Murder in Plain Sight

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

HIS MIND STILL preoccupied with the image of the crime-scene photo, Trey barely noticed when his cell phone rang. He answered automatically, but the sound of Bishop Amos’s voice startled him to attention. His frown deepened as he heard what the bishop had to say, and when he hung up, he realized that Jessica and Leo were both staring at him.

“Bishop Amos, calling from an English neighbor’s house. He wants us to meet him at the Stoltzfus farm as soon as possible.”

“The Stoltzfus farm,” Jessica echoed. “Why?”

“It seems there’s something Jacob has to tell us.”

She lifted the photo in a protesting gesture. “Can’t it wait? We really need to discuss this.”

“If Bishop Amos calls, it has to be serious. Maybe Jacob has remembered something important. Or decided to tell us something he’s been hiding. I think we should go now.” He nodded toward the photo, its image of the dead woman’s necklace repellent. “We can talk that over later.”

“That’s right.” Leo weighed in on his side. “I agree that the symbol is significant, but I can do a little more digging while you’re out.”

Jessica looked as if she thought they were ganging up on her, but then she shrugged and reached for her bag. “All right. Let’s go.”

It took them twenty minutes to get clear of town and reach the Stoltzfus farm-twenty minutes during which he tried to keep Jessica talking and tried to keep himself from thinking about that crime-scene photo. Each time the thought intruded, he pushed it away.

Concentrate on the problems of the moment. That was enough to deal with.

“That’s Bishop Amos’s buggy,” he said, pulling the car to a stop in the driveway. “Let’s hope Jacob has something helpful to say.”

“We could use a bit of concrete evidence.” Jessica walked around the car to join him. “The recurrence of the raven symbol may seem significant to us, but I’m not sure I could explain it in a convincing manner to a jury.”

“Right.”

They crossed the lawn. Bishop Amos waited for them at the door, looking unusually serious. “Trey. Jessica.” He inclined his head gravely. “It is kind of you to komm.”

He ushered them into the living room. Jacob sat between his parents, his hands dangling between his knees. None of them looked very happy at whatever was going on.

“Now.” Bishop Amos’s voice must have sounded like the crack of doom to Jacob. He jumped, the whites of his eyes showing. “Jacob, you muscht say the truth to Trey and Ms. Langdon.”

Jacob’s father intervened, speaking in Pennsylvania Dutch, apparently in the hope that they wouldn’t understand. Jacob would confess to the church. Was it necessary that he also confess to these Englischers?

“Jacob has done wrong.” There was no give to the bishop’s tone. “He must make amends to the ones he has wronged.”

His father looked as if he would say more, but Jacob jerked to his feet like a puppet yanked by its strings.

“I never meant anyone to be hurt. I didn’t. I didn’t.”

Trey’s breath caught. Was the boy going to confess to the murder?

“What did you do?” Jessica put the question as calmly as if she were in a courtroom. “Who didn’t you want to hurt?”

Jacob stared at her, eyes wide. “You,” he said. “I didn’t want to hurt you.”

Jessica paled, and he took an instinctive step closer to her. “You?” Her voice held disbelief. “You slashed my tires and followed me to my motel? You left those notes for me?”

“No, no, no.” Jacob shook his head and went on shaking it as if he couldn’t stop. “I did none of those things. I only…I…” He swallowed, his Adam’s apple moving. “I knocked over the hay bales.”

His mother made a small, pained sound. He shot her a look of apology. Of pleading.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I didn’t mean any harm to anybody. I chust-” He stopped, clamping his mouth shut.

“Didn’t mean any harm?” Trey’s fists clenched, nails biting into his palms. “You could have killed her.”

“No!” It was an anguished cry.

“No.” Surprisingly, Jessica echoed him. “If I hadn’t started to get up just then, I wouldn’t have fallen at all.”

Tears spilled over onto the boy’s cheeks. “I didn’t know. I couldn’t see you for the hay bales. I didn’t know you were getting up. I was chust trying to get close to talk to you, but when I leaned against the bales, they fell, and then you screamed, and everyone was shouting.” He clutched his head with his hands. “I couldn’t think…I didn’t know what to do. I ran. I am so ashamed. Please forgive me.”

Jessica was moved by his words. Trey could see that. But he wasn’t so easily satisfied, not where her safety was concerned.

“You could have talked to us outside, Jacob. Why did you sneak up into the loft when Ms. Langdon was alone if you didn’t mean to hurt her?”

“I…I…” Jacob sent a glance toward the bishop, but Bishop Amos stood, arms folded, watching. “It was because of Peggy.” Jacob hung his head, his cheeks reddening.

“Peggy Byler? What about her?”

“I think I know,” Jessica said. “You like Peggy, don’t you, Jacob?”

The flush reached his ears. “Ja.”

“But your friend Thomas liked her, too. Did you think maybe Peggy liked him better?”

“It…it wasn’t that.” Jacob stumbled over the words, and maybe no one in the room believed him. “I heard what you said to her. She would go into an Englisch court. It’s not proper. Not fitting for her to do that.”

“It is if it helps save Thomas’s life.” Jessica stepped toward him and grasped his arm. “Look at me, Jacob. You climbed up into the back of the loft so no one would see you. You wanted to convince me not to bring Peggy into court. Is that the truth?”

“Ja.” He rubbed at his tears with his hands, like a little kid. “That’s it. That’s all I did. I am ashamed.”

“You will confess in church that you caused Ms. Langdon’s accident,” Bishop Amos said. “You will accept the punishment the brothers and sisters agree upon.”

“Ja,” he whispered.

“Gut.” Bishop Amos turned from his erring parishioner to Jessica. “Are you satisfied with what the boy has said?”

“Yes. Thank you, Bishop Amos. It is helpful to have this much cleared up.”

He nodded gravely. “You have gone through troubles to help one of us. We will not forget it.”

Trey walked back to the car beside Jessica, frowning a little. He stopped her before she could open the door, his hand on her arm. “Did you really believe all Jacob wanted to do was talk to you?”

She considered for a moment. “Talk to me. Scare me, maybe. Judging by the father’s expression, he’s one of those who resent my involvement in Thomas’s case, don’t you think?”

“Probably.” That fit with what the man had said about Jacob confessing to Englischers. “What does that have to do with it?”

“Just that Jacob might have picked up on that disapproval from his father and thought it wouldn’t be all that bad if I had a bit of a scare. Maybe even enough to make me think twice about the case, although I suspect Jacob is more concerned about his love life than anything else.”

“Possible, but-”

“Look, whatever he intended, he seems genuinely sorry. Nasty notes I can handle, as long as physical violence is off the table.” She pulled the door open. “Let’s get back to the office and see if Leo has found anything.”

Jessica could be right. He hoped so. But he found he couldn’t quite believe it.

BY EVENING, THEY HAD discussed the discovery of the raven symbol at the scene of the murder so much that Jessica’s head was spinning. Geneva, predictably, was over-the-top excited. She was convinced that this was the key to securing Thomas’s release. In fact, she didn’t understand why they didn’t immediately rush to the police, show them the images and demand they let Thomas go.

Jessica had turned to Trey to enlist his support in explaining the situation to his mother, to find him oddly withdrawn. It was almost as if he hadn’t been paying attention to the discussion. Bobby and Leo had pitched in, helping her to convince Geneva that they still had a long way to go.

Finally Leo and Bobby had left, ducking under umbrellas to escape the rain that still pelted down. Leo promised to continue to search for any hint that the symbol of the raven had appeared in recent years, and Bobby insisted he’d track down where Cherry had obtained the raven pendant. Trey, muttering something about calls to make, disappeared into his home office.

Geneva looked after him, a perplexed frown on her face. “What’s wrong with Trey?” She turned to Jessica as if she should have the answer.

“I don’t know that anything’s wrong. He’s just busy with something else, I suppose. He’s taken a lot of time from the business to help me.” Trey’s reaction disturbed her, too, but she wasn’t about to discuss it with his mother.

Geneva’s gaze held a certain amount of doubt, but she didn’t argue the point. Instead, she began gathering up coffee cups. “It seems to me…well, we’ve already been through that.”

Jessica rose. “I’m going to head back to the motel now. There are some things I should pick up.” Geneva had talked her into staying at the house another night, but the pretrial hearing with the judge was tomorrow, and she’d need her power suit for that, which was still at the motel room.

Geneva put the cups down with a clatter. “But it’s already dark out, and raining besides. I’m sure Trey wouldn’t want you to go alone. Let me get him.”

“No, don’t.” She caught Geneva’s hand to stop her instinctive movement. “Honestly, Geneva, I can certainly drive a few miles alone. Now that we know Jacob was responsible for the accident, I’m not worried.” She was about to add that she’d spend the night at the motel, but Geneva looked distressed enough already. “I’ll be back before you know I’m gone.” She squeezed the hand she held. “Really, I’ll be fine.”

She had to repeat the words several times before Geneva was convinced, and even then she stood looking after Jessica with a worried expression.

She hurried to the car, eager to get away before Geneva brought Trey’s wrath down upon her. She could stand to have a few minutes, at least, free of Trey’s presence. When she was with him, her mind had a deplorable tendency to flicker off to his thoughts, his feelings, the slightest change in his eyes. The fact that they warmed every time they rested on her did wonders for her emotions, but nothing at all for her powers of legal reasoning.

The dark shadows of the pines swallowed up her headlight beams as she pulled onto the road. She and Leo were agreed that they needed considerably more than they had in the way of a link between the note left for her and Cherry’s death, but at least now there was reason to hope. The thought filled her with energy. She had ammunition, and she was determined to dot every i and cross every t. No one would be able to claim that she’d been negligent in preparing this case.

Her stomach clenched, as always, when she thought of that accusation. She hadn’t been negligent, and Henderson Junior knew it. He was the one who’d failed to follow through on the papers she’d put in his hand, documents that would have saved the firm’s client a tidy sum in damages from a disgruntled former employee. But Henderson had looked on blandly while she took the brunt of the blame, secure in his position as the son of the firm’s founder.

Trey would never let anyone else take the blame for his mistake. Instead, he’d very likely jump into the breach, accepting responsibility even for something that wasn’t his fault. A decent, honorable man…one a woman could count on. She hadn’t thought to find someone like him, had certainly never expected to trust her heart to anyone. But Trey-

Lights flashed in her rearview mirror, nearly blinding her. She blinked, moving her head a bit, trying to escape the glare. Where had that idiot come from? And why didn’t he have sense enough to switch to low beams? Didn’t he realize she couldn’t see with that high-powered light in her eyes?

She slowed instinctively, trying to concentrate on the road ahead. There was nothing at all in sight. Plenty of room to pass. He could-

The vehicle behind her hit her bumper hard enough to snap her head back. Her stomach clenched, adrenaline racing along her nerves. She couldn’t think, could only react. He slammed into her again, metal shrieking. Her car swerved toward the edge of the road and the darkness beyond.

She fought the wheel for control, heart pumping, pain shooting though her injured wrist. This wasn’t an accident; this was deliberate. He wanted to make her crash. She had to get away.

The instant her wheels straightened she stepped on the gas. Stupid, stupid. She’d been distracted, her thoughts wrapped up in Trey, not paying attention to the road. She didn’t know how far she was from the edge of town and safety. If she could just get far enough ahead of him-

She rocketed down the narrow road, seeing nothing but the reflection of pavement in front of her and the intense glare of the headlights behind her. Nothing at the side of the road, nothing but darkness. She vaguely remembered pastures and cornfields on either side, a ditch running along the road. No lit farmhouses, no place to seek help.

The pursuer smashed her bumper again, jolting her down to her toes. Her car spun, out of control on the rain-slicked road. Headlights glanced crazily off a road sign, a kaleidoscope of images, and then she was off the road entirely, wheels bumping for a moment before she went nose-down into a ditch, the air bag exploding in her face.

Brakes screeched behind her. She fought to shake herself free of the blackness that threatened to overcome her. She had to keep her eyes open, had to move, get out of the car, call for help… She reached, fumbling, trying to find her handbag and her cell phone in the smothering folds of the air bag.

Something bumped against the side of the car, sending a fresh spurt of terror through her. Someone was coming, climbing down into the ditch on the driver’s side.

But not to help. She knew that instinctively. He’d forced her car off the road. Now he was coming to finish the job.

A clang against the side of the car-metal on metal. A tire iron? Panic surged through her, clearing her head. She had to get out, get away, but she couldn’t even find the release for the seat belt through the muffling folds of the air bag.

Closer-in another step he’d yank open the door. She’d be trapped. Helpless. Her fingers touched the smooth surface of the seat-belt latch. Fumbled, pressed the button.

Release. She shoved at the air bag, diving for the passenger seat, pulling herself over, toward the door, toward safety, but she couldn’t make it, there wasn’t enough time…

Dear God, if you’re there, if you care, help me.

Metal clanged. He was reaching for the handle, he…

And then he was gone, scrambling up the bank. She pulled herself around, trying to see who it was, but he was nothing but a dark figure melting into the shadows.

Then she realized why he’d run. Headlights, coming fast down the road from the direction she’d come. A car door slammed. The assailant was gone, speeding toward town without lights.

The oncoming car…no, truck…stopped with a scream of brakes. The inside light came on as Trey leaped from the seat, leaving the door hanging open, the motor running as he rushed to her.

Thank you, she breathed. Thank you.

He was there in a second, pulling the door open, calling her name. “Jessica. Are you all right?”

“I…I think so.” She hadn’t had time to decide that, intent only on getting away. Now she flexed muscles, moved arms and legs, tried to assess damages. “Bruised. I think that’s all.” She gave a shaky laugh that ended on a sob. “Thank goodness for air bags.”

“Thank goodness I decided to come after you when Mom told me you’d gone off alone.” His voice roughened with emotion.

She moved, trying to get out, but her legs seemed to have turned to rubber. Trey leaned in, his hands gentle as he disentangled her from the air bag and lifted her from the car.

Once she was on her feet, leaning against the car, he let his breath out in a whoosh of air.

“He could have killed you.” Anger threaded through the concern in his voice. “What possessed you to leave the house alone at night?”

“I thought…” Her voice sounded too weak. She stopped, started again, stronger. “Did you see him?”

“Not to identify.” The words sounded as if he bit them. “This is crazy. Why is he after you? It doesn’t make any sense.”

“None of it makes sense.” She touched her face, wincing a little. Brush burns, it felt like, and she was probably going to have a black eye tomorrow. “If he thinks I know something, he’s wrong.”

“Come on.” He put his arm around her. “The E.R.-”

“No, not again.” She stiffened. “I’m all right. Just take me home.” Her voice broke on the words. Home. How could she think of Geneva’s house as home?

Trey made a sound deep in his throat. Then he pulled her into his arms and held her close, his heart beating strong and sure against her cheek.

“DO YOU REALLY WANT to do this?” Leo peered at Jessica anxiously, his bushy white eyebrows drawing down in a frown. “Maybe you ought to wait a bit longer before speaking to the press.”

“I’ve waited as long as I dare to. The trial date is coming up too fast, and so far we don’t have enough to mount a convincing defense.”

It had been two days since they’d discovered the connection between the note she’d received and Cherry’s death, and despite what seemed a definite link, they had nothing to take to court. She had, finally, taken the photo and the note to the district attorney, where she’d been met with polite disbelief.

The D.A. had gone so far as to offer a plea bargain, but it had been so stiff as to amount to an insult. Apparently he felt confident in his ability to explain away the drug in Thomas’s system. As for the photo…he’d implied that a jury would laugh that out of court.

Leo hadn’t found out anything more about a resurgence of the brotherhood; Bobby had been unsuccessful in tracing the pendant.

As for Trey-after the promise that seemed implicit in the way he’d held her the night she’d been hurled off the road, he’d withdrawn. From her, from the case, everything. A wall had come up between them, a wall she had no idea how to breach.

“The only possibility I can come up with is to go public with the sign of the raven. Maybe it will mean something to someone.”

She glanced into the mirror of her compact, aware of the murmur of voices in Leo’s outer office. The press had arrived, and she was about to appear before television cameras looking as if she’d been in a prize fight. The black eye was spectacular, to say the least, and all the makeup in the world wouldn’t hide it.

“Well, if you’re sure.” Doubt laced Leo’s voice.

“I’m not, but I’m going to do it anyway.” She spared a brief thought for Henderson, Dawes and Henderson, who undoubtedly would not approve. Henderson Senior had been on the phone to her only yesterday, wondering why she hadn’t persuaded her client to accept the D.A.’s offer.

She couldn’t let that matter to her. Her obligation was to her client, no one else. She took a deep breath, seized the doorknob and stepped into the lion’s den.

It wasn’t quite as bad as she anticipated, maybe because of that black eye. The reporters stared at it with ill-concealed curiosity, obviously just waiting until her prepared statement was over to ask about it.

Until she showed the enlargements she’d made of the note she received and the necklace from the crime scene. Cameras flashed, questions erupted and the television reporter thrust a microphone in her face.

“Are you seriously suggesting that a secret society is responsible for Cherry Wilson’s death?” Disdain was clear in her tone.

“No, of course not.” Jessica had to raise her voice to be heard over the babble of questions. “I am suggesting that this symbol of the raven meant enough to the killer that he replicated it. And since it appeared on a note left for me after Thomas Esch was arrested, Thomas clearly didn’t write it. That has to mean something.”

“Ms. Langdon, you want to tell us where you got that shiner?” One of the print reporters this time.

“My car was run off the road two nights ago,” she said, keeping her voice noncommittal.

“You think that’s related to this threat you supposedly received?”

Her lips tightened. “The threat was real, as was the vandalism to my car.” No point belaboring the point. They’d believe what they wanted to. The important thing was to get her message out.

She looked straight at the television camera. “I’m making a plea for information. If anyone out there knows anything about this symbol, anything at all, we hope that you’ll call us.” She gave the number of Leo’s office.

She managed a smile for the rest of the reporters. “I think that’s all. Thank you for your attention.” She escaped into the inner office while they clamored for one more answer.

Shutting the door, she leaned against it, looking at Leo. “What do you think?”

He gave her a hug. “Good job, Jessica. Good job.”

“Let’s just hope it does some good. If not…” If not, what had she risked by making that plea? She wasn’t sure.

The noise from the outer office died away. It had barely faded when the door was yanked open behind her, nearly sending her toppling.

“Why on earth did you do that?” Trey’s anger spurted out, fury coloring his voice. “Are you crazy?”