I found the oem connector, stuck to the frame in some crud, replaced the strange right angle connector and attached it to the one that seemed the best fit for having had been violently removed. The short wire has the flat male standard looking wire connector and isn't/hadn't been attached to anything after the accessory drive belt replacement, before I don't know. Your tip will be used to look more closely as to what may have hooked up previously. I don't have a picture of the dash with me and the car is on the other side of town buried under snow, but now I have a decent clue and feel more confident I didn't and or won't damage this nice little engine.
My friend took a couple cars to a long time local mechanic for a free inspection, ended up getting some service done (I haven't seen the records yet, legal action is pending). Next thing we know both cars are worse or coming apart and it's driven pretty hard until something happens and some improper color coolant made its way in and some stop leak oil treatment. When I got to it to replacing the drive belts, the AC compressor bracket mounting bracket was flopping around. Sorry I'm rambling, it was driven a few miles down hill sans belts and I'm trying to say it may have not been working properly before. Now that I think about it, that's a pretty long time with no belts. It seemed to be running nicely after the belt replacement, but maybe the damage had already been done one way or the other.
75000 miles on it, and I love flat fours, so I'm looking forward to see what happened and getting it back on some sound footing mechanically again.
Thanks again DaveT and Ultimate Subaru forum.