According to the coroner’s report, the four children died of smoke inhalation. It was also determined that Willis Hochstetler died of the gunshot wound, which he sustained before the fire. I pick up the photos. They’re faded, but I can see enough to know there wasn’t much left of the house—or the victims. In the back of the file, Chief Mackey made a notation that William Hochstetler was taken in by an Amish couple and later adopted by Jonas and Martha Yoder, taking their name.
Now, William and his wife, Hannah, own Yoder’s Pick-Your-Own Apple Farm. I’ve stopped by there a dozen times since I moved back to Painters Mill, to buy apples or cider or apple butter, all of which are delectable. It’s a good way for me, as chief, to keep a finger on the happenings within the Amish community.
I close the Hochstetler file, and pull out the photos of the Amish peg doll. Why was the figurine left inside the mouth of the victim? Is there some connection between the two cases?
I call out to Mona. “Did you get anything back on Michaels’s neighbors?”
“Did I ever.” She enters my office with another file in hand and passes it to me. “I guess you never know who you’re living next door to.”
“Until you run him through LEADS, anyway.” I open the file and look down at the printout. Sure enough, Kerry Seymour had amassed an extensive record as a younger man. An assault charge in 1985. Burglary conviction two years later. Drunk and disorderly. Two DUIs. He did eight months in Mansfield for a felony assault in 1999.
“Busy man in his youth,” I say dryly.
She motions to the folder. “I put contact info and Glock’s old incident report in there, too.”
“Thanks.” I look at the report. True to Belinda Harrington’s assertion, Dale Michaels had filed a complaint, claiming Seymour’s dogs were loose and digging in his trash. Seymour was issued a citation and that had been the end of it. Or was it?
*
I blow most of an hour returning e-mails and phone calls. At 8 A.M., I’m back in my Explorer and heading toward the home of Dale Michaels’s neighbors. Kerry Seymour and his wife live on a small tract of land just south of the Michaels property. I pull into the asphalt driveway and park next to a maroon Ford F-150. The house is a redbrick ranch that looks professionally landscaped or else someone has a green thumb. Ahead is a good-sized metal building with an overhead door. A chain-link dog kennel with a concrete run is located on the south side of the building, but there are no dogs in sight.
Drizzle floats down from a cast-iron sky as I leave my vehicle and take the sidewalk to the house. I open the storm door and use the brass knocker, which is, not surprisingly, in the shape of a dog’s head. The door opens a few inches and I find myself looking at a middle-aged woman wearing a pink robe over flannel pajamas. Lower, two Labrador noses sniff at me through the opening.
“Mrs. Seymour?” I ask, showing her my badge and identifying myself. “Is Kerry Seymour home, ma’am?”
“He’s here.” She looks past me as if expecting to see the SWAT team preparing to swoop in. “He do something wrong?”
“Not that I know of,” I say. “But I’d like to ask both of you some questions.”
The door opens the rest of the way. Mary Ellen Seymour is holding a coffee mug in one hand, a magazine tucked beneath her arm. At her feet, the two dogs stare at me, panting.
“What happened?” she asks.
“Your neighbor, Mr. Michaels, was killed last night.”
“Killed? Oh my God. How?”
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”
“Mary Ellen?” A man wearing striped pajamas and a ratty-looking robe enters the foyer. He’s tall and thin, with a narrow face framed by a horseshoe mustache. He comes up behind his wife, sets his hand possessively on her shoulder. “What can I do for you?”
The woman doesn’t give me a chance to answer. “Kerry, Mr. Michaels next door is dead! Can you believe it?”
“Dale? Dead?” Brows knitting, he rubs his hand across his chin. “Damn.”
I purposely didn’t reveal how Michaels was killed. It doesn’t elude me that he didn’t ask.
“His daughter found him last night,” I tell them, watching them carefully for any outward signs of previous knowledge or nervousness. “I’d like to ask you some questions,” I tell them. “May I come inside?”
“Oh. Sure.” Glancing down at the dogs, the woman sets down the magazine and points. “Greta! Dagmar! Go!”
Canine toenails click against the tile floor of the entryway as the animals trot off. When the dogs are gone, the woman motions me in. I step into a small entryway jammed with a console table that’s too big for the space. To my left is a living room crowded with plaid furniture, a gurgling aquarium full of iridescent orange fish, and walls painted 1980s blue.
The couple doesn’t invite me to sit, so I go to my first question. “Did either of you notice anything unusual over at Mr. Michaels’s place in the last few days?” I ask. “Did you hear or see anything? Any visitors or strange vehicles in the area?”