“He’s dead, and your husband was encouraging the police to believe he’s alive,” Daniel said slowly. Having seen pictures of the two men, he immediately understood how easily Gregory could have gotten away with using the partner’s ID and credit cards.
“Yes,” Rebecca whispered.
“How did he know you’d seen the wallet?”
She bent her head. Her rocking picked up speed. “I was dumb. I, um...”
“You confronted him.” Daniel felt sick.
She didn’t want to look at him, which made him immediately suspicious. But after a moment, she said, “He walked in the door just as I was leaving. He was surprised to see me and, well, kind of hostile. A week later, when he was picking up Matthew, I begged him to tell me that he hadn’t had anything to do with Steven getting hurt.”
“That sounds more suicidal than dumb,” he said, infuriated that she’d taken a risk so huge. Hurt? Really? How about dead? And she was still making excuses for this guy?
She glared at him. “He was my husband. I didn’t believe—” After a few seconds, her shoulders sagged. “What I did was stupid, okay? I didn’t give myself time to think through what I really should do.”
Truth, Daniel thought.
“He insisted he didn’t have anything to do with Steven dying, and I believed him.”
More truth. So what had she lied about? He crossed his arms. “But he didn’t deny the guy is dead.”
“Not exactly. I was...pretty freaked. If Steven hadn’t taken the money, where was it? And if he had...well, I guess Tim and Josh could have been frantically searching for it.”
“That makes no sense,” he said brutally. “Once law enforcement was involved, the two of them wouldn’t have been able to recover the money without explanation. If they did explain, there would be a lot of questions. Starting with why the man who’d embezzled it didn’t have the money.” He frowned. “When did the police become involved?”
“A good friend of Steven’s reported him missing after he didn’t show up for their usual game of tennis. He went to Steven’s town house, called around, found out he hadn’t been at work for a couple of days.”
“If Josh and Tim had had their way, they’d never have involved the cops. If anyone else within the company knew money was missing, they could have blamed Steven but said they didn’t want clients to know the foundation of the firm had a giant crack.” Major businesses did often keep financial disasters secret.
“I suppose I didn’t think it through,” Rebecca said. “All I can say is that I once loved Tim. We’d been together for nine years.”
That precarious dignity of hers got to him, although he didn’t want it to. Not now.
“That’s a long time,” she said. “And, no matter how I felt about Tim, I didn’t want to see Matthew’s father go to prison. It’s not like I knew what happened.”
“You didn’t go to the police.”
Her chin came up. “The lead investigator grilled me right after Tim and I separated. He was so nasty I didn’t want to cooperate with him. I know I should have. But I justified it to myself, and then... The truth is, we’d been arguing about custody. Tim backed down and said he’d allow me primary custody.”
“If you kept your mouth shut.” Crap.
Back to examining her hands, she said, “Matthew is everything to me. I couldn’t let Robert have him. Tim and his father could afford better lawyers than I could. They’re successful community leaders. I wouldn’t look like much in comparison.”
Frustration with the woman mingled with his fear for her. She’d danced with the devil and was now paying the consequences.
Feeling cruel, he said, “Did you give a thought to Stowe’s family, waiting for news about him?”
She lifted her head for a fleeting look at him. “He doesn’t have any family. He wasn’t even in a relationship. If he had been...” Her throat worked. “I’d like to say I would have called the police.”
Sucker that he was, he wanted to believe her.
“So then you and a bullet had a near miss,” he said wryly.
“No, it was quite a while.” She kept her eyes on her clasped hands. “Since we were in agreement, the divorce went through. Tim seemed...mostly like himself when I saw him the next few months. I think he believed I wouldn’t say anything. He had Matthew every other weekend. I got mad once when Matthew came home upset. His grandfather had spanked him for standing up for me. Matthew didn’t like the bad words Robert used about me. But I don’t think anything else like that happened. Then suddenly Tim told me that Josh didn’t like me knowing so much. Josh felt threatened, too, Tim said.”
“Too.”
“That’s what he said. I thought Tim believed I’d never go to the police. Maybe if he’d never told Josh...” She trailed off.
“He and Josh were coconspirators. You are an ex-wife.”
Sounding unhappy, she said, “Josh wasn’t the only one angry at Tim. His father was, too.”
“And you have primary custody because you had knowledge to hold over his head.”
Her chin came up. “He offered. I didn’t ask.”
“Doesn’t change the reality.”
The chin came back down. “No.”
“You know what we have to do now.”
“Tell the investigator something I’m sure he already suspects?”
“You can give him someplace to start. With that focus, they’ll find proof Tim was out of town when the other guy’s credit cards were used. With luck, he’ll have left some trail that will allow them to put him right where the card was used.”
“But I don’t believe Tim had anything to do with Steven’s dying, if that’s what happened.” She was pleading for him to believe her. The glider action became agitated. “And it’s not because I have some kind of lingering feelings for Tim. I don’t. Right now, I’m furious. But I do know him. I believe he got sucked into something bad by Josh. Because of his father, Tim is all about impressing people, showing he’s the big man—even if that means doing something he wouldn’t otherwise. Only, the way things stand, it will be Tim’s face that appears on some security camera using Steven’s cards. He’ll take the fall for Josh. I’d feel different if I really thought Tim had killed Steven.”
She might as well be wearing blinders, like the harness horses that pulled the buggies. Daniel would have been disgusted except a lot of this sounded familiar. He could have been talking to one of his sisters who’d gotten herself into a similar spot. It was as if Rebecca shared the Amish reluctance to go to the law. She certainly hadn’t wanted to turn to him.
He was willing to bet she had determined to forgive her ex-husband for any and all sins, too. The Amish believed that if a man repented of a wrong he’d committed, he should be accepted back into the faith and the community, forgiveness absolute, past actions left behind. Rebecca wanted to believe Tim really was a decent man, influenced by the truly wicked.
He shook his head. She’d spent enough time among the Amish. It wouldn’t be surprising if their attitudes had worn off on her. And her mother hadn’t rebelled from her childhood beliefs, not the way he’d done. She would have gently influenced her daughter to believe that forgiveness was right, that people deserved second chances.
Fine. Daniel believed the same, up to a point. And maybe Tim Gregory really wasn’t the bad guy. But he’d had his second chance now, and he’d blown it. Never mind that, at the very least, he had helped cover up a death that had likely been a murder.
“He’s a dangerous man, Rebecca.”
“The thing is, something else happened.”
“Besides you almost getting shot?”
The strain on her face found an echo in her voice. “After the shooting, I was still lying on the sidewalk when my phone rang.”
He tensed.
“It was this sort of metallic voice. He said I’d had a warning now, to keep my mouth shut. That if I went to the cops, Matthew would die.”
Gripped by now-useless fear and anger, Daniel could only articulate one word. “He?”
“I’m pretty sure. Um.” She didn’t want to look at him anymore. “Tim wouldn’t have threatened his own son. He does love Matthew. When I called him about what happened, he sounded really shocked and mad. He said he’d try to find out more and, well, make sure there wasn’t a repeat.”
And she’d believed him, because the son of a bitch was so trustworthy.
“Except...” She chewed on her lower lip. “When he called back, I could tell he wouldn’t be able to stop Josh, if that’s who was behind it.”
Huh. A dose of common sense.
“I packed to take off, but that same day, I got hit by the car,” she said. “There was another call. This one said, ‘Lucky for us, you have a weakness.’ I couldn’t risk Matthew!” she cried. “I couldn’t.”
“It didn’t occur to you that telling the truth to the investigators in San Francisco would have taken the pressure off?”
“Would it?”
“I can’t see your father-in-law going the route of threatening Matthew,” Daniel said slowly. “I wouldn’t let your ex off the hook. Threats are cheap, and he of all people knows how to get to you.”
Her mouth formed a circle of outrage. “He wouldn’t! You don’t know him!”
“Think about it. Would Josh really do anything to his buddy’s son? He’d have risked Tim turning on him.”
She was still angry, but thinking. “What if he’s set up the money trail to make Tim look guilty? I don’t have anything but Tim’s word that points at Josh. No matter what, if I’d gone to the police and they’d made an arrest that day—and how would they have proved Josh was behind the attempts on my life?—a trial would have been months away. Would I really have survived to testify?” She glared at him. “Besides, there’s still Matthew.”
“With Tim under investigation, he wouldn’t have had a chance of gaining custody.” Daniel couldn’t let himself soften. “You have good reason not to allow him visitation. No court would dispute that, under the circumstances. And Josh wouldn’t have dared go after you or Matthew, not if he was trying to look like the bewildered innocent. Sounds to me like you’re still trying to protect your ex.”
She hesitated. “Not for his sake, but...is it so bad to want Matthew to be able to respect his father?”
Daniel shook his head. “After yesterday, I think that ship has sailed.”
“I’m also afraid of Robert.”
He thought that over. “You believe what you’re holding over Tim is also what’s keeping your father-in-law from taking you on in court.”
Her hands twisted in her lap. “Yes. He belittles Tim, but he’s all about status. To have his son arrested? I think he’d do anything to prevent that.”
“But does Robert know why Tim didn’t fight for custody?”
“You mean, does he know what Tim’s involved in?”
“That’s what I’m asking.”
Her beseeching gaze met his. “I don’t know. I kind of doubt it, but...I can’t be sure.”
“It’s time to talk to the detective,” Daniel said flatly.
She crossed her arms, almost hugging herself. “If I do, if I give him everything, I’m defenseless.” She hesitated. “The thing is, I have—”
Losing patience, Daniel shook his head. “Tim, at least, has already come after you. You’re kidding yourself if you think anything you can do protects either you or Matthew. Once the San Francisco investigator knows—”
Rebecca surged up from the glider. “You won’t call that detective yet, will you? Promise me!” Tension vibrated through her. “I need to figure out what to do—”
Daniel resisted the need to push away from the railing and take her hands in his. Pull her into his arms. This was why he should have kept his distance from the beginning.
Body rigid, he said, “I can’t make that promise. This will become a murder investigation, Rebecca, and you’ve left the detectives so in the dark they don’t even know they should be looking for the body.” He understood her turmoil, up to a point, but he couldn’t let it sway him. “I have to do my job.”
“Please! Just give me a day.”
He made himself shake his head. “You’ve had too many days already.”
She let out a cry that pierced him. “I trusted you!”
“You know who and what I am,” he said, his jaw tight. “Have you given any thought at all about what the right thing is?” The question came from both sides of him: Amish and cop.
“A thousand times,” she whispered. Her voice gained strength. “But, obviously, what I think or feel or fear is irrelevant. After all, you have to do your job.”
A hand seemed to grip his throat. “I do, but that doesn’t mean—”
“All of this—” a wave of her hand encompassed them both “—was nothing but you doing your job.” Her stare burned. “Then go do it.”
The next second, the door banged closed behind her, and he was left alone on the porch.
* * *
SHE WAS AMAZED that she was able to speak normally to Amos and Barbara once she went into the house. Amos invited her to join them, and she managed to sound regretful when she said she had a headache and thought she needed to go to bed. Not that she expected to sleep.
Wrestling with her conscience, trying to deal with her wrenching and probably unfair sense of betrayal, Rebecca lay awake through much of the night. Tim’s terrible behavior had built in slow increments. In contrast, Daniel’s scathing words and expression left her devastated.
It wasn’t as if she’d refused to talk to Detective Estevez. She was past the point of being able to navigate a booby-trapped maze alone. All she’d asked was a little time to think about what she should do once she handed over the only thing she had to bargain with. Daniel’s reaction told her the truth. He’d been nice to her, kissed her, only so he could uncover what she was hiding. The irony was he had cut her off just when she’d been about to tell him she had the wallet and ring.
Of course Detective Estevez would insist on talking to her himself. She would tell him what she had, not just what she knew. It was true that Tim hadn’t earned her silence. If she needed to do the right thing, that went double for him. He should come forward, accept punishment for what he’d done rather than condone threats against his own son.
For her, admitting what she knew to Estevez would be a small way of making up for her sins.
But Daniel... She wished she never had to see him again. A day—that was all she’d asked for. What difference did one day make now? He’d refused her even that. So arrogant, he thought the little woman couldn’t do anything to protect herself. Shouldn’t do anything. As if he could protect them.
Her conscience pointed out that he had come to her rescue in the hospital parking lot. Well, fine, but it was pure luck he’d been in the right place at the right time. What was he going to do, take a leave of absence to be their bodyguard? Of course not! His job was more important than her, that was for sure.
Anger at Daniel balled in her stomach, but she felt at peace with her decision. Soon it would all be out of her hands. Ironically, he’d be unlikely to reach Detective Estevez tomorrow, it being a Sunday. How foolish of him not to realize. To think he could have given her the day she’d asked for, and she’d never have known how much contempt he really felt for her.
Her eyes dry but burning as she stared at the dark ceiling and listened to Matthew breathe in the other twin bed, Rebecca comforted herself that at least tomorrow she would be able to pray with a clean heart, truly give herself to God instead of holding back. The rest...she would deal with when it came.
CH
APTER TEN
DANIEL PULLED OFF the road midafternoon when his phone rang. Shorthanded today, he had gone out on patrol himself, as he often did. Truthfully, he’d had no desire to attend church. He wouldn’t have been able to pay attention to a sermon or feel any of what he ought to when he was in a house of the Lord. Helping keep the roads safe for the faithful felt more important.
He’d left a message that morning for Detective Estevez in case the guy was working on a Sunday. But this wasn’t Estevez. The number was unfamiliar, but local.
“Byler here,” he answered.
“Sheriff.” The voice was unexpected. “This is Samuel Graber. I wouldn’t usually call you about what has happened, but I think it must have to do with my niece.”
“You’re at the phone shanty?”
“Ja.”
“What happened?”
“Today was church Sunday. We were at Levi Troyer’s. Nothing wrong there, but when we got home, we found someone had broken in.”
Stiffening, Daniel said, “If Emma and Sarah are already cleaning up, please stop them. I want to see exactly what was done. I can be there in ten minutes.”
“Ja, I will tell them to wait. They itched to set everything right, you know how it is, but they will understand.”
Daniel had to force himself to stay under the speed limit during the drive. Nobody had been hurt, he reminded himself, before remembering that Ephraim and Ruth might have been on the property in the grossdawdi haus. Surely Ruth, at least, would have heard intruders. He shuddered at the idea of the tiny old lady confronting them. But Samuel would have said if something like that had happened.
He made an effort to brake gently rather than slide to a stop in front of the Grabers’ house. Samuel and his son Mose strode out to meet him immediately. Sarah sat on the front porch, but Emma wasn’t in sight.
Daniel got out. “I worried all the way here about Ruth. If she heard anything—”
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