In Plain View (Amish Safe House, Book 2) by Ruth Hartzler Page A

all the way both to Lucas
Caden’s residence and then the mansion. All she had to do was get a
taxi into town, change back into Amish clothes, and call another
taxi, to hide her trail.
    When the taxi drove past the vicinity of the
mansion, Kate glanced to her left to see numerous cop cars and news
vans littering the street. Someone was being escorted out in
handcuffs as the taxi waited at the lights. It was Logan White. He
looked to be resisting and arguing with Ryan, who appeared to be
struggling to hold the suspect in his custody. The light turned
green, but she continued watching as another police officer
assisted Ryan in throwing the kingpin into the back of a
cruiser.
    All went smoothly, and Kate finally arrived
at her cabin under the cover of night, with the Kauffman household
none the wiser to her actions.
    The next morning, Kate was working in the
garden. Rose was on a buggy ride with Samuel. The very thought made
Kate smile widely, even though her face ached – every part of her
body ached.
    Kate watched with some trepidation as a
police cruiser drove toward the house. Ryan climbed out of the car,
a smile decorating his handsome face. “Good morning,” he said.
    “Good morning,” Kate responded, wondering
what Ryan was going to say.
    Ryan’s smiled widened. “Are Isaac and Beth
here? I wanted to speak to you all at the same time.”
    “No, they’re gone to town,” Kate said. “What
news do you have?”
    “We solved the murder of Ethan Jackson
last night.”
    Kate leaned forward
and did her best to look surprised. “Really? Who did
it?”
    “ The
victim was a hitman for the suspect, Logan White. We received the
victim’s cell phone in the mail from an anonymous source, and used
that to track down a friend of his.”
    “ Wow,
that’s wonderful,” Kate said. “What a lucky break with the phone.
Come to the porch, and I’ll make us some meadow
tea.”
    Ryan followed Kate to
the porch, and he sat on one of the comfortable chairs. Kate soon
returned with some meadow tea and plate of whoopie pies, which she
set in front of Ryan, before taking her seat next to
him.
    Ryan ate a whoopie pie
before speaking. “That was good.” He turned to smile at Kate. “The
friend led us to this guy, White, who has known affiliations in
organized crime. We have reason to believe he was opening up a
branch nearby. The evidence shows that the vic was embezzling or
extorting money from the boss, so he had his goons take him out for
his crimes. A hitman and crime boss are both off the streets, not
to mention all of his goons are going to be joining him in prison.
Plus, the station and the state will each get a split of the
resources he just left behind.”
    “ That’s great; it really is. I feel so much safer already.”
Kate smiled, sincerely relieved to hear the news. “That was good of
the victim’s friend to help the police. Is he in
trouble?”
    “ No,”
Ryan said, “but why the interest?”
    Kate was relieved that
Lucas Caden would not be charged – after all, she had implied to
him that he wouldn’t be. Yet her question had aroused Ryan’s
suspicions. Kate thought fast. “It’s nice when people help the
police,” she said, silently chastising herself for not thinking of
something more convincing to say.
    Nevertheless, Ryan
appeared to be distracted. His expression suddenly changed and he
seemed to be clouded in deep thought. “Hmm,” he said. “I didn’t
even put it together before.”
    “ What?” Kate asked in surprise.
    “ The
phone. I had chalked it up to just some random person finding the
phone and sending it to the police in lieu of a lost and found or
something.”
    “ That
was probably the person’s intention,” she
added.
    Ryan shook his head.
“No, it definitely wasn’t. It was the same person who knocked out
Logan White moments before we even arrived. They even used the fire
station as the returning address to throw us off. You should have
seen those firefighters when I showed up,