“I’m Deputy Beitler. This is Detective O’Connor. I’m sorry to tell you that your aunt and uncle were murdered tonight.” He paused when Luca made a soft moan. “I’m sorry for your loss. Can you tell me how you happened to be living with them?”
“My dad and Abe were brothers. My parents were killed in a buggy accident when I was five.”
The deputy nodded toward the house. “I was about to ask your cousin to examine the home and see if anything is missing. I’d appreciate your cooperation as well. If we can pinpoint the motive, it might lead us to the killer.”
Digging her feet into the dirt, Hannah prepared to tell him again that she couldn’t go back in there, but Luca nodded and turned toward the house. Her gaze collided with the young deputy’s, and she could have sworn she saw triumph in his eyes. Her dislike of him mounted.
Life wasn’t a game, and it shouldn’t be about power. Her heritage emphasized the good of the many, not self-interest and power. The Englisch persisted in getting the focus of life wrong. She clutched her wool cape more tightly and followed the men. Duty called, and she would do her best to answer it.
She glanced at Reece, and he answered the plea she put in her gaze by taking her elbow. The warm touch of his hand strengthened her. “I couldn’t get through this without you,” she whispered.
He gave her elbow a reassuring squeeze. “I’ll protect you, Hannah. No matter what it takes. You can count on me.”
She nodded, knowing he meant the words from the heart. With him by her side, she didn’t feel so alone. His presence was better than her aunt’s or her cousins’. Maybe because she knew how her family would react if they knew why she’d survived this night.
She wet her lips and forced herself to step through the door. The spot where she’d found her parents drew her gaze, but they were gone.
Cruel. Deputy Beitler was as cruel as the devil himself. She averted her gaze from the spot, and the room blurred as she blinked back moisture. She was overreacting. He was doing his job—finding out who killed her parents.
“Anything missing?” Deputy Beitler asked.
Hannah forced herself to study the room. The harsh glare from the lights the detectives had strung around the room threw everything out of focus. The stark illumination forced its way into the shadows, showed every defect with glaring detail, and made the room look small and forlorn. Was the couch really that worn, the wood floor that scuffed?
She knew what it must look like to these Englischers, even Reece. A modest home with the bare necessities. Their home had been filled with love and laughter, good food, acceptance. These men chased after fireflies that escaped their fingers, always pursuing bigger and better. A place like this held true riches.
The men sought what was in this very home, but they didn’t know it.
A large wooden chest, six feet long and eight feet tall, occupied the east wall. The doors stood open—and the shelves were bare. A gasp escaped Hannah’s lips.
“What is it?” Reece asked.
“Mamm’s quilts.” Barely aware that she put one foot in front of the other, Hannah walked to the chest. At last count, there had been ten quilts, each worth at least fifteen hundred to two thousand dollars. But it wasn’t the lost money she mourned. Her mother had a special touch with fabric, an unusual method of juxtaposing color and design that no one else could duplicate. The hummingbird design she’d stitched into many of her quilts had never been matched and was admired in their community and in the state.
Hannah could pick her mother’s handiwork out of thousands of quilts. She turned her head to the men who had followed her. “They’re gone, all of her quilts.” Whirling, she went back to the center of the room. “Where’s the quilt that covered them?”
“It’s been taken in for evidence.”
“I’ve never seen it before, but it was Mamm’s.”
“How do you know if you’ve never seen it?” Reece’s partner asked.
“The hummingbird pattern stitched into the quilt. No one else does that. You have to look close to see the fine detail, the tiny stitches, the design.”
“Maybe it was made when she was younger, or when you were too small to remember,” Reece suggested.
“Perhaps.” Uneasiness tugged away the composure she’d begun to gather around herself.
“Anything else missing?” asked Deputy Beitler, his voice clipped.
Hannah glanced at her cousin. “Do you see anything, Luca?”
He shook his head. “I checked upstairs. All is in order. Why would anyone take the quilts?”
“How many?” Reece asked.
“Ten. Close to twenty thousand dollars.” She winced inwardly at how flat her voice sounded. The deputy would think she cared about the money, when in fact it was the last thing on her mind.
“They’ll probably start turning up on eBay,” Beitler said.
“Or in shops that sell Amish quilts,” Reece said.
Deputy Beitler pointed to the wall. “That symbol mean anything to you?”
Slowly she dragged her gaze to the garish red symbol she’d avoided since entering the house. She forced herself to study it, but it just looked like a cross with the beams sagging. The word under it contained letters she’d never seen before. “No.” She swayed where she stood, and Reece took her arm.
“She’s about dead on her feet,” he said. “She needs to rest. No more questions tonight, Beitler.”
The other deputy’s scowl darkened. “I’m not through yet.”
“You’re done for tonight.” Reece’s voice was firm. “She’s had all she can take.”
He put his arm around Hannah, and she leaned into his embrace in spite of the raised eyebrows the action was sure to cause.
Luca shifted from one foot to the other. “Can we stay here?”
Beitler gave him a sharp look. “Not until we’re done gathering evidence.”
The last thing Hannah wanted was to stay here. “I want to stay with Aunt Nora,” Hannah said. “She needs me too.”
Luca nodded. “I’ll come too.”
Deputy Beitler took out his pen and pad. “What’s the address? I’ll likely have more questions tomorrow.” Luca gave him the address, and he jotted it down.
Another deputy poked his head in the door. “We’ve got another body. Down by the pond. Ajax led us right to it.”
THE BODY LAY half-submerged in the pond along the back of the property. The contorted limbs told Matt the man had died the same painful death as the family inside. “Any ID?”
“Yeah,” one of the deputies said. “Driver’s license belongs to a Cyrus Long.”
Only when Hannah gasped behind him did Matt realize she and Luca had followed him and O’Connor. He swiveled on his heel to face them. “This the guy who was here tonight?” In the wash of the halogen lights, Hannah’s skin held no color. Her gaze stayed fixed on the body. He moved to obstruct her vision, and the horror in her eyes began to recede.
She looked up at him then. “Yes. He’s our neighbor.” Her mouth dropped open, then closed. “He said he wanted to buy one for his wife, Ellen.” Her gaze focused on Matt again. “Her birthday is next week.”
Matt took the pad and pen out of his pocket. “How well did you know them?”
Luca answered. “As well as any Englisch neighbor. We were friendly, but our lives went in different directions.”
Hannah nodded.
“How did he get this far?” O’Connor asked, still inspecting the body. “If the perp poisoned him, too, how did he get out of the house?”
“Good question. Maybe the coroner can tell us.” He stepped away to talk to O’Connor in private. “Let’s start canvassing the neighbors, checking Nyesville and other towns around the county. See if anyone has heard threats directed toward the Amish.”
O’Connor nodded. “We had that rash of barn arsons five years ago. Three Amish barns were torched. Maybe it’s related. We never found the offender.”
“Hey, look at this, Matt,” one of the deputies called.
The plastic bag the deputy pointed to held chocolate chip cookies. Matt glanced around the area. No quilts, but the pond was right here. “Maybe this is the murder weapon. And maybe this is the perp. Let’s dredge for the quilts. Maybe he tossed them in the water.”