Matchmaking Can Be Murder

by Amanda Flower

  I heard sirens coming closer to the greenhouse. I put two fingers in my mouth and whistled just the way Kip had taught me all those years ago. Nothing happened. I whistled again, louder this time, and I saw both Phillip and Peter crest the hill. When I whistled that it was time to come home, they knew I meant business.

  Behind me in the greenhouse I heard new voices echoing in the large space. I let the back door close as voices sounded in the main flower room.

  “She said the body would be in here,” the first male voice said.

  “I don’t know how we’re going to find anything in here. All these plants.” That statement was followed by a sneeze. “I’m choking on CO2.”

  “Little, the plants are giving off oxygen and absorbing CO2. Don’t you remember that from your elementary school science class?” another voice said in reply. “You should be able to breathe easier, not worse.”

  “Not with my allergies,” Little replied and sneezed for good measure.

  “You will be fine, Little. Take some antihistamine and keep it together.”

  I moved away from the door.

  Two young men in sheriff’s department uniforms stepped into the main room of the greenhouse. “Millie, are you all right?” Deputy Aiden Brody asked me the moment he saw me there standing by the back door.

  He was a tall young man with wavy blond hair and kind, dark eyes. I was relieved to see him. Of all the deputies the sheriff’s department could have sent to Edy’s Greenhouse, he was the very best. He had the most experience dealing with our Amish ways and certainly had the most compassion for our culture. I thought that had a lot to do with the fact he was dating and in love with Bailey King, a candy maker in the village who came from an Amish family, though she wasn’t Amish herself. The moment I’d seen Deputy Aiden and Bailey together, I knew they were a perfect match.

  “I am,” I said. “I’m so glad you have come.”

  “Are you sure you’re all right?” Deputy Aiden asked.

  I could feel him studying my face. “I believe so,” I said, but even to my own ears I didn’t sound that convincing. “A man just ran away from the greenhouse. He gave me quite a scare.”

  “A man?” Deputy Aiden’s voice turned from concerned to focused. He wanted the details and he wanted them quickly.

  “Ya,” I said, then described what I had seen. “He was wearing Amish clothes.”

  There was a loud bang on the back door of the greenhouse as if something had rammed against it. Both Deputy Aiden and Deputy Little drew their guns.

  “Don’t shoot. It’s just my goats,” I said and hurried to the door. I flung it open, and Phillip and Peter stood outside with shining eyes. They’d had great fun chasing the man down the hill. A piece of dark cloth hung from Phillip’s mouth. I held out my hand. “Give.”

  The black and white goat dropped the piece of fabric in my hand.

  “What is that?” Deputy Aiden asked as he holstered his gun.

  I handed the scrap of black cloth to him. “I think it’s a piece of trouser.”

  “Your goat attacked the intruder?”

  “The boys thought it was a game. They are exuberant at times.”

  Deputy Aiden’s brows drew together. “Little,” Deputy Aiden said to the other young man, who was thin with a very short haircut and seemed to watch Aiden—a man just a handful of years older than he—with great attention. “Go check it out. The perp might have gotten away by now, but you can see if he is still out there and if there is any evidence as to where he might have gone. Look for boot prints or whatever you can find.”

  “Yes, sir,” Little said and hurried out the back door of the greenhouse. Through the window, I could see the goats hopping around him as he went down the hill.

  “If there is any trail left behind by the man you saw, Little will find it.” He paused. “And maybe your goats will lead him in the right direction.”

  “I’m not sure about that. They can be forgetful and have trouble with obedience.”

  He sighed. “Deputy Little will do what he can. He’s come a long way and is turning into a very fine officer. I don’t know if he will be able to catch the intruder, but he is a good cop, and he will do his very best to find any clues that might tell us where the man you saw may have gone.”

  “You are being very careful not to say that the man I saw was doing something wrong,” I noted.

  He smiled. “I always knew you were a keen observer, Millie. I’m not saying that because I don’t know, and as a police officer, I never say anything I don’t know for sure. There is nothing worse than being blamed for something you didn’t do.” He said this as if the knowledge came from his own experiences.

  I nodded, thinking of what I had done to Enoch years ago. It was a terrible thing to blame the wrong person. I swallowed hard and stared at the screen door the deputy had just gone through. I could no longer see Deputy Little or the goats.

  “Dispatch got a call that a body was found in the greenhouse. Were you the one who phoned?” Deputy Aiden’s question interrupted my dark thoughts.

  I turned back to him and didn’t say anything at first. Another Amish saying came into my mind. “Swallowing words before you say them is so much better than having to eat them afterward.”

  “Millie, did you find the body?” the deputy asked. “Whoever called dispatch didn’t stay on the line long enough to answer any questions.”

  “Who told you to come to the greenhouse then?” I asked, stalling before I gave him my answer. Fear over my niece’s part in all this held me back.

  “Dispatch said that the woman who called in said there was someone dead in the greenhouse on Briar Road. This is the only greenhouse on Briar Road.”

  So the police didn’t know that Edith was involved. I knew it was only a matter of time before they found out. Should I tell them now or delay it? Was it worth delaying? This was Edith’s land, her greenhouse, her home—who else would have been here on a Sunday morning when the rest of the community was at church? Deputy Aiden knew enough about the Amish to know that.

  I couldn’t lie. The Good Lord would never ask me to lie. As tempting as it was, I told the truth. “I didn’t find the body. My niece Edith did, and she was the one who called the police. I told her to do that while I stayed here and waited for you. She’s in the house with her children now. I told her to stay there.”

  He nodded. “Can you show me where the body was found?”

  I swallowed and walked back to the cactus room. There was no door between the main room of the greenhouse and the cactus room. I pointed inside and Deputy Aiden went in. I was a few steps behind him. By the time I entered the room, which was just a second or two later, he was already on his cell phone. “I need two crime scene techs, and call the coroner too. Edy’s Greenhouse. They should all know where that is.” He ended the call and clipped his phone back onto this utility belt, which also held handcuffs and his gun.

  Seeing the gun there made me uncomfortable. Of course, we Amish are not opposed to guns for hunting, but a gun like Deputy Aiden’s was strictly to enforce the law, which didn’t sit well with my Amish sensibilities. I knew Deputy Aiden was a gut man and would only use it if absolutely necessary to save another life. I hoped that I would never be in the position where I had to save one person’s life by taking another’s. I didn’t feel qualified to make such a harsh judgment. Or to carry through with such an action.

  Deputy Aiden crouched beside the body as I had, but he was unafraid and positioned himself close to Zeke’s head.

  I couldn’t bring myself to look at Zeke’s face again. I didn’t need to see it to know exactly what it looked like. It was impossible to forget. I swallowed. “Will we be able to catch who did this?”

  He looked up at me. “We?”

  I smoothed a wrinkle from my skirt with my hand. “I mean you.”

  He frowned as if he found my response suspicious. “Yes. It’s my job and what I intend to do. First my team and I need to determine whether it was an accid
ent or foul play.”

  “You think he died in an accident?” I said with too much hope in my voice. I was certain Zeke had been murdered, but if Deputy Aiden didn’t think so, I’d take his accident theory.

  “This doesn’t look like an accident to me,” he said, dashing my hopes. “There is no evidence that his head connected with anything that would explain the wound. In fact—” He cut himself off as he stared intently under the potting table.

  He had seen the decorative rock; I knew it. Deputy Aiden stood up and stepped around the table away from Zeke, then squatted next to the table. I noted that I didn’t hear his knees crack on the way down like mine did. “This was no accident,” he said, staring at the rock. “And the very pointed Bible verse makes me wonder if this was planned.”

  I pressed my lips together and folded my hands in prayer. I had wondered the same thing when I read the words on the stone.

  “And the body is Zeke Miller,” Deputy Aiden said.

  “Do you know Zeke?”

  A cloud fell over the young deputy’s face. He knew Zeke. I sensed that, but he was reluctant to say how he knew the young Amish man.

  “Do you know him?” I repeated.

  The wary expression on Aiden’s face disappeared, and he returned to his impassive cop face, a look that would give away nothing to me. I wasn’t sure I even wanted to hear what he knew about Zeke. As far as I knew, the only way for the police to know an Amish man well was if that Amish person had done something wrong. Although I’d never cared for Zeke and thought he had wanted to marry my niece only for her greenhouse, I never once thought he was in trouble with the law. Deputy Aiden’s initial reaction to seeing the body told me I was wrong.

  CHAPTER NINE

  “Holmes County is a small place,” Deputy Aiden said vaguely.

  That’s when my suspicions were confirmed. I was right that Zeke had been tangled up in something sinister. I wondered if I should bring the wrench under the table to the deputy’s attention, but I knew that he would find it, or one of his crime scene techs—I believed that’s what he had called them—would.

  Poor Edith. However, I realized this could be good news for my Edith too, as far as the police were concerned. If Zeke was mixed up with the wrong crowd, there would be other people besides my Edith who would want him permanently out of their lives. If he was mixed up with criminals, these people would be more likely to turn to murder as a solution.

  I shivered at my train of thought. I didn’t want someone else to be falsely accused even if it freed Edith of blame.

  Deputy Aiden stood up. “Wasn’t Edith to marry Zeke Miller soon?”

  My eyebrows went up. It seemed to me that Deputy Aiden Brody knew even more about our community than I expected. He must have seen the expression on my face and his cheeks flushed. “I only know because Bailey mentioned that she and Charlotte were making a wedding cake for Edith and the two of them couldn’t agree on the flavor. Bailey wanted it to be Black Forest, but Charlotte wanted it to be lemon poppy seed.”

  The cake. I had forgotten. It was a surprise that I had planned for Edith. Of course, he would have heard about the wedding from his fiancée, Bailey, and Charlotte, Bailey’s cousin, an Amish girl who worked at Swissmen Sweets with Bailey and Bailey’s grandmother Clara. I would have to notify Swissmen Sweets that there would be no cake and no wedding. “Do you know if they’ve started the cake yet?” I asked.

  Deputy Aiden shook his head. “I don’t know.”

  “Edith was set to marry him, and I asked Swissmen Sweets to make the cake. It was to be a special surprise for Edith. ” I said nothing of the broken engagement and hoped that Edith wouldn’t say anything about it either when Deputy Aiden questioned her.

  I was kicking myself because I’d confirmed to the ladies in my quilting circle that Edith was going to break her engagement. Probably everyone in the Sunbeam Café yesterday also heard. It wasn’t as if we had been keeping our voices down. Then I remembered that didn’t really matter because Zeke’s mother knew and was telling everyone in the community. She even hinted that Edith might have another beau. The police would learn of the broken engagement one way or another.

  Remembering Carolina Miller telling everyone in the district brought another person to my mind: Tucker Leham. Tucker knew something about Zeke and had wanted to tell Edith, but when he’d heard that she wasn’t to marry Zeke, he’d decided to keep the information to himself. Could what he knew have led to Zeke’s death? I would have to have a conversation with the young man and find out what he knew. Even more important, I needed to speak to Edith, alone and soon. What did she know about Zeke that she wasn’t sharing?

  There was a commotion in the larger room of the greenhouse as male voices filled the place. Deputy Aiden held up a finger. “Hold that thought. I still would like to talk to you about this. I’ll be right back.” He stepped out of the cactus room, leaving me alone with the body. I stared at the decorative rock, which Deputy Aiden had left in place on the concrete floor, and I thought of the wrench he had yet to see or mention to me. I wasn’t sure why, but that wrench felt important. It was something else I would have to speak to Edith about.

  “The crime scene is in here,” Deputy Aiden said in a clear, strong voice just outside the archway leading into the cactus room.

  A moment later Deputy Aiden, along with a woman and man in black coveralls, stepped into the room. They both carried large black bags. The woman pulled up short. “What is she doing here?” She narrowed her eyes. “What are you doing in here?”

  “She was one of the witnesses who first discovered the body,” Deputy Aiden said. “She is a member of the family.”

  The woman arched her brow. “You left a suspect alone with the body?”

  Suspect? I felt sick. I knew Edith would be under suspicion, but I never viewed myself as a suspect until now.

  “Mrs. Fisher was alone with the body before we arrived here,” Deputy Aiden said. “I want this entire room cataloged and searched. You find anything that strikes you as the least bit odd, I want to hear about it right away.”

  “We got it, Deputy,” the male crime scene tech said.

  “What about the murder weapon, sir?” the woman asked, pointing at the rock peeking out from under the potting table. “Because that is surely it.”

  I felt a little queasy when I looked again at the rock with the blood crusted on it.

  “Yes, I assume that is the murder weapon too. We won’t know for sure until the coroner gets here and makes an official pronouncement. However, the rock and the injury on the back of the victim’s head do appear to match.”

  I placed a hand on my head and felt a bit dizzy. Perhaps the gravity of the situation had finally hit me. Someone had killed Zeke Miller in my niece’s greenhouse. There was no way to sugarcoat it and no way to keep this news from the Amish rumor mill, which might already be grinding, depending upon how much Edith had said when she’d called the bishop’s house.

  Deputy Aiden must have noticed the green cast to my skin. “I’m going to speak to Mrs. Fisher outside in the main room.”

  The techs nodded and set their large bags in the corner of the room as far away from Zeke’s body as possible.

  “Will you follow me, Millie?” Deputy Aiden asked and stepped through the doorway that led into the main part of the greenhouse.

  Before I left the space, I looked at Zeke’s face one last time. I didn’t want to. It was some kind of compulsion that forced me to do it. I prayed for him and hoped that it wasn’t too late for my prayer to reach Gott’s ears.

  CHAPTER TEN

  In the larger room, Deputy Aiden studied me. “How well did you know Zeke Miller?”

  That was easy enough to answer. “He’s been a member of our district since birth, but for the last ten years, I’ve lived in Michigan caring for my sister. When I left Harvest, I don’t believe that he had yet made a commitment to be baptized into the church, so I didn’t see him often at church functions. That can be the way with
young people, you see, when they are in rumspringa. They might spend some time away from the faith to see how the Englisch live. There are no rules on how far they may go during their running-around time, or how long they may explore, but most families hope their children will choose to stay close to the faith during that time.”

  He arched his brow. “So Zeke was wild during his running-around years?”

  I flushed. “I don’t know that. As I said, I was away at the time, and I only assumed as much because I didn’t see him often at church as a teenager. Of course, that could mean a great many things, and I shouldn’t jump to any conclusions.”

  Deputy Aiden nodded and removed a small notepad from the breast pocket of his uniform. He flipped through the pad, and from where I was standing, I could see that the pages were heavily written upon with clean block letters. Deputy Aiden paid attention and took good notes. I could only assume that he had been a very gut student in school.

  “When did you move back to Holmes County?” he asked.

  “At the beginning of this year. My sister passed away in December, and I was no longer needed in Michigan. I knew it was time to come home.” I took a breath as I remembered those last difficult days in Michigan. As much as I loved my sister, I never felt at home there. I wished that I could have moved her to Ohio instead of me going there, but she had lived in Michigan for the last fifty-some years since marrying her late husband. I spent the long decade in Michigan out of duty to her. Oh, that might sound negative, but caring for our loved ones, supporting them in sickness and in health, that is a gift. And I cherished every moment I spent with my sister.

  “Have you interacted with Zeke since you have been back in Harvest?”

  “My interactions with Zeke have been limited. I see him at church now and again; we only meet every other week, and a young man like Zeke isn’t the type to spend Sundays chatting with an old widow like me.”

  “Even though he’s marrying your niece, a niece that you raised like a daughter?”