Safe Hearts (Amish Safe House, Book 3) (8 page)

“
Oh,” Kate said, stopping
working for a moment, and turning her head to look at Ryan. “Is he
okay?”

“
Yes,” Ryan said.
“Actually, we released him.”

“
Oh, that’s good news!”
Kate was overjoyed.

“
His prints were nowhere to
be found on the bottle of poison.”

“
I should think not,” Kate
said. “I knew he didn’t have anything to do with this whole
mess.”

“
Well, you were right,” the
cop said with a smile. “As always.”

“
I
am
right a lot, aren’t I?” Kate said,
teasing him.

“
You are. I admit it,” Ryan
said. “You’d make a good cop.”

Kate laughed. If only Ryan knew the
truth about her. She wasn’t exactly a cop, but she had more in
common with that world than she did with the Amish one.

“
A witness came forward as
well, someone who saw someone at the cafe, a different man. He
didn’t fit Jeremiah’s description at all. Anyway, we’ve put out an
APB out on him. Oh, that’s an all points bulletin; it just means
that law enforcement needs to be looking for him.”

Kate nodded, as if this was news to
her. Of course, she knew what an APB was, but she couldn’t let Ryan
know that. “So that guy, whoever he is, he’s here? In
town?”

Ryan shrugged a bit as he reached over
for one of the potted plants. He held the new plant by its stem
near the soil, and gently tugged it free of the dark green, plastic
pot. He quickly transferred it to the soil, sliding it into one of
the holes they had dug together. He began patting the loose soil
around the stem down, and Kate reached over to help him. Her hand
brushed his. Both of them suddenly stopped.

They both had felt it, Kate knew, that
electric shock of attraction, when their fingers had brushed
against one another's. They looked at one another, and Kate felt
like a young girl in high school again. She blushed and turned her
head away, getting back to digging a hole. Her attention lapsed,
and she brought the somewhat sharp edge of her trowel down onto the
side of her index finger.

“
Ow!” she said, dropping
her trowel and bringing the wound to her lips.

“
Are you all right?” Ryan
asked.

“
I just cut my hand. I was
careless, really,” Kate said.

“
Let me see it,” Ryan said,
reaching out for her hand. He took it and pulled it away from her
mouth. “That’s a pretty bad cut. You might be right all of the
time, but you sure are clumsy.”

Kate laughed. “There are some bandages
inside,” she said, as she stood.

Ryan stood as well, bending to knock
the dirt away from the knees of his uniform. “I’ll help, and then I
should be going,” the cop said softly. They went into Beth’s house
together.

Kate went to a small cabinet near the
corner of the living room. She opened the door to reveal three
small shelves. She pulled out a clear, plastic bottle of alcohol
and a white box of bandages. “I can handle it myself, though,” she
said with a smile.

“
I know, but I’m a police
officer. Protect and serve and all that. I didn’t protect you, so
now I’ll serve.”

“
What would you have
protected me from?”

“
Your own clumsiness,” Ryan
joked.

Kate put on an angry face, but she was
only kidding, and it only served to make Ryan laugh. “You don’t
look very tough; I’m sorry to say,” he said.

If only he
knew
, Kate thought. Aloud she said, “I’m
pretty tough. Looks can be deceiving; isn’t that what they
say?”

“
I suppose so,” Ryan said.
“You’re a lot of things, but tough isn’t one of them. Well, you may
be tough; I should say intimidating isn’t one of them.”

“
I can be plenty
intimidating,” Kate said, inwardly smiling at the irony, as she
moved to the back of the cabin and into the kitchen.

“
Oh yeah?” Ryan asked,
following her.

“
Are you going to help me
with this or not?” Kate asked.

“
Of course,” the sheriff
said, coming forward and taking the bottle of alcohol. He opened
the lid and made a face. “Oh, that smells.”

Kate smiled. “Don’t tell me you can’t
handle a little first aid work.”

“
Run your cut under the
water, get it cleaned off, will you?” Ryan said with a wide grin.
Kate did as he asked, and then held her hand over the sink while
Ryan poured some of the alcohol onto the wound in order to
sterilize it. Kate grimaced as the liquid bit into her
cut.

“
Pretty impressive,” Ryan
said. “Barely even noticed a change in your face.”

He was joking of course; the grimace
would have been impossible to miss. “Oh hush,” Kate said. The cop
then opened the box of bandages and pulled one out. It was thin,
wrapped in paper and had adhesive at the sides so it could stick to
the skin around the cut. He held the bandage over the cut and then
pressed down, making sure the cut was completely covered. When he
was done, he stepped back.

“
Better?” he asked. He
hadn’t let go of Kate’s hand yet.

“
Yes,” she said.

“
Have you thought about
what I asked? Leaving the Amish community?”

“
Yes,” Kate
said.

“
Would you?”

“
Yes,” she said, again. Of
course, the choice wasn’t a hard one for her, she wasn’t Amish at
all. Ryan smiled, and he stepped forward, closing the slight gap
that had existed between their bodies. Kate looked up to the man,
her pulse quickening, her heart beginning to pound within her
chest. He bent a bit, brought his head down, his lips going for
hers.

And Kate wanted to kiss him; of course
she did, but then she thought that she was not acting like an Amish
woman. She also thought about her real life. She didn’t live
anywhere near here, not even in this state. She wasn’t Amish. She
had a life, and a job, and it was across the country. And her time
was running out. She would be going back to her real life soon; she
knew that. It wasn’t fair to Ryan to pretend otherwise, and it
wasn’t fair to herself.

“
No,” she said, moving her
head back just before their lips came together. She pulled her hand
from his.

“
No?” he asked. “No
what?”

“
No. Not right
now.”

Ryan looked confused. He just smiled
and nodded. “Keep that cut clean, all right?” he said, and then he
turned and left in a hurry. Kate stood by her sink, her eyes on the
door long after he had gone out. She didn’t know if she had made a
mistake or not, but it sure felt like it.

Psalm 125: 1 -
2
.
Those who
trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but
abides forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord
surrounds his people, from this time forth and
forevermore.

Chapter 9
.

Everyone was in a celebratory mood as
they milled around the room. The table was overloaded with pot
pies, shoo fly pies, apple pies, and sandwiches. There were more
snacks and desserts than they could possibly eat. There was more
food than Kate had ever seen at one time.

Maybe that’s a slight
exaggeration
, Kate thought, as she examined
the overflowing table. She had thought her whoopie pies would be
good offering, but they were barely a speck in all the
bounty.

The knitting circle ladies definitely
had a lot to celebrate, and luckily for her, they were focusing
today on Jeremiah's release and a new quilting project, rather than
on her pathetic attempts to knit.

“
Kate, what do you think of
this color?” Lillian shoved some squares of cloth under her nose.
Kate leaned back to get a better look.

Before Kate could answer, the elderly
Maria leaned over to her. “You've done so much for this little
group. I can't thank you enough.”

Kate felt her face redden as Maria
beamed at her as if she had just performed an amazing feat. “Maria,
I didn't do anything. The police did all the work.”

“
Jah
, but who got the police to keep looking into the case?”
Abigail raised a brow and smiled knowingly. “Our secret sources
revealed that they saw you go into the police station.”

“
You mean your friend at
the deli?” Kate asked, which caused half of the other ladies to
burst out into giggles. Seeing Abigail’s sheepish smile, she
guessed herself right. The deli was right across from the station,
so in hindsight Kate should have been more careful. A woman in
Amish clothes walking into a police station would certainly stand
out.

“
It is a shame your
memories aren't as sharp as your mind, Kate,” Miriam said
cheerfully. “You must have a lot of interesting stories locked away
in there.”

“
Oh Miriam, shush.” Maria
scolded the woman with a light swat to her arm. Even so, she her
eyes smiled while she was giving her stern frown of discipline.
Everyone was relieved to have Jeremiah home. “Such
manners.”

“
Sorry, Kate.” Miriam gave
a joyous smile, and looked at the doorway impatiently. “But
goodness, where is Beckie? She's making a habit of being
late.”

“
Be patient with her,”
Maria admonished gently as she started to go through the scraps of
cloth. “Jeremiah only made it home last night. Now behave yourself
and help sort these squares. This quilt isn't going to make
itself.”

Kate smiled as Maria pulled the ladies
into order, assigning tasks. It was a relief to be working on a new
project today. While she couldn't promise perfection, even she
could stitch two pieces of cloth together with reasonable success.
It made a lot more sense to her brain than the series of curling
and counting. She wasn't exactly sure what the exact reason was for
quilting today, but as long as she didn't have to look at a
defenseless blob of tangled yarn, she had no reason to question
it.

“
Miriam told me that more
witnesses spoke up about seeing someone run from the cafe before
Jeremiah got there,” Lillian chimed in as she squinted at the end
of her needle and furrowed her brow. “Kate dear, could you thread
this for me? I left my glasses at home.”

“
No problem.” Kate took the
needle and tried to coax the thread through the tiny eye. She
hadn’t done much stitching in her day, but she did know how to sew
a button. She hoped that no one would expect her to make a dress of
anything. Buttons and simple tears were the entirety of her
experience. “I'm glad that they finally found some
witnesses.”

“
With your help,” Lillian
chimed in.

Kate shook her head. “Really, I didn’t
do anything.” She appreciated that the ladies were grateful that
she went to talk to someone at the station. But they were going
overboard in their gratitude. “I didn't do anything but go talk to
a police officer. If anyone deserves credit, it would be you
ladies.”

Nancy waved her hand dismissively. “We
didn't go to the police and convince them to keep looking into the
case.”

“
Just don't make a habit of
spreading our talks to outsiders, young lady,” Maria said as she
carefully stitched two brightly colored squares together. “This
time it is fine, of course. You saved Jeremiah from that awful
jailhouse.

The women all nodded in agreement and
started praising her effort again. Even Esther hobbled out of her
rocking chair and hobbled over to pat Kate's shoulder in thanks.
“You have such a good heart, going out of your way to save
Jeremiah's nephew like you did.”

Kate sighed in resignation. All she
did was talk to Ryan, but the ladies were acting as if she herself
were law enforcement. If only she were, but right now, she was
plain Katie, the amnesiac Amish woman.

“
You are always at the
right place, at the right time it seems,” Esther said speculatively
as she hobbled back to her chair and picked up her knitting. “Never
a case unsolved when you get involved.”

Kate opened her mouth to protest, when
Beckie burst through the door. The young woman looked positively
radiant. Kate sighed in relief.

Beckie headed straight for
her. “Oh Kate,
denki
so much. I heard you talked to the police and they let
Jeremiah out. I can't thank you enough.”

Kate’s protests were once again
muffled as the women spoke at once. “They've cleared Jeremiah of
all charges..”

“
Wunderbaar
!” Nancy said in a high,
excited voice as there was a collective sigh of relief from the
ladies.

“
Have they caught the real
killer then?” Lillian asked, ignoring Maria's disapproving
frown.

“
Nee
, they haven’t caught any suspect yet,” Miriam said as she
sighed contently. “What matters, though, is that Jeremiah is safe
and sound. He even came home with us last night.”

“
I'm surprised you let him
out of your sight today.” Nancy gave a soft laugh at Miriam's eye
roll in her direction. Maria scoffed and frowned at
Nancy.