A Plain Disappearance (31 page)

Grandfather Zook rubbed the short white beard on his chin. “Maybe I should hold them and come back and sell them to you in the spring then.”

A knowing sparkle glinted into Levi’s dark eyes. “Thirty-five it is. Let me grab my ledger and calculator.”

Grandfather Zook chuckled. “You use an
Englischer
’s calculator to do your figures?”

Levi slipped behind the counter and waved the calculator at the older man. “Sure do. The district says we can if the calculations are work related. Trust me, it has come in handy recently.”

Grandfather Zook leaned back against the straight back dining room chair. “I heard you had Katie Lambright working for you. Did she help you with the figures before?”

Levi’s eyes narrowed. “Who told you that?”

Grandfather Zook’s eyes widened innocently. “We were just over at Amos’s cheese shop on the square, and he said that Katie helped him with his arithmetic before she quit and came to work here.”

Levi snorted. “Amos Umble may need help with his facts and figures from a girl, but I do not.”

Still standing, I held onto the back of one of the dining room chairs. “If Katie didn’t help you in the office, what did she do here?”

His dark eyes flicked in my direction. Was I mistaken, or was there a bit of distrust in his expression? The warehouse owner cleared his throat. “I hired her as a favor to my son. He and Katie were to be married, and he wanted her to work here in the family business. She did help me in the office some with clerical work. Mostly, she worked the cash register or on the floor helping customers.”

“That was nice of you to hire her for your son.”

“He wanted to keep an eye on her. Apparently she was being stalked at the cheese shop by some
Englischer
.”

Grandfather Zook’s white bushy eyebrows knit together. “Must have been tense around here sometimes, seeing how Caleb courted Katie before.”

Levi frowned. “Caleb knew Katie made her choice. He should have had more understanding for his friend.”

Remembering the coldness between Caleb and Nathan on the Troyer farm days ago, I wasn’t so sure that was possible.

Levi interlaced his fingers on the tabletop. “My son was never happier than when he and Katie talked of their plans to marry. It wounds me to see my son so distraught over her death. It’s a terrible, terrible act, and the person responsible will be punished, if not by the world, by
Gott
.”

“It is terrible, but perhaps there can be forgiveness too,” Grandfather Zook said.

“
Nee
,” Levi said. “Not for this.” He cleared his throat. “Now, let me count all these pieces and tally up the total for you, so you can be on your way.”

“Mind if I look around?” I asked. “Where I’m living now is fully furnished, but I’m hoping to move to a new place soon and put my own pieces in it.”

Levi showed me his dimple. “By all means then, see what we have. If there’s anything that catches your eye, we can hold it for you until you move.”

I thanked him and wandered around the maze of furniture. Before long, I could no longer see Grandfather Zook and Levi, but their voices echoed through the expansive building. Along a back wall of the second cavernous room, I found Grandfather’s napkin holders for sale. I smiled as I straightened them on the shelf. If I were a tourist shopping in the warehouse, I certainly would be tempted to buy one of them. I picked one up, a buggy carved into the front of it, and flipped it over. The small sticker on the bottom said that napkin holder was seventy dollars. My forehead crinkled. Hadn’t he told Grandfather Zook he priced them at thirty-five? Why were these different? Did Levi think someone would pay seventy dollars for a napkin holder? Either he was confident in Grandfather Zook’s craftsmanship or delusional about what an English person would spend.

I turned to find my way back to the front of the store, but the muffled sound of angry voices stopped me. I walked along the back wall of the warehouse and discovered an entrance to yet another room. How big was this building? They could house the Goodyear blimp in here.

Sunshine flowed into the room through an open bay. An Amish wagon, the one I had seen at the Troyers’ home, stood right outside of the bay, and Caleb and Nathan glared at each other near the open bay doors. They held either end of a dresser. I couldn’t tell if they planned to load it onto the wagon or take it off.

Caleb gripped his end of the dresser until his fingers turned white. “She loved me!”

Nathan glared at him. “If that is true, why did she leave you?”

“I will tell you why—because you are going to inherit the furniture warehouse.
You
will be able to provide a good living and life for her and . . .” He gave a strangled breath, “her children. After the childhood that she had, that’s all she ever wanted.” He dropped his end of the dresser with a resounding thud, and it echoed through the warehouse.

Nathan stumbled back but was able to keep hold of his end of the dresser. He carefully set his end down and examined the piece. “Look what you have done. We just got it from a craftsman and you ruined it.”

“Maybe your father will sell it for a fair price, then?”

Nathan launched himself at his former best friend, and the two Amish young men crashed to the concrete floor. Caleb, clearly the stronger of the two, pinned Nathan to the ground in seconds. He wiped blood from his lip.

Nathan kicked at him, but Caleb easily stayed out of the way of the wayward boots.

“What are you going to do? Strangle me like you did Katie?” Nathan cried. “You could have hit her dozens of times, and she would have never said a word. It won’t be that way for me. You’re fired. You will never work in this county again. I will ruin you.
Ruin
you.”

Caleb laughed. “You can’t fire me. You can’t do anything to me.”

“Yes, I can. Have you read the sign on the warehouse? It says
Garner
.” He spat the words out. “King is the name of a
grunt
.”

Caleb straddled Nathan’s back and pulled his friend’s hand backward, twisting his index finger. The crack and pop of Nathan’s finger breaking went off like a gunshot in the enormous room, echoing off the bare walls and rafters.

I gasped and covered my mouth, my stomach roiling. In my mind’s eye, I saw him breaking—not Nathan’s finger—but Katie’s. I had little doubt that Caleb was the one behind the old wounds on Katie’s body.

My gasp caught Caleb’s attention and he jumped off Nathan—but it was too late. I had seen everything and he knew it. I stumbled backward and the corner of a desk stabbed my hip.

“What are you doing?” Caleb bellowed.

Writhing in pain, Nathan rolled back and forth on the concrete floor, holding his broken finger.

I turned and ran.

“Stop!” Caleb cried.

I was lost. The maze of furniture had me confused. It was all the same color, the pieces blending together. I turned a corner and smacked into Levi Garner’s chest.

He pushed me back, holding me at arm’s length.

I gulped air. “Caleb broke Nathan’s finger like he did Katie’s.”

“Where are you?” Caleb cried.

Levi’s eyes narrowed, and he pushed me aside. Caleb appeared in the aisle and saw Levi’s fury. It was his turn to run. He spun on his heels, dashing back the way he came when a silver brace spilled quietly into the aisle. Caleb never saw it and landed face down on the floor.

Levi reached Caleb in four strides, lifting the young Amish man off the ground by his shirt as if he weighed no more than Naomi’s favorite doll. “What did you do to my son?”

Caleb cowered.

Grandfather Zook appeared in the aisle and waved one of his arm braces at me. “That worked like a charm.”

I dialed 911, followed by Chief Rose’s direct number.

E
mergency lights from the ambulances and police cars reflected off the snow and through the windows into the warehouse. Grandfather Zook and I sat at the dining room table where he and Levi had negotiated prices for Grandfather’s woodworking projects.

A few feet away, an EMT wrapped Nathan’s broken finger. “That should hold for the ride to the hospital.”

“Can you fix it?” Nathan asked through a wince of pain. “Will it be the same as before?”

The EMT grimaced. “That’s hard to say. It’s a pretty bad break. The doctor will look at it and give you a better idea. Hopefully, you won’t have to see a hand specialist.”

Nathan held his injured hand to his chest. Levi glared at Caleb. His son’s former friend stood in handcuffs, and Officer Nottingham had a firm grip on his upper arm. Caleb strained against the officer’s hold. “I didn’t kill Katie. I didn’t. Just because I fought with Nathan, you think I killed someone.” He spat those last words in Chief Rose’s face.

The police chief removed a napkin from her pocket and wiped her cheek, but she held her ground. She nodded to Officer Nottingham. “I’m tired of looking at him. Take him to the sheriff’s station. I don’t even want him in my department.”

Officer Nottingham pulled on Caleb’s arm. “Let’s go.”

“Can we take Garner to the hospital?” the EMT asked the police chief.

She nodded. “I’ll be there within the hour.”

Officer Riley held the door as the EMT wheeled Nathan out in a wheelchair. Levi moved to follow him, but Chief Rose held up her hand. “I need to speak with you first.”

“My son.”

“I’ll be brief,” she said and led him to another part of the warehouse out of my earshot. I couldn’t help but think that was on purpose.

“Are you all right?” I asked Grandfather Zook for the fifth time.

He squeezed my hand. “Chloe, I’m fine. I have told you this. I’m glad that Levi insisted that he go look for you when you didn’t come back to the front of the store. He didn’t want me to go with him, but I hobbled along anyway.” He knocked on his braces leaning against the table. “Sometimes these come in handy.”

I groaned. “Mr. Troyer is going to be angry when he finds out what happened.”

The skin around Grandfather Zook’s eyes crinkled at the corners. “Simon will recover. He always does.”

“You think Caleb killed Katie?” I asked.

His bushy eyebrows shot up. “Don’t you?”

“I still want to talk to Anna. Ruth and I plan to talk to her later this afternoon. I think she knows more about her sister’s life than anyone.” I frowned. “I just don’t know if Caleb is the one who killed Katie.”

“Why not?” The voice came from behind, startling me.

I jumped and found Levi Garner glaring at me, his dimple nowhere to be found. “Did you see what he did to my son? An Amish man with an injured hand is nothing! What work can he do if the doctor cannot mend it?”

“I—I don’t know.”

“Okay, okay, calm down, Garner.” Chief Rose stepped between us. “Officer Riley here will take you to the hospital to see Nathan. Considering how he drives, you two might beat the ambulance there.”

Riley adjusted his utility belt under his protruding belly. “I used to drag race back in the day.”

Chief Rose shook her head.

Levi and Officer Riley started to leave.

“Wait,” I said. “Levi, I noticed the prices for Grandfather Zook’s woodworking pieces were higher than you quoted them to be.”

Levi’s mouth fell open. “You want to talk about that now? My son is in the hospital.”

I dropped my head. “I just noticed that—”

Grandfather Zook waved my concern away. “I’ve sold my goods to Levi for years. There is nothing to worry about.”

Levi shot me another glare before he followed Officer Riley out of the building.

Chief Rose pointed at me with her finger as if firing a gun. “I want to talk to you too, Humphrey, but first I need to take some more pictures of where the fight occurred. You and Mr. Zook hang tight here until I return.” She opened a black crime scene kit on the tabletop and removed an SLR digital camera.

When the chief disappeared among the furniture aisle, I stood.

“Where are you going?” Grandfather Zook asked.

“I need to step outside for a second. I need some air.”

Grandfather nodded. “Don’t be gone long. I don’t want to be in trouble with the lady copper.”

I arched an eyebrow. “Copper?”

“It’s another new
Englischer
word I learned. What do you think?”

“I wouldn’t call Chief Rose that to her face.”

As I stepped through the warehouse’s front door, he laughed.

Just minutes ago, the warehouse’s parking lot had been full of emergency vehicles, now all that remained was Chief Rose’s cruiser and my Bug. I took a deep breath of air. Was I wrong? Was Caleb the killer like everyone believed? Why did I doubt it? If he could snap his girlfriend and best friend’s fingers without thought, why couldn’t he commit murder in the same cold manner? I placed a hand on the frigid side of the Bug to steady myself and shivered. This was Chief Rose’s problem. If it turned out that I was right and Caleb did not commit the murder, I would help her find the killer—if she asked me to help. But no more volunteering. After seeing Nathan’s mangled finger, I was out of that business.

A large hand wrapped around my wrist and spun me around. My back slammed against the car door, but the grip on my wrist tightened as I cried out in pain.

Brock Buckley leaned in. “I’ve been looking for you, Red. Lucky you have a unique girly car.”

That’s it. I would trade the Bug in and get something generic, like a Corolla.

He jerked my arm up. “Does that hurt?”

“Let me go,” I shouted. Frantically I looked around for Curt. Until recently, the two were always together. “How stupid are you? Didn’t you see Chief Rose’s squad car? It’s right over there. She’s inside the warehouse.”

He dropped my wrist and placed a tree-trunk thick arm on either side of my shoulders, pinning my arms to my sides and me to the car. “She can’t hear you out here. That place is like an airplane hangar.”

“Where’s Curt?” I asked.

He snarled. “That’s what I wanted to ask you.”

“Ask me? Why? Why would I know where he is?”
If I screamed would Chief Rose hear me?