Danger in Amish Country: Fall from GraceDangerous HomecomingReturn to Willow Trace (Love Inspired Suspense) Read online

  If only the shadow of Billy’s murder didn’t hover over them constantly... Joseph really hoped they would find something useful that they could pass on to Detective Macy. He was ready to get them out of harm’s way. He was also ready to really talk to Lydia about her feelings.

  “What should we do first?” He whispered low and close to her ear even though they seemed to be the only patrons in the library.

  “First, I think we should find the names of Billy’s friends who are in those photos.” She handed him a couple of annuals. “Here. You take these two. I’ll take the others and that will cover all four years Billy was at Willow High.”

  Joseph took his two volumes and sat across the broad wooden table from Lydia. Several minutes passed while they flipped through page after page in the yearbooks. Joseph split his attention equally between the photo scanning and staring across the table at Lydia. She was so beautiful, even more so now than when he’d left five years ago. There was more gold in her eyes. Her lips a darker shade of rose, her cheeks higher, more pronounced.

  “What?” She looked up suddenly and caught him staring.

  Joseph gave her a quick smile. Was this his chance to finish asking Lydia why her feelings for him had changed? He would have to ease into the subject. “I—I was just thinking...well, I’m surprised you’re not married.”

  “Ya, I’m an old maid. Danki. My mother just said the same thing to me on the way here. Now, get back to the pictures.”

  Joseph dropped his head back to the yearbook. After he’d inspected about three more pages, Lydia swung her edition around to him.

  “Look.” She pointed at a class photo in the middle of the page. “This is Michelle. She was in the picture and at the pond that night.”

  “Ya. I think Billy and she were sort of together at one point.”

  “Maybe the others will be nearby.”

  Lydia marked the page, then they went back to searching the individual albums. Joseph almost immediately came across a picture of Billy in a baseball uniform. He was standing next to another boy dressed the same. This time he turned his yearbook around to share. “Look at this one. I’d almost forgotten that Billy played baseball. And that guy next to him—he worked at the restaurant with us.”

  “That’s the same guy in the picture from the valet box. What’s his name?” There was excitement and hope in Lydia’s voice.

  “You’re right. I’m surprised I didn’t recognize him. I guess after the accident I wasn’t thinking too clearly.” Joseph read the caption under the photo. “‘Bill Ferris and Kevin ‘Wats’ Watson pitch Willow High’s first ever no-hitter.’”

  Kevin Watson?

  “Oh, Lydia. Remember? Billy said ‘what’s’ to us that night he died. Maybe Billy wasn’t saying ‘what’ w-h-a-t.” He thought out loud. “He was trying to say ‘Wats’ W-a-t-s? As in Kevin Watson, the guy that took over his job at the restaurant? Wasn’t that the name of the new manager? The one we met at the funeral.”

  “It was. You’re right. And you did say he looked familiar,” Lydia agreed. “What do you remember about him?”

  “Not much.” Joseph shrugged. “He was a year or two younger than Billy and me. At the restaurant, he would tag along after Mr. Bowman. You know, trying to impress him. Billy, I remember, thought he was a pain.”

  “I don’t remember him being at Tucker’s Pond that night. Do you?”

  “No.” He turned the book back around to face himself on the tabletop.

  “Wait.” Lydia hurried around to his side of the table and touched a photo on the opposing page. “Look at that!”

  He smiled up at her. “There are all the girls from Billy’s photo. They’re all at a baseball game.”

  Joseph moved his finger to the caption under the photo, his hand brushing against hers. A tingling sensation traveled up his arm. “‘Cheering on the regional champions to their final victory—Michelle Adams, Kelly Newport and Alexandra Nivens.’”

  “Alexandra! Alex!” Lydia fell into the chair beside him, shaking her head. “We didn’t imagine Billy saying that name, Joseph. He really said it. And he was talking about this girl.” Her voice quivered. “The girl who became sick from the drugs. The one we left. We have to find out what happened to her after we left.”

  “Why don’t we use the computers now and see if we can find something on the internet about any of them...especially Alex?” Lydia said.

  Joseph and Lydia both stood so fast they met each other face-to-face and toe-to-toe. Joseph froze. The proximity of her filled his senses. He breathed in her scent and felt the warmth of her breath. She was achingly close. He touched her soft face with his fingertips. “Oh, Lydia.”

  *

  He was so close, Lydia held her breath. A strange and overwhelming energy filled her every fiber. Every word her mother had said in the pony cart screamed through her head. Joseph is not your daed.... You shall not be afraid.... You’re still in love with Joseph....

  Was she? Was she still in love with him? And was it only fear that had kept her from reading his letters? Was it fear that, right this moment, kept her from falling into his arms and telling him she’d been wrong.

  Lydia lowered her head and stepped back, her heart pounding. With a quick step, she walked to the computers. Joseph followed at her heels. He placed his hand on her shoulder and whispered her name. The warmth of his hand flowed from the tips of his fingers down her back. She was moved, excited and scared. Too scared to turn and say what was in her heart. If she let Joseph in, even the tiniest bit, he might leave her again. And from that she would never recover.

  She pulled away again. “Let’s just find out what happened to Alex and this can all be over.”

  She chose the first computer station. Taped next to the big screen was a set of easy-to-follow steps for the Amish patrons and others who weren’t familiar with the web searches. Lydia had used the internet a few times during her rumspringa. Without much difficulty, she opened the browser and typed in Alexandra Nivens.

  “Wow. There must be a hundred articles with her name.” Joseph pulled a chair up alongside her.

  He was silent for the moment, but Lydia feared he would try again to speak of his feelings. But really, what was the point? He was going back to Indiana. She shook the troublesome thoughts from her head. They had to focus on Billy’s death.

  “I don’t know why there are so many articles. Let’s see.” She scrolled down, reading aloud the titles. “‘High School Student Goes Missing,’ ‘Last Seen,’ ‘Unsolved Case,’ ‘Missing Person,’ ‘Nivens Missing’...”

  “Alexandra Nivens is a missing person.”

  EIGHT

  Lydia clicked on one of the links to an article. He and Lydia began to skim the article silently, when he noticed the publication date.

  “This is just a couple of days after that night at the pond. Here’s a quote from Billy and Michelle. ‘Last time we saw her was at school.’”

  They exchanged a knowing glance. They both knew that wasn’t true.

  “School was out, wasn’t it? The last time they would have seen her would have been at the pond with us. Or do I remember it all wrong?”

  “No. You are right.” Joseph touched his hand to his forehead. He swallowed hard. “That was the reason for the party. It was the last day of school. So Billy and Michelle lied to the newspaper.”

  “What would make them lie?”

  “I don’t know. Because of the drugs that night, maybe?”

  Lydia couldn’t quite wrap her head around the concept of lying, but she did not like where any of this was going. She turned back to the screen. “Here’s another article. This one is from just last year.”

  “It’s another missing-persons case from Lancaster,” Joseph said, reading along with her. “A more recent one. Another teenage girl, Melissa. And two others in the year before following similar patterns. Look, it mentions Alexandra Nivens here... as an unsolved case.”

  He pointed to the screen. Lydia scrolled down, reading
as fast as she could. “Alexandra has never been found, but read this.”

  Joseph followed her finger to the paragraph that she pointed out on the bright screen.

  Melissa Roan was found dead three days after she went missing. Cause of death: overdose of designer drugs. Forensic scientists do not have enough evidence to trace the drugs to a particular dealer. Police profilers, however, suspect it is a local operation and are wondering if the Nivens missing-persons case and several others could be related to this crime. All girls fit similar description, age, size and situation.

  “Come on,” Joseph said quickly. “We have to get to Detective Macy and tell him that Billy tried to talk to us about Alex and Kevin the night he died.”

  Joseph stood and offered his hand to help her up. Until now, he had not seen her tears, but it was clear she had been crying as he’d read. Joseph held out his arms. Lydia stepped into his embrace and lowered her head to his shoulder. “I’m glad you have been here. I couldn’t have gone through this without you.”

  Joseph’s heart filled with emotion. He whispered into her ear and held her tight until she was calm again.

  “I’m so sorry I took you there that night, Lydia. So sorry. This is all my fault. I got us involved in whatever this is. If I could, there are so many things I would have done differently in the past. And none of them would include hurting you.”

  He wasn’t sure Lydia had heard a word of what he’d said, but her arms were tight around him and he wished they could stay like that forever.

  *

  Lydia and Joseph called Detective Macy from a public phone in the lobby of the library. It didn’t take long to explain to him what they’d learned from the pictures and internet. The detective explained that Kevin Watson had already been on his radar for Billy’s murder. Kevin had shown signs of distress and confusion when police had questioned him as a rival employee of Billy’s. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that Watson had played a significant role in Billy’s drug business, which he also coveted and wanted to take away from Billy. At that very moment there were police cars on their way to Kevin’s home and to the restaurant to make an arrest. Macy promised to be in touch, but he hoped that this was the end of it.

  Somehow, Lydia felt little relief at this discovery. Even as they walked home and heard the sirens whirring in the distance—the very ones on their way to the restaurant to arrest Kevin—it still felt unresolved. Kind of like her feelings for Joseph?

  They had gone about a third of their hour to walk Holly Hill when Mr. Zook happened to pass them in his open buggy. He stopped to ask them about the sirens that had sounded earlier. When he realized they were walking all the way to Holly Hill, he insisted on giving them a ride. Joseph offered Lydia the bench seat next to Mr. Zook, but she preferred to stretch out in the cart and leave Joseph to answer all of Mr. Zook’s questions.

  Lydia must have been more exhausted than she thought. The next thing she knew, the buggy had stopped and she was home. She climbed down from with a yawn. Her mother was waving from the front porch.

  “Thanks for the ride, Mr. Zook,” she said, realizing Joseph was no longer with them.

  “I let Joseph out at Miller’s store.” Mr. Zook must have sensed her confusion. “He said he had some business to take care of and that he wanted to update the bishop on the police making an arrest in Billy’s murder.”

  She waved to Mr. Zook as he rode off in his open buggy and she walked up the steps to join her mother.

  “Well, I’m glad to hear the whole affair is over. What a relief.” Naomi put her arm around Lydia’s shoulders and they moved toward the front door. “I fixed a ton of dinner. I thought Joseph would be with you. Where is he?”

  Lydia shrugged. “Mr. Zook just told me he only rode to Miller’s store. Said he had some business.”

  Her mother gave a doubting look. “Probably afraid you’re going to send him back to Indiana without one kind word.”

  Lydia sighed. She was too tired to make a reply. She followed her mother to the kitchen and helped with the meal. “It does seem a bit quiet without Joseph or the Zook boys, doesn’t it?”

  Lydia ignored the strange emotions twisting inside of her. She also ignored her mother’s I-told-you-so looks. She caught herself more than once peering out the kitchen window to see if Joseph was walking up the path.

  The third time she peered out, she did see something moving. It wasn’t Joseph. It was Candy, her larger pony, trotting down the gravel path. “Now, what is she doing out?”

  “What’s that?” her mother asked.

  “Candy. She’s gotten out of the stable. I’ll be right back.” Lydia hurried out of the house with an apple in her hand.

  She ran down the front lane. A few whistles and the sweet fruit had the little pony at her side in no time. Lydia led Candy to the stable and locked her back inside her stall. How had she gotten out? Perhaps her mother had not shut the latch properly, but even then Candy would have had to slide the door to the stall. None of her ponies knew how to do that. Something wasn’t right.

  Lydia decided to check each of the ponies and the stalls. She tested the latches and made certain that the stalls were secure. She found nothing out of order. And yet, there was a nagging feeling that she had overlooked something.

  Lydia marched back up the aisle once again, her eyes fixed on the feed room in the very back. The door had been left open—that was it. She headed over to the dark corner to pull it closed. Leaving the feed room open was the same as sending out party invitations to every unwanted critter in the vicinity. She couldn’t imagine her mom had left it opened.

  An empty bucket lay in front of the door. That, too, was strange. Her mother liked everything neat and orderly. A bad feeling washed over Lydia as she reached down and picked up the bucket from the dirt floor. Before she could stand again, a horse blanket came over her head and something or someone pressed her down to the ground. For a few seconds she tried to fight back and pull the blanket from her face. But her efforts were useless.

  A second later, she took a hard blow to the head. Even with the cushion of the horse blanket, it sent pain ringing through her skull. Her limbs went limp. Darkness overtook her.

  NINE

  Joseph hummed a quick tune as he painted the last coat of stain across the top of a special piece of furniture he’d been working on. He’d started the chest when he’d first arrived in Willow Trace, thinking he could turn it over as a quick tourist item. But today, he’d decided to make it a gift to Lydia. He wasn’t sure how he would present it to her. Just as he wasn’t sure how he would ask for her forgiveness. But he had to try. And the chest wasn’t the only reason he’d stopped at Miller’s store. He’d wanted to talk to Bishop Miller about some major life choices. Afterward, they had prayed together and written to his uncle. The rest would be up to Lydia.

  Joseph straightened up his workstation and headed out of the store toward Holly Hill. He had barely walked across the parking lot when Lydia’s mother came running out of the woods.

  “Joseph! Help, Joseph!” Naomi ran across the parking lot, waving her hands in the air. “She’s gone. Lydia.”

  Joseph raced across the gravel lot to meet her. “What do mean, she’s gone? Where?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t know.” Her voice cracked with emotion.

  “It’s okay, Mrs. Stoltz. It’s okay. Tell me what happened.”

  “Lydia went out to catch Candy. The pony had gotten out. I saw her walk the pony back to the stable. But then she was gone for so long...”

  “How long?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know. But it was too long. I went outside to call her. And a van was driving away down the hill.”

  Gasping for air, Naomi’s face twisted with grief and worry. “I didn’t know what to do. I just started running here. Lydia said you were here.”

  “It’s okay. It’s okay, Mrs. Stoltz. We’re going to find her.” Joseph took Naomi’s hands in his. She was hysterical, and even though he
was close to feeling that way himself, he wanted her to tell him as much as she could. “Are you saying you think that Lydia went somewhere in a van? What van?”

  “It was small. A little delivery van. White and gray. It was going so fast I couldn’t see inside. I went to the stable as fast as I could...but I was too late. There was a huge mess in the aisles. Stuff everywhere. But Lydia was gone.”

  “A mess?” Joseph clenched his teeth. Lydia kept everything as neat as a pin. She would not have left the stable in disorder unless... “Someone took her.”

  Naomi covered her mouth. The tears slid down her cheeks. “I wouldn’t have let her go outside alone, but I thought the murderer was caught. I thought this was all over.”

  “Me, too. We all thought it was over.” Joseph put an arm around Lydia’s mother and steered her inside the shop.

  “Bishop Miller?” He called out. “I think I’m going to need that prepaid cell phone you got the other day in case of an emergency.”

  Seconds later, the old bishop was running forward with his new phone in hand.

  With trembling fingers, Joseph dialed Macy’s direct number, which he remembered from the library. Macy answered on the first ring.

  Joseph explained as quickly as possible what Naomi had told him.

  “It’s not Kevin Watson,” Macy said over the line. “He is right here with me. But I think I know who it is. I’ll send a patrol car for you. Where are you?”

  “At the furniture store,” Joseph said. “But why? Do you know where Lydia is? Who has her? Is she okay?”

  “No, she’s not okay. Maybe Bowman has her. I’ll explain everything when I see you. But don’t worry. Mr. Watson is going to cooperate and help us get Lydia back. Stay right where you are, Joseph.”

  “Hello? Hello?”

  Macy had disconnected. Joseph looked at Bishop Miller and Mrs. Stoltz. What could he say that wouldn’t send Naomi into the absolute frenzy that his mind was already in? “Detective Macy is sending a car over to pick us up. He says everything’s going to be fine.”