I smiled as I thought about the times that Cass had visited me in Holmes County and had been flabbergasted at how everything closed so early. At least when I’d moved here, I knew that was the case because of the summers I had spent with my grandparents as a child. For Cass, it was completely foreign.
I heard a scraping on the sidewalk behind me as if someone was dragging a paper bag across the ground. I stopped in my tracks and looked back. Normally, something like that wouldn’t bother me, but I was more than a little on edge after Stephen’s murder, and there usually wasn’t anyone out in the village this late. I scanned the area behind me. The gas-powered lampposts were flickering on, and the last rays of the sun were fading. There was enough light to see by, but I didn’t see anything. There wasn’t a soul on the street.
I shook my head. I was being jumpy. It was most likely a stray cat or maybe even a white-tailed deer that had wandered into the village proper. Goodness knew there were plenty of deer in the county. I had a fear of hitting one with my car every time I drove at night, which was one reason I’d decided to walk to the shop. I knew it would be completely dark when I finished piecing together the toffee rabbit.
Or maybe it had been a raccoon. I had seen some giant raccoons since I’d moved to the country. I gave them a wide berth. I loved where I lived, but I hadn’t completely acclimated to all the wildlife just yet. The most I had to deal with in the city was the occasional angry squirrel or pigeon. Holmes County had a whole slew of wild animals.
I walked a few steps and heard nothing more. I went on my way again; the animal or whatever it was must have moved on because the sound was gone. I turned the corner onto Main Street. The air was perfumed with the scent of apple blossoms. The white rabbits in their pen on the green across from the candy shop looked like puffed white pieces of cotton against the dark grass. I knew where Puff was, but I didn’t know what would happen to these rabbits or the ones that were back at Stephen’s farm. I hoped no one would think that I should take them. Puff was more than enough for me.
I let myself into the candy shop. As I stepped inside, my grandmother and Charlotte were coming out of the kitchen.
“Bailey,” my grandmother said. “You were gone so long. We weren’t expecting you back tonight.”
Nutmeg was at my feet and he meowed until I relented and bent down to pick him up. When I did, the cat stopped fussing and snuggled under my chin.
“Aiden told me that Margot has been driving you crazy over the toffee rabbit.”
“Has she ever!” Charlotte said. “I think she’s been over here just about every hour looking for you.”
I grimaced. “I told her that it wouldn’t be done until tomorrow, but I had better finish it tonight no matter how late I have to stay up. I have a feeling Margot expects that the toffee rabbit will be on the square ASAP.”
“I can guarantee it,” Charlotte said. “She told me to tell you at least eight times.”
I groaned. “This is probably a situation where it’s best just to get it over with, and the pressure might help me to work. My head is all jumbled up over what happened to Stephen Raber. I went to the Christmas tree farm and spoke to Daniel, and then I went over to the Raber farm. No one was there. I found it strange. I learned that Eli was courting a girl from the Beiler farm, but I didn’t get a chance to get over there and talk to her.”
“I didn’t know that,” Charlotte said.
I shrugged. “I hope Aiden will tell me more. I’m sure he’s been to that farm by now.” I stopped myself from mentioning the vandalism on the Beiler farm. I didn’t want my grandmother to worry about Amish being targeted in the county.
My grandmother shook her head. “I believe the Rabers’ community is gathering at one of his daughters’ houses. Eli was the only one who was still living with Stephen. Maybe they thought they could support the family better where there was more family.”
That made me feel a little better. “I have a lot to sort out. I think working will help.”
My grandmother smiled. “You are your grossdaadi’s granddaughter because when Jebidiah was stressed out about anything, he threw himself into work. Some of the most productive times at the candy shop were when Jebidiah was puzzling about things outside the candy shop.”
I smiled, knowing that she was likely thinking of Daadi, and his lack of ability to sit still. That did sound like my grandfather and like me.
Chapter 21
Charlotte started to yawn and covered her mouth. “We made a lot of toffee. There are trays and trays of it cooling in the kitchen. I’ve never seen so much toffee in my life.”
I smiled. “Thank you for doing that. I appreciate your both staying up so late. I know you have an early morning.”
Charlotte shook her head. “We made so many trays of toffee, I lost count, and don’t get me started on the Rice Krispies treats to make the rabbit’s body. I feel like I have marshmallow in my hair.”
Maami shook her head. “It’s a good thing that tomorrow is our wholesaler’s delivery day. We’re running low on so many things.”
“Even cocoa to make chocolate everything,” Charlotte said.
“We can’t have that,” I said. “Chocolate is our business.”
“I could stay up and help you out more,” Charlotte said. Even as she said this I could see her eyes drooping closed. She had been up since the wee hours of the morning and would have to get up at the same time the next day. I couldn’t ask her to stay up with me, especially after she and Maami had made all the toffee I would need to put my rabbit together.
“No need,” I said. “It’s just a matter of carving the Rice Krispies treats you made and assembling all the pieces now. I shouldn’t be up too late.”
Maami patted my hand. “We know you could use the help, and it is our job to help each other.”
I hugged her. “You both go to bed. I’m going to work for an hour or so and then head home myself.”
My grandmother’s brow wrinkled. “Why don’t you spend the night here? It’s very late, and I don’t like the idea of you going back to that house all by yourself.” She frowned. Although she would never say it, I think my grandmother was disappointed when I moved out of the candy shop. I think in her mind I should have lived there as long as I worked at the shop just as she and my grandfather always had, but I couldn’t do that. I was still a city girl at heart and I needed my space. I always needed a place to plug in my hair dryer. Neither of those things were options in my grandmother’s apartment over the shop.
I wrinkled my nose. I’d spent too many nights sleeping on the floor or on a small cot when I shared a room with Charlotte. I wasn’t eager to repeat that experience. Besides, I needed a good night’s rest too. I didn’t know what else Margot had in store for me at Easter Days. I knew better than to think the giant toffee rabbit would be the end of it.
I shook my head. “I don’t mind. Really. I worked more late nights that I can count back in New York.”
My grandmother looked like she wanted to argue with me more over this, but Charlotte stifled a yawn. “Well, good night, Bailey. I’m eager to see the rabbit in the morning.”
“Me too,” I said with a laugh. “I hope I can pull it off.”
My grandmother reached out and squeezed my hand. “You will do well, but I will pray to the Lord to give you energy to sustain you through this night of labor.”
“Danki, Maami,” I said.
She smiled. “You are a gut girl. How blessed am I to have you and Charlotte here to help me with the shop. Your daadi didn’t know what would happen to me or the shop if something happened to him, and I know it worried him. He would be so pleased to see what you have done. He would be so pleased that you are still able to live your New York dreams and help me too. The Lord had been very gut to us.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “He’s been very good,” I said, and for the first time, I almost believed it. I didn’t have the unshakable faith of my grandparents. My only exposure to God had been through th
em. After growing up Amish, religion was a topic that my father refused to talk about. The longer I was in Holmes County, the more I realized all that he’d rejected when he left. I know I would have not been born if he’d remained Amish since my mother wasn’t Amish, but at times, I could see the pain on my grandmother’s face when she talked about my father and how he fell away from the faith.
I handed Nutmeg to Charlotte. The cat usually slept in her room at night now that I lived outside the candy shop.
My grandmother tucked a lock of my hair behind my ear just as she had when I was a little girl. “I know that it is not Amish of me to say, but I am very proud of you, and your daadi was so very proud when he was alive too.”
I watched my grandmother and Charlotte shuffle up the stairs to bed. It had been a trying day. Now all I had to do was construct a giant rabbit. Should be easy, I thought, and then I laughed at myself.
I pushed through the swinging door into the kitchen. My grandmother and Charlotte hadn’t been kidding. They had made a lot of toffee. There was toffee in metal trays on every surface of the kitchen. There was even a tray precariously balanced on the edge of a mixer. I moved that off and set it on one of the two empty stools. I had hoped to sketch out my plans for the rabbit, but it was clear to me I wouldn’t be doing that in the kitchen.
Earlier, I had carved the rabbit’s ears and paws out of solid white chocolate. Now, I needed to tackle the giant Rice Krispies treat balls that Charlotte had made for the head and the body of the rabbit. The three Rice Krispies treat balls were each the size of a college dorm room refrigerator. If they were stacked one on top of the other, they would easily be six feet. The rabbit’s ears were two feet themselves. Instead of a six-foot rabbit, I would give Margot an eight-foot one and the platform the rabbit would be standing on would add another foot. The rabbit would appear to be eight feet tall. It would easily top eight feet. Go big or go home. I started to feel excited about the project and it reminded me of my old competition days for JP Chocolates.
But to carve the Rice Krispies balls, cover them with white-chocolate fondant, and assemble them, I would need a lot more space. I decided the front room was my only option. I rolled up my sleeves and got to work. The first thing I did was move all my pieces and the tools I would need to the front room. Then I covered one of the small dining tables with wax paper, set one of the Rice Krispies balls on top of it, and started to carve out the lower half of a very large Easter bunny.
While I worked, I tried to push thoughts of murder out of my head, but they continued to creep in. Where had Eli Raber been today when I went to his farm? At the Beiler farm, where his girlfriend was, or at the home of one of his sisters? I didn’t know why it bothered me so much that Eli hadn’t been there.
And then there was the issue of Zimmerman and the lily of the valley. It took all my will power not to call Aiden and ask him what he’d learned from the botanist when the murder weapon was brought up.
I sighed. Margot wanted a toffee rabbit, and I would give her just that. There would be toffee all over the rabbit, but I decided to use broken bits of toffee to mimic the bunny’s fur. My grandmother and Charlotte had saved me a lot of time by making the toffee, and I was grateful for that. I knew I would have to make it up to them. I couldn’t wait to tell them about the trip I was planning, for them to go to Pinecraft.
Tap, tap, tap came on the window. I dropped my carving knife on the floor. I froze, wondering if I had just woken my grandmother and Charlotte upstairs. There was silence, and I gave a sigh of relief. They both needed their rest, just as I did. I glanced at the long, plain clock on the wall. It was after midnight. I hadn’t realized I’d been working so long.
Tap, tap, tap came again.
I scooped up my sketchbook and the lantern and looked out the window. There was a dark shape there. My breath caught. Then, the form stood in the light from the gas lamppost. It was Deputy Little. The young deputy knocked on the pane again and, when he saw me sitting there, he waved.
I sighed and got up. I went to the door and unlocked it. “Little, what on earth are you doing here?”
“I’m glad I found you, Bailey,” he said, slightly out of breath. “When I couldn’t find you at your house, I got worried.”
“Worried why? Why are you looking for me?”
“Deputy Brody was called away to Millersburg on a suspected robbery, so he asked me to check on you. I’ve been looking for you all over the village.”
“It’s most likely I would be here.”
“Yes.” He nodded. “I should have thought of that. I just didn’t think you would be here so late in the day. You keep cop hours at the candy shop?”
“Hardly,” I said, since I knew the kind of hours that Aiden kept. I couldn’t begin to compare my work schedule to his. It wasn’t unusual for him to get multiple calls in the middle of the night, which meant he had to leave his warm bed to fight crime.
“Why did Aiden tell you to check on me?”
“The notes you gave him,” he whispered. “He’s worried that those notes you received might make you a target. He’s very protective of you.” His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down as if he was embarrassed by his last statement.
“That’s sweet of Aiden and you for coming out here to check on me, but as you can see, I’m fine. Besides, I don’t have the notes any longer. Aiden does, so I can’t be a target.”
He looked as if he didn’t believe me.
I smiled. “Thanks for stopping by, Little. You can report back to Aiden that I’m perfectly fine, and unless you have any ideas about how to create a giant rabbit out of toffee, I suggest you leave and attend to more pressing police business. If you stay here, I can guarantee I’ll put you to work making candy rabbit fur.”
He glanced at the table. “What are you doing?”
I told him about the giant white chocolate-and-toffee rabbit I planned to create.
He frowned. “That sounds complicated.” He backed away as if he thought I’d be true to my threat about putting him to work. It was a wise move because I wasn’t kidding.
“If you are all right,” he said, “then, I’ll be on my way.”
I smiled, happy that I had successfully scared off the deputy. “I’m just fine, Little. Don’t worry so much. You’re too young for an ulcer.”
His forehead creased. “Do you think I’m in danger of getting an ulcer?”
If anyone was, it would be Deputy Little, but I wasn’t going to tell him that when he looked so horrified at the prospect. “I was just teasing.”
He backed toward the door. “Okay,” he said as if he didn’t quite believe me. “Deputy Brody isn’t happy that you are mixed up in another investigation.”
“To be honest, I’m not happy about it either,” I said with a sigh.
He tipped his hat to me like a deputy would in the Old West and went out the door. I watched through the front window as he walked to his cruiser.
I sighed and turned back to make the giant rabbit.
Chapter 22
I yawned and stared at the giant bunny standing on a rolling flat in the middle of the front room of the shop.
Overall, it had been a good call to construct the rabbit in the front of the shop. All I would have to do now would be to roll it across the street in the morning with Emily’s and Charlotte’s help. The rabbit was lifelike and standing on its hind legs. I’d decided to go with a lifelike rabbit as opposed to a cartoon version because I thought it might be more palatable to the Amish.
The bunny stood eight feet high from the tip of its ears to its toes. The toffee fur idea had worked out beautifully. It looked like real rabbit fur, which was a good outcome since I didn’t have any other ideas. I decided to lightly cover the rabbit in plastic, taking care not to mar its fur. I would try to get to the candy shop early the next morning, so we could move it out of the way before too many customers arrived. The rabbit took up quite a lot of floor space.
By the time I cleaned up the kitchen, made a few e
xtra trays of candy to make up for all the time I had missed in the shop that day, and set the chairs upside down on the café tables, it was well after midnight. Every muscle in my body ached as I walked out through the front door and locked it behind me. Part of me was sorely tempted to take my grandmother’s advice and sleep at the shop for the night, but my warm bed was calling me.
I wrapped my arms around myself when I went outside. I had a long-sleeved shirt on, but no jacket. It was still April, and the days had been warming in the last few weeks. I inhaled the scent of the apple blossoms from the trees and the hyacinths that bloomed on the square. The rabbits across the street all appeared to be sleeping, from what I could see by the lampposts’ dim light. I almost went over to check on them but thought better of it. If the bunnies were sleeping, I didn’t want to wake them. I walked back to my little house through the quiet streets of Harvest.
Just as I had when I’d arrived at the candy shop that night, I heard a scraping sound behind me.
I stopped, and the sound stopped too. I began to walk and the sound returned, but much more faintly this time. I paused in the middle of the sidewalk again and looked behind me. There was nothing there, and the sound was gone too. I started walking, and the sound didn’t return. I shook it off as nothing, or maybe it was one of those giant raccoons. My mind was playing tricks on me because I was tired and because I had only been back in Ohio for a day and was tangled up in a murder again.
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