A Churn for the Worse

by Laura Bradford

  He leaned forward, brushed a kiss against her left temple, and then squeezed her hands once, twice. “I probably shouldn’t say this, but you asked me once if I regretted leaving the Amish, remember?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you remember my answer?”

  She looked down at her hands inside his and swallowed. “You said no.”

  “I did. And I meant it. But if I’d seen”—he tugged his right hand free and used it to gesture at Claire—“this you back then, I wouldn’t have left. Not for any badge in the world.”

  “Ha, ha,” she joked as she lifted the mirror from the table and peered at herself again. “I look—”

  “Beautiful. Just like you always do, Claire. But now it’s time to hand that over to me. Amish women don’t peer at themselves in mirrors.” He took the pink-trimmed mirror from her hand and carried it over to Esther’s utensil drawer. Pulling the drawer open, he tucked the mirror inside and then turned back to Claire, pointing at her purse as he did. “If I could hear that vibration just now, so could our guy. Find a place to put your purse.”

  “Can I just check that message first? I’ll do it really quick.”

  “Yeah, okay. It’ll give me a chance to make sure my guys are in position.”

  She reached down to the floor, pulled out her phone from inside her purse, and opened the message from Diane.

  My mistake. That was actually Hayley’s magazine. I’ll have to get mine from you when you get home tonight. Unless you’re still reading?

  She started to type her reply, but stopped when Jakob returned from the front room. “If we don’t do this now, I’m calling it off.”

  Dropping the phone back into her purse, she, too, stood. “I’m going to be okay. I promise. I’m smart.”

  “I know that. Now let’s just make sure you’ve got everything down, okay?” He guided her away from the table and then pointed at her ear. “In about thirty seconds, one of my officers is going to say something in your earpiece. Nod the second you hear his voice so we know if the kapp impedes your hearing in any way.”

  She tried her best to lighten Jakob’s mood with a smile, but it was no use. He was worried. Plain and simple. “I’m going to be— I hear that!”

  “What did he say?” Jakob asked.

  “He said he likes pickles.”

  “Very good.” Jakob pointed at her pale blue dress and the tiny mic hidden beneath the fabric. “Say something back.”

  She lowered her chin to answer but lifted it again at the sound of Jakob’s snap. “What?”

  “Keep your chin up. Talk normally. You don’t want to give this guy any reason to think something is up.”

  Nodding, she kept her eyes trained on Jakob and said, “I prefer chocolate.”

  Jakob shifted his mouth to the right and spoke into his shoulder mic. “Did you get that?”

  “Got it, Detective.”

  He turned his attention back on Claire and sighed. “Okay. Looks like we’re ready.”

  “Can’t you hear me in your earpiece?” she asked, pointing at the black object tucked around his ear.

  “I can. But since I’m standing here with you, I had to make sure you’re truly transmitting.”

  “Oh. Okay. That makes sense.”

  Jakob looked around the room and noted the open windows, the makeshift cooking project Claire had planned, and the position of the sun as it peeked its way around the partially raised dark green shade. “Just keep yourself busy. Read. Bake. Whatever. Just remember you’re Amish. Play the part.”

  “I’m Amish,” she repeated as she stepped forward and kissed Jakob. “And I’m in love. With a really cute guy.”

  When the kiss ended, he stepped back, cleared his throat, and pointed at Claire. “If you get scared or you change your mind, let me know.”

  “I will. But I won’t.” She waved him toward the back door and then accompanied him over to it. “I’ll be fine. I promise.”

  “I’m holding you to that.”

  And then he was gone, his broad back and long legs making short work of the side yard before disappearing behind the line of trees that separated Esther and Eli’s farm from the English housing development on the other side.

  When she was sure she couldn’t see him any longer, Claire closed the door and turned back toward the kitchen, her pace quickening at the telltale jingle of an incoming call.

  “Claire, silence your phone.”

  She started to dip her chin to her chest again but held it steady. “I’m sorry, Jakob. Let me just answer this one time and then I’ll shut it off and hide it inside the drawer with the mirror.”

  Realizing she’d never moved her purse, either, Claire grabbed it off the ground, fished inside for her phone, and stared down at the unfamiliar number on the screen. “I don’t know who this is.”

  “Then silence the call or get them off the line.”

  “I’ll get them off.” She raised the phone to her left ear and took a quick breath. “Hello?”

  “Is this Claire?”

  At a loss for a name to go with the male voice in her ear, she nodded. “It is. Who is this?”

  “Claire, it’s Bill. Bill Brockman. I stayed at your aunt’s place this past week and—”

  “Of course. What can I do for you?”

  “I was wondering if you could double-check the name of Hayley and Jeremy’s blog and get back to me as soon as possible. I’d really like to include it in my travel flyers on Heavenly.”

  “Did you lose the paper I wrote it down on?” she asked.

  “Nope. Have that in my hand right now. You wrote your number on the back.”

  “The address didn’t work?”

  “It sure didn’t.”

  “Did you do a search on the blog’s name?”

  “I did.”

  “And?”

  “Claire . . . I really need you to wrap this up,” Jakob said in her right ear.

  “One minute. Please.”

  “Oh, that’ll be great, Claire. I really appreciate you checking on that for me.”

  Realizing Bill thought she was requesting a moment from him rather than Jakob, she tightened her grip on the phone. “Actually, I’m a little tied up right now, but I’ll be sure to ask Hayley about that tonight at dinner.”

  “You won’t be making dinner tonight,” Jakob reminded.

  She rushed to make the adjustment for the man in her left ear. “Or tomorrow over breakfast. Either way, I’ll get that information to you as soon as possible. Though I’m really surprised a basic search of the blog’s name turned up nothing.”

  “The blog’s name . . . Hayley’s name . . . Jeremy’s name. I checked them all. And I got nothing.”

  Hmmm. Weird.

  “Maybe I misunderstood and they’re just getting it up off the ground,” she posed.

  “Maybe. Anyway, thanks for your help.”

  “My pleasure, Bill.”

  She started to pull the phone away from her ear but stopped as she heard the man’s voice once again. “Say hello to your aunt for me, will you?”

  * * *

  She’d just popped the bread out of the oven and set it on the cooling rack next to the chocolate chip cookies she’d made when she heard the knock.

  “Someone is here,” she whispered.

  A beat of silence, followed by chatter in her ear, finally morphed into Jakob’s singular voice. “Steve says he didn’t notice anyone, but he apparently got out of his car to check out a stray cat. Proceed with caution. Keep me in the loop the way we practiced.”

  “I will.” Feeling her hands begin to shake, she steadied them at her sides and sent up a silent prayer of thanks that Diane had no idea what she was doing at that moment. When she was sure she was ready, she headed down the hallway and toward the familiar face peeking through the glass
door. “False alarm. I know this guy. He’s a guest at the inn.”

  “Hold your cover. If he doesn’t know it’s you, let it go. It’ll be good practice.”

  “Roger that,” she joked. “Get it? Roger that?”

  “Focus, Claire. Please.”

  She whispered her pledge to do as Jakob asked and then opened the door, the familiar face peering back at her with nary a clue to her true identity. “Hello.”

  “Yes, do you happen to sell vegetables?”

  “No.” Then realizing she sounded too curt, she added, “I do not.”

  “Can you direct me to one of your Amish neighbors who do?”

  She started to say she wasn’t sure, but stopped herself as a name popped into her thoughts. “The Lehmans do.”

  “Where can I find their place?”

  “Take a right at the end of our driveway and it’s no more than six farms down on the—”

  Jeremy stepped forward while simultaneously looking over his shoulder toward the driveway. “Would you mind writing it down for me? I’m not good about remembering details.”

  A strange chill slithered down her spine as Martha’s voice echoed in her head.

  “I pointed the way to the Lehmans’ farm stand.”

  “It’s really not difficult—a straight shot, actually.” She silently cursed the wooden quality to her voice and willed herself to relax. This was Jeremy. The fact that he was asking for a vegetable stand was a coincidence . . .

  “Oh. Okay. Thanks.” Jeremy started to turn, but stopped himself and gestured into the house, his gaze darting around the front room. “I hate to ask this, but would it be possible to get a glass of water? I’m not feeling too good right now. I think it’s the heat. It’s bordering on brutal, you know?”

  No it wasn’t. In fact it’s kind of nice—

  She took in the distracted face of the man who’d sat at her aunt’s table for dinner over the past eleven days or so—his clean-shaven skin, his plain brown eyes and hair, his—

  “Let him inside, Claire.”

  She opened her mouth to argue, to point out Jeremy’s regular-joe looks and the way his requests were eerily similar to the victims’ accounts, but closed it as she realized Jakob was hearing everything Claire was hearing.

  Jakob wasn’t telling her to let him inside to be nice. He was telling her to let him in so they could trap the twenty-something with his hand inside Eli’s money jar.

  Swallowing back the bile that rose up the back of her throat, she stepped to the left and waved him inside, hoping and praying as she did that he didn’t notice the way her hand trembled with rage. So far, he hadn’t given her more than a passing glance. If that changed, she could be in trouble.

  Two steps into the front room, he stopped, and cocked his ear toward the still-open front door. Confused, she glanced outside and then froze as she heard a rapid sound coming from the direction of the barn.

  A sound that wasn’t much different than a clap . . .

  Only it didn’t stop.

  “Oh. Wow. You know what? I’m not thirsty anymore.”

  She swung her attention back to Jeremy and then froze as Martha’s words flooded her thoughts once again.

  “I heard a funny noise and did not answer his question . . .”

  “I thought it was David with the dog. He claps when she does a new trick. But it was not David. He was not in the barn.”

  And then she knew.

  There was someone else.

  Bracing her hands against Jeremy’s chest, she shoved him backward so hard he tripped over a thigh-high table and fell onto his back, knocking a Bible and a songbook onto the ground beside him.

  “Claire? What was that?” Jakob barked in her ear.

  “Jeremy. Come get him,” she yelled as she ran through the door, onto the porch, and across the driveway as the clapping finally subsided. But it didn’t matter. She knew who was responsible for that sound just as surely as she knew why.

  Rounding the corner, she ran into the barn and stopped, her gaze traveling down the center aisle to the familiar blonde now leading a not-so-happy Carly from her stall. “Stop!” she shouted.

  Hayley’s head snapped upward and into the path of the late afternoon sun streaming in through Carly’s open window. Dropping her hold on the mare’s lead, she swapped it for a metal rake and stepped forward. “You better turn around slowly and go right back to your farmhouse if you know what’s good for you.”

  Claire stepped closer instead, fisting her hands at her side as she did. “It was the two of you all along, wasn’t it? He was sent to distract, while you searched the barns for”—she pointed at the wide-eyed horse standing behind the woman—“her.”

  “You’re pretty smart for an Amish chick,” Hayley snorted. “Pretty smart and pretty dumb.”

  “And you, Hayley Wright, are a murderer.”

  “Claire? Where are you?” Jakob shouted in her ear.

  Hayley tried to shield the sun from her eyes but wasn’t entirely successful. Instead, she stepped forward and blinked. “How do you know my name?”

  Reaching upward, Claire pulled off her kapp and dropped it at her feet, the earpiece Jakob had attached to its inside landing on the top of her right boot.

  “Claire?” Hayley hissed through clenched teeth.

  “That’s right.”

  “If a shovel can get the job done, so can this.” Lifting the rake above her head, Hayley charged forward so fast and so forcefully, Claire banged into the side of a stall in her haste to escape. Steadying herself against the slatted wall, she looked back in time to see the metal rake coming at her head.

  “No! Please!”

  She closed her eyes and ducked, the quick move sending the metal rake crashing into the wall where Claire’s head had been. Looking up, she saw Hayley rear back for a second strike only to drop to the ground under the weight of Jakob’s body.

  Chapter 34

  (TWO DAYS LATER)

  Claire pulled Jakob’s arms more tightly around her midsection and silently willed the warmth of his chest against her back to permeate the chill she’d been unable to shed since sharing Carly’s true identity with Esther.

  There had been shock at first, followed by tears, but in the end Esther had accepted reality, just as Claire had known she would. Still, standing there, beside Carly’s stall, watching Esther’s face as her beloved horse nuzzled Valerie, Claire couldn’t get past the ache in her heart.

  Yes, calling Valerie had been the right thing to do.

  No, she wouldn’t have kept Carrot Thief’s whereabouts a secret even if she could.

  But doing the right thing didn’t always come without pain. Anyone standing in Eli’s barn at that moment, with a clear view of Esther’s face, would know that to be true. Hannah’s quiet cries from the other side of the barn only made things worse.

  “So this Hayley person came across Carrot Thief where?” Valerie ran a hand down the side of her horse and then turned to face the people responsible for reuniting her with the animal.

  Jakob’s chin left its resting spot atop Claire’s head. “Jeremy is actually the one who found your horse. His house isn’t too far from the crash scene, and he found her limping around his yard the next day. He called his old high school chum, Hayley, and asked what he should do. She knew enough about horses to know they could turn a fast buck or two and so, after a little research, she steered him toward Weaver with the understanding she’d get fifty percent of whatever they offered.”

  “So that’s why Hayley had no problem going on Diane’s field trip to Weaver’s place . . . Because it was Jeremy who’d handled the actual sale and therefore she was in no danger of being recognized,” Claire mused, as much for herself as anyone else.

  “That’s right.” Jakob loosened his hold on Claire and came around, instead, to her side. “Shortly afte
r that, Hayley got one of those between-issue email updates from a horse magazine she subscribes to.”

  “The Stable Life,” Claire and Valerie said in unison.

  Jakob nodded. “Sounds right. Anyway, Hayley realized that the horse Jeremy had found in his yard was Carrot Thief and that she was far more valuable—because of her lineage—than what they’d gotten from Weaver. So they went back.”

  “Only Carrot Thief had been bought by Eli and had become Carly.” She glanced toward Esther in time to see a ripple of pain shoot across the young woman’s face. “And so their hunt began.”

  “And a man died?” Valerie asked.

  “Wayne Stutzman.” Jakob cupped his hand across his mouth, then let it slip slowly down to his chin. “Near as we can figure, based on the timing, Wayne must have come across Hayley in the barn while Jeremy was keeping the rest of the family busy in the house. He probably questioned her and she, feeling threatened, picked up a shovel and hit him. Sadly, it was a fatal blow.”

  Valerie pressed her fingers to her own chin and closed her eyes briefly. “How awful! Did he have children?”

  “Seven.”

  “Seven?” Valerie echoed. “How will they manage?”

  Eli unlatched the stall door and stepped inside with Carly. “My brother, Benjamin, is lending a hand. He’ll see that Wayne’s wife, Emma, and the children are well taken care of. It is his way.”

  “Eli is right,” Jakob agreed. “As for Hayley, she was so set on finding Carrot Thief and so confident she hadn’t been spotted she continued staying at Sleep Heavenly, the bed and breakfast owned by Claire’s aunt, Diane Weatherly. Taking care not to raise too much attention, she hit one farm a day—sometimes two, using her camera as her ruse for moving around town. A camera she didn’t even seem to know how to use, based on what one of my officers said.”

  “But I saw her pictures!” Claire protested.

  “You saw pictures she’d saved onto a flash drive to make it look like she was working. And it worked. No one was any the wiser.” Jakob turned back to Valerie and finished the story. “Unfortunately for Hayley, her chosen partner got a little greedy and started stealing money during his assigned post as lookout man. Chasing him down brought us—or rather, Claire, here—to Hayley.”