Marta Perry (16 page)

Zach shrugged. “If I were in charge of the investigation, I’d start with the people who were closest to the victim, too.”

“That’s always going to be the police reaction,” Jake said. “Combine that with the fact that Burkhalter is more used to drunk and disorderly and petty theft—well, it’s not surprising. Though I confess, I’m surprised that he’d move against Meredith so quickly and so publicly.”

“It must be because of the district attorney.” Meredith frowned, pushing a strand of brown hair behind her ear. “Josie said that he’d called the chief this morning, pushing him on the investigation.”

“Josie?” Zach tried to remember someone by that name and came up empty.

“The department’s secretary, receptionist, office manager and dispatcher,” Jake clarified.

“She shouldn’t have told you any such thing, but I’m glad she did.” Zach pictured the instant dismissal that would come to any member of his department who leaked such information. But this was Deer Run, not Pittsburgh.

“She was just trying to help. She said nobody who knew me would believe I could do something like that.” Meredith was clearly comforted by that vote of support. Unfortunately, it wasn’t going to make much difference.

He exchanged a look with Jake, relieved to see that the attorney was as skeptical as he was.

“I’m sure that’s true,” Jake said carefully. “But it will be the district attorney who decides whether or not to take the case to trial, and he doesn’t know you. And if it should come to that, chances are slim that anyone from Deer Run would even be on the jury.”

It was much of what he’d already tried to tell Meredith, but it was good for her to hear it from Jake. Maybe now she’d be able to accept it.

He sat still for a moment, unable to take his gaze from Meredith. There had to be a way to protect her.

“Look, Jake, there are a couple of things you don’t know.” He spoke abruptly. “For one, Margo was wearing a jacket that belonged to Meredith when she was killed. Almost anyone who spotted someone in that jacket in the dark would think it was Meredith.”

Jake looked at Meredith questioningly. “Your tan windbreaker?” he asked, proving Zach’s contention.

Meredith nodded. “It was hanging by the back door. She must have slipped it on when she went out.”

“So you’re thinking Margo was attacked by mistake. That the target was Meredith?”

Zach nodded, avoiding Meredith’s eyes. The possibility that Margo was attacked by someone aiming at Meredith would just increase her sense of guilt, but it was crucial that Jake understand.

“Same question applies, then,” Jake said. “Who would want to attack Meredith?”

Zach hesitated. Where to start in explaining their suppositions about Aaron Mast’s death? “Meredith and Rachel Mason have been trying to find out what really happened when Aaron Mast was killed.”

“I know,” Jake said. “The whole town must know that by now, and Colin’s a good friend of mine. And I grant you, there’s no doubt that a thorough investigation wasn’t done at the time. Burkhalter opted for the easiest explanation and the one he thought would cause the least grief. But even so, is it likely someone would attack Meredith after all this time?”

He knew, only too well, how thin it sounded. But what other explanation was there? “A person who’d been hiding a big enough secret for twenty years might well have a lot to lose if the truth came out now.”

Jake nodded slowly. “Okay. I’m not sure I buy that, but let’s assume it’s true for the moment. What has Meredith found out that would make her a threat?”

Meredith flung her hands out. “Nothing. At least, nothing that seems very significant.”

“We don’t know what is or isn’t significant,” he pointed out. “If we assume someone who was involved in Aaron Mast’s death attacked Margo, that means it’s one of a fairly small group of people who are still in Deer Run.”

Jake nodded, scribbling something on a legal pad. “So who does that include?”

“Laura Hammond,” Meredith said. “She’s said odd things to me a couple of times about Aaron. And I found her down at the dam one night not long ago.”

Jake wrote down Laura’s name. “Is she as unstable as people say?”

Meredith rubbed her arms. “I don’t know what people are saying, but she was almost incoherent that night. She’s clearly haunted by Aaron’s death.”

An idea swam to the surface of Zach’s mind. “So she’s unstable. Maybe because of drugs, maybe for psychological reasons, maybe both. She’s been known to come to the dam at night. Suppose she showed up there, startled to see a figure standing by the pool. Is she unstable enough to see that as a threat and act?”

Meredith’s lips trembled, as if he’d painted too vivid a picture. “I don’t know, and I’m not sure anyone else does.”

“Okay, Laura Hammond,” Jake said briskly, with an air of pulling the conversation to practical ground. “And by extension, I suppose we add Victor Hammond.”

Meredith nodded. “He had a crush on Laura that summer. He followed her around like a puppy dog, and he certainly knew she was meeting Aaron.”

“Who else?” Jake tapped the point of his pen on the pad.

Meredith rubbed her forehead. “Jeannette warned me to forget about Aaron. She implied that my father was interested in Laura.” She pressed her lips together for a moment. “And my cousin Sarah said that she’d heard that my father also warned Aaron away from Laura. If so, I think he was only trying to keep Aaron from making...from making his mistake. But still—”

Zach wanted to touch her in support, but she looked so fragile it seemed she might shatter. “But you and your mother would be the only people who’d try to protect his memory.”

Relief washed over Meredith’s face. “That’s true, isn’t it?” He had a feeling she hadn’t realized how much that suspicion had been bothering her.

“On the other hand, your cousin Samuel would have every reason to protect himself.”

“Samuel King?” Jake raised his brows. “Do you know how slight the odds are that an Amish person would commit murder? Why do you suspect him?”

“I don’t,” Meredith said, with a quelling look for Zach.

“Samuel’s sister, Sarah, was Aaron’s sweetheart, and he dumped her to chase after Laura.” Zach ticked the facts off on his fingers. “Samuel had been Aaron’s best friend, and it caused a lot of hard feelings. To put it mildly, Samuel was opposed to Aaron’s relationship with Laura. He’s reacted almost violently when questioned about Aaron’s death. And Meredith’s neighbor overheard Aaron at the pond on the night he died, arguing with someone she said was another Amish boy.”

“You’ve questioned him about this?” Jake was frowning.

“We tried. He refused to answer any questions, nearly knocked Meredith over and warned her to forget about Aaron.”

“You make it sound worse than it was,” Meredith protested. “I certainly wasn’t frightened of Samuel.”

“Maybe you should be.” Meredith was a little too naïve where people she cared about were concerned.

“He should certainly be questioned,” Jake said, heading off what might have turned into a quarrel. “Maybe the police—”

“No!” Meredith’s voice rose. “You can’t. My father’s family would never forgive me if I led the police to one of them. They’re the only family I have now.”

Zach had to harden his heart to the pain in her voice. “Samuel has to be made to tell what he knows, Meredith. You know that.”

“Sarah said she’d talk to him.” She wrapped her arms around herself protectively.

“Sarah is his sister. She’s going to protect him no matter what.”

She knew that. He could see it in her face. But as to admitting it...

“I’ll talk to him, then,” she said.

His reaction was instantaneous. “Not alone.”

“You can both do it,” Jake said. “As soon as possible. If there’s another avenue for Burkhalter to explore, the sooner we divert him from you, the better.”

It took a moment, but Meredith finally nodded. Zach studied her. How long was she going to hold together? And what would it do to her if she had to turn Samuel over to the police?

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

M
EREDITH
PULLED
HER
SWEATER
closer around her as she and Zach approached her cousin’s sawmill. They’d driven straight to Samuel’s farm from the meeting with Jake. Probably Zach was afraid she’d change her mind if they didn’t come right away. Or maybe he feared they had no time to spare before the worst happened and they found themselves charged with murder.

Samuel’s wife had directed them to the small sawmill. She’d eyed them with curiosity, but she hadn’t asked questions.

Like plenty of Amish, Samuel found it necessary to do something to supplement his income from farming. The mill wheel swung, creaking, and the noise from the saws ripped through the air as the blades ripped through the wood.

“Let me handle questioning him.” Zach’s shoulders were stiff, his hands clenched. He looked ready to vent his frustration with the legal system on Samuel.

“Samuel is my cousin. He’s more likely to talk to me.”

“That’s what you said before,” Zach reminded her. “It didn’t work.”

She’d argue the point, but Zach pulled the mill door open just then. The noise assaulted her—so fierce that she longed to clap her hands over her ears. How did Samuel stand working in here?

Samuel was guiding a log into the saw, wearing protective goggles and a pair of black earmuffs, presumably to cut the noise. He glanced up at the movement of the door, his face turning wary when he saw who it was.

Zach advanced to within a couple of feet of Samuel. “We need to talk.” He had to shout to be heard over the buzz of the saw.

Samuel shook his head. “Can’t. Busy.” He turned his back on them.

Zach reached out to grab his shoulder. Samuel attempted to brush his hand away, but Zach didn’t release him. Zach jerked his chin toward the saw. “Turn it off.”

Before Samuel could react, Meredith moved. Samuel must have forgotten that she’d been here many times as a child, but she hadn’t. She found the switch that controlled the saw and flipped it. The resulting silence was deafening.

Both men looked at her. Then Samuel pulled off goggles and earmuffs and tossed them aside. “Meredith, I am sorry for your loss.”

“
Denke,
Samuel.”

Her use of the dialect brought a smile to his face, but it disappeared as quickly as it had come.

“I have an order I must finish. We can talk later.”

“No.” Zach’s voice was flat. “We’re talking now.”

Samuel swung toward him, his shoulders stiff. “I don’t know what you’re doing here. I don’t have to say anything to you.”

“You do unless you want to talk to the police.” Zach was uncompromising.

“The police?” Samuel seemed honestly dumb-founded for a moment before his anger flared. He shot a fierce glare at Meredith. “This is how you treat family? To threaten them with the police?”

“What about how you treat family?” Zach shot back. “Margo is dead, and you’re still refusing to tell us what we have to know about Aaron.”

“Aaron?” Samuel’s forehead furrowed, and he shook his head as if to clear it. “What do you mean? What does Aaron have to do with Margo King’s death?”

Seeing an opening in his confusion, Meredith took a step closer, trying to see the big cousin who’d been kind to her instead of the man who sometimes seemed a stranger. “My mother was wearing my jacket, standing at the dam when she was attacked. I’m afraid she might have been killed being mistaken for me.” The words had become easier to say, but not easier to bear.

“You mean because you were trying to find out about why Aaron died? But that is
ferhoodled, ja?
”

“Not so crazy,” Zach said. “If someone has been hiding a secret about Aaron’s death all these years, that person might see Meredith as a threat.”

“You mean me?” Samuel’s voice rose in disbelief. “You think that I would harm my cousin? Or my friend?”

“You didn’t see him as such a good friend when he broke your sister’s heart, did you?” Zach was pressing, trying to push through Samuel’s resistance. “We know you’ve been hiding something about Aaron. We just don’t know whether it’s something guilty. Like I said, you can tell us or tell the police.”

Samuel shook his head, his stubborn jaw set. “I don’t know anything about Aaron’s death.”

“Don’t you?” Zach’s voice expressed disbelief. “You were with Aaron that night at the dam. You were overheard.”

Samuel turned his face away so fast that just the movement told Meredith it was true. He had been there.

“Aaron was meeting Laura that night,” he muttered. “Maybe they were arguing.”

“It won’t work, Samuel.” Meredith’s heart hurt as she said the words. Obviously she wouldn’t have made a good cop. “Aaron was heard talking to another man. In Pennsylvania Dutch.”

Still, Samuel didn’t speak. Zach closed in on him, his face set. “Aaron was your best friend, and he dumped your sister. You were angry with him. You argued with him over it that night.”

“No!” Samuel rubbed his head, looking baffled and angry. “You’re getting it all wrong. We didn’t argue about that.”

“It was you there that night.” Zach pounced on Samuel’s words. “You admit it.”

Samuel’s face twisted with pain. “
Ja,
it was me. I saw him going to the dam, and I knew he was going to meet Laura. I tried to talk him out of it—show him how foolish it was. But he said...” His lips clamped.

“He said what?” Zach pushed.

“He said Laura was going to have his baby.”

Meredith’s mind reeled. Laura had been pregnant? But no one had ever even suggested that. How could she have kept that a secret?

“They were going away together. Aaron would give up his family, his faith, everything for her.” Samuel looked at Meredith. “Your
daad
tried to talk to them—to show them how wrong it would be. But they wouldn’t listen to him, either.”

At some level Meredith felt relief. Her father had only wanted to help them.

“So you figured it was all over then.” Zach’s focus never shifted. “You fought, struggled, maybe, and he fell into the dam.”

“No.” Samuel’s grief and pain veered back to anger. “I did no such thing. I would not raise my hand against a brother. I told him he was a fool, and I went away and left him there.” His face twisted. “He was my friend, and that was the last thing I said to him.”

Meredith’s heart caught in a spasm. She knew a little about that kind of regret. “Samuel...” She reached out to him, but he shook her hand off.

“Are you satisfied now?” he demanded. “How much more trouble will you cause?”

“It’s not Meredith’s fault,” Zach shot back. “She’s the innocent one in all of this.”

Samuel turned his back on them. He walked stiffly to the saw and switched it on, and it came to life with a metallic roar.

Zach started after him, but Meredith caught his arm.

“Don’t. It doesn’t matter.” She shivered. “Let’s get out of here.”

* * *

“I
STILL
CAN
’
T
quite believe it.” Meredith grabbed the corner of the sheet Rachel had been taking from the clothesline in her backyard when she’d walked across the backyards to tell her what they’d learned. “If Laura had been pregnant, how could we not have heard anything about it?”

Rachel gave the sheet a flip to straighten it against the pressure of the wind. The day had darkened, and dark clouds massed over the ridge to the west of town.

“We were only ten,” she reminded Meredith. “I don’t know about your mother, but mine never mentioned the word
pregnancy
in my hearing. Now that I think of it, she still never actually says it.”

Despite the worry that rode her, Meredith had to smile. “I know. Amish babies just suddenly appear, without anyone actually hinting that they’re about to arrive.”

Rachel put the folded sheet in the basket and reached for the next one with a quick glance at the sky. “The women chatter about who’s expecting among themselves, but it’s just not brought up in mixed company. And I certainly never would have heard a word of it if an
Englisch
girl found herself expecting.”

“Even if the father was Amish?” Meredith grabbed the hem of the next sheet. It billowed out in the wind like a living thing.

“Especially then.” Rachel shook her head. “I’m not sure how Laura’s pregnancy affects the truth about Aaron’s death. What does Zach say?”

“We didn’t actually talk about it much.” Her lips tightened.

“Why not?” Rachel stopped what she was doing to stare at her. “He was with you when you talked to Samuel, wasn’t he?”

“Yes.” She focused on the sheet, smoothing it out as she folded it. “He thinks I’m trying too hard to protect Samuel.”

And maybe the reason that bothered her so much was that the way he’d visualized the scene had seemed only too real.

“Is that the only thing that’s come between you?” Rachel’s blue eyes were fixed on her face, demanding answers.

She shrugged. “I don’t know. It... I think Zach expects more from me than I can give.”

“Did he say that?” Rachel’s persistence was one of her strengths. At the moment, Meredith could do without it.

“No, not exactly. He’s not pushing me—not about our relationship, anyway. But he just won’t admit that the closer he is to me, the more it feeds the idea that he’s guilty.”

“I don’t see that at all.” Rachel grabbed the last sheet just as the first fat raindrops fell. “It’s already too late to pretend you two are casual acquaintances. And how can he help you if you hold him at arm’s length?”

The clouds opened, saving her the necessity of coming up with an answer she didn’t have. They grabbed the basket and the last sheet and ran for the back door, rain pelting them.

They plunged inside the house as the first clap of thunder rumbled overhead. Rachel dropped the basket, laughing a little, and tossed a terry-cloth dish towel toward Meredith. “Another minute and my laundry would have been soaked.”

Meredith toweled her hair. “I hate to point out the obvious, but you’re not Amish any longer. Why don’t you just throw the sheets in the dryer?”

“I like it when they smell like sunshine.” Rachel pulled out a chair. “You’ll stay for a bit, won’t you?”

She hesitated, looking out at the rain slanting across the grass. “Maybe I should get on home.” She was beginning to feel as if she carried some terrible disease, spreading suspicion to everyone who got too close.

“Are you going to shut me out now, too?” Rachel said. She shook out the last sheet and began folding it.

“I’m not trying to shut you out. I just think...”

“You think you’re protecting other people by not letting them get too close,” Rachel said firmly. “You might as well admit it.”

“Maybe that’s the best thing I can do.” She hung the towel on the rack. Why was Rachel bugging her about this now? “I can’t let other people suffer because of me. Zach’s already been through that. He should understand.”

Rachel gave her an exasperated look. “I’m sure it seemed like the end of the world when Zach was chased out of Deer Run. But was it? Does he see it that way? It seems to me leaving here might have been the best thing that ever happened to him. He didn’t just survive. He thrived.”

“I know, but...” She couldn’t get rid of her burden of responsibility so easily.

“Look, I’m not suggesting the two of you run away together.” Rachel gave a wry smile. “Not that you’d be able to anyway. But you can’t help Zach by pulling away from him when he’s trying to clear both of you. At least cooperate with him. You owe him that, don’t you?”

Meredith nodded, not entirely convinced but not wanting to argue about it, either. “I suppose the police already think we’re involved with each other. You should have seen the way Ted Singer looked at me. I felt as though I needed a shower.”

“From what I remember, Ted always was a bully. I’m sure Chief Burkhalter doesn’t think that way.”

“Burkhalter was okay, I guess, but it’s still obvious that he has his sights set on Zach. And you know how stubborn he is.”

“True.” Rachel dropped the last sheet into the basket. “He’s always going to look for the easiest answer. You can’t really blame him, since most of the time that’s the right answer. Anyway, once he knows about Laura’s pregnancy, he may feel differently.”

“Maybe.” Meredith was doubtful. “He seems convinced that Aaron’s death has nothing to do with what’s happening now. And I’m not sure that her pregnancy adds much to the equation.”

Rachel seemed to consider that for a moment. “I’m not sure, either,” she admitted. “But it seems as if it must mean something. What happened? Did she have the baby? If so, she must have gone away, or people would know. Did she lose it, or...?” Her startled gaze met Meredith’s.

“You’re thinking she might have ended the pregnancy.” Meredith turned that over in her mind. “It’s possible, I suppose. It’s even possible that she’d already decided to do so and told Aaron that night.”

“That might give Aaron a reason to kill himself,” Rachel said slowly. “If he felt he’d put her in that position. But not a reason for someone else to kill him.”

Meredith rubbed her temples, trying to ease the tension she could feel throbbing there. “Well, I suppose I could see a jealous boyfriend or even her father being angry at Aaron if the truth came out. Still, it’s far-fetched.”

“I know.” Rachel’s voice was warm with sympathy. “It seems impossible to unravel this tangle. But I have faith that the truth will come out in the end. Zach is innocent, and so are you.”

Meredith’s throat tightened. “Thanks,” she murmured, glancing at the window. “It looks as if the rain isn’t going to slack off. Can I borrow an umbrella to get home?”

“Of course. But why don’t you stay and eat with us? Mandy’s conversation is guaranteed to keep your mind off your troubles.”

Even as Meredith hesitated, her cell phone rang. She pulled it from her pocket, nerves jangling. It was Zach.

“I just had a call from Jake Evans, and I need to talk to you about it. Can I come over?” The words were abrupt, but a little cautious, as well, as if he tried to sense her mood.

“I’m at Rachel’s right now, but I was about to leave. I’ll see you in a few minutes.”