“You can when I close this case. For now, it’s evidence.” I move closer to him. “What did she say about the boyfriend?”
“Just that he wasn’t Amish, but she was crazy about him. Really crazy. Made it sound all romantic. You know, teenaged girl stuff. She wanted to marry him. Have his kids. Shit like that. She was sneaking out at night to be with him.”
“Did she mention a name?”
“No.”
I hold his gaze. “Do you still have the letter?”
“I tossed it.” He looks away. “I didn’t know it would be the last time I heard from her.”
“What was the tone of the letter?” I ask.
“I swear to God she seemed fine. Just . . . confused. In love for the first time.” His voice cracks on the last word. “I wish I’d dropped everything and driven down. I might’ve been able to do something.” He closes his eyes, presses his fingers to his temples. “Mary always looked up to me. I was her big brother. She watched me leave the Amish way of life, and she wanted the same for herself.” He sighs. “I had Rob to help me through it. She didn’t have anyone. I wish I could have been there for her.”
“Is there anything else you can tell me about the letter?” I ask. “Anything that worried you?”
He shakes his head. “God, I don’t remember all the details. She kind of caught me up on family stuff. How fast little Amos was growing. She said everything was fine. I do recall that she talked a lot about the guy. She was definitely into him.”
“Did she say anything that made you concerned for her safety?”
“No.”
Disappointment digs into me. “Did you write her back? Call her?”
“I wrote her a letter.” His face screws up. He brings his fist down on the counter. “I wish to God I’d had the courage to drive down.”
“What did you say in your letter?”
He blows out a breath, composes himself. “I hooked her up with an Amish guy near Millersburg. He runs a sort of . . . underground railroad for young Amish men who want to leave the Plain life.” He gives me a sage look. “That’s one of the reasons I didn’t tell you about this, Chief Burkholder. The man is Amish. He’s married to an Amish woman and they have six children. If anyone finds out what he does, he’ll be excommunicated.”
For the first time, Aaron’s reticence makes a certain amount of sense. “What’s his name?”
“Ed Beachey.
I’ve never met Ed, but I know of him. “He owns a small cattle operation down the road from Miller’s Pond.”
Aaron nods. “Ed gives these kids a place to stay. He gives them food. Counsels them. I told Mary to contact him.”
“Did she?”
“I checked. Ed says she never did.”
“You know I’ve got to verify all this with Ed,” I say.
“No one knows he helps young men leave the Amish way of life. If it gets out, he’s going to think I betrayed him.”
“I’ll let him know you didn’t have a choice.” I sigh, feeling deflated. “If you remember anything else that might be important, call me.” I turn to leave. I’m midway to the living room when Aaron stops me.
“Chief Burkholder?”
I turn back to him.
“I just remembered something that might help.” He looks more animated as he crosses to me. “She mentioned something about meeting her guy out at Miller’s Pond.”
“She wrote about it. In the diary.”
“Well, then you probably already know that one day when she was waiting for him, she carved their initials in a tree.”
I stare at him, aware that my pulse is spiking. Initials won’t solve the case, but they might help identify the boyfriend. “Do you know where the tree is? Near the water? The path? Parking area?”
He grimaces, shakes his head. “She didn’t say. Just a tree. That’s all I know.”
I stare at him a moment longer. I’m still not sure if I like him, but one thing that’s clear to me is that he loved his sister. “This would have been a lot easier if you’d just come clean from the start.”
He closes his eyes briefly and in that instant I know he blames himself, at least in part, for his sister’s death. Maybe for the deaths of his entire family.
“Nothing’s going to bring them back,” he says.
“No, but sometimes telling the truth helps you sleep at night.”
It’s been a long time since I’ve been to Miller’s Pond, and I always forget how pretty it is. The dam is on the east side. Below the dam, a greenbelt thick with trees runs along Painters Creek. To the west is a cornfield. On the north side, a hay field is hip high with alfalfa. To the south, the yellow-green carpet of a soybean field stretches as far as the eye can see.