A Plain Disappearance (25 page)

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.

T
imothy’s voice cracked. “Billy put me down as his emergency contact. I got a call from the hospital last night. He asked them to call me. He wanted to see me.”

“You’ve been here since last night?” My voice rose.

He nodded, his blue eyes bloodshot.

“Why didn’t you call me?” I tried to keep the hurt out of my voice. “I would have come with you.”

“I know, but it’s something that I had to do alone.”

I left it at that. “What did the doctors say? Is he going to be okay?”

“Yes, the prognosis is the same that Chief Rose gave you over the phone. A broken leg is the worst of his injuries. He’s very lucky,” Timothy added in a whisper.

“If he’s going to be okay, why are you so upset?”

“Because I was careless just like before. I was overconfident. I thought I could talk Billy into doing the right thing without Greta’s help. I didn’t know that I was that person again. I reminded myself of my younger self, who I didn’t like very much. Because of it, Billy was hurt just like Aaron.”

Becky’s short hair came to mind. That would be more pain for Aaron to deal with. Timothy didn’t know about it yet, and I didn’t have the heart to tell him there in the hospital. I needed to tell him soon, though. He should be warned before he saw his sister. “You can’t take all the blame. I won’t let you. We both made a mistake.” I touched his cheek, turning his head so that he looked me in the eye. “And Billy made a mistake too. No one is innocent in this situation.”

His eyes filled with tears. “Something could have happened to you. You could have been killed. I could never have lived with myself.”

“I’m here. I’m fine. God protected us.”

“Even though I didn’t deserve it.”

“God’s protection is not about what’s deserved. If that were the case, no one on earth would have it.”

He took both of my hands in his. “Chloe, I—”

The hospital room door opened, and Becky’s lawyer, Tyler Hart—who was also Billy’s lawyer—stepped into the hallway.

Timothy dropped my hands like they burned his fingers.

I swallowed my hurt, knowing he hadn’t meant to wound me.

By the sour expression on his face, Tyler didn’t miss the hand holding. “Timothy, Billy wants to see you again before you leave.”

Timothy stood. “All right.”

I stood too. “Can I come with you?”

Timothy put his hand on my back. “Let me talk to Billy a minute alone first.”

“All right,” I whispered.

Tyler raised an eyebrow at me after Timothy slipped into Billy’s hospital room. “He is beating himself up over Billy’s accident.”

I nodded.

“I expect that you told him it wasn’t his fault.”

“I did.”

He cracked his knuckles, the sound of it like a gunshot in the sterile white hallway. “Good. Both Billy and I told him the same thing. I don’t think he believed either of us though.”

I frowned. “Can you tell me why Billy kept you as his lawyer now?”

Tyler chuckled. “You never give up. I’ll say this—Billy’s run-ins with the law have never resulted in his arrest. He’s received some strong warnings, but never been fingerprinted or booked. His problems were violations pertaining to his business, like where he parked the unregistered vehicles he was revamping or what machinery he had in his shop. He’s paid some hefty fines over the years to avoid arrests. I thought it was just because he didn’t want to spend a night in jail. Now I know the real reason. Had he been fingerprinted, the truth would have come out a lot sooner.”

“I still don’t understand how he was able to change his identity like that. Aren’t there checks for that sort of identity theft?”

“Sure there are if anyone is watching or cares. Billy had some powerful friends in the Detroit crime circuit who owed him some favors. They got him the new identity and were almost able to erase the real Billy Thorpe—who had no family or connections who would have noticed someone using his identity.”

“Wouldn’t the computer system have blocked them from doing that?”

“We’re talking over twelve years ago. Computer security wasn’t even close to what it is today. The really good Internet hackers were three steps ahead of the police. Some of them still are ahead of law enforcement, but nothing like back then. The Detroit PD may have been able to track it down if they had been so inclined to pursue Billy, but they had bigger problems right in front of them, like gangs and organized crime. So they just let it go.”

I adjusted my purse strap on my shoulder. “What will happen to Billy now?”

Tyler sighed. “That depends if Chief Rose charges him with Katie Lambright’s murder or not.”

“Will she?”

“Don’t know. She’s pretty steamed over the whole incident in the factory.”

“Trust me. I know that.” I winced, thinking of Chief Rose’s icy tone over the phone. “Do you think Billy killed the girl?”

Tyler shook his head. “No. As far as I can tell, the first time he ever laid eyes on her was when he found her behind the barn. He made a mistake. He should have called the police, or at least given an anonymous tip. The girl was there for a couple of days before you and Timothy came along.”

“But the family didn’t report her missing,” I said barely above a whisper.

“Greta said that. I wonder why not. She’s legally an adult, but that seems harsh.”

“They thought she ran away and became English.”

Tyler, whose grandfather left the Amish way for the English life, nodded. “Ah.”

The hospital door opened, and Timothy stepped out. His movements appeared lighter and the color had returned to his permanently tan cheeks. “Chloe, Billy wants to talk to you alone.”

I frowned. I knew the chief wanted me to talk to Billy, but I’d thought that Timothy would be at my side during the conversation. I wasn’t eager to see the three-hundred-pound mechanic on my own. However, Timothy looked so much happier than when I first saw him in the hospital’s hallway. I didn’t want to ask him to join me in Billy’s hospital room and possibly upset him again.

Timothy placed an arm around my shoulder, not caring that Tyler was standing right there. “It’s okay. He needs to talk to you.”

I nodded, told Tyler good-bye, and then stepped into the room. An IV was attached to Billy’s arm. White gauze wrapped his head like a turban, and his badly broken leg was elevated. Chief Rose’s joke about Billy being strung up at the hospital finally made sense. Billy’s eyes were closed, as if he were sleeping. I didn’t think that I could sleep if my leg were suspended like that.

“Thank you for coming, Chloe,” Billy said, his voice, hoarse and gravelly, maybe from all the yelling he did before his fall.

I inched toward the bed, but left four feet between the two of us. “How are you feeling?”

He half-laughed, half-coughed. “I’ve been better.”

I folded my arms. “I’m sure you have.”

“I’ve been telling the nurse how they could make some improvements around here with duct tape. I see a lot of potential.”

“If you’re giving duct taping advice, that’s a very good sign.”

His smile dissolved into a cough. “I’m sorry. The doctor says I have a respiratory infection from living in the factory.”

“Probably not the healthiest place to be hiding.” My voice was sharp.

“No.” He grimaced. “I’ve done nothing but make wrong decisions since I saw that girl outside of the Gundy barn. I don’t know what came over me. I panicked. I should have called for help. I should have thought of someone other than myself. All I could see was my life in Appleseed Creek falling away.” He turned his head and rested his cheek on his white pillow. “Chloe, I’m so sorry. I don’t remember much of what happened yesterday, but Chief Rose and Tyler filled me in on a lot of it. Not that it’s an excuse, but I had been drinking. Please know that I would have never put you in harm’s way like that had I been in my right mind.”

“I know, Billy. Both Timothy and I know that.” I said it like I almost believed it.

He closed his eyes for a brief second. “Timothy thinks that this is somehow his fault. It’s not. It’s my fault, and I gladly take the blame.”

“I know he appreciates that.”

He held out his meaty hand. I stared at it but didn’t take it. My boots rooted into the linoleum flooring. His face fell as he folded the arm back onto his chest. “I understand if you can’t forgive me for what I’ve done.”