The Amish Witness

“Kumm.” He placed a hand on her elbow. “Meet the rest of my family.”

Mary had already gone up on the porch and was in deep conversation with the two people sitting there. As Elizabeth climbed the stairs, they stood. The man welcomed her first.

“Gut afternoon. My name is Isaac. I am sorry to hear of your troubles.” He looped his fingers in his suspenders and moved to the side. “This is my wife, Rebecca.”

“Hello.” The woman stepped forward. “Welcome.” She held a toddler in her arms, and she was one of the most beautiful little girls Elizabeth had ever seen. The child sucked on her index finger and stared at her with stunningly blue eyes. Thomas’s eyes.

Elizabeth’s eyes burned with tears and she fought hard not to shed them.

This is Thomas’s family. This is what I had always wanted for him. So why, Lord, does it hurt so much?

“Hello, little one.” She smiled and clasped the child’s free fingers. “You must be Rachel.”

“Ja. This is my precious one.” Thomas took her from Rebecca’s arms. The child giggled in his arms and pulled at his beard. Absently, he placed a kiss on her forehead.

Elizabeth’s insides melted as she watched. He was a good daed. She knew he would be.

“Let’s go inside. I started a fresh pot of coffee. It should be ready by now,” Rebecca said. She looked at the two women. “Dinner will be ready shortly. There is plenty of food. You are welcome to join us.”

“Ja, thank you, Rebecca. Mary and Elizabeth will be joining us for all meals for a while. I have invited them to stay in the dawdi haus for a short time. You and Isaac are no longer needing it now that you’ve bought a farm of your own. My parents stay in the main house with me six months out of the year. It was built for family. Seems foolish to let it stand empty. Mary and Elizabeth need a place to stay so I am offering it to them.”

A surprised expression flashed across Rebecca’s face, but she covered her reaction quickly. She smiled at the two women. “Both of you are welcome.” She reached out her arms to Thomas for Rachel. “Kumm. I will set out mugs for us.

Thomas handed his daughter back to her. “Ja. We have much to discuss.” He turned to his guests. “Right after dinner I will show you to the dawdi haus. Usually there is a connecting door and a small bedroom in these in-law apartments but I actually had a small house added on to my own. There is a connecting door off the kitchen. But you will also find a living room, two bedrooms, a kitchen and a bathroom inside. Now that Isaac and Rebecca have chosen to purchase their own farm, it is sitting empty. You are both welcome to use it for as long as you need.”

“Denki, Thomas. We are grateful for the help.” Mary put her arms around Elizabeth’s waist and steered her toward the kitchen. Without a word passing between them, Elizabeth knew her mamm understood how awkward and difficult meeting Thomas’s family was for her. Her mother’s secure touch around her waist let Elizabeth know she wasn’t going through any of it alone. Again, her eyes burned with threatening tears. She had missed her mamm...so much.

“I will bring in your bags from the buggy and, of course, the box. I am anxious to see what great secret is inside.” Thomas bounded down the porch steps before anyone could reply.

* * *

Thomas had done most of the talking as he brought his in-laws up-to-date on the day’s events. Even as he spoke he had to admit being surprised with how much had transpired in only a day’s time. He wasn’t surprised, however, at their kindness toward Elizabeth, or their sincere desire to help in any way they could. They were good people and he was honored to have them as family.

Crash!

Finishing his second cup of coffee, Thomas pushed it aside, jumped to his feet and ran in the direction of the trouble, closely followed by the rest of the adults.

Benjamin stood in the middle of the room. He had overturned the box Thomas had placed on the sofa and its contents had scattered across the wooden floor. Benjamin’s lips puckered and his eyes welled with tears as if he might cry at any moment. “I’m sorry, Daed. Don’t be mad at me. It was an accident.”

“I am not mad, sohn. But you know better than to touch things that do not belong to you.”

Everyone helped to pick up the strewn items. There were half a dozen books, a couple of plants, a set of sheets, some bath towels, a few knickknacks and even a few small framed pictures.

Thomas held one photo in his hand and stared at it. “This is a picture of Hannah. The Amish do not take pictures of themselves. Maybe Hannah became more Englisch than you thought in the years you were gone.”

“That is one vice Hannah did like,” Elizabeth said. “She took pictures. Lots of them. She wanted to have something besides her mind to record her memories. I think she felt it was concrete proof that she belonged somewhere with people she cared about and who cared about her, after feeling for so many years that she didn’t.”

“And you?” Thomas asked as he handed the small picture frame to Elizabeth. “Did you take pictures of yourself, too?”

“Not really.” Elizabeth took the frame from his hand, looked at it and smiled at the image of her friend. “Hannah snapped one or two of me over the years when I was doing something with her group of friends.” She shrugged. “But it was different for me. I always knew who I was and where I came from. I did not need reminders.”

One by one, the adults handed various items to Elizabeth as she repacked the carton.

Once most of the items had been cleaned up, Mary and Rebecca returned to the kitchen to finish getting dinner ready and Isaac excused himself to tend to the animals in the barn, leaving the children with Thomas and Elizabeth.

“I’m sure Benjamin meant no harm, Thomas.” She kneeled down so she could be on eye level with the upset child. “You were probably curious, weren’t you? Wondering what I had in the box.”

The boy nodded.

“Why don’t you help me pick up the few things that are left and put them back in the box? Can you do that?”

Benjamin nodded and grinned. He picked up a few things and threw them into the carton.

Thomas eyed every item going back into the box. A key chain. More pictures. Even a small stuffed rabbit. When there were no items left on the floor for the boy to retrieve, he patted his son’s rump. “Go, Benjamin. Get washed up for dinner.”

The boy scampered off.

“I don’t understand.” Thomas placed the last item he’d been holding in his hand on the top of the carton. “I don’t see anything unusual. Certainly nothing worth harming someone to get back.”

Elizabeth sat back on her heels. “I know. I was thinking the same thing. I can’t imagine what that man thinks is so important.” She picked up two of the books and briefly leafed through their pages. “No notes tucked inside.” She rummaged through the box, making sure she hadn’t missed something. “And no journals or anything else that would expose this man’s identity.”

“We must be missing something.”

“Maybe the missing item was inside the box I dropped at the condo.”

Thomas shook his head. “I am sure the man searched that box before he came all this way.” He reached out a hand and helped Elizabeth to her feet. “I’ve been wondering about that, too. Are you sure you don’t remember seeing him before? How would he even begin to know where you might have gone? It doesn’t make sense that he would show up on an Amish farm looking for you. I thought you and Hannah had given up the Amish life. Why would he think of looking for you here?”

“We had. No one knew of our past.”

“You are wrong, Elizabeth. This man knew.”

“Hannah must have told him. But I don’t know why she would do such a thing.” Elizabeth sighed heavily. “There are many things I don’t understand. Hannah and I were best friends. I didn’t think we kept secrets from each other.”

Thomas saw great sadness in her eyes when she looked at him. “I wish she hadn’t kept this man a secret. Maybe I could have helped her. Maybe she wouldn’t have been murdered.”

Thomas frowned. “There has to be something here. What about the pictures? Anything special? Is the man in any of them?”

Elizabeth took a second look. “No. They are photos of friends Hannah made at the restaurant where she worked.” She held one in particular in her hand. “She had just started dating this young man.” Elizabeth showed Thomas a photo of Hannah and a young Englisch man, their heads together, eating cotton candy at a fair and grinning into the camera. “I hadn’t met him yet. She’d only gone out with him a few times. But she spoke well of him. I think she was starting to really like him.” Her expression clouded. “I wonder if anyone told him about her death. The police, maybe?”