Shunned and Dangerous (An Amish Mystery) by Laura Bradford Page B

already cut off and there was no going back even if he’d wanted to. But for Jakob the calling that had convinced him to leave the Amish didn’t go away just because John’s killer was found. So he kept his plan to become a police officer and he did so in New York.”
    There was so much about Jakob’s life in New York she wanted to hear, but now was not the time. Besides, the questions she had weren’t ones Diane could answer. No, those would be for a future date with Jakob.
    A future date . . .
    Shaking the part-frightening, part-intriguing thought from her head, Claire forced herself to focus on the details her aunt remembered about the senseless crime they’d been discussing.
    “So the police apprehended Carl Duggan for John’s murder, yes?”
    “Yes.”
    “Did he know John personally?”
    “No. John’s death was a hate crime against the Amish as a group. Carl Duggan simply picked a random barn and waited.”
    “But why? What did the Amish do to him?”
    “Carl was struggling financially. He’d lost his job, he was behind in his taxes, and he was in danger of losing the home he shared with his wife and young son.”
    Claire shifted her feet off the ottoman and onto the floor, leaning forward as she did. “That’s this Patrick fellow, right?”
    “That’s right.” Diane stilled her finger atop the arm of the sofa and closed her eyes briefly. “So, rather than try to change his situation somehow, Carl lashed out against the Amish, convinced of the often-spread yet completely wrong allegation that they don’t pay taxes.”
    She felt her jaw slack. “What?”
    “Carl, like so many other ignorant people, believed the Amish don’t pay taxes. That, of course, isn’t true. They pay taxes just like the rest of us with the exception of social security since they don’t partake in that program. Mind you, the bulk of the taxes they pay go to services they don’t utilize, but they pay them anyway. Just like everyone else.”
    “So this man killed John in retaliation against a myth?” she said, the gasp in her voice making them both look toward the front hallway and the stairs just beyond. When no guest doors opened on the second floor in response, she breathed a sigh of relief. “Sorry about that, Aunt Diane. I . . . I just can’t imagine someone losing their life in such a tragic way to begin with, only to find out it all happened because of
a lie
.”
    “That’s why I always make a point of sharing as many facts about the Amish with our guests as possible. So much of what people think they know about them is wrong.” Diane plucked her canvas knitting bag from the floor and set it on her lap. Then, with loving hands, she put her scarf, yarn, and knitting needles inside. “Harley was robbed of a brother that fateful night. But instead of becoming bitter the way so many of us English would, he turned the other cheek the way he was taught. He tried to reach out to Carl’s wife and son, and let them know he did not hold them accountable for his brother’s death. He cast aside his own interest in woodworking to run John’s dairy farm. And he tried, unsuccessfully, to champion Jakob in the eyes of his own community.”
    “So that’s why Harley had Patrick working as his apprentice? Because of the whole turning the other cheek thing?”
    Diane met Claire’s eyes across the top of the knitting bag. “Patrick was almost ten, I believe, when his father went off to jail, sending him into quite a tailspin from what I’ve heard here and there over the past sixteen years. His acting out certainly compounded the strain on his mother, I would imagine.
    “Harley heard of the trouble Rita was having with Patrick and decided to try and help. He told me he understood Patrick’s aimless wandering because he’d felt that way, too, since John’s death. He felt that by continuing to devote his life to John’s dairy farm, he was remaining stuck in the past. That’s why he decided to heed my advice and start his