Marta Perry - Murder in Plain Sight

Concentrate on the problems of the moment. That was enough to deal with.

“That’s Bishop Amos’s buggy,” he said, pulling the car to a stop in the driveway. “Let’s hope Jacob has something helpful to say.”

“We could use a bit of concrete evidence.” Jessica walked around the car to join him. “The recurrence of the raven symbol may seem significant to us, but I’m not sure I could explain it in a convincing manner to a jury.”

“Right.”

They crossed the lawn. Bishop Amos waited for them at the door, looking unusually serious. “Trey. Jessica.” He inclined his head gravely. “It is kind of you to komm.”

He ushered them into the living room. Jacob sat between his parents, his hands dangling between his knees. None of them looked very happy at whatever was going on.

“Now.” Bishop Amos’s voice must have sounded like the crack of doom to Jacob. He jumped, the whites of his eyes showing. “Jacob, you muscht say the truth to Trey and Ms. Langdon.”

Jacob’s father intervened, speaking in Pennsylvania Dutch, apparently in the hope that they wouldn’t understand. Jacob would confess to the church. Was it necessary that he also confess to these Englischers?

“Jacob has done wrong.” There was no give to the bishop’s tone. “He must make amends to the ones he has wronged.”

His father looked as if he would say more, but Jacob jerked to his feet like a puppet yanked by its strings.

“I never meant anyone to be hurt. I didn’t. I didn’t.”

Trey’s breath caught. Was the boy going to confess to the murder?

“What did you do?” Jessica put the question as calmly as if she were in a courtroom. “Who didn’t you want to hurt?”

Jacob stared at her, eyes wide. “You,” he said. “I didn’t want to hurt you.”

Jessica paled, and he took an instinctive step closer to her. “You?” Her voice held disbelief. “You slashed my tires and followed me to my motel? You left those notes for me?”

“No, no, no.” Jacob shook his head and went on shaking it as if he couldn’t stop. “I did none of those things. I only…I…” He swallowed, his Adam’s apple moving. “I knocked over the hay bales.”

His mother made a small, pained sound. He shot her a look of apology. Of pleading.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I didn’t mean any harm to anybody. I chust-” He stopped, clamping his mouth shut.

“Didn’t mean any harm?” Trey’s fists clenched, nails biting into his palms. “You could have killed her.”

“No!” It was an anguished cry.

“No.” Surprisingly, Jessica echoed him. “If I hadn’t started to get up just then, I wouldn’t have fallen at all.”

Tears spilled over onto the boy’s cheeks. “I didn’t know. I couldn’t see you for the hay bales. I didn’t know you were getting up. I was chust trying to get close to talk to you, but when I leaned against the bales, they fell, and then you screamed, and everyone was shouting.” He clutched his head with his hands. “I couldn’t think…I didn’t know what to do. I ran. I am so ashamed. Please forgive me.”

Jessica was moved by his words. Trey could see that. But he wasn’t so easily satisfied, not where her safety was concerned.

“You could have talked to us outside, Jacob. Why did you sneak up into the loft when Ms. Langdon was alone if you didn’t mean to hurt her?”

“I…I…” Jacob sent a glance toward the bishop, but Bishop Amos stood, arms folded, watching. “It was because of Peggy.” Jacob hung his head, his cheeks reddening.

“Peggy Byler? What about her?”

“I think I know,” Jessica said. “You like Peggy, don’t you, Jacob?”

The flush reached his ears. “Ja.”

“But your friend Thomas liked her, too. Did you think maybe Peggy liked him better?”

“It…it wasn’t that.” Jacob stumbled over the words, and maybe no one in the room believed him. “I heard what you said to her. She would go into an Englisch court. It’s not proper. Not fitting for her to do that.”

“It is if it helps save Thomas’s life.” Jessica stepped toward him and grasped his arm. “Look at me, Jacob. You climbed up into the back of the loft so no one would see you. You wanted to convince me not to bring Peggy into court. Is that the truth?”

“Ja.” He rubbed at his tears with his hands, like a little kid. “That’s it. That’s all I did. I am ashamed.”

“You will confess in church that you caused Ms. Langdon’s accident,” Bishop Amos said. “You will accept the punishment the brothers and sisters agree upon.”

“Ja,” he whispered.

“Gut.” Bishop Amos turned from his erring parishioner to Jessica. “Are you satisfied with what the boy has said?”

“Yes. Thank you, Bishop Amos. It is helpful to have this much cleared up.”

He nodded gravely. “You have gone through troubles to help one of us. We will not forget it.”

Trey walked back to the car beside Jessica, frowning a little. He stopped her before she could open the door, his hand on her arm. “Did you really believe all Jacob wanted to do was talk to you?”

She considered for a moment. “Talk to me. Scare me, maybe. Judging by the father’s expression, he’s one of those who resent my involvement in Thomas’s case, don’t you think?”

“Probably.” That fit with what the man had said about Jacob confessing to Englischers. “What does that have to do with it?”

“Just that Jacob might have picked up on that disapproval from his father and thought it wouldn’t be all that bad if I had a bit of a scare. Maybe even enough to make me think twice about the case, although I suspect Jacob is more concerned about his love life than anything else.”

“Possible, but-”

“Look, whatever he intended, he seems genuinely sorry. Nasty notes I can handle, as long as physical violence is off the table.” She pulled the door open. “Let’s get back to the office and see if Leo has found anything.”

Jessica could be right. He hoped so. But he found he couldn’t quite believe it.

BY EVENING, THEY HAD discussed the discovery of the raven symbol at the scene of the murder so much that Jessica’s head was spinning. Geneva, predictably, was over-the-top excited. She was convinced that this was the key to securing Thomas’s release. In fact, she didn’t understand why they didn’t immediately rush to the police, show them the images and demand they let Thomas go.

Jessica had turned to Trey to enlist his support in explaining the situation to his mother, to find him oddly withdrawn. It was almost as if he hadn’t been paying attention to the discussion. Bobby and Leo had pitched in, helping her to convince Geneva that they still had a long way to go.

Finally Leo and Bobby had left, ducking under umbrellas to escape the rain that still pelted down. Leo promised to continue to search for any hint that the symbol of the raven had appeared in recent years, and Bobby insisted he’d track down where Cherry had obtained the raven pendant. Trey, muttering something about calls to make, disappeared into his home office.

Geneva looked after him, a perplexed frown on her face. “What’s wrong with Trey?” She turned to Jessica as if she should have the answer.

“I don’t know that anything’s wrong. He’s just busy with something else, I suppose. He’s taken a lot of time from the business to help me.” Trey’s reaction disturbed her, too, but she wasn’t about to discuss it with his mother.

Geneva’s gaze held a certain amount of doubt, but she didn’t argue the point. Instead, she began gathering up coffee cups. “It seems to me…well, we’ve already been through that.”

Jessica rose. “I’m going to head back to the motel now. There are some things I should pick up.” Geneva had talked her into staying at the house another night, but the pretrial hearing with the judge was tomorrow, and she’d need her power suit for that, which was still at the motel room.