Plain Refuge by Janice Kay Johnson

Author:Janice Kay Johnson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2017-06-30T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

DANIEL PULLED OFF the road midafternoon when his phone rang. Shorthanded today, he had gone out on patrol himself, as he often did. Truthfully, he’d had no desire to attend church. He wouldn’t have been able to pay attention to a sermon or feel any of what he ought to when he was in a house of the Lord. Helping keep the roads safe for the faithful felt more important.

He’d left a message that morning for Detective Estevez in case the guy was working on a Sunday. But this wasn’t Estevez. The number was unfamiliar, but local.

“Byler here,” he answered.

“Sheriff.” The voice was unexpected. “This is Samuel Graber. I wouldn’t usually call you about what has happened, but I think it must have to do with my niece.”

“You’re at the phone shanty?”

“Ja.”

“What happened?”

“Today was church Sunday. We were at Levi Troyer’s. Nothing wrong there, but when we got home, we found someone had broken in.”

Stiffening, Daniel said, “If Emma and Sarah are already cleaning up, please stop them. I want to see exactly what was done. I can be there in ten minutes.”

“Ja, I will tell them to wait. They itched to set everything right, you know how it is, but they will understand.”

Daniel had to force himself to stay under the speed limit during the drive. Nobody had been hurt, he reminded himself, before remembering that Ephraim and Ruth might have been on the property in the grossdawdi haus. Surely Ruth, at least, would have heard intruders. He shuddered at the idea of the tiny old lady confronting them. But Samuel would have said if something like that had happened.

He made an effort to brake gently rather than slide to a stop in front of the Grabers’ house. Samuel and his son Mose strode out to meet him immediately. Sarah sat on the front porch, but Emma wasn’t in sight.

Daniel got out. “I worried all the way here about Ruth. If she heard anything—”

Samuel shook his head. “They were with us. Ephraim was too agasinish to stay home with the oxygen the doctor says he must have.”

The word meant contrary or stubborn, and Daniel smiled.

“He did fine.” And Samuel was clearly marveling that Ephraim had been able to accomplish such a thing. “Maybe Mamm knew best and it was not his time.”

“God didn’t need him yet, which is a blessing for Ruth,” Daniel said automatically.

“The blessing,” Mose said more grimly, “is that Grossmammi and Grossdaadi were not home when these people came.”

“You’re right,” Daniel agreed, still appalled to think what would have happened if Ephraim hadn’t stubbornly insisted on attending the service. “Did they go only into the house?”

“No, everywhere. The house, the grossdawdi haus, the barn, even the chicken coop. Usually, I would have been thinking it was Englisch teenagers, tearing the place up for fun. But they would have stolen, or written on the walls, or...” He stopped. “This has us fernhoodled, it does. Makes no sense.”

“Show me,” Daniel said.

They started with the house, and he saw immediately what Samuel meant.

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