Safe Hearts (Amish Safe House, Book 3) (6 page)

“
Not that I’m aware of,”
Beth replied. “Let’s see who’s come to pay us a visit.”

Kate nodded and followed
Beth to the main door. A
familye
buggy pulled up. She squinted to see who it was,
but until the buggy’s door opened, she couldn’t quite tell. Then,
it became clear as they stepped down one after the other, that it
was Beckie and her husband, Elijah.

“
Gude
nochmiddaag
!” Beth called out. “You’re just
in time for dinner!”

“
We’d love to join you for
dinner!” Beckie responded with a wide smile, but it quickly
evaporated into a stern, worried expression. “We’ve come here with
some troubling news, however.”

“
What do you mean?” Kate
asked. “Not about Jeremiah, I hope.”

“
Nee
, not Jeremiah,” Beckie said. “We can speak more about this
once we get inside, but the main reason we came was to warn you all
about a suspicious
mann
who’s been going around in the area.”

Kate glanced over at Beth,
who appeared to be confused by the news. Kate watched as the couple
followed Beth inside the house, and then she looked back out at the
dimming sky before following them indoors. A worried feeling
started to grow in the pit of her stomach.
What could be going on now?
she
thought.
I don’t have a good feeling about
this
.

Kate walked into the dining room to
see that everyone was already seated. Kate sat in one of the chairs
next to Beckie’s husband. Elijah.

Bill dropped his head, and clenched
his hands together. Kate followed along and bowed her head to pray
the silent prayer, as did all Amish people before a meal. The
thoughts in her mind swirled frantically as she wondered what news
Beckie and her husband had brought with them to dinner. Her
thoughts drifted back to the conversation she previously had with
her boss, David Harper. It was quite likely that the suspicious
person Beckie had vaguely mentioned could be the man who was
looking for her. The sound of chatter coming from the dinner table
startled Kate back to reality. She opened her eyes to see the
others filling their plates and passing the plates.

Kate looked to her right to
see a plate of fresh bread, as Elijah handed it to her with a
friendly smile on his face. “
Denki
,” she replied automatically, as
she took it from him and began to fill her plate.

“
Now,” Bill said, “what was
it you needed to tell us about?”

Elijah took a sip of his meadow tea,
before looking up and speaking. “Earlier today, a man was going
from farm to farm and asking a lot of questions. We’re trying to
warn everyone, so they’ll be ready for his arrival. He’ll probably
show up here in the next day or two, so it’s better if you’re
prepared for it.”

Kate noticed that Elijah’s voice
sounded uneasy. There was no way he could be so distraught over a
random guy asking some trivial questions. If this man was the one
trying to track her down, was he also the one who killed the
detective and framed Jeremiah? If so, Kate knew that he was
probably coming for her next.

“
I’m not quite sure what
that means,” Beth said. “What harm is there in asking some
questions?”

Beckie looked down at her cup of tea
and spoke without looking back up. “The man says he’s from the
Bureau of Maintenance and Operations and is just conducting a
consensus. Apparently the state wants to get a count of each
household. He’s been asking everyone he’s visited how many buggies
they have on their property, how many residents they have staying
there, and the ages of each of those people.”

“
What could he possibly
want that information for?” Beth asked.

Kate had a feeling that she knew
exactly why he wanted that information. Whoever this man was, she
was certain he was looking for her, trying to sniff out her hiding
spot. Fear clouded her thoughts as she continued listening to the
conversation.

“
According to the man, the
government is willing to expand our roadways and redo them if there
are enough buggies using them.”

Bill nodded. “Oh, well, that seems
like a perfectly reasonable series of questions to ask, then,” he
said. “It could do us some good to get those roads fixed up a
bit.”

“
Yes, it would be if it’s
the truth,” Beckie said. “The thing that caused red flags was his
identification. He’s been flashing around a card that’s a fake ID.”
Kate noticed that Elijah looked over at his wife and nodded, as if
he were giving her reassurance to continue stating her opinion of
the matter.

“
How do you know it isn’t
an authentic ID?” Bill asked.

“
Because he already came to
my farm and asked me those questions
,”
Beckie said. “I’ve seen his ID in person. It lacked the
color-shifting ink that the actual cards contain to show the
numerous holograms.”

Kate bunched her eyebrows as she took
in the information that was being offered. She had seen plenty of
fake identification cards and badges in her life, so she knew
immediately that Beckie was right, but how did Beckie know so much
about such things? Kate looked down at the table and tried to think
clearly. “May I ask how you are aware of things like color-shifting
ink and holograms? I don’t know much about those things at all, and
frankly, it all seems a little far-fetched to me.”

“
Our nephew told her all
about it,” Elijah blurted.

Beckie shot him a quick
look, but then started to speak. “Yes, our nephew recently went on
his
rumspringa
and
became good friends with a
mann
who actually does have one of those Transportation
Worker ID cards. When he laid his eyes on the man’s ID himself, he
brought it right to my attention that something seemed
off.”

“
Hmm,” Kate muttered. If
the card lacked one of its primary security features, there was no
way it could be legit. But if that was the case, then who was that
man? Was he a random criminal snooping around looking for something
to steal, or was he really the man who’d been looking for her; the
one who’d made the attempt on her life?

“
The only thing that
doesn’t make sense is what the man’s motive could be,” Elijah
added. “I can’t put my finger on what anyone could be trying to
accomplish by taking information on Amish households.”

Kate looked up to see Beth sitting in
silence. She looked like she was still trying to comprehend what it
all meant, just like Kate was trying to do in her own mind. She
then glanced at Bill, who was sipping from his cup. He then placed
it on the table and cleared his throat quietly before speaking up.
“The only thing I can think of is that the man is just casing out
the area.”

“
What do you mean? You
think he’s trying to rob the farmhouses?” Kate asked abruptly. She
hoped there could be a different explanation for the mysterious
man’s arrival and inquiries, but something told her that her gut
instinct was right this time, as it usually was whenever her
training had to kick in.

“
That could definitely be
the case,” Beckie replied. “Either way, we want to make everyone
aware that he could try something.”

“
Yes, that sounds like a
good plan,” Beth said. “But how do we do stop him?”

Kate looked over at Beth to see a
worried expression plastered on her face. The thought that she was
bringing all of this worry and danger to the people that were
keeping her safe caused her heart to beat faster, and her stomach
to tie in knots.

“
I’ve spoken to everyone in
our knitting circle and we came up with the idea of inflating our
numbers. We were hoping you all would do the same. If he shows up
in the next few days or so, just act polite and friendly as usual,
but exaggerate your numbers a bit,” Beckie said with
enthusiasm.

“
I don’t know if that would
be enough to stop a criminal, but it’s definitely a good start,”
Bill admitted.

“
I’d much prefer if we
didn’t have to try to stop him at all,” Beth said. “We’re assuming
that he’s here to rob us, but what if that’s not the
case?”

“
What else could it be?”
Elijah interjected.

Beth looked down and sighed. “I don’t
know.”

Kate knew exactly why the man was
there, or at least she felt certain that she knew. She still had no
clues as to the identity of the person who had sent her into
hiding, but there was no way everything that was now happening
could be a coincidence. She realized that the man who had tried to
kill her must have tracked her down through that private detective.
Kate thought hard, trying to figure out if she was missing an
obvious piece of evidence that could clue her in to the man’s
identity.

“
Did you catch the name
that he used on his ID card?” Kate asked, looking directly at
Beckie.

Beth nodded. “I think his name is Sam
Fisher, or something along those lines.”

The name did not sound familiar to
Kate, but of course, no one in those circumstances would use their
real name. “What did he look like?”

Beckie exchanged a quick glance with
her husband before responding. “He was probably about six feet
tall, give or take a few inches. He had short, black hair. The man
was very slender, and probably in his mid-thirties.”

The description was no help; Kate’s
mind was still blank. She knew several men who fitted that
description. Kate was worried about how close this perpetrator
could be to finding her. What if he showed up tomorrow and
recognized her right away? The fear and panic came back in
full-force, but Kate tried to keep control of her
emotions.

Kate looked up at the others as they
finished talking and drinking their tea. She felt like she was a
world away, worried and uncertain about what would come next. She
needed to find out who this man was once and for all. She also
wanted to know why he has had such an ax to grind with her. Would
she finally find out the identity and motives of the man that
forced her into hiding?

Proverbs 29:
25.
The fear of man lays a snare, but
whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.

Chapter 7
.

As dinner drew to its inevitable
conclusion, Kate remained anxious. She wanted nothing more than to
get out of that dining room and call her boss immediately to inform
him of what she had just learned. She took one last sip from her
cup of tea and was about to stand up to excuse herself, but when
she looked up, she saw that Bill was holding up his German Martin
Luther Bible.

Bill then started to read
aloud from it.
Nicht mit Ungläubigen
angespannt werden. Für das, was zu tun Gerechtigkeit und
Ungerechtigkeit gemeinsam? Oder was Kameradschaft kann Licht mit
der Finsternis haben?

That was not what Kate wanted to hear.
She slumped back into her chair as Bill continued to read from the
Bible in German. She knew it would be considered rude to leave
during the reading of a Biblical passage, so she had to fight the
desire to do so. She listened to Bill’s soothing voice as he
recited the words in a language she could not understand in the
slightest.

Kate looked around the table to see
Beth and their guests staring intently at Bill, listening to every
word carefully. She tried to pay attention, not wanting the others
to notice that she was lost in thought. The idea of that man honing
in on her and doing something without warning was becoming too much
to keep under wraps. She needed to talk to her boss, David Harper,
as soon as possible.

As she listened to the
passage that was still being read, Kate felt a strange sensation in
her fingers. She looked down to see that her hands were both
shaking.
This dinner needs to
end
, she thought. Kate smiled at Beth and
then looked back at Bill. He read for a few more minutes and then
lowered the book.

Beth smiled. “Der Keenich muss mer
erhehe” One must exalt the Lord.

“
Indeed, one must,” Beckie
added.

“
It’s always been one of my
favorite passages,” Elijah said.

“
It has been one of my
favorites as well. Ever since I was a boy, I’ve held this Scripture
close to my heart,” Bill explained.

With the closing of his Bible, Kate
realized that dinner was finally nearing its end. The guests rose
up in unison and said their goodbyes.

“
Next time you come for
dinner, bring better news,” Beth said in a light-hearted
way.

“
Yes, let’s hope nothing
comes from this man and his questions. The next dinner will be on
merrier terms. Thank you so much.” Beckie turned to her husband and
smiled. He looked back at the table and waved as they started
toward the door.

“
I’ll walk you both out,”
Bill insisted. Elijah nodded to him before continuing through the
hallway.

Kate watched them until the trio
disappeared from sight, but when she looked back, she noticed that
Beth was already cleaning up from the long meal. “Oh, let me help
you with that!” she said, hurrying to assist her.