by Dana R. Lynn
Lilah’s cup hit the table and bounced, splashing water on her plate and on her dress.
Levi shot to his feet and grabbed the towel sitting on the counter. He handed it to Lilah. She wiped off the table. Her dinner was ruined.
“Do you need a new plate?” Levi was already reaching into the cupboard.
“Nee, I was finished.” She hadn’t been, but the reminder of what had happened had the food she’d already eaten sitting like a brick in her stomach. There was no way she’d be able to continue eating now.
A stifled silence filled the room. She looked across the table. Poor Sam. He looked pretty miserable.
“To answer your question, Ben and Waneta are Hannah’s mamm and daed. I don’t think of them as family, but they’ve been very kind to me. Hannah is missing, and the Englisch police are investigating. That’s all I can tell you.”
Sam peeked at her under his shaggy blond bangs. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to make you feel bad. I was curious and didn’t stop to think.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
What else was she to say? He was nineteen, old enough to know better, but he hadn’t been trying to upset anyone.
When the meal was over, the men all rose to head outside to help David for a few minutes. Levi pressed his hand on her shoulder for a second. When she met his concerned glance, she gave him a tired smile. It had been a brutal day. All she wanted was to go to sleep to get several hours’ respite from the fear and uncertainty. But she wasn’t going to tell him that. He had disrupted his life for her.
He searched her face before squeezing her shoulder slightly and marching out after his siblings and father.
Lilah remained in the haus and assisted Fannie with cleaning the dishes and putting the kitchen in order. She tried her best, but had trouble keeping track of the conversation. Fannie gave her a sympathetic smile and let her work in peace.
Lilah felt bad, but her head felt like it was ready to explode. She didn’t ask Fannie for any painkillers for her headache. She didn’t like to rely on medication. She remembered too well the feeling of the strong narcotics the doctors had given her after her parents had died. The medicine had made her feel like she was wrapped in a cocoon. All she had wanted to do was snuggle into it and sleep.
It was a gut feeling. And a dangerous one.
She hadn’t told Jacob why she refused to take any more of her prescription. After two days of feeling like she was drifting, she’d been wary of taking any more. Lilah had decided to use over-the-counter medicines or live with the pain. She had shied away from relying on medicine since.
Telling Fannie she needed to lie down, she headed toward the stairs. Her feet were like blocks of lead.
Her tiredness vanished in a rush of adrenaline when she looked out the front window and saw a police cruiser pulling into the driveway. Her heartbeat ramped up. Ditching her plan to go rest, she pivoted and ran to the back door. She pushed it open and stood on the porch as the car stopped beside the haus.
Tapping her foot, Lilah waited while the engine shut off and Officer Nicole Dawson pushed the door open and stood.
When the officer’s eyes met hers, Lilah clasped her hands together in front of her.
Her headache forgotten, she waited, the food she’d eaten an uncomfortable lump in her belly.
She knew why the officer was here.
They’d found something. And she had no idea if it was gut or bad. Only one way to find out.
She went down the steps to meet the officer.
TEN
Levi heard a car pull in and excused himself. Leaving his brothers, he strode from the barn. When he saw Officer Dawson chatting with Lilah, he stretched his legs to quicken his pace until he reached them. They broke off their conversation as he approached and waited for him to join them.
“Levi.” Officer Dawson acknowledged him. “How’s the side?”
“Better. Danke. You have news.” It came out as a statement. Obviously, she had something to tell them or she wouldn’t have come.
A glimmer of humor sparked in her eyes.
“Okay, so let’s get straight to the point.” The humor drained. The shift from chatty to cop was uncanny. “After I left the Hostetler place this afternoon, I took a drive to your property, Lilah.”
She couldn’t very well say haus, Levi thought ironically.
“Jah, we saw a police car in the drive as went past,” Lilah informed her. “I was amazed that the police had arrived so fast.”
“Yeah, well, both your place and the Hostetler property were set up as crime scenes within an hour. We found nothing more at the Hostetlers’—”
“What about the handprint on the railing?” Lilah blurted.
Levi nodded. “We were wondering if that could have been Hannah’s. I figured you must have seen it. Otherwise, I would have told you about it.”
Given the location, there was no way a trained police officer would have missed it. Especially considering that the elderly couple had been attacked.
“I am still looking into who the handprint belongs to. It may have been Hannah’s. Or someone else involved. We do know it didn’t belong to the man we picked up at your place, Lilah.”
“What man?” Levi and Lilah both demanded, their words tumbling over each other. This was the first he’d heard of them arresting anyone at Lilah’s place. Was it the sniper?
“Do either of you recognize this man?” Officer Dawson drew her cell phone from her back pocket, unlocked it and brought up a picture to show them.
Leaning in, he looked at the familiar image, feeling sick to his stomach. Lilah exclaimed beside him.
“Is that Billy?” she asked. “Levi, is that the man we met this morning?”
Officer Dawson answered for him. “That is William Whitman. He’s got a record, misdemeanors mainly. We found him digging around inside your barn, Miss Schwartz. He hasn’t told us what he was looking for. Since he has requested a lawyer, there’s nothing else we can do at the moment. I was hoping one of you could shed some light on why he might have been at your place. Any ideas?”
Levi shook his head, then turned and cocked an eyebrow at Lilah. She looked as confused as he felt. She shook her head and grimaced in response to his unspoken question.
“I only met him for the first time today. He seemed to be a very friendly sort of person, except when he thought we weren’t watching he glared at me. It was a very angry, almost hateful look. I have no idea what could’ve caused that.”
“He had known your brother.” Now, why had he brought that up? “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded,” Levi said.
While Officer Dawson seemed intrigued by his statement, Lilah paled as if he had struck her. He knew what she was worried about. Lilah was concerned that anyone looking into the situation might think Jacob had done something wrong. The idea had been on both of their minds. It was clear that Jacob had gotten himself into something.
Levi held up his hands. “I just meant that maybe Billy Whitman’s presence could have been innocent. Maybe he was looking for something that Jacob had borrowed.”
Even he didn’t believe his words.
“What can you tell me about him?” The police officer had her notepad out and her pen ready to write.
Levi scratched his chin, searching through his memories. “Not that much. I have a car of his that I’m working on. I do mechanic jobs on the side. I’ve known him for several years, but we’ve never really talked about anything except for cars. I know his parents are divorced, and he grew up in Indiana. But that’s about it.”
“I’d love to dig around his car, but unfortunately I can’t do that without getting a search warrant for it. I might be back. If I can get one, do you have any problem with me coming and looking through his vehicle?”
Levi shook his head. “I’m working on several cars, so let me show you which one is
his.”
She agreed rapidly. Levi led her back to the car. It was an old convertible, and Billy had kept it in pristine condition.
“Wow, this certainly is a beauty.” Officer Dawson clasped her hands behind her back and took a leisurely stroll around the car. “Nice. It would be a shame to have to search through this. Sometimes things can get damaged in a search. He obviously took very good care of this thing.”
“I do recall him saying that he took it around to different car shows. He’s very proud of it.”
She finished her inspection and turned back to them. “I’m hoping that if we tell him were getting a search warrant to search his car, then maybe Billy will decide to talk to us and save his car. I would sure hate to be the one to scratch the paint on something this well taken care of.”
It was just a car. Sometimes the lure of possessions was scary. After he had left, he had been initially fascinated with the outside world. When he came back to the United States, that fascination had almost completely died out. After dealing with the trauma of seeing so many people injured and killed, the race to own more possessions, to build up more wealth completely left him cold.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t shed more light on what he was doing when you found him,” Levi said.
Lilah still hadn’t said anything more. She seemed preoccupied. Levi wondered briefly if she was even paying attention to the conversation that was going on right in front of her.
“Well, whatever he was doing, we’ll do our best to find out.” The police officer stepped back a couple of paces, preparing to return to her car. “I just thought you should know what our search turned up. We found nothing else. Nothing that we could detect would lead to someone murdering your brother. The place is no longer a crime scene. I wanted to let you know personally.”
No longer a crime scene. That meant they could enter the property. The police might not have found anything, but they weren’t familiar with the layout of the land. Lilah was. He sneaked a peek at her. Her usually open face was blank. Whatever she was thinking, she was keeping it to herself.
Not that he blamed her. Letting outsiders know what was going on in their world never came easy. He just hoped she wasn’t going to shut him out after his blunder about Billy knowing Jacob.
He knew she wouldn’t ask him to lie to the police. It wasn’t that. The crux of the problem was that she didn’t know what Jacob had gotten into. Maybe if they had that information, it would be easier for them to figure out what to do next.
Which meant they had to keep digging for the truth.
They stood together on the driveway as the officer left. Levi edged closer to Lilah. “Hey. Are you okay?”
She startled. “Oh! Jah. I’m gut. I’m worried about Hannah. What if Billy took her? If the police have him, she might be somewhere all alone.”
He thought about that for a moment. “True. But, if he’s the one who hurt her parents, then she’s probably better off by herself than if he were with her.” He grimaced. “I don’t know, Lilah. It doesn’t feel right to me.”
“What?” She glanced up at him. “What doesn’t feel right?”
Without thinking, he reached out and took her hand. The moment he did, they both froze. Now what should he do? He tugged at her hand and started walking. As they walked side by side, he dropped her hand. He couldn’t resist giving it a light squeeze before he did so. Now, what had she asked?
“I have trouble seeing Billy as a kidnapper. I definitely can’t see him as a sniper.”
“But you do think he was involved.” Lilah wasn’t asking.
“I do. At the very least, I think he knows something about what has been going on. I keep remembering the look on his face when we saw him earlier. Nothing about that look makes sense. That wasn’t the guy I knew. So now I’m questioning if everything I knew about Billy was an act. Again, that doesn’t make sense.”
For a moment, silence fell between them. It was a companionable silence. Despite the drama of the past two days, Lilah was a restful companion.
If only he were free to enjoy her presence. But the death of her brother and the missing Hannah loomed over him. There would be no peace until the truth was revealed.
His soul shuddered at the thought. Because once this case was solved and the villains were locked up, Lilah would go back to her life, and Levi would remain here.
The life he had been content to lead only two days earlier now stretched out bleak and empty before him.
* * *
Something was bothering Levi, but Lilah had no idea what. Or rather, which of the many things wrong it could be. Her brother’s death, she was now certain, had been murder. Had the killer just wanted Jacob dead, or had Hannah been a target as well?
Hannah’s abduction seemed to point to her being the target.
Lilah recalled Jacob’s final words. Nee. He had definitely been part of it, too. What had they been hiding from her? And how long had it been going on?
Shaking off the gloomy past, she slanted a glance back at Levi. He still seemed somber. His thoughts were obviously dark, as dark as hers had been.
A thought occurred to her.
“Levi?”
“Jah?”
“If my haus is no longer a crime scene, and if Billy’s in jail, maybe we could go over and search again. I know there’s something there. Something that Jacob wanted me to find. If the police found Billy but didn’t find anything on him, maybe whatever Jacob had hidden is still there.”
He frowned, pondering what she had said.
“I’m not so sure that would be a good idea,” he began slowly. “If I’m right and Billy isn’t the sniper, that means whoever was shooting at us is still out there.”
“It was just a thought.” Frustration bit at her, but there was nothing she could do. She wasn’t going to go back there by herself. It just didn’t seem to make sense. But she knew there was something there. Something that would explain everything that had happened.
She had to know.
Even if it wasn’t a good idea, she started to think that maybe she should go back and search alone. It was, after all, her problem. She had dragged Levi into it. But it wasn’t his responsibility. Jacob had been her brother, not his.
“You’re planning on going back, aren’t you?”
Startled, Lilah jerked her head up. Levi stepped closer, so close his breath hit her face in little puffs. She could smell mint and coffee. Realizing she was leaning forward, she backed up, her cheeks blazing.
She cleared her throat to regain her composure, noting that Levi was looking a bit flustered, too. Evidently, she wasn’t the only one feeling the attraction. She had no intention of giving in. Until she found out what happened to her brother, nothing else mattered.
Unfortunately, all the clues were leading toward her brother having lied to her. She had trusted him implicitly. She trusted Levi, too, despite her intention to keep her distance. That wasn’t a good thing. People you trust sometimes betray you.
“I have to keep searching. We’re close... I feel it. And until I know everything, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to sleep soundly again. I’ll always be worried that someone is coming after me.”
A sigh burst from him. “Fine. I get it. This time, let’s leave the buggy in an area that won’t be so obvious. Then if we need to escape, we could have a route planned out.”
That sounded like a good idea.
“We’ll leave early in the morning. Okay?” Levi lowered his chin to look her straight in the eye.
The pulse at her throat beat wildly at the intense glance, but she resisted its pull. “That sounds fine. Will your mother mind if we help ourselves to breakfast instead of eating with the family?”
“It shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll ask Samuel if he can take care of my chores in the morning.” He lifted his left hand and touched her cheek with two fingers.
The tenderness of the caress had her catching her breath. “I will do everything I can to help you find the truth. You know that, right?”
She nodded. She knew it, but would it be enough?
* * *
That night Lilah lay in bed, tossing and turning. She was exhausted, so tired she felt like her limbs were weighted down. Yet still sleep eluded her. Thoughts chased each other inside her head. If she could just turn off her mind. No matter how hard she tried to clear her head, each and every time she closed her eyes, she would see Ben and Waneta Hostetler. In the early hours of the morning she finally drifted off. But the nightmares that chased after her left her groggy and even more exhausted than she’d been when she’d gone to bed the night before.
Finally, she gave up. Tossing back the sheet she used as a light covering, Lilah padded on bare feet across the room to the window. The cold floor against the soles of her feet helped to wake her up so that by the time she reached the window, her grogginess had faded.
All she needed was a good cup of coffee and she would be up for the rest of the day. It was still dark out, although she could see streaks of lighter sky on the horizon. As she watched, the ink black sky gave way to streaks of orange and yellow and red, and even some pink.
A tear tracked down her cheek. She would have loved to have been able to share this vision with Jacob. That would never happen again.
Oddly, she also wished Levi were here to share it with her.
Nonsense. Making as little noise as possible, she got ready for the day. Once she was as clean and presentable as she could make herself, and her blond hair was neatly rebraided and stuffed beneath her prayer kapp, she slipped out of her bedroom door, holding her boots in her hand, and went on whisper-soft steps to the kitchen.
Levi was already awake, a fresh pot of coffee brewing. When he turned and saw her, he got her a mug and poured her some of the hot liquid.
She put in a small dose of cream and added a teaspoon of sugar before drinking.