“They did what?” Ed said.
“Someone deliberately cut the fence at Naomi and Luke Yoder’s last night,” Rachel told the police chief. “Their cattle got out, and Luke has cancer. He’s dealing with a lot of weakness and nausea from the chemo treatments. The neighbors had to help Naomi repair the fence and get the animals back in.”
“I’m sorry to hear that about Luke,” Ed grabbed a notepad and a pencil and began scribbling down the information she had just given him. A computer would have been faster, but Ed was old school.
“Last week we talked about those hay bales that were set on fire at Samuel Yost’s place.” Ed tore the page off the notebook, rose, and thumbtacked it onto the cork bulletin board he kept on the wall behind him. “Have you heard any more about that?”
“I’ve asked around,” Rachel said. “No one seems to have heard or seen anything. There are also the sheep that were spray-painted out at Peter Hochstetler’s a couple of months back. Peter had to trash much of his wool crop.”
“Sounds like we’re having an epidemic of pranks aimed at the Amish community. Any ideas who might be doing this?”
“Who knows?” Her hands in her front pants pockets, Rachel leaned against the door. “It always happens at night, and it’s always at a different place. There’s no pattern to it, no particular time or day of the week. I’ve talked to some of the town kids I know, but they seem to be as clueless as I am.”
“You can add to the list the fact that John Yoder discovered the metal teeth in his mower blade bent and ruined before he went to cut hay.” Ed tapped another page stuck to the bulletin board. “He lives next door to me and called yesterday to see if I could help him find some new parts. He’s nearly eighty and doesn’t know how he’ll repair it. Those old horse-drawn mowers are hard to find these days, and it’s even harder to find parts.”
“Why would anyone want to vandalize an old mower?” Rachel said.
“Your guess is as good as mine. But you know that even if we discover who is doing this, the Amish will probably refuse to press charges,” Ed said.
“But if we could find out who’s doing it, maybe we could convince them to stop.”
“Scare them into stopping?” Ed said.
“If we have to,” Rachel said. “I’m guessing it’s some local Englisch teenagers.”
“It could also be Amish kids. They do some strange things during their ‘running around’ time,” Ed said.
“But Amish teenage pranks tend to run along the lines of dismantling someone’s buggy and rebuilding it on top of their barn. They don’t usually do real damage.”
“I know. These pranks aren’t funny. If anything, they are particularly mean-spirited. You’re our expert on the Amish. Can you see any connection between the families who are being hit? Could there be some sort of weird vendetta going on?”
“It’s spread out between families, but they are all from the same church as my aunts. I wonder if the church itself is being targeted,” Rachel said.
“That would be something I’ve not dealt with before,” Ed said. “People who are only from a particular Amish congregation being targeted for harassment. Tell your friends and relatives from that church to let us know the minute anything else happens. Maybe we can get there in time to discover something.”
“I’ll try,” Rachel said. “But I can’t guarantee they’ll do it.”