A Perfect Square Page 11

  Tobias’ laughter echoed down the road as they began to make their stops, inviting friends and family to their wedding the following week.

  The concern about Reuben remained with them throughout the trip, something Esther knew they’d both live with until his situation was resolved.

  But the image of the trees — mature, strong, and fruitful — along with that of her father, carrying Leah back into the house to find a net for catching flying fish they might eat for their evening meal, gave her hope that God remained in control.

  Callie had enjoyed a busy Saturday morning. It was past one when things had finally settled down enough to take Max for a quick trot around the garden. The weather was so nice she’d left him sleeping in the sun and had come inside to heat a bowl of soup for her lunch. She was cleaning up her dishes in the quilt shop’s kitchen when the bell over the door rang again.

  Callie was surprised to see not only Esther, but also Tobias. As far as she knew, Tobias had never been in the quilt shop before.

  Immediately her mind went to Reuben, and she hoped they weren’t in town because something else had cropped up with his case. Then she noticed the smile on Esther’s face and she relaxed. This was definitely a good-news visit.

  “It’s so nice to see you both,” Callie greeted them.

  “Nice to see you as well. Tobias, you remember Callie.”

  “Hello.” He tipped his hat, and Callie thought of Ollie from the old Laurel and Hardy re-runs she’d watched with Rick. Tobias was such a tall man, and a perfect match for Esther. Not just because of his height, but because it was plain he was completely smitten with her.

  His hand hovered near her elbow, and a smile played on his lips as if he were about to reveal the world’s best-kept secret.

  “What brings you into town today?”

  Esther stepped toward the counter, pulled an envelope from her bag, and placed it on the glass between them, her fingers lingering for a moment on the edges. Callie’s name was written in beautiful handwriting across the front. “We wanted to invite you to our wedding next Thursday. It will be at my parents’ home. I wrote directions for you on the back of the invitation.”

  Callie picked up the envelope, unsure whether she was supposed to read it now or wait.

  “You can open it.” Tobias stepped even closer to Esther. “She’s been working on them for over a week — “

  “Melinda helped.”

  “They both did a wunderbaar job. Look and see.”

  Callie popped open the envelope and slid out the card, which she couldn’t read a word of. “It’s in German.”

  “Ya, well the service is in German too, as all of our church services are.”

  “You can make out our names though.” Tobias chuckled and pointed to their names on the card. “Names pretty much read the same whether in the new language or the old.”

  “Also you can tell the time. The service begins at eight thirty in the morning.” Esther gazed up at Tobias as she spoke, and Callie inexplicably felt tears sting her eyes.

  “That’s wonderful. I think morning weddings are beautiful, though I’ve never been to one quite that early.” Callie wondered if she’d ever stop being surprised by how different some things were between the Amish and Englischers. About the time she thought they were really more alike than different, she was confronted with something like an early morning wedding.

  “Actually, our weddings last all day.” Tobias chuckled when Callie looked from the card to him to Esther, then back down again. “She’s not accustomed to our ways, I see.”

  “Callie learns fast, but this is her first wedding season.”

  “Did you say all day?”

  “Ya. The service is approximately four hours …” Tobias rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

  “Followed by the meal, which will take another two.” Esther pulled her bag up over her shoulder.

  “And then the singing and supper,” Tobias added. “We’ll be handing out candy bars after supper so you won’t want to leave early. Excellent chocolate.”

  “I think you’ll enjoy the experience.” Esther looked up at Tobias. “Not many Englischers have the opportunity to witness an Amish wedding. I hope you can come. Actually it would mean a lot to me — to me and Tobias — if you could be there.”

  Callie knew then she would go, even if it meant closing the shop for the day, though that probably wouldn’t be necessary. “Lydia is working full-time now, so I’m sure she can watch the shop for me. Unless she’s going to be at the wedding too?”

  “I hadn’t thought to invite her, no.” Esther shook her head. “Say, Callie. Would you mind if I used your restroom?”

  “Of course not. You know where it is.”

  Callie was left standing at the counter, staring at Tobias. She probably hadn’t talked to Tobias three times since she’d moved to Shipshe, and never alone. Like most Amish men she had met, he seemed content to stand in silence.

  Her mind drifting back to Reuben, Callie felt like she needed to offer her sympathy. Perhaps while Esther was gone would be a good time. “Tobias, I don’t know Reuben very well, but you know … after my run-in with the law a few months ago I can certainly sympathize.”

  Tobias nodded. After a few seconds, he removed his coat, folded it neatly in half, and set it on the counter. Then in a conspiratorial voice, he said, “Half of Shipshe was afraid the new shop owner might end up in the pokey for good. You gave us quite a scare. Not that anyone would think you were capable of murder — Esther and the girls certainly didn’t think so.”

  He stood straight again and grinned.

  “Tobias Fisher. Are you teasing me about being arrested?”

  “You have to admit, it didn’t look real gut being new in town and all.”

  “It certainly didn’t. I was mortally embarrassed. Not to mention, I didn’t even know Andrew Gavin or Shane Black.” Callie’s stomach flipped at the memory of sitting across the table from Shane inside the Shipshewana Police Department. He didn’t intimidate her — not exactly. The man was infuriating on one hand and intriguing on the other. “I thought Gavin might be incompetent and Black … overzealous possibly.”

  “And what do you think now?” The joking suddenly gone, Tobias studied her carefully, waiting for her answer.

  “Now I think they’re good men who are intent on doing their job. But, Tobias, why won’t Reuben speak to them? Why won’t he tell them what he knows? It might help to gain his freedom, at least until his trial.”

  “Did it help you any when you talked to Black?”

  “Well, no, not really, but — “

  “Then why do you think it would help Reuben?”

  “This is different.”

  “Perhaps it is. Perhaps it isn’t. I have to trust that my cousin knows what he’s doing.”

  Callie opened the cash register drawer, picked up a roll of pennies and cracked them open, emptying the contents as she spoke. “That’s it? We trust him? Isn’t there something we can do while we wait?”

  “I’m doing what he told me: marry Esther and take care of the farm. Haven’t heard that he left you any instructions.” His gaze traveled to Callie’s framed picture as Esther walked back into the room.

  This was twice in the last week that someone had drawn her attention to Stakehorn’s case — a case that she and Deborah hadn’t actually solved. They’d survived it, but it wasn’t actually fair to say they’d solved it.

  Okay, maybe they’d helped to solve it.

  Callie walked the happy couple out to their buggy. They’d climbed in by the time she thought to ask Tobias about Mr. Bontrager.

  “Ya, Esther told me you met him, but I don’t remember anything about a dochder.”

  “I asked my mamm as well, Callie. She did know Mr. Bontrager’s wife, but not well. They attended church in the next district. She didn’t know anything about a missing girl — said perhaps she’d met Mrs. Bontrager after the son was born.”

  “Sorry we can’t be more help.” To
bias flicked the reins and set the buggy in motion.

  Waving, Callie waited until the buggy was out of sight, then retrieved Max and brought him back into the shop. She tried to focus on Reuben, tried to think of what she could possibly do to help with his case. But as she went to the stockroom and brought out a box of quilting kits to unpack, her mind kept going back to Mr. Bontrager and a daughter that he might have lost. If Mr. Bontrager’s son didn’t remember having a sister, then apparently the girl had been missing for over forty years.

  Chapter 15

  IT TOOK DEBORAH TWENTY-FOUR HOURS to decide how best to proceed with helping Reuben. Saturday, after seeing to lunch for her family, she pulled out the list she had made in the quilt shop — the list of reasons Reuben might insist on keeping quiet.

  Callie had been right.

  There weren’t many explanations for Reuben’s silence, not when a brief explanation could gain his freedom.

  Deborah sipped her warm tea, then tapped her pen against the paper. Had she missed anything?

  “One: money.” Did Reuben need money? Was this girl somehow blackmailing him for money? Did she somehow threaten his ability to keep the farm?

  “Two: love.” She took her pen and wrote beside this the word Romantic with a question mark. Had Reuben been in love with the young girl in the pond? Seemed unlikely.

  “Three: love. For family or freinden.”

  “Four: Ordnung.”

  This last would be harder to explain to anyone outside their faith, but if Reuben felt it was the right thing to do to remain silent, the moral thing to do, then he would. Much as Esther had remained silent when Seth had died, though she had known almost immediately which boys were responsible. But then Esther hadn’t been in danger of losing her own freedom. The Ordnung did not require this. Again Deborah put a question mark.

  She couldn’t think of any other reasons to add to the list, so she folded it and put it inside her handbag. Then she called Martha into the kitchen.

  “Yes, Mamm?”

  “I need to run errands in town. I’ll be taking Mary and Joshua. Would you like to come with us?”

  “‘Course I would. What about the twins?”

  “Went with your dat to pick up new pigs.”

  “New ones? What happened to the old ones?”

  “Nothing happened to them. Your father thinks we need more this winter. Actually he thinks your bruders need more responsibility, so he’s adding a few more animals.”

  “I wish he’d asked me about that first. I would not have picked pigs.” Martha walked out of the room shaking her head, and Deborah found herself laughing even as her mind went back over the list.

  Why was she so sure that Reuben was holding back something? Could be he was silent because he had nothing to say.

  Then it came to her, as quickly as a bird lighting on a tree limb. She remembered the thing she’d pushed to the back of her mind. When she’d first gone to fetch Reuben, when they’d first discovered the dead girl, there had been the briefest of seconds when his eyes had grown wide, he had gone pale, and a deep sadness — like a shadow — had passed over his face. It had occurred so quickly, Deborah was surprised she’d caught it and remembered it at all.

  There was no doubt at all that he’d known the girl.

  His expression hadn’t been one of shock or surprise like Deborah had felt. It was the look of someone who’d seen something precious ripped away.

  In that split second, Deborah had seen Reuben’s grief.

  The question was — grief over what? The girl’s death? The fact that she was found? What did the girl’s death mean to Reuben?

  “M-Ma-Ma-Mamm.” Joshua tugged on her dress, one arm wrapped firmly around her leg.

  “I don’t think she can hear you. You need to learn to be patient when Mamm’s concentrating on something else, at least that’s what Dat says.” Martha offered Joshua his favorite stuffed bear, but he turned away and buried his face in Deborah’s dress.

  “It’s all right. I was just remembering something.”

  “Something important?” Martha helped Mary gather up her books and put them in a small backpack as they all made their way out the front door.

  “Could be. I hope so.”

  “Dat says when you get that look on your face, we should try to wait or come back around later. He says you’re puzzling things out.”

  “He does, does he?” Deborah reached over to straighten the prayer kapp worn by her eldest as they continued walking. The child was growing up too fast.

  “Ya. He also says I act exactly like you at times.”

  “Hmm. I’m sure that was a compliment.”

  “I don’t know. He said it after I’d poured hummingbird water into the pot on the stove that was for tea.”

  Deborah helped the children into the buggy Jonas had hitched up before he left for town. “Yes, I suppose I remember doing that once before.” Deborah climbed into the buggy’s front seat. “It’s merely sugar and water though. I told your dat I was saving him the trouble of adding the sugar to his tea afterward.”

  She clucked to Cinnamon and turned the mare toward town. Deborah had three stops to make. Best hurry if she was to be back before dark.

  Her first stop was Reuben’s parents. They lived on the piece of land next to Tobias’ parents — the fathers were brothers. Deborah had known the family all her life, though she’d spent more time with the women than the men.

  “Why did we bring the apple crisp pie?” Mary held it in her lap as if it were a dozen eggs.

  “Always nice to bring a gift, especially when a family is experiencing trouble.”

  “I like pie, but I don’t want to have trouble to get it.” Mary rubbed her hand under her chin, then looked to her mamm. “Is that a terrible thing to say?”

  “Not at all, and I left a pie for us at home, cooling on the counter.”

  “Gut. Smelling this is making me awfully hungry.”

  “You ate lunch not an hour ago,” Martha reminded her.

  “I’m growing though — same as Jacob and Joseph.”

  Deborah pulled the buggy to a stop in front of the rambling farmhouse. “It’s a warm day for October. I’d rather you children play on the porch while I speak with Reuben’s parents. I shouldn’t be long.”

  Martha took the younger children to the rockers at the corner of the porch as Deborah knocked on the door. Five minutes later she was sitting at the table with a cup of tea.

  “So you never met the girl?” Deborah asked.

  “Never even saw her. We’d been hoping Reuben would find a nice Amish girl, but he kept saying it wasn’t Gotte’s time yet.” Abigail Fisher was nearly as round as she was tall, and it was plain from the redness of her eyes that she’d spent the last few days crying over her son’s predicament.

  “Abigail, excuse me for being so bold, but I’m trying to help Reuben — “

  “I thought that woman was helping him, that lawyer.”

  “Ya. I’m sure she is. Adalyn Landt is a good lawyer, and she’ll help Reuben every way the Englisch legal system allows her to, but there’s something here that doesn’t add up. It’s puzzling me a bit. I don’t understand why Reuben won’t make a statement. Why he won’t say what happened and how he knows the girl.”

  Tears tracked down Abigail’s cheeks as she nodded her head. “I know. I don’t understand either. Reuben’s always been the stubborn one, but this doesn’t make any sense. It’s probably the reason people are saying the things they are — “

  “Saying what things?”

  But Abigail shook her head and refused to speak more on the subject.

  She did walk Deborah out to the buggy and say hello to the children.

  “Did you like our pie, Mrs. Fisher?”

  “Yes, Mary. Thank you for that. Mr. Fisher will be very pleased, as I haven’t done much baking this week.”

  Deborah climbed up into the buggy, then tried one more question. “Abigail, when was the last time you saw Reuben?”
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  “It’s same as I told the police fellow, that Mr. Black. Reuben came by the house the Saturday before the body was found. Asking if his dat knew anywhere that was hiring for work.”

  “Work?” Deborah looked out across the fields and thought about what Tobias had told her about staying in town and covering double shifts. “But wasn’t he having trouble keeping up at the farm, what with no help from Tobias?”

  Abigail sighed, scrubbed at her cheeks again with the handkerchief. “Makes no sense, no more sense than anything else, anyway. Daniel told him the only places hiring wood craftsmen were the RV places up by the toll road.”

  “So he wasn’t looking for work here in Shipshe?”

  “I don’t know, Deborah. I wish I could be more help. He seemed pleased with the answer, I do remember that, as he slapped his dat on the back and said the toll road would be fine, said it wasn’t but a twenty-minute ride with a driver. When has Reuben ever hired a driver?”

  “When indeed.” Deborah nodded, then thought of one more thing. “This might seem personal, but it could help us. Has Reuben ever been in lieb?”

  Abigail smiled, though there was no happiness in it. “Once. He cared about her for sure, but they were so young. Reuben was like a young bull then, unable to control his emotions at all. One minute he’d be in a tear, angry about something. I never knew what. The next moment he’d be like he is now — quiet, sweet, and solid.”

  “Reuben?”

  “Ya. I know. It’s hard to imagine.”

  “Why don’t I remember this?”

  “He’s older than you are.”

  “Just a few years.”

  “Well. Some things you can’t really know unless you’re inside a family.”

  Deborah thought on that. “What happened to the girl?”

  “Came down with the fever. She died the same year they were courting.”

  Deborah left then, steering the mare down the road, trying to fit the puzzle pieces together, but what she’d learned at the Fisher place had added more confusion to Reuben’s case. As she drove into town, Deborah wondered if she should stop by Adalyn’s office and tell her what she’d learned, but that was when the quilt shop came into view and she realized Callie was standing at the side of the road, waving to her frantically.