Murder in Plain Sight Read Online Free PDF Page B

“You eager to do another round with the television reporter? Let’s go.”
    “The police are keeping them busy. And it looks as if someone is waiting for us.” She nodded toward the truck.
    A figure dressed in Amish black stood motionless. Ezra Burkhalter, one of the three ministers of the local congregation, apparently unnoticed as yet by the reporters. What was he doing here?
    “Ezra.” He nodded, hoping the reporter wouldn’t look their way. “Something I can do for you?”
    “I came to this place to see Thomas Esch, but the officers would not allow it.” Ezra’s narrow, bony face seemed to grow more rigid as he looked at Jessica. “This is the English lawyer you have brought down on us.”
    It would be too much to hope that every Amish person in the county hadn’t heard by now that hismother had hired a lawyer to defend Thomas. But the Amish weren’t likely to be chattering about that to outsiders.
    “This is Jessica Langdon. She’ll be representing Thomas in the English court. Ms. Langdon, this is Ezra Burkhalter. He is one of the ministers of Thomas’s congregation.”
    “I’m glad to meet—”
    “It is not fitting.” Ezra didn’t raise his voice, but it rasped like a saw blade, cutting through Jessica’s words. “The boy has brought disgrace to his family, and now you would have this exposed in an English court for all to see.”
    Jessica stiffened. “Mr. Burkhalter, my only job is to give Thomas the legal defense to which he is entitled.”
    “You can do nothing for him. Nothing.” The anger in Ezra’s face was unmistakable. “Stay out of this, and leave us alone.”
    He turned and walked away. Jessica stared after him, looking stunned.
    The television crew, freeing themselves from the crowd, hurried toward them. Trey hustled Jessica inside the truck. Climbing in himself, he slammed the door on a shouted question and pulled away from the curb, narrowly missing the cameramanwho’d darted into the street. A glimpse in the rearview mirror showed him the television reporter trotting down the street after Ezra. Lots of luck. She wouldn’t get anything out of him.
    They rounded the corner and Jessica let out an audible breath. “Well. That was…odd. I didn’t expect it.”
    She sounded genuine, but how could he be sure? “You mean the television people, the crowd or Ezra Burkhalter?”
    “Any of them. All of them. I guess the Burkhalter man particularly. Why is he angry that I’m here? I’d think he’d be grateful that Thomas has someone to defend him.”
    Trey shrugged, trying to get rid of the tension in his shoulders. “The Amish don’t want to find themselves in the news. There’s prejudice enough against them without that. They believe in living separate, and they don’t go to the law.”
    “Thomas said something like that, but in this case the law has come to them. I’ll do the best I can for Thomas.”
    “I don’t think Ezra Burkhalter will see it that way.”
    Her mouth set as she considered that. “If all theAmish react that way, it will make the situation more difficult.”
    Difficult enough to make her go away? He was tempted to paint a black picture, just to achieve that, but he couldn’t.
    “Not all. I’m sure there will be those who welcome your help. Thomas’s family, certainly.”
    She nodded, brushing a wing of auburn hair back from her face. “I suppose. I certainly didn’t expect the crowd at the jail. Is there really that much prejudice against the Amish?”
    “Not so much out in the country, where people know them.” He tried to answer fairly, but the Amish were such a constant part of his life that it was hard to see them as an outsider would. “They’re different, and plenty of misconceptions float around among people who don’t know them.”
    He’d known there would be strong feelings about the ugliness of the crime and the Amish connection, but he hadn’t expected a mob at the jail, either. If people were this worked up now, what would it