“I was driving my buggy,” the elderly Amish man said, trying to catch his breath. “Another car was coming, and this car veered right off the road behind me without stopping or slowing down. What happened?”
“I’m not sure,” Dominic said. “Something isn’t right.” Dominic looked down the road, realizing there were no brake marks. Yes, something definitely wasn’t right.
“I think I saw her jump out of the car before it crashed,” Sid said.
“Let’s go find her.”
He swallowed. He had to search fast. There could be someone out there who was injured or, worse still, bleeding to death, or possibly with burn injuries. The temperature was dropping fast. If they weren’t found tonight, they could freeze out here.
However, he could not help but wonder if someone could have survived being flung out of that vehicle.
Still, he had to try.
“I’ll go search over there,” Sid said, then hurried off in the other direction.
Dominic walked Apple along the edge of the road and watched the road as cars flew by. Just then, Apple’s ears pinned back, his eyes darting.
“What is it, boy?” Dominic whispered. “Did you hear something?”
There. What was that?
Dominic heard a faint whimper, and his head shot up. He looked around. Where had it come from? He heard it again and followed it.
He found the source. Down a small incline near the road, partially covered by bushes, lay a person.
“Sid!” Dominic called out. “I found her!”
From the person’s long dark hair, Dominic guessed it was a girl or a woman, and it appeared as though she’d rolled down from the road and had been stopped by the bushes. It was fortunate that she was not right beside the road or she might have been crushed by an oncoming vehicle.
Dominic swallowed hard as he hurried to her while carefully leading Apple down the incline. A bitter taste formed in his mouth as he realized how the bushes concealed her. If not for that whimper and Apple’s sharp ears, he might not have found her.
He released Apple’s reins and turned the person over. His eyes widened. It was indeed a young woman, barely conscious. Her pale face was caked with dirt from where she had been lying. Her dark hair surrounded her head, flowing onto the snow. Her dark eyelashes stood out against her light skin. Blood trickled down her face from a gash in her head and stained her hair, making it sticky to the touch.
Dominic placed his fingers on her wrist. She still had a pulse, but it was weak, barely noticeable.
He looked her over, wondering if anything was broken. She was wearing a white turtleneck sweater, black jeans, and matching black boots. The sweater was stained with blood and dirt. Dominic pulled off the scarf around his neck and used it to apply pressure around her head, hoping it would stop the bleeding.
Her white sweater was still pooling with blood. She had to be bleeding from somewhere other than her head. He lifted the edge of her shirt, looking for the second injury, and took in a sharp breath when he saw a cut on her abdomen. It was bleeding but didn’t look very deep. Hopefully, it would be fine with some stitches.
Who was she and what had she gotten herself involved in?
Dominic’s younger teenage brother, Danny, drove over to them in a buggy as Sid hobbled over.
Danny hopped out and ran forward, his brown hair covered by a straw hat. His eyes widened when he saw the injured woman, and he took Apple's reins.
“What happened, Dominic?” Danny asked. “This doesn’t look good.”
“Do you think she will be all right?” Sid asked.
“She is hurt,” Dominic said. As he carried her over to the buggy and settled her inside.
Dominic turned to look at his brother and motioned towards the other side of the community. “Take Apple and go call an ambulance. She needs to get to the hospital.”
The woman in his arms finally stirred. “No… No,” she stammered in a cracking voice. “No hospital.”
Sid gave Dominic a questioning glance.
“Ma’am, you need to go to the hospital,” Dominic urged.
“No,” her voice trailed off before she slipped back into unconsciousness. “He’ll find me… He’ll kill me…”
Dominic, Sid, and Danny looked at each other in confusion.
Dominic shook his head. “Someone must be after her. Maybe that’s why she doesn’t want to go to the hospital. It might be one of the first places they’ll look for her. I’m guessing she doesn’t want the police to find her either. Danny, take Apple and go to the phone shanty to call Doctor McAllister. Go as fast as you can. We can trust him to be discreet.”
Danny put his hands on his hips. “But, Dominic, she needs the hospital—”
“No. You heard her. Go call the doctor.” Every minute they delayed drew the young woman closer to death's door. They had to try what they could to see if she could be healed and when all that failed, only then would he accept that it was God's will for her. “Doctor McAllister can be trusted.”
“Oh, fine,” Danny said. Though he was often grumpy, the boy had a good heart. “If you say so.” He galloped away.
“Is there anything I can do?” Sid asked.
“For now, go home, but please do not tell anyone except your wife about this. It’s for her own safety. I have a feeling someone is after her, so we should be discreet,” Dominic said.
“Of course. Let me know if I can do anything,” Sid said, then returned to his buggy.
Sirens sounded in the distance.
Dominic climbed onto the buggy that Danny had brought and started a slow and careful ride home.
CHAPTER FOUR
"Well, what can you tell me, Doctor?" Dominic asked Doctor McAllister. The doctor was a non-Amish man who lived down the street and had succeeded in getting the trust of the Amish people. Sometimes they went to him, and in some cases like this, he came to them.
He was an elderly man with a spattering of silvery white hair, a matching moustache and a tall build. But even with his height, he still had to look up at Dominic while he spoke. Night had already fallen, and he had spent all of the afternoon with the hurt woman.
The doctor shook his head and said, "That young woman is very lucky both in surviving the accident and in how you found her. However, I am inclined to believe she was not directly involved in the accident."
"What do you mean, Doctor?" Dominic asked as he crossed his arms, his eyes searching the fields for signs of any animals that had not been taken into the barn for the night.
"You see, if she was flung out of the car because of the force, she would have lots of broken bones. But she only has a sprained ankle, a cut on her abdomen, and the gash in her head, which worries me a lot, if I do say so myself."
"So, what do you think?"
"As an emergency doctor for over twenty years, I have seen many accident victims. From how you've described the car, I do not believe that it was just an accident. This should be investigated."
"It can't, Doctor. We cannot bring in the police to investigate, not yet, for the woman’s safety. Besides, you know the Amish way," Dominic said pointedly, and the doctor nodded.
"You said she didn’t want to go to the hospital, afraid someone would find her. Don't you think that her life is in danger?"