The Amish Witness

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Thomas nodded. “Many things have passed between us, Elizabeth, and many years. But not so many that we can’t consider each other a friend.”

Did her smile dim when he called her a friend? Was it possible she harbored deeper feelings, too? No. His mind played games with his hopes. If she’d cared for him as he’d cared for her, she would never have left.

She twisted her hands in her lap and gazed off in the distance.

“Elizabeth?”

She sighed deeply. “I’m sorry. I can’t stop thinking about the note.”

“The note is keeping you safe,” Mary said. “It’s giving you time to find out what this mystery item is. There is nothing to worry about. Gott will protect us.”

“Mary’s right,” Thomas said. “I’d say the man got what he wanted for now. He frightened you. He put you on edge. He has you looking over your shoulder at every shadow and jumping at every sound.”

Thomas clicked the reins and the horse broke into a trot as their buggy turned onto the dirt path leading to the house.

“This will be over soon, Elizabeth,” Thomas assured her. “The first thing we need to do is search the box.” He pulled the buggy in front of the porch and helped both women down. Mary climbed the steps to the house, while Elizabeth almost ran toward the barn.

Thomas tied the reins to the porch railing then walked toward the barn, where Elizabeth had disappeared only moments before. Could the words he’d offered her for comfort turn out true? Would it be that easy? Give the man what he wants and he’ll leave them alone? What could be so important it was worth killing an innocent woman to get? His curiosity grew with each step as he neared the barn.

Mary cried out. “Thomas. Elizabeth. Kumm quickly.”

Thomas spun back toward the house and ran. He burst inside. The older woman was pressed against the wall, her knees nearly buckling.

“Mary?”

“Mamm?” Elizabeth whooshed through the doorway and came up short behind him. “Are you all right? What’s wrong?”

Mary lifted a trembling hand and pointed.

“Oh, no!” Elizabeth whispered as both of them looked in the direction Mary had indicated.

The house had been ransacked. The cushions of the sofa and chairs had been gutted with something sharp and stuffing covered every surface. The end tables were overturned, some broken.

The destruction spilled into the kitchen. Every cabinet door hung open. Every drawer was pulled out and emptied. Silverware and cooking utensils had been carelessly tossed across the linoleum. Canisters of flour and sugar were emptied onto the floor. Pots and pans had been thrown haphazardly into the messy concoction.

Every nook and cranny had been searched, every chance to destroy something had been taken.

“He was here,” Mary whispered. “That evil man was in our home.”

Elizabeth rushed to her mother’s side and wrapped her arms around her. “It’s okay, Mamm. We’re okay. We aren’t hurt. This is just stuff. We can fix stuff, right?”

Mary nodded, a stunned expression still deeply etched on her face.

Although Thomas knew Elizabeth was doing her best to comfort her mother and ease her fears, she couldn’t hide the tremor in her own voice from him. He knew her too well. She was terrified.

Both women looked at the destruction surrounding them and remained speechless.

Suddenly Mary headed toward the stairs. “He must have gone upstairs, too.”

Thomas stopped her before she could reach the bottom step. “I will kumm back and take care of whatever damage was done. Right now we have to leave.”

“Leave?” Elizabeth threw him a questioning glance. “Where will we go?”

“Home. With me.” Thomas shot Elizabeth a look that let her know he would not take no for an answer. “But not before we retrieve that box and take it with us. It’s time to see what is so important inside.”

FOUR (#u885f5f77-bf10-524b-8be4-42401bc115ef)

Elizabeth couldn’t stop tapping her toe or fumbling with her fingers in her lap. The steady sound of the horse’s hooves clomping up the lane did little to calm her frayed nerves.

“It will be all right, Elizabeth.” Thomas smiled and she assumed he was trying to reassure her. “That man does not know where you are going. You and Mary will be safe with me.”

If he only knew. The stranger wasn’t what made her pulse race and her body tremble with nervous energy. It was seeing his family home, meeting his children. Witnessing a life she’d always wanted but couldn’t allow herself to hope for.

“I’m not afraid, Thomas. I know you will do your best to protect us.”

The buggy turned onto a dirt lane between two white picket fences and her heart stuttered. She could see a two-story white clapboard house in the distance, with a large front porch. Two adults sat in rocking chairs watching a young boy run around the yard. She saw all of them turn their way as the buggy approached.

“Whoa.” Thomas stopped the buggy at the edge of the porch, then leaped out and reached up a hand to help Mary down from the back seat.

Elizabeth stepped down and came around the buggy just in time to see a towheaded boy barrel across the yard and fling himself at Thomas.

“Daed—Daed, kumm here. Hurry. I found a little cat hiding in the barn. Can I keep him? Kumm see.” The boy tugged on his father’s hand.

“Benjamin, mind your manners. We have company.” He tousled his son’s hair. “Say hello. We can go to look at the cat in a little while.”

The boy peered around his father and seemed surprised to see Elizabeth. His enthusiasm for the cat was tempered and he peered at her with the cutest look of curiosity on his face.

“Who are you?” He let go of his daed’s hand and came closer to her. “I don’t know you. Where did you come from?”

“Benjamin. Manners.” His father’s warning tone caused the boy to lower his eyes and stop talking.

“It’s okay,” Elizabeth assured Thomas. She squatted down to be eye level with the child. When he looked into her face, her heart seized. He was the spitting image of his father. “Hello, Benjamin. My name is Elizabeth. I am Mary’s daughter and I am a friend of your daed’s.”

The boy’s eyes grew wide. He glanced at Mary and then back to her. “I didn’t know Miss Mary could have old kinners. I thought all kinners were little like me.”

Elizabeth laughed. “Little kinners grow up. You will, too, someday.” She offered him her hand. She grinned as he placed his little fingers in her grasp and shook her hand. “Nice to meet you, Benjamin.”

He took back his hand. “Do you like cats?”

Elizabeth stood and smiled down at the boy. “I do like cats. When I was little like you, my daed let me keep a whole family of kittens in our barn. When they grew up to be adult cats they earned their keep by keeping the field mice away from the barn.”

Benjamin grinned and grabbed her hand. “Kumm with me. There’s a cat in our barn. I’ll show you.”

“Benjamin, what did I say?” Thomas placed his hands on his son’s shoulders. “There will be time for that later, sohn. Miss Mary and Miss Elizabeth have things to do right now. You go play in the barn with your cat. We will join you soon.”

Benjamin didn’t need any extra urging. He was off in a flash, running across the yard toward the barn.

“He’s adorable.” Elizabeth smiled at Thomas and the look of pride in his eyes made her heart swell.

“Kumm.” He placed a hand on her elbow. “Meet the rest of my family.”

Mary had already gone up on the porch and was in deep conversation with the two people sitting there. As Elizabeth climbed the stairs, they stood. The man welcomed her first.

“Gut afternoon. My name is Isaac. I am sorry to hear of your troubles.” He looped his fingers in his suspenders and moved to the side. “This is my wife, Rebecca.”

“Hello.” The woman stepped forward. “Welcome.” She held a toddler in her arms, and she was one of the most beautiful little girls Elizabeth had ever seen. The child sucked on her index finger and stared at her with stunningly blue eyes. Thomas’s eyes.

Elizabeth’s eyes burned with tears and she fought hard not to shed them.

This is Thomas’s family. This is what I had always wanted for him. So why, Lord, does it hurt so much?

“Hello, little one.” She smiled and clasped the child’s free fingers. “You must be Rachel.”

“Ja. This is my precious one.” Thomas took her from Rebecca’s arms. The child giggled in his arms and pulled at his beard. Absently, he placed a kiss on her forehead.

Elizabeth’s insides melted as she watched. He was a good daed. She knew he would be.

“Let’s go inside. I started a fresh pot of coffee. It should be ready by now,” Rebecca said. She looked at the two women. “Dinner will be ready shortly. There is plenty of food. You are welcome to join us.”

“Ja, thank you, Rebecca. Mary and Elizabeth will be joining us for all meals for a while. I have invited them to stay in the dawdi haus for a short time. You and Isaac are no longer needing it now that you’ve bought a farm of your own. My parents stay in the main house with me six months out of the year. It was built for family. Seems foolish to let it stand empty. Mary and Elizabeth need a place to stay so I am offering it to them.”

A surprised expression flashed across Rebecca’s face, but she covered her reaction quickly. She smiled at the two women. “Both of you are welcome.” She reached out her arms to Thomas for Rachel. “Kumm. I will set out mugs for us.

Thomas handed his daughter back to her. “Ja. We have much to discuss.” He turned to his guests. “Right after dinner I will show you to the dawdi haus. Usually there is a connecting door and a small bedroom in these in-law apartments but I actually had a small house added on to my own. There is a connecting door off the kitchen. But you will also find a living room, two bedrooms, a kitchen and a bathroom inside. Now that Isaac and Rebecca have chosen to purchase their own farm, it is sitting empty. You are both welcome to use it for as long as you need.”

“Denki, Thomas. We are grateful for the help.” Mary put her arms around Elizabeth’s waist and steered her toward the kitchen. Without a word passing between them, Elizabeth knew her mamm understood how awkward and difficult meeting Thomas’s family was for her. Her mother’s secure touch around her waist let Elizabeth know she wasn’t going through any of it alone. Again, her eyes burned with threatening tears. She had missed her mamm...so much.

“I will bring in your bags from the buggy and, of course, the box. I am anxious to see what great secret is inside.” Thomas bounded down the porch steps before anyone could reply.

* * *

Thomas had done most of the talking as he brought his in-laws up-to-date on the day’s events. Even as he spoke he had to admit being surprised with how much had transpired in only a day’s time. He wasn’t surprised, however, at their kindness toward Elizabeth, or their sincere desire to help in any way they could. They were good people and he was honored to have them as family.

Crash!

Finishing his second cup of coffee, Thomas pushed it aside, jumped to his feet and ran in the direction of the trouble, closely followed by the rest of the adults.

Benjamin stood in the middle of the room. He had overturned the box Thomas had placed on the sofa and its contents had scattered across the wooden floor. Benjamin’s lips puckered and his eyes welled with tears as if he might cry at any moment. “I’m sorry, Daed. Don’t be mad at me. It was an accident.”

“I am not mad, sohn. But you know better than to touch things that do not belong to you.”

Everyone helped to pick up the strewn items. There were half a dozen books, a couple of plants, a set of sheets, some bath towels, a few knickknacks and even a few small framed pictures.

Thomas held one photo in his hand and stared at it. “This is a picture of Hannah. The Amish do not take pictures of themselves. Maybe Hannah became more Englisch than you thought in the years you were gone.”

“That is one vice Hannah did like,” Elizabeth said. “She took pictures. Lots of them. She wanted to have something besides her mind to record her memories. I think she felt it was concrete proof that she belonged somewhere with people she cared about and who cared about her, after feeling for so many years that she didn’t.”

“And you?” Thomas asked as he handed the small picture frame to Elizabeth. “Did you take pictures of yourself, too?”

“Not really.” Elizabeth took the frame from his hand, looked at it and smiled at the image of her friend. “Hannah snapped one or two of me over the years when I was doing something with her group of friends.” She shrugged. “But it was different for me. I always knew who I was and where I came from. I did not need reminders.”

One by one, the adults handed various items to Elizabeth as she repacked the carton.

Once most of the items had been cleaned up, Mary and Rebecca returned to the kitchen to finish getting dinner ready and Isaac excused himself to tend to the animals in the barn, leaving the children with Thomas and Elizabeth.

“I’m sure Benjamin meant no harm, Thomas.” She kneeled down so she could be on eye level with the upset child. “You were probably curious, weren’t you? Wondering what I had in the box.”

The boy nodded.

“Why don’t you help me pick up the few things that are left and put them back in the box? Can you do that?”

Benjamin nodded and grinned. He picked up a few things and threw them into the carton.

Thomas eyed every item going back into the box. A key chain. More pictures. Even a small stuffed rabbit. When there were no items left on the floor for the boy to retrieve, he patted his son’s rump. “Go, Benjamin. Get washed up for dinner.”

The boy scampered off.

“I don’t understand.” Thomas placed the last item he’d been holding in his hand on the top of the carton. “I don’t see anything unusual. Certainly nothing worth harming someone to get back.”

Elizabeth sat back on her heels. “I know. I was thinking the same thing. I can’t imagine what that man thinks is so important.” She picked up two of the books and briefly leafed through their pages. “No notes tucked inside.” She rummaged through the box, making sure she hadn’t missed something. “And no journals or anything else that would expose this man’s identity.”

“We must be missing something.”

“Maybe the missing item was inside the box I dropped at the condo.”

Thomas shook his head. “I am sure the man searched that box before he came all this way.” He reached out a hand and helped Elizabeth to her feet. “I’ve been wondering about that, too. Are you sure you don’t remember seeing him before? How would he even begin to know where you might have gone? It doesn’t make sense that he would show up on an Amish farm looking for you. I thought you and Hannah had given up the Amish life. Why would he think of looking for you here?”

“We had. No one knew of our past.”

“You are wrong, Elizabeth. This man knew.”

“Hannah must have told him. But I don’t know why she would do such a thing.” Elizabeth sighed heavily. “There are many things I don’t understand. Hannah and I were best friends. I didn’t think we kept secrets from each other.”

Thomas saw great sadness in her eyes when she looked at him. “I wish she hadn’t kept this man a secret. Maybe I could have helped her. Maybe she wouldn’t have been murdered.”

Thomas frowned. “There has to be something here. What about the pictures? Anything special? Is the man in any of them?”

Elizabeth took a second look. “No. They are photos of friends Hannah made at the restaurant where she worked.” She held one in particular in her hand. “She had just started dating this young man.” Elizabeth showed Thomas a photo of Hannah and a young Englisch man, their heads together, eating cotton candy at a fair and grinning into the camera. “I hadn’t met him yet. She’d only gone out with him a few times. But she spoke well of him. I think she was starting to really like him.” Her expression clouded. “I wonder if anyone told him about her death. The police, maybe?”