LITMIR.BIZ

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Isaac,” Maureen said on the other end of the line. “I have Ryder heading out your way. He should be there in under ten. You hold on.”

      “Will do. Could you also send out a tow truck? We need the car towed into evidence.” He waited for her to answer in the affirmative and then he disconnected the call. The young woman beside him was staring out the window, her eyes scanning the road. “All right. Another officer will be here soon. I am Officer Isaac Yoder with the Waylan Grove Police Department. Why don’t you start from the beginning? Who are you and what you were doing when all of this happened?”

      She gave the surrounding area one more sweep before focusing her large blue eyes on his face. Her black bonnet was sagging on her head. Only a hint of pale blond hair peeped out from under it. She cleared her throat. Her voice, when she spoke, was soft. He was surprised that she kept it steady. It was obvious to him that her anxiety had not lessened.

      “My name is Elizabeth Miller. Lizzy. I live outside LaMar Pond, a small town in northwestern Pennsylvania. I am training to be a midwife.”

      She flushed. A smile nearly slipped out of him. He remembered that women did not talk about things such as having babies and pregnancy in front of strangers, and especially not in front of men. He’d been living in the Englisch world so long he’d almost forgotten that.

      “I know where LaMar Pond is. Go on.”

      “My cousin Addie asked me to visit her here in Ohio.” She paused, as if trying to decide how much to tell him. “My normal driver was sick, so her brother, Bill, showed up to drive me.”

      Bill. William Allister. He sat up straighter in his seat.

      “Had you met Bill before?”

      She shook her head, her nose wrinkling. “I do not hire men to drive me around. I would not have gone with him, but I knew that I needed to get to my cousin’s house. I had promised her, and it was too late to change plans. Besides, I didn’t want my regular driver, Sue, to feel bad.”

      Distress shadowed her face. It didn’t take much imagination to know that she was thinking about how the poor woman would feel when she found out what had happened to her brother. He blocked an image of his own brother’s face from surfacing. That was twice in one day he’d thought of Joshua’s death.

      “I am sorry about the delay, Lizzy. I will try to get you to your cousin’s house as soon as I can. I promise.”

      She shrugged it off. “I got in the car. We drove for a while. I noticed that Bill was going a back route. One that I wasn’t as familiar with. I was annoyed with him.”

      She seemed ashamed of that now.

      “He said he had an errand to run. When he stopped, he told me to wait in the car. And I did. I waited for a long time. Over thirty minutes. When he didn’t come back, I got impatient and went to find what was taking him so long.”

      In the quiet car, Isaac heard her swallow in a loud gulp.

      “I went behind the building. I could hear voices arguing, but I was so irritated that I did not pay attention to what they were saying. I saw Bill. He was facing another man. The other man had a gun. He shot him. He shot him!”

      Her voice rang with horror. Isaac could only imagine how shocking that must have been, for her to witness such an awful thing.

      “You saw him shoot Bill?” He wanted to be certain he had the facts correct.

      She nodded. “I saw Bill fall. I was so scared I ran back to the car. Bill had left it running. The man shot out the back window.”

      She pointed to the rear passenger seat with an unsteady finger. He recalled the shattered window. He would need to get this car into the station so that it could be searched for the bullet. Or other evidence. It would not be safe to try to process the car on the side of the road with a possible killer searching for her.

      “Then what happened? After he shot out the window.”

      “I drove away as fast as I could. I have only driven a couple of times, for fun. I haven’t driven at all since I was baptized two years ago. I know that the man will come after me. He was running to his car when I reached the street.”

      He was sure that he would come after her, too. Right now, he had a possible dead body, a single witness and the murdered man’s car. Oh, yeah. There was a very good chance that someone would come after this young woman to shut her up.

      It was his job to make sure they failed.

      He spoke quietly, calmly. “I know it was horrible, Lizzy. But I need a description of the man who shot Bill.”

      Lizzy squeezed her eyes shut, as if she could force herself to forget the events of the day. He knew the feeling. “He had dark curly hair. Dark brown eyes. I’m certain that I would know him if I saw him again.”

      He frowned as he considered what he knew. “The man, do you think he got a good look at your face? Could he recognize you?”

      He had to assume that he had, but he knew that to many Englischers, all they would notice was the kapp and the dress. With her black bonnet on, it was possible that the man wouldn’t have gotten a good look at her.

      Her nod was emphatic, tearing that hope to shreds. “For a moment, before he shot out the window, he looked directly into my eyes. He chased me, too, in his car. When you pulled me over, he continued past us.”

      The only car to pass them had been the one that he’d thought he’d been sure had been speeding. Unfortunately, he had not been able to get a plate number or even much information in regard to the make and model of the vehicle. Determined to pay attention and get all the details he could from the witness, he turned back to her. Her wide blue eyes were pinned to his face. She let out a sound that was half sigh, half strangled sob.

      “I think if you had not pulled me over, he would have caught up with me and killed me, too.”

      * * *

      Within minutes, Lizzy saw lights flashing in the side mirrors of Isaac’s police car. The backup he had called for had arrived. She was glad, but she also squirmed internally, uncomfortable at once again having to deal with the Englisch police. The other officer drew over to the shoulder, pulling behind Isaac’s car. The lights remained on, splashing blue and red in a steady pattern against the interior of the car.

      “I’ll be right back.” Isaac got out of the car and sauntered over to the other officer. She twisted her neck around and watched the two men talking. Both of them scanned the road. A time or two, they glanced in her direction.

      This is the second time today I have been left waiting in a car. She shook her head at the ridiculous thought. This time, Lizzy did not mind being in the car alone. It gave her the opportunity to gather her thoughts and compose herself.

       Lord, help me be calm. Still my heart.

      Lizzy was drained by the morning’s events. Would she ever be able to forget the sight of Bill’s body falling, crumpling to the ground in a heap? Or the cold face of the man who shot him? She shuddered as his face filled her mind. Poor Sue. Her friend would be devastated. Although Lizzy had not had the best impression of Bill in the few hours she’d known him, she knew that Sue had adored her younger brother. She had talked about him every time they’d traveled together.

      And now he was gone.

      Hugging her arms around herself, she shivered, a mixture of cold and the reaction to the morning’s events setting in. Her eyes sought out Isaac, the one thing that had steadied her through the dreadful past hour.

      Then she rebuked herself. She was being silly. Gott had brought her through it. Isaac had just been the means that Gott had used.

      Isaac had been Plain once. He didn’t have to tell her that. With a name like Yoder, there was a possibility, of course. But when he had spoken to her in the language of the Plain folk, she had been astonished. What had driven him from his community to become

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