before she slipped into darkness was Abram’s handsome face that she would never see again.
TWENTY-FOUR
Abram helped Emma set up their stall at the Amish market and, after the morning rush of customers subsided, he hurried to the sheriff’s office.
Curtis Idler sat at his desk and greeted Abram with a warm handshake. “I’m sure you’re here to talk to Samuel. He’s at city hall with the mayor. I expect him back shortly.”
“I wanted to know how the questioning went with Pearson. Did he reveal anything you can share with me?”
Curtis’s smile waned. “Ned Quigley questioned Pearson after bringing him in yesterday. We held him overnight, but this morning a police officer from Petersville provided an alibi. They had worked together the night Miriam said her car was hijacked.”
“The officer must have mixed up the dates,” Abram objected.
“Ned said Pearson’s alibi is tight. We couldn’t hold him after that.”
The reality of what Curtis was saying struck Abram hard. His chest constricted and a roar filled his ears. He leaned over Curtis’s desk. “Are you telling me that Pearson, the Serpent, has been released from jail?”
“That’s it exactly, Abram. He walked out of here this morning. The sheriff planned to tell you after his meeting.”
“Then Miriam is in danger.”
Curtis held up his hand. “Pearson is not a killer, Abram. You’ve got that wrong.”
“I am right about the Serpent.” As much as Abram wanted to deflect his anger onto Curtis, Abram knew he was at fault for leaving Miriam alone.
He glanced at his uncle’s desk. “Tell Samuel to meet me at the farm. I fear for Miriam’s life. If anything happens to her—”
Unable to continue, Abram stormed out of the office and hurried to the market to find his sister.
“I’m going back to the house,” he told Emma. “Miriam cannot stay alone at the farm with Serpent on the loose.”
“Be careful, Abram. Isaac should arrive soon. I will go home with him. But get to Miriam and make sure she is safe. She cares deeply for you, Abram. Open up your eyes and see the truth. Things change, and you have to bend, my brother. Tell Miriam how you feel and start by inviting her to join our faith.”
His sister’s words hit Abram hard. Miriam cared for him. Was Emma speaking the truth?
He hurried to the buggy and headed out of town. Nellie responded to the flick of the reins and was soon trotting at a rapid clip, but not fast enough to suit Abram.
Pearson knew Miriam was staying at the farm. He could have been watching them this morning. Watching and waiting until Abram and Emma had left the house.
Would Miriam be there when he arrived?
A mile out of town Abram spied Isaac’s buggy coming toward him. Little Daniel sat next to his dad.
Abram pulled Nellie to a stop and called across the roadway to Isaac. “Pearson was released from jail, and I am concerned for Miriam’s safety. Did you see his car on the roadway?”
“We saw no sign of Serpent. Daniel found Miriam’s phone. She was charging her cell in the dairy barn when we left our house. The only car that passed by was the Amish Taxi.”
“Frank Evans’s service?”
“Yah. He said Miriam had requested a ride.”
A chill settled over Abram. The bus to Atlanta stopped in Willkommen today. “I must hurry. Emma is at the market. Would you bring her home? And find Samuel. Ask him to drive to the farm. I might need his help.”
“Yah. Of course. Be careful, Abram.”
But he did not respond to Isaac’s warning. He was too worried about Miriam and whether he would find her gone.
The ride home never seemed so long. Abram’s mind kept playing tricks on him with terrible thoughts of what Serpent would do if he found her.
Please, Gott, keep Miriam safe.
Rounding a bend in the road, Abram spied the Amish Taxi approaching. He flagged the vehicle down and called out to the man at the wheel.
Frank rolled down his window and waved to Abram. “I had a scheduled pickup at your house. Miriam Miller. But she wasn’t there when I arrived. I pounded on both the front and back doors of your house and checked the barn and woodshop. No one appeared to be home.”
“You saw no one?” Fear gripped Abram’s throat.
“The house sat empty. At least, that’s how it seemed.”
“She wanted a ride to the bus station?”
Frank nodded. “That’s right. She scheduled the pickup so she could catch the 10:00 a.m. bus to Atlanta.”
Abram said nothing else. He flicked the reins and encouraged Nellie to go even faster. He had to get home, and this was one time he wished for faster transportation. Nellie was a faithful horse that had served the family well, but she was too slow. Everything inside him screamed to be with Miriam. He knew deep down that something was terribly wrong.
He continued to worry when he turned into the drive. He leaped from the buggy, climbed the porch stairs and hurried inside, shouting her name.
“Miriam, where are you?”
Taking the stairs two at a time he climbed to the second floor and pushed open the door to the guest room. A note sat on the dresser.
He reached for it, afraid of what he would find.
“Thank you for opening your home to me, Abram, and for your generous hospitality.”
What? He had invited her into his family. It wasn’t a matter of hospitality. It was more. Far more.
Note in hand, he raced to Emma’s room and on to his own, but failed to find Miriam.
“You made me feel welcome,” he continued to read. “I felt such peace and comfort in your home.”
He wanted her to feel more than comfort. He wanted her to feel acceptance and, yes, even love.
He ran to the barn, pushed open the door to find Bear whining to get out. “What happened, boy? Did you see Miriam?”
The dog barked and wagged his tail, which provided Abram no clue as to what had happened. He ran to the woodshed and his workshop and the outbuildings. Frank said he had checked them all as well, but Abram needed to make sure Miriam was not in any of the locations.
He turned to stare at Isaac’s dairy barn. Perhaps she was making another phone call. A surge of relief swept over Abram. He started to run, eager to find her and tell her how he really felt. He would beg her forgiveness for his lack of understanding, for calling in the sheriff and for all the things he had done to hurt her, especially for believing his uncle when Samuel said Serpent would be held behind bars. He had thought Miriam would be safe at the farm today, but he had been wrong. Dead wrong.
Running along the drive, he stopped short, spying something in the grass. Stooping, he reached for the shiny object. A cell phone.
He tapped the screen. A picture of Miriam with two other women, one a bit older and the other a young blond. Miriam’s sisters. Daniel had found the phone and returned it to Miriam, yet she had dropped it.
Abram’s ears roared. Miriam would never accidently drop her phone. It had been knocked from her hand in a struggle.
His head swirled. He felt sick and afraid. Anger swelled within him at his own stupidity.
He heard the whine of an engine before the sheriff’s car came into view. Samuel pulled into the drive.
Abram opened the passenger door. “Miriam is gone. Serpent must have her. We need to find the cabin where he held her before.”
“Get in.”
Once Abram had climbed into the squad car, Samuel pulled onto the road, heading up the mountain. “Where’s the cabin?”
“I do not know, but she mentioned hearing water.”
“There’s a cabin not far from the river where she abandoned her car,” Samuel vol
unteered. “The Petersville police said they would search the place, but we need to check it out ourselves.”
Samuel’s hands were tight on the steering wheel. “We’ll go without lights or siren. I don’t want to warn Pearson we’re on to him. Surprise is our best weapon.”
But would it be enough?
The sheriff pushed his foot down on the accelerator as he grabbed his radio and contacted the dispatcher.
“Miriam Miller has been taken. Alert all deputies and first responders. Roads leading from the Zook farm need roadblocks. Issue a BOLO for Pete Pearson, auxiliary member of the Petersville Police Department. Contact the chief of police there and get him involved.”
Trees and boulders flew past the window. All Abram could see was Miriam’s face, twisted with fear, and Serpent standing over her, the vile tattoo wrapped around his neck, with a gun to her head.
“Hurry, Samuel,” Abram said, uncertain as to the impact of a look-out bulletin with the local law enforcement. “We have to get to Miriam. We have to get to her in time.”
* * *
Miriam awoke to a déjà vu experience, hearing water and smelling the musty cot on which Pearson had tied her. She pulled against the restraints, needing to free herself.
Over the pounding of her heart, she heard a one-sided conversation that indicated Pearson was on his cell.
“That’s right. I’ve got her at the cabin.”
A long pause. “He recognized me today and remembered the woman. He was planning to notify the sheriff. I had to kill him.”
A lump formed in Miriam’s throat. Was he talking about Abram? Had Pearson killed him?
“You killed her mother,” Serpent continued.
Miriam turned her head to hear more clearly.
“Just because she was screaming and saying how much she loved her daughter.” Serpent’s voice was raised, his anger evident. “You’re as guilty as I am.”
The reality of what he had revealed washed over her. In the heat of the attack, she had blocked out her mother’s words. Now, as she relived again the moment prior to her mother’s death, they returned in a flash of recall and, although still unable see the shooter’s face, she heard her mother’s words of love spoken from the heart.
“I love you, Miriam!”
The open wound that had festered deep within Miriam for so long, the wound of being unwanted, of being unloved, knit together as surely as if the Divine Physician Himself had sutured the gaping hole closed.
She was loved. Tears stung her eyes, but she wouldn’t give in to them. She had to free herself so she could know what had happened to Abram. And Emma. Was that dear woman hurt, as well?
Abram couldn’t be dead. It couldn’t be true. It had to be a lie.
TWENTY-FIVE
Abram felt like a caged grizzly bear when they found the cabin by the water’s edge empty. He climbed back into the sheriff’s squad car.
“Where to now?” Samuel asked, his voice as hard as steel and reflecting the way Abram felt.
“Ezra Jacobs’s place. Jacobs said he saw a tall red-haired man that matched the description of a person Miriam had seen at the cabin. The old man’s memory is not the best, but perhaps he will have remembered more about what happened.”
Samuel accelerated. “Hold on,” he told Abram as he pulled onto the mountain road, heading for the turnoff to Jacobs’s cabin. He made the sharp turn onto the narrow, pitted roadway that led up the steep incline, sending gravel and dirt flying.
They braked to a stop in front of the cabin, leaped from the car and raced to the porch. The sheriff called Ezra’s name and announced, “Sheriff’s office,” before he entered the small abode. What they found took Abram’s breath.
The old man lay on the floor in a pool of blood. His faithful dog, Gus, whined at his side.
The sheriff knelt beside Ezra and felt for a pulse. He looked up with heavy eyes and shook his head. “He’s gone.”
Pulling out his cell, he called Dispatch and requested backup. “We also need the coroner, a crime scene specialist and an ambulance to transport the body to the morgue.”
A siren sounded, heading their way.
“Tell everyone to go silent,” Samuel said to the dispatcher. Within seconds, the shrill wail died.
As Samuel pocketed his cell, a car charged up the gravel trail and braked in front of the cabin.
Deputy Curtis Idler climbed from behind the wheel and hurried to join Abram and the sheriff.
“What happened?” he asked before he looked down and saw the body. He let out a lungful of air and shook his head. “Looks like we’ve got a killer on the loose.”
Not the story Curtis had given Abram earlier when the deputy had claimed Serpent was innocent of wrongdoing.
“Did you question Ned Quigley about releasing Pearson?” Abram demanded as he tried to control his anger.
Curtis held up a hand defensively. “I told you what Quigley said. Pearson’s alibi was airtight.”
“I’m beginning to think I hired the wrong guy,” the sheriff said. “Do you know where Ned is now?”
Curtis shook his head. “I haven’t seen him all day. His girlfriend called and said he had a stomach virus, but I’m not sure if we can trust her.”
“Why not?”
“She worked with the Petersville Police Department as a file clerk some years back. If any of those cops are bad, she might be part of the group.”
“I’ll deal with Ned when we get back to town,” the sheriff assured Curtis. “Right now, we have to find Miriam Miller. Pearson may have her. She was previously held in a cabin situated near running water.”
“Water? You mean the river? What about the abandoned cabin on the other side of the roadway?”
Samuel nodded. “We’ve already checked it out.”
Abram stepped onto the porch and rounded the cabin. Jacobs had spotted the red-haired man. Surely the old guy didn’t travel far from home, which meant Red had been close by. At the rear of the cabin, Abram spied the continuation of a roadway that angled under an overhang of oaks and disappeared up the mountain into the thick forest.
He came back and told Samuel.
“Let’s go.” The sheriff and Abram took the lead with Curtis following in the second car. The path was steep and rough, but they soon came upon a waterfall. The running water Miriam had heard.
Getting out of his squad car, Curtis drew his gun and pointed to a thick patch of hardwoods and pines. “I’ll check to the right. You two head to the left.”
Samuel held up his hand. “Stay behind me, Abram. Or you can wait in the car.”
“I am going with you.”
Abram wanted to push quickly through the brush, but Samuel insisted they take it slow. “We have to use caution and cover. We don’t want Pearson to see us first.”
He was right, of course, but Abram kept thinking of Miriam being held against her will.
Let her be alive. Please, Gott. I beg forgiveness for all my transgressions. For my sinful past. Do not let my failings keep You from helping Miriam.
The sharp report of a gunshot sounded behind them. Samuel turned and ran, retracing his steps as he headed in the direction of the gunfire. Abram passed him, fearing the worst. It couldn’t be Miriam.
“Get behind me,” Samuel warned. But Abram refused to slow down. He needed to find Miriam.
Passing the area where they had parked the cars, they raced into the thick brush, following the path Curtis had taken. Not more than fifty feet into the thicket, they spied the cabin and Pearson’s body on the front porch with a bullet in his chest. Just like Jacobs, the Serpent lay in a pool of his own blood.
Curtis knelt over him and touched his neck. “He had a weapon.”
“Did you identify yourself as from the sheriff’s office?” Samu
el asked.
“Of course I did,” Curtis insisted. “He wouldn’t drop his weapon. I didn’t have a choice.”
“Miriam?” Frantic to find her, Abram started for the cabin.
Curtis stepped in front of him. “I’ll go first. You don’t know who’s in there.”
“I do not care. I need to find her.”
The sheriff stared down at where Pearson lay. He pursed his lips and turned to glare at Curtis.
“What?” A muscle twitched under Curtis’s eye.
“Pearson’s gun is still in his holster.”
“He had another weapon. It must have fallen into the bushes.”
Samuel took a step toward the deputy. “Give me your gun, Curtis.”
“What are you talking about? Pearson was a criminal. He kidnapped a woman. She’s tied up inside.”
“Have you seen her?” Samuel stepped closer, his voice low and menacing.
Abram inched closer, needing to get into the cabin.
“Stay where you are.” Curtis aimed his gun at the sheriff but flicked his gaze to Abram.
“Calm down, Curtis. There will be an investigation,” the sheriff said. “If you’re telling the truth, you’ll be exonerated.”
“You always think you know best. I was in line for sheriff until you decided to run for office. I knew I didn’t have a chance. People thought you were the honest candidate because of your Amish background. They don’t know that you left your community because you couldn’t follow the rules.”
“Give me the gun, Curtis.” The sheriff inched closer. Abram did the same.
“You’ll never get away with this,” Samuel warned.
“Of course I will,” Curtis boasted. “I’ll blame it all on Pearson. He was a loser. He wouldn’t follow my lead. He made me kill that old woman. I didn’t want to, but she started screaming. At least her daughter didn’t see my face. Pearson and I had been a team, but he got pushy and shoved his weight around. The mother was protective of her daughter, saying how special she was and how much she loved her. It made me sick.”
Curtis shook his head with disgust. “My mother left me in a motel until child services picked me up. I was stuck in that room for two days. How do you think that feels, Sam? Do you have any idea? You were raised in a loving family and you turned your back on them. I didn’t have anyone to love me.”