Taken for English (46 page)

“What if I don’t come?” The phone trembled in Ruth’s hand. What had seemed like the obvious next step a few hours ago at the bakery with Bryan now felt like a personal risk she had failed to calculate.

“If we can’t get him to talk, we may have to let him go. Unless we can get a psych hold. That might get us a couple of days.”

Ruth had seen enough television shows to know what a psychiatric hold was. She looked up at the befuddled Elijah and Annalise.

“Can I bring my friends with me?”

“Bring anybody you want,” the sheriff said, “but he wants to talk to you, nobody else.”

Ruth’s mouth had gone more completely dry than she had ever experienced.

“I’ll be there in a few minutes.” She clicked the phone closed.

Elijah stood the pitchfork on end in the hay. “Wherever you are going, I am going.”

Ruth let out her pent-up breath. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Ruth clenched Elijah’s hand unabashedly as the two of them and Annalise walked to the sheriff’s office.

“Do you have any idea why he is so emphatic about speaking with you?” the sheriff asked when she walked through the door.

“None whatsoever.” Unless he was going to threaten her. Or Bryan. Or Elijah.

“What is the nature of your relationship?”

Ruth scrunched up her face. “We don’t have a relationship. Alan is a friend of someone I met a few weeks ago—Bryan Nichols. He was here with me earlier. I already told you everything I know.”

“An officer is with Mr. Nichols now trying to verify the existence of the water bottle strap.”

“Can I just get this over with?” Ruth returned Elijah’s squeeze on her hand.

“Your friends can have a seat and wait here.”

Reluctantly, Ruth disentangled her fingers from Elijah’s. At least he would have Annalise with him and Ruth could be sure he would be there when she emerged. She followed the sheriff into a sparse side room, where she found Alan seated on one side of a metal table. Just as the sheriff had promised, an armed officer stood against one wall.

The sheriff pulled a digital recorder out of his shirt pocket. “Mr. Wellner, would you have an objection if we recorded your conversation with Miss Beiler?”

Alan met Ruth’s eyes finally. “Ruth, do you mind?”

She shook her head, not trusting her voice.

“Go ahead,” Alan said.

The sheriff put the device on the table and pressed a button. “I’ll be just outside,” he said to Ruth.

Ruth nodded, still mute, and the sheriff left. She tried not to let her eyes drift to the officer against the wall.

Alan smiled his broad, affable grin. “Am I making you nervous?”

She moistened her lips. “A little.”

“I wonder what you must think of me. I don’t blame you. If the tables were reversed, my imagination would be running wild.”

“I just want the fires to stop,” Ruth said. “I hope we can help make that happen.”

“When we were kids,” Alan said, “Bryan was the one fascinated with matches.” His lips turned up. “Surprised? I tried to tell you that you don’t know him very well.”

“Matches are dangerous,” Ruth said, “but even Amish children are sometimes curious.”

“Bryan used to start fires in a metal trash can so he could time how long it took him to put them out.”

Ruth sat motionless, feet together under the table and hands in her lap. “He told me that he’d always wanted to be a firefighter.”

“Sometimes there is a fine line between being a fire starter and a firefighter.”

Ruth had no response.

Alan leaned back nonchalantly in his chair, tipping it precariously as Ruth had seen him do before.

“My father was furious when I said I wanted to study fire science rather than business.” Alan let his chair legs fall to the floor with a clank. “Well. You saw how he is. Imagine living with that all the time.”

“I’m sorry you did not get along with your father.”

“Instead of applying to an elitist four-year college, I enrolled at the community college. They have a great program.”

“I’ve heard that.”

“It’s true.” Alan scraped his chair back a few inches.

Ruth was relieved to see that the officer behind Alan had taken note of his movement.

“Maybe I wanted to be found out,” Alan said. “Maybe I dropped that water bottle strap on purpose. Did you ever think of that?”

“So it was your strap.”

“You are more observant than I gave you credit for. How many people would pay attention to something like that?”

Ruth refused to divert her gaze. “You did drop it when you set the fire in Joel’s field.”

He slapped the table. “Why, yes, I did. I was supposed to discover that fire, but you and Bryan turned up first.”

“And the others?” Ruth hoped she was asking questions that might be useful to the sheriff.

“I made sure no one would get hurt. Only empty structures with space around them.”

Ruth waited.

“I tried to vary things just enough to break the patterns we learned about in school.”

She waited some more, mindful of the recorder on the table.

“If my father could see that I was doing something important, he would get off my back and let me follow my own career.”

“So you were going to solve the arson case.” The light went on in Ruth’s mind. “You were going to set Bryan up. You wanted to be the hero who put out the fire, and then you wanted to expose Bryan as the one who set the fires. That’s why you wanted to make me doubt him.”

“I miscalculated you,” Alan said. “I did not want to believe you were anything more than a naive Amish girl.”

The knot in Ruth’s throat was about to choke her.

R
uth sat at Annalise’s dining room table with her chair scooted toward Elijah’s and one arm linked through his elbow. She was not sure when she would be able to let go.

“You were so courageous.” Annalise carried a pot of coffee in one hand and three mugs by the handles in the other. She set everything in the middle of the table.

“I wish I could do something to help Alan.” Ruth used her free hand to pull a mug closer.

Annalise poured coffee. “I think you did.”

“I wish he didn’t have to go to prison.”

Elijah patted her arm. “I understand sometimes the
English
work out a deal of some sort.”

“If he cooperates,” Annalise said, “the charges might not be as severe as they could be. Either way, I suspect he’ll get some mental health help.”

“I hope so.” Ruth poured cream in her coffee.

“I’ve been reading a book about Arkansas history,” Annalise said. “There was a Sheriff Byler who was killed by an outlaw. Well, I suppose killing the sheriff is what made him an outlaw. They sent out posses, but he got away. From what I read, they would have hanged him on the spot if they’d caught him. I like to think that law enforcement is more humane now, while still keeping people safe. If Alan needs help, that’s what he should get.”

“And Leah?” Elijah asked. “Do you think she will cooperate with getting help?”

Annalise nodded. “It’s her best hope for getting what she wants—to go to Pennsylvania with her parents’ blessing.”

Ruth took a long swallow of coffee and set her mug down. “We should go out to the house for supper.”

Annalise glanced at the clock on the wall. Her eyes lit. “We have time to help set the table. Franey won’t mind the extra mouths. I’ll drive.”

“Oh, no, no, no.” Ruth waved her free hand. “It will be dark soon, and you don’t have enough experience driving a buggy at night. We’ll take the car, and I will drive.”

Annalise pouted. Ruth picked up her coffee.

“Word will get around town quickly that the sheriff has detained Alan,” Ruth said. “I realize my parents might not have any reason to go into town for quite a while, but I want them to hear about what happened from me.”

“I agree,” Annalise said. “And I’d love to tell Rufus about how things went with Leah.”

Ruth realized she was going to have to let go of Elijah to drive.

“I’ll check on the horse.” Elijah pushed his chair back. “Perhaps you can drop me at my new place.”

Ruth clenched his arm. “You’re not coming to supper with us?”

“Would you like me to?”

She lost herself in his eyes, so relieved to have him near.

“They won’t approve of the decision I’ve made.” Elijah put his hands in his jeans pockets. “I don’t want to cause trouble.”

“They’re going to have to get used to it.” Ruth stood and pulled Elijah to his feet. “I think they will be pleased that we are going to be a package deal after all.”

Elijah grinned.

Annalise gasped. “Is it all settled?”

Ruth chuckled. “We haven’t even talked about it yet. But I don’t think there will be much to discuss.”

Elijah cleared his throat. “Now if Rufus would just get it through his head that it is God’s will for him to propose to you.”

Ruth caught the smile that Annalise tried to obfuscate. “He has, hasn’t he?”

Annalise nodded.

Ruth finally let go of Elijah in order to embrace her friend. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“It only happened yesterday. And you can’t say anything! He wants to be traditional and wait until the banns are read.”

As Ruth backed the car out of the driveway a few minutes later, Leah approached on the sidewalk. Ruth stopped and rolled her window down.

Leah leaned in. “I came home this afternoon and there was a horse in the garage.”

“There still is.” Annalise leaned forward from the backseat. “He’s mine. The buggy, too. You probably recognize it. You drove it.”

“Don’t remind me.” Leah rolled her eyes. “I’m so sorry for all the trouble I caused that day.”

Ruth pushed the button for the automatic unlock of the back door. “Why don’t you get in? We’re going out to my family’s farm.”

Leah’s eyes widened. “Why would you invite me?”

“I think you’ll be interested to hear some of the things we’re going to talk about.” Ruth reached behind her seat and pushed open the door from the inside. “Besides, they are your people, your church. You should get to know them.”

“Wait a minute,” Annalise said from the backseat. “I have one condition.”

Ruth scrunched up her forehead.

Annalise put a finger to her lips. “No one says a word, not one word, about the horse in my garage. I want to surprise Rufus when the time is right.”

A week later, Annie felt as if tectonic plates had shifted.

A public defender representing Alan struck a deal with authorities that would assure he got the help he needed. And Alan wrote an article for the local newspaper apologizing to the entire town for the disruption and anxiety he caused. His father refused to see him, but his mother had driven down from Colorado Springs to make sure he knew she had not given up on him.

Leah had eaten breakfast and dinner with Annie every day for the past week. She still wandered during the day, but she accepted a jacket from Annie and came home before dark every day. During Friday’s session with Jerusha she nodded agreement to let Ruth drive her to Pueblo to see the counselor in her office once a week and not to try to leave Colorado before they both agreed she was ready for the life waiting for her in Pennsylvania. Annie would make sure the counseling bills were paid.

Just after ten on Saturday morning, Leah brought the horse in from the small pasture behind Annie’s house.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to drive?” the girl asked.

Annie patted the side of the horse’s neck and slipped the bridle over his head. “I admit I’m glad to have an experienced buggy driver with me, but I feel ready.”

“It’s ten miles—twice as far as the Beilers’.”

“I know. You can help me harness the horse to the buggy.”

Together they positioned the horse in front of the buggy and double-checked the arrangement of leather straps.

“Let’s go.” Annie hoisted herself up onto the buggy bench and took the reins in her hands.

Leah climbed up beside her and let out a protracted, well-managed sigh.

“Nervous?” Annie asked.

The girl nodded. “I’ve been practicing in my head all day what I’m going to say.”