by Julie Kramer
He shook his head, telling me the animal had been euthanized. “And we have a fatal.” He explained that the buggy driver, a young Amish man, was dead on the scene. However, his passenger was barely injured. “Sad situation.” He gestured toward an Amish woman standing in the headlights of one of the squad cars, talking to another investigator. “But we can’t release any names yet.”
He didn’t have to. Even in the dim light, I had no trouble recognizing Miriam.
EPILOGUE
That Gideon and Miriam fought their way free of the corn maze only to meet with more danger might prove that God believes in making the punishment fit the crime. Undoubtedly, Miriam would suffer more living without her son than dying beside him.
He was buried in the plot next to Sarah’s grave. I don’t think she’d have welcomed her brother as an eternal neighbor, but Miriam made the arrangements. I steered clear of his funeral.
Unfortunately, Sarah’s diary did burn. And while I had printed copies of her words and the translation, not having her writing in her own hand damaged the credibility of any sexual abuse charges. And while Amish typically steer away from English law, this was one time the English wanted nothing to do with Amish crime.
The bishop refused to discuss Sarah’s shunning. And without victim or perpetrator alive, there wasn’t much to accomplish by continuing any investigation of molestation.
Officially, Sarah’s homicide remains unsolved. Miriam refused to speak with detectives about my tale of how Sarah came to be injured at Everything Amish and how her body was moved to the sinkhole. If true, the charges were more likely to be manslaughter than murder. So I was surprised authorities took my word seriously.
What I didn’t know then was that Sarah’s autopsy had showed a small splinter of wood in her scalp where she suffered the head trauma. Detectives had initially speculated she might have been hit with a club. Now they wanted to compare that tiny piece of oak with the table inventory at Everything Amish for the missing sliver. A match would be as conclusive as DNA or fingerprints. However, most of the furniture had been sold by then in a giant clearance, so that lead was a dead end.
But apparently all this was enough to get Hannah removed from Miriam’s custody and placed in the care of Yoder cousins in an Amish settlement in Iowa. Child sexual abuse records are kept confidential, so I never found out whether she was victimized by her brother.
I never saw Hannah again. I just hope she still has the picture of her sister.
• • •
Even though I was only heartsick, not dying, Father Mountain anointed me with holy oil on my eyelids, ears, lips, nose, and hands. He prayed with me for the Lord to forgive me any evil I had committed through my powers of sight, hearing, speech, smell, or touch.
“Don’t think of this as last rites,” he told me. “Think of it as a second first chance.”
• • •
As promised, I returned to Thao’s grandmother, the seamstress, and hired her to sew me a spectacular Hmong wall hanging, because I didn’t want to see another Amish quilt ever again.
• • •
Deputy Laura Schaefer won the race for sheriff, but a surprising percentage of the voters still cast ballots for the incumbent, even though he faced allegations of assault and theft.
A jury eventually acquitted Ed Eide, but Roger Alton was convicted because of his police interrogation video. I made a copy of it for my parents as a Christmas present. I also gave Husky to them, or perhaps them to Husky, because he seemed happier as a farm dog. And I could always visit.
• • •
Brian Kueppers returned a war hero after putting his life on the line for fellow soldiers. He was awarded a Purple Heart and served as grand marshal for the town’s annual Fourth of July parade.
• • •
Nick Garnett left his government job in Washington and was back as head of security at the Mall of America.
A holiday “smash and grab” flash mob riot recently broke out there involving hundreds of shoppers. Managers of the nation’s largest mall had overreacted, going into lockdown mode. Cell-phone video of gang members throwing chairs across the food court received network play, so MOA managers lured Garnett back.
Rather than receiving an elated phone call from him, I’d read about his relocation in the business section of the Minneapolis newspaper, so I didn’t see any future for us.
• • •
As for Channel 3, Nicole still feared that getting her boss fired might hurt her news career. I figured not getting him fired might hurt mine. But she pointed out that our next news director might be even worse, so we worked out a compromise.
Since she had all the evidence, Nicole took it into his office one night after work. I listened with my ear at the door.
“Bryce, there’s something we need to get straight.” She told him about the sexts she’d saved, and the hidden recording she’d made.
To my surprise, he didn’t sound panicked at all. “So let’s cut to the chase, Nicole. You’re here to blackmail me into making you lead anchor. I’m sure we can work something out.” He sounded smooth and confident, making a kissy sound with his lips.
“That’s not what this is about,” she said. “That’s not what I’m after.”
She and I had talked. She didn’t want a short-lived news career. Sure, accusing her news director of sexual harassment could get her a reputation. But so might landing an anchor job if the rest of the station thought she had something going on the side with Bryce.
“So what are you after?” He sounded suspicious.
That was my cue to enter. Bryce looked pissed. “I might have guessed you were behind this, Riley, when I heard about the hidden camera. How about that lecture you gave me about invasion of privacy?”
He was not just a pig. He was stupid. There’s nothing I hate more than working for a stupid boss. “You can’t claim privacy to break the law. Besides, that conversation belonged to Nicole just as much as you.” I pushed the telephone toward him with a dare. “Call Miles if you don’t believe me.”
Bryce didn’t move. And I didn’t want our meeting to drag on, so we gave him our terms for not ratting him out.
No more one-man bands.
Warm water in the ladies’ room.
“And one last thing,” I said. “Since you’ve proven you can’t be trusted around women, no office walls. The glass has to go back up so we can keep an eye on you.”
The disadvantage was that we’d have to look at him.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My editor, Emily Bestler, made Shunning Sarah better by encouraging me to find a new ending to the novel. Sometimes authors are so close to a story they can’t tell whether their endings are brilliant or over-the-top. As for my readers, if you want to know what the original ending was, ask me sometime. But read the book first. So thanks, Emily—I’m proud to be an Emily Bestler book.
Special thanks also to her editorial assistant Caroline Porter for handling the numerous tasks required to get a book into print. It’s all in the details. My list of gratitude for all the things from production to art to publicity to marketing to sales to copyediting also includes Kate Cetrulo, Mellony Torres, Hillary Tisman, Judith Curr, Chris Lloreda, Jeanne Lee, James Pervin, Andy Goldwasser, Susan Rella, Bryan Miltenberg, James Walsh, and John Wahler. And danke to Isolde Sauer, who improved the German in Sarah’s diary besides directing the copyediting process.
My agent, Susan Ginsburg from Writers House, also deserves particular recognition for keeping me calm during the current publishing storm. Her assistant, Stacy Testa, is helpful and humorous.
My faithful beta readers—Kevyn Burger, Trish Van Pilsum, and Caroline Lowe—see the manuscript first and are all excellent storytellers themselves with wonderful advice about dialogue and plot. After all, there’s a little bit of each of them in my protagonist.
For real-life research, I am grateful to Jerry Youngkin at the Amish Bed and Breakfast near Canton, MN, for allowing me to live like the Amis
h overnight. I encourage everyone to stay there; to Richard Scrabeck of Amish Tours of Harmony for his insight around the plain countryside. My favorite part of researching this novel involved visiting local farms and buying Amish baskets, quilted potholders, and cashew crunch. Thanks also to Lynn Rogers of the North American Bear Center for sharing his knowledge and passion about black bears. If you’ve never seen his live bear den cameras, check out his website at www.bear.org. As always, no one knows murder like Vernon Geberth, author of Practical Homicide Investigation; and no one has more patience with my forensic problems than Dr. D. P. (Doug) Lyle, author of More Forensics and Fiction; Sue Senden shared her secrets to being a forensic artist; Wanda Brunstetter, author of numerous bestselling Amish novels, was generous in guiding me on the difference between German and Pennsylvania Dutch; WCCO-TV photo chief Bill Kruskop kept me up to date about the latest in television news cameras.
Various relatives have become accustomed to seeing their names in the back of my books, and it’s probably too late to change that tradition without some pouting on their part, so here’s the list: Ruth Kramer; Mike Kramer; Bonnie and Roy Brang; Teresa, Galen, and Rachel Neuzil; Richard and Oti Kramer; Mary Kramer; Steve and Mary Kay Kramer, along with Matthew and Elizabeth; Kathy, Jim, with Adriana and Zach Loecher; Christina Kramer; Jerry and Elaine Kramer; Mae Klug; George and Shirley Kimball; George Kimball, Shen Fei with Shi Shenyu; Nick Kimball and Gannet Tseggai; Jenny, Kile, with Daniel Nadeau; Jessica, Richie with Lucy Miehe; Becca and Seth Engberg; David and Alyssa Nadeau; Mary, Dave with Davin Benson; Steve Kimball with Craig and Shaela; James Kimball; Paul Kimball; and numerous far-flung cousins and other kin.
The life of an author might be lonely without family. I’m thankful for mine: the boys—Alex Kimball and Andrew Kimball—for thriving, at college and soon the world; Joey and David Kimdon for raising Aria and Arbor, a delightful pair; Katie and Jake Kimball as they welcome Barlow, our newest reader home to Minnesota.
I’m especially fortunate for the love of Joe, my soul mate, and glad to be empty nesters together.
JULIE KRAMER, a journalist turned novelist, writes thrillers set in the desperate world of television news. She has lived her research as a news producer for NBC, CBS, and WCCO-TV. She has won the Minnesota Book Award and the RT Book Reviews’ Best First Mystery. She has also been a finalist for the Anthony, Barry, Shamus, Mary Higgins Clark, RT Best Amateur Sleuth, and Daphne du Maurier Awards. She lives with her family in White Bear Lake, Minnesota.
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ALSO BY JULIE KRAMER
Killing Kate
Silencing Sam
Missing Mark
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2012 by Julie Kramer
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kramer, Julie.
Shunning Sarah: a novel / by Julie Kramer.—1st Emily Bestler Books/Atria Books hardcover ed.
p. cm.
1. Spartz, Riley (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Women television journalists—Fiction. 3. Murder—Investigation—Fiction. 4. Amish—Fiction.
I. Title.
PS3611.R355S5 2012
813’.6—dc23
2012011246
ISBN 978-1-4516-6463-8
ISBN 978-1-4516-6465-2 (eBook)