Guarding The Amish Midwife (Amish Country Justice Book 6) Page 9

  Get your mind back on the job, Isaac.

  “I think the restaurant owner would be a wise one to watch.” He responded to her earlier comment. “It’s very possible that he might lead us to where Zave is hiding. I will ask the chief to have someone watch his place. And if we have reasonable suspicions, we might be able to get a search warrant.”

  “You can’t get that now?”

  “No, not without cause. All we have now is a man who doesn’t want the police scaring away his customers. That’s not a good enough reason to get a search warrant. Much as I wish it was.”

  Walking down the sidewalk toward his cruiser, Isaac spotted a skateboarder coming way too fast in their direction. The kid had his head down. All Isaac could see was the black helmet. It was unfortunate that this was a road with very little traffic. He grabbed Lizzy’s hand and pulled her closer to him as the skater whizzed past them.

  Electricity jolted from where their hands were connected and continued up his arm.

  She jerked away, her face averted. He could see the flushed cheeks, though. She’d felt it, too. And judging by the distress in her wide blue eyes when she looked back up at him, she obviously didn’t like it any more than he did.

  They inched away from each other. When they arrived at the cruiser, Isaac stepped up to it and opened the passenger door for her.

  The sound of an engine revving and tires screeching rent the air. Isaac’s head snapped up, his eyes scanning for the source. Instinctively, he pressed Lizzy closer to the car to better shield her, his hand on her shoulder to silently tell her to stay down. She responded by ducking down slightly.

  The Jeep responsible for the noise was coming toward them, moving too fast for safety. As it neared, a young man leaned out the passenger window of the Jeep roaring down the road towards them. Murderous rage glared from the young man’s face.

  It was Zave.

  NINE

  Zave leaned farther out the window. A gun glinted in his hand, aimed straight at Lizzy.

  Isaac shoved the Amish woman to the ground and shielded her with his body. The cruiser provided extra cover for them. A shot rang out. It clanged as it struck the lamp pole at his left. Isaac heard the man swearing.

  Snatching his own service revolver, he popped up to level a shot at the Jeep. His shot caught the back door of the vehicle as it swerved wildly around the corner.

  “Come on!” Assisting Lizzy to her feet, he assessed her condition quickly. Assured that she was well, he gestured to the still-open door. “Get in. If we hurry, maybe we can catch up to him.”

  He ran around to his side of the cruiser and jumped in. As soon as they were in motion, he jabbed his radio to call in the shooting. He rattled off the license plate number, make and model of the vehicle. “Suspect was seen fleeing the scene and heading east on Randolph Avenue. Number four in pursuit. Request backup.”

  “Backup will be joining you en route. Number six has left the station.”

  Good. Ryder was on the way. Isaac steered his vehicle into a fast turn, feeling his wheels swerve out behind him. The tires squealed, but he managed not to hit the opposite curb.

  Up ahead, he could make out the Jeep. It swung wide around another curve.

  “Hold on!” he yelled across to Lizzy. He stomped his foot down on the gas and flipped on the lights and the siren. The car coming the other way slid to the side of the curb. Isaac flew past him.

  “Come on. Come on.” He clenched his hands on the steering wheel as his car inched closer and closer to the Jeep. He saw another cruiser behind him. It was Ryder. He wished Ryder had come in from the other direction in order to cut the Jeep off. However, it was too late for that.

  The gates at the train tracks began to descend. It was like watching a bad movie. He watched, incredulous, as the Jeep wove in through the closing gates. Within seconds, he spotted an Amtrak train coming. To make matters worse, the train stopped to let passengers off and to allow others to board. By the time the gates rose again, the Jeep was nowhere in sight.

  The two cruisers split up and continued to search, but the Jeep was gone.

  “Hey, Ryder. I’m going back to the scene and see if any witnesses saw what had happened. Maybe someone will have more information than we have.”

  He doubted it. But he had to try.

  Unfortunately, after an hour of walking the street a second time, they were no closer to finding any answers than they had been the first time. Unless you considered inciting an irate restaurant owner to declare that he would be coming in to complain about the police harassing him.

  “May I ask you a question?” Lizzy snapped the buckle of her seat belt, then turned to watch him.

  “Jah.” He heard the word and grimaced. He didn’t know why, but he’d just spoken in his Amish dialect. He had taken such pains to bury it to sound more Englisch. “What is it?”

  “Why did you become a police officer? Why not a firefighter, or an ambulance driver?”

  He heard what she really wanted to know. Why go into a career where it was necessary to carry a gun? Back when he was Amish, the only time he used a gun was for hunting. The Amish were pacifists. Extreme pacifists. He doubted his own dat would have picked up a gun to save his own life. To his dat, guns were for killing only.

  “I had trouble picking up a gun when I first left my community,” he mused, smiling slightly at the memory of how awkward he had been.

  “Then why do it?”

  He turned the corner. The road ahead was long and straight.

  He considered her question. Did he really want to tell her the story? It wasn’t like him to tell personal stories from his life to others. Even Ryder didn’t know the whole story.

  Maybe if she knew the story, it would break the connection growing between them.

  Decision made, he thought for a second where to begin. It would only make sense if he went back to the very beginning.

  “I grew up in a community only about fifteen miles from where your cousin lives,” he told her. “I had two younger siblings. A sister named Mary and a younger brother named Joshua.” Sorrow clogged his throat briefly as he let his mind dwell on his siblings. It had been so long since he had seen them. “Joshua was two years younger than I was. He also was blind. We’ll never know the whole story, but when he was fifteen, some college kids out driving came upon him while he was standing near the road. We found out later that they were drunk. They had seen Joshua and stopped to ask him for directions. When they realized he was blind, the leader apparently decided that he would make a good target. They roughed him up a bit, taking the little of value that he had on him. When they left, he had staggered to his feet, and the car hit him. It never even slowed down. They left him in the street to die. My brother was taken to the hospital, but there was nothing they could do. He was in a coma for ten hours until he died the next morning.”

  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her dab at her tears. Feeling bad for upsetting her, he started to apologize.

  “Tell me the rest.”

  Surprised, he glanced at her. Her eyes were wet, but her sympathetic face was calm.

  “Ironically, the boys were caught when the car they were driving was used to vandalize town property. Two of the boys turned on the group leader for lesser sentences. My father refused to attend the trial. He refused to see to it that the boys who killed his son were brought to justice. At the trial the two boys who were testifying against their friend swore before the court that he had hit Joshua on purpose, and that it hadn’t been an accident as the other kid had said. His lawyer was smooth. By the time that he was done, it almost seemed that Joshua had been at fault for being out at night like that. What was he thinking would happen, a blind boy out near the street?

  “The kid got a slap on the wrist, as the Englisch say. I was so angry. I blamed my father. Had he gone to the trial, I told him, maybe there would have been ju
stice. Justice, he told me, belonged to God. I told him that maybe I no longer wanted to believe in the God that would let my brother die and let the one who killed him go free.”

  Lizzy gasped sharply, her hand flying to cover her mouth.

  He nodded. “Jah, it was a horrible thing to say to him. He was shocked. And he looked older than he had ever looked before. He stared at me and told me that his son would never speak that way, and that until his son was ready to be respectful, the disrespectful young man standing in front of him was not welcome in his house.”

  He pulled into the police department parking lot. Disengaging the engine, he had one final thing to add. “So I left. I became a police officer to do my best to bring justice to those who are harmed by others, like my brother was. My father and I never spoke again. He died two years ago.”

  “I’m so sorry.”

  He shrugged. “We made our choices. I’m here now, and I have made a life for myself with good people. I am doing what I set out to do, and I don’t plan to ever go back.”

  * * *

  It was one of the saddest stories she had ever heard.

  It also explained how an Amish man would become a police officer. Still, her heart broke. Not just for him. For his whole family. For his parents, who had lost both their sons. Had his father regretted his ultimatum? She thought about her own father. Dat had never made a promise that he hadn’t meant. At least, not in her memory.

  Lizzy followed Isaac into the police station, her mind still wrapped up in what he had told her. They had barely stepped inside when the chief approached them.

  “Report, Isaac.”

  She watched as Isaac gave the chief his report. He was comfortable here. Not only that, but he was also clearly respected by his colleagues. He truly had made a life for himself.

  What about faith? Where was God in his life?

  She didn’t know how she would have survived the trauma of being held captive if she hadn’t had her faith. Even with her faith, she had come out scarred.

  Such as her inability to trust men. But that wasn’t completely true anymore. She trusted Isaac. And by association, she sort of trusted Ryder. Although she wasn’t comfortable with him the way she was with Isaac.

  The door opened. A woman entered the room, her eyes darting around nervously. Lizzy considered her intently, frowning. She felt she should know this woman, but from where? Her round cheeks and messy bun tickled an image in Lizzy’s mind. She knew she’d seen her before but couldn’t remember where.

  Isaac saw the woman. His stance immediately straightened. “You were at the restaurant I visited today.”

  The woman blanched at being recognized but nodded her head. It was evident that the openness of the room made her uncomfortable. “I have information about the man you saw today. The owner was lying.”

  “Please, we can talk in the conference room.” Isaac led the way. When she entered the room ahead of him, he gave Ryder a significant look.

  “Lizzy, you stick with me,” Ryder said.

  Isaac joined them less than twenty minutes later. She knew by the way his eyes sparkled he had some good news. He pulled Ryder and Lizzy with him into the chief’s office. Lizzy was not easy in the office, but she would have felt even less so out in the other room, so she kept silent.

  The chief’s gaze skittered over her briefly before settling on Isaac. He was grinning widely; a dimple flashed in his left cheek.

  “It appears you have some news, Officer,” the chief said, indicating he should spill it.

  “Indeed, ma’am. That was a waitress from the restaurant we visited this afternoon. The restaurant where the owner had promised me, twice, that he had never seen Zave. Well, it seems he was lying through his teeth. That lady said that she overheard our conversation. She also happened to catch a glimpse of the picture I was showing him. No sooner had we left his restaurant than he went into the back office. Then a young man came out, grabbed a skateboard and helmet from the owner’s nephew, and was on his phone calling someone to come pick him up.”

  Lizzy jumped to her feet. “He knew we’d been shot at and still told us he didn’t know him! He even accused you of harassing him.” She clenched her hands, fury seething and bubbling inside her at the gall of the man. She could have been killed, or Isaac could have been. Did the man not have a conscience?

  “Hey, Lizzy. It’s okay.” Isaac came and stood in front of her. She stared at him in disbelief.

  “Okay? How is something like this ever okay?”

  His grin widened. “Remember me saying that we needed cause for a search warrant? Now we have one.”

  She bit her lip. That was what they wanted. But she still wasn’t happy about how they got it.

  She sighed. “Maybe Gott has decided to help us.”

  He gave her an odd look. “Maybe He has.”

  Her breath caught at the look in his eyes. All of a sudden, her senses were overwhelmed with his nearness. She could feel the static and sizzle between them. It was an impossible attraction. Stilling the part of her that wanted to draw closer to him, she stepped back and resumed her seat, aware that her cheeks were flushed. If she wasn’t careful, she would return home with a broken heart.

  His grin dimmed. Maybe she was wrong, but it seemed that he was struggling with the same attraction.

  He turned away from her, his expression more serious now. “Chief, how long do think it would take us to get a warrant?”

  She tapped her chin. “It’s almost four. Let me see if I can put a rush on it. I don’t see us getting it before tomorrow, at the earliest.”

  He sighed. “That’s what I thought.”

  “Isaac, you should be going off duty. Why don’t you head out? We’ll put Lizzy up in the new hotel on Water Street. Better security there, plus we’ll have a guard on her door. No meals that don’t come from us.”

  She wasn’t taking any chances. Lizzy didn’t want to go to any motel or hotel again. After what had happened before, she certainly didn’t think she’d feel safe there, no matter how tight the security was, but what else could she do?

  “That sounds like a plan.” Isaac yawned abruptly. “Excuse me. Look, we’re tired and hungry. I might drive her over there and we’ll stop and pick up something to eat on the way. Go through a drive-through or something. At least that would solve the concern about room service.”

  Chief Carson waved them away. “Fine, fine. Go get something to eat. Plan to have her at the hotel in forty-five minutes. If you are going to be late, call it in so no one worries. Then go home and get some rest. I expect you to be back here tomorrow looking sharp.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Isaac clasped Lizzy’s elbow in his hand briefly. She could feel the warmth of his hand long after he had removed it. She promised herself that she would stop letting his nearness disturb her. As they stepped outside, a breeze tickled her nose. She smelled the grass, still damp from the rain. And she smelled the french fries from the fast food restaurant two buildings down.

  Another smell caught her attention. It was a clean aroma of shampoo and soap. A simple smell.

  Isaac.

  She put another six inches between them. Had he noticed? She sent him a glance under her lashes. He was watching her, a smile playing on his lips. Immediately, she looked away.

  They got into the car and he drove them to the nearest drive-through. There really wasn’t anything that appealed to her, so she settled on a chicken salad.

  “Are you sure that will be enough for you?”

  “Jah. I appreciate your concern. I’m not that hungry tonight.”

  “It’s probably stress.” He bit into a french fry. As he chewed, he twisted his lips. Obviously, the fries weren’t to his liking. “I’m not that hungry, either. But we have to eat. Chief’s orders, you know.”

  She laughed, but obediently dug into her salad. After a few moments, a scent
she’d never smelled before caught her attention.

  “What’s that—”

  “Smell.” Isaac finished for her, his eyes wide. He pulled the vehicle over to the side of the road. He killed the engine and hit the door locks to open both sides. “Get out!”

  She didn’t even think about it. Lizzy shoved the door open and stumbled out of the car, her half-eaten salad tumbling to the ground. She ignored it. Isaac was at her side, grabbing her hand and pulling her with him away from the car.

  They stopped. She saw the tightness of his eyes and followed his glance. And gasped.

  Flames were shooting out from under his car.

  He called 911. Within five minutes, he was assisting the other officers to clear the street. The fire truck arrived. By this time, Isaac’s cruiser was fully engulfed in flames. The firefighters tried to get the fire out, but they gave up when it became clear that the blaze wouldn’t be extinguished.

  “I think it’s an electrical fire!” she heard one of them holler.

  “The fuel tank’s going to blow!” another bellowed. “Take cover.”

  Isaac left his group and charged up the lawn to the park where she was standing. He grabbed her around the waist and half lifted her off her feet as he guided her deeper into the playground area. He pushed her under a slide, crowding in behind her. She felt his breath at the nape of her neck.

  A huge roar filled the air. The air simmered with the heat of the blast. Debris fluttered around them. It was mostly ash.

  Isaac made them wait another five minutes. When they emerged from under the slide, she stumbled at the sight of the destroyed cruiser. Black smoke curled from the flames still busily consuming what had been his car. Isaac placed his arm around her shoulders and hauled her up against his side to keep her steady. She didn’t protest. He was the one calming presence in her world.