“Yes, he’s in charge of the investigation. I have to get everyone’s preliminary statements. We never thought that your wife was guilty, but she did find the body. You understand that, don’t you?”

  “I do, I understand all too well. You’ve just told me twice in two minutes that my wife was the one to find the body.” Narrowing his gaze at Fowler, Bailey wondered how tough they might have been when they questioned Silvie. She looked as though she had been through quite a lot. “I’ll be taking my wife home now.”

  “Of course.” Fowler gave a nod of his head, ending the conversation.

  Bailey stepped out of the room and hurried to Silvie. “I’m taking you home.” Placing a quick kiss on top her forehead, Bailey took Silvie by the hand and led her away.

  “I’m so glad you came when you did.”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t get here sooner. You should have waited until I got here before you answered any questions,” Bailey said.

  “I didn’t know what to do. I just wanted to go home.”

  Bailey stroked her shoulder. “We’ll be home soon enough.”

  They made their way toward the reception area of the police station, which was just before the exit.

  “That was the most awful thing, I....”

  “Well, you don’t need to worry. It’s over now.”

  Silvie knew that Bailey was trying to calm her down, but Silvie knew that it was far from over and would not be over until the killer was found.

  Chapter 5.

  But he was pierced for our transgressions,

  he was crushed for our iniquities;

  the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,

  and by his wounds we are healed.

  Isaiah 53:5

  Bailey and Silvie were just about to leave the police station when Bailey noticed that the police officer who had interviewed Silvie was walking quickly behind them.

  Bailey stood still and waited for the officer to catch up to them.

  “Bailey, Detective Crowley would like to speak to you before you go.”

  Detective Crowley was the local detective who had helped the widows with their investigations on more than one occasion.

  “Tell him that I’ll come and see him in the morning. I need to get my wife home; she’s just been through a terrible ordeal.”

  “I’m alright, Bailey. I’ll get a taxi and go home to be with Sabrina. Take your time and just come home when you finish.”

  Bailey frowned and opened his mouth to speak, but Silvie got in first. “I’m okay.”

  With Silvie safely in a taxi, Bailey returned to the police station and waited for Detective Crowley in his office. Bailey paced around the room, flexing and fisting his hands, annoyed and frustrated in equal measure. It was obvious what Crowley would want; he’d want him to help him sort through the evidence to try and figure out who might have killed Sabrina’s boss.

  Bailey had left investigations behind him when he’d joined the Amish, and he had benefitted from doing so in leaps and bounds. He could not go backwards after he'd come so far.

  Crowley would not understand, how could he? Instead, he would make Bailey feel guilty for refusing and he would most likely urge him to change his mind. Now, guilt gurgled in Bailey's chest.

  "Hash it." Bailey stepped out of Crowley’s office and looked up and down the corridor. Crowley was nowhere in sight. Bailey walked to the vending machine in the waiting room and got himself a black coffee. As he knew it would be – the coffee was terrible, barely drinkable.

  With coffee in hand, he walked back to Crowley’s office and resumed his pacing, worried over what request Crowley might have. The more he thought about it, the more he became convinced that Crowley would want him to help with the case.

  Nerves began to eat away at his stomach. This is not my past; this is my present. I'm in control.

  “Bailey Rivers?”

  Bailey looked up to see a uniformed policeman. “Yes?”

  “Detective Crowley can see you now; it’s the second door to the left.”

  Bailey repeated this mantra in his mind all the way to Crowley. Crowley was not using his personal office; he was using one of the interview rooms.

  "Ah, Bailey. Thanks so much for agreeing to come and share your experience with us. We could sure use a trained eye." Crowley approached Bailey and grabbed his hand firmly.

  Bailey shook his hand. "I’m glad you’re in charge of the case. Well, if I can help I will be glad to, but I wasn’t involved in many murders while I was with the FBI. I was in charge of the Stolen Arts Division, as you know." Bailey hoped that would get him out of it, but no, that was not to be.

  "Excellent, excellent." They released hands.

  Crowley sat at the desk, and Bailey sat in a chair on the opposite side of his desk.

  "How's your wife?" Crowley asked.

  "Silvie is very well considering all that she’s been exposed to today. I’ve just put her in a taxi. She was anxious to see her sister, Sabrina. Sabrina lives with us and she’s pretty shaken up as well.”

  Crowley breathed out heavily. “Must be nice to be involved in a close family unit.”

  Bailey smiled, though still felt anxious. "How's bachelorhood treating you?"

  "Oh, you know." Crowley grinned. "Not as good as marriage to the right woman, I’d wager. That's something else you have superior experience with than me, Rivers, but it's this evidence I need your opinion on, not marriage." He grunted and flung a file in front of Bailey. "Take a look."

  Bailey opened the flap and pulled out a few photographs and his mind switched from civilian to FBI agent automatically. "Let's see what we have." He looked up at Crowley. “Should I be doing this since my wife was the one who found the body?”

  “We both know she didn’t do it. She’s not a witness to a murder. If she were that would be an entirely different scenario. Besides, this is all off the record.”

  Bailey nodded and continued to study the evidence.

  “We’ll know more tomorrow when we get more reports back from the forensics team; this is all we have so far,” Detective Crowley said.

  * * *

  As soon as Silvie arrived back home, she felt the sudden need to get inside quickly to see Sabrina. Silvie paid the driver and rushed toward the haus. Before she reached the two front steps, the door opened and Silvie saw Sabrina’s silhouette in the doorway, framed by the soft glow of the gaslights.

  "Silvie!" Silvie could hear in Sabrina’s voice that she was stressed.

  "Sabrina, I'm so glad you're okay." Silvie rushed to Sabrina and wrapped her arms around her.

  “I’m fine. May came here and we had a talk.”

  “May? Mr. Caruthers’ dochder?”

  Sabrina nodded.

  “Why is she visiting on a night such as tonight?”

  “She said she had no other friends and her mother had drunken half a bottle of whiskey, so she didn’t want to be at home and oh – her bruder would be of no help to her. I saw him at the police station and he only seemed worried about the business.”

  Silvie took her coat off and the two of them sat down on the couch. “Well, they do have an auction on tomorrow and I guess they’ll still have to go ahead with it. From what you say they need all the money they can get, especially with opening the new place.” Silvie looked at Sabrina and wondered if she should be speaking of such things at a time like this. “Will they still go ahead with their plans of expansion now, under the circumstances?”

  “They might have to; I think a ten year lease was signed on the land for the new premises. At least, that’s what I heard,” Sabrina said wiping her eyes.

  “Surely, under the circumstances they wouldn’t hold the company to such a thing.”

  Sabrina dropped her head down.

  “I’m sorry to be speaking of these things, Sabrina.”

  “It’s alright.” Sabrina sniffed.

  “Is May okay? She could’ve stayed here the night if she wanted to.”

  “Thanks, Silvie. I didn’t even think to ask her.”

  Chapter 6.

  I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the

  goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

  Psalm 27:13

  After Bailey finished speaking to Crowley, he called a taxi. He had only been in the taxi for ten minutes when the road ahead became blurry. What's this? His breaths accelerated and nausea gripped his insides. Come on, pull yourself together.

  The road ahead was clear of traffic, so he could ask the driver to pull over at anytime if he needed to be sick. Nausea gave way to a terrifying vision.

  Not again. His flashbacks had returned. But why? It's been over six months since the last one. The doctor did say this might happen, but I thought I'd got past all this nonsense. His mouth dried and became sticky, and sweat soaked his shirt. The visions practically blinded him and he was grateful that he was not driving. “Pull the car over here, please.”

  “What, here?” The driver called over his shoulder.

  “Yeah, now.”

  The taxi screeched to a halt. Bailey opened the car door and threw up violently. He tried to take a breath, to clear his mind of whatever had set him off.

  Concentrating on breathing deeply and slowly, as his therapist advised, he began to unfreeze. He reminded himself where he was. "I'm safe; it's just a memory, not real, it's not happening right now." After five or so minutes, the panic in his chest simmered and stopped.

  “I’ve got a cold can of Pepsi,” the taxi driver offered.

  “I’m okay. I just need another moment.”

  The sweat on his forehead dried thanks to the cool night air, though his shirt clung cold and damp against his skin. Finally, his head stopped pounding and his vision cleared. He dabbed his face with his sleeve. "Okay, I’m ready."

  Although he felt poor mentally, Bailey felt good about being able to offer Crowley guidance on such an important matter. He had forgotten about the many analytical skills he'd learned during his training and honed to perfection during his time as an FBI agent in the field. He had forgotten the buzz of compiling facts and findings, following up on leads, and of assessing the evidence and looking for patterns.

  As thrilling as looking at that evidence was, Bailey knew that he did not want to do it again. The stress would kill him eventually, and he had a life he loved now. A life with Silvie was too precious for him to risk.

  He continued his journey, feeling pleased with himself, and looking forward to seeing Silvie when he got home. She would be ready with a smile and a healing hug, eagerly waiting to gather all the details she could. He could not go into detail of course, but he would reassure her that he helped their community, their detective, and had done so without suffering... too much. She would be pleased with him, and the thought of that made the sacrifice worthwhile.

  I wonder what the doctor would say about all this? Would he say I've set my recovery back months, or that I did well to tackle another fear all by myself? That I'd confronted yet another stress and dealt with it head on, or that I risked a massive relapse? Have I accelerated the healing process or put myself, and my mind, at risk?

  Bailey did not know the answers to these questions, but he had survived and he had helped Detective Crowley. He had to feel good about that, even if that feeling couldn't last.

  As soon as Bailey arrived home, he sat down with Silvie.

  "Crowley thinks that I might be of some help to them given my former training. I tried to tell him that murders weren’t my forte, but he still insists I might be able to help them.” Bailey shrugged his shoulders.

  "Ach." Silvie dropped her hands from his cheeks to hold his. "And you're worried it will take you back to the bad old days?"

  "Exactly." She gets it. Of course she does. "I've come so far, Silvie. I'm happy now, in our life together. I don't want to have reminders of my old stress filled life."

  "But it was facing the problem head on which allowed you to move on, remember? You faced your nightmares, faced your parents, and things improved greatly, didn't they?"

  "Well, yes."

  "Maybe this is the same as that?"

  She had a point. It was by facing up to things he was able to let go of them. And by letting go of them, they lost their power over him.

  Silvie stroked his cheek. "I'm always here for you if you fall. You're no longer alone in the world, you have Gott now; remember that when you feel anxious about anything."

  "I do, and it makes me smile at least three times a day." Bailey kissed the backs of her hands in turn.

  Silvie squeezed her arms around his waist. "You can count on me, full stop.”

  Bailey clenched his jaw. "Have you remembered anything new that you forgot to tell the police?"

  "I told them everything I know." Silvie rested her hand upon Bailey's.

  Sabrina poked her head out from her bedroom door which was downstairs adjacent to the entry to the kitchen. “Hello, Bailey.”

  "Sabrina, I'm so sorry I took off like that when you came home. All I could think about was making sure that Silvie was okay."

  "No need to apologize, Bailey. I understand, that’s why I had the taxi wait for you when I came home." Sabrina turned her attention back to her schweschder. "I'm going to try and get some sleep now, I'm so tired."

  "Okay," Silvie said with a soft nod. "Sleep well."

  Silvie went off to bed earlier than Bailey. Bailey was left alone to go over what Crowley had told him. Going over what he knew of the case, he did not think either Silvie or Sabrina were in any immediate danger. The murder of someone in any position of status would suggest the motive being tied to some form of gain as a result of the death. Not having any other information to go by, this was Bailey’s only assumption. Although, he still could not help worrying about Silvie and Sabrina’s well being. He was relieved that they hadn’t witnessed the murder.

  Chapter 7.

  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

  Hebrews 12:2

  Sabrina slept surprisingly well that night, leaving her feeling more refreshed than she was expecting to feel the next morning.

  Sabrina was in the best mood she could hope for, considering the circumstances. Now that Mr. Caruthers was not going to be around anymore, Sabrina wondered who would end up becoming responsible for the business.

  Later that morning, Trevor, Mr. Caruthers’ son, arrived in her office area. “Good morning, Sabrina.”

  Sabrina heard Trevor’s voice before she saw him. She could tell by his demeanor, which was more arrogant than usual, that he had assumed control in the wake of his father’s death. Offering Trevor a meek nod in response to his greeting, Sabrina hurried to her desk to set about her work.

  “And I don’t want you using yesterday as an excuse to fall behind in your work today,” Trevor said. “I want everyone on top form now that I’m taking over. I’ve got a lot of changes planned for these stables.”

  Sabrina felt sick listening to Trevor speak in such a manner so soon after his father’s death.

  After having gathered together a collection of invoices she needed to file, Sabrina’s solemn features broke out into a smile as she saw John enter.

  “John.”

  Trevor quickly re-entered the area as soon as he heard Sabrina call John’s name.

  Seeing Trevor, John remained silent.

  “John, after the unfortunate case of my father’s passing, I’ve been forced to reassess your role here at the stables.”

  “What do you mean?” John drew his eyebrows together forming a frown.

  “I’ll keep you on of course, for now, but your position as my father’s second is no longer necessary, as my father is dead.” The look on Trevor’s face made it obvious that he was enjoying demoting John. “I will be more than able to take care of both my father’s responsibilities as well as yours.”

  John remained silent, but Sabrina noticed that he clenched his fists.

  “Until I arrive at a decision about whether you have a future with this company, you will assist Sabrina with her bookkeeping along with any other things that I might assign to you.”

  John raised his eyebrows at Sabrina in silent protest.

  “I’ve an auction to run. I’m sure you two can handle things here.” Trevor turned and walked back into his office.

  “He was enjoying that far too much,” John said as he walked closer to Sabrina. He ran a hand through his hair and exhaled deeply. “I don’t know how he can treat people like that. How can he expect to run this place on his own? Old Caruthers needed my help for a reason. He’s going to run this place into the ground, I know it.”

  Sabrina tried to reassure him by saying, “Try not to worry too much, things might turn out okay.”

  “With Trevor running this place, I don’t think I can agree with you, Sabrina.” John walked toward the tearoom. “Coffee?” he yelled out over his shoulder to Sabrina.

  “Yes please.” Sabrina thought back to the fight that Trevor had with his father the day before he died. No one had asked her about the fight, so she had told no one, but maybe she should have. Trevor’s father had threatened to cut him off and then he was found dead. Trevor was lazy and wanted everything for nothing, but was he capable of murdering his own father?

  After Trevor’s announcement, what remained of the morning passed without further incident. After having spent a lot of her time watching the clock waiting for the afternoon to arrive, Sabrina was relieved when it finally reached twelve noon. Now that it was time for lunch, Sabrina decided that she was in terrible need of some fresh air. As soon as the sun hit her skin, Sabrina took in a deep breath of air.

  “Sabrina.”

  Hearing her name, Sabrina looked across the courtyard to see May walking toward her.

  “Afternoon, May,” Sabrina said. “How are you today?”

  “I am rather well, thank you. Although, I heard about Trevor this morning. That is frightfully unfair what has happened. I simply can’t believe what he’s done to John.”

 

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