“Here we are,” I said with exaggerated flourish as I parked behind the sports car.
Before I had a chance to touch the door handle, Daniel touched me. He swallowed and said, “Are you sure you want to confront this guy without the local authorities here?”
I searched Daniel’s eyes, looking for fear, but found none. He was just worried about the legal consequences that I might have to deal with. He had no idea what kind of hornet’s nest we were walking into. I hesitated. Again, the thrum of wrongness shook me.
But I ignored the sensation, remembering the pasty shade of Mariah’s face when she had exited the telephone shed after meeting secretly with Asher. If I didn’t intervene, something bad would eventually happen to Mariah and maybe other kids in the Amish community, too. And then there was Cody’s obvious terror of the ex-Amish man. Asher Schwartz had gotten away with his corruption long enough. I still wasn’t sure what he had over Sheriff Gentry’s head, but whatever it was, I didn’t really care at the moment. The Sheriff had not-so-subtly given me his blessing to take matters into my own hands, and I had the distinct feeling that it wouldn’t take much to put Asher into a situation where he forced my hand. Daniel might have felt some kind of comradery with Asher since they both shared the experience of leaving the Amish, but that didn’t play into this at all as far as I was concerned. Brody was right—Asher was a disease that wouldn’t stop until he had infected everyone he could in Poplar Springs.
“It will be all right. I’m just going to put Asher a little off balance, see if he’ll break.”
Daniel nodded and once again, without question, he walked beside me up to the trailer. When I knocked on the door, a fluffy gray and white cat strolled up the steps and stopped at my feet. It pushed up against my legs and I could clearly hear its loud purring.
Daniel reached down to stroke the cat, but I stayed alert. I stood sideways at the door, darting my eyes from the carport back to the road. I was listening hard for any sound of a possible ambush or escape. But the only thing I heard was the muffled noise of a children’s program on a television inside the house and dogs barking from behind the house. With my bad luck as of late, the dogs were probably all Pit Bulls or German Shepherds. The blinds were pulled tight. I couldn’t see into the rectangular shaped window to the right of the doorway at all.
I knocked again, a little louder this time. My heart began pounding in my chest and I glanced at Daniel wondering how he could be so relaxed.
“Maybe he’s not home?” Daniel suggested.
“He’s here,” I said with sureness.
The door finally opened a few inches and a gauntly thin woman stared out with pure venom in her eyes. Her hair was dyed an outrageous orange color and the mascara around her bloodshot green eyes was smudged. It was well past one o’clock in the afternoon, but the woman was still in satin pajama bottoms and a white tank top. She wasn’t wearing a bra and her nipples were clearly visible through the thin fabric.
With a slight drawl to her words, she growled, “What do you want?”
The child peeking around her legs was probably around two years old. The girl’s wispy blonde hair was greasy and her face was smeared with something yellow. The strong smell of a soiled diaper wafted off of the girl and I wrinkled my nose for an instant.
The woman was high. No doubt about it. I kept the sympathy that I felt for the child at bay. I had been on a lot of domestic violence calls in Indy, and there was almost always a rag-tag child like this one hanging onto her mamma’s leg. Social services were overrun with these kinds of cases. They could hardly keep up with the number of kids in the system, and sometimes foster care was even worse than the circumstances that the kids were already living in.
I put on my stony, cop face and said, “I would like to talk to Asher.”
“He’s not here.” She began to slam the door, but my hand was quicker. With a thump, I braced the door open. I saw the heroin tracks on her arm.
“I don’t believe you. And if there is even an ounce of you that wants to do the best thing for your daughter, you’ll leave that man. You need help and I can get it for you—if you’ll just go get Asher for me,” I tried to convince her.
“I don’t need your help, bitch!” the woman shouted.
The scurrying sound in the snow by the carport got my attention. Daniel bolted up and I released the door, letting it slam shut. The cat hissed, and like a flash of smoke, it was gone just as the dogs rounded the corner. My mind only had a split second to register that they were Pits. The brindle one hit us first, snapping its jaws around Daniel’s leg.
The acidy taste of bile rose in my throat as I freed my gun in one smooth, fluid motion, and fired at the black dog that was a just few strides behind the first. The disgust of having to shoot a dog flowed through me, and an almost blind rage toward Asher followed next.
The black dog rolled into the snow and was dead by the time its momentum stopped. A gush of dark red spread onto the snow beside it. Between the shot blast and Daniel striking its head with his fists, the brindle let go of Daniel’s leg and backed off the porch, barking at us.
Under the circumstances, I would have been within my rights to shoot that dog as well, but as long as it was holding its position, I decided to take my chances and leave it alone.
“Get in the car, Daniel, and call 911,” I ordered.
“What about you?” Daniel demanded. He clutched his bitten leg, trying to slow the bleeding, but his hands were already covered with blood. Fear was now flashing in his wide eyes.
“Right behind you,” I lied.
As Daniel limped across the yard, I kept an eye on the dog that hadn’t moved, but was still barking up a storm, and ran to the carport. I was sure that Asher was running out the back door, and was ready for pursuit on foot, when another gunshot blast split the air.
Twisting, I saw Daniel go down beside my car and I stopped breathing altogether.
21
I ran to Daniel with my gun raised, alternating my focus from Daniel’s crumpled form on the ground, the barking dog, and side of the trailer where I suspected the shot had been fired from.
When I reached Daniel, he mumbled for me to “take cover,” but I completely ignored his plea. My gaze was still darting around when I grabbed Daniel’s coat and turned him over so that I could see his wound. I quickly looked him over and began breathing again when I saw the bloody hole in his coat was at the edge of his shoulder. He had been winged by what I guessed to be buck shot from a shotgun.
I touched Daniel’s chin and made him look at me. “Hold on, Daniel. You’re shoulder’s just been grazed.”
The adrenaline rush caused the words to shoot from my mouth, but I was glad for the extra blood flow. It made me see a lot better and react quicker, too. Pulling the cellphone from my pocket, I called it in while I held my scarf against the wound. Fortunately for Daniel, by the slow leaking of his blood, I judged that an artery or vein hadn’t been nicked.
When I slid the phone back into my pocket, Daniel managed a weak laugh, “Well, this didn’t go very well, did it?”
I took the chance to look down and search Daniel’s eyes. His pupils were dilated, but they were still sharp. “It’s not funny, dammit. You could be dead right now if whoever shot at you had better aim.”
Daniel smiled and my icy heart thawed a little bit more. “You sound as if it would actually bother you if I died. That’s a surprise.”
At first the wailing sirens were very faint, but within seconds, they became louder and louder still. The sound was music to my ears.
“Of course it would bother me. Do you think that I’m completely heartless?”
“I was hoping it might be for other reasons.” Daniel began to grin, but then winced in pain.
“Serves you right,” I scolded. “This is definitely not the time to go there.”
I bolted upright and aimed my gun
at the door as it began opening. The orange headed woman took a step onto the porch. She was holding the small girl in her arms as protection. The toddler was crying and the tears were mixing in with the yellow matter on her cheeks making her look even worse than before. The sight made me want to vomit.
“Hey, don’t shoot. Let me get Zeus in the house so them Po Po don’t shoot him, too,” the defiance in the woman’s voice grated on what was left of my nerves, but she was right. The police would shoot that dog before they even got out of their cruisers.
I lowered my gun a foot, but still kept it poised. “Go ahead and get your dog, but be quick about it.” Just as the woman got a hold of the dog’s collar with her free hand, I shouted, “Was it Asher or Julien who shot my friend? You’re fooling yourself if you think that you can protect them. And you shouldn’t want to. They probably ran off into the woods out back and left you to deal with the aftermath of all this.”
The woman didn’t respond, and managed to struggle the dog into the house and have the door shut by the time the three cruisers pulled up, followed closely by the ambulance. I kneeled back down beside Daniel and waited for Brody to approach me with the two paramedics.
I rose and began to step away as the first of emergency personnel squatted beside Daniel, but he grabbed my leg and said, “You’re coming to hospital, aren’t you?”
I couldn’t hide my smile. Daniel was just too large of a man to need me as an emotional crutch. “You’re in good hands. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
Daniel rolled his eyes, but he was quickly encircled by the medical staff, and I made my escape.
Two deputies were on the porch and three more were moving stealthily through the carport. I shouted out, “There’s a woman with a toddler inside, along with an attack dog. She’s not the one who shot him. The shooter probably ran into the woods, but I think that he was only trying to scare us away. Daniel’s a big target and it’s pretty hard to miss a killing shot at that close range.”
Brody looked at me with disgust and I couldn’t help glancing away to take a breath and collect myself before turning back to him.
“Did you at least get a shot off at Asher?”
I shook my head, but didn’t look away this time. I was keeping up a pretty good appearance of calmness, but inside, I was a jar full of jelly. Brody had better not push my buttons too hard. I was not in the mood for it.
“Got the dog, though,” Brody sighed.
“We were on the porch trying to talk to that smackhead,” I pointed at the orange haired woman who was now outside being questioned by a deputy, “When the dogs came around the corner. One of them got a hold of Daniel’s leg. We couldn’t handle them both, so I shot that one. Thirty seconds later, Daniel was heading to the car and I was going through the carport for a chase. That’s when Daniel was shot.”
Brody’s lips tightened, but he held his tone level when he said, “Chase? You aren’t one of my deputies and you certainly aren’t the sheriff here. You have no business trying to apprehend a criminal in this jurisdiction.”
Our gazes locked. Once again, I wasn’t exactly sure what he wanted of me, but I did breathe a little easier when he went on to say, “I think it’s best if you return to the Amish community…or go see your boyfriend in the hospital. I don’t really care what you do, as long as you aren’t blatantly stepping on my toes.”
I dared to pester the man with one more question. “Are you going to sweep this incident away under the carpet?”
“That’s none of your concern. I’ve already told you what you can and can’t do here. And I won’t be able to protect you if you ruffle the wrong person’s feathers. You’re on your own now.”
Brody walked away without a backward glance. The fact that six deputies were swarming over the front yard and all of them were careful to not look my way gave me the heads up that I wouldn’t even be formally questioned. And I thought that Tony Manning was corrupt.
I hated paperwork anyway, I convinced myself, as I got into my car. I wasn’t headed in the direction of the hospital, though. Daniel’s life wasn’t in jeopardy, but he’d need surgery to remove the pellets from his shoulder and a lot of stitches to close the dog bite wound, along with a rabies shot. I figured he wouldn’t even be awake and open to visitors for a few hours, at the least.
When I pulled out into traffic on the main road, I took a trembling breath. The East Side Trailer Park was more than just depressing. It was a snake’s nest of criminal activity. I would bet that there were a dozen emergency calls or more to that place each week. What a headache it would be to police it.
I drove through the industrial section of town, watching the empty buildings pass by as if they were a long line of broken dreams. Rusted brown steel and broken windows were brightened occasionally by bright red, green and blue graffiti. The symbols and dimensional words were similar to those found in Indianapolis or any other city center, and I found it interesting that the country kids had mastered the art just as well as the city dwellers. And I admitted that it was a form of art, just one that also signified depression and chaos.
The brick buildings began to thin out, until finally the open fields began appearing again. The transition from the run-down ghost town of Poplar Springs to the windswept snowy openness was almost startling. The cropland, dotted with pristine white farmhouses and red gambrel barns, brought with it a sense of hopefulness that the town completely lacked.
I lowered the window to allow the cold, wintry air to blow in for a moment. The fresh, country wind erased the decay that still clung to me from the trailer park. I thought about the dirty toddler and her smackhead mother, already guessing the child’s fate in the world. The cycle of drug addiction, poverty and lack of education was vicious and continued to fester in family lines for generations. It was highly unlikely that the child would escape the same fate as her mother.
Daniel wasn’t far from my thoughts, either. The sickened feeling I’d experienced when I saw him crumpled on the ground kept replaying in my mind. As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t deny that the thought of losing the man before I ever even had him, terrified me.
I slowed the car when I approached Elijah Mast’s farm. There were still a few buggies parked in his driveway, but the majority of the crowd that had been there in the morning were now gone. I decided to pull in anyway, just to make sure that Rowan and the kids had already left for home. Buggies weren’t like cars. I couldn’t pick one out from the other.
Surprising me, Rowan had allowed Mareena and Lucinda to ride in the car to the church service. During the drive over, the two girls had really loosened up for the first time since I’d met them. They giggled and talked non-stop the entire way. I wasn’t sure if they finally felt comfortable with me and Daniel or if they were just so thrilled to be in a warm, cushioned vehicle, instead of a cold, hard seated buggy for a change.
I had to admit the girls were beginning to grow on me. Even Gabe and Seth were friendlier now that I had run into a burning barn to save their horse and calf. Cacey was the only one remaining aloof. But even she had shown a couple of signs of cracking.
I parked in the gravel turn around and hurried out of the car when I spotted Jotham hitching up his horse. I reached him just as he had secured the last strap.
He looked startled to see me, but he straightened up and smiled anyway.
“Are you heading home?” I asked.
“Actually, I’m on my way to Rowan’s. I want to help him begin piling up the barn debris.”
“I didn’t think that your kind worked on Sunday,” I commented.
“We do sometimes, when our friends need us,” Jotham said quietly.
“We never did have the talk that you promised me,” I reminded him.
He nodded. “You’re right. I have a little time now,” Jotham suggested.
“Perfect,” I said. “Is my car all right?”
Jo
tham chuckled, causing the side of his face to crinkle. I briefly wondered if it hurt for him to laugh.
“I can only imagine what the others will think,” he lifted his chin toward the few stragglers who were late to leave, just now walking their horses to their buggies. “But I’m willing to chance the gossip.”
We sat in the front seat in silence for a moment. I watched a young woman help her husband with a bay horse while another horse was being harnessed by several children working together. It crossed my mind how tedious it would be to have to go through such a timely and difficult process every time you wanted to go somewhere. It was way too much work, even if you loved horses, I thought.
“Did you look into the barn fire that happened in nineteen ninety-seven?” Jotham asked with a guarded voice.
I glanced at the man. Even with a half scarred face, his quiet confidence made him formidable. I quickly thought about several ways to proceed, and finally settled on the path of pure honesty.
“Yes, I did. I even talked to Sheriff Gentry and Damon Gentry about the incident.”
“And…?” Jotham urged.
“I think that the Gentry barn was set on fire as retaliation for stealing business away from the Schwartz family. I would like to believe that the person who set the fire didn’t realize that Austin and his girlfriend were inside the loft of the barn, and was horrified to later find out that two people were killed. Because of the obvious grudge between Sheriff Gentry and the Amish community, I can only assume that the Amish elders knew who had done it, but kept the information to themselves. Taking matters into their own hands, so to speak.”
Jotham was so tense that I could almost feel the fear jumping off of him. Why he was afraid, I could only guess, but I did sit up straighter, suddenly fueled by my own rapidly beating heart.