Kingdom Come Read Online Free PDF Page A

then took it. His was rough and warm. So warm. My own hand felt like an icicle in his.
    Greenish-brown. His eyes were brown flecked with green, like a summer field.
    The door behind me opened, causing me to pull back my hand too quick.
God, E, get a grip.
    Grady came in. “I see you found him.”
    â€œYes, this is, uh, Ezra Beiler. Mr. Beiler, this is Detective Grady.”
    Ezra nodded but didn’t offer a greeting or his hand.
    I put the stiff back in my spine. “Does anyone else live here, Mr. Beiler?”
    â€œJa. My sister Martha.”
    â€œAnyone else?”
    Ezra shook his head, his face unreadable. The warmth of the barn was starting to sink in and all of a sudden I felt exhausted.
    â€œI see. Perhaps you heard about what happened down the road?”
    â€œI heard. You know they say the only thing that travels fast with the Amish is news.” Ezra studied my face and his eyes softened. “Would youse like to come in the house and have some coffee? We can talk better at the table.”
    I glanced at Grady. He looked as relieved as I felt.
    â€œI’d love a cup of coffee, thank you,” Grady said.
    â€”
    Inside, the house was plain but cozy. There was a round pine table in the kitchen, and we sat there while Ezra made coffee in a regular coffeepot. A lamp on the kitchen counter shone bright in the late afternoon gloom. I knew by now that many of the Amish homes in this area had power—either through gas-powered generators or windmills or solar panels. Power itself wasn’t against their creed, apparently, just being hooked up to the grid. It was reliance on an outside agency they wanted to avoid.
    â€œIs your sister Martha, here? We’d like to speak to her too,” I asked, trying to avoid looking at Ezra’s strong, work-toughened hands as he arranged coffee cups and spoons on the table.
    â€œJa. I’ll call her out.”
    He vanished from the kitchen momentarily and returnedwith a very large and plain-faced Amish woman. She had Ezra’s blond hair and fair, freckled skin, but she was a big girl—at least five eight and well over two hundred pounds. The bold features on her round face, and the way her hair was pulled back tightly under a white cap, did nothing to soften her. She regarded us with wary interest.
    â€œMartha, this is Detective Harris and Detective Grady, here to ask you and me some questions. Why doncha put some cake out?”
    Martha complied without a word. A few minutes later the four of us were seated at the table with coffee and a plate of sliced pound cake. I was starving and I didn’t refuse, nor did Grady, as Martha lifted slices onto four small dessert plates and passed them around. The cake was lemon flavored and good. The coffee was better. Dear God, I needed that.
    â€œThank you,” I told Ezra with a reluctant smile. “This hits the spot. It’s been a long day.”
    â€œYa looked tired,” Ezra mumbled, dropping his gaze to his plate.
    It was the first time we’d been offered anything all day, even a seat. I suspected it was because we were police more than the fact that we weren’t Amish. Everyone had been cooperative. They’d stood and responded to what was asked, but had been neither welcoming nor overly forthcoming. I’d gotten the impression they wanted us to leave as soon as possible, that they understood our purpose there but didn’t believe it ultimately had anything to do with them. Sitting here in the Beiler house was the first time I’d felt any spark of human connection, though I was probably exaggerating the importance of coffee and cake out of sheer gratitude.
    I pulled out my iPad. “I need to record this for our files. And I’d like to get a photo of each of you, for our internal records only.”
    Ezra and Martha looked at each other and nodded. I took the photos right there at the table and then turned on the audio recorder. “This is