Shadows of Lancaster County (17 page)

“How are all the kids, Lydia?”

“They are
gut,
thank you.”

“How about Grete? I’ve always felt so sorry for her, that she had to become a mother to her younger brothers and sisters when she was barely an adult herself. Are she and Nathaniel still doing all right?”

“Oh,
yah.
Grete was no stranger to hard work, and she has done well with the kids. She and Nathaniel have been good stewards of the land too, keeping the farm profitable.”

“That’s a relief. And your siblings are really okay?”

Lydia considered my question for a moment.

“I think Caleb could have used the stern hand of a real father, but Rebecca and Ezra are fine.”

“Did Grete and Nathaniel ever have any more children of their own, or were their hands already full raising your siblings?”

“They wanted more, but Tresa is the only child of theirs born without the disorder that runs in our family. Three other times Grete carried a babe to term, but they always died soon after delivery. Is not unusual around here. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Like you said, she already had her hands full anyway.”

Lydia busied herself with setting the heated plates of food on the table, and adding napkins and silverware. As she did, I thought about the incredibly high incidence of genetic disorders that existed among the Amish. From what I understood, it had to do with the fact that the Lancaster County Amish usually married within the community, so their gene pool grew more limited—and more prone to genetic mutations—with each generation. According to Bobby, progress was being made all the time in the prevention and treatment of many of the common Amish disorders, though I wondered how close they were to finding a cure for the disorder that prevented Lydia’s sister from being able to deliver healthy, surviving children. At least Lydia hadn’t had to worry; by marrying a man who wasn’t Amish, she had altered the direction of her own genetic fate.

She joined me at the table and bowed her head in silence. I thought maybe she was waiting for me to pray, but after a moment she softly said, “Amen,” opened her eyes, and began eating.

“Amen,” I echoed, feeling foolish as I remembered that that was how the Amish began every meal, in silent prayer.

I ate the delicious stew as Lydia caught me up on the latest development with Bobby’s situation.

Looking embarrassed, Lydia told me she had called Bobby’s office this morning, to see if they knew anything of his whereabouts. According to the office manager, they hadn’t seen Bobby for days, not since before he was suspended.

“Suspended?” I asked, nearly dropping my fork.

“Yes, Anna. I was very shocked to learn that two and a half weeks ago, Bobby got in trouble at work and was given a three-week suspension without pay. He is supposed to start back on Monday, if he shows up by then. Why he never told me this, I do not understand.”

“Did they say why?”

“No,” Lydia replied, looking as if she was on the verge of tears. “They say that is between him and Dr. Updyke. Mostly, I was just mortified that I did not know about any of this, even though I am his wife.”

“I don’t understand,” I said. “Do you mean to tell me that Bobby hasn’t been to work in two and a half weeks and you never noticed?”

“That is correct. If he had stayed at home or laid on the couch or spent time with us somehow, then I would have known. But my husband left this apartment every morning at the same time as usual and come home at the end of the day at the same time as usual. I do not know where he has been going or what he has been doing every day, but the office manager swore to me that he was not coming in to work.” Lydia blinked, and two tears ran down her cheeks. “Bobby loves me,” she said intensely. “I do not know why he did this strange thing—or why he thought he could not tell me about it—but I trust him. I believe in him. Whatever he has been doing, I know that all will be made clear in the end.”

We sat there together in silence as I thought about what she said, and I could feel myself growing furious with Bobby. It was one thing not to tell his wife that he had been suspended from his job; it was quite another to carry out the elaborate pretense of a regular nine-to-five job, day after day, for almost three weeks.

“Did you ask to speak with the doctor? Surely he could tell you why Bobby was suspended.”

“I have called several times, but always he has been busy or out.”

I was reminded of the disposable cell phone I had bought at the airport. After loading the number into my own phone, I gave it to Lydia, who thanked me profusely.

Returning to our conversation, I asked Lydia about where she thought Bobby may have been going every day, but she had no idea.

“Sorry to be so personal,” I said, “but I need to know about your marriage. Were you happy? Did Bobby lie to you often? Given what you know now, do you still believe there’s no chance that he has simply abandoned you?”

Lydia was quiet for a long moment, and my questions must have killed her appetite because she pushed her plate away as she sat there thinking. Finally, she answered me, pretty much telling me exactly what I had expected to hear. According to her, she and Bobby were still deeply in love. Lydia insisted that he was happily married, that he adored spending time with Isaac, that he very much enjoyed his job at the lab, and that she had no doubt he intended to live there with her and Isaac forever.

“He was especially excited about the new baby. I cannot tell you how many nights he lay next to me in bed simply holding on to my tummy, whispering sweet words to our child. A man who does that has no intention of leaving. You have to believe me on this, Anna.”

“Okay,” I replied. “I am going to proceed on the assumption that every-thing you’ve just said is true. But if I find out about even more secrets that Bobby was keeping from you, I won’t be surprised—and you shouldn’t be either.”

We were just finishing our lunch when we heard a knock on the front door.

“Are you expecting anyone?” I whispered.

Lydia shook her head as she got up from the table.

“Ma’am?” the bodyguard said, leaning into the room. “Looks like a woman in her fifties, blond hair, holding a package?”

I told Lydia I would stay in the kitchen if she wanted to see who it was. Nodding, she followed the bodyguard out of the room, and I listened as she opened the front door and carried on a conversation with someone whose voice sounded very familiar. Straining to listen, I finally decided it was Melody Wynn, Haley’s mother.

I wondered why she was here and not with her daughter at this difficult time, but Haley and her mother had a strange and complicated relationship that had never made much sense to me. To hear Haley tell it, even though her mother had given up her career as a plant biologist to become a stay-at-home mom when Haley was born, she hadn’t been very suited to the role. Rather than dote on her little girl, Melody had spent most of her time doting on the plants in the massive greenhouse she had built in their backyard. Haley grew up feeling neglected and lost, the poor little rich girl who rarely got much of her mother’s attention. Her father’s attention, on the other hand, was adoring and absolute—on those rare occasions
when he managed to get home on time. Lost between a mother who was there in body but not in mind and a father who was there in mind but not in body, Haley basically raised herself. When we first met, she was the most independent, self-sufficient kid I had ever known. That was one of the things I had liked most about her, though it took a while for me to understand the depth of pain behind that independence.

Her parents had divorced the year before we met for reasons Haley didn’t divulge for a long time. All I knew at first was that her father had been the one to get custody of their only child and her mother had moved out to a little cottage in Dreiheit and gone back to working full time with an agricultural research firm—a position that seemed to suit her much better than that of full-time mom. Eventually, Haley confided that her mother had been engaging in casual affairs for years, and when Mr. Wynn found out about it, he had immediately filed for a divorce.

By the time Haley and I started high school, those wounds had healed a bit, though it seemed to me that Haley and her mother were more like friends than parent and child. Melody was always very warm and friendly with Haley, but then again she was that way with everyone, her house an open door. When Haley and I came on our weekend visits, it felt as if we were checking into a dorm with a housemother rather than staying with someone’s actual mom. It was around that time that Melody took to wearing diaphanous, earthy dresses and letting her hair grow long, and privately I nicknamed her “The Floater,” because she was someone who floated through spaces, lost in her own little world, oblivious to the pain inside her own child.

Now in the living room, Melody was peppering Lydia with questions about Bobby, and I felt bad for her. Lydia was such an earnest, honest person that I knew she was finding it hard not to admit that I was here to investigate his disappearance—and that I was in the very next room. I decided to make it easier for her. I rose and walked to the doorway and stood there for a moment, looking past the bodyguard to study my old best friend’s mother. Melody still wore her hair loose and wavy and blond, though just to her shoulders now rather than halfway down her back. Her face may have seemed a little older, but she was still beautiful.

“Are you sure I can’t help with anything?” Melody was asking. “How about Isaac? Does he need a sitter or rides to school or anything?”

“Thank you, no. Isaac will be staying home from school until we know what is going on.”

“What about your job at the bridal shop?”

“I am not scheduled to go in until next Wednesday, so I suppose I will wait and see what happens between now and then.”

“Well, please let me know if—” Melody’s voice stopped short when she spotted me. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you had company. I won’t hold you up.”

“Melody,” I said, stepping forward. “It’s me. Annalise. Well, I go by just Anna now.”

The expression on Melody’s face went from confusion to surprise. With a squeal, she ran across the room and wrapped me in a hug, holding on as fervently as Lydia had earlier. For the next few minutes, she went on and on about how different I looked. I told her the opposite, that she hadn’t aged a day, that she was still as stunning as ever.

Melody repeated many of the same questions to me that she had asked of Lydia, expressing her concerns about Bobby and her sadness about Doug. In turn, I asked about Haley and how she was doing.

“I have no idea,” Melody replied mournfully. “When she couldn’t find her husband, she kept calling me for help, but once he turned up dead, all she wanted was her father. I don’t know why I should be surprised. She’s never let me be there for her before. She wouldn’t even let me go with her to the funeral home.”

Lydia and I glanced at each other, neither one of us sure how to respond. I hadn’t spoken to Haley in years, so I was hardly in a position to comment. Melody seemed to sense our discomfort, because she changed the subject yet again and asked me how long I would be in town and where I was staying.

“Anna will be with me, at my family’s farm,” Lydia volunteered.

Melody squinted her eyes and leaned toward me, lowering her voice.

“You do know the Amish don’t heat their bedrooms, right?” she asked. I did know that—though I had forgotten until she reminded me. “If it gets
too cold for you over there, let me know. There’s always room on my couch. Maybe Haley could come out too. It could be like old times.”

I thanked her for the offer, thinking how oddly Melody’s mind worked. Old times? Haley’s husband was dead! My brother was missing and was being sought by the police for questioning in his death! Yet somehow The Floater thought we could sit around and eat granola and gab about cute boys.

“Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind,” I replied, though I doubted I would take advantage of her offer, even if I had to wear footed fleece pajamas to bed. Not only did I feel that I needed to remain close to Lydia for safety’s sake, I also knew that if Bobby turned up on his own, he would more than likely show up at the farm.