The next morning, after breakfast, I packed my computer, my phone charger, and my portable battery pack and charger into my bag and was ready to leave the house when a vehicle pulled into the driveway. I stepped to the window. It was Tommy’s Jeep. Why wasn’t he at work?
I opened the front door and stepped onto the porch. Tommy had the back passenger’s side door open and was pulling Mason from his car seat. The little boy saw me and waved, a big grin on his face. A lime green stocking hat was pulled over his curly hair, although a few strands hung down over his forehead. I couldn’t help but think of Emma’s little boy, Hansi, who’d died from diphtheria. If nothing else, stories from the past made one thankful for how relatively easy life was today. Even staying in an Amish household with no electricity or heat in the bedrooms was a dream compared to camping out of a covered wagon.
For a moment, I felt ashamed of my desire to flee Indiana as soon as possible.
“Hallo,” Tommy called out.
“Taking the day off?” I called out.
He shook his head. “I was going to leave today for Nevada, so I’d already given my notice. They replaced me.”
“Oh.”
“We were on our way to Mom’s.”
“Even though you’re not working?”
He smiled. “You don’t hesitate to ask questions, do you?”
I grimaced.
“No, it’s fine,” he said. “I always liked that about you.” He smiled again. “I thought I’d stop by, but it looks like you’re ready to leave.”
If he only knew how often I wore my coat around the house—and not just to bed. “I’m headed out to a coffee shop to use my laptop. But come on in. I have all day.”
He shifted Mason to his other arm as he started up the steps. “We won’t stay long. I just had some things to ask you.”
As they reached the porch, Mason yanked off his stocking cap and dropped it.
I stifled a laugh and bent down to pick it up. When I stood back up, the boy was reaching for me. Instinctively, I took him. The weight of his body felt good in my arms.
Tommy stepped to the door and held it open for us.
As I entered the living room, Mammi said, without saying hello to Tommy or Mason, “I’ll put the hot water on. Plus, I have cranberry muffins.” She headed to the kitchen and we followed, leaving our coats on.
I put Mason in the high chair, left over from when Dat was a baby, and filled a sippy cup with milk for him. Once Mammi had the muffins on the table and coffee brewing, she said, “I need to go check my phone messages. Jane might have left one.”
I stood. “I’ll go with you.”
“You stay. I need the fresh air to clear my head.”
I shook my head in concern. “It’s slippery out there from the storm last night. You shouldn’t be walking to the phone shack alone.”
“Humor me,” she said and then smiled.
Once she’d put on her coat and boots and slipped out the back door, I asked Tommy what he wanted to talk about as I stood to pour the coffee.
“Miriam and Joshua.” He thanked me as I placed a cup in front of him. “And Kenny.”
I sat down with my cup of coffee.
“When I picked up Kenny’s phone, he didn’t have any text messages showing. He must have deleted all of them. But several have popped up lately.”
“From who?”
“I have no idea,” Tommy said. “All of the names are weird. One person is ‘Blue’ and another is ‘Dragon.’ Things like that.”
“Yikes,” I said. “What are the texts about?”
“Some are asking where he’s at. Why he didn’t stop by when he said he would. Others are requests . . .”
“For?”
“I can’t quite tell.” Tommy shrugged. “But I’m guessing it’s not for anything on the up-and-up.”
“So the rumors about Kenny selling drugs could be true?”
Tommy nodded.
“Why haven’t you gone to the police with this information?”
“I did,” Tommy said. “I’m expecting to be arrested any minute now.”
I couldn’t tell if he was serious and gave him a questioning look.
“Deputy Rogers was practically giddy as he documented the texts and the information. It seems he thinks I’m the prime suspect.” He frowned. “In fact, I got the sense that he felt I was just trying to distract attention from myself.”
His words gave me pause. Should I be suspicious of Tommy too? Did Deputy Rogers have other reasons to suspect Tommy in Miriam’s disappearance? On the other hand, if he wasn’t innocent, who better to lead me to where Miriam was? Or at least to where he’d taken her.
I wrapped my hands around my coffee mug, concerned. “I chatted with both Arleta and Joshua yesterday. I’m thinking from what they said, separately, that Miriam might be with relatives near Gary who are Mennonite. We could start with the Mennonite churches and see if we can track her down.” I met Tommy’s gaze, wondering what his reaction to what I was going to say next might be. “Want to go with me tomorrow? I think it’s about an hour and a half to Gary.”
“Sure,” he answered. “Hopefully we can make sure Miriam’s safe—and clear my name with Deputy Rogers. I’ll leave Mason with my mom. What time do you want to leave?”
MAMMI MADE IT safely back from the phone shack just as Tommy was brushing the crumbs off Mason and into his other hand, trying his best not to make an even bigger mess than the little boy already had.
I grabbed the broom and told him not to worry about it.
After the two left, Mammi said, “Jane needs me to stop by this afternoon with a pattern. Can you take me?”
“Of course.” I swept the crumbs into the dustpan. “I’ll go to the coffee shop right now, then come back and pick you up.”
Ten minutes later, as I plugged in my phone, battery pack, and then my laptop at the coffee shop, I thought of how Tommy had jumped at the chance to go with me to Gary. I couldn’t see any hint of guilt in his reaction. But then again, maybe he was a sociopath.
My mind wandered to when he was fifteen, the summer he was so awful to me. But the key word was fifteen. His rudeness at the beginning of his teen years was no indication that he was a sociopath, Amish or not.
Once the computer powered on, the first thing I did was reload my bank app and then check my credit card statement. I gasped. Every single vendor had charged me for what should have gone on Ryan’s card.
I picked up my phone and called my bank. First, I asked the representative to reverse the charges.
“I’m sorry,” she said, “but it sounds like a domestic misunderstanding. Your best bet is to hire a lawyer.”
How ironic that here I was in Amish country amongst people who didn’t sue, and she was suggesting I hire a lawyer.
“I’m not sure what I’ll do,” I said. “But would you add my call to the notes on my account?”
“Of course.”
After I hung up, I texted Ryan. I now owe half my annual salary to pay for the wedding YOU canceled. If you don’t remedy this immediately, I will take action against you.
After I sent the text, still holding my phone in my hand, I stared out the coffee shop window at downtown Nappanee. An Amish buggy zipped by, but not even the rhythm of the hooves comforted me. I’d been raised not to seek revenge. But I couldn’t let Ryan get away with ruining me financially.
My phone began to buzz. I glanced down. Ryan was calling. Inhaling sharply, I answered.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hi.”
“Look, I’m sorry. My card was stolen. I totally forgot it was the one all the vendors had on file.” Ryan paused a moment as if expecting me to respond. When I didn’t, he said, “I promise I’ll take care of it.”
“Please call all of the vendors right now and give them another credit card number.”
“Of course, as soon as I can,” he said. “This afternoon, I promise.”
“Do you have their numbers?”
“I’m not sure . . .”
I quickly said, “I’ll share them with you.”
“Perfect.” Again he paused, but then said, “Look, I’m really sorry for all of this.” He lowered his voice. “How are you doing? I can’t stop thinking about you. Can we meet in person to talk all of this through?”
The craziness I’d been trying so hard to suppress came back with a vengeance. “No, we can’t meet in person. I’m at my grandmother’s.”
“In Indiana?”
“Just fix the card problem.”
“Savannah . . .” He sounded so forlorn.
“Bye.” I ended the call with a flourish. Who did he think he was, saying, “I can’t stop thinking about you” and “Can we meet in person?” And saying my name like that. Did Amber leave him again already?
My stomach roiled as I shared the numbers with Ryan. Then, I took a deep breath. I was going to look for jobs, not think about Ryan.
I stared out the window again. Had he really said “I can’t stop thinking about you”? Should I have told him I couldn’t stop thinking about him either?
No. Definitely not.
I opened a new tab and began searching for jobs in health-care administration. There was a position at a large clinic in Seattle. Too bad I didn’t want to be on the West Coast. And an opening at a small-town hospital in Arizona. Reading between the lines, I guessed it had sustainability problems. I pulled up a different website and kept searching.
An administration position listed at Bremen Community Hospital popped up. It was less than ten miles away from Nappanee, if I remembered right. The search engine I was using must have been tracking my location. I scanned the description. Twenty-five beds, nonprofit, critical access hospital, serving Bremen and the surrounding communities.
Rural hospitals were struggling all over the United States. It sounded like more of a challenge than I wanted. Besides, it was just as cold in Bremen as it was in Nappanee. I kept scrolling.
The next job that caught my eye was at a clinic in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. That would be ironic for me to leave Nappanee and retrace the route Emma had taken to Indiana, but go even farther to where our Amish ancestors who first landed in America had settled. Then again, maybe Emma returned to Pennsylvania and married Abel. Maybe her future children or grandchildren whom I’d descended from ended up settling in Indiana. I wouldn’t know until I heard the rest of the story.
I read the rest of the Lancaster job description. I was qualified. I looked at the application. It was pretty straightforward. I opened my résumé file and updated a few things. It probably wouldn’t look good that I’d quit my last job so abruptly, but I’d be honest about why if I got an interview. I went ahead and filled out the application, attached my résumé, and hit send.
Then I called the car rental office in South Bend and arranged to pick up a car tomorrow on our way back from Gary. I was sure Tommy wouldn’t mind dropping me off.
AN HOUR LATER, Mammi and I were at Plain Patterns. I expected it to be a quick trip, but Mammi and Jane both seemed to have other plans. First, Mammi asked some questions about the quilt she was working on, while I browsed through the fabric. If I was going to move to Lancaster County, maybe I should take up quilting again. I bet there were all sorts of classes there, and I’d enjoyed the time I’d spent with Jane and the other women.
“Savannah?”
I turned toward Mammi.
“Do you mind if I quilt for a while?”
It wasn’t like I had anything else to do. “Go ahead.”
“Would you like to join us?” Jane asked. “It’s been a slow day as far as customers. And we still have a long way to go to finish quilting this.”
“I’d like that.” I sat down in the exact spot I had the day before and retrieved the needle I’d left in the fabric.
Once we were all settled and started with our stitching, Jane said, “Arleta left me a message on my answering machine this morning, thanking me for the casserole. She sounded good.”
“She seemed good yesterday too.” Mammi smiled at me. “Don’t you think?”
I nodded. “She was definitely more animated with Mammi than she’d been with me.”
“Oh, don’t take that personally,” Jane said. “She’s more reserved than most, and she probably wasn’t sure whether she could trust you or not.”
I focused on the quilt again. “I’m wondering if she’s feeling more settled about Miriam being gone.”
“What do you mean?” Jane asked.
“I’m just thinking out loud,” I said, “but maybe she knows where she is.”
“Why would she keep it a secret?”
“Maybe she doesn’t want someone to know.” I feared I was pushing things too far with my speculating.
“Such as?” Jane asked.
I lowered my voice. “Vernon.”
Neither Mammi nor Jane said anything, and I was afraid I’d disappointed them with what sounded like gossip—and very well could be.
Finally, Mammi said, “I wondered that myself.”
There was another long pause, and then Jane said, “Would you like me to continue the story I was telling yesterday?”
I glanced around at all of the empty chairs. “With just me? Won’t everyone else be upset?”
She laughed. “Well, I’ll catch them up.” She glanced at Mammi and then back at me. “But I want you to hear all of it, especially if you are going to leave soon. This story is for you.”
“All right,” I said, touched.
“Where did I leave off yesterday?”
“Emma had lost everything—her son, baby girl, husband, and her home,” I answered. “She’d arrived in Elkhart County and even helped with a birth but still longed to return to Pennsylvania.”
“That’s right,” Jane said. “As you can imagine, everything had changed for Emma. . . .”