The shed door was closed, but a whisper of noise came from beside it. Steeling herself, she rounded the corner. She switched on the light and nearly cried out when four red eyes stared at her, reflected in the feeble beam.
Catching a shaky breath, she waved the penlight at the two raccoons who were busily attempting to open Rebecca’s trash can. They stared back at her, undeterred.
“Shoo!” A rake leaned against the wall of the shed and she grabbed it, brandishing it at the raccoons. Finally impressed, they scrambled down and waddled quickly off toward the woods.
One of the lids was tilted. In another minute they’d have had it off and been scattering trash in their search for food. She put the lids on both cans firmly and ran the handle of the rake through them. Hopefully that would discourage a repeat performance. In the morning she’d find a couple bricks to weigh down the lids for Rebecca.
The little adventure with the raccoons had banished whatever imaginings she’d been building about someone watching from the dark. She strode briskly to her own back door, finding the right key as she mounted the steps.
The lock resisted the key for a moment before it slid into place and turned. She opened the door, stepped inside and jerked back as she caught movement from the corner of her eye. A broom just missed her shoulder and clattered to the kitchen floor.
“Mom! What on earth are you doing?” Meredith swung the door closed, staring at her mother, who stood behind it.
“Lock the door again, quick, quick.” Mom’s eyes glittered almost feverishly, and her hands fumbled with the lock.
What on earth? “It’s all right, Mom. The door’s locked.” Meredith took her mother’s hands in both of hers. “Calm down and tell me what’s wrong.”
“Someone was out there!” Her mother’s voice cracked, and her breath came too fast. “I heard someone outside the house.”
Meredith’s thoughts flashed back to that sense of someone watching, but she pushed the fear away and spoke softly. “It was probably just me. I had to scare off some raccoons that were trying to get into Rebecca’s trash cans. I’m sorry if the noise frightened you.”
“Are you sure?” Her mother’s fingers tightened on hers. “Really?”
“That’s all it was.” She put her arm around her mother. “Why don’t we get you settled in your chair? I’ll make you a cup of tea, all right?”
Her mother let herself be led into the living room, her breathing returning to normal as she settled into her favorite chair, her book and the television remote close at hand.
“You know I can’t have caffeine at this hour of the night.”
“Some chamomile tea.” Meredith tucked the granny-square afghan over her mother’s knees. “That will help you relax.”
“I suppose. Be sure you put honey in it, not that artificial sweetener.” Anxiety was slow to fade from Margo’s eyes.
“I will. I’m sorry the noise alarmed you.”
“Really, Meredith, you might have been more considerate. You know it worries me when I’m alone after dark.”
“I know.”
Her mother leaned back, switching on the television. She was calming down, and with any luck, the chamomile tea would complete the process. Meredith headed for the kitchen, realizing that her own nerves were jumping. Maybe she should have a cup, too, but she was already awash.
What had possessed her mother to be so alarmed she’d attempt to brain someone with a broom? Meredith would have expected her to lock herself in the closet with her cell phone, not go on the attack.
Carrying the electric kettle to the sink, she started the tap running, looking out the window over the sink automatically. The kitchen lights turned the window into a mirror, showing her face looking a bit the worse for wear.
But beyond the image, out in the dark— She froze, the water overflowing the kettle as her stomach clenched.
A flashlight flickered through the trees. Someone was at the dam, the beam of the light moving back and forth.
Water splashed on her hand. She turned the tap off, emptied the excess from the kettle and set it on its stand, never taking her eyes from the light.
Maybe her mother had heard something, then. And maybe that feeling she’d had of being watched had been genuine, as well, as someone had been waiting for her to go inside, out of the way.
Should she act? If it was Laura at the dam, having slipped away from her keepers again, something should be done. But would Laura bring a flashlight? Would Laura try not to be seen? That seemed unlikely.
She could go and see for herself. Or call the police. She could call Zach and ask him to check it out. And end up looking like an idiot when it was someone who had a perfect right to be there.
Wrestling with it, she brewed the tea and carried it to her mother, who had become absorbed in one of her endless game shows.
“I’m going to work in the office for a little while, Mom. If you want anything else, just call me.”
Her mother nodded, not taking her gaze from the screen.
Meredith headed for the office and stopped at the door, frowning. The desk lamp was on. But she hadn’t been in the office this afternoon, and she wouldn’t have walked away and left it on if she had.
She chased away a flicker of what might have been fear. If anyone had been in here, it must have been her mother. She glanced back toward the living room.
“Mom? Were you in my office while I was out?”
For a moment the only reply was silence. “Well, what if I was?” Her mother sounded peevish. “I just needed a pencil to work my puzzle. You don’t need to act as if I was snooping.”
“I’m not.” Whether she thought it or not, she hadn’t implied it. “I just wondered why the lamp was on, that’s all.”
She paused for a moment, but her mother didn’t respond. Well, she couldn’t get into any of the work files, since Meredith had never shared the passwords, so it didn’t really matter.
Meredith took a quick glance through the desk drawers, but nothing seemed disarranged. She settled in front of the computer, dismissing her mother’s rampant curiosity from her mind.
She wasn’t going to wander down to the dam in the dark, and she wasn’t going to call Zach, either. She’d sit here and get some work done while keeping her ears pricked for any noise from the driveway that ran right past her window. If someone came up this way from the dam, she’d know it.
* * *
ZACH FOUND IT hard to believe that he was on his way to spend Saturday at a barn raising with Meredith at her invitation. He’d had the distinct impression that she’d been scared off by that kiss.
In fact, he’d told himself that it was a good thing. It was foolish to try and rekindle what they’d once had. Their lives were too far apart to make anything work between them. Then she’d called, and he’d forgotten all his good resolutions and jumped at the chance.
Meredith sat next to him, directing him along the narrow blacktop road that led to her cousin’s farm. He glanced at her. She looked relaxed, sitting with her hands loosely linked in her lap, but he suspected that was an illusion.
Well, if you wanted to know something, the best way to find out was generally to ask. “What made you ask me to come along today?”
She looked up, eyes somewhat guarded. “Well, I... When I talked to Sarah, she invited you. I just thought you might be interested.”
Somehow he didn’t think that was all, but he suspected the rest of it would come out eventually. “How did you make out with Sarah? Did she shed any light on your concerns about your father?”
He’d hit a sore spot. He could see it in the way her face tightened, feel it in her slight wince.
Meredith stared down at her hands. “I asked Sarah if my father had ever shown any interest in that group of kids. She remembered something she thought was odd. I
t seems Aaron told her that my dad had warned him away from Laura.” Her voice was tight and colorless.
“That could mean a lot of things,” he said quickly, trying to think of some. “Maybe he realized that Aaron was getting in too deep and was trying to keep him from...” He let that sentence peter out when he realized where it was going.
Meredith’s lips tightened. “Trying to keep Aaron from making the same mistake he had,” she said.
“I didn’t mean that exactly.” He sounded lame, he suspected.
“It’s all right. Rachel said the same thing. And I don’t have many illusions about my parents’ marriage.”
He rejected several soothing platitudes. “Maybe it makes sense that he’d try to get through to Aaron.”
“Maybe. But saying he warned Aaron away sounds like something else.”
“Is that what your cousin implied?” He could read the answer in her face before she responded.
“Of course not.”
“Well, then, maybe you ought to give your dad the benefit of the doubt.” And maybe it was time to get away from the touchy subject of her father. “Did Sarah ever talk to Aaron about his relationship with Laura?”
“She told me she’d tried, but didn’t get anywhere. I suppose the fact that she’d been sweet on Aaron made it awkward for her. I did ask who Aaron’s closest friends were, and she said Samuel was his best friend.”
“Samuel,” he repeated. “Does that have anything to do with why we’re going to a barn raising?”
Her face relaxed into a smile. “It might. It’s not easy for me to corner Samuel for a chat, but he’s bound to be at the barn raising. I ought to be able to find some time when I can ask him a few questions about Aaron.”
Zach turned that over in his mind, discovering that he was not pleased with the idea of Meredith confronting her cousin. “Why don’t you let me ask the questions?”
“You?” She was clearly startled. “I don’t think so. You’re a virtual stranger to him. Why would you do it?”
“I am a cop, after all. Asking questions goes with the territory.”
“All the more reason why you shouldn’t attempt asking him anything. The Amish are the most law-abiding people in the world, but they don’t believe in getting mixed up with the law. If you start acting like a cop, everyone will clam up.”
“And if you question Samuel, you’ll make him realize you’re not following his advice.” He still didn’t like it, even though what she said made sense. His one encounter with Samuel hadn’t left him with a positive impression of the man.
“I’ll just have to take that chance. We can’t let anyone think this is a police matter. You understand that, don’t you?” She made a tentative gesture toward him and then clasped her hands again.
“I guess so. But that doesn’t mean I’m happy about it.”
“I can see that.” She seemed to study his face. “How did you get to be a police officer anyway? It seems an unlikely choice—”
“For a troublemaker like me?” He finished the thought for her.
“I wasn’t going to say that. But we had talked about how you wanted to go into the military, and I always thought that’s what you’d do.”
He shrugged. “Not without a high school diploma.” Which her mother’s accusations had scuttled. “When I left Deer Run, I was ripe for any kind of trouble. Hitched my way to Pittsburgh, where I fell in with a gang of guys who were about as angry as I was. We got involved in some petty crime. Then they decided to rob a construction site.”
He fell silent, remembering how he’d felt. Reluctance at doing something so irrevocably against the law had fought with his need to belong somewhere.
“You did that?” Shock laced Meredith’s voice even though she probably tried to prevent it.
“Not exactly. Oh, I went with them. They really weren’t very good at it. We got caught almost immediately by a night watchman. One of the guys took a swing at him, and the next thing I knew, they were all ganging up on this old man. I thought they were going to beat him to death.”
He didn’t like remembering that moment, seeing Joe lying on the ground, his head bleeding, someone’s leg drawn back to kick him... “So anyway, I jumped in. Fought them off long enough for the man to radio for help.”
He risked a glance at Meredith, not seeing any condemnation in her eyes.
“You saved him.” She didn’t even sound surprised.
“Yeah, well, I ended up arrested for my trouble. But Joe—that was his name, Joe Tedrow—was a retired cop. He had a lot of friends on the force, and he wouldn’t give up on me. Got me out of jail, got the court to wipe my record clean, gave me a place to live. He badgered me until I went back to school.”
“He sounds like a remarkable man.”
“Yeah, he is.” He couldn’t talk about what Joe had done for him without his throat turning to gravel. “So I ended up wanting to be a cop like him. He still claims he knew I was meant for the job from the minute he saw me.”
Meredith didn’t speak for a moment. “It sounds as if life gave you a new father, as well as a new chance.”
“Maybe so.”
Meredith was the only one he’d even talked like this to, and the only one who understood. He’d never met another woman who could do that, and eventually he’d stopped trying.
She seemed to sense his feelings, because she didn’t ask any questions. She leaned forward a moment later, pointing to an even narrower road to the right between two pastures. “That way. It’s only a couple miles.”
He nodded, making the turn. “Anything else turn up since the last time we talked?”
“N-no, not exactly.”
“Not exactly what? Are you going to make me drag it out of you?”
“No.” Her smile flickered. “Something a little odd did happen last night.” She paused, seeming to organize her thoughts. “I had gone over to Rachel’s, and I was coming home across the backyards when I thought I heard something, but it was nothing. Just a couple of raccoons trying to get into my neighbor’s trash cans.”
“If that was all that happened, you wouldn’t have mentioned it.”
“Well, no. It was probably my imagination, but it felt as if someone was watching me.” She sounded as if she were trying to reassure herself. “But then when I went in the house, my mother almost hit me with the broom.”
“What? Why?” He nearly veered off the road.
“She said she heard someone outside. She was convinced someone was out there, but I persuaded her it was just me, chasing the raccoons away.”
He eyed her face, hands gripping the wheel. “You don’t think so.”
“When I looked out the kitchen window a few minutes later, I saw a light moving through the trees down by the dam. Someone was there with a flashlight.”
“Why didn’t you call me?” He was instantly alarmed at the thought that she might have tried to investigate on her own.
“I...I thought that would be making too much of it. I mean, we don’t own the area around the dam, just the path that leads down to it. Anyway... Well, I didn’t. And I wasn’t about to go check it out alone.”
“I’m glad you had that much sense.” Why couldn’t she just have called him? He could have been there in a couple minutes.
She looked annoyed at his comment. “I decided I’d work in my office, where I could hear anyone who came past on the driveway. But no one did.”
He considered that. “It’s not the only way to get to the dam. Just the easiest one.”
“True.” She nodded, pointing to a lane that branched off to the right. “There’s the farm.”
The lane was wider and better tended than he’d expected, probably because the milk trucks used it.
“There’s another explanation,” he said, drawing up at the end
of a long line of parked buggies and a few cars. “Someone could have intentionally kept quiet going by so that you wouldn’t hear him.”
He’d rather he hadn’t thought of that, because it put an unpleasant image in his mind—an image of Meredith, sitting at her computer in a lighted room, in full view of anyone out in the dark. Of someone standing out there, watching her, before creeping silently away.
CHAPTER NINE
MEREDITH SLID OUT of the car, taking a deep breath of crisp fall air and freshly cut wood. Being in the car alone with Zach even for the short ride to Sarah and Jonah’s farm was disturbing to her equilibrium. Maybe she shouldn’t have asked him to come today, but the urge to have a little more time with him before he left had overcome her better judgment.
Well, this was business, in a way. It would give Zach a better sense of the complex web of Amish relationships as well as give her the opportunity to question Samuel.
“Wow.” Zach stood next to her on the lane, staring at the raw framework of the barn. Already it towered skyward, the bare ribs giving an impression of power. Men swarmed over it like ants, almost indistinguishable in their black pants, solid-colored shirts and straw hats.
“They’ll have started hours ago,” she said. “My onkel Simon, Sarah’s father, is generally recognized as the person in charge of design. He’d have laid it out last week, so they could be ready to start at dawn. That’s him over there, by the apple tree.” She gestured toward the lanky figure who surveyed the workers with a practiced eye.
Zach glanced at her uncle, then at her. “He’s your dad’s brother?”
She nodded. “They were always very alike in looks, though Dad didn’t have the beard, of course.” Simon’s beard was down to midchest now, and more gray than brown, but otherwise he’d changed very little over the years.
“If you want to help with the work...” she began a little tentatively, not sure Zach realized what he’d gotten himself into when he’d agreed to come today.
“Sure. I’ve pounded a few nails in my time. As long as someone tells me what to do, I’ll be fine.”
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