Matchmaking Can Be Murder

by Amanda Flower

  Carter noticed him too, and for the first time since we’d arrived his winning smile faltered. “Reuben, I believe your break was over a good ten minutes ago.”

  Reuben stood up slowly as if he was made of folded paper and had to unbend every limb to work out the creases. After what seemed like an unnecessarily long delay, he replied, “I must have lost track of time, Carter.”

  Carter’s wide mouth pressed into a line. “You keep losing track of time, Reuben, and we will have to part ways. I think it’s clear that you might not be a gut fit working here.”

  “Because I’m not like the rest of your Amish robots who follow every command you issue. I suppose I think too much for myself.”

  “Nee, Reuben, the truth of it is you are too lazy. Jeremy will be here later to talk to you.”

  Reuben paled just a bit. “He can’t touch me.”

  Carter shook his head. “That’s between you and him. Please get back to work.” He walked away without waiting to see if Reuben did as he was told. We followed. When we crossed the warehouse, Carter smiled at Lois and me again. “I’m sorry you had to see that. Even though we’re Amish, we still have some bothersome employees.” He said this last part for Lois’s benefit, I knew.

  I nodded.

  He glanced at Lois. “Are you coming with us?”

  Lois’s drawn-on eyebrows went up. “Well, do you expect me to go wait in the car like a servant?”

  Carter’s face turned bright red.

  “I thought it would be nice to learn a little bit about the construction business while I’m here,” she added. “I am ever curious.”

  I suppressed a grimace. “It’s fine with me if Lois comes along. She’s not just my driver. She’s my friend.”

  Carter seemed to relax when I told him that. I gave Lois a look.

  She whispered to me, “I thought that saying I was just the driver was a good angle. It would give me a good reason for being here.”

  “You are driving me around,” I whispered back. “But being my friend is another gut reason for you to be with me.”

  “Oh, I didn’t think of that.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Carter led us through the warehouse. There were Amish men scattered about measuring cut wood, shooting nails into boards with nail guns, and sawing planks. As we went, Carter told us what each man was doing. “I’m the foreman of the onsite operations. Basically, that means I stay back at the warehouse and make sure all the pieces are made properly before they’re assembled out on the build site. It’s much easier to correct any problems that might come up here than do it at the build.”

  I took a few steps forward, so that I was walking next to him. “What did Zeke usually do on the job? Edith mentioned roofing work.”

  He glanced at me. “Zeke was one of the guys we could stick in anywhere. He was great with just about everything. He could build anything and fast. He was also the best at fixing the mechanical equipment. Anything with a motor, he could take apart and put back together again with little trouble. I could have used him today with that forklift, to be honest. He didn’t have the best attitude, but he will be difficult to replace. He was a jack of all trades. I can’t think of anyone we have working for us now who has the same skills he did.”

  Carter’s talk about Zeke being gut with motors reminded me of Darcy’s story, how Zeke saved her after her truck broke down on the side of the road, and how he was able to fix the truck. A lot of Amish men were good with motors and mechanics. Really, that was out of necessity. At times, Amish men measured their personal worth in things they could fix themselves without the help of someone else.

  “That fellow Reuben we saw when we first came in. What does he do here?” Lois asked.

  For a moment, I thought Carter wasn’t going to answer. It was an intrusive question for an Englischer to ask an Amish man about his business, but then again, Carter had threatened Reuben with firing right in front of us.

  “Reuben worked roofing with Zeke. I like to think that he’s moving slow today because he lost a friend, but I can’t say for sure that that’s the reason. If Reuben spent any time with anyone on the job, it would be Zeke.”

  I had never seen Reuben around the greenhouse in the many times I’d gone there since Edith and Zeke were engaged, and I knew he wasn’t a member of our district. If he had been, I would have at least spied him at church. “Is he a member of a local district?” I asked.

  “He’s from a district over in Knox County, actually. He’s one of a few men that a driver brings over each morning to work. He’s the only bad egg in the bunch. The rest of them have been great. I hate to let him go because I believe Gott wants us to give everyone a second chance, but I have given Reuben over ten chances. It’s started to affect the morale of the other guys too. I doubt he will be here much longer. He might even be gone by the end of the week. It’s really up to the owner.”

  “Who owns the business?”

  “Jeremy Swartz. He’s a Mennonite, a liberal one at that. Looks and acts just like an Englischer. No offense,” he said to Lois with a blush.

  She grinned. “No offense taken.”

  “Is Jeremy here today?” I asked.

  A strange look crossed Carter’s face. “Nee, he’s not here much at all. He will be in later, mostly to deal with Reuben, I’m afraid. Jeremy has many businesses across the county. He never visits any one of them, from what I’ve heard, for more than ten minutes at a time. Truthfully, we don’t mind it around here. As long as we do a gut job and keep making money, that’s all he cares about. That’s why I think Reuben will have to be let go. He’s starting to impact our ability to make money since some of my best guys refuse to work with him. Amish workers, in general, don’t abide laziness, and Reuben is just about the laziest Amish man I’ve ever seen.” He shook his head. “What do you want to know about Zeke? I promised my wife that I would help you as much as possible. Edith is a gut friend to her, and she is brokenhearted over the rumors about her friend.”

  “I am too,” I said quietly. “Edith had nothing to do with his death. I’m certain of that.” Even as I said it, I couldn’t forget that I’d heard Edith mislead Deputy Aiden when she was questioned. I forced those worries to the back of my mind.

  Just in front of me was a saw that held logs of wood as long as my house. The pieces of wood went through the machine and were shaved on either side until they came out the other end as perfectly flat boards. The blades of the machine were so sharp, it was as if they were cutting through butter and not hardwood.

  Carter nodded at the machine and spoke up to be heard over the loud saw. “We take pride in planking our own boards. Not many construction companies are able to do that, but we want to make sure that if we put our name on something, it’s done right. The only way to be certain of that is to do it ourselves. Swartz and Swartz Construction is well-known for making sturdy houses, barns, and other outbuildings. It’s been owned by the Mennonite Swartz family for six generations. Jeremy took over the company about eighteen months ago.”

  An Amish man drove by me in a forklift, carrying what looked like roof shingles. I recognized him as a member of my community. A member of my district could drive a tractor or other equipment for work purposes. Only if he took the forklift out for a joyride on the road would he get in trouble with Bishop Yoder, or more accurately, with Ruth, She had, in many ways, assigned herself the position of her husband’s enforcer.

  The man driving the forklift stopped it close to where we were standing. He nodded at Lois and me and then said to Carter, “I can’t find the Richards house blueprints. I’ve looked everywhere.”

  “They must be here,” Carter said.

  The other man pulled thoughtfully on his long, dark beard. “I would think so. I can’t see a reason that Zeke would have taken them from the place. He wasn’t one to do overtime.” He smiled at me. “I’m so sorry to interrupt your conversation.”

  “It’s no trouble,” I said. “Are you talking about Zeke Miller?”r />
  Carter’s happy face appeared strained. “Ya, we were planning a new layout for a house. Zeke was doing a lot of the work on it.”

  “Don’t you have it saved somewhere, like on a computer?” Lois asked.

  All three of us looked at her.

  “Oh, right.”

  Carter addressed the man on the forklift. “Keep looking. It has to be here.”

  His employee nodded and went back to his task.

  Carter smiled at us. “Sorry for the interruption. It’s a busy day here. Every day is a busy day, really, but I am feeling the pressure of Zeke’s absence. He worked for the construction company for over ten years. Despite his less-than-cheerful attitude at times, he always showed up at work on time and did a quality job. I’m not looking forward to replacing him, even though there will be plenty of applicants. There are a lot of young Amish men in the county who would like stable work. Most construction companies in the area don’t have the number of clients we do. It’s not very often that we have no job to work on. As soon as Jeremy gives me the go-ahead, I will replace Zeke.” He made a face. “I’m sorry if that sounds callous.”

  “Was there anyone that he worked with that he particularly didn’t like or who didn’t like him?” Lois asked.

  Carter shook his head. “Not in recent memory.”

  “What about in less recent memory?” Lois asked.

  Carter glanced at her. He was still wondering what she was doing there but was far too polite to ask. After a beat, he said, “He and Moses Hochstetler didn’t see eye to eye on just about anything. I never knew why, but when I heard that Zeke was to marry Moses’s widow, I thought maybe he’d had feelings for her all along.”

  That was an interesting thought, but it didn’t help me find a killer. I knew Moses was innocent since he had been dead for years.

  “Anyone else?” I asked.

  He shrugged. “Moses Hochstetler and Zeke made no secret of their dislike for one another. If Zeke didn’t get along with someone else in the company, he wasn’t as open about it as he had been about his dislike for Moses.”

  I felt my shoulders sag. It seemed that coming to the warehouse had been a huge waste of time. The only person that Carter thought might be a suspect was dead. I should leave the investigating to Deputy Aiden. That would be the best idea.

  I smiled at Carter. “Thanks so much for your time. Lois and I will be going now. I know you have to get back to work.”

  “But?” Lois began.

  I tugged on my friend’s sleeve.

  “There’s nothing more for us to see here.”

  She narrowed her eyes as if she thought I was up to something.

  “Can you ladies show yourselves out?” Carter asked. “I need to speak to one of my employees on this side of the warehouse before he goes to the next job site.”

  “Sure thing!” Lois said cheerfully and waved.

  She and I left Carter. When we were no longer within earshot, she leaned in. “Is this the part where we snoop around?”

  I shook my head. “There’s no point in snooping around when we don’t even know what we are looking for.”

  “Speak for yourself. I can always find something when I sniff around. I have a nose for such things.”

  “So, you’ve solved a murder before?” I raised my eyebrows.

  “Well, no, but I am a whiz at finding missing socks and keys. Ask anyone in my family. It can’t be much different from that.”

  I shook my head and was relieved when Lois followed me out of the warehouse instead of wandering off to use her sleuthing skills. I wasn’t sure what she would turn up at the warehouse, but I doubted it would have anything to do with Zeke’s murder.

  When we got outside, there was an Englischer standing with Reuben.

  “Looks like Reuben didn’t go back to work like Carter told him to,” I murmured.

  “That’s Jeremy Swartz,” Lois said into my ear. “I recognize his face from the billboards in Millersburg.”

  “Billboards?”

  She nodded. “He’s all over the place down there as a local businessman. He’s trying to expand his house-building business. When Carter mentioned his name, I knew it was familiar, but I didn’t put two and two together until I saw his face. He’s a very powerful man and has a ton of money. I mean buckets of it. He is completely loaded. He is rolling—”

  “All right, all right, I get the idea,” I interrupted her. It was interesting that Jeremy Swartz would be at this warehouse, which according to Carter he never visited, just days after Zeke Miller was killed. Still, I couldn’t see what any of it had to do with Zeke, other than the fact Zeke worked for Swartz. From what Carter said as his manager, Zeke had done a decent job for the company, so it didn’t seem as though Jeremy would have any reason to want him permanently removed. Even if he had, murder wasn’t the answer when he could have just fired him.

  Reuben shook his fist at Jeremy. “You can’t do this to me. You’re only doing it because you’re scared that he’s back. Everything was fine for you until then.”

  “Don’t say another word,” Jeremy hissed. “Not one more word about it.”

  “It’s okay to be afraid of him. Lots of folks are.”

  Lois grabbed me by the arm and pulled me around the corner of the building.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  “Wha—”

  “Shh.” She pushed me back behind the warehouse. “You don’t want them to see us, do you?”

  “Why does it matter?”

  “Because we’re eavesdropping. That’s what Amish Marples do. You really need to get with the program, Millie.”

  “We don’t even know that this has anything to do with Zeke,” I whispered back.

  “We don’t know that it doesn’t, either. I think it’s best to gather all the information we can, and then sort it out later.”

  I wanted to argue more, but Lois held her finger to her lips and peeked around the side of the warehouse. Not knowing what else to do, I did the same.

  “I don’t have to listen to this,” Jeremy said through gritted teeth. “You’re fired. I want you out of here right now.” Flecks of spittle gathered in his mouth.

  “You can’t fire me, you scared Menno. I know too much. Zeke was my friend, not yours.”

  I couldn’t see Jeremy’s face, but I saw his fist balled at his side. It seemed to take all his strength for him to keep from striking Reuben. “Don’t you threaten me. Do you have any idea of the power I have in this county? I could ruin you and your entire district.”

  Reuben laughed. “Threatening my district is no threat to me. They would be happy to be rid of me.”

  “I can see why.”

  “Besides, I don’t live in this county,” Reuben said with a smug expression on his face. “It would serve you well to remember that. Your power is not so great that it reaches outside of Holmes County.”

  Jeremy shoved Reuben in the shoulder, and the Amish man bounced back as if he was ready to strike, but then he laughed. The laughter had a sinister sound to it. “You will have to do better than that if you want to stop me.”

  “I want you off my property. Now,” Jeremy said through gritted teeth.

  “I’ll leave gladly, but this is not the last you will be hearing from me, Swartz,” Reuben spat back, tobacco-colored spittle flying from his mouth.

  “Gross,” Lois whispered into my ear.

  Jeremy didn’t say another word. He spun around and stomped toward the warehouse. Lois yanked me back around the corner of the warehouse just before he spied either one of us.

  Lois grinned as if she’d come in first place at the county fair. “See, aren’t you glad that we eavesdropped now?”

  “What are you talking about?” I smoothed out my apron and skirts and made certain my pocket watch was in place.

  She gave an exasperated sigh. “Clearly there are some nefarious happenings going on.”

  “Whether there are or not, that doesn’t mean they are related to Zeke.”
/>   “But they could be!” Her enthusiasm wasn’t dampened in the least.

  “Even if that is true, which I am not saying it is, eavesdropping is still not something we really should be doing.”

  “I don’t think taking any part in this investigation is something that we should be doing, but we’re doing it.”

  She had me there.

  “Who’s back there?” a sharp voice asked.

  I spun around to find Reuben glaring at us. I was dumbstruck under his furious gaze.

  Lois was not. “Carter gave us a tour of the warehouse, and we were just walking around the outside to get a good look at it. It’s a very impressive business. I have never been to a construction site quite like this before.”

  Reuben narrowed his eyes as if he didn’t believe her. Honestly, I couldn’t blame him. It was a very far-fetched story. There was really no gut reason I could think of that two mature women such as us should be wandering around the construction warehouse.

  “I think you’re here to make trouble.” He leaned in closer to me.

  I could smell the tobacco on his breath. It was a revolting scent, not only because it was so pungent but because of everything I had gone through with Kip and his illness. The scent made me sick to my stomach. I recoiled from him.

  He took a step closer. “Did you tell Jeremy to get rid of me? Because it’s not going to work. I won’t disappear. I can ruin you all.”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Lois said, inserting herself between Reuben and me. “Who said anything about ruining anyone else? Goodness, I thought the Amish were peace-loving people. Why are your feathers so ruffled? I think you need to take a breath and calm down, young man.”

  Reuben blinked at her.

  “That’s better. Take a breath,” she ordered. “Also, while I’m giving sage advice, I would tell you to lay off the chew. It’s an ugly habit and terrible for your health. Nobody likes it. Plus, you could get very sick and possibly die.”

  Reuben spat just an inch from her feet.