Seeds of Deception: A Kate Burkholder Short Story (6 page)

Katie got off the bike and leaned it against a tree that grew alongside the fence. Keeping her eyes on the road and the Zimmerman house a hundred yards away, she climbed the wire fence and made her way toward the barn. The stink of burnt rubber filled her nostrils as she passed the tractor. The sliding door had been knocked from its track and leaned at a precarious angle. The police had strung yellow caution tape across the opening. Standing in the doorway, Katie pulled the tiny flashlight from her pocket and shone it inside.

There wasn’t much left. Every visible piece of wood was charred or burned through. One of the rafters had broken and angled down against the ground. The hay had been reduced to a pile of black ash. This was no harmless barn fire. The structure and equipment inside were a complete loss. She’d heard one of the firefighters mention how quickly the hay had ignited. If someone had been inside, they surely would have been hurt—or worse. The thought made her shudder.

Extinguishing the flashlight, Katie turned away from the barn and scaled the fence. Troubling questions plagued her as she pushed the bike onto the road and hopped on. She needed to know who’d set the fire. Once she knew the truth, she’d decide what to do about it.

A few minutes later, she turned into the Erb lane. Past the milk house, the driveway curved right. Another ten yards, and the big farmhouse loomed into view. Much to Katie’s relief, the windows were dark. She knew which room was Mattie’s. Tonight wasn’t the first time she’d sneaked out to see her friend.

Hopping off the bike, she walked it to the maple tree and parked it. She scooped a handful of gravel from the driveway and walked to the side of the house where the dormer window of Mattie’s bedroom looked out over the yard. She tossed a few pebbles at the glass and waited.

“Come on, Mattie,” she whispered.

She was about to try again, when the screen slid up and Mattie stuck her head out. “Katie? What on earth are you doing here?”

Katie let the pebbles fall to the ground. “I need to talk to you.”

“Now?”

“I didn’t ride all the way over here in the middle of the night because it can wait until morning,” she whispered.

“Meet me in the milk house.” Huffing her displeasure, Mattie closed the window.

Katie wandered to the old stone milk house and let herself in. Just enough light filtered in from the window for her to find a place to sit. She was sitting on the concrete ledge that separated the stanchions from the guttering, when Mattie entered a few minutes later. She wore a sleeping gown, no
kapp
, and—much to Katie’s amusement—a pair of muck boots. Her hair was sticking up on one side like a rooster’s tail.

Katie couldn’t help it; despite the seriousness of her mission tonight, she grinned. “Boots look good with the nightshirt.”

Mattie was grouchy. “If Datt wakes up and finds you here, we’re going to have some explaining to do.” Crossing to where a lantern dangled from a hook, she removed the globe and lit the wick. Yellow light rained down on them. “What’s so important that it couldn’t wait until morning?” Mattie plopped onto the ledge next to Katie and snuggled against her.

Both girls had their legs stretched out in front of them. Katie pulled up her skirt slightly so that Mattie could see her knees. The abrasions looked black in the dim light, the bruises like shadows.

A sound of dismay squeezed from Mattie’s throat. “What happened?” she asked.

Katie turned up her palms so her friend could see the abrasions there, too. “I ran into Billy Marquart on my way home this afternoon.”

“Oh, no…”

Katie recounted the scene at the covered bridge.

When she was finished, Mattie put her hand over her mouth, her eyes anguished. “It’s all my fault. He was angry with you because of me. I’m sorry.”

Katie had rehearsed the conversation a dozen times in her head. Now that she was here, looking into her friend’s eyes, none of the words she’d so carefully strung together over the last hours seemed right.

Taking a deep breath, she plunged. “Billy said the lighter isn’t his.”

“Even a dummy like Billy is smart enough not to admit something like that.”

Katie held her friend’s gaze. “Mattie, I was looking right at him when he said it. The look in his eyes … the way he said it…” Closing her eyes, she forced the words out. “I believe him.”

“You believe him? A known liar? Over your best friend?” Mattie choked out a sound of incredulity. “After what he did to you?”

The girls fell silent, as if shocked by the words between them, unable to process the repercussions or put them in perspective.

Katie forged on. “You’re my best friend and I love you like a sister. I’m on your side. Please tell me the truth.”

Tears filled Mattie’s eyes. “You have to believe me.”

“I want to, but things aren’t adding up. I don’t know what to believe.”

Lowering her head, Mattie put her face in her hands and began to cry.

The urge to comfort was powerful. It hurt to see her friend in pain. Twice, Katie leaned close to take her hand and tell her it was okay. Twice, she stopped herself before she could.

After a moment, Mattie raised her head. Tears streamed down her cheeks. Her eyes were ravaged, her nose red and running. “The lighter was mine,” she whispered. “Are you happy now?”

Katie felt something tear inside her. A vital part of her had been whole and undamaged until now, and on some instinctive level, she knew that small part of her would never be the same. “No,” she said softly. “It makes me sad.”

“It’s not what you think,” Mattie told her.

“I don’t know what to think.”

Wiping her nose on the sleeve of her sleeping gown, Mattie shook her head. “It was an accident. A horrible, stupid accident.”

“Tell me,” Katie said.

“Billy and I were … smoking. Over by where Mr. Zimmerman stored the hay. One minute we were just sitting there, talking and joking around and the next … Billy just … came at me and started trying to kiss me. Trying to … you know … put his hands on me.” She touched her chest and shuddered. “I don’t like him that way. The only reason I went into that barn with him was to … I don’t know … show him an Amish girl could put him in his place. I guess I thought I could handle him. But when I laughed at him and tried to push him away, he wouldn’t listen. He just … kept coming. We wrestled a bit, kind of awkward like, but then something happened to him. He got really mad and it scared me. I … must have panicked and somehow scratched his face.”

Looking away, she drew up her legs and wrapped her arms around her knees. “When all that was happening, I dropped my cigarette between two bales of hay. I tried to get to it, but the bales were heavy, and Billy was still trying to … get at me, so I just left it. And I ran.”

Katie stared at Mattie, her heart pounding, pain and guilt and doubt tearing into her like tiny, sharp teeth. “Billy came out of that barn before you did.”

“After he left, I went back inside to make sure there was no fire and find that cigarette if I could. I looked for it. I swear to you, Katie, when I walked out of that barn there was no fire. There was no smoke. I figured Billy put it out. That’s the honest-to-God truth.”

“It was an accident,” Katie said.

Mattie shrugged. “I’m not even sure it was my cigarette that started it. I mean, Billy had matches. I saw them. He was so angry and cursing at me. As far as I know, he lit those matches and tossed them inside just to spite me.”

“Why didn’t you tell the police?”

Mattie’s eyes flashed. “Because I was scared. Billy was like a rabid animal, spitting and snarling. He said if I told anyone what happened, he’d wait until no one was around and finish what he started. I know it sounds silly now, but at the time … if you’d seen his face. I believed him. I still do.”

Katie didn’t know what to say. Guilt nipped at her conscience. For not believing her friend when she should have. For pressing her when she should have been patient. Worse, she didn’t know how to make things right.

“I believe you,” Katie said after a moment.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you everything from the start. I should have. But it was such an ugly thing.”

“Not easy stuff to talk about.” Katie sighed. “What about Billy?”

“I don’t know.” Mattie bit her lip. “I don’t know if he started the fire. Maybe he did. Maybe it was my cigarette.” She shrugged. “What if he does that to another girl? What if he doesn’t stop next time?”

The weight of the questions settled uneasily on Katie’s shoulders. The truth of the matter was she didn’t know what to do. The line between right and wrong seemed crooked and gray. Not for the first time she wished she could talk to her
mamm
or
datt
or even Jacob. But, of course, she couldn’t.

“Maybe we ought to just let things play out with the police,” Mattie suggested. “Maybe this is a lesson Billy needs to learn. Maybe he’ll be a better person because of it.”

Katie thought about what Billy had done to her earlier in the day. Pushing her to the ground and damaging Jacob’s bicycle. After a moment, she nodded. “Maybe you’re right.”

“The English police know what to do with boys like Billy Marquart,” Mattie added.

It wasn’t the perfect solution, but it was the best one Katie could think of. She got to her feet. “I have to get back.”

“Before someone misses you, sneaky girl.” Rising quickly, Mattie threw her arms around Katie. “Thank you for believing in me.”

Closing her eyes, Katie hugged her back and tried hard to ignore the little voice in the back of her head telling her that wasn’t exactly the case. But it was close enough to the truth that Katie thought she could live with it.

“See you at worship,” she whispered.

“See you then.”

*   *   *

Three weeks later …

The old draft horse whinnied softly when Katie dropped the flake of alfalfa into his hayrack. She was in the stall, brushing the animal’s coat when Jacob approached.

“Did you hear about Billy Marquart?” he asked.

Katie looked over her shoulder at him and smiled. “Billy who?”

Jacob didn’t smile back. “He had juvenile court yesterday. The judge found him guilty of felony arson.”

A sensation similar to nausea seesawed in her gut. “He’s going to jail?”

“He got some kind of probation. And community service.”

Katie still wasn’t convinced Billy had started the fire—a doubt that still kept her up some nights. But when she weighed the question of his guilt against the things he’d done to Mattie—and the damage he’d done to Jacob’s bicycle—she figured justice had prevailed, at least in a roundabout way.

She stopped brushing the horse and turned to face her brother. “Hopefully he learned his lesson.”

“I think there were lessons in there for everyone this time.” Jacob smiled at her kindly. “Come on, little sister. Let’s go eat breakfast.”

Giving the horse a final pat, Katie left the stall, closed the door behind her, and walked with her brother into the house.

Read on for an excerpt from the newest Kate Burkholder Amish mystery:

AMONG THE WICKED

Available in hardcover and eBook on
July 12, 2016

And be on the lookout for the trade paperback edition of AFTER THE STORM, on sale
May 3, 2016

And the mass market edition of HER LAST BREATH, available
December 6, 2016.

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