Danger in Plain Sight (36 page)

His hands lost their grip. She rolled free, scrabbling away from him, right arm useless…

And she realized he wasn’t moving. She tried to get to her feet, but she couldn’t, not with her arm dangling helplessly. She couldn’t see where he was, if he came after her again—

The roar of an engine shattered the silence, and headlight beams pierced the dark. Doors swung open, men’s voices, people rushing toward her. She turned, forcing herself to look at the man.

He lay flat, apparently knocked out when his head hit the ice. But it wasn’t Eli Bredbenner—he still lay in the snow. It was Owen Barclay.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

“LIBBY, IF YOU DON’T hold still, the doctor isn’t going to be able to fix your arm.” Mom sounded as if she were scolding an eight-year-old, but the strain in her eyes was acute.

“I will.” She forced herself to lie still, biting her lip a bit.

“Not to worry.” The emergency room doctor smiled reassuringly. “It’s a simple break, and it should heal fine. Just don’t do any more fighting on the ice.”

Heaven only knew what the doctor had heard. It had probably been impossible to keep things quiet when paramedics had come in with four victims.

“Just tell me,” she muttered, glaring at her twin, figuring he’d be more forthcoming than Mom, who still seemed to think she could protect her little girl. “Is the police officer okay? What about the others?”

“As long as you hold still, I’ll talk,” Link said, reaching around Mom to pat Libby’s free hand. “Carmody has a mild concussion. One or the other of them must have hit him from behind as he was coming around the house.”

“What about Eli?” Her brief glimpse of him hadn’t been reassuring.

“Ironic, in a way. He has a head injury, too. Looks like a case of crooks falling out, as far as anyone can tell. He’s in the hospital under guard, and the doctors expect him to be able to answer questions tomorrow.”

She closed her eyes for a moment. Knowing the Amish, they’d be surrounding Eli’s wife with comfort and praying for him.

“And Owen?” If he hadn’t attacked her, she wouldn’t have believed it. Owen Barclay, of all people.

“His injury wasn’t serious. He’s lawyered up, of course, and so far he isn’t saying anything. Probably hoping to cut the best deal he can.”

“Why did he do it? That’s what I don’t get.” At a frown from her mother, she managed to keep from moving. “He surely didn’t need the money.”

Link shrugged. “The police are digging into that now. One thing that’s surfaced already is a rumor that the owners of the inn are preparing to sell. It may be that his position wasn’t quite as secure as people thought it was.”

She still couldn’t quite grasp it. “Esther’s all right?”

Mom patted her hand. “She’s fine. She slept right through it. And the children are all right, too. The older ones didn’t know anything was going on until the police car drove in.”

“I should go back there—”

“No, indeed you won’t,” Mom said firmly. “Esther is perfectly safe now that those two have been caught, and plenty of people are there to help. Marisa insisted on staying the night, just in case, and she has her phone.”

Libby let herself sink back against the pillow. Good thing she wasn’t needed, because she felt as if she’d been hit by a steamroller.

“I hope you realize what a great person Marisa is,” she said, giving her twin a mock frown.

Link’s expression softened. “One in a million.”

Her heart seemed to twist. If only…but there was no point in indulging in wishful thinking. Adam had made his attitude clear. The fact that he hadn’t even checked in on her since she reached the hospital just added a punctuation mark to that.

* * *

ONCE AGAIN SHE’D slept half the day away. Libby got up, groaning a little as she moved. She had to get going, find out what had been happening, and she couldn’t even think how she was going to get into her clothes with this cast on her arm.

Someone tapped on the door, and Marisa peeked in. “Good, you’re awake. Adam is downstairs, and he’s about to fill us in, but he insists that you’ll want to hear it, as well.”

Adam. Libby wasn’t sure she was in any condition to face him. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and recoiled.

“I can’t go down looking like this.”

“You take all the time you need,” Marisa soothed. “I’m here to help you, and they can just wait for us.”

With Marisa’s help, getting dressed wasn’t so hard after all, although she’d clearly need to learn the tricks of managing the cast. Marisa talked soothingly while she brushed Libby’s hair and touched up her face. Clearly she’d been told not to answer any questions.

“There,” she said finally. “You look great.”

“I look as if I’ve been pulled through a knothole backward, and you know it, but thanks for the help.” She discovered that her legs would indeed support her. “Okay, let’s go down.”

And face Adam. She only wished she could do the poker face as well as he could.

Adam, Link and her mother were waiting in the family room. She managed to avoid taking a good look at him while Mom fussed over her, making sure she had a pillow to support her arm.

“I told the boys that you’d need something to eat first, but they’re both too impatient to wait.” She gave Adam and Link a look that relegated them to about the third grade.

“Geneva, if you want to give Libby something to eat—” Adam began.

“Never mind,” Libby said. “I want information more than I want food. What is going on?”

Adam took a chair a careful distance away from her. “I suppose Link told you that Owen’s attorney isn’t letting him say a thing so far.”

She nodded. It was probably the only thing he could do.

Her mother made a sound of disapproval. “I should think he’d want to get all of it off his chest. Owen Barclay, of all people, involved in such things. It’s hard to believe.”

“His attorney will probably count on people thinking that,” Adam said, his expression disapproving.

“He’s not going to get away with it,” Libby said. “After all, I’ll testify that he attacked me.”

Adam nodded. “Carmody caught a glimpse of him, as well. And Bredbenner is talking.”

“He’s recovering then?”

“He was stunned, but he seems to think Barclay intended to finish him off and leave him to take the blame for everything.” Adam shrugged. “That could well be, but we’ll never be able to prove it. Still, we have enough to put Barclay away without it.”

“I just don’t understand why.” Mom sounded genuinely distressed. “Owen had everything, you’d think…he was respected, well-off, with a secure future. Why would he risk it all on such a scheme?”

“I doubt that his future was as secure as all that,” Adam said. “The owners of the inn are fairly elderly, and there’s talk they plan to sell. He must have known that was coming. Investigators are looking into his finances now. With a little luck, they’ll come up with a motive.”

“I don’t get how Barclay and Eli Bredbenner ever came together,” Link said. “That seems so unlikely.”

Adam planted his hands on his knees. “That we do know. According to Bredbenner, he’d done some carpentry work at the inn, and he’d padded the bill. He’d done it before, and none of his Amish customers had ever questioned it. But Owen caught him. Instead of reporting him, Owen proposed a deal. With Eli’s Amish background, other Amish would trust him automatically. Owen would provide the know-how, and Eli would handle the sales. A perfect combination, they must have thought and apparently it was, until questions were raised.”

“Esther,” she murmured.

“It seems pretty clear that they considered Esther a threat.” Adam leaned back in the overstuffed chair that had been her father’s, but there was nothing relaxed in the pose.

“There must have been more to it than that. They wouldn’t attack Esther just because she was asking questions.” Link sat down on the arm of Libby’s chair, putting a protective hand on her shoulder.

“We know Bredbenner’s version of it. If and when he talks, Barclay will tell it differently, I suppose.” Adam’s expression suggested distaste for both men. “Bredbenner says Esther had been asking a lot of questions, wanting to see documents. He got nervous, contacted Barclay, wanting to get out of the whole deal. Barclay wanted to talk, and they set a place to meet—that pull-off where the township shed is, just down from the Amish school. Bredbenner thinks Esther must have been leaving the school. She saw him, followed him, maybe overheard enough of their conversation to know what was going on.”

Libby shivered, and her brother’s hand tightened on her shoulder. “They must have seen her. They chased her down that road.”

Adam nodded. “Bredbenner blames it all on Barclay, of course. Says he just wanted to talk to her, but Barclay said they had to silence her.”

“Barclay didn’t use his own vehicle, I take it,” Link said.

“He apparently took a vehicle from valet parking and returned it later. That way, if anyone happened upon their meeting, he wouldn’t have been easily identified.” Adam’s jaw tightened. “Eli claims it was Barclay who tried to get at Esther afterward, and Barclay who shot at us at the site in Maryland. Naturally he would say that.”

“They’re not going to get away with blaming each other, are they?” Mom looked like a hen ruffling its feathers at the thought.

“Their lawyers will fight it out, but neither one is going to get off, not with the evidence we have.” Adam glanced at his watch and stood. “Look, I’m sorry to rush off, but I have a meeting with the D.A. in less than an hour.”

“That’s fine.” Libby could only hope her expression looked more like a smile than a grimace. “Thanks for bringing us up-to-date.”

He stopped, looking down at her, his face set in that mask he did so well. “I didn’t want you to be worrying. Now you can relax and let your family take care of you.”

“We’re doing that,” Mom said. “Believe me, I’m not letting her out of my sight until I’m satisfied that she’s well.”

“I’m fine,” Libby said, knowing nobody believed that. But that was okay, as long as they couldn’t look into her heart and see what was really wrong with her.

* * *

LIBBY SAT WITH Esther and her family in the farmhouse kitchen the next afternoon. She’d just finished sharing all she knew about the arrests.

It was Esther who finally broke the silence. “I have little pieces of memory.” She shook her head slowly. “Ja, I saw Eli with Mr. Barclay, but if I heard anything…I just don’t know.”

“Maybe you should stop trying.” She’d certainly be happy if she could forget some of the events of the past few days. “Adam is trying to convince the district attorney not to make you testify, according to what he told my brother. He knows how hard it would be.”

“Adam is a gut man,” Isaac said. “He understands us better than many.”

He was a good man. Just not her good man. Libby made an effort to dismiss that thought from her mind.

“Esther can work on getting well now,” Rebecca said. The relief in her face wiped away the look of strain she’d worn for so long. “Her pupils are missing her, I hear.”

Esther smiled, but didn’t speak. Was she thinking that she would not return to the classroom? Libby wasn’t sure.

At least Esther would be able to move forward without worry now. The shadow that had hung over the Amish community had been banished.

At the sound of a car, everyone glanced toward the window. Libby didn’t have to move from her chair to see that it was the township police car. Or that it was Adam who got out.

Isaac opened the door. “Adam, wilkom. Komm in.”

“Thanks.” Adam stamped snow from his boots and stepped inside. At the sight of Libby his movement seemed to check. “Libby. I didn’t realize you were here. You’re not driving with that broken arm, are you?”

She shook her head. “Link dropped me off, and Mom will stop by later to pick me up.”