Plain Protector Read online

  Sarah gave him a cynical look and no longer seemed to want to talk to him.

  “You know the person who broke into your house? Do you think he also threw the rock last night?”

  He studied her. Her blond bangs framed her face, hiding most of the bandage covering her stitches. “I’m afraid I do.”

  Frustration grew in his belly. “Stop being coy and start talking if you want me to help you.”

  “I didn’t ask for your help.” She stared at him, anger flashing in her eyes, before she looked away.

  “My job is to help you.” Then he softened his tone. “Who has an ax to grind with you?”

  “I’m a social worker. I’m sure I have lots of enemies.” Was she suddenly backpedalling?

  Nick tilted his head and tried to coax her to look at him, but she seemed more focused on the street behind him. “You said you thought you knew who did this.”

  Sarah bowed her head and threaded her fingers behind her neck. “My ex-boyfriend found me. Now he’s going to toy with me until I go running back home. Where he can protect me.” Cynicism and defeat laced her tone. “It’s the only explanation.” She narrowed her gaze but still didn’t look at him. “He must really think I’m stupid.”

  “You ran away from your ex-boyfriend?” Hot blood pumped through his veins.

  Her head snapped up, and she directed her fiery gaze at him. “It’s not like I had a choice.”

  “I didn’t...” Nick forced his hands to relax, and he sat down on the step next to her. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sound accusatory. I have zero tolerance for men who hit women...”

  “That makes two of us.” She laughed, a brittle sound. “I put up with him for longer than I should have.” She shook her head slowly. “I couldn’t believe I had turned into one of those women who lets men—” she seemed to be struggling for the right word “—control them. My mother raised me better.” The summer sunlight shimmered in unshed tears. He resisted the urge to pull her into an embrace.

  “You did nothing wrong,” he said, trying to comfort her with his words, all he had a right to offer.

  “I didn’t have a choice.”

  “What about the police?”

  “He is the police.” Sarah studied him as he absorbed that piece of information.

  “Where?”

  “In a small town right outside of Buffalo. Orchard Gardens.” She sounded resigned, sad. “I lived in Buffalo, but he knew a lot of guys on the force there, too. I didn’t know who to trust.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me this last night?”

  Her gaze locked on the badge on his chest. Then she lifted her wounded eyes to meet his.

  “Do you think we belong to one big fraternity? That we’ll protect each other no matter what?”

  “That’s what happened at home. Jimmy can be persuasive. He concocted some story that was so convincing that the other officers thought I was crazy. That I had a drinking problem and was using him to cover it up.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  He caught her hiking a skeptical eyebrow.

  “You can trust me.” The words sounded strange on his lips. Here he was telling her she could trust him, when he had his own trust issues.

  “I don’t know who to trust anymore. So few people know where I am, I don’t know how he found me.”

  “We don’t know that for sure.”

  “It seems like the only logical answer.”

  He watched myriad emotions play across her face. He wished he knew her—the situation—well enough to offer her solid advice. Instead he asked, “What do you plan to do now?”

  “I don’t know.” She ran a finger along the tender skin under her eye. “I guess I’ll have to move. Again.”

  * * *

  Six months.

  Six. Short. Months. Apparently that’s the expiration date on keeping secrets. It took six months for Officer Jimmy Braeden to find Sarah. Now she’d have to move. Again.

  But for now, she had to sit. Focus. Figure out her next step.

  Life seemed surreal sitting on her front porch next to Deputy Jennings. She had a hard time thinking of him as simply Nick. He really seemed to care about her well-being, but was his interest genuine?

  What if he knows Jimmy? Buffalo isn’t that far away, and law enforcement is one big boys’ club. Dread pooled in her stomach. Has Jimmy asked him to keep tabs on me? Or am I being overly dramatic? Seeing a dead snake sliced up on her table could do that to a girl living alone.

  Or maybe this was how small-town cops operated. Making personal visits to the victim the next morning. No nefarious intent.

  Sarah blinked and refocused her eyes on the stalks of corn swaying in the morning breeze in the field across the street. There was a sense of timelessness about sitting out here on the farmhouse steps, where a farmer and his family once lived over a hundred years ago.

  “Maybe the Amish are on to something?” Sarah’s gaze drifted to the farm next door.

  “What’s that?” Nick’s smooth, deep voice had a soothing quality. He turned and they locked gazes. Half his mouth crooked into a wry grin. If she was being truthful, she’d admit to herself how handsome he was. Longish wavy dark hair swept off his face and behind his ears, the ends brushing against his collar. A neatly trimmed goatee on his chin.

  A breeze picked up, and a hint of aloe and soap mingled with the corn and freshly chopped hay. She quickly dismissed her keen sense of awareness of him. She had been alone too long. She refocused her attention on the farm next door. Her Amish neighbors made their life off the land, dependent on no one, save for the small rent she paid on this house.

  “The Amish live a quiet life. Each generation following in the steps of the one before them. Very little changing.” She thought of Mary Ruth, her young Amish friend, who liked to chat about her future. She seemed so full of hope. Sarah didn’t know what hope felt like anymore. Didn’t know if she’d ever have hope again. Would she forever have to hide from Jimmy?

  Sarah ran a hand down her bare arm. The heat from the sun was already strong, beating down on her. If she sat here much longer, she’d be sunburned. She laughed to herself. That was the least of her worries.

  She reached up and grabbed the railing and pulled herself to her feet. She swiped the dust of the porch from the back of her pants.

  “I have a meeting with a client later today.”

  “An Amish client?”

  “Not today.” But it wasn’t unusual to see Amish clients. Not all was right within the Amish world. The young adults seemed to struggle the most as the temptations of the outside world crept into their insular lifestyle, tainting it. “It’s with a single mom. I can’t cancel the meeting. Not at the last minute.”

  Sarah decided she’d explain to her client that a personal matter had come up and she wouldn’t be able to make future meetings. A tiny piece of her heart broke. How long would it be before another social worker took her place? She sighed. Maybe never. “I’ll have to come up with a plan for my next move.”

  Nick stood and faced her. “Do you think that’s a good idea?”

  “Deputy Jennings—”

  “Call me Nick,” he said again. She was trying to avoid calling him by his given name, believing the formality would keep a wall between them.

  “As long as we’re talking names, my full name is Sarah Lynn Gardner. I’ve used Sarah Lynn to protect my identity. But I suppose that’s not relevant anymore.”

  Sarah gazed at him warily. “I left my sick mother in Buffalo to hide here in Apple Creek. Apparently, I wasn’t adept at staying under the radar.” She shrugged. “Maybe my next move should be home. Since Jimmy’s going to find me anyway...” The sound of her mother’s breathless gasps over the phone broke her heart. “I’m afraid my mother won’t be around much longer.”

/>   “I’m sorry about your mother.”

  “Me, too.” She paused with her hand on the doorknob. “I’m beginning to think that no matter what I do, it won’t be the right thing. I have to be able to live with myself. And right now, I’m thinking I’ll live with regret for the rest of my life if my mother dies when I’m not there.”

  “How would your mother feel if your ex-boyfriend killed you?”

  Sarah spun around, anger pumping through her veins. “Low blow.”

  “Your ex must be violent if you’re hiding here.”

  She nodded, a lump clogging her throat. Jimmy was capable of doing almost anything. She had promised her mother she’d stay safe. Running back to Jimmy’s home turf wasn’t staying safe. Putting herself in jeopardy would be going against her mother’s wishes.

  And wouldn’t she be putting her mother in jeopardy, too?

  And how could Sarah abandon her clients here? It was unlikely another social worker would move to Apple Creek anytime soon. Sarah pressed her fingers to her temple, a headache forming behind her eyes.

  “Are you okay?” Nick asked, his voice low and full of concern. “I didn’t mean to be so blunt.” If she hadn’t sworn off all men, he’d be someone she’d be drawn to. Too bad she wasn’t interested in starting a relationship. And especially not with another cop.

  “I’m getting a headache.”

  “You said earlier that social workers are often the target of disgruntled clients.”

  “Yeah...” she replied, wondering what he was getting at.

  “Before you uproot your entire life here in Apple Creek, let me do some investigating. Maybe those boys caught throwing bottles in town last night really do know something about this.” Nick pointed at her front door, indicating the dismembered snake inside.

  Sarah rubbed her arms. A flicker of hope blossomed in her belly. Some angry Amish boys seemed a whole lot less threatening than six-foot-four Jimmy Braeden. However, the dismembered snake head placed on her phone—the one she had used for the first time to call her mom—sent renewed dread pulsing through her heart.

  It had to be Jimmy.

  It had to be.

  * * *

  “I’m going to talk to Ephram and Ruben Zook. They were part of the group last night.” Nick slowed at the bottom of the porch steps.

  Sarah paused with her hand on the doorknob. Closing her eyes briefly, her shoulders sagged. “They’re good boys. Perhaps just caught up with the wrong kids last night.”

  “Maybe they can shed some light on what happened.”

  “Like I said before, they’re not going to want to talk to you.”

  “I’ll play nice.”

  “Temperance’s sons don’t strike me as the kind to get into trouble. Ruben has been courting Mary Ruth Beiler, one of the Amish girls who I’ve grown fond of.” Sarah scratched her head.

  “It’s not unusual for the Amish to blow off some steam after the Sunday-night singings. They are teenagers after all.” Sarah touched her bandage and winced. “Maybe it’s not such a good idea for you to go over there. I don’t want to cause any trouble. Amos, their father, has been kind enough to rent me this house. Temperance brings me vegetables from their garden. I don’t want to stir up trouble for them.”

  Climbing the steps to close the distance between them, Nick held up his palms. “Ruben and Ephram are young adults. I have to check to see if they know something. Or maybe they saw something. You think the snake was left in the early morning hours?”

  “It wasn’t there when I came down during the night for a glass of water.” Sarah got a faraway look in her eyes, and he thought he detected a shudder. “What if whoever left the snake was already in the house watching me get a glass of water? Writing in my journal?”

  Nick placed a hand on her arm and had to admit he was surprised when she didn’t pull away. “You’re fine. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  “You can’t promise that.”

  “I’ll start by finding you someplace else to stay.”

  Sarah stuck out her lower lip and blew her bangs off her forehead. “I—” she ran her fingers through her bangs “—I haven’t decided what I’m going to do.” Indecision flashed in her eyes.

  Nick tipped his head at Sarah and lifted an eyebrow. “Do you feel safe staying here?”

  “Maybe it was a foolish prank.” Sarah’s voice didn’t hold any conviction.

  “I wouldn’t feel comfortable letting you stay here alone in this house.”

  “Letting me?” A fiery look descended into her eyes. She shook her head in disgust despite the flicker of fear that swept across her features. This was a woman who had been badly hurt and had trust issues bigger than his.

  Nick decided to extend a peace offering for his misstep. “Would you mind coming next door with me? They might be more receptive to talking if I brought along a friendly face.” Nick lifted a pleading eyebrow.

  “Yeah, throw me under the bus.” She pointed to her forehead. “Remember, I’m the reason they got hauled in last night.”

  “Technically, they were picked up for breaking bottles in the alley.” He watched Sarah carefully, waiting for her hard expression to soften.

  “At the very least, the Zooks should know that someone broke into your house. They are your neighbors and your landlord. They need to take precautions, too.”

  “Let’s go then. But my money is on Jimmy.”

  Nick followed Sarah across the lawn to the neighbor’s property. A couple young men, their heads covered by straw hats, worked near the barn. Sarah pointed at the closer man. “That’s Ephram. And Ruben’s over there.”

  Ephram stopped what he was doing as they approached. Ruben seemed determined to finish his morning chores without interruption.

  Nick had been warned when he had started this job about a year ago when he returned from his military service that the Amish were good people, but they didn’t take kindly to law enforcement. They liked to handle things within their own community. Having grown up here, Nick already understood this, but he had never worked in the capacity of law enforcement and been directly impacted by their misgivings until recently.

  “Morning, men,” Nick called, trying to sound friendly. “Could Miss Gardner and I have a word with you?”

  “Hello, boys.” Sarah smiled. “Ephram, Ruben, this is Deputy Jennings.” Ephram and Ruben both looked to be in their late teens, twenty at most.

  Ruben stepped forward and crossed his arms, tucking his fingers under his armpits. His eyes moved to the bandage on Sarah’s head. “Real sorry to hear you’re injured. Good thing Mary Ruth wasn’t there. She could have been injured, too.” Something about the tight set of his mouth suggested he wasn’t happy about Mary Ruth working with Sarah. But Nick couldn’t be sure.

  “Do you know who was horsing around outside the church? Who might have thrown the rock?”

  “We went to the singing,” Ruben said. “Mary Ruth was supposed to be there.” A hint of annoyance laced his tone. “We were foolish and broke some bottles in the alley. That’s all. We weren’t near the church.”

  “Listen,” Nick spoke up, “Miss Gardner had more trouble in the early morning hours. Right here at the house on your property.”

  Ephram stopped shoveling slop into the pigs’ troughs and stared at him. “What kind of trouble?” Nick tried to determine if his question was genuine or an act.

  Sarah opened her mouth, but before she had a chance to say anything, Nick help up his hand. He didn’t want her to give away details of the crime. Not yet.

  “Someone broke into Sarah’s house between the hours of four and eight a.m. Did you see anything?”

  Ephram glanced down and pushed the dirt around with the toe of his boot. “Neh.”

  “What about you, Ruben?” Sarah asked.


  Ruben took off his hat and scrubbed his hand across his blunt-cut hair. His face was clean shaven now, but once he got married, Nick wondered if he’d have enough facial hair to grow a beard. “I overslept this morning.”

  “And I had to do his chores until he got his sorry self down here.”

  “No sign of anyone lurking on the porch? Running across the yard? Anything?”

  “Neh,” they said in unison.

  Out of the corner of his eye, Nick noticed their mother crossing the yard to them. “Can we help you?” Temperance seemed more standoffish than she had when she made her way over to Sarah’s porch just a little while ago.

  “We’re trying to determine if your sons saw anything suspicious around my house in the early-morning hours.”

  Temperance snapped her attention to her nearly grown sons. “This morning? Something happened at the house this morning? Why didn’t you tell me when I came over?”

  “I didn’t want to worry little Patience,” Sarah said.

  Temperance’s lips thinned into a line. “Apple Creek sure has had its share of incidences over the past few years. If you boys saw something, you need to speak up.”

  “Neh, Mem, we didn’t see anything,” Ruben said.

  Temperance smiled tightly at her neighbor. “My boys are gut boys. They both have plans to prepare for baptism, and I don’t want anything to derail that. Nothing,” she added for emphasis. “It makes me wonder if renting that place to an Englischer was such a good idea.”

  All the color seemed to drain from Sarah’s face.

  Temperance adjusted her bonnet and straightened her shoulders. “I like you, Sarah, and I understand you’ve fallen on hard times. But my husband decided to rent the house next door against his better wishes. He warned me this was one step closer to inviting the outside world in.” She fussed with her apron, obviously uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation. “I had to convince my husband to rent the home to you. Miss Ellinor has always been kind to me. It was a favor. Please don’t make me regret my decision.”

  Out of the corner of his eye, Nick could see Sarah squirming. She was obviously a woman who didn’t like conflict.