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If it hurts, embrace the pain and pray it doesn’t last too long.
“It looks like this particular bolt was tipped with what’s referred to as a broadhead with four blades.” He indicates the wound. “They’re razor-sharp and do a tremendous amount of damage.”
“Whoever did this took his time,” he tells me. “He stayed calm. Had the wherewithal and physical strength to push those bolts through a
human body. With that second shot, he made damn sure that when he walked away, Aden Karn would be dead.”
John Tomasetti is the strongest person I know.
“This case isn’t going to end well,” he says after a moment. “Not a stranger abduction. Not after four days.” “You don’t know that.”
“I wish I didn’t. But I do, Kate.
you are the best man for the job. If anyone can bring them home, it’s you. It’s going to hurt, but you’re going to do it anyway. That’s got to count for something.”
It’s a Bible passage; Romans if I’m not mistaken. In English it means:
“For to be carnally minded is death.”
“My little sister all grown up and getting married.”
“These days … sometimes even good girls … get caught up in things they shouldn’t. They get talked into doing things they shouldn’t do.”
“He took me to the ice cream place and we got cones. Kept me laughing the whole time. Sweet like, you know? Then we were on our way to his house to get some tools. He said he’d fix the wheel for me.
“Only he didn’t take me to his house. He drove out to Layland Road and stopped the car.”
“He was … somebody else. Something else. Something bad.”
“He forced you?” I ask. “Sexually assaulted you?”
“She came home covered with dirt and mud. It was in her hair. All over her clothes. She was crying so hard she couldn’t breathe. I didn’t know what to think, and she wouldn’t say. She didn’t say a word to anyone for five days, Chief Burkholder. She didn’t eat or leave her room. It was only
when I did laundry that I found the blood on her clothes. Her underpants. And I knew.”
Aden Karn didn’t have a soul. Or a conscience. I had to take this poor child to the doctor. Get her fixed up. Her mind will never be the same. That’s all I’m going to say. That’s enough, dragging her through all of this again.”
“Let me tell you about Aden Karn. The devil whispered his name and Aden Karn took his hand and he went.”
“We found the girls. They’re home tonight. With their parents. Four days and he didn’t touch them.”
“Karn drank too much, and he couldn’t handle his booze. Got shit-faced on a regular basis. Whatever female he was with usually drank too much, too.
Aden kept saying that love is as important as being married. He said that God was love and He would be okay with it because we weren’t yet baptized.
“The man got into bed with us. I tried to leave, but my clothes weren’t there. And Aden … he said it would be okay. I lost sight of him and I got scared. I began to cry.… And then they all came in.
“It doesn’t even matter. Aden is gone. Everything is … ruined. I don’t see how God can forgive me for what I did. I don’t see how I can forgive myself.”
“There were a few times when … I went to the gas station with him. I can’t explain it because sometimes I didn’t drink any tequila, and yet I got that crazy feeling in my head. You know, like I was dizzy and … then I was in that room with them and I just don’t remember.”
“It took guts for you to come here tonight and tell me the truth. You were very brave.
“I feel … dirty and … more awful than I’ve ever felt in my life.”
“No one has the right to do that to you or anyone else. It’s called sexual assault and it’s against the law.”
“They drugged her and they gang-raped her. Not once, but several times. A seventeen-year-old Amish girl. And now, all she wants is for no one to know.”
“He betrayed her in the worst possible way,”
You don’t fight for them because of who they are. You fight for them because of who you are.”
I feel that familiar flutter of breathlessness in my chest and despite the dark events of the past week, a burst of pure happiness breaks through. In that moment, I’m not Kate Burkholder the chief of police. I’m Kate Burkholder the woman who is about to marry the man I love.
“Tomasetti, if I didn’t know better, I might just think you were smitten with the chief of police.”
