Free Upon A Winter's Night by Karen Harper Page A

driver of the car. Go on, and I’ll make notes,” she said, fumbling in her big purse for a pad and pen.
    Her voice shaking, Lydia went on.

    “A young Amish couple from the Charm, Ohio area, David Brand, age 24, and Lena Hostetler Brand, age 23...”

    Her voice caught. David and Lena, David and Lena... Their names were David and Lena... And her mother’s people were Hostetlers. She knew of some in this area, though not in the Homestead Amish church.
    She cleared her throat, blinked back tears and continued.

    “...were pronounced dead at the scene after a vehicle carrying four tourists from Parma, Ohio, struck their buggy at approximately 9:00 p.m. on Wednesday.
    Clinton MacKenney, the Holmes County sheriff at the scene, theorized that skid marks indicate the vehicle, a station wagon, careened over the hill behind the buggy at a speed of at least fifty miles per hour, could not stop in time and hit the buggy from the rear. Marvin Lowe, 65, was cited for driving over the speed limit with reckless abandon. Further charges of double manslaughter may be forthcoming.
    Lowe made no statement but said he will soon have a lawyer. His vehicle sustained minor damage...

    “Minor damage,” Lydia whispered, blinking back tears. “It isn’t fair. So perhaps there was a trial.”
    “But this gives us all we need to know to start searching.”
    “And there’s no way my mother could still be alive,” Lydia admitted with a sigh. She’d told Sandra about the note. “Talk about getting my hopes up...”
    Sandra shook her head. “So sad. A tragedy that could have been avoided. Do you want me to read the rest of it?”
    “Okay but I’m fine. Well, not really, but I want to find out no matter what.”
    Sandra took up where she’d left off.

    “Since it was nearly four hours after dark, the Brand buggy had two lanterns on the back, both surprisingly found still lighted in the ditch when medics and the sheriff arrived. The horse was also killed. The couple had wed barely a year ago and leave one infant daughter who is staying with relatives. David Brand was a tree cutter with a company in Amity.”

    “A tree cutter,” Lydia repeated. “I wish it said if they left behind other family—siblings, cousins.”
    “I can search for their obits later, and those might tell.”
    “Maybe. The Amish come from far and wide for funerals. More likely their obituaries appeared in The Budget, the national Amish newspaper. But I’m sure no one keeps clippings from that in folders or databases.”
    “I forget I’m dealing with an enclave culture here.”
    Another word Lydia didn’t know but she got the idea.
    “I just wonder,” Sandra said as she turned off the light on the car’s ceiling and backed out, “if the relatives you were staying with the night of the accident or thereafter are your adoptive parents or if there were others who took care of you at first. What’s the relationship between your adoptive father and your biological father?”
    “I’m not sure. A cousin, not first cousin. Ach, our people value family, even extended family, and many know their roots way back to the few Amish families who migrated from Europe to escape persecution there. And here, I know next to nothing,” she added, blinking back tears again.
    “But you know a lot more than a few minutes ago, and it gives me information to start digging. It’s obvious your real mother died in this accident,” she said, “but Victoria’s note gives us such an interesting twist we might still want to check it out.”
    “Yes, I still do,” Lydia told her, stroking the old photo of the scene of the double murder—that’s what it was, murder! Nothing to do about that this late, of course, except try to forgive. But unlike what her daad and mamm wanted, after today, she could never forget. Like she’d heard Josh say once when he was talking about his time in the world, A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

7
    “L ydia, it’s so raw outside, and I’m