Lancaster County Reckoning

She hurried back toward the open door, but a figure appeared in her periphery.

She was not alone.

SIX (#uf55d179d-41cb-5e84-b3b1-4a2675f1e67b)

Inside the barn, Thomas was pacing, trying to make sense of why he’d heard Darcy’s car drive away. He hadn’t joined her when she left the barn because he’d thought she was just stepping out to grab her phone—she hadn’t said anything about departing yet. Darcy didn’t need to be going anywhere alone. “I thought she meant her phone was in the house.”

“Me, too,” Elijah agreed. “Do you have your business phone?”

“Of course. It is still in the buggy we took this morning to Jesse’s. I’ll go get it.”

Thomas jogged out to his buggy, which was parked on the other side of the stable. He would have offered his phone earlier but Darcy had been so keen to get her own. If he’d known she was going to drive off...

His little flip phone was tucked away inside the console of the buggy. It still had some power. He brought it back to Elijah. “I don’t know her number.”

“Call McClendon,” Elijah said.

It took a few minutes but Thomas finally got the chief on the phone.

“Miss Simmons left here alone,” Thomas said after explaining the rest of what they’d learned and the contents of the note they’d found.

“I’ll call her,” the chief said. “And I’ll have my assistant forward you her number, as well. We can try to locate her by using her phone, too, if it’s on and powered up.”

Thomas disconnected.

“Maybe she’s on her way back to the hospital to see Jesse?” Elijah suggested.

Thomas shook his head. “Why would she leave without saying anything?”

Thomas stared at his phone screen waiting for Darcy’s number to come through. When it did, he dialed the number immediately. What was that woman thinking, driving off without saying a word?

Darcy’s line rang and rang but she didn’t answer. Thomas left a message asking her to return the call.

“Maybe she needed a minute and went for a quick drive?” Elijah offered.

“I know there could be a million legitimate reasons for her to drive off,” Thomas admitted. “Maybe she saw the phone and realized she needed to call someone and drove away for some privacy.”

He didn’t believe a word of it. No matter what her reasoning, he couldn’t imagine why she hadn’t come back by now or said something to them first.

Thomas felt his heart jump when his phone rang in his fingers. “Darcy?” He lifted the phone.

“No. It’s the chief. We can’t get her to answer,” McClendon explained. “But we were able to track the phone.”

“Where is it?”

“Fourteen-oh-one Waking Lane.”

“That’s Jesse’s cottage. I’m going to go take a look.”

“She may not even be there,” Elijah said to him. “Just because the phone is there doesn’t mean the person is.”

“Well, it’s worth taking a look.” Thomas shoved the phone into Elijah’s hands. “You keep calling.”

“Right,” his friend said. “Take my buggy. Perry is still hitched up.”

Thomas untied Elijah’s horse from the hitching post and climbed inside the buggy. The trip through the woods seemed interminably long.

* * *

A large man grabbed Darcy’s arm from behind. With tremendous strength, he pulled her back into the center of the cottage.

Darcy’s blood raced through her veins. She screamed as she tripped backward. She braced herself and tried to whip her arm free, but his grip was too tight. Then a second man closed in on her from the other side. What could she do? They had her surrounded.

“What do you want?” The strength of her voice surprised her. She felt anything but strong at the moment. “This isn’t your home. You’re trespassing.”

“Where is it? Where did he leave it? With you, no doubt.” The voice was low and angry but with a distinct accent that she couldn’t quite place. Was this the man from the phone call? Were these men responsible for the note they’d found in Jesse’s Bible?

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, I assure you. Jesse didn’t give me anything.” Darcy thought of the phone inside her jacket. If she could just get the call to 911...but she’d have to do it carefully to keep her attackers from noticing. She reached her free hand slowly into her jacket pocket as her eyes darted back and forth between the two men—she needed to find a way to escape them.

“She’s got a gun!” one of them yelled.

Darcy felt it before she knew what had happened. A sharp searing pain ran from the top of her head down the length of her body. She buckled to the floor. Warm blood trickled over her forehead. She fought to keep her eyes open but it was no use. Her vision blurred. Words swirled in the air above her and then the world turned black.

* * *

The cottage looked dark as it came into view, but Thomas breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Darcy’s small red automobile parked in front. Thomas slowed Perry to a trot.

But the closer he got to the cottage the more Perry pranced and pulled. He sidestepped. He flung his weight around. He shook his thick, black mane and began to exhale with sharp, strong breaths.

“Easy, boy. Easy.” He tried to reassure the frightened animal, but a spooked horse was hard to settle. Especially when Thomas felt a little out of sorts himself. He knew what was bothering him—he was worried about Darcy. But what had the horse so unsettled? Thomas halted the buggy and tied Perry to a hitching post in the back. He moved silently across the back lawn, nearing Jesse’s cottage, then froze when a woman’s loud scream echoed out of the house and across the field.

Thomas ran along the side of the house toward the front porch. Low, deep, masculine voices sounded in the cold air. Though he couldn’t make out everything they said, they didn’t sound familiar. And from the stray curse word he caught here and there, they certainly didn’t sound Amish.

Thomas turned the corner of the front porch, just in time to see two men rush out the front door. They hopped into Darcy’s running car and drove off in a red blur.

Thomas flew through the open front door and scanned the cottage. “Darcy?”

Then he spotted her lifeless body sprawled over the floor near the kitchen. Her thick dark hair was splayed around her face with bits of blood splattered around her in almost every direction.

Oh, please, Lord, no! Don’t let her be dead...

For a millisecond, Thomas staggered, unable to breathe as if he himself had been struck over the head. But just as quickly he shook off the horrible surprise and made his way to her in two broad steps. Kneeling beside her, he steadied himself to check her pulse. The gruesome gash on the front of her head looked deadly and she wasn’t moving.

He glanced down at the creamy skin of her delicate hands. Her painted nails glinted in the afternoon light.

He swallowed hard and pressed his fingers against her skin. Please, please be alive. I could never forgive myself if...

He felt her heart’s rhythm stroke his fingertips. Danki, Lord. Danki!