Plain Refuge Page 11

  Sitting beside him, she returned his smile despite a sudden sting of tears. “I wish I had come sooner.”

  He shook his head. “Never too late.”

  Except, sometimes it was. Rebecca’s mother had been able to see her parents when she dropped off and picked up Rebecca. That had given her an excuse to visit. Young and as insensitive as children often were, Rebecca had never understood why her mother cried every year as they drove away. “But we’ll be back next year,” Rebecca would say, and her mother would try to smile and say, “Of course we will,” but even at that age Rebecca could tell she wasn’t so sure.

  “You only saw Mamm a couple of times after I quit coming, right?”

  His expression grew sad. “Ja. Whoever thinks their child will die before them?”

  Rebecca touched her cheek to his shoulder, so thin now. “I miss her.”

  “But it is good to know she is at peace. God had His reasons for taking her and your daad when He did. It does us no good to question those reasons. We must accept and know that however sad we feel, there was a purpose and we will see her again.”

  His certainty comforted her, let her almost share his faith, if only for that moment.

  He shuffled off to the bathroom using his walker and, after he came back, felt well enough to sit at the kitchen table and sip half a mug of homemade chicken noodle soup before pushing it away.

  When he stood again, he jerked and grabbed his shoulder. His eyes were wild, and although his lips moved, he couldn’t seem to form words. Spittle dribbled from his lips.

  Rebecca half carried him to the sofa, strapped the mask over his face and made sure the oxygen was flowing, then flew out the front door of the grossdawdi haus for help.

  * * *

  TWO HOURS LATER, the hospital waiting room was packed with family and friends. Rebecca sat between Sarah and Mose, whose wife, Esther, was on his other side. Mose’s eyes were on Grossmammi. She held herself stiffly, staring at nothing. Rebecca had seen her respond as each newcomer paused to say a few words, but those responses seemed to come automatically, as if she was only partly in the here and now.

  “I thought we were agreed,” Mose grumbled, for the fourth or fifth time.

  Not even Esther said anything. The family had been in agreement that they would not allow Ephraim to be hauled off to the hospital again. He had asked to die at home.

  But Grossmammi had insisted her son run to the phone shanty and call for an ambulance. It was not her husband’s time; the Englisch medicine could help, give him longer.

  Now, Rebecca suspected she regretted her decision. She couldn’t even be at his side while doctors worked over him. He’d have a tube down his throat and others going into his collapsible veins, causing enormous bruises.

  The atmosphere in the room was funereal, nothing like other gatherings Rebecca had been to. The men’s faces were stern, set so that they didn’t reveal emotion. The women wiped at tears and chided children who squirmed and whined.

  Matthew had been whispering with Abram, but now he slid from his chair and came to her. “I gotta go to the bathroom,” he said.

  She managed a smile as she rose to her feet. “Then let’s go find one.”

  She’d noticed one down the hall, almost as far as the lobby, as they came in. After checking to be sure it was a small, single-toilet bathroom, she let him go in alone. Hearing water run after he flushed the toilet surprised her. Just because she insisted he wash his hands after using the toilet didn’t mean he would do it when she wasn’t there to see. Maybe he felt her stare through the bathroom door. Supermom’s X-ray vision, she thought. If only.

  He had just come out when she heard a man’s voice from the lobby.

  “I’m looking for the Grabers?”

  Oh, dear God. That was Tim.

  Rebecca grabbed for the bathroom door handle even as she reached for Matthew. They could hide inside—

  But he cried, “Dad! That’s Dad!” and, before she got a hand on him, raced down the wide corridor.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  BONE-DEEP SCARED, Rebecca ran after Matthew.

  Too late. Too late. Tim turned from the information desk and saw Matthew, who cried again, “Dad! You came!”

  Tim saw her, too, his gaze first startled then searing, before he crouched and held out his arms. They closed tightly around Matthew, and Tim stood, lifting him to sit on his hip. “Of course I came,” he said. “Your mother knew I would.”

  Fingers biting into her palms, she resisted the need to snatch Matthew out of his father’s embrace. “How did you know we were here?”

  “First thing I heard when I stopped for a bite to eat at some little café on the main street. ‘Ephraim Graber has had another heart attack, sad to say. The whole family is gathered at the hospital.’ Of course I came here.” His eyes met Rebecca’s. “What else would you expect?”

  “This isn’t a good time. My grandfather—”

  “I’m here now, Rebecca. Let’s go outside and talk. I didn’t come all this way to sit in a waiting room and pat your hand.”

  He turned, still holding Matthew. The glass doors slid open for him and he walked out to the small shady area under a portico, his son on his hip. She could do nothing but hurry after them, only distantly aware of the wall of heat outside.

  “Let him down, Tim. He can go back and sit with his cousins while we talk.”

  Lips compressed, eyes cold, he wasn’t the man she’d known. She’d seen him angry, yes, but not savagely determined. “You’re both coming with me. It’s time to go home. Although you’ll have to change out of that ridiculous getup.”

  “Dad?” Matthew suddenly sounded uncertain. “We can’t go now.”

  “You’re wrong,” Tim snapped, and kept walking toward the visitor-parking area.

  Almost running to catch up, Rebecca didn’t see another soul. Would anyone hear if she screamed? And then what? He hadn’t threatened her. He had a right to see his son. What could she say? He might have murdered his friend, but I didn’t go to the police.

  “Wait!” Surely she could make him see reason. Agree to sit down with him, even to return the damn ring and wallet.

  He kept walking because he knew she’d go anywhere he led as long as he had Matthew.

  And he wouldn’t let Matthew go. The only way she’d get him back would be to give evidence that would ensure he was arrested. And even then, she would have to fight Robert on his home territory. Robert, who could afford better lawyers, who probably socialized with some of the judges.

  She heard a beep as he stopped beside a rental car. He opened the back door and tossed Matthew inside.

  “Put on your seat belt.”

  Matthew stared at his father in shock. “But—”

  Tim slammed the car door and opened the front-passenger door, then grabbed her arm. “Get in, Rebecca.”

  Trying to wrench herself free, she called, “Matthew, run back to the hospital.”

  Tim turned his head enough to snarl, “Stay where I put you.” Then he dragged Rebecca toward the front seat.

  She was screaming now, she knew she was. Swearing, Tim slammed her toward the front seat, and her face smashed into the top of the door frame. Pain exploded from her cheekbone and the ridge of her eyebrow throughout her entire head. She heard a car coming. Would anyone see? Stop?

  Matthew was the one screaming then and she looked down to see him head-butting his father. “Let my mom go! You’re mean! I hate you! Let Mommy go!”

  The slam of a car door and running footsteps, and suddenly Tim threw her aside and raced around to the other side of his rental. Reeling against the fender of the car parked beside his, she blinked against the encroaching darkness. Matthew? Where was Matthew? But he was clutching her leg, and it was Daniel running between cars and bursting into th
e open, right in front of Tim’s car.

  Which accelerated forward, going straight at Daniel. As he leaped aside, Daniel was yelling, too. He’d pulled his gun, but then his head turned toward her.

  Legs like noodles, she let herself slowly slide down the side of the car. And then Daniel was there, catching her in his arms.

  * * *

  DANIEL CARRIED REBECCA in through the front entrance, snapping to the volunteer behind the desk to call for a gurney. Having to let that bastard drive away infuriated him, but she was more important. He’d catch up to Tim Gregory eventually and take great pleasure in snapping on the cuffs.

  Matthew hovered, tears running down his face. “That was my dad. He was so mad. Why did he hurt Mommy?”

  Rebecca’s head rested against Daniel’s shoulder. Her lashes formed dark fans against her cheeks. He couldn’t tell if she was conscious or not, but rage filled him at the sight of the discoloration and swelling that had already begun.

  From one direction, nurses or orderlies raced toward him with a gurney. Down the cross corridor, an Amish man appeared, then broke into a run at the sight of Daniel carrying Rebecca. Mose, he realized with relief.

  They arrived almost simultaneously. Even as he gently laid her on the gurney, Mose was at his side.

  “Rebecca?”

  Her eyelids fluttered open. Daniel could tell she was struggling to focus. “Matthew?”

  Her cousin took her hand. “He’s fine. Right here.” He bent and lifted the boy so mother and son could see each other.

  “Thank God,” she whispered. Her eyes closed again, then almost immediately opened, seeking him. “Daniel?”

  He gripped her hand, noticing her kapp was gone, revealing gleaming chestnut hair gathered into a mass at her nape. “I’m not going anywhere,” he told her. “I’ll stay with you, and Mose will take care of Matthew.”

  “Thank you.” She tried to smile, first at him, then at Mose. “Denke.”

  “You will be fine, Rebecca,” her cousin said. “Just a headache, ja?”

  Daniel nodded at the two attendants and said, “I’ll be right behind you.”

  They pushed the gurney away. The last he saw, Rebecca lay heartbreakingly still, eyes closed.

  Now he had things to do.

  “It was her ex-husband,” he told Mose. “He tried to force Matthew and Rebecca into a car.” He reached out and stroked blond hair back from the boy’s forehead, finding a smile. “Matthew was very brave. He fought to protect his mother.”

  Matthew sniffled. “He didn’t act like my dad! Sometimes he gets grouchy, but...not like that.”

  “We worried when Rebecca and Matthew did not come back,” Mose said.

  “Any word on Ephraim?” Daniel asked.

  “No.” He scowled. “Grossdaadi should not be here.”

  Daniel sympathized. They had all known Ephraim was dying. It was unlike the strong woman Ruth Graber was to have permitted this.

  “You will arrest that man?” Mose asked.

  “That’s my intention.”

  Mose only nodded, his mouth tight. If Tim had been Amish, would Mose have protested? Daniel wasn’t sure, but thought Rebecca’s cousin wasn’t in a forgiving mood. With a last nod, Mose led Matthew away, holding his hand and telling him that they would come back to see his mamm as soon as the doctor said it was all right.

  Already striding toward the emergency room, Daniel took out his phone and called Dispatch. Chances were good the bastard would bolt for an airport. The closest was St. Louis, but there were other options. If Daniel had anything to say about it, Tim Gregory wouldn’t escape.

  * * *

  WHEN DANIEL DROVE Rebecca and Matthew to the house in his own SUV rather than the marked one owned by the police department, Samuel came out to talk to them. The ER doctor had noted that Rebecca had a crashing headache and was sick to her stomach, but he’d decided, reluctantly, to release her because she had never actually lost consciousness. He’d also been swayed by Daniel’s explanation that she needed to be placed in a safe house before her ex-husband had a chance to rebound and look for her again.

  “Stay put,” Daniel ordered.

  She might have taken offense if she didn’t feel so wretched. Instead, she rolled down her window as he got out and walked around to meet her uncle, who braced a hand on the roof of the SUV and looked down at her.

  “You just missed the ambulance,” he said. “Ephraim is back in his bed, but not so good. The doctor said his heart was damaged too much this time. He said maybe hours, maybe days. Mamm wanted him home again.” The relief in his voice couldn’t be mistaken. Whether he would have gone toe-to-toe with his mother over his father’s wishes, Rebecca didn’t know, but he wouldn’t have wanted to be put in that position. She knew he shared Mose’s unhappiness that Ephraim had ever been taken to the hospital in the first place.

  “Sarah is packing up your clothes and Matthew’s things, too,” he continued. “You are to go stay with Amos and Barbara Troyer. Glad to have you, Barbara told me to say.”

  A fleeting expression crossed Daniel’s face that she didn’t understand even as he nodded. Did he dislike the Troyers? She knew he and Samuel had agreed that she and Matthew should move to another household, preferably to someone not closely related to the Grabers.

  The Troyers were members of Rebecca’s family’s church district, so they weren’t complete strangers. She couldn’t picture Amos but had liked Barbara, who said she and Rebecca’s mamm, Miriam, had been gut friends as girls. Perhaps that was why she and her husband had agreed to hide Rebecca and Matthew.

  “They know it could be dangerous?” she asked anxiously.

  “Ja, they know what happened today. But I think Tim won’t be able to find you,” her uncle said.

  Daniel was clearly furious that Tim hadn’t been located. Coming and going from her side all afternoon and into the evening at the hospital, Daniel had been on his phone nearly constantly. He’d kept her updated, his expression grim.

  Tim hadn’t checked into any B and B or hotel within a three-county radius. His rental car had not been returned, or spotted by a Missouri State Highway Patrol officer or local cop. He’d disappeared, either by ditching the rental car and getting his hands on a different vehicle, or because he’d had a bolt-hole prepared. That was the theory Daniel was going with, which was why he was determined to move her and Matthew tonight.

  Rebecca also had a suspicion he was afraid if he didn’t, she might take off without telling him where she was going. He already knew her well enough to guess that would be her first instinct. Only...here she and Matthew had so many people determined to protect them, who cared. One of whom, inexplicably, was the county sheriff. That perplexed and worried her, even as the knowledge warmed her deep inside. Turning to him today had felt natural. The evening that they had sat close together in the dark, holding hands, had apparently switched off all her internal warnings.

  Sarah hurried out of the house with her arms full, Aenti Emma behind her carrying more. Daniel popped the hatch so they could stow everything. Aenti Emma came around to the open window, looking first to the backseat.

  “Ach, Matthew is asleep. Gut, gut, after such a day, he needs the rest.”

  Rebecca hoped he regained at least some of his confidence. He had been clingy and frightened since the awful scene with Tim. As furious as she was with Tim for scaring their son, she kept thinking how dumb he’d been. Matthew would never trust his father or feel the same about him again. And for...what? Had he really believed he could force them into the car and somehow get them back to San Francisco without them drawing attention or running away?

  Maybe that wasn’t what he’d intended, she thought queasily. What if he had the use of a house locally? An isolated one? He could have taken them there to force her to tell him where the ring and wallet were hidd
en. He might have intimidated Matthew into going home with him, but not her. And he couldn’t have just let her go.

  Maybe she’d never known him at all.

  Her aunt and uncle and cousin took turns to lean in to hug her gently and murmur reassurances. Rebecca accepted them all, tears stinging her eyes. Staying with people who were no relations of hers couldn’t be anything but temporary. Panic stirred, but she pushed it down. She’d feel better tomorrow. Surely she would. Then she could come up with a plan.

  Right now, she wanted nothing but to lie down in bed and close her eyes.

  “Tell...tell Grossmammi that I wish I could be with her. That I will be praying for her and Grossdaadi.”

  “She knows already,” Samuel said kindly. She made herself nod, then expressed thanks that they turned aside the same way they always did. “You’re family.”

  A moment later, Daniel was driving them away, and the family and farm she had believed would be a refuge fell behind them.

  * * *

  HAVING WAITED ONLY until darkness fell the following evening, Daniel drove out to Amos Troyer’s place. He hoped Rebecca felt better because he was determined to get some answers out of her.

  Didn’t it figure that her new protectors were members of his own family. He’d seen Rebecca’s surprise when he greeted her hosts as Onkel Amos and Aenti Barbara. Barbara was his father’s sister. She and Amos had chosen to move their young family to Missouri with Daniel’s parents, eager to find affordable land.

  What mattered was that Amos and Barbara had welcomed Rebecca and Matthew generously. Even Daniel’s uncle, a dour and generally humorless man, had expressed his willingness to help. When she tried to thank him, he had shaken his head and said, “With our last child gone, it will be good to have young people in the house, not so?”