Love Inspired Suspense June 2021--Box Set 1 of 2, page 22
“I appreciate the sentiment, but what if I’m putting your children in danger? You told me yourself that someone had to have shut Daisy into the horse stall. There’s no way she could have gotten in there on her own.”
“Daisy refuses to talk much since her mother’s death.” Familiar regret ate away at his gut. “I want to believe she wandered over to see the puppies.” He left the “but” unsaid.
“It doesn’t make sense that she would have dropped her precious doll. And someone smashed the flowerpots. And the note.” Liddie had obviously been rehashing today’s events, too. She shook her head, then pushed away from the table. “I don’t know what happened, but it’s not safe for me to stay here.”
“I’ll make sure the children are safe. I’ll make sure you’re safe.” If only he could have done the same for Maggie.
Liddie looked up and they locked gazes. Standing, she tucked in the kitchen chair and braced her hands on the back of it. “It’s not fair for your children. For Ellen.” Liddie kept her voice low in the quiet house. “Their poor grandmother has already been through enough.”
“Where would you go?” Jonah stared up at her, studying her features.
“Maybe I could call my sister.”
An icy dread gathered in the pit of his stomach. “You’re willing to leave the Amish? Break the rules of the Ordnung?”
“There’s no other way.”
Jonah rose, not taking his eyes off her. “There is. You can stay here.”
* * *
The next morning, Liddie woke up and tugged the covers over her head as the events of the past few days crashed over her. What she wouldn’t give to wake up with only thoughts of breakfast on her mind. Instead, regret and worry pressed on her heart, and a persistent buzz of apprehension made her wary of what the new day would bring.
Pushing aside her concerns, she got ready for the day and hurried downstairs. Ellen was already in the kitchen and the fragrant smell of apple pancakes reached her nose. A feeling of nostalgia caught her off guard. She missed home. Her mem. Her little brothers. Her big sister. But the life she yearned for no longer existed. Her sister had jumped the fence. Soon her brothers would find wives and start families of their own. Everyone was growing up. Moving on.
Would she ever be able to move past all the poor choices she had made? Find her place in this world?
“Good morning,” Liddie said more cheerily than she felt as she stepped into the kitchen. “Can I help you with anything?”
Ellen lifted the spatula and shook her head. “Neh, neh...” The two simple words came out on a sigh, sounding more weary than usual.
“I’ll get the children up.”
Liddie turned to leave when Ellen added, “We don’t keep animals in the house.”
Liddie turned back around. “We never kept pets in the house either. They always had the run of the farm and a nice cozy bed in the barn.”
A flicker of a smile touched their grandmother’s lips, as if she were surprised they could find common ground over such a simple thing. “Daisy seems to be attached to the puppy,” the older woman mused, turning back to her pancakes bubbling in the cast iron pan.
“Yah.” Liddie had crept upstairs last night to check on Daisy and her heart had been warmed when she found Jonah petting the dog as it lay curled up on the bottom of her bed. Liddie had slipped away unnoticed, feeling like she had invaded a private, vulnerable moment.
“Make sure the puppy does his business outside.” Ellen squared her shoulders. “I keep a clean house.”
She felt a certain lightness in her limbs. “The children and I will make sure of it. He might be a nice distraction.”
“You’ve decided? You’re staying?” Ellen continued to tend to the pancakes.
Liddie jerked her head back and a warm flush heated her cheeks. Had Ellen overheard her discussion with Jonah last night? Despite his invitation to stay on, she hadn’t answered him. He had advised her to sleep on it. And she had. She didn’t want to leave, but she was still conflicted about putting Daisy and Andy in further jeopardy. From what or whom she had no idea. Maybe her father had been right in suggesting all the news coverage from her sister’s kidnapping would continue to invite bad things into their world. Her world.
“I—” Before she had a chance to answer, the puppy started barking at the top of the stairs. “Uh, I better get him outside.”
“Go, go.” Ellen waved the spatula at her. “I’m going to burn the children’s breakfast.”
Liddie climbed the stairs and scooped up the puppy. Daisy appeared in her bedroom door in her PJs, lines from her pillow on her face. “Did you sleep well?”
Daisy nodded.
“Have you come up with a name for this little guy?”
“Snowball because he’s white and fluffy. Like snow,” Daisy said, her voice soft but clear, surprising Liddie since the child’s replies were usually short mutterings of the yah or neh variety.
Liddie couldn’t contain a smile. “Let’s get Snowball outside so he doesn’t have an accident.”
A tiny smile flickered across the child’s face.
When they reached the bottom landing, Ellen said, “Let Jonah know breakfast is almost ready. He’s in the barn. Sold a few more rockers. Someone’s supposed to pick them up this morning.”
“Sure.” Liddie pulled open the door and the bright early-morning sun hit her face. She stepped back inside and pulled a quilt from a rack and wrapped it around Daisy’s shoulders. “This will do for the short time we’re outside. You can stay on the porch with your stocking feet.”
Liddie carried the puppy down the porch steps and set Snowball on the grass. The puppy sniffed around the edge of the porch. Liddie returned to the porch and encouraged Daisy to sit in the rocker. She adjusted the quilt tightly around the child. “Here, tuck your feet in.” Daisy bent her legs and draped the blanket over her stocking feet. “Now you’ll stay nice and warm.”
“Denki,” Daisy said.
Loud voices sounded from across the yard. Jonah was standing by a red van talking to another Amish man, no doubt the person who had purchased his handiwork. After a short discussion, the two went into the barn and came back with the rocker. When they couldn’t open the back doors of the van, the driver climbed out. The Englischer adjusted his pants and strolled around back. Liddie’s attention turned to Daisy who was staring, wide-eyed, at the man.
“Is something wrong?” Liddie asked as pinpricks blanketed her scalp.
Daisy didn’t answer, but her gaze was transfixed. A strange energy charged the air.
Jonah and the Amish man loaded up the rocking chair and slammed the back doors shut. The driver climbed in behind the wheel. Liddie suddenly recognized him from her Rumspringa years, when she used to go to Amisch-Englisch parties. His name was Dean something. She couldn’t quite remember. He must have felt their stares, because he turned to study them as he drove past, lifting his hand in a mock salute.
All the color had drained from Daisy’s face and her body began to tremble. Something was definitely wrong.
“You can talk to me, Daisy. What has you so frightened?” A steady pulse ticked in Liddie’s ears, making her feel dizzy. She picked up the puppy and placed him gently in Daisy’s lap, eager to comfort the child. The fur ball licked Daisy’s chin, then she bowed her head and buried her face in his fur. She muttered something unintelligible.
“What did you say?” Liddie’s breath caught. “Tell me again. It’s okay,” she cajoled.
“That man hurt my mem.”
SIX
Jonah watched the van pull out onto the country road with one of his rocking chairs in the back. His Amish roots told him to be humble, yet he couldn’t help but be proud that others held value in something he had made with his own two hands. It was a different kind of feeling than the sense of accomplishment that left him conflicted after a hard day’s work at a construction site of a fancy home. The people who lived in those homes insisted on three-car garages for two cars. Four bedrooms and they had only one baby. Ornate kitchens where he suspected no one cooked. The life of excess was beyond comprehension. But the steady paycheck kept him coming back despite the fact that he hated leaving his children to earn it.
Shoving the thought aside, Jonah tucked the money from the sale of the rocking chair into his toolbox and locked it away. When he emerged from the barn, he saw Liddie crouched down in front of his daughter. The familiar hum of unease crept up his spine. Would his family ever find peace?
When Jonah reached the porch, he could hear Liddie’s soothing words to his daughter.
“Is something wrong?” he asked, stepping onto the porch.
Liddie looked up at him, her eyes filled with worry and concern. She turned her attention back to Daisy. “Can you tell your dat what you just told me?”
The little girl ran her hand down the puppy’s back. Her new pet seemed more than content to stay in her lap.
“Please,” Jonah said.
Wrapped in the quilt with Snowball curled up on her legs, Daisy struggled to get out of the rocker.
“Here.” Liddie scooped up the puppy and set him down.
Daisy flung off the quilt and stood. “I want to go inside.” Thankfully, his daughter appeared to be opening up since Liddie’s arrival, but she still seemed frightened of everything. She pulled open the screen door, ushered the puppy in, then let the door slam in its frame, leaving Jonah and Liddie outside alone.
“Tell me what’s going on,” Jonah said pointedly, hating the harshness of his tone. One thing he had learned this past year was that fear manifested outwardly as anger. He couldn’t help himself. All the warm and fuzzy feelings of earlier today drained out of him, leaving him with a constant buzz of anger and dread.
Liddie straightened and drew in a deep breath. She turned to him and said, “How well do you know that man?”
Jonah’s brow furrowed as he glanced toward the barn, then back at her. “Levi Jacobs? He lives in the community. His wife is due a baby soon. I sold him one of my rocking chairs.” What was she getting at?
“Neh, not the Amish man. The man driving the van.” Liddie’s eyes sparked with something he couldn’t quite identify. “Do you know Dean...?” She pressed her fingers to her temple and furrowed her brow in concentration. “I can’t remember his last name.”
“I don’t know that man.” Most Amish hired the occasional driver, but Jonah had never met that particular one. He rubbed the back of his neck, trying to recall if Levi had mentioned his name, but was coming up blank. A ticking started in his head, much like it did when his life was about to implode. He wasn’t sure how much more a simple, Gott-fearing man could take. He suspected he was about to find out.
“When Daisy saw that man, she said...” Liddie’s voice cracked as she seemed to be carefully picking her words “...she said that he hurt her mem.”
Heat exploded in his chest and he shook his head in disbelief. “That’s not possible.”
Liddie drew up her shoulders. “I’m only repeating what she said.”
The roaring in Jonah’s head grew louder. “You’re mistaken.” He shrugged to contain his anger and he took a step toward the door. “I need to talk to Daisy. Assure her that she’s wrong.” His voice held a hard edge no matter how he tried to calm himself.
“Hold on. Let’s talk a minute first.”
Jonah froze and lifted his palm, silently inviting her to continue.
“Daisy discovered her mother after she was...well...when she died?” Her voice softened as she grappled to frame the question. Liddie cleared her throat and looked beseechingly at him. “Is it possible that Daisy saw the murderer?”
Jonah took off his felt hat and ran his hand over his hair. “Daisy found her mother, but she did not witness her...” Now it was he who couldn’t bring himself to say the word.
“What did Daisy say about that day?” Then, apparently recognizing the insensitivity of the question, she reached out and touched his arm in comfort, only briefly, before pulling it away. Pink splotches blossomed on the smooth skin of her cheeks. “I’m sorry. I’d never pry...”
Jonah wanted to tell her it was okay. Most people avoided the mention of his wife. Her name. Her murder. As if sidestepping the most crushing moment of his life would bring him less pain. As if the mention of it, of her, would suddenly remind him of something that already occupied his every waking thought. As if he needed a reminder. It was absurd.
Now, a year after Maggie’s death, his primary goal was navigating the grief. For him. For his two children. And it seemed Daisy needed the most help since she was imagining things.
“You didn’t pry. Come walk with me.” Jonah turned and stepped off the porch and away from the house because he didn’t want his children to overhear. He paused and cleared his throat, struck by the empathy openly displayed on her pretty features. “Daisy has never said anything about that day. Absolutely nothing.”
Liddie’s warm eyes narrowed imperceptibly. “Never?”
Jonah shook his head, feeling a familiar tightening in his chest. “Not after she told her grandmother that her mem wouldn’t wake up. It’s like she shut down after that.”
“I know this is hard for you, but we have to talk about this. What happened the day Daisy’s mother died?” Liddie asked, her voice floating over him as his mind drifted back to that day, the day he had returned from work to find the emergency vehicles on his property. When he was led back to the greenhouse. Then to watch his wife being loaded into an ambulance.
A technicality.
She was already dead.
Jonah scratched his forehead, then dropped his hand and took a deep breath. “I wasn’t home that day.” He turned and stared off into the distance, afraid that if he made eye contact with Liddie, she’d see into his dark soul, the guilt and regrets. “Later, when I talked to Ellen, she told me that Daisy had gone out looking for her mother. When she came back, she was hysterical. She said her mem was hurt and wouldn’t wake up.” He allowed his gaze to land on Liddie’s face. Tears shimmered in her pretty blue eyes.
“Is there a chance that Daisy did see the murderer?”
“Neh, definitely not.” He tried to sound confident, but a creeping doubt began to take shape. No way. Not possible. “She was traumatized. She’s confused. She saw her mother lying on the ground in the greenhouse.” He glanced toward the house where he imagined his daughter was sitting in a rocker next to her grandmother, holding her dolly or petting her new puppy. His uncertainty grew, invading his account of the events. “If she saw the person, she never said anything.”
“What if she did see something but was too scared to say anything? Or what if, because of the trauma, she didn’t remember until she saw him today?” Liddie’s hand gestures became animated. “I’d see him at parties back when I used to do that sort of thing. He was bad news then.” The pace of her speech quickened as she worked to put the pieces together.
Nothing about this situation fit neatly into place.
“Neh, it wasn’t this man. I am certain. They found fingerprints. They arrested him.” Oliver Applegate. He’d never forget that name.
Liddie tilted her head and made another stab at his account of the events. “What if there was more than one person in the greenhouse that day?”
“Applegate could have accused someone else. He didn’t.” A throbbing started in Jonah’s head. What if? What if? What if? He dragged a shaky hand across his beard. “No, the man responsible was arrested and killed himself in jail. End of story.”
* * *
Liddie wrapped her coat tighter around her midsection and glanced back at the house. No sign of the children. No listening ears. She turned back around and studied Jonah. The anguish on his face was palpable. “I don’t know why your daughter seems to think she recognized that man, but you can’t dismiss her.” Daisy was only six, but Liddie knew what it was like not to have her father in her corner. And how horrible it was to feel like she was on the outside looking in with nowhere to go. “Maybe this is just the beginning. Maybe she’ll finally start talking and tell us what exactly happened yesterday when she went missing.”
Jonah’s eyebrows shot up. “Did she accuse this man of locking her in the stall?”
“Neh, neh. I’m only suggesting that we need to create a safe space for Daisy to talk.”
Jonah seemed to consider this a moment, then gave a sharp shake of his head. “My daughter did not witness her mother’s murder.” Despite the crack in his voice, he was adamant. Liddie wasn’t sure if his comment was simply pure denial, or he hadn’t told her everything about the day of his wife’s murder. Perhaps he believed he was shielding his daughter from interrogation. Maybe this was why Daisy hadn’t spoken much over the past year. Perhaps it had to do with not only finding her mother bloodied and unconscious, but also witnessing the violent act that took her life.
Liddie pushed back the queasiness roiling in her belly. “Is there something you’re not telling me about the day Daisy found her mother?”
Jonah’s gaze hardened and something sparked in his eyes. Anger? “Neh, my daughter did not see the person who took her mother away. Do not bring my daughter into this again.”
“I didn’t mean to cause you pain.” Liddie cleared her throat. “We need to call the sheriff’s department and report this, at the very least.” She wasn’t sure how she had allowed him to talk her out of it yesterday after Daisy disappeared.
“Oliver Applegate’s fingerprints were found on the metal pipe...” Jonah got choked up and turned his back to her briefly. She bit back a second apology. They needed to have this discussion. She needed to know why Daisy thought Dean had hurt her mother. She clasped her hands, waiting for him to continue.
