Plain Secrets

by Kit Wilkinson

  “I wouldn’t be anywhere else,” he whispered. “Now let’s get you home.” He took a flashlight from the broken buggy and turned them down the path, the flashlight in one hand, Hannah’s hand in his other.

  * * *

  With each step toward Nolt Cottage, Hannah’s fear and panic slipped away. Elijah’s hand seemed to feed her his strength and courage as they walked together. The other more tender sentiments released from his touch she tried to dismiss.

  “I’m glad Thomas and Nana Ruth will be coming to the cottage from the other direction. I wouldn’t want them to see the wreckage.”

  Eli nodded, looking back at the destroyed buggy. “I know. And I dread telling Abby.”

  “Abigail will understand. And if I know Thomas, he will take care of everything for her. That’s how he is.” She stopped and pressed her lips together. “Your prayer was most kind. I didn’t know you were still in the faith.”

  “Living in the world doesn’t mean I have to be of the world,” he said. “It’s harder. There’s more distractions to be sure, but I think in the end not joining the church has made my faith strong, not weakened it.”

  Hannah almost smiled. “But that doesn’t fit too well with Amish thinking, does it?”

  “No. I don’t suppose it does. I guess you could say I have a tolerance for other life choices. I think there are good English people who love God as much as we do. For me, being Amish isn’t a choice to have faith or not to have faith,” he said. “It’s a choice of how and maybe even where we are called to live.”

  “But how do you give reason for the gun and the taking of human life? This is a part of your job, no?”

  “No. Well, the gun, yes. But the gun is for protection. I’ve never killed anyone. Don’t want to, either.”

  “Would you? Would you kill someone? You fired the gun tonight, did you not?”

  “I shot at the tires of the car. I was trying to stop them. Not kill them. But I’m not so sure they weren’t trying to kill us this time.”

  “They weren’t before?”

  “I don’t think so. Tonight was different. The attack, it was much more aggressive. More risky. More dangerous. They have upped the ante and I don’t know why. Maybe we are on to them and we don’t even know it.” He laughed.

  “On to them? Upped the ante? Sometimes it’s hard to remember you were here among us once.”

  “Sometimes I feel that way. But not today, Hannah. Not today. The gathering was nice. Thank you for insisting that I go. I’m glad I did.”

  “I knew you would be…and seeing your Dat? Not as bad as you anticipated, no?”

  “The verdict is still out on that.”

  “There you go again, with your strange expressions.”

  Elijah stopped on the gravel path and turned his head toward the horse stable. “Is that…?”

  She followed his dark gaze to the holding pen. Abigail’s chestnut mare paced back and forth in front of the gate. “I told you she wouldn’t go far. Let’s go and bring her in.”

  They made their way behind the horse, guided her to the holding pen, then removed her harness. She snorted and paced between them still very agitated, but at least they had found her.

  “I’ll go fetch a lantern from the kitchen. Then we can take her to a stall and give her some hay. She will feel better to be with the other horses inside, jah?” Hannah gave him a slight smile, glad to have a task to fix her mind on. She turned away toward the house.

  Elijah grabbed her by the elbow. “You’re braver than you should be. I’ll go with you.”

  She did not like the wariness in his eyes. They’d already been attacked and shot at. What else could happen in one evening? It must have been tiresome to go through life worried about one’s safety at every turn. Hannah had always been thankful for the safe haven that was her Amish community, but now even more so. If this was what life was like on the outside, she wanted no part of it. Elijah’s presence might produce sparks in her heart, but she would forgo that for a quiet place to serve the Lord. Right? Yes. She was sure of it. Perhaps she’d always been sure of it and that’s why she’d chosen Jessica and Peter. Oh, why did she keep going back to that moment so long ago? Clearly, Elijah had let it go. Why couldn’t she?

  Eli walked quickly to the dark cottage. She could barely keep pace with his long strides. And despite her momentary flash of confidence, angst crept into her skin and filled her senses. Eli seemed tense, as well.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “I thought I heard something.” He reached back and took her hand.

  “Fear thou not; for I am with thee,” she began her favorite verse. “Be not—”

  “Be not dismayed; for I am thy God,” Eli interrupted. “I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”

  Hannah swallowed hard, looking up into his beautiful blue eyes. Remorse for the pain she’d caused him all those years ago sank her heart low and she closed her eyes against her regret.

  “Don’t fall apart on me now.” He moved closer, offering his embrace but not forcing it upon her.

  Hannah stepped back. “I’m—I’m sorry. I am just glad you are come. So glad you are here.”

  “Me, too.” Eli tilted his head and lifted his arms again.

  This time, Hannah sank into his embrace. She placed her hands on his chest and felt the steady beat of his heart. His arms surrounded her. And she felt…she felt safe.

  After a long moment, he lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her fingers gently. “You need to rest, Hannah. You must be—”

  Crash! They turned toward the back door. Something inside the house had fallen. Something big and heavy.

  “Can’t seem to get a break, can we?” Elijah slipped his gun from its holster and slid open the back kitchen door.

  “I didn’t know you had brought the gun,” she whispered.

  “Would you feel better if I had left it in the buggy?” He stared back at her.

  She shook her head no. She had to admit that although the gun made her uneasy, she would have felt worse without it. Once inside the kitchen, she clicked on the overhead oil-powered lights.

  As soft light spilled over the room, they each sucked in a quick breath. Elijah was right to have followed her to the house. Someone had most definitely been inside and probably still was.

  ELEVEN

  “I think they’re gone,” Elijah whispered, putting an arm around Hannah as the tears spilled over her cheeks.

  The house was a horrible chaos. Not one thing seemed to be in place. Tables and chairs had been overturned. The cupboard emptied. Flour and oats and other grains tossed and spread across the hardwood floors. The upholstered sofa had been shredded with a knife and unstuffed. Broken plates and kitchen utensils were strewn about. But the crash had come from the corner where Daniel Hostetler sat bound, gagged and duct-taped to one of the kitchen chairs. It looked as if in trying to free himself he’d turned his chair over and landed on his side.

  Eli rushed to the young man and carefully lifted the tape from his mouth. “You okay?”

  He nodded.

  “Who did this? Are they still here?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t think so.”

  Elijah frowned as he began to cut the boy loose. “So, what happened? How did you get here like this?”

  Elijah righted the chair and helped Daniel up and into it, as there was nowhere else to sit. When Daniel did not answer, Elijah righted a few of the other chairs and pulled one next to the kid.

  “Listen, Daniel, I let you run off earlier today, but I shouldn’t have. Whatever you know about all this, you need to come clean. Now.”

  The kid swallowed hard. He lifted his eyes to Hannah, then back to Elijah. “But I—I don’t really know
anything.”

  Elijah folded his arms over his chest. “Then how did you end up here and in this chair?”

  He looked at Hannah. There was shame in his eyes. Slowly, he reached into his shirt and pulled out a cloth bag with a drawstring top. “I—I was returning this.”

  Elijah took the bag and opened it. Inside was a large amount of cash in hundreds.

  “Thomas’s money!” Hannah ran over to the boy, covering her mouth with one hand. “Oh, Daniel, it was you in the house last night. I knew I had heard the voice before.” She paused and looked confused. “But why? Why did you come in the night? Why not just come and ask for what you need? Why sneak in and scare me to death and hurt me? Thomas is always generous with his earnings. You must know that.”

  Daniel’s head dropped below his shoulders, but still he said nothing.

  “That’s it.” Elijah stood, grabbed his phone from his pocket and showed it to the kid. “Time to call Chief McClendon.”

  “No. Please. No.” Daniel’s voice sounded panicked. “They’ll kill Mrs. Nolt. They’ll kill me. I promised them I wouldn’t talk to the police. They’re watching me. I saw them at the gathering.”

  “The man on the hill?”

  Daniel nodded. “Please don’t call the police.”

  “So, who are these people? Why would they want to kill you or Hannah or Jessica? What is this journal that you keep talking about?”

  “I don’t know.” He shrugged. “But Jessica took it and she shouldn’t have. We have to find it. I have to find it.”

  “Did they say what’s in this journal?” What could a young Amish girl take from Englischers that would have them willing to kill?

  Daniel shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t know,” he said, nearly crying now. “They just keep telling me to get it.”

  Eli sighed heavily. He sat back in the chair across from Daniel, then motioned for Hannah to sit also. “Why don’t you start at the beginning, Daniel? Don’t leave out a thing. When and how did these people come into your lives?”

  Daniel nodded. “Well, you know that Jessica told me to not come a-callin’ on her anymore. At first, I thought this was just her way. You know, to take some time and think us over a bit before we could…well, before we get real serious. But then I find out that she’s going into town every chance she gets. I could not think why she would do this but that she had found herself another beau. So I—I followed her to town on the train one night.”

  “When was this, Daniel? What night?” Elijah asked.

  “Two weeks ago.”

  Hannah covered her mouth again, this time to muffle a sob.

  “Okay. Keep going,” Elijah prompted him.

  “So, she took the train. I followed her. She carried a large bag and walked fast. Many blocks. I could hardly keep up with her. She seemed very…enthusiastic. I think she must be off to elope or run away. I was so angry and so broken.”

  Broken. Elijah glanced at Hannah. He remembered feeling broken himself at that age. The moment Hannah had told him she’d accepted Peter’s proposal.

  “Finally I catch up to her,” he continued, “and ask her what she is doing. I tell her she is stupid, acting like a child and should come home with me now.”

  The more Daniel talked, the more Hannah tensed. Elijah reached a hand over and touched her shoulder. “Are you sure you want to hear all of this?”

  She nodded. “Yes. What did my daughter say?” She looked to Daniel.

  “She told me to go home. That I was going to ruin everything. I asked, what can I ruin? She was ruining everything all by herself. But she says I don’t know anything. That she is making a difference. Whatever that meant. Then she just keeps going. I followed her to a big apartment building. Outside, there are some boys, men really, mean-looking, bully-types. I am scared for her. But she goes through them like nothing. They say hi to her and let her pass. But it’s not so easy for me.

  “They stop me. They take my hat. They push me. Make me go on my knees. They are going to beat me. But Jessica returns and tells them not to waste time. She and another girl. This other girl tells them to walk me to the train and make sure I get on.”

  “Another girl?” Elijah asked.

  “Yes, I think they called her Brit.”

  “Brittney Baker?”

  “Yes. Maybe. I don’t know. But she came out, like I said, with Jessica. Then I was walked to the train and forced on by these boys.”

  “Did Jessica come home with you?”

  He shook his head. “No. She didn’t even go to the station. She stayed with her fancy friend.”

  “Did you ever see Jessica again?”

  Daniel paused, looking from Hannah to him and back again to Hannah.

  “We need to know the truth, Daniel. The more I know, the better I can help you…and Hannah.” Eli tried to give an encouraging look to help the boy to trust him. “This isn’t about you getting into trouble. This is about stopping a killer. You have to understand that.”

  Daniel still hesitated.

  Hannah leaned forward and touched the boy’s knee. “It’s okay, Daniel. I know that you loved her. And she loved you, too. I don’t blame you for following her.”

  A tear rolled down the boy’s smooth cheek.

  “When did you last see her?” Eli asked again.

  “I did not see her again.” Daniel stared at the floor, avoiding Eli’s gaze.

  Elijah sighed. The boy was lying or leaving something out. “But you went back to the city?”

  Daniel lifted his eyes, then froze when they reached Elijah’s gaze. “I did. I went back to the city after…after Jessica was found. I wanted to know who this friend was. Why Jessica had left me. Why I’d lost her.” He dropped his head in his hands. “Jessica was gone—I couldn’t ask her. And I had to know.”

  “What happened when you went back? Did you talk to Jessica’s friend?”

  He nodded, looking away. “Yes. She looked bad, this time. Not like before. There was a cut on her face. And she wouldn’t tell me anything about Jessica or what had happened that night. And then those boys come again and they made me leave.”

  “They beat you up?”

  “Jah. They said that if I didn’t find this journal, I’d end up like Jessica. When I told them I didn’t know where or what it was, they said to ask her mama. One of them held a gun to my head and pulled the trigger just to scare me.”

  “Is that who came here today?”

  “I don’t know. But I don’t think so. Those boys they talk like kids, you know…”

  “Street. They talk street.”

  “Jah, they talk street. Very hard to understand. But the men tonight. They sound older. Educated. Good English. Not street.”

  Elijah shook his head. Was this kid telling the truth? If so, this story painted a rather grim picture of Jessica—stealing, lying, involved with a gang.

  He didn’t know exactly what he’d expected to find out about Jessica—perhaps that she’d been dragged into the city, forced somehow—certainly not that she’d taken a train there alone. Intentionally.

  “Do you know the address of the apartments you went to when you followed her?”

  “Kensington. From the train stop, it was three blocks west and two north. There was a restaurant across the street called the Imperial.”

  One of the worst parts of town. Elijah pulled his phone from his pocket.

  “Pease don’t tell the police about me,” Daniel said. “Please.”

  Elijah could see the fear in the boy’s eyes.

  He walked to the corner of the room and called his partner. “More bad news here,” he said to Tucci, catching him up on the case. “How about on your end?”

  “It’s pretty interesting, Miller,” Tucci said. “I got the info on your symbol and on
your girl. First of all, there are about twenty Brittney Bakers in Philadelphia, but only one with a record and between the ages of thirteen and twenty. So I figured that must be her.”

  “Got an address?”

  “Yes,” Tucci said, “4203 Yanger Street, number 502, across from the Imperial.”

  Then that part of Daniel’s story was true. Yanger Street was exactly three blocks from the train at Broad. It was also the worst area of the city—the roughest and dirtiest. It was no place for a young girl and certainly no place for an Amish one. Elijah glanced back at Daniel and Hannah still sitting in the corner. Maybe the kid was telling the truth. But that prospect made his stomach churn for Hannah’s sake. It was so important to her that she’d been a good mother, that she’d done all the right things, that Jessica had been a good girl. He knew this story of Daniel’s must have been the hardest for her to hear.

  “Why is she on record?”

  “She’s run away from home four times,” Tucci said. “One time she was gone for a month. Got all the way to New York. She was working the streets.”

  Elijah rubbed his face. That was not anything he wanted to share with Hannah. “What’s up with her home life? Why run?”

  “There’s not much there, only that she lives with the dad, who is really the second stepdad. No record of the actual father,” Tucci said. “But this guy is acting guardian and get this—he is former D.C. Metro. His name is Jackson. Had some serious charges brought up against him three years ago, so he resigned from the force. He’s been off the grid ever since. Supposedly, he’s working as a security guard for Philadelphia Party Rentals Incorporated. I found a huge file on him, pictures included. I’m going to forward it to you.”

  “I don’t have internet out here.”

  “Your BlackBerry, man.”

  He laughed. “I’ll have to sit back out in my car and recharge. So, what about the symbol?”

  “I’m getting to that. The symbol, turns out, is the marketing logo for a Fortune 500 company called Dutch Confidential. They own and operate a lot of business up and down the east coast, but mostly they work in electronic security systems. But guess what else they own? Philadelphia Party Rentals.”