Kate Burkholder: Gone Missing Part 31

"I accused him of driving like a maniac." A breath shudders out of her. "Deacon Mast ... the old man, he made like he was sorry and wanted to help me. When he was close, he stabbed me with the needle."

"What kind of needle?"

"The kind we vaccinate the calves with."

"A syringe?"

She nods. "I thought he was crazy. I screamed and tried to get back on my bicycle. But whatever he put in that syringe made me sleepy, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't move."

He drugged them, I realize. "Was he alone?" I ask.

"I didn't see anyone else."

"What happened next?"

"Everything was kind of like a dream after that. But I'm certain he put me in the trunk. I remember riding in the dark."

"Did he bind your hands or feet?"

"My hands were tied. I remember because my wrists were raw when I woke up."

"Where were you when you woke up?"

"I was there." Her face crumples and she looks down at the bruises on her wrists. "In that awful tunnel."

I press on, suspecting she will soon reach a point where she's either too upset to speak or succ.u.mbs to the sedation. "Was there anyone else in the tunnel with you?"

"The crazy girl. I think her name was Ruth." She raises her gaze to mine. "Did you save her, Katie?"

"We did."

"There was another girl, too. Leah." She slurs the name, and I realize the sedative is pulling her down. "But she never woke up, and they took her away."

I think of the body I stumbled over, and I wonder if that's the girl Bonnie is speaking of. Perhaps she succ.u.mbed to the physical and psychological stress and fell ill. I wonder if Mast dragged her aside like a bag of garbage and left her to rot in the cold and dark....

"Did you see Mast's wife, Irene, at any point?" I ask.

"The old lady. She brought us food. Sc.r.a.pple, mostly. And bread. She's not unkind, but my mamm is a better cook."

I smile. "Did you ever see a young man?"

Her brows knit. "No, but I heard male voices sometimes."

"Did Deacon Mast tell you why you were there?" I ask. "Did he ever say why you'd been taken into the tunnel?"

"He said we were there to pay penance and confess our sins. He said he was going to save our souls." She stares at me, her expression stricken, as if she can't quite believe the words she has just uttered. "I think he was crazy," she whispers.

"I think you're right. I close my notebook and slide it into my pocket. "Get some rest."

"Mast used the car to make contact. He used it as a weapon or to stage an accident. Then he shot them up with some kind of drug to subdue them, threw them into the trunk, and took them to the tunnel."

Tomasetti, Deputy Tannin, and I are standing outside Noah Mast's hospital room, preparing to go inside for his statement.

"To save their souls." Tannin makes a sound of disgust.

Tomasetti narrows his gaze on me, poses a question that's been eating at me since the beginning. "But how did Mast know about these teenagers? How did he find out they were troubled?" he asks. "These kidnappings are fifty to one hundred miles apart. The Amish generally don't use phones. How did he find out about these so-called troubled kids?"

"He was a deacon," I tell them.

Tannin nods. "I knew he was some kind of elder."

"Is that relevant?" Tomasetti's gaze is sharp on mine.

"Deacons are usually the ones who convey messages of excommunication," I tell them. "The bishop sends them into the church district to find out who the transgressors are."

"Because of his position within the church district," Tomasetti says, "he was able to find out who was breaking the rules. He considered these kids transgressors."

"Even though they weren't baptized," I tell them.

"Being the insane son of a b.i.t.c.h he was, maybe Mast decided that didn't matter. He took it upon himself to save their souls, the rules be d.a.m.ned."

"Probably the best explanation of motive we're going to get," Tannin says.

"I'll double check with the bishop tomorrow to see if Mast was indeed an ordained deacon," I tell them.

Tannin motions toward the door of Noah Mast's room. "Maybe his son will be able to shed some light on all this, too."

CHAPTER 25.

Noah Mast watches us enter, wary as an animal whose den is being invaded by predators. He's wearing a hospital gown. A stainless-steel IV stand next to the bed holds a bag of clear solution, which drips steadily into his arm. The lower half of his body is covered, but despite the blankets, I discern the boniness of his legs and the sharp points of his knees. His hands are clean, but they're dotted with scabs. His skin is so pale, I can see the blue of his veins. The sight of him reminds me of photographs I've seen of Holocaust survivors.

"h.e.l.lo, Noah." Tomasetti stops a few feet from the bed. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine." His eyes are the color of pewter. They're gla.s.sy and rheumy, like an old man's. "I don't know what the fuss is all about."

I'm aware that Tannin is moving un.o.btrusively to the wall adjacent to the bed. He leans against it, his arms crossed in front of him. I move beside him, giving Tomasetti the floor.

"I'm John," he says, showing his badge. "I'm with the police."

"Am I in some kind of trouble?"

"I'm just here to ask you some questions."

Noah's eyes flick to me and Tannin, then back to Tomasetti. "Where are my mamm and datt?"

"I want to talk to you about your parents. But we need to get some questions out of the way first." Tomasetti lowers himself into the chair next to the bed, leans forward, his elbows on his knees. "I understand you were living down in the tunnel on your parents' farm. Is that true?"

"Ja."

"How long have you been living there?"

Noah glances out the window, where rain streaks down, as if he wants to scramble out of bed and take a running leap through the gla.s.s. "I'm not sure. A long time, I think. I didn't have a way to mark time."

"How old were you when you started living in the tunnel?"

"Eighteen."

"How old are you now?"

"Twenty-seven." He offers a tentative smile. "Mamm brought me German chocolate cake for my birthday."

I hear Tannin's quick intake of breath. I feel that same shock echoing through me. It's inconceivable that his parents kept him in that tunnel for nine years.

"Did they force you to live down there?" Tomasetti asks.

"I reckon so."

"Did they tell you why?"

"I fell prey to sin." The matter-of-fact tone makes his answer all the more bizarre.

"How so? What did you do?"

"Once, I was with a girl-you know ... doing things. Bad things." The Amish man's eyes drop and he searches the sheets covering him, as if he's too ashamed to meet our gazes. "You know..." His left leg begins to jiggle. "I kissed her. Touched her. We ... you know."

Tomasetti nods. "You had intercourse with her?"

"Ja."

"What's the girl's name?"

"Hannah Schwartz."

I take out my notebook and jot down the name. In the back of my mind, I wonder if she's missing, or dead.

"Did your parents find out?" Tomasetti asks.

He looks down, nods. "Datt came into the barn and found us."

"What did he do?"

"We prayed and then he made Hannah leave. Then he took the buggy whip to me."

A sigh hisses from Tomasetti's lips. "He hit you with the whip?"

"He made some marks is all. On my legs, my rear end. You know."

"How old were you at the time?"

"I dunno." He shrugs. "Fourteen or fifteen. It was a long time ago."

Tomasetti nods. "What else did your father do to you when you were bad?"

"Sometimes he took me to the tunnel. Put me on the wall."

"What do you mean by 'put me on the wall'?"

"With the chain, you know."

"He chained you to the wall?"

"Ja."

"How long did he make you stay there?"

"Well, it depended on how bad I was. Sometimes an hour." He shrugs bony shoulders. "A week."

"How often were you bad?"

Noah looks down at his hands, picks at a scab. "All the time. I tried to be good. I tried to abide by the Ordnung and G.o.d's laws. But sometimes I could not."

"Why did your datt move you into the tunnel permanently?"

The Amish man raises his hand and bites at one of his nails. His leg jiggles faster beneath the sheets. "He blamed me for what happened to Becca."

"Is Becca your sister?"

"Ja."

I write down the name, then the word sister beside it.

"What happened to her?" Tomasetti asks.

"She killed herself."

"Why did your parents blame you?"

"I don't know. I didn't do anything."

"Did Becca ever misbehave?"