After Tanisha was gone, I retrieved my cell phone from my purse and called Timothy again. No answer. I knew I shouldn’t be too concerned. Many times when Timothy was on a job with all the power saws and nail guns going off, he didn’t hear his cell phone ring. However after last night, a kernel of anxiety plagued the corner of my mind. Was he avoiding me? I left him a voice mail early that morning telling him Chief Rose wanted us to visit Billy at the Mount Vernon hospital, but had he gotten the message?
I shook it off. If I couldn’t reach Timothy, Chief Rose was the next best option. After the factory disaster, I planned to keep the chief abreast of all my movements.
“Chief Rose,” her sharp voice barked into my ear. It lacked all of its typical humor. She was still angry and wanted me to know it.
“I have some information for you,” I said, keeping my voice businesslike.
“What is it, Humphrey?”
“I spoke to Jason Catcher today.”
“Did you sit on him?” Sarcasm leaked into her voice.
“No, and neither did Tanisha.”
“Good to know. I had him down at the station for a couple of hours yesterday. I assume he told you about how Billy a.k.a. Walter was going to pay him for his trouble over the box.”
“He did. Do you believe his story?”
“I don’t see any reason not to as long as Walter corroborates it. I’ve seen folks do a lot worse things for five hundred bucks.”
I was sure she had. “He also told me that he and Katie Lambright were friends, so much so that he gave her a ride home from the cheese shop on the square several times a week.”
“Interesting,” she said, her voice holding a friendlier quality. “What else you got?”
“He also alluded that the Lambrights’ home life wasn’t good.”
“Abuse?” The sound of her voice had turned sharp again.
“Maybe. I’m going to talk to Anna again about it.”
“Be careful. If the girls were being abused, too many questions will make her clam up. I will say that when Troyer and I left the Lambrights’ house after delivering the news about Katie, I was happy to go. It was a cold place.”
I shivered. “After talking to Jason, we stopped by the cheese shop.” I went on to tell her what Debbie said.
She grunted. “I’m glad Debbie talked to you. Your old Amish whisperer tricks are back.”
Debbie had talked more to Tanisha, but I didn’t bother to correct her.
She continued. “That’s interesting, though, Debbie’s take on Jason Catcher. I will stop by the shop later and talk to Mr. Umble about him.”
“I didn’t talk to Jason as long as I would’ve liked. His coworker thought he was slacking, so he said he would talk to me again after he got off work. I promised to meet him in the market’s parking lot at three.”
“Whoa, Humphrey, you are telling me about this before it happens?” Her voice grew stronger, bolder. “To what do I owe this honor?”
I frowned. “Do you want to go with me to talk to him?”
I heard tapping, as if the police chief drummed her fingers on a table. “If I show up, he won’t say a word. I have to admit, Humphrey, you got some good information here. As much as you and Troyer annoy me, I’m impressed with your ability to convince the Amish to trust you. Something, I’ve unfortunately never been able to do.” She paused. “Is your friend Tanisha going with you? If this Jason kid really is a nut job, you shouldn’t be alone with him.”
“Tanisha went back home. If you won’t go, I plan to ask Timothy to come with me.”
“Good. Hold on a minute.”
I heard the clicking of computer keys.
“Catcher has a speeding ticket from two years ago. Other than that he has nothing on his record. That doesn’t mean he’s innocent. I don’t trust everything Debbie Stutzman says. As we both know she can lie with the best of them, but I don’t see why she would bother to make this up unless it’s to aggravate you. It is partly your fault that she spent those few days in jail, so I wouldn’t doubt that she holds a nasty grudge against you.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but she kept talking.
“I’ll head over to the cheese shop now and talk to Umble. If he corroborates Debbie’s story, I have no reason to doubt it. I will call you right away after I talk to him. Either way, I want you to keep your appointment with Jason, and we will see how it plays out. This is the best lead that I have. Other than Walter/Billy strung up at the hospital. I haven’t ruled him out as the killer yet.”
“Strung up?”
“You’ll understand when you see him. You do still plan to visit the hospital, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” Chief Rose sighed as if the weight of the world rested on her shoulders—or at least the weight of the tiny community of Appleseed Creek. “If Katie felt she was being stalked as Debbie Stutzman described, why didn’t anyone tell the police? If she lived in an abusive home, why didn’t anyone report it?”
“Because—”
“Don’t answer that, Humphrey, it was a rhetorical question. Yes, I know it was because they’re Amish.” She cleared her throat. “There would be a lot less crime in this town if folks were willing to talk to the authorities. Unfortunately, I’m not going to be the one who breaks a two-hundred-year history of silence.”
I didn’t know what to say.
“I’ll have Nottingham stationed across the street from the market in the gas station’s parking lot. That way he can swoop in and save you if things go bad. I don’t expect any problems if Troyer is with you, though. He’s twice Jason’s size. Find out why someone may think he stalked Katie.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Do better than your best, Humphrey, you owe me. Now, call Timothy and get him on board.” She hung up.
I called Timothy’s cell again. Still no answer. I dialed the main office at Young’s. Ellie’s son, Uriah, picked up on the first ring. “I don’t know where he is, Chloe. He called and said that he couldn’t make it today.”
“Is he sick?”
“He didn’t seem sick. I figured that he was doing something with you or his family. It was pretty unusual. Timothy comes in no matter what, even when he’s deathly ill. If he can’t make it, I don’t question him. I knew it must be important.”
I thanked Uriah and ended the call. A knot tightened in the middle of my stomach as I called Danny’s cell.
“Yo,” Danny said in my ear.
“Do you know where Timothy is? He called off work today.”
“Timothy didn’t go to Young’s?”
“I just spoke to Uri. He’s not there. Do you know where he is?”
Horses whinnied in the background. “What? I can’t hear you.” In addition to driving a delivery truck, Danny was a horse trainer at a large English farm in the next county. “Timothy is usually at Young’s by now. You should try there.”
I didn’t bother to repeat that I already had.
It was close to one. I needed to find Timothy soon if he was going to make the interview with Jason and me. I hopped into my car and drove the twenty minutes to the rented house where Timothy and Danny lived near the square.
Timothy’s truck was gone. I removed my key from my pocket, happy that Timothy had given me a spare. Mostly it was to let Mabel in and out of the house if he was out of town.
Frantic barking came from inside of the house. Timothy left Mabel behind? He never left Mabel behind. With shaky hands, I turned the key in the lock. The fluffy brown and black dog launched herself onto me like she had just escaped from the kennel. I managed to keep my balance. “Settle girl. Settle.”
She dropped her front paws to the porch floor. I stepped in the house. Everything looked just as it did that last time I was there. Baskets of clean laundry from the laundromat sat in the middle of the living room in the perfect location for someone to trip over. A pizza box sat on the coffee table. The place wasn’t a pigsty, but it wasn’t neat as a pin either. It was clear a couple of guys lived there alone. Guilt itched the back of my head. I felt like I was intruding onto Timothy’s personal space. Was barging into his house a sign that I didn’t trust him? I shook worry from my head. It wasn’t lack of trust—I was afraid for Timothy.
A notepad sat on the kitchen counter with Knox Room 211 scrawled across it in Timothy’s handwriting.
The light dawned. “He means Knox Community Hospital room 211,” I told the dog. “He went to see Billy after all.”
Before I left, I let Mabel into the backyard for a potty break. She wasn’t happy when I locked her back inside the house.
Since I had moved to Appleseed Creek, I had seen more than my fair share of the community hospital in Mount Vernon. I wasn’t at all surprised when the nurse at the receptionist’s desk recognized me with a smile.
“I’m looking for Timothy,” I told her. “I think he’s in room 211.”
She pointed in the direction of the elevators. I nodded to the young doctor as I stepped into the elevator. The hospital in Mount Vernon was much smaller than the one my mother had been in after her accident in Cleveland, but the antiseptic, sterile smell was the same. The scent always took me back to the memory of my mother’s accident, of my father picking me up from the sleepover when I expected to see my mother, of him not talking to me while we drove to the hospital, of a doctor I never saw before and would never see again telling us my mother was dead. I closed my eyes as the elevator rose to the second floor, willing the memories to recede just like the first floor of the hospital.
“Afraid of elevators?” The young doctor asked.
I gave him a weak smile. To my relief the elevator doors opened, and I stepped out. A few feet away, Timothy sat in the hallway in one of the plastic molded chairs, his head bent in prayer. My mother’s death was forgotten for the moment. There was an empty seat next to him, and I took it without a word. He didn’t look up, but quietly reached across my lap and took my hand.