by Ashley Emma
“How could you?” Ian demanded, grabbing his leg with both hands and letting out a string of profanities.
“How could you kidnap an innocent woman and a girl?” Isaac shot back. He didn’t wait for an answer. Gun aimed at Ian, Isaac slowly approached the criminal. He patted Ian down, checking for any weapons. He didn’t have any on him.
Finally, Liv and Jill were safe. He reached the car and opened the door, helping Liv out.
“Isaac!” she cried out, and he ran and embraced her. He pressed his face into her hair, breathing in her vanilla scent mixed with dirt and fear. He’d never let her go. Never, ever again.
“I prayed that you would come rescue us,” she cried into his shoulder.
“Once I heard you were gone, I knew Ian kidnapped you, since Samuel is in custody. And then I remembered that Ava had drowned here. I called the police and ran straight here. I couldn’t wait for them. I had a feeling there wasn’t much time left. Looks like I was right.”
“Thank you,” Liv said softly, her bound hands reaching up to his face.
“What happened?” Jill asked. Isaac turned to see her tied up, sitting in the backseat.
“Isaac rescued us. Stay there, okay?” Liv didn’t want Jill to see Ian hurt.
Isaac pulled out a pocket knife he had bought at the outdoors supply store and cut off their ropes. He took one and threw it at Ian. “Tie this around your leg.”
“I’ll kill you for this! You hear me? I will make you pay for this!” Ian screamed, then tied the rope tightly around his leg above the gunshot wound to slow the bleeding.
“What do we do now?” Liv asked, ignoring Ian. “I guess we could put him in the trunk for now, just to be safe until the police get here. We don’t want him trying anything.”
“Well, they should be here soon. We can just wait for them,” Isaac said.
They took the ropes, tied up Ian and carefully placed him in the trunk as he continued to yell threats and curse words. Liv hurried back to the shack to get her cell phone and put the battery back in it, also grabbing Ian’s Glock. She called CPDU and let them know what was going on.
“Do you think that’s the gun he used to kill Bill Sullivan and Bishop Johnson?” Isaac asked when he saw the Glock.
“Ian already confessed. But we can actually use the casing I found at Bishop Johnson’s house to see if this gun was used to fire it. Glocks have rectangular firing pins, and when the gun fires, the firing pin makes a rectangular indentation on the primer. That’s the middle part of the bullet. If we look at the firing pin indent and it is rectangular, that will tell us it was most likely fired by a Glock. A microscopic examination will compare the gun and casing to see if that specific gun cased the scrapes on that specific casing.
“Basically, if we look at the gun and the casing, we will be able to tell if they are a match. But Ian already told me he shot Bill and Bishop Johnson.”
“Wow. That is fascinating!” Isaac’s eyes widened in wonder.
“We have a lot of equipment that helps us solve crimes.”
“I’d really like to learn more about it.”
“Well, I’d be happy to teach you.” She meant it, but as soon as she said the words, guilt and dread tore through her. It was almost time for her to leave.
A few minutes later several police officers arrived. When Liv and Isaac reached the community, more flashing police cars crowded the fields along with an ambulance. Liv pulled up the car and parked, and instantly they were surrounded.
In a chaos of shouting, police officers helping them and the paramedics taking Ian, somehow Jill squeezed her way through the crowd once she saw her mother.
“Mamm!” she called, her lavender dress flapping behind her, her blonde hair streaming like ribbons on a bicycle. She leapt into Mrs. Johnson’s arms, who began to weep.
Liv and Isaac watched the tender sight, and it warmed his heart. Isaac knew that was what Olivia lived and worked for—seeing victims being reunited with their families.
Diana came out of her house, and once she recognized Ian, she ran at him, calling his name. The officers held her back as the paramedics treated him, but Diana only cried out louder, calling out toward her long lost son, realizing her second son was being arrested.
The police officers whisked Liv and Isaac away to be questioned.
The entire time he was being questioned, he kept glancing at Liv. She’d been through so much, and he just wanted to make sure she was all right. Once the officers and paramedics were finished with him, his family surrounded him.
“Isaac!” they cried, all hugging him at once.
“We are so glad you are all okay.” Tears streamed down Hannah’s face.
“I heard the police say your son shot a man.” Bishop Byler stepped into their conversation.
His entire family gasped. “Is this true?” Amos whispered.
“The man was a killer. He kidnapped Liv and Jill. What was I supposed to do, let him take them out of the state? If they had gone, who knows if we would have ever found them alive! Yes, I shot him. I didn’t kill him, only injured him to stop him. I thought it was the right thing to do,” Isaac explained.
“You had a gun?” Hannah cried. “For hunting, you mean?”
“No, not for hunting. I got a handgun to carry for protection after the rash of crimes broke out. I thought it was the right choice,” Isaac answered. And he didn’t regret his decision one bit.
“Isaac, I know many of us have firearms for hunting, but this one represents self-defense and violence toward another person. I will dismiss this incident under the circumstances, but now that the culprit is caught, it is time to get rid of the pistol because of what it represents for you. Understand?” Bishop Byler asked.
Isaac was glad this bishop was understanding, but he wasn’t sure about what his answer would be.
“You’ll get rid of the gun, won’t you, son?” Amos asked, his eyes pleading.
“I don’t know,” he said plainly and walked away.
“Isaac!”
Isaac turned to see Officer Martin jogging up to him. “I hear you did a heck of a job out there today. Liv won’t stop raving about you.”
Isaac blushed and looked away. “I just wanted to protect her and Jill.”
“Well, I hear you shot Ian’s legs in the first shot. You shot him in a place where he will be able to recover, yet injured him enough for him to no longer be a threat. You could have shot him anywhere on his body, but you were so precise. And you didn’t let your emotions get in the way of the goal. For someone with no official training, you were excellent. Ever thought of becoming a police officer?” Jeff asked, his eyes twinkling in the sunlight.
Isaac laughed out loud. “Me, a police officer?” He didn’t even know what to think.
“Yeah. I think you’d be a great officer. You should think about it,” Jeff clapped him on the shoulder. “You’re a great shot, and from what I hear, you’re always calm in a situation. You always do the right thing.”
“You do realize I’d be shunned if I became an officer, right? As in, my family wouldn’t be allowed to talk to me anymore?” Isaac asked gently.
“Well, I guess that’s your call, then. Sometimes if you really want something, it is worth making huge sacrifices for.”
Isaac’s gaze wandered to Liv. Would he be willing to sacrifice everything to be with her?
“Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that you did a good job, and that Liv really cares about you.” Isaac detected jealously in Jeff’s voice. “So I hope you make the right decision.”
“Thanks, Officer Martin.” Isaac patted him on the back. He saw Liv finish her questioning, and he walked over to her.
“You okay?” He reached out to touch her arm.
She let out a long breath. “Yeah. Now that we know he committed all those crimes, I’m glad to know he’ll probably be going to jail for life. Except we still don’t know who attacked you. I don’t think it was him.” She glanced at Ian, who was on a stretcher. The
paramedics prepared him to be put in the ambulance. “My partner told me the test results of the bat did not match the wood splinters that were found in your head. The perp must have worn gloves. His prints weren’t on it. None on the step, either. So that probably wasn’t the weapon you were attacked with. He couldn’t find any prints on the note that was left in your house, either, but Ian admitted to leaving it.”
Isaac shrugged. “I guess sometimes not all mysteries can be solved.”
“But I still want to investigate why the word help was on the Sullivans’ window,” she whispered, leaning toward him. “It might give us more answers.”
“Well, just don’t get your hopes up. We could end up with no answers, just like when your house was burned down.”
*
Liv sucked in a breath, remembering what Ian had said in the shack when she had asked him if he had burned down Sid’s barn.
“I like fire…”
This was her chance. She had to know if he was the one who killed her family.
Liv whipped around and ran towards Ian, who was about to be put into the ambulance.
“I just want to ask him one question. It’ll just take a second,” she said to a paramedic, pushing her way through, flashing her badge. She marched up to Ian. “Did you burn down my house?”
Ian turned his head and stared at her, his cold eyes void of any compassion.
“Did you kill my family?” she demanded, even louder this time.
Ian chuckled. It was an irritating sound, like nails scraping a chalkboard.
“Come on, Ian, you’re getting life in prison. Confessing to one more crime won’t make much of a difference. You told me earlier you like fire. You were hinting that you were the arsonist who burned down my house, weren’t you?”
Ian narrowed his icy blue eyes, staring her down. “Yes, I was. You’re a smart girl, and I knew you’d figure it out.”
“Why did you kill them?” Liv cried. Isaac ran up behind her and grabbed her arm, but she pushed him away.
“Your little sister was just like Ava. The same age, same height. Same hair color. What was her name again?” Ian smirked.
“Beth! You know her name was Beth!” Liv screamed. Tears stung her eyes. No, she would not cry in front of all these people, people she worked with. She held her tears back, balling her hands into fists.
“Your family was so perfect back then. I couldn’t stand to see you all together, one big happy family, with a little girl just like Ava. I had to kill you all. What I didn’t know was that you weren’t in the house at the time, until I saw you running back after I had already set the fire.” Ian’s lip curled into a snarl. “And I couldn’t bring myself to kill you then. I liked watching you, wishing you could save them. But you couldn’t.”
Liv recalled the memory of him standing in the shadows, wearing that hideous angry clown mask. She shivered, her skin crawling with disgust.
“You should have died that day with them. I should have killed you, too. Then my brother would still be alive, and none of this would have ever happened! It’s all your fault!”
“No!” Liv screamed, grabbing onto the side of the stretcher for support. When Ian touched her hand, she yanked herself away and started to collapse, but Isaac caught her in his strong arms.
As the paramedics lifted the criminal up into the ambulance, Isaac led Liv away to the edge of the field, away from everyone else. The crowd started to clear, and he knew she wanted to cry, just not in front of anyone else.
“He killed them all!” Her tears flowed freely now. She grabbed onto him and sobbed into his chest, her body wracking with each breath. “Maybe he should have killed me that day. He was right. Then none of this would have happened!” Her voice was muffled by his shirt.
Isaac pulled away enough to see her face, and he held her chin in his hand. “No. He’s a liar and a sociopath. He only said that to hurt you. He still would have come here and killed his father, killed the bishop, and committed those crimes. None of this is your fault, Liv.”
Never before had Isaac ever seen Liv cry. She had always been so strong, but after a horrific chain of events, this finally broke her. He held her in his arms until she stopped crying, under the shade of the trees, until her tears ran out.
*
Once Liv finally recovered, she called Captain Branson.
“The killer has been found. Why don’t you want to come back to CPDU? You never even wanted to go to Amishland in the first place. Now you want to stay longer? It’s getting boring here without you joking around and pranking people,” Branson said.
“I just need a little more time. I need to figure out what is going on at the Sullivan’s house,” she explained. “After I saw the word help written on the basement window, I searched and didn’t find anything, but I want to look for clues one more time. Plus, we never discovered who attacked Isaac. The bat wasn’t a match on the weapon used to attack him.”
“Well, just so you know, now that we know Ian is the perp, we released Samuel from custody. We didn’t have enough to hold Samuel.” She heard Branson slam shut the filing cabinet in his office and slap a stack of papers on his wooden desk.
“It’s fine. I’ll be careful. So may I stay a few days longer?”
“Yes, you may.”
“Thank you, sir.”
She hung up and sat back in her chair on the porch at the Mast farm, listening to the sounds of the animals. She looked across the farmland to the Sullivans’ house. Now that Samuel was back, Liv would have to be extra careful about investigating what was going on in his house. If only she could go up to his front door and tell him she needed to search his house immediately. But that would completely blow her cover, and if she was wrong about Samuel, that could be a disaster.
“Why did you become a police officer?” Isaac asked Liv, looking at her as he sat next to her on the porch.
“I wanted to help people get the justice I never had. And to get answers I never had. I just wanted to help people get out of situations like I was in.” She let out a slow breath, looking up at the cloudy sky.
“What was it like living with Jake?” he asked.
Liv brought her feet up onto the chair and clammed up. She had never told anyone what it had been like, not in detail.
“You don’t have to answer that,” Isaac murmured, looking embarrassed. “Sorry.”
“You know what? It’s okay. It’s time I talk about it.” She set her feet back down on the boards of the porch. She looked at Isaac. “Every day I lived in fear. My world was fear. It was how he controlled me. It was all I knew after a while.”
Isaac shifted in his seat, turning to her so he could hold her hand.
She smiled a little at his touch, then continued. “I felt like my life was dark and hopeless. Like there was no way out, like it would be horrible forever. He blamed me for everything. Even if I had nothing to do with it, he’d find a way to blame me. He criticized everything about me. He critiqued how I stood, how I walked and talked. He told me I had an ugly laugh, and that I couldn’t walk straight. He always had something to complain about. He hated that I couldn’t cook or sew well or be like any other ‘good’ Amish woman. To him, I was nothing. And he didn’t hesitate to tell me that. He told me I wasn’t good enough for him, and he told me he didn’t even know why he married me. But he said he was stuck with me because there is no such thing as divorce in the eyes of the church.”
Liv paused, taking in a deep breath, calming herself down when memories resurfaced like a dark whale coming up to the surface of the sea.
Isaac’s eyes shone with tears, and one tear fell, trickling down his face. “That day I bumped into you in the grocery store, you spilled your groceries everywhere, and I saw that huge bruise on your arm. Remember?”
She nodded. She had known that day when he had seen her bruised arm that he suspected Jake was abusive even before that.
“What happened that day, the day he died? I saw the way Jake walked up to us and dug his fingers
into your arm so inconspicuously so no one would notice, but I did. I saw the anger in his eyes. You told me a little about what happened, but not the full story.”
She trembled at the memory of Isaac’s face as Jake had walked her out of the store. Isaac had looked so worried. “He accused me of having an affair with you. Can you believe that? He asked me why I didn’t look at him like that, but how could I shower him with love when I spent every second wondering when he was going to hit me next?”
“Oh, Liv. I don’t even know what to say. That happened because I talked to you in the store, didn’t it? Is it my fault?”
Liv stood up and walked to the porch railing. “No, of course not. He would have tried to kill me sooner or later. Don’t you dare blame yourself.” She looked at him, eyebrows drawn together. “Promise me.”
He sighed, giving a weak smile, and got up to stand beside her. “I will try. But I can’t stop thinking about how I should have convinced you to marry me instead. Then none of that would have happened. I would have protected you. And loved you more than life itself.”
She thought for a moment he might kiss her, but she knew he wouldn’t out here on her uncle’s porch.
“Remember when I ran to your house, right after Jake died? You told me you should have married me then, too.” She took in a shaky breath as the memories washed over her, how she had taken a fistful of his thick, dark hair and kissed him. He had told her he would have taken care of her, and that Jake hadn’t deserved her. He held her bruised body in his arms, even though she was covered in blood.
It had felt so right, yet so wrong, and it had been terrible timing.
And then she had left him there because he refused to go with her.
“Yes, I did say that. I meant it then, too. Come on. Let’s walk.” Isaac reached out and gently took hold of her hand, and she couldn’t pull away. She let him lead her down the porch steps and they stepped out onto the grass.
“Everything happens for a reason, Isaac. You taught me that. If I had married you, I never would have become a police officer. Then I wouldn’t have been able to help and rescue all the people I have helped. Jill might have been killed if I hadn’t been here to investigate. And if you wouldn’t have helped. The truth is, being with Jake made me strong enough for this job. I’m not sure I could have ever been able to do it if I hadn’t married him. Sad as that is.”