Plain Secrets. Kit Wilkinson

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СКАЧАТЬ you—you must be mistaken. There was not to be an investigation. There was…nothing to investigate.”

      Elijah tossed a photo on the table next to the black hat. “Her neck was cut. She’s bruised all over. Four days later someone is shooting at you and you say there is nothing to investigate?”

      “How did you get that?” She glanced at the photo, immediately recognizing the wound to her dear girl’s neck. Grabbing at her stomach, she turned away. She must be strong. There was no need to involve Elijah in this.

      “Chief McClendon of the Lancaster police.” Eli removed the photo from the table and put it away in his jacket pocket. “He asked me to come here and see what I could find out.”

      “And what do you find so far?”

      “I think there is something to investigate. I think you should talk to me. This is no game, Hannah. You need to protect yourself. Someone is threatening you and your family. You cannot sit and be silent.”

      “I know you want to help. And it’s very kind of you.” She forced a smile. “But it’s not our way. We will accept what has happened.”

      “It’s not very kind of me. I don’t want to be here one bit. But it’s my job and I take that pretty seriously. Now please stop avoiding my questions and tell me how and when all this started.”

      She glanced at him and saw the frustration but also sorrow in his eyes. Like so many years ago when she told him she’d decided to marry Peter. Then, too, she had not told him the entire truth. Here she was again, keeping secrets. But she had promised and she must keep her word.

      She fetched a broom and dustpan from the cupboard, and with short, quick strokes, she began to sweep the broken glass that covered the floor. “Even if there was more to the story, it does not change the fact that Jessica is gone. So what is there to investigate?”

      “Perhaps something about this black car that you know about but don’t know about?”

      She continued to sweep, not looking his way. He watched her for a few moments, then moved next to her and gently took the broom and dustpan from her hand.

      She still refused to look up as she said, “We are all fine. Really.”

      “Really? Someone just shot at your house. That doesn’t seem so ‘fine’ to me. I haven’t forgotten the way things work around here. I understand that you want to let go and accept what has happened. I’m not trying to stop that—in fact, you may be able to let go more easily if you know what happened. Don’t you even care about who killed your stepdaughter?”

      “Of course I care. I miss her every minute. She was everything to me.” Hannah began to tremble again, but she would not give in to her emotions. She would not show such weakness of faith. “But knowledge does not bring peace and understanding. That comes only from God.”

      The back of his hand caressed her cheek. The warmth was comforting, and for a strange, fleeting second, she longed to fall into his arms and weep. Instead she turned away.

      He stepped back. “I wish this wasn’t why I was here. I’m so sorry. I know you raised Jessica as your own child. I can’t imagine what you are feeling and after what happened to Peter…”

      She looked up and he must have been able to read the surprise in her face.

      “Abigail told me. As a midwife, she has a cell phone in order for her patients to contact her when they go into labor. We talk occasionally. She told me about Peter.” He pressed his lips together. “He was a good man, Hannah. If he hadn’t been, I… Well, that was a long time ago. I didn’t come here to rake up the past. You must want to know what happened Jessica. So please, come sit with me. Talk to me. Tell me about her. She must have been a wonderful good girl with you as her Mamm.”

      With all of the charisma and ease he’d possessed as a young man, Eli put the broom and dustpan aside and led her back to the kitchen table. But she did not take a seat.

      “Perhaps we should go to the porch?” she suggested.

      “I don’t think the porch is a good place for you today.” He pulled out a chair for her. After she sat, he removed his coat and hung it over the back of one of the other kitchen chairs and sat opposite her. His gun was still in the holster at his side.

      “Have you forgotten everything, Elijah Miller? We don’t have guns in our houses.”

      “Actually, it’s you who has forgotten that someone shot at you only fifteen minutes ago.” He smiled and patted the gun under his arm. “It’s staying right where it is.”

      “Nana Ruth will be horror-struck.”

      “Nana Ruth will never know.” Eli’s ridiculous expression nearly caused her to giggle. She lifted a hand to her mouth to cover her slight smile.

      “Please, don’t cover up such a beautiful face,” he said. “It is the one perk of the assignment.”

      Perk? She could feel the warmth grow in her cheeks. “You speak with strange words, Elijah Miller.”

      “I’ve been gone a long time.”

      His lips curved with the hint of a smile. How handsome his face was to behold. She remembered how the sight of him had always stolen a little of her breath. She feared she would reveal too much if she said a single word. It was best to do as she had promised—to keep silent. This would all pass, even if there was a part of her that wanted to know the truth.

      “You won’t talk to me, then?” He rose from the table.

      “I cannot.”

      “No. You choose not to talk. It isn’t the same, Hannah.” He lifted a small black mobile phone from his pocket. “I’m going to call the Lancaster police and report the shooting. They’ll have to come out and file a report.”

      “No. Please. You’re the police. Isn’t that enough?”

      “You can’t have it both ways. Either you talk to me and tell me the truth or I call Chief McClendon.” He held his little phone in the air, waiting for her decision.

      Hannah dropped her head between her hands. She did not want to see Chief McClendon again. But to speak the truth to Elijah…that might be worse.

      THREE

      Eli walked onto the porch, frustrated and defeated—not so different than he had all those years ago when Hannah had refused him without so much as an explanation. Being back in Willow Trace was harder than he’d anticipated. He hadn’t counted on all those old emotions resurfacing the second he laid eyes on her. Yet he knew he needed to be there no matter what he’d said to Hannah or how badly he’d like to go back to the city.

      Hannah needed protection. Maybe the Amish had survived centuries with very little police or other government interference, but the governor had called him there. Clearly this situation was even more dangerous than Eli had suspected. Anyway, Elijah didn’t believe in coincidence. He’d prayed for confirmation that his presence was needed there, and God had answered that in a big way. Jessica’s death was no accident—even if Hannah wouldn’t talk, he could tell that she didn’t believe that. Nor was the shooting at her house a mere coincidence.

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