Read Online The Dead Will Tell by Linda Castillo - Free Book Online

comforting hand on his shoulder, then turns her gaze to me. “He was terribly burned.”
    I don’t ask him to elaborate. I read the fire marshal’s report. I know that kerosene from the lantern caught fire, and all four of his siblings perished. Their little bodies were recovered the next day, all burned beyond recognition.
    The detective with the Holmes County Sheriff’s Department believed the perpetrators were local. There were rumors that Willis Hochstetler didn’t use a bank and kept a lot of cash at the house. The detective surmised the culprits had heard about it and decided an Amish family would be easy prey. But despite an exhaustive investigation, no arrests were ever made and Wanetta Hochstetler was never found.
    Word around town is that Hoch Yoder has suffered with depression and nightmares for years. The shrinks have all sorts of official names for it: survivor’s guilt; post-traumatic stress disorder. But the bottom line was that Hoch Yoder blamed himself, and the guilt affected every facet of his life. While most Amish men are married with children by the age of twenty-five, Hoch didn’t marry Hannah until just a few years ago, when he was already into his forties.
    I look across the table at Hoch. “I understand your datt was an excellent furniture maker.”
    Pleasure flashes in his features, and I know that while the past holds plenty of bad memories, some were good, too. “He made everything we sold in our store.”
    “Hoch’s a furniture maker, too.” Hannah motions toward a cabinet set against the wall. “He made that for me a few years ago.” She nods with pride. “He won’t admit it, but he’s as good as his datt. ”
    Hoch looks down at the table, where his hands are folded. “He taught me everything I know.”
    “Did your datt make peg dolls?” I ask.
    He nods. “When he had time. The small ones. Sometimes he gave them away to the children of customers.” He gives me a quizzical look. “I haven’t thought of those dolls in years. Why do you ask?”
    “Just curious.” I hold his gaze. “Did you know Dale Michaels?”
    “The man who was murdered?”
    I nod. “Have you ever met or spoken to him?”
    “No. I mean, I don’t think so.”
    “I don’t want you to read anything into what I’m going to ask you next, Hoch, but I need to know where you were the last two nights.”
    Hannah sets down her mug with a little too much force. “Chief Burkholder, surely you don’t think Hoch had anything to do with that awful murder?”
    I ignore her, keeping my gaze locked on her husband.
    “I was here,” he tells me.
    “Both nights?”
    “That’s right.”
    “All evening?”
    “Yes.”
    “Do you own any firearms?” I ask.
    “I have a muzzle-loader that was passed down from Grossdaddi Yoder. For hunting.” He cocks his head. “Would you like to see it?”
    “What about a handgun?”
    “No.”
    I reach into my jacket, tug out my card, and hand it to him. “If you think of anything else, will you get in touch with me?”
    He nods. “The men responsible for what happened to my family will be judged not by you or me or even by some Englischer court,” he tells me. “They will be judged by God and God alone.”
    “Not if I have anything to say about it.” Pushing away from the table, I rise and start toward the door.

 
    CHAPTER 6
    They met at The Oak, an out-of-the-way wine bar a few miles out of Dover. The place was windowless and dark with a generous amount of antique brick and rough-hewn barrels for an ambience not quite achieved. It was the kind of place where no one would notice a group of middle-aged, financially comfortable friends getting together for a liquid lunch and some chitchat about old times. But the conversation they were about to have wouldn’t be about children or grandchildren, their looming retirement or even the good times they’d once shared. In fact, the man they called Brick was pretty sure if they weren’t frightened when they walked in,