mind. She had always been very down to earth, never one to exaggerate or jump to conclusions. “Okay, we need to remember to tell Dan about the car.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her nodding, but her expression remained troubled. It was time to see if they could make some sense of the current situation, while they were alone. And the quiet of the truck meant she would be able to hear him. And if she couldn’t, it was light enough that she could see him sign, or read his lips if necessary.
“Why don’t we try and get our ducks in a row before talking to Dan. He’s going to want to know about the people you work with at the barn. Because chances are good that one of them might be the person responsible for the fire.”
A shake of her head denied any such possibility, but shadows crept into her expression. As much as she might want to believe none of her coworkers would hurt her, the doubt had taken root in her mind.
“So who worked for you yesterday?” Man, he hated doing this to her. But it was necessary for her protection, he argued with himself.
For a moment, he wasn’t sure if she would answer. Finally she sighed. “Kim and Eric. They’re both fairly young. Kim just started working for us about seven months ago, but Eric has been coming for years, first as a student, and later as a worker and part-time trainer. I would trust him without hesitation.”
“And Kim?”
He knew the answer the moment she bit her lower lip. As painful as it was, Kim was a possible suspect.
“Okay, how about Rebecca—”
The words weren’t even out of his mouth before she interrupted him.
“Don’t even go there. I would trust her and Levi with my life. We went to the same deaf and hard-of-hearing program for years. In fact, we rode the same bus. She was two years behind me, but we stayed friends even after I returned to my home district for high school.”
He nodded. “Okay. And she was Amish?”
“Yeah. Until she was seventeen. She made the choice to leave instead of being baptized, which means she can still visit her family.”
“But still, there would have been years when you didn’t see her because you left...” His voice petered out as he realized what he was saying. The last thing he wanted to do was bring up why she had left high school, and his role in all of it, but it was too late now. If he could, he would have swallowed those words back. But he couldn’t. Maybe she would let it go. He glanced at her. Her lips tightened, her shoulders grew stiff. Nope.
“Yeah, I left to go back to my district’s school so I could be closer to home and take advantage of the clubs and sports programs. Things most high school students take for granted. I just didn’t expect that to include you telling your bully friends that the weird deaf girl you tutored had an annoying crush on you. And I definitely didn’t expect them to decide to teach me a lesson to show me how unworthy I was.”
“I never meant—”
“They ganged up on me, drew the word IDIOT on my forehead with a permanent marker and shoved me into a dark janitor’s closet. It was small, no lights and no windows, and I missed my bus. I was stuck in that small, smelly place for five hours until my parents and the principal found me. I was terrified to go back there. And Rebecca had left the deaf program. Amish students only go to school through eighth grade. I convinced my parents to send me to the Western PA School for the Deaf so I wouldn’t have to face any of my attackers again.”
So that’s where she had gone.
He could hear her ragged breathing. Remorse choked him. What a moron he had been.
“I would do anything to take that back. I only said something to get my girlfriend, Trish, off my back. She was jealous of the time we spent together.”
She grimaced. “She was cruel. All your friends were. Except that dark haired girl you sat with in bio.”
Melanie. His best friend. He’d messed that up, too.
He sighed, wishing he could go back in time and shake some sense into the stupid, arrogant kid he used to be. “I couldn’t believe Trish would do something like that. We had a huge fight over it and finally broke up. I wanted to track you down and apologize...but no one knew where you’d gone.”
“How hard did you look?” she asked, her voice cold and accusatory.
“Not very,” he admitted. “I figured you wanted to leave me and everything I’d done in the past. It didn’t seem right to force you to have to sit through my sad excuses if you’d moved on with your life.”
“And yet here you are.”
“To help,” he insisted. “I know it doesn’t change the past, but you’re in trouble now and you shouldn’t be forced to deal with it alone. I’d like to help you, the way I should have back then.”
Silence settled between them, tense and awkward. After a few minutes, he felt her hand touch his arm. Brow rising in surprise, he turned to face her.
“Can I ask you a question?” Jess’s voice was hesitant. It was an olive branch, and he knew it and gladly seized it.
“Yeah, sure.” His voice was thick. He cleared his throat. He spared her a glance to be sure she heard him. Her face was turned toward him, eyes intent.
“I don’t remember ever seeing you sign before. But yesterday you were signing like you’d been doing it for years. How did you learn? Why?”
He shrugged. “I had a roommate in college who was deaf. Ernie. He taught me some sign. And I went home with him several times. His whole family was deaf, so it was sink or swim. After I decided that I had zero interest in following my dad into law and politics, I took other classes to find what interested me. Including ASL.”
“Ernie Mitchell?”
His eyebrows rose. “You know him?”
“He attends Deaf church with me.”
The mention of church was unsettling. He and Ernie had stayed in touch since college but they didn’t talk religion much. Seth blew out a relieved breath as his sister’s house came in view. Soon, he would be able to tell Dan everything. Then the police could take control of the situation. Jess would be safe and would no longer need him. That last thought made him frown. The idea of walking away from her now when she was in danger didn’t sit well with him at all. But sticking around held the risk of his becoming attached to her. He realized that he liked and admired her. The last thing he wanted was to see her hurt again. And he would hurt her. How could he not? He was his father’s son, after all.
Pulling into his sister’s driveway, he frowned, feeling uneasy. Dan’s truck was there, but the minivan was nowhere in sight. And the blinds were closed. Maggie always opened the blinds. Getting out of his truck, he walked over to the garage and peered in. The motorcycle was there, but no van.
Whipping out his cell, he sent his sister a text. Hey sis. Where r u?
A minute later he received an answer. And groaned. Pittsburgh. Visiting Ty. Back 2morrow. Everything OK?
Ty was Dan’s foster brother. What now? He would just have to keep an
