Page 30 of Rescuing Sara

A wary expression replaced the boy’s smile. “Yes ma’am. I’m Silas Lapp. Is something wrong?”

Reaching into her purse for her phone, Danni took it out and began to scroll through her photos. “My goddaughter Sara Turner recently made a payment on a straw hat for her grandfather.” She chose a photo of her and Sara together and held it out to him. “Do you remember her?”

The boy’s solemn expression remained in place. “Yes, I do,” he said. “Sara Turner? She’s the little girl who’s missing?”

“You remember her?” Patrick repeated. “You’re sure?”

“Yes, sir,” Silas said. “I’ve been reading about her in the newspapers because she bought the hat right before she vanished. She came with an older woman. Was that her grandmother?”

“Her housekeeper,” Danni corrected, locating the photo of the receipt and showing it to him. “Did anything unusual happen when they were here?”

Silas shook his head. “Not while they were here. I helped her pick out a hat that she thought her grandfather would like and when she told me she’d saved her allowance to buy it, I let her make a partial payment, something we don’t usually do because these are very fine and expensive hats.”

“I can see that,” Patrick commented, and his posture relaxed. “Danni, show him another picture of Sara. Maybe one with Mrs. M.?”

She scrolled through the photos and found one of Sara and her housekeeper standing together near the Suffragette Statue at The Main Place. Silas stared at it for only a second before saying, “Yes, that’s them.”

“Have you seen her since then?” Danni could not keep the pleading note from her voice. “Down here?”

“No, ma’am, but if I had I would have called the police straight away because I knew she was missing,” Silas said. “She and her housekeeper were very polite when we talked.”

“Forgive the question,” Danni began, “but are you Amish? Sara is fascinated by their culture, and she wrote about you in her diary, calling you ‘the almost Amish boy.’ That’s how we found you.”

Silas’ smile returned. “No, we’re Mennonites. We follow some of the old ways like simplicity in dress and living but we use modern technology like phones and computers. Sara seemed disappointed when I told her my grandmother–”he pointed to the woman–“didn’t come here in horse and buggy.”

His gentle humor relaxed some of the tension in Danni’s shoulders and she returned his smile. “If I give you my phone number and you hear anything about her, would you call or text me, please?”

“Of course.” Silas handed her a paper napkin and then a pen from a jar. She scribbled her number and handed the things back to him. “Thank you, Silas.”

“Anything to help, Mrs.-?”

“Blake,” she blurted as heat flamed her cheeks and Silas looked at Patrick.

“Patrick,” her protector said, smiling broadly as he offered the boy his hand.

“Well, Mr. and Mrs. Blake, if I hear anything about Sara, I will certainly call you,” Silas promised. “Anything to help.”

Danni wheeled about, half dragging a coughing Patrick with her. It was only after they were well away from the Lapp booth that he released his howl of laughter. The furious scowl turning down Danni’s pretty mouth only made him laugh harder.

“What’s so funny?” she grumbled.

“You tell me,Mrs.Blake,” he teased. “You sure are cute when you’re embarrassed.”

She held up a gloved fist. “Keep this up and I’m going to clobber your poor swollen nose,” she threatened again. “Then you won’t be able to smell anything, not even your precious Blue Mountain.”

“Oh yeah?” He put his arms around her waist. “You and whose army?”

“We need to go.” Kristopher’s stealthy appearing so surprised them that Patrick pulled Danni closer and had his weapon half-way out of pocket before recognizing his new colleague’s voice.

“Damn, you’re good,” Patrick told him as Danni stepped back. “Never saw or heard you coming. You’re lucky I didn’t shoot you. What’s up?”

“Did you find Silas?”

“Yes. Danni released a sigh of disappointment. “Sara made a partial payment on a hat for her grandfather the Friday before she vanished, but that’s all. I suppose we could have sent plain-clothes police to talk to Silas Lapp after all. Has something happened?”

“Yeah. Another–”

“Excuse me. Mr. and Mrs. Blake?”

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