Murder in Plain Sight by Marta Perry Page B

her as if to say that they were ready for her questions. She took a small notebook from her bag.
    “Why don’t you start by telling me a little about Thomas? I’ve only seen him in the jail setting, and it would help to know how he is in his ordinary life.”
    “He is a gut boy.” Aaron took control. “He works the farm with me. He is a gut worker.” He looked at Trey, as if for confirmation.
    Trey nodded. “Yes, he’s certainly a hard worker. My mother thinks a lot of him.”
    The mother glanced up, as if she wanted to speak but wasn’t sure she should. Jessica nodded at her encouragingly.
    “Thomas likes to work for Geneva,” she saidsoftly. “She was always kind to him. Talked to him while they worked.”
    He was a good boy. Everyone loved him. Except that the community, to say nothing of the D.A., was sure he’d committed an ugly crime.
    “What about this…running around time that Trey told me about? Did Thomas give you any reason to worry about what he was doing?”
    “No.” Aaron snapped off the word. “He did what young people always do, but soon he would settle down. He wouldn’t be gettin’ involved with an English girl. He knew better.”
    The mother nodded. But the sister—there was a quick, unguarded flash in Elizabeth’s blue eyes. Then she lowered her face again, studying her hands, clasped on her apron.
    “Elizabeth, do you know anything about who Thomas ran around with?”
    Before the girl could answer, Aaron answered for her. “Elizabeth knows nothing.”
    “I know which Amish young people Thomas ran around with. I have made a list for you.” The bishop took a piece of yellow lined paper from his pocket and passed it to Trey. “Trey can take you to see them. I will tell them to talk with you.”
    Trey nodded, scanning the list. “Do you knowwhere they’re likely to be getting together? They might speak more freely if their parents aren’t around.” He pocketed the list instead of handing it to her.
    She suppressed a flare of irritation. “That’s probably true.”
    “Ja, I suppose it is.” Bishop Amos’s voice was heavy with regret for that fact. “They will be at Miller’s barn on Friday night.”
    “Fine. We’ll be there,” Trey said, not bothering to consult her.
    He was right. That just annoyed her even more. “Do any of you know what time Thomas left here on Saturday night? Or where he intended to go?”
    “He went after the milking and the evening chores were done.” Aaron looked surprised that she needed to ask such a thing. “He said he was meeting Jacob Stoltzfus and some other boys.”
    “What time would it be when the evening chores were finished?” she asked, trying for patience.
    “I did not pay heed to the clock,” Aaron said.
    “About eight, it was.” Elizabeth murmured the words and then lapsed into silence again.
    Elizabeth, Jessica thought, might know more than she was saying about her brother’s activities.The problem would be getting her away from her parents in order to hear it.
    “And you don’t know anything else about where he went?”
    Aaron’s face tightened still more, if that were possible. “In the morning, we saw that he had not come home. It was not a church Sunday, so we thought he stayed over at a friend’s house.”
    He couldn’t have called, of course.
    “We knew nothing until the police came.” Thomas’s mother finally spoke, and when she raised her face, Jessica saw the anguish hidden behind the stoic facade. “When will my boy come home? Can’t you tell them that they are wrong about him?”
    She’d thought she was hardened to the inevitable conviction of families that their child could not be guilty, but Molly’s pain sliced into her.
    “I’m afraid it’s not that simple,” she said gently. She leaned forward to touch the woman’s hand. “I will do the best I can for him.” For a moment they were eye-to-eye, hands clasped, differences in age and culture and education falling away to leave only the