Page 11 of Dark Storm Rising

Tomasetti is already in the kitchen. “Clear!”

“Mrs. Nisley.” I go to the Amish woman, set my hand on her shoulder. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine.” She blinks at me, focuses, her hand on her temple. Her eyes move past me.

I turn to see Enos rush toward us. “Liebchen.” My darling. He falls to his knees next to her. “What in the world happened?”

“Stay with her.” I get to my feet.

Tomasetti sidles past us and moves into the hall. “I got the bedroom,” he says.

My .38 in hand, I go left toward the bathroom. The door stands ajar. I shove it open with my foot, lean in, and smack the switch with my left hand. Light floods the room. I step inside, reach for the shower curtain, rip it aside.

No one there.

“Clear!” I call out.

Then I’m back in the hall, and see Tomasetti come out of the bedroom. “No one here,” he says. “Looks like someone tried to start a fire in the kitchen.”

“Damage?” I ask.

“Just a mess,” he growls.

I start down the hall. Relief flutters in my stomach at the sight of the couple sitting on the sofa. Enos has his arm around his wife’s shoulders.

“Mrs. Nisley, are you injured?” I ask.

“I’m okay,” she says firmly. “Just shaken up a little.”

“Was there someone here with you?” Tomasetti asks.

“Just that rude young man,” she says. “He ran out the back door.”

“Did you recognize him?” he asks.

Lovina shakes her head. “Never seen him before.”

“Was he armed?”

“Didn’t see a gun. Had some sort of bag on his shoulder.”

“Did he say where he was going?” he asks.

“No.”

“Can you take us through what happened?” I ask.

“While Enos was taking care of the lambs,” she says, “I walked to the Hummingbird Cabin to clean. We’ve got a family checking in tomorrow. I walked in and found a young man standing in the kitchen. Gave me an awful start. When I asked him what he was doing, he gave me a nonsense story about his car breaking down. I didn’t believe it for a second.”

The Amish woman tightens her mouth. “I was a shool-teetshah for twenty years.” Schoolteacher. “I know when I’m being bamboozled. That young man was up to no good and being disrespectful.”

“What did he do?” I ask.

“Told me to sit on the sofa and be quiet.” She bristles. “I heard him moving around in the kitchen and went to see what he was doing only to see that he was trying to start a fire. Can you imagine? For goodness’ sakes, we’d just lost our other cabin.”

Next to her, Enos tilts his head, looking concerned. “Lovina, what did you do?”

“That young man wasn’t much older than our grandson, Enos. So I got my broom and I put it to use on his backside.”