A Plain Malice: An Appleseed Creek Mystery (Appleseed Creek Mystery Series Book 4)

by Amanda Flower

I climbed out of the bus with two roll bags, not one. Tanisha would be proud. She taught me the key to pulling anything off—good or bad—was confidence.

  Hudson shut and locked the bus door behind me and revved the engine. I stepped clear of the bus just before he peeled away from the curb.

  “You have two bags there,” Pearl said.

  I adjusted my grip on the roll bags. “I grabbed Ruby’s too.”

  Tears appeared in her eyes again. “That was so thoughtful of you to do that for me.”

  I hadn’t grabbed the bag for her but didn’t argue.

  A man cleared his throat as he brushed passed us to enter the restaurant and muttered about people always “standing in the way.” Inside the restaurant, there was a line to be seated—Jimbo wasn’t going to be happy about that— but many of those waiting sat in white rockers on the restaurant’s wide front porch.

  Without my Beetle, we needed transportation. Maybe I should have lined that up before I offered to take Pearl to the inn. I led Pearl to the side of the porch, so we didn’t block the door and removed my cell from my pocket. Pearl stood in a daze as I texted Timothy. “Where are you?”

  A text came back. “At Young’s.”

  “I’m here too. Can I borrow your truck?”

  “Meet you out back.”

  I smiled at Pearl, whose head appeared even more Crayola crayon red in the sunlight. “We’ve got a ride to the inn.”

  “That’s nice,” she murmured and reached for her roll bag.

  I studied her face as I handed it to her. Was she going into shock?

  I led Pearl into the restaurant. The place was packed. Ellie, the owner, and her son Uriah must be pleased. I wove through the people waiting to be seated as we reached the host stand, a burly man stepped in front of me. “Hey, no cutting! Get back in line.”

  I frowned. “I’m not staying, I’m just passing through.”

  Aaron Sutter, who was both Timothy’s best friend and Deacon Sutter’s son, watched the exchange from his wheelchair beside the host’s podium. His bowl haircut was longer than the last time I had seen him, and his bangs hid his eyes.

  The man folded his arms. “We’ve been waiting here for over twenty minutes for a table. If you think you can waltz in and take our place, you have another thing coming.”

  Aaron straightened a stack of menus in his lap. “She’s not here to eat. She’s a friend of the owner.”

  The man grunted and stepped out of my way.

  “Thanks, Aaron.” I gave him a small smile.

  He simply nodded and handed the stack of menus to an Amish teenager who seated guests.

  Sadness washed over me as I led Pearl through the dining room. Even though Aaron was Timothy’s best friend, I had seen little of him since Becky told him she was never returning to the Amish community. I kept an eye out for Becky. She was supposed to be working, but the place was so crowded I couldn’t pick her out from the other servers running in and out of the kitchen in matching Amish dresses.

  In the stainless steel professional kitchen, none of the Amish cooks questioned me as I led Pearl through their domain. They diced vegetables for the salad bar, stirred huge vats of beef stew, and dropped chicken legs into the fryer. All the while, chatting with each other in Pennsylvania Dutch as if they were in their home kitchens. Pearl and I went out the back door, and the heavy door banged shut behind us as we stepped into the small private parking area behind the restaurant.

  Timothy’s blue pickup waited right outside the kitchen door. He leaned against the hood of the truck and looked like a Stetson advertisement in scuffed boots. All he needed was a cowboy hat. The thought of Timothy in a cowboy hat made my heart race. Mabel sat at his side, completing the look.

  “If I had known you were coming to Young’s I would have followed you here instead of going back to the farm to get Mabel,” Timothy said. He nodded to Pearl but didn’t say anything to her. An unspoken question lingered in his eyes.

  I scratched Mabel between the ears. Her eyes closed in doggy bliss. If only it were so easy to please my Siamese cat, Gigabyte. Only Becky knew the way to his feline heart, through his stomach. “The next stop on the itinerary was Deacon Sutter’s farm. I made an adjustment.”

  “Ahh.” He nodded. “Young’s is a good choice. There’s plenty to do here to keep the tourists busy well into the afternoon.”

  Pearl didn’t look up from her hands which clutched her roll bag. I held Ruby’s bag, and I itched to see what was inside of it. “Can I borrow the pickup to take Pearl to the Dutch Inn? It’s been a terrible day for her, and she needs to rest.”

  He fished his keys out of the hips pocket of his jeans. “I can take you there.”

  My eye flitted in Pearl’s direction. “I think it’s better if I take her on my own.”

  Timothy dropped the keys into my palm. “Okay.” Timothy circled to the back of the pickup with Mabel on his heels. He reached into the truck bed and pulled out his red toolbox. “I have a few small jobs to do for Ellie, so it’s no problem if you’re gone for a little while. I should be done when you get back.” Timothy cleared his throat and nodded to Pearl. “It was nice to see you again.”

  She refused to look at him and only clung to the handle of her bag more tightly.

  Timothy raised his eyebrows at me, and I shook my head. With his index finger, he touched the luggage tag of the roll bag I held, and his eyebrows shot up even higher in question.

  “I shouldn’t be gone too long,” I said. “Hudson, the bus driver, knows I’m taking Pearl to the inn. You can tell any of the passengers that’s where I am if they ask.”

  He nodded. “Will do.”

  I opened the passenger side door, shoved Ruby’s roll bag into the tiny backseat, and helped Pearl into the truck. Timothy squeezed my fingers as I climbed into driver’s side.

  I turned out of Young’s parking lot and onto the county road in silence. The Dutch Inn was only a fifteen minutes from the flea market by car. If I wanted to ask Pearl about her cousin, I had better do it quick.

  Pearl beat me to it. “I hate to travel. This trip was Ruby’s idea. She tried to talk me into a vacation like this for over thirty years. I finally say ‘yes,’ and she’s dead because of it.”

  “Pearl, this isn’t your fault,” I said. At least I hope, it’s not. I paused at a four-way stop. “Does Ruby go on trips like this often?”

  She stared out the windshield as the farmland whizzing by. “Yes, she’s been on dozens all over the country and Europe. She is—was—so adventurous. I always wished I could be more like her.”

  I wrung my hands back and forth on the steering wheel. “How do you know the other people on the bus?”

  “I don’t know them. Ruby and I met them the day we left Tupelo.”

  I passed a wagon buggy on the road. “How did you join the tour then?”

  “Ruby saw an ad in the local paper and signed us up through the travel agency. I was so angry at her, but finally, I relented. I could never be angry at Ruby for long.” She turned her head away to face out her window. “She has done too much for me.”

  “Blue Suede Tours is an interesting name for a travel agency,” I said. “And they really like the color blue.”

  Pearl chuckled softly at my comment. “It got its name from Tupelo.”

  I gave her a blank stare as I paused at another stop sign.

  “The birthplace of Elvis Presley. He had a song. Blue Suede Shoes. That’s where the name comes from. There are many Tupelo businesses that are named after one of Elvis’s songs.”

  “Did Ruby use Blue Suede Tours before?”

  She folded and unfolded her hands on her lap. “I don’t think so. Like I said she found the trip in the local newspaper.”

  “Was she sick? Did she have any health problems?”

  “She had a heart murmur, but she’d had it for decades. It was well controlled by medication. It’s hard for me to believe that’s what caused her collapse. And if that was the cause, why did Dudley keel
over at the same time?”

  An excellent question.

  The stone-face of the Dutch Inn came into view and was small by Holmes County standards. Several of the large Amish Inns there boosted over one hundred rooms, indoor swimming pools, and health spas. The Dutch Inn was a simple country inn with modest but clean accommodations. It sat two miles as the crow flew from the center of Appleseed Creek and resided on several acres of fallow farmland. The back balconies held a vista of the unplanted fields and banks of the winding Kokosing River.

  What the Dutch Inn lacked in amenities, it made up for in gardens. In the grassy center of the circular driveway boasted a sea of daffodils, ranging from light lemon yellow to deep goldenrod. I smiled. Yellow was my favorite color and daffodils were my favorite flowers. I always wished they lasted a bit longer than a few short weeks of spring. Beyond the daffodil garden, there were flowerbeds of spring bulbs, tulips, hyacinths, and flowers I didn’t know by name on either side of the inn. “What a pretty spot,” I said.

  Pearl said nothing. I parked the car in the small lot to the left of the building. A patrol car was the only other vehicle in the parking lot. I should have known Chief Rose or one of her officers would check out the inn. Ruby’s roll bag, sitting in the backseat of Timothy’s truck, should go to Chief Rose. I hoped Pearl had forgotten I’d taken it from the bus. Outside of the pickup, she gripped the handles of her roll bag as if her life depended on it.

  Pearl and I entered the lobby that was also decked out in spring flowers. By the door, a bouquet of pink hyacinths sat in a bowl-shaped vase. A massive river stone fireplace was the focal piece and dominated one wall. The walls were butter yellow and the carpet was cream and charcoal. The carpet repeated the silhouette of an Amish buggy within a two by two diamond. I was afraid that if I stared at it for too long the buggies on the carpet would begin to spin and cause motion sickness.

  A plump Amish woman with strawberry blonde hair peeking out from under her bonnet and reading glasses hanging from her neck smiled at us from behind the curved wooden registration desk. Beside her was an Amish girl close to Ruth’s age. The girl held an enormous orange Persian cat in her arms. Chief Rose was on the other side of the counter and jabbed a fist into her left hip. “Are you a mind reader, Humphrey?”

  “No,” I replied.

  “I was just about to call you and ask you bring Mrs. Kennerwell to the inn.”

  Pearl tightened her grip on her roll bag. “Do you need me for something, Officer?”

  The chief’s face softened when she looked at Pearl. “I do. Officer Riley is upstairs searching Dudley’s room. We would like to go into your room and search Ruby’s things with your permission.”

  Tears gathered in Pearl’s eyes. “Yes, I suppose that will be all right.” She swallowed. “I am in number eight just down the hall.”

  “Can we go there now?” the chief asked.

  Pearl looked to me.

  “Do you want me to come with you?”

  She nodded.

  I followed Chief Rose and Pearl down a short hall to the left of the lobby. The elevator binged and opened as we passed it. I blinked, the teenaged Amish boy, whom I saw at the Troyer farm that morning stepped out of the elevator, carrying a basket of folded towels. I stopped, and the boy looked at me quizzically.

  Chief Rose and Pearl were halfway down the hall.

  “Didn’t I see you at the Troyer farm this morning?” I asked the boy.

  He stared at me but said nothing.

  “Humphrey, are you coming?” the chief asked.

  I turned to look at the chief. By the time, I looked back at the teenager, he and his basket were gone. I hurried to catch up with Pearl and the chief.

  Officer Riley stood outside of Pearl’s door.

  “Pearl,” the chief said. “Can you unlock the door for us?”

  Pearl’s hands shook as she put the old fashioned key into the lock. The end the key slipped off the metal.

  I took the key from her hand and unlocked the door. The door swung in. The room was a simple and clean space with white cotton curtains, two twin beds, and small attached bathroom. The highlight of the room was the tiny patio off the back that led to the garden. The patio faced west, so Pearl could watch the sunset over the Kokosing.

  Chief Rose and Officer Riley entered the room first.

  “Which bed and suitcase belonged to Ruby?” Chief Rose asked.

  Pearl pointed to the far bed, closest to the French doors.

  Officer Riley pulled latex gloves out of his back pocket and set Ruby’s suitcase on the bed. He unzipped the back and began to methodically rifle through the contents.

  Pearl wrung her hands. “I’ll wait in the lobby. This is more difficult for me than I thought it would be.”

  “No problem,” the chief said and looked at me.

  I curved an arm around Pearl’s shoulders and led her from the room.

  Pearl sniffled. “Thank you, Chloe. You are very kind.”

  When we reentered the lobby, the Amish woman, girl, and cat were still behind the registration desk. The teenaged boy was nowhere to be seen.

  I parked Pearl on the sofa in front of the fireplace and approached the desk. “Would it be possible to get Pearl a cup of tea?”

  The woman with the strawberry blonde hair nodded. “Ivy,” she said to the girl, who I assumed was her daughter because she had the same color hair, “Go make Mrs. Kennerwell a cup of tea.”

  “Ya, Mamm,” the girl murmured and turned to go taking the cat with her.

  “Leave Cheetos here. She won’t want any cat hair in her tea, and he’s shedding his winter coat right now.”

  Ivy frowned but then set the cat on the counter. The cat spread out on the smooth surface like a wooly blanket.

  I let the feline sniff my hand. “Cheetos?” I asked.

  The woman laughed. “He belonged to our Englisch neighbor who moved to England and couldn’t take her cat with her. We got the name as well as the spoiled cat. Ivy adores him.”

  “I have a Siamese at home.”

  She smiled. “You should tell Ivy that. She loves all cats. If she had her way the inn would be overrun with them.” She glanced at the large cat, who leisurely washed his face with his right paw. “Cheetos is more than enough I think.” She reached across the counter to shake my hand. “I’m Jane Shetler.”

  “Chloe Humphrey.”

  She slipped her glasses onto her eyes. “You’re that Englischer girl who solved Katie Lambright’s murder.”

  Heat rushed to my face. “I—umm…”

  Jane reached across the counter and grabbed both of my hands. “Danki. Thank you for what you did. It made our community a little bit safer.”

  I blinked. This was not the reaction I was used to when an Amish person learned I meddled in their district’s business. “You’re welcome. Katie’s sister is Ruth Troyer’s closest friend. I am friends with the Troyer family.”

  Jane nodded. “Yes, I know this. Ivy is a classmate of Ruth and Anna. Ruth’s older brother Timothy is courting you.”

  I blushed but wasn’t surprised she knew. “Yes.”

  “Are you working for this tour group now?”

  “Well, I—I’m subbing until they can find a replacement tour guide.” I swallowed.

  “Ya, the police chief told me what happened. It’s terrible.” Jane removed her glasses, and they hung from their chain again. “Sounds like being a tour guide to this group may be a dangerous job.”

  I hadn’t thought about it that way. I hoped Jane was wrong.

  Chapter Eight

  I petted Cheetos back, and the cat purred. “When we were walking back to Pearl’s room, we passed a teenaged boy in the hallway.”

  Jane nodded. “That must have been my son Ephraim. Both he and Ivy work here at the inn.”

  “I saw him at the Troyer’s farm this morning.”

  She played with the simple chain holding her glasses. “I don’t see how you could have. Ephraim has been working at the in
n all day.”

  “That’s odd. The boy I saw looked just like him. He wouldn’t happen to have a brother, would he?”

  Jane brow creased. “Nee, he does not.”

  Ivy returned Pearl’s tea.

  “I’ll take it to her,” I said.

  Ivy nodded and picked up Cheetos again. The large cat purred.

  I carried the tea to Pearl. “Here’s some tea.”

  She clutched her roll bag in her lap. “Thank you. Can you set it on the table there?”

  I placed the teacup and saucer on a woven coaster. “Is there anything else I can do?”

  She shook her head.

  “Mrs. Kennerwell?” Chief Rose entered the lobby.

  “We’ve finished our search. You’re welcome to go back to your room.” The chief removed a paper list. “We confiscated Ruby’s medications. This is a list of them here. The coroner needs to know what was in her system and what health problems she may have had.”

  Pearl accepted the piece of paper without looking at it. “I understand. I think I would like to go lie down now.”

  “Of course,” the police chief said.

  I walked Pearl back to her room, holding her cup of tea and was relieved to see Officer Riley gone. Chief Rose and her officer had been neat. There was no indication they had searched the small room.

  Pearl perched on the edge of one of the beds. “Thank you so much for your help. I could use the rest and the time to make some phone calls. If I feel up to it, I will come out for dinner. When is that?”

  I set the teacup on the nightstand between the two beds and slipped the tour itinerary out my back pocket. “It’s right here at the inn at six o’clock.”

  She nodded. “I will see how I feel.”

  I hesitated. “Do you want me to get you anything else?”

  She shook her head. “No, I’m fine.”

  I opened my mouth to say something else but changed my mind. It was too difficult for me to pry into this woman’s life so soon after the loss of her cousin.

  I set her key on the dresser. “I will see you later then.”

  Chief Rose waited for me in the lobby.

  “I have another of Ruby’s bags in Timothy’s truck,” I said.