Lamb to the Slaughter (Serenity's Plain Secrets Book 1) (16 page)

“I knew something was up, the way you ignored me all week, hardly speaking after I dropped the other girls off. I thought that you were mad at me,” Will said.

“Mad at you? I could never be angry with you. I’ve been punished and I’ve had to be extra careful about everything I do.”

“What are you in trouble for?” Will’s voice was full of concern, and she loved the sound of it.

Naomi thought for a moment about lying, but decided that this was a good time to test whether she could talk to Will about anything—as she believed that she could.

Staring ahead, she said, “One of the ministers caught me and Eli kissing out behind a shed after Sunday service. Eli begged for forgiveness and got two weeks of shunning. I was stupid, and argued, so I got four.”

Naomi risked a glance back at him to see him lost in thought. But his face wasn’t angry.

When he looked at her again, he sighed, “I wish it was me kissing you out behind a shed, instead of this Eli dude.”

Naomi moved closer and without thinking, rested her hand on his thigh. “I do too. You have to believe me. I cared for Eli at first, before I met you, and then I was sort of pushed into this whole engagement thing—”

“What! You’re engaged to the guy?” Will exclaimed. His eyes were bright and full of fire.

Naomi shrugged, suddenly embarrassed. “We talked about it and he told his folks the news. It’s supposed to happen in the spring.”

Will quietly brooded, while Naomi stared out the window. Rain clouds were moving in and the air felt heavy with dampness. The weather was beginning to fit her mood.

When Will finally spoke, Naomi froze after so much silence. But her heart swelled at his tone, which was soft. How could he forgive her for being engaged to another man?

“Where do you want to go?” he asked.

Where? Naomi hadn’t even thought about it. Just driving around was fine for her, as long as she was away from the Amish people for a few hours.

“I don’t know. Since Mamma is visiting one of her sisters today in the next county over, I wasn’t too worried about her finding out that I wasn’t home when I was supposed to be in bed sick.” Naomi looked back at him, wondering, “Where should we go?”

Will eyed her, and then turned his gaze back to the roadway before he spoke. “Well, we shouldn’t go anywhere public that’s for sure. The last thing you need is another few weeks
tacked on to your punishment.” He stalled, and then said tentatively, “We could go to my place. My parents are at work and Taylor is still in school. What do you think?”

Naomi’s heart raced and she swallowed her anxiety down with a gulp. She would finally be alone with Will—what she’d dreamed about for weeks. Then why was she hesitating? Naomi almost asked Will to turn around and take her home, but when his eyes peeked over at her, shyly, she made up her mind.

“That sounds fine. I want to see where you live.”

There was a crackling, nervous energy in the cab as they made their way closer to his home and more than likely, a dramatic change in their relationship. They sat in relative silence until Will drove into a cluster of houses that were all big and fancy. Naomi sat up straighter, peering out the window with interest, momentarily forgetting the butterflies swirling around in her belly.

“You live
here
?” she asked, noticing that the yards were all neat, the flower beds filled with mulch and lined with lights.

“Yeah,” Will said as he pulled into the driveway of a house that looked like a small mansion to Naomi’s bulging eyes.

For the first time with Will, Naomi was at a loss for words as she followed him into the garage and then the house. She barely noticed the shiny metal appliances in the kitchen as they passed through, or the childhood photos of Will and Taylor that lined the wall of the staircase that they climbed to the upstairs. It was just a fleeting wish in her mind as she glanced at a baby Will sitting on a furry rug smiling for the camera, that she had photos of herself when she was a baby. Being Amish, her family wasn’t allowed personal portraits, and she suddenly wished with a sharp pain that she knew what she’d looked like as a little girl.

Will’s room was darkish, with the blinds almost completely down. Only a faint shimmer of light from the cloudy afternoon came through the slits. He sat on the bed watching Naomi’s every move as she wandered through his room, learning about his life.

There was a computer on a small desk with a cluster of typed papers scattered to the side of it. Posters of large muscled horses and rodeo riders filled the walls, obscuring the wallpaper behind them. Two piles of clothes littered the floor, and Naomi instantly picked out the clean one from the dirty one.

“What do you think?” Will asked her quietly.

One last glance around and she breathed out, “It’s wonderful.”

Will laughed, the sound strong and full of life. At that moment, Naomi knew that she loved him. She moved forward into his arms that were waiting for her. He pressed into her, his own head resting against her breasts, as they both sighed together.

“I dream about you,” Will whispered.

“I dream about you too,” Naomi said, a smile playing on her lips. She rubbed her face into his messy, yet sweet smelling hair.

Will turned his head up, and he was about to say more, but she pressed her finger to his mouth. Naomi didn’t want to talk—or think. She just wanted to feel.

She leaned down and touched his lips softly. Will’s hands came up and pulled her down to him. Soon enough, she was beneath him on the bed, his mouth traveling over her, his hands caressing her every inch.

It felt so right, but then why did a small part of her not want to let go? Eli was pushed far back in her mind, but he was still there, and Naomi felt a spasm of fear about what she was doing, and the consequences that she might have to deal with later.

Her mind became jumbled, until Will said, his face nuzzling her neck, “I love you, Naomi. I love you with all my heart.”

Just as the gray clouds released a wave of raindrops that pounded the house with a thousand thumps, Naomi let go of her worries. Everything was all right now. She brought Will’s face to hers and looked into his eyes.

“I love you too, Will.”

15

SERENITY

November 15th

“Y
ou sure are spending a lot of time with Daniel Bachman. Exactly, how deep is the man getting into…the investigation?” Todd wore the most obnoxious smirk I’d seen yet.

I sighed in agitation, shaking my head. “Get your head out of the gutter. Daniel’s been very helpful with the case so far.” Looking up and seeing the same lopsided grin still stuck on his face, I added, “So, shut the hell up.”

“Touché,” he said, rolling his chair further away from mine.

“Can we get back to work, children?” Bobby said, with no hint of humor. I guess the old guy, well past ready for retirement, was growing tired of our banter.

When Mayor Johnson entered the room, I heard the soft sound of Bobby’s growl. I looked smugly at the coroner, thinking it served him right for calling me a child.

Before the mayor opened his mouth, I rose and said, “Good morning, Ed, what brings you by today?”

The mayor’s words came out as quickly as his feet moved him around. Even though he was well on in years, he still had the nervous movements of parakeet trapped in a cage.

“It would be a better morning if Bobby here, would get those damn reports to me quicker.” He turned and leveled his mustached frown at Bobby, before he settled his gaze on me, “And another matter—I’ve got calls coming into my office from as far away as Indianapolis about this Amish girl. I thought she was shot in a hunting accident?”

“Bobby ruled the death was from a shot gun, but we’re still…” Ed’s hand shot up to silence me. Heat flooded my cheeks in annoyance with the impatient man.

“Look, I understand things are pretty quiet around here most of the time, but there’s no need to go stirring up trouble where there isn’t any. If the Amish are happy to close the damn investigation and label it a hunting accident, we should be too.” The mayor’s tone had changed during his speech to slow softness. He wasn’t even trying to cover up the pleading in his voice.

Fire sparked inside of me. I couldn’t stop myself from blurting out, “Have you been talking to Tony?”

Ed shuffled his feet and looked away for some seconds before he gathered the courage to face me again.

“He came by my office earlier to bring it to my attention that you’ve been harassing the locals with this nonsense.” Before I had the chance to interrupt, he charged on, saying, “I understand your desire to follow all the rules on your first big case here in Blood Rock, but things are different in the country, Serenity. If something is as obvious as the nose on your face, you don’t have to look past it. The poor girl was accidently shot by a hunter—case closed. We don’t need to
concern ourselves with the sordid details of her life within the Amish community.”

Still fuming, I searched Bobby’s face. The irritation was written all over it, but unlike me, he’d learned to deal with the mayor by simply refusing to speak to the man.

I drew in a deep breath and with a conscious effort to keep my voice level, I said, “I don’t see it that way. The fact that you’d be taking advice from the likes of Tony Manning, is, to put it mildly, frightening.”

“For once, the man makes sense. Let’s get the case closed quickly,” Ed’s brown gaze locked on me and he said, “It’s the best thing for your career, Sheriff. Trust me on this one.”

The mayor turned to leave the room, but before he crossed the threshold he glanced back at Bobby and barked, “I want those reports on my desk by tomorrow, Bobby.”

“What a prick,” Todd mumbled.

“That’s putting it mildly,” I said flopping down in the chair.

Finally Bobby spoke. “Don’t pay him too much mind, Serenity. He’s all bark and little bite in the beginning. I guess you have another week, two tops, to come up with solid evidence that Naomi Beiler wasn’t a victim of an accidental shooting. After that, he’ll lean hard on you to close the case.”

I nodded, accepting his words. Bobby knew the mayor better than anyone else. Not only had he worked on and off under the man for thirty years, they were also brother-in-laws.

“I thought I was prepared for some backward thinking when I returned to Blood Rock, but I wasn’t expecting to be pissed off quite so quickly.”

“Oh, trust me, this is only the beginning of the aggravations you’ll be dealing with,” Bobby said with a slight smile as
he pushed the accident report papers from the night before in front of me.

Just as I finished signing the last report, Jeremy peeked in and said, “Serenity, there’s a couple of men here to see you.”

“About what? You know, I’m pretty busy today—can’t you handle it?” I said, trying to keep the sharpness out of my voice.

Jeremy shook his head, “You’re going to want to talk to these two.”

I rolled my eyes at Jeremy’s choice of timing to be mysterious and said, “Fine, show them in.”

Bobby leaned back in his seat with a drawn out sigh, while Todd continued to smirk. I ignored them both and waited while Jeremy led the two men, dressed in camouflage clothes and muddy boots into the conference room. At a quick glance, I knew that they’d come straight in from the woods, without even stopping home to wash up.

My curiosity spiked as the taller, middle aged man, said, “Sheriff, ma’am, Rodney and I were out bow hunting in the fields south of Burkey Road this morning when we found something that we thought you might want. Especially, since we read about that girl in the newspaper and all.”

I stood up and moved around the table in a blink. Even Todd sat up straighter at the man’s words.

“What’s your name, sir?” I asked, staring at the hunter green back pack in the man’s hand, my heart beating harder with each second that passed.

“Jimmy Huskey, ma’am.” He tipped his ball cap at me.

“What do you have, Jimmy?” I said.

He held it towards me and I took it carefully. It was lighter than I’d guessed it was. I glanced at Bobby, who motioned
for me to wait. He left for a minute and returned with plastic gloves, which he held out to me. Todd moved in close enough that I could smell his cologne and I wrinkled my nose, but didn’t ask him to back up. Taking a breath, I pulled the string, opening it up wide and reached in. My hand clasped a soft, plush object and I pulled it out. The stuffed rabbit was patched together with several different colors of fabric and I immediately thought of the Velveteen Rabbit as I looked at its sad, button eyes.

I laid the rabbit gently onto the table and reached in again to bring out three pairs of woman’s panties. They were plain white and size small. After laying them beside the rabbit, I went in again, knowing that it was for the last time. The denim purse I pulled out was hand stitched with a red bandanna pocket on the front. A quick glance into the purse showed that it was empty except for a couple of tissues and a tube of lip moisturizer, but turning it over in my hands, my heart jumped and I took a deep breath. The name
Naomi
, was stitched in cursive across the back, the red of the thread matching the bandanna. I stared at the word, registering the time it had taken to sew the name on so neatly, and with an artistic flare, too. The face of the pretty Amish girl rose before me and for the first time, I felt a real sense of loss. Why did Naomi Beiler have to die?

“Where exactly did you find this?” I asked Jimmy, not taking my eyes off the purse.

“Oh, it would be difficult to explain in words, ma’am, being that we were out in the fields.”

I looked up at Jeremy, “Jeremy, take these men back to where they were hunting and go with them personally to the spot that they found this back pack. Comb the area for any
other evidence.” As he was turning to leave, I added, “And check out a map to see where the pack was in relation to Naomi’s body.”

“Sure thing, I’ll get back with you later today,” Jeremy said, motioning to Jimmy and Rodney to follow him out.

When they were gone, I turned to Todd and said, “Well, this proves that Naomi was running away.”