Robert screwed up his mouth and shook his head.
Decker leaned in. “The ‘you-know-what’?”
“The man!” said Judith. “Bobby, if you won’t tell them I will.”
“Good Lord, woman, don’t you see what you’re getting us into talking like that?”
“The truth is always better,” said Decker. “You tell the truth, you won’t get in any trouble.”
“Says you,” retorted Robert.
“Bobby!” exclaimed his wife.
He sighed again. “It was about a month ago. Late. I couldn’t sleep. I was out in my little workshop repairing some tools. It’s about a hundred yards from the fence. That’s when I heard a commotion outside. Around two in the morning. We’ve never had any problems around here, but, well, this sounded not good. I picked up an ax from my workbench and went outside. I could hear the sounds of someone running. And there were shouts and then I heard those dogs barking. They were in a frenzy, seemed like. I ran over toward the fence but stopped before I got there because I could see lights. They were wobbling around because the people holding them were running.”
“Go on,” said Kelly.
“I got scared, so I dropped to the ground, but I kept watching. It was a pretty full moon that night. And then out of the darkness this man jumps up on the inner fence and he’s trying to climb to the top.”
“What did he look like?” asked Decker.
“He had a beard, and his hair was all wild and thick like. Tall and he looked skinny, but he was climbing that fence for all he was worth.”
“Clothing?”
“Like overalls and his feet were bare.”
“What happened next?” asked Jamison.
“He was halfway to the top when a dog got to him. Jumped up and grabbed a hold of his pants leg. He was screaming.”
“Could you understand anything he said?”
“No, I was too far away and it sounded like gibberish to me. I think he was crazy or on drugs or something. But I would’ve been doing the same thing if a dog had a hold of me like that. Then the men came running up and they called the dog off and pulled him down from the fence. He just gave up and went limp. A truck pulled up and they put him in that, and it drove off. Then the others left. By the time I got back to the house I was shaking like a leaf.”
“He was,” said Judith. “I made him some tea to help him calm down. That’s when he told me what happened.”
Decker eyed Kelly, who looked both concerned and confused.
“Did you tell anybody else about this?” asked Jamison.
“No,” said Robert. “Look, it’s the government. I don’t want to get mixed up in any of that. I’m just a farmer. We want to be left alone, that’s all.”
Judith said excitedly, “Do you think this has anything to do with Ms. Cramer and Pammie?”
“It might,” said Kelly, while Decker sat back and stared at the ceiling, lost in thought.
Jamison said, “Did you know Pamela and Irene Cramer?”
Judith nodded. “I knew Pammie pretty well. She didn’t like it here. Our son is only one, so he’s not in school, but I helped out Ms. Cramer some in the schoolroom. I helped the last teacher we had, too.”
“Did Cramer ever say anything to you that seemed odd? Did she mention the Air Force facility?”
“No, never.” Judith paused. “She did ask me where in the Colony I lived.”
“And you told her?” said Jamison.
“Yes. It was funny, though.”
“What was?” Jamison said quickly.
“Well, we practice communal living here. And with a lot of Anabaptist colonies, everyone usually lives in little houses next to each other or attached. I know this because my second cousin is a Hutterite, lives in North Dakota, too, only not near here.”
Decker was now eyeing her steadily. “And your point?” he said.
“Well, here there’s enough land for all of us to have our own place, and we each grow some of our own crops. We contribute most of it to the Colony, but we get to keep some for our own use. And folks can grow different things that they might like, that the Colony doesn’t grow collectively.”
“And your point?” Decker said again.
“I told Ms. Cramer about that. And it was just funny what she said. She said to maybe not do that. To maybe not grow our own food.”
“Why would she say that?” asked Jamison, glancing at Decker.
“I don’t know. She never said.”
Decker said urgently, “Where did she teach class here?”
“In the little schoolhouse next to the building where we have the egg production,” said Robert.
“Did she have an office there?”
Judith nodded. “In a room in the back.”
Decker rose. “Can you show us? Now?”
DORIS, THE COLONY TEACHER, answered their knock. She was in her fifties and dressed like the other women at the Colony but with a different color and pattern for her skirt and scarf. Behind her they could see students ranging in age from six to teens, sitting in separate clusters in the middle of the large room. They all looked at the visitors with both interest and puzzlement.
After Judith introduced Kelly, Decker, and Jamison, Doris explained she was filling in for Cramer.
“It was so terrible about Irene,” she said in a low voice.
“Yeah,” said Decker distractedly. “Look, we need to see Cramer’s office.”
“Oh, all right. It’s this way.”
She led them past the students. Several of the younger boys looked up at the giant Decker in awe, while several of the teenaged boys watched the pretty Jamison every step of the way.
Doris opened the door to a small room and ushered them in.
It was ten-by-ten with one window. A small desk sat in the middle of the room with a straight-back chair slid into the knee-hole. Two metal file cabinets were set against one wall.
On the desk was an ink blotter, a Rolodex, a stack of books, and what looked to be some student journals.
Doris and Judith left them there to look around.
“What are we looking for?” asked Kelly.
“Anything that will help us,” replied Decker.
“Well, that’s kind of vague.”
“Decker thinks that Cramer’s murder might be tied to something in her past. Before she came here.” Jamison glanced at Decker. “Old sins cast long shadows, or something to that effect.”
Kelly looked intrigued by that. “So, before she came here, then? Which is maybe why the Feds are interested?”
Decker nodded. “Yes. I think finding out the reason she came here in the first place will go a long way toward helping find who killed her.”
“So are you thinking her murder had something to do with her past?”
“It’s certainly possible,” noted Jamison.
“Works for me.” Kelly slid open the desk drawers and looked through them, even checking underneath each one. Jamison started going through the books and journals, while Decker popped open one of the file cabinet drawers and began searching.
“Nothing here,” said Kelly, a while later.
“Same here,” said Jamison as she put down the last journal, while Decker was still poring through the file cabinets.