by Anne Hagan
“Wherever that might be?”
“Yes.”
I was angry that my detectives hadn’t followed up with his boss as I’d asked them to do but I pushed those thoughts aside for now. “Why did you leave your family?” I asked him instead.
“I couldn’t stay there but I haven’t left them ma’am. I’m still going to help take care of them.”
“Take care of them? They think you ran away.”
“No, my obligation is to them...I just couldn’t stay there.”
I tried a different tack, “Level with me; did you have any sort of a physical relationship with Katie Hershberger?”
“No!” He shook his head vigorously. “I’ve never even held her hand.”
Somehow, I believed him but that meant that his sister was either speculating a lot or she had flat out lied. In either case, her actions would be highly unusual for a woman – or anyone for that matter – that was a part of the Amish community. I found myself growing concerned at all of the possible reasons why she might lie.
“Tell me then, why did you leave you father’s house?”
“Because of him.”
I mentally shuddered. Like Janet had mentioned only a day or so ago, I had a similar déjà vu feeling come over me. It was as if I was talking to Nevil Harper Jr. from the Steirs case, all over again but I shook the eerie thoughts off and tried to concentrate only on Jonah. “What has he done?” I questioned him softly.
Jonah stopped brushing the horse and turned to face me. “Katie’s brother and me, we came up together. That’s how I know her. We work together.”
“The big guy who stopped you at the doorway when you came in tonight?” The one I saw shoveling coal and returning from digging Katie’s grave, I thought to myself.
He nodded. “Caleb.”
“What does Caleb have to do with it?”
Jonah put the brush away and pulled down a blanket for the horse. I helped him get it over him while he tried to decide what to tell me. Finally, he just came out with it.
“Caleb said he was there when Katie told her ma and father she was raped. He let me have it at work one day; said my father did it to her and got her pregnant and that now she was dead because of him.”
Words escaped me but Jonah wasn’t done.
“I was ashamed and angry. I had to leave. If I stayed there, I might have done something a good son should never do.”
“Did Caleb say your father killed Katie?”
“No. He didn’t say that.”
“Do you think he did?”
A tear rolled down his cheek then and he swiped at it angrily as he answered. “I don’t think so. Deep down, I believe he may have...may have...”
“Raped her?” I supplied.
“Yes, but I don’t think he killed her. I know he didn’t...”
“How can you know that for sure?”
“I can’t know it for sure but...but I know where he’s been and he’s hardly been anywhere at all these last couple of weeks...at least, not while I was there.”
“Katie disappeared on Monday, Jonah.”
“I remember.”
“Where was your father then?”
“At work just like every day but that, that Wednesday when we were all home...the day after...”
“After we found Katie,” I finished for him again.
“Where does he work? I thought he was a farmer.”
“Aye, both. He’s a wheelwright too.”
“For buggies?”
“Yes.”
“The shop close to your house.”
He nodded.
“He goes there every day?”
“Most days, even Saturday sometimes, especially in the summer.”
Though I had bad feelings from the start about the man, Jonah had no reason to lie to me and I was well aware that his father had no means to get to Dresden where Katie was found or even to Zanesville unless he commissions a ride, something I’d be willing to bet he didn’t do very often.
Now I was torn; on the one hand I had a guy locked up who fit the description almost to a tee, other than his height, and who had a history of violence against women and on the other I had a man that would have had easy access to Katie and other young women and very well may have been her rapist but who had no real means to go after her more than 10 miles from where he lived, transport her more than 10 miles further north from where he found her and then return more than 20 miles home. It just wasn’t plausible...or did he have help? Why? To what end?
Chapter 24 - Dilemma
Getting out of the cellar under the old Victorian undetected and getting a message to Mel were my top two priorities. I tried in vain to send her a text from my seated position on the dirt floor but there was no reception down there.
I got up gingerly and flexed my knees. The pain from my injury combined with the effects of the cool dampness of the pseudo dungeon I was in was superseded by the throbbing pain in my tongue. I prayed the latter at least would dissipate soon.
Gingerly I picked my way back across the bigger room to the smaller room under the kitchen. As I was about to remount the sandstone stairs to go up, the floor above me creaked with the weight of someone walking across it. I stood as still as I could possibly manage and held my breath too, not wanting to make a sound.
Water ran in a sink above me and then pipes rattled over my head. Moments later heavy feet moved back across the floor the way they’d come. I didn’t know if that was good or bad but I knew I needed to get out of there. I had no idea if the place was a residence for the people that were there or if at least one of them would be leaving soon but I had to take my chances.
I made my way up the steps using my phone for light, found the inside handle for the door with one hand and then stowed my phone in my front jeans pocket with the other. Slowly I opened the door and rose from the depths of the cellar.
The blast of cold air that hit me was a real wakeup call and I hustled to get out and reclose the door as I’d found it then I skittered back around the fence low, the same way I’d come and out the alley gate.
If I could have run back to my car, I would have but my leg was screaming. All I wanted was a heating pad and some ibuprofen.
Back at my vehicle, Boo jumped up scared when I grabbed the door handle, scaring me in the process. I heaved for a couple of breaths of air then, my nerves calmed, slid into my seat. “Let’s go home girl.”
I pulled to the edge of the park and debated going down Hamlett, past the house again or finding another way back to 670 and out of town. Opting for speed, I turned left onto Hamlett and started down the street.
I’d gone about a block and could see the Victorian up ahead. The maroon ford was backing down the driveway. Making a quick decision, I stopped and started to parallel park in an empty space on my side. The driver of the Ford finished backing and turned to go the direction I had been going.
“Okay,” I said to Boo, “so he doesn’t live there. That’s one.” I waited until I couldn’t see his tail lights anymore and then I moved to start pulling out of the slot I was in but I jerked back quickly when the white sedan that had been parked back in front of the garage backed down the driveway. It was too dark for me to tell who or how many people were in the car but my questions were answered when the woman in the white boots emerged from the front with a baby carrier and crossed the front walkway to the vehicle.
She went around to the passenger side out of my view but then the dome light came on in the car as she opened a door and it stayed on. It appeared she was locking the baby carrier into the back seat.
I was completely torn. It could be Jef in that carrier, my brain kept telling me. It could be Jef!
I cursed myself for not writing the plate numbers down of either car while I had the chance to during the day. I was too busy following and snooping and now I was paying the price for my very rookie mistake.
She got in the front seat when she was done with the car seat and they too backed down the dri
veway and then turned to come toward me. I ducked to avoid being seen and berated myself profusely until I was sure they had passed. My engine was running and my lights were still on. I hoped they hadn’t seen me.
Once I was sure they’d passed, I wanted to do a U turn and follow them but there wasn’t enough room to make that sort of maneuver given the other curb parked cars on the street.
I tried to call Mel’s cell. There was no answer. I called her duty cell. There was no answer there either. “Where is she?” I asked the air. Boo yipped at me in response.
“Damn, damn, damn!” I pounded the wheel.
I checked the rearview mirror. The white sedan was nowhere to be seen. I’d missed that opportunity. Going home and telling Mel everything was now my only option.
Before I could gather my wits about me and get moving, I noticed a car coming up the street very slowly. It was creeping along by the time it reached the Victorian. I swallowed hard as I watched it turn into the driveway and stop, barely off of the road. It was the maroon Ford.
Ducking down again and hitting redial, I tried to call Mel’s duty cell a second time. There was still no answer. I started to panic wondering what might have happened to her but then I realized that I was the only one in any immediate danger, since I now knew of at least two of the key players in what I figured was an illegal adoption agency scheme and probably at least four. I knew she wasn’t under any threat and that eased my mind a little. I just had to get out of my current predicament and get back home...
That’s when it hit me. Either Bakula or the other guy, most likely the other guy, must have followed me the day I picked up Jef from Hannah in Zanesville the day of Katie’s disappearance. How else would they have known where to find the child later? Someone had to be watching Hannah’s house, followed me when I took Jeff, I thought, and then our house the whole time to know that Kris came over and took Jef later.
It dawned on me then: the guy in the driveway might have come back because he recognized my car either as the one that followed him here or as the one he followed from the WIC office to Morelville.
“I’m not paranoid, right?” I asked Boo as I nuzzled her close. “This could really be happening to your mommy, right?”
Since I’d ducked and was cuddling my dog, I was already laid half way across the passenger seat. I reached up and set the button for my dome light so it wouldn’t come on when I opened a door and prayed that my headlights being on, even though the car was parked, were blinding enough that the guy in the Ford couldn’t really pick up my movements.
I moved Boo to the floor then wormed my way across the passenger seat and opened the door just about a foot. The light didn’t come on and just a bit of relief flooded through me. I slithered out like a snake, turned around and picked up Boo, closed the door as quietly as I could and then half squatted and waddled duck style alongside three more cars that were parked along the curb behind me.
There was a gap after the third one for a driveway where there were several cars parked, the last one jutting out a little over the sidewalk. I looked up at the house. Multiple lights were on and I could see people moving about. They were having some sort of gathering inside.
I knew I was still too close if the guy had a half decent gun to chance getting out in the open and going to their door to ask for assistance. Instead, I worked my way around to the front of the last car in the driveway and between it and the next one up then we stood just a little and used the passenger side of the second one and the others in front of it for cover to get back between that house and the house next door.
An alley ran behind the houses on that side of the road too. My leg was screaming with pain but I moved as fast as I could up it carrying Boo until we got to the corner. There wasn’t much to choose from there, just some older row houses and one all brick building half a block up that looked like it might be occupied by a business. Most everything was dark.
Feeling uneasy with this part of the neighborhood and not sure if the guy had caught on and was pursuing me, I opted for the business, even though it appeared closed. I went into the little alcove where the front door was and tried it...locked. There was a gated off area to the right that protected a small lot and some loading docks. A heavy padlocked chain looped through the fencing of the big swinging gate and the stationary fence opposite but, because the gate was set slightly crooked, there was enough of a gap at bottom between it and the fence for me to squeeze through.
I put Boo down and pushed her through the opening then wiggled through it myself. When I tried to stand again, my left leg nearly gave out. Boo, happy to be down, darted around me and almost toppled me again when I reached down for her to keep her from going back outside the gate and scampering off.
“You need to stay with mommy,” I scolded her as I pulled her back up to my chest.
We moved back into the shadows of the loading dock and I took out my cell. I had service but I was almost out of juice. Trying to call Mel again wasn’t my best option. I dialed 911.
“Just up here. That one.” I pointed at my car. The maroon Ford was gone.
The city cop pulled his cruiser alongside my car. “Your window’s been shattered,” he told me as he turned to look at me sitting in his back seat.
I could see that. Someone had also turned my lights off and, from the lack of sound, shut the car off too. I didn’t tell the young patrol cop they’d sent round to me when I called in to report someone following me that I’d left it running, only that the keys were in it because I was afraid I’d lose them as I snuck away.
“Do you see him?”
“No. Well, his car is gone, anyway.”
He got on his radio and called for backup then he told me, “Stay here. Let me check it out.” He put his hat on and stepped out of the cruiser.
He peered into my car, front seat and back first then, reaching a leather gloved hand through the space where my driver’s side window used to be, he opened the door, leaned in and took a bit closer of a look.
When he returned to the cruiser, he told me, “Your keys are still in it.”
I feigned relief and nodded and stroked Boo as she sat in my lap.
“You said you hadn’t locked it.”
“Yes.”
“I’m curious why anyone would smash the window.”
“Maybe he didn’t check to see if it was unlocked first.”
“Hmm, doesn’t seem likely. Could someone be stalking you, ma’am?”
“I...I don’t think so.” I tried to play dumb.
I cringed as a set of headlights came down the street toward us but then a quick burst from a light bar on that vehicle had me breathing a sigh of relief.
A female officer wearing lieutenant’s bars pulled up beside us, blocking the entire road, moments later. The young patrol officer sketched the story I’d given him and told her what he’d found. I half listened as she instructed him to do a full report.
“Shot out or smash and grab?” she questioned him.
He stammered out, “I’m not sure,” in reply. “Her keys are in it.”
Looking around, I could see a few people standing in the shadows on their porches watching. If he had been hiding anywhere around, he was gone now.
“Look,” I interrupted them, “I just want to get home. If you can help me deal with the glass, I’ll use her blanket to cover the window. We’ll be all right. I’ll call my wife to come and provide an escort.”
“Excuse me; who’s your wife?” the lieutenant asked me.
“Mel Crane, the Sheriff in Muskingum county.”
Chapter 25 – More Questions
I had no intention of calling Mel. After convincing them to give me a police escort to the city limits, I bid them goodbye in my head and sped off for home.
I’d plugged my phone in as soon as I’d started the car. Now I punched the preset for Hannah and waited until she picked up.
“It’s Dana,” I started quickly. “Where are you at sweetie?”
“I�
�m at home.”
“Listen, I’m sorry if this is a bad time to talk but I need your help.”
“It’s, um, okay.”
“That card I found; it’s for an adoption agency. I need you to think hard. Where would Katie have gotten it?”
I needed to know where these guys were hanging out looking for expectant mothers and babies. I knew they couldn’t just be hanging out at WIC offices all of the time. That seemed pretty risky. And, I thought, coming from Columbus, he really went way out of his way to do that.
“It had to be the park near our house, where you met me,” Hannah answered. “In the fall when Katie first came to stay with us. She liked to go there.”
I shook my head to myself. The bastard, he probably chatted her up and found out she’d left the order. She’d be polite to him because she was raised to be polite and always deferential to men.
“That could be it. Maybe these guys choose places like WIC when it gets too cold to hang out at parks...they move around between places outside of the bigger cities that they know will be populated by women and infants.”
I’ll bet, I thought to myself, he would have taken both Katie and Jef or just Jef that day at the WIC office if Hannah hadn’t been there. He saw his chance to separate Katie out of the mix and get her out of the way so he could grab Jef later.
“I went to Katie’s funeral tonight, Dana.”
“Really? Why didn’t you say something? I’d have gone with you. You didn’t go alone, did you?”
“I did. I needed to lay her to rest in my own mind. But, I wasn’t completely alone. Mel was there.
“Oh. Well, that’s interesting. She didn’t say anything to me either.”
“She was talking to Jonah Gingrich, a boy Katie told me wanted to court her before...” She didn’t finish.
I made a mental note to ask Mel about that but, knowing what I did, I figured she was on the wrong track with the boy. I changed the subject instead.
“Is Jamie there right now?”
“No. She went to see her sister.”
“Did you two talk?”