Safe Hearts (Amish Safe House, Book 3)

by Ruth Hartzler

  With the closing of his Bible, Kate realized that dinner was finally nearing its end. The guests rose up in unison and said their goodbyes.

  “Next time you come for dinner, bring better news,” Beth said in a light-hearted way.

  “Yes, let’s hope nothing comes from this man and his questions. The next dinner will be on merrier terms. Thank you so much.” Beckie turned to her husband and smiled. He looked back at the table and waved as they started toward the door.

  “I’ll walk you both out,” Bill insisted. Elijah nodded to him before continuing through the hallway.

  Kate watched them until the trio disappeared from sight, but when she looked back, she noticed that Beth was already cleaning up from the long meal. “Oh, let me help you with that!” she said, hurrying to assist her.

  Kate hurriedly cleaned up, hoping to get back to her cottage to make that phone call before much longer. She filled the sink with dishes and scrubbed at them until they shone. When she finished in the kitchen, she headed back to the dining room to see Beth sweeping the floor.

  “Denki for your help as always, Kate,” Beth said with a smile. “Feel free to call it a night if you wish. I am just about finished myself, and then I’ll be turning in shortly as well.”

  Kate nodded. “Denki for dinner.” She made sure all of the chairs were pushed against the table before she walked toward the exit.

  As she approached the door, it flew open suddenly and Bill came walking through the doorway. “Guten nacht, Katie,” he said as they passed each other.

  “Good night, Bill!”

  As soon as she walked out into the cool, night air and the door shut behind her, Kate took off toward her cottage. She took long strides as she rushed home, but she wanted to avoid looking suspicious in case the man was watching the property at that moment. She watched her cottage as it slowly grew larger with each step she took.

  When she got to the front porch, a tingling sensation tickled her skin. What was that? Kate looked down to see her dress shaking. “Oh!” she gasped. She reached under the fabric and wrapped her fingers around the vibrating phone. She looked up, hesitated briefly, and then ran inside.

  Closing the door behind her, Kate pulled the phone from her pocket and looked at it. She clicked the green button and then lifted the phone to her ear.

  “Kate, thank goodness you answered.” She could hear a strange sound in the background as he spoke, and she couldn’t place her finger on what it might be, but it almost sounded like trees blowing fiercely in the wind. “I decided to check a few things internally, and you won’t believe what I found.”

  “Go ahead,” she replied. Kate wasn’t quite sure what he was going to say next, but she was all ears. Even though she was anxious to tell him about the news she had learned at dinner, she wanted to hear what he had to say just as much.

  “I’m in the car, driving to Pennsylvania right now, so if the call drops, just give me a few minutes and I’ll call you right back.” He cleared his throat and then continued. “So, after doing a bit of digging, I went through a list of names and dates of everyone in the agency who’s recently taken time off. I figured it could be useful to determine if someone right under our noses might be involved in the death of that private detective.”

  “Did you find anything?” she interrupted.

  “Actually, I did. Glen Tryston went on leave, citing his sick mother as the reason.”

  Kate gasped. She knew Glen Tryston well; they had partnered on more than one occasion, relocating WITSEC witnesses. “Let me guess; he’s still on leave now, isn’t he?”

  “Yes. According to his time-off request, he initially went on leave about four days before you called me about the murder,” Harper explained.

  “So, you think he might be the one behind it?”

  “It’s possible. It would make sense if the killer was the same person that hired the detective in the first place.”

  “You think so?” Kate asked.

  “It probably wouldn’t be smart to involve too many people in such a plot. The only apprehension I have, however, is the question of why Glen would be involved in such things. Why would he be looking for you?”

  Kate thought back to the one time where WITSEC almost failed its clients. “Remember that job with the two lawyers that Glen and I worked on?”

  “Yes, that was the one where we almost had our first deaths in the program?” His tone was solemn.

  Kate sighed as the memories of the case flooded her mind. “Yes. It happened a few months back. We had that assignment to relocate the lawyers, but someone was still able to track them down. That whole ordeal was a nightmare. We came so close to losing them both, but I never even put two and two together to figure out that Glen might have been behind it.” The realization caused her stomach to churn. “It all makes sense now. After that close call, I had to relocate them on my own, because Glen had injured his wrist and you put him on desk duty. That’s probably why they were never compromised again.”

  “That’s right. I remember that now, and because of his reassignment, he wouldn’t have had access to any of the new information in that case.” David Harper let out a loud sigh. “This is extremely troubling, and it all definitely fits, but until we know for sure that he’s the one behind this, we need to be careful about everything we do and say.”

  “Oh, I almost forgot! I was literally about to call you when my phone started ringing. I was having dinner with Beth and Bill earlier, and an Amish couple came by and joined us. They didn’t come just to eat, however; they came to tell us that a suspicious man has been going around the Amish communities asking a lot of questions.”

  Harper’s voice seemed to change slightly in pitch. “What kind of questions?”

  “He’s been asking each of the homeowners how many people they have living on their property, the number of buggies they own, and the ages of each resident.”

  “That has to be our guy,” he said in a serious tone.

  “Apparently he’s been using an alias and a fake ID. Beckie, the woman who brought this news to our attention, was able to recognize it right away.”

  “What?” Kate sensed the confusion in Harper’s voice as he spoke. “How would an Amish woman be able to identify a fake identification card?”

  “They are a lot more observant than you might give them credit for,” Kate said with a chuckle. “Beckie’s nephew had recently completed his rumspringa, and while he was on it, he became friends a man that has a Transportation Worker ID card. The nephew ended up talking to the man well before she did, and he noticed the difference in the card right away. He then tipped off his aunt to the fact that the color shifting inks weren’t noticeable in the ID that was being shown around the area.”

  David Harper laughed. “I guess you really do learn something new every day. I suppose it’s a good thing the bishop didn’t send you to that woman’s property, though. She might be an amateur sleuth in the making.”

  Kate laughed at the thought of Beckie walking around the fields, looking for clues, like a detective. “I wouldn’t go that far, but she’s definitely one of a kind.” She looked out one of the windows of her living room and saw nothing but darkness interspersed with glowing stars. As she stared out into the abyss, her thoughts drifted back to her colleague. “If Glen is the one behind this, do you think he might be the man that’s been asking those questions?”

  Her boss didn’t respond right away, but after a few seconds, he broke his silence. “Like I said earlier, it makes sense that he’d want to skate by under the radar, so he might be doing this all on his own. But what would Glen gain from finding you and hurting you now?”

  Kate closed her eyes and thought back to the case with the lawyers. They had testified against a big time crime boss, putting him away for a long time. “He must still be looking for the lawyers. Do you remember Victor Daxton?”

  “Of course. He’s the one they put away; the entire reason we had to put them into WITSEC in the first place.” Harpe
r’s voice faded, filling Kate’s ear with the sound of the trees once again. After what felt like minutes, he spoke again. ”I can’t believe I never even noticed it before.”

  “Noticed what?” Kate asked, confusion engulfing her thoughts.

  “Now that I’m actually going through it in my mind, it disgusts me that I hadn’t realized before that Glen must have been on Daxton’s payroll since the beginning. I have no doubt he might be looking for the lawyers still, but I don’t think that’s his primary objective right now.”

  Kate felt the apprehension and fear welling up as she thought about what her boss was telling her. “Then what do you think he’s doing here?”

  Harper hesitated slightly before speaking in a quieted tone. “I think Daxton might have sent him to take you out. He might blame you more than he blames the lawyers now.”

  Kate’s mind felt like it was about to implode. “Why would I be the main target? And why would Glen be the one hired to make the hit?”

  “Who would be better to find you and kill you than one of your colleagues? I bet this whole time he’s been snooping through whatever files he’s been able to acquire, if any. Maybe that’s why he had to hire a private investigator to help find you. I’m thinking the price on your head must be exorbitant. It’s probably enough for Glen to retire on and to live his life on the run. With all the knowledge of WITSEC he possesses, he’s no doubt learned a thing or two about hiding out successfully.”

  Kate’s hand fell to her side, her fingers still gripping the phone tightly. She looked back out at the dark sky and took a deep breath, as her heart beat faster and faster.

  2 Timothy 1: 7.

  For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

  Chapter 8.

  Kate was anxious and nervous that her colleague, Glen Tryston, was stalking her, and had to force herself to go about her normal chores. That was her best chance of staying safe. Today, she was tending the garden. She had gotten quite handy with such tasks since she had been sent to live among the Amish. Before she wouldn’t have known how to keep anything alive, but now she found the dirty work somewhat peaceful. It gave her a chance to think.

  The sun had come up early and bright, and now, just past noon it was as high in the sky as it was going to get, and the heat was almost oppressive. Kate thought it was a perfect place to stop for a moment, to go inside and make herself a small lunch, and to scrounge up a cool drink.

  Kate went after the drink first, pulling a tall glass from the hand carved cupboard which hung over her sink. She filled the glass and drank deeply, realizing she was hotter than she even thought. She carefully pulled the straw hat perched on top of the kapp from her head and set aside as she filled the glass once more and downed the cool water. She took a nearby hand towel, and dabbed it at her forehead before pulling the cap back on.

  Lunch was a simple thing, just a sandwich made with thick slices of bread that Kate carved from a fat loaf, and a few pieces of leftover ham from a recent dinner. She ate slowly, standing over the sink, gazing out of the window and into the back yard. It really was a beautiful place, and Kate knew her time here was growing short. When she had first arrived, it had taken her some time to grow accustomed to everything. It was quite the culture shock. But now, she would miss the people, and even the lifestyle.

  After the sandwich was gone, and the few dishes she had dirtied were in the sink waiting to be washed, Kate went back outside to the garden. She picked up the trowel she had set aside when she had gone in for lunch, and knelt carefully among the plants once more.

  Kate was lost in her work, and she didn’t hear the engine of a car pulling into the gravel drive of the house, but she did hear the door close after someone climbed out. She turned and couldn’t help but smile when she saw Ryan coming around the side of the house, toward her.

  “Ryan,” she said simply as she stood

  It was obvious he was hot as well; his brow was sweaty, his hair damp, but like any look Kate had seen, it suited him.

  “You don’t mind if I keep working, do you?” she asked, motioning to the flowers.

  “No, not at all,” the police officer said. “I could help if you’d like, Kate.”

  “I wouldn’t have pegged you as having much of a green thumb,” the pretend Amish woman said.

  “My grandmother taught me,” Ryan said. “Whenever I went over to her house, we worked in her garden, until it got too hard for her to do it. Then I took care of it for her myself as a teenager.”

  “I bet the other teenaged boys found that to be a strange hobby,” Kate said as she knelt again. Ryan knelt beside her and accepted a trowel from her. She was planting a few new plants, so they got to work digging holes.

  “I never cared much about what people thought of me,” Ryan said. “Still don’t.”

  “That’s an admirable trait to have,” Kate said.

  “I guess so,” Ryan said with a laugh. “It makes life easier, I suppose.”

  Kate found herself liking Ryan’s company, and she forgot that he had probably come for a reason.

  “I wanted to tell you something,” he said. “About Jeremiah.”

  “Oh,” Kate said, stopping working for a moment, and turning her head to look at Ryan. “Is he okay?”

  “Yes,” Ryan said. “Actually, we released him.”

  “Oh, that’s good news!” Kate was overjoyed.

  “His prints were nowhere to be found on the bottle of poison.”

  “I should think not,” Kate said. “I knew he didn’t have anything to do with this whole mess.”

  “Well, you were right,” the cop said with a smile. “As always.”

  “I am right a lot, aren’t I?” Kate said, teasing him.

  “You are. I admit it,” Ryan said. “You’d make a good cop.”

  Kate laughed. If only Ryan knew the truth about her. She wasn’t exactly a cop, but she had more in common with that world than she did with the Amish one.

  “A witness came forward as well, someone who saw someone at the cafe, a different man. He didn’t fit Jeremiah’s description at all. Anyway, we’ve put out an APB out on him. Oh, that’s an all points bulletin; it just means that law enforcement needs to be looking for him.”

  Kate nodded, as if this was news to her. Of course, she knew what an APB was, but she couldn’t let Ryan know that. “So that guy, whoever he is, he’s here? In town?”

  Ryan shrugged a bit as he reached over for one of the potted plants. He held the new plant by its stem near the soil, and gently tugged it free of the dark green, plastic pot. He quickly transferred it to the soil, sliding it into one of the holes they had dug together. He began patting the loose soil around the stem down, and Kate reached over to help him. Her hand brushed his. Both of them suddenly stopped.

  They both had felt it, Kate knew, that electric shock of attraction, when their fingers had brushed against one another’s. They looked at one another, and Kate felt like a young girl in high school again. She blushed and turned her head away, getting back to digging a hole. Her attention lapsed, and she brought the somewhat sharp edge of her trowel down onto the side of her index finger.

  “Ow!” she said, dropping her trowel and bringing the wound to her lips.

  “Are you all right?” Ryan asked.

  “I just cut my hand. I was careless, really,” Kate said.

  “Let me see it,” Ryan said, reaching out for her hand. He took it and pulled it away from her mouth. “That’s a pretty bad cut. You might be right all of the time, but you sure are clumsy.”

  Kate laughed. “There are some bandages inside,” she said, as she stood.

  Ryan stood as well, bending to knock the dirt away from the knees of his uniform. “I’ll help, and then I should be going,” the cop said softly. They went into Beth’s house together.

  Kate went to a small cabinet near the corner of the living room. She opened the door to reveal three small shelves. She pulled out a clear, plastic bottle of alcoho
l and a white box of bandages. “I can handle it myself, though,” she said with a smile.

  “I know, but I’m a police officer. Protect and serve and all that. I didn’t protect you, so now I’ll serve.”

  “What would you have protected me from?”

  “Your own clumsiness,” Ryan joked.

  Kate put on an angry face, but she was only kidding, and it only served to make Ryan laugh. “You don’t look very tough; I’m sorry to say,” he said.

  If only he knew, Kate thought. Aloud she said, “I’m pretty tough. Looks can be deceiving; isn’t that what they say?”

  “I suppose so,” Ryan said. “You’re a lot of things, but tough isn’t one of them. Well, you may be tough; I should say intimidating isn’t one of them.”

  “I can be plenty intimidating,” Kate said, inwardly smiling at the irony, as she moved to the back of the cabin and into the kitchen.

  “Oh yeah?” Ryan asked, following her.

  “Are you going to help me with this or not?” Kate asked.

  “Of course,” the sheriff said, coming forward and taking the bottle of alcohol. He opened the lid and made a face. “Oh, that smells.”

  Kate smiled. “Don’t tell me you can’t handle a little first aid work.”

  “Run your cut under the water, get it cleaned off, will you?” Ryan said with a wide grin. Kate did as he asked, and then held her hand over the sink while Ryan poured some of the alcohol onto the wound in order to sterilize it. Kate grimaced as the liquid bit into her cut.

  “Pretty impressive,” Ryan said. “Barely even noticed a change in your face.”

  He was joking of course; the grimace would have been impossible to miss. “Oh hush,” Kate said. The cop then opened the box of bandages and pulled one out. It was thin, wrapped in paper and had adhesive at the sides so it could stick to the skin around the cut. He held the bandage over the cut and then pressed down, making sure the cut was completely covered. When he was done, he stepped back.

  “Better?” he asked. He hadn’t let go of Kate’s hand yet.