Shunned and Dangerous (An Amish Mystery)

by Bradford, Laura

  Claire did know. In fact, when she let herself dream about giving marriage another try and the children she’d have as a result, she always envisioned it happening in Heavenly. Like somehow the kindness and goodwill that was ever present in the town via people like Aunt Diane and Claire’s soon-to-be-former fellow shopkeepers would aid in the raising process.

  She opened her mouth to voice her agreement but shut it again as Megan continued. “I think we’ll probably end up building in the second development the Realtor took us to on Saturday. The floor plans are nice, the location good, and they’re even going to have a swimming pool for those warm summer months when it’s all done.”

  “That sounds nice.”

  “It is. Only my continued harping on that development we saw on Friday has Kyle in desperate need of a break from house hunting.”

  “Which development was that again?” she asked.

  “Serenity Falls—the one on the Amish side that Diane mentioned over breakfast on Saturday. The location is second to none in my opinion. It’s like it is over here on the English side . . . only better. Because instead of just moments of peacefulness when a buggy happens to go by, you’re right there with the buggies and the simplicity all the time.”

  “So why don’t you just build there, then?”

  Megan shook her head, scrunching her nose as she did. “I like to open my windows on all but the coldest days of the year. I couldn’t do that if we—”

  “Megan? Are you coming?”

  Together, they turned toward the inn and Megan’s very impatient-looking husband.

  “Uh-oh. I’m talking about exactly what I promised him I wouldn’t talk about today.” Megan smacked a gentle hand against her forehead and groaned. “I really am a hopeless cause, aren’t I?”

  Claire laughed. She liked Megan Reilly, liked her honesty. “You’re a mom. You want to find the right home for your kids. I think that’s pretty commendable.”

  Megan’s eyes widened just before she reached out to rest a hand on Claire’s forearm. “Thank you for saying that. Truly.”

  “You do realize the poor woman is trying to get to work, right, Megan?”

  Waving her free hand toward her husband, Megan leaned closer to Claire. “If you had a day to do whatever you wanted in Heavenly, what would you do?”

  “What would I do?” she repeated with a grin. “I’d sleep in until eleven, I’d grab a biscuit or whatever yummy breakfast leftover I could find in my aunt’s kitchen, and then I’d head toward the Amish side of town with a book in my hand.”

  Megan considered Claire’s words. “But you see, if Kyle sat down to read, I’d start yacking in his ear all over again. So what we need is something that can distract me from talking about the whole house-hunting thing.”

  “Ahhh, I get it.” She reconsidered her answer and tweaked accordingly. “Then, in that case, I’d spend the day on Lighted Way, just meandering in and out of the shops. Intersperse that with some coffee at Heavenly Brews, some lunch at Tastes of Heaven(ly), and then cap it off with a piece of Ruth Miller’s Shoo Fly Pie at the bake shop next to my place and you’ll have your relaxing day.”

  “Mmm . . . Sounds perfect.”

  “Stop into my shop when you’re wrapping up and let me know what you thought, okay?” Then, with a glance down at her watch for the confirmation she knew she’d find, she turned back toward the street, the pre-opening tasks she’d hoped to complete at Heavenly Treasures no longer a possibility. “Enjoy your day, Megan.”

  “Thanks, Claire. I owe you one.”

  • • •

  On one hand she was thrilled to have Esther at the shop all day. The girl’s presence and rapport with the customers made getting to the mountain of things on Claire’s daily to-do list easier. The fact that she could do the bulk of those while smiling and laughing with one of her favorite people made it even sweeter.

  Yet as wonderful as it was to have Esther there, the girl’s keen eyes and familiarity with the inner workings of the shop made things like phone calls with the bank and any crying jags that might ensue impossible to accommodate. There was no doubt she’d like to unburden some of the stress she’d kept to herself thus far, but to do so with Esther was unfair. Especially when the bride-to-be’s happy news had been marred enough already by Harley’s murder and her grandfather’s potential ties to the crime.

  “You have to come,” Esther said, breaking through Claire’s woolgathering with her hope-filled voice. “Mamm said so.”

  She looked up from the handmade baby bibs she was stacking on a shelf for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. “That’s okay? For an English person to be at an Amish wedding?”

  “You are my friend, yah?”

  “Of course I am.” She moved on to the pile of hand-sewn onesies, checking their count against the printout on her clipboard. “I guess I assumed it would just be for your family and others in your community.”

  “They will be there, too.” Esther wandered over to the side window that overlooked the alley between Heavenly Treasures and Shoo Fly Bake Shoppe. The slump of her shoulders as she reached her destination let Claire know that Eli’s buggy had not yet arrived for the young man’s afternoon check on his twin sister, Ruth. “Talk of the wedding brings a smile to Mamm’s face.” Esther cleared her throat quickly, the sound breaking through Claire’s concentration once and for all. “She says you are to bring someone with you.”

  She gave up on counting. “You mean like a guest?”

  Esther turned around yet remained by the window. “Yah.”

  “There’s no one to bring, Esther, you know that.” Then, nudging her chin toward the window, she addressed the subject of another noticeable absence. “I haven’t seen Benjamin around the bakery since Saturday. Is everything okay?”

  Oh, how she hoped her question sounded natural, like that of any other shopkeeper on Lighted Way who’d come to know the routines of her fellow shopkeepers. “I mean, I know he hasn’t been around much to begin with, but after he came by on Saturday I figured that was changing.”

  Esther smoothed her hands down the sides of her lavender dress just before taking a second and still unrewarded peek out the window. “Eli says Benjamin has said little since Mr. Zook was found. When Eli has tried to speak with him, Benjamin says only that he is busy.”

  “Benjamin thinks highly of your grandfather, doesn’t he?” Claire tugged the clipboard to her chest, her mind no longer on her inventory.

  “Yah. Dawdy thinks well of Benjamin, too.”

  Pushing the instant image of Jakob from her thoughts, she forced herself to focus on Benjamin and his state of mind, instead. “Do you know if they’ve talked since Harley’s death?”

  “Yah. Last night, when everyone was leaving after a day of visiting, I saw Benjamin speak with Dawdy. I do not know what was said, only that they spoke. Dawdy moved his hands often and I saw Benjamin walk off for a spell, but I do not know more than that.” Esther bowed her head until her chin nearly touched the top of her chest. “Eli says Benjamin is one of the only ones who does not think Dawdy hurt Mr. Zook.”

  Claire sucked in a breath. “You don’t think your grandfather had something to do with Harley’s murder, do you?”

  “I do not know what to say,” Esther said once she’d finally reengaged eye contact with Claire. “I do not want to believe such things. It is God’s will when a person’s life is to end, not man’s. That is what we believe.”

  “As does your grandfather.”

  A weighted silence that hung in the air to the point of suffocation finally gave way to a choked whisper. “But Dawdy had such anger for Mr. Zook. It was an anger he did not hide in front of anyone. Not even the bishop.”

  “But you said he was shunned for that, didn’t you?”

  “Many times. But, Dawdy believed it was Mr. Zook who should be shunned and that he should be the one to lead that.”

  “Why did he think Harley should be shunned?” she asked, quickly.

  “Beca
use Harley spoke well of my uncle.”

  “Jakob?”

  “Yah.” Esther nibbled her lower lip then released it along with a quiet sigh. “Benjamin always made things right. He helped people to see Dawdy’s ways were born from the grief of losing Jakob.”

  “But Jakob is still very much alive, Esther.” She tightened her grip on the clipboard. “And he’s right here . . . in Heavenly!”

  Esther merely shook her head. Sadly. “He is lost to Dawdy.”

  “And to you?” Claire heard the rise in her voice, knew it was unfair in light of Esther’s upbringing, but she could do little to stop it. Jakob was a good man. A decent man. He simply didn’t deserve to be excommunicated for choosing a noble profession like police work. “What is Jakob to you, Esther?”

  The clip-clop of Eli’s horse through the open window saved Esther from having to answer and Claire from having to digest that answer. “Eli is here!”

  She couldn’t help but manage the faintest hint of a smile for her friend. How could she not when the presence of another human being could make Esther so happy? Without so much as a glance toward the window, Esther’s pleading gaze sought and received permission to head out into the alley for a quick visit with her betrothed.

  But two minutes later, Esther was back behind the counter, the breathtaking smile that had met Eli’s arrival gone as quick as it had come.

  “Esther? Is everything okay?”

  Esther nodded but said nothing.

  “You could have stayed out there and visited a little longer. I’ve got everything under control in here.”

  “It was Benjamin, not Eli.” Esther’s shoulders lurched forward in obvious disappointment only to resume their normally stoic pose in short order. “Eli is finishing with the harvest. He asked Benjamin to say hello.”

  “Oh.” She looked toward the rear of the shop and the offshoot hallway that linked to the back door. “Did he say if he was going to stop in after he looked in on Ruth?”

  Esther removed the tray of plain sales tags from the shelf beneath the register and began to fill in prices for the candles she’d brought in that morning. “He did not say, but he asked after you.”

  Claire set the clipboard down on the blankets that were next on her inventory list and shifted from foot to foot, waiting. When Esther said nothing else, Claire asked the only question she could and hoped her reason wasn’t as transparent as it felt. “And? What did you say?”

  “I said you were inside taking inventory. He did not say anything else.”

  She looked toward the hallway once again, but, still, there was no sign of Benjamin. “Oh, well I’m sure he is busy, too.” But she knew better. Benjamin was always busy. Yet, since they’d met shortly after she opened Heavenly Treasures, he’d always found time to step inside and say hello, to ask if she needed anything before he left. Despite the fact that she always said she was fine, he had a way of finding something to do to make her day a little easier—taking out the trash, reaching something on a top shelf, or moving a bulky item to a new location. His failure to stop in and say hello, if nothing else, spoke volumes.

  She’d questioned his friend’s innocence in regards to Harley Zook’s murder. That, coupled with the uncertain ground they’d found themselves on since he admitted his feelings for her, had added up to this.

  “You do not look happy, Claire.”

  Esther’s quiet words snapped Claire back to the moment and the basic realities that could not be changed.

  Mose Fisher was a likely suspect in Harley’s murder. Sixteen years of anger had hit a breaking point the moment the victim offered a job to Isaac. Everyone knew it, including Mose’s only family. Of course she hoped he wasn’t responsible, but considering the possibility didn’t make her a bad person.

  And as for a future with Benjamin, it simply couldn’t happen. Not if she didn’t want to see such a wonderful person face the pain and rejection Jakob lived with on a daily basis.

  To Esther, she said only, “I’m okay. Just tired, I guess. I’ve got a lot on my mind these days.”

  “I am a good listener.” Esther paused her pen above her latest sales tag and waited.

  “Yes, you are, Esther. Yes, you are.”

  “I am listening now . . .”

  Claire laughed. “Point taken.”

  At Esther’s expectant stare, Claire relented with the only worry she could share aloud. “I’m worried about your uncle. This crime is going to stir up a lot of hurt for him. And while I understand the Amish are different, I will never understand how the decision Jakob made should have him missing out on the lives of the people he loves more than anything else in this world.”

  At Esther’s stunned silence, Claire worked to soften her tone while still being true to her feelings. “Do you know how much he misses having a relationship with your mother? How much he’d like to get to know you and your siblings? Do you know how much his heart aches not to be able to hug his own mother? I know. It eats away at him every single day. It’s why he walks by this store every afternoon in the hopes you might look outside the window at the exact moment he passes. It’s why I see him driving in the opposite direction of his home when he gets off work. He yearns to be close to all of you, to be a part of your lives, to witness the important milestones like your upcoming wedding to Eli.”

  Esther’s gaze dropped back down to the blank sales tags and the pen poised tightly between her long, slender fingers. Slowly she began to write, the prices they’d agreed on being recorded with careful precision. “You must bring a guest when you come to the wedding. Mamm would like that.”

  Chapter 11

  There was something about the lazy, rhythmic creak of the porch swing beneath her body that called to her at the end of a long day. It was as if the staccato-like sound slowly sucked away the busyness while the panoramic view of the Amish countryside ushered in the sense of peace and tranquility that was Heavenly, Pennsylvania.

  The trees that only a week earlier had exploded in a final brilliant bouquet of crimson, orange, and gold were beginning to show their yearly bow to a season that demanded a different, starker beauty. Even the lush green of the crops was gone, the land turned over in preparation for spring.

  Yet despite the duller colors synonymous with the start of November, there was still something magical, almost awe-inspiring about the sight of so much uncompromised land. Suddenly it made sense why the Amish were so quiet and calm, why they were able to resist the often too-fast pace of the English world.

  “Penny for your thoughts?”

  Startled, Claire stopped the foot-powered sway of the swing and turned toward the familiar voice coming from the bottom step of the front porch. “Jakob, hi . . . I . . . I didn’t hear you drive up.”

  “That’s because I walked.” The broad-shouldered detective made short work of the steps and the distance between them. When he reached the swing, he pointed toward the empty space beside Claire. “May I?”

  Nodding, she scooted to the left, the warmth of his shoulder as it grazed hers quickly changing the tempo of her heartbeat. “It’s nice to see you,” she said in the best matter-of-fact voice she could muster.

  The question she saw behind his large hazel eyes made its way past his lips in short order. “So where were you just now when I walked up?”

  She looked again at the fields in the distance, shrugging as she did. “I wasn’t really anywhere. Just enjoying the view and finding it immensely relaxing.”

  “Long day?”

  She felt him studying the side of her face as she contemplated her answer. Did she tell him she was disappointed in the way he bailed out of their time together the day before with nary an explanation? Or did she move on, coming to terms with the fact that she’d put far more importance on their fence-fixing mission than she’d allowed herself to believe?

  Move on . . .

  Lifting her hand from her lap, she waved it toward the Amish countryside now slowly disappearing in the gathering dusk. “I wish it could
be like that around here all the time. There’s more than enough real world everywhere else.”

  She didn’t need to look at him to know his gaze had left her face. She could feel its absence like a tangible thing. “Claire, I’d be lying if I didn’t say I’m terrified of where this case might take me, because I am. I got into police work because I wanted to help people—both Amish and English, alike. But if this case plays out in the way I’m dreading it might, that work will lead me to hurt the people I love in ways I can’t ever erase.”

  “But Jakob, if, by chance, your father did kill Harley, the consequences will be on his actions, not yours.” Hiking her bent leg onto the swing, she pivoted her body so as to face him. “Please, Jakob, tell me you know this. Tell me you believe this.”

  “But Mose is my dat, Claire. My dat. No one wants to arrest their dat and see him locked away for the rest of his life for murdering a good and decent man.”

  She grabbed hold of his hand and held it tight, the coolness of his skin surprising. “If that happens, Jakob, it’s not because you told him to do it. He will have made that decision all on his own.”

  “A decision he was led to by me.”

  She stopped the swing with her opposite foot. “Led to by you?” she gasped. “How on earth could you even think that let alone say it?”

  “Because it would be true?” Gently, he disengaged his hand and ran it down his face in despair. “C’mon, Claire, think about it. Mose’s hatred of Harley began sixteen years ago when I broke the vow I made at baptism in order to help solve his brother’s murder. If I hadn’t done that, Mose never would have become so bitter, so”—he stopped, swallowed—“so hateful.”

  “Mose is bitter because he chose to be bitter,” she protested. “Look, you know I have the utmost respect for the Amish. I love so many things about the way they live, their respect for God and the land. But you have to know that I think the way they treat you is awful. You didn’t leave to become some sort of drug dealer. You didn’t leave because you wanted to get into a business that would bilk innocent people of their hard-earned money. You got out so you could become a police officer.” She hooked her finger underneath his chin and guided his focus until it was squarely on her face. “A police officer, Jakob. You have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of or feel guilty about. If anything, they do. For turning their backs on such an honorable man.”