Secrets in the Grave (Serenity's Plain Secrets Book 3) (24 page)

Bobby and I stepped back as Daniel hooked the claw end of the hammer around the edge of the board that sealed the broken window and pulled. The board popped free. I had my gun out as I stepped through the opening into the kitchen in front of Daniel and Bobby. The scents of maple and bacon were heavy in the air. Dirty skillets were carelessly pushed aside on the countertop. Plates of half eaten food littered the table.

I paused to listen. The rain hitting the tin roof was loud enough to disguise most random noises and I inwardly cursed the storm’s timing.

“You two take the upstairs. I’ll hit the basement,” I whispered.

“I think we should stay together,” Daniel argued, taking a step closer.

“No time,” I told him. He frowned, but when Bobby left the kitchen, following my orders, he shook his head and followed the coroner into the hallway.

I turned the knob on the door I thought led to the basement, opening it carefully. Stairs disappeared into darkness, proving me right.

With no time to hesitate, I went down the steps, moving sideways and holding my gun up and ready. Blinking, my eyes adjusted to the darkness. I took a breath before I turned the corner when I reached the last step.

Bundles of dried plants hung from the rafters and a table in the center of the room held assorted piles of seeds, leaves and bottles. The room brightened and a crash of thunder followed. I didn’t see anyone.

My heart pounded frantically. Jonas’ statement about Ada Mae not allowing him to marry Marissa repeated in my head.
The peppermint makes it taste better. It’s my special ingredient
. Robyn drank tea and died in childbirth. Fannie drank the tea and died. But Marissa didn’t die—although she very well might have.

“Why are you here?” Ada Mae’s voice rang out behind me.

I jumped, turning at the same time and pointing my gun at her.

“You know why. You’re the one person who’s connected to everyone who’s died or miscarried,” I accused. “Where’s Hannah?”

Ada Mae stared calmly back at me as if the gun aimed at her didn’t matter.

“The girl came to me looking for aid. Not the other way around,” Ada Mae replied.

“Where is she?” I lowered my voice, taking a step towards the Amish woman.

“It’s too late.” Ada Mae frowned. “The silly girl shouldn’t have flirted with Jonas. He’s weak in the flesh. I couldn’t let her slutty ways affect him. Look at what her sister already did.”

“No, Ada Mae. Fannie was involved with a young English man. Hannah and Eli were a couple. Neither one of those girls slept with Jonas,” I tried to convince her.

Ada Mae’s eyes narrowed. There was a touch of madness in them I hadn’t seen before.

“I don’t believe you,” she snapped.

The urgency to find Hannah was tempered by the keen desire to hear the woman out, to try to understand why she’d done the things she had.

“It’s not too late. You have the ability to help Hannah.” I softened my voice. “You have a gift, Ada Mae, a gift to help people, not hurt them.”

“I do. But my purpose in life has always been to protect my brother—to care for him and his children. That’s my priority.” She smiled. “He was mine way before he was Robyn’s or Marissa’s, Fannie’s or Hannah’s. When we were children, it was me he loved. Me who he kissed.” She glanced down in embarrassment. “Oh, I knew that it was wrong in the eyes of our Lord, but I didn’t care.”

“Jonas cared, didn’t he? He put a stop to it, but you couldn’t stand losing him. Is that why you killed Robyn? You
were recently widowed and alone at the time. Did the desire to be with your brother again drive you to do the unthinkable?”

It was then that I noticed the lighter in her hand and got a whiff of the rotten egg gas scent. I stalled my movement. It dawned on me the reason why the woman, who had kept her secrets her entire life, was now freeing herself of them.

“It wasn’t easy. She was the mother of my nieces. Those children should have been mine all along.” Ada Mae frowned.

I swallowed, watching her hand waver in the air. I was judging the distance to her and how fast I could run when another voice spoke up behind me. I sucked in a breath of surprise.

“So it was
you
who killed my dear sister,” the bishop said. “When did your soul become infected with the poison of the devil? Was it when you killed your mother?”

I didn’t dare look the bishop’s way. I couldn’t take my eyes from Ada Mae. The expression that widened her face was sickly mesmerizing.

“And how would you know of that,
Aaron Esch
?” Ada Mae said the name with distaste, as if she’d bitten into a piece of bitter fruit.

“Many years ago Wilma Gingerich told me of the tea that your mother drank before she and her child died in the birthing bed. Wilma had no proof that it was the tea that killed them, but she suspected as much. She’d seen enough births to know when something was amiss. That’s why I suspected Jonas’ involvement in Robyn’s death. It wasn’t until Daniel spoke to his mother about the contents of the tea that took Fannie’s life that I made the connection to you.”

He took another step into the basement and my hand shot up. “Stop there, Bishop.”

“Momma wasn’t meant to die. I was young and inexperienced about the combination of certain herbs at the time. She was a frail woman. I thought another delivery at her age would kill her. I mixed the ingredients, hoping to force her menses on her, to bleed the baby out. But the bleeding was too much.”

She paused. “That’s how I learned how to make a potion to kill.”

I took a quick breath. “Why didn’t you kill Marissa then?”

“She should have died. Maybe she didn’t drink enough of the tea. It doesn’t matter. I’ll stand trial before my Lord at his altar.”

“Please don’t,” I whispered, shifting my aim to Ada Mae’s head, but knew that even if I could stop her from striking the lighter, the gunshot blast would ignite the gas.

Ada Mae raised the lighter.

Indecision rushed through me. Stomping on the stairs made Ada Mae glance away.

“You killed her—killed Hannah,” Eli choked out.

He raised a rifle. The bishop scrambled for Eli’s gun, but missed.

The gunshot echoed a split second before the explosion ripped through my senses.

26

DANIEL

I
didn’t like parting from Serenity, but time wasn’t in abundance. Breaking into two groups made the most sense. Serenity was also the sheriff. I already knew she could take care of herself, and part of me refused to believe the Peacheys posed any real danger to anyone. Jonas was sitting in the interrogation room back at the station. Surely we weren’t walking into anything more troubling than catching Hannah and Eli in the middle of acting out against the rules of their society.

Bobby didn’t feel the same way. When I glanced at him, his eyes darted back and forth. Thunder rumbled, vibrating the house, and yet the creaking on the floor boards from our feet boomed louder in my ears. Lightning flashed and a louder clap sounded. I took advantage of the noise and hurried up the remaining steps.

I held my breath. Wandering around a home I wasn’t invited into wasn’t something I was used to.

I peeked into the first doorway. Only a neatly made bed and a dresser in the corner were there. Bobby went around
me to look into the second doorway. I silently cursed that he’d gone ahead. If there was any kind of threat, I didn’t know what the old coroner was going to do about it.

When Bobby disappeared into the room, I lengthened my stride, following him.

Hannah was lying on the bed. Eli leaned over her, rubbing her forehead.

“Did she drink tea?” Bobby belted out, rushing to the bedside faster than I would have thought possible. He picked up an empty cup from the nightstand and sniffed it.

“She did. Ada Mae gave it to her. Hannah wanted to rid herself of our baby—she done it on purpose,” Eli exclaimed. He stood, taking a step backward. His face was distorted in grief.

Bobby grimaced at the cup and carefully set it back down. He leaned over Hannah.

“Sweetheart, let me look at your eyes,” he coaxed.

Hannah turned to him. As Bobby spread her eyes wider with his fingertips, sweat drops slid down the side of her ashen face.

Bobby shot me a look. “We don’t have much time. She needs emergency care. I’m afraid that if we wait for an ambulance, it will be too late.”

“I didn’t want to kill the baby—but I didn’t know—didn’t know if it was Eli’s or Arlo’s.” Hannah grabbed Bobby’s wrist with a sudden show of strength. “Arlo forced himself on me. He was showing attention to Fannie, then one day, he began hounding me. I told him no. But he wouldn’t listen…” Her words trailed off into wet tears and sniffing.

Eli dropped onto the bed, grasping her face in his hands. “I would have helped you through it, Hannah. You should
have trusted me. It’s not your fault what Arlo did to you, and it’s not the baby’s fault, either.”

The maturity in Eli’s voice startled me. The kid had come a long way since he’d lost Naomi’s love to Serenity’s nephew. Looking down on the tortured scene, I couldn’t help wondering about his bad luck with women.

“All right. Bobby, call the hospital and tell them we’re on our way with the patient. Fill them in on whatever they need to know.” I met Eli’s fearful eyes. “Let me help her, Eli.”

He rubbed his hands through his hair with a tug and groaned, but moved aside.

I slipped my hand under Hannah’s back and legs, lifting her from the bed. The solidness of her weight and the limpness of her body lengthened my stride. I heard Bobby behind me, talking on the phone. I remained hopeful that we’d make it to the hospital in time to save the girl, but seeing the blood spreading on Hannah’s dress made me fear that the baby was already lost.

“Serenity, come on! I found them!” I shouted, fearing she was already searching the barn.

Eli jumped in front of me and opened the door. I barely paused on the porch before taking the steps two at a time. I darted into the rain as the sky lightened around us. The boom of thunder was directly overhead.

Clip clops
echoed above the storm and I raised my head into the rain to see a buggy being pulled at a pounding trot up the driveway. The horse threw its head with the thunder, its eyes wide with terror. The buggy pulled alongside us as I placed Hannah in the backseat of the Jeep. She slumped over, unconscious.

Eli grabbed the horse’s reins, struggling to control it. Aaron Esch was the first out of the buggy. Father and Ma jumped out after him. I paused, startled by their appearance.

The rain pelted down on Ma, but she ignored it. Her eyes flashed with the lightning when she turned to me. “How long since she ingested the poisons?” she called out to be heard above the wind.

Eli moved closer, still holding onto the horse. “When I found her, she said it had only been about an hour. So maybe an hour and a half in total.”

Ma’s face dropped into a frown. “We may be too late then,” she muttered.

Bobby squeezed in and faced Ma. “I believe she ingested the same herbs that Fannie did. Tansy ragwort, pennyroyal, parsley, and peppermint. We need to get her to the emergency room. She’s already bleeding.”

Ma pulled a jar from her pocket. Dark liquid sloshed around inside of it. “This might slow the bleeding.” Her gaze didn’t waiver as she looked at Bobby. “If there’s any hope, she needs it now.”

Bobby took a breath and nodded, moving aside so Ma could climb into the back seat with Hannah. My eyes popped wide when Ma slapped Hannah’s cheek.

“Wake up, Hannah. You must drink this.” Ma looked at Bobby over her shoulder. “Go to the other side and hold her up.”

Bobby did as he was told. Another clap of thunder rolled over us. I glanced up to watch the gray clouds billowing across the sky with the harsh wind. Father stood stoically in the rain beside me.

“Where’s Aaron?” I asked Father.

Father raised his shoulders, shrugging. I looked back at the house. Shifting on my feet, my stomach clenched.
Where’s Serenity?

I was turning to go back to the house to search for her when Ma’s voice rose above the gusts of wind. When I looked back, her eyes were closed. She had one hand on Hannah’s head and another above her. The jar lay on the ground beside the Jeep, empty.

The chanting brought me back to another place and time.
I was in my childhood yard. Lester’s head was resting in my lap. Ma was speaking the same strange words. Words I didn’t understand. Words that scared me
.

As if we were in the eye of a hurricane, the storm diminished around us. The rain lessened to a drizzle and the clouds lifted, revealing blue sky. The wind died down to a stiff, cool breeze. I held my breath, unable to tear my eyes away from the three people huddled together in the small space at the back of my Jeep.

Ma’s voice was a continuous rambling that rose and fell with the wind. Bobby’s eyes were closed, too. His mouth moved in his own silent praying. Hannah’s eyes were the only ones open. They shone out of her face with a brilliance all their own, and they were terrified.

“I don’t want to die,” she cried out.

A coughing fit overtook Hannah. Her body rocked violently and she doubled over in Bobby’s arms. Bobby’s eyes met mine and they glinted with unshed tears. Ma didn’t slow her chanting. Hannah lay still.

I heard the sloshing through the puddles before I turned my head. Eli was running to the house. The horse jumped
into a half rear and Father grabbed for the reins to steady the animal.

I looked back into the Jeep. Hannah wasn’t breathing. Her head lolled back on Bobby’s shoulder and her skin was deathly white.

The same heavy stillness overtook the air that I’d felt when Lester had stopped breathing and Mervin had gulped for breath. I took a shuddering breath and closed my eyes. Whatever it was shouldn’t be seen.

With my eyes squeezed tightly together, I began praying. Praying for Hannah and Serenity, even my own soul. There wasn’t any rhyme or reason to the words in my head. They poured out from my terrified heart.

The wind settled. All was quiet. The world seemed to be waiting, as if drawing in a deep breath.