I changed the subject to avoid leaving my grandmother on an awkward note. “We made it to the second round of the competition,” I said, forcing brightness into my voice.
She smiled. “I knew you would. Jebidiah would be so very proud of you.” Her face crumpled. For a moment, I thought she would cry, but she kept it together by grabbing the spray bottle of vinegar water and a cloth again. “You should go. You don’t want to miss anything. What brought you to the shop in the first place?”
“I came over to get the peppermint extract.” I held it up as if it were evidence.
“Then why were you asking about the licorice extract?”
“I happened to notice it was gone when I grabbed the peppermint,” I said.
She waved at me with the cloth. “I’m sure it will turn up.” She gave me a small smile that was half the wattage of the one I remembered. It hurt my heart to see her trying so hard to be happy when it had come so effortlessly to her before my grandfather’s death.
I knew I had to get back to the competition, but I said, “I met someone new at the ACC today.”
She looked up from the counter. “Oh, who was that?”
“Charlotte Weaver,” I said, watching her closely for a reaction.
“Charlotte is a sweet girl.” Maami wiped away an imaginary streak on the glass countertop.
“She said that she is your cousin.”
My grandmother’s face was pinched. “That is true to some extent.”
I frowned. “To some extent. Aren’t you either someone’s cousin or not?”
“Yes, I suppose by blood, this is true, but an Amish person’s district is a stronger bond than even blood.”
“You and Charlotte aren’t in the same district,” I said. I already knew this, of course, because I knew the two women had different deacons, but I wanted to hear her explanation.
“No, we’re not in the same Amish district,” she said.
“What happened?” I asked.
She shook her head and suddenly looked every bit her seventy-some years. “You had better return to the ACC. I don’t want you to lose your place. Your daadi would be so proud of you for taking his spot in the competition.” Her voice caught.
“But . . .”
“I will tell you another time,” she said quietly.
I didn’t press the subject. “Are you sure you are all right?” I couldn’t stop myself from asking. Maybe I was more like my mother than I thought.
Maami flapped her cloth in my direction. “This is your last candy for the day. We can talk when you return home.”
I wanted to argue and tell her that it couldn’t wait, but maybe, just maybe, if I won the Amish Confectionery Competition in my grandfather’s name, it would assuage some of her grief. I knew nothing could take away her pain. The loss of a love like my grandparents’ had to be grieved to the full extent. Selfishly, I wanted that kind of love too, but I didn’t know if it was something I could handle. It would be much easier not to love at all and to avoid the pain that I saw my grandmother suffer day after day.
Seeing her like this made me realize that I had never loved Eric Sharp. I swallowed. It was a horrible realization that I had stayed with the man for over a year, but I had been more in love with the idea of our secret relationship and the excitement surrounding him than the man himself. Knowing that, more than losing Eric, made me terribly, terribly sad.
I wanted to stay and ask her to tell me the story about Charlotte now, but I knew my grandmother was right. I didn’t want to disappoint her or dishonor my grandfather’s memory by missing part of the competition. I rushed over and gave her a hug. “I’ll be back just as soon as the competition is over for the day. I promise.”
She nodded. “I know, dear.” She turned back to cleaning the counter. Her back was to me when I went back through the front door. She didn’t even turn when the cowbell rang, signifying my exit.
Chapter 12
I returned to my competition table with peppermint vial in hand. Emily already had the taffy mixture well underway on the stove top.
“You’re just in time,” she said. “I was about to run over to Swissmen Sweets and grab the peppermint myself.”
I opened the peppermint vial and inhaled. The scent seemed to calm me. I let three drops fall from the tip of the bottle into the melting sugar. That’s all it would take to flavor our taffy. If it had been licorice extract, that was all it would have taken to kill Josephine Weaver.
She continued to stir after I added the extract. “What took you so long?”
“I stopped and spoke with my grandmother for a bit,” I said, leaving it at that. I lowered my voice. “Did you bring a bottle of licorice extract over from the shop?
She pointed to the small brown bottle in the supply crate. “Sure. We needed it for the first round of judging. We were making licorice.” She gave me a strange look.
I shook my head. “I know about that bottle. I mean the second one. There was a spare bottle in the shop kitchen, and I didn’t see it when I picked up the peppermint extract.”
She frowned. “I didn’t even know there were two bottles. I suppose the second one could be in there by mistake.”
I searched the crates. There was only one bottle. I told myself not to worry. I told myself that this didn’t mean anything, but I knew I was lying to myself. It might just mean everything.
Emily studied my expression. “Is everything okay, Bailey? Your face is really white.”
I forced a smile. “Everything is fine. I hate when I misplace something. That’s all.” I widened my smile. “There’s nothing to be concerned about. Trust me.”
She continued to stir the sugar and looked as if she didn’t believe me. I couldn’t blame her. I wouldn’t have believed me in those circumstances either.
I considered telling Emily my real suspicions, but just as I wanted to spare my grandmother from worry, I also wanted to spare Emily. I cleared my throat. “I see you finished cutting the green apple taffy. It looks great.”
She beamed at the six-foot-long, inch-thick line of bright green taffy that ran the length of our table on a sheet of waxed paper.
“Why don’t you keep stirring up the peppermint, and I’ll wrap these?”
She nodded and returned her attention to the stove.
I wrapped each piece in a two-inch by two-inch scrap of waxed paper; Emily and I had precut a supply of these in the shop earlier that week in preparation for this round of judging. I had to admit that it felt odd to be standing there making candies. Had a woman really passed away only hours ago? There were police around, but everyone was acting as if it was business as usual. Even me, and I knew better. The problem was, I didn’t know what else I should be doing. Aiden certainly didn’t want me asking questions. I knew that. I shook my head and continued working.
I had just wrapped my thirtieth piece of green apple taffy when Aiden walked up to the table. His movements were more confident and relaxed than they had been the last time I’d seen him, when he had been arguing with the sheriff or when he had been about to question Lindy.
Aiden nodded at Emily and then focused on me. “Bailey, can I have a moment of your time?”
I was relieved he’d asked. Acting as if nothing had happened in the church just a few hundred yards away was starting to grate on me. At the same time, I didn’t want to talk to him. I needed time to figure out what had become of the second bottle of licorice extract before Aiden learned that it was missing.
“Shaking the cobwebs out?” Aiden asked.
I stared at him. “What?”
“I asked you if you were shaking the cobwebs out when you shook your head like that. Seems to me that you are trying to remember or forget something. Care to share?” He cocked his head.
“No,” I said, hoping the deputy would leave it at that.
His smile dissolved. “I still need to talk to you.”
“Can it wait until after the taffy judging is over?” I asked.
He shook h
is head. “No.”
It seemed to me that both of us were digging in our heels.
“Go ahead, Bailey,” Emily said. “This will take a few minutes to set, and then we can pull it together.”
I gestured to the deputy to lead the way. Instead of walking to the edge of the square, as I expected he would, Aiden led me in the direction of the church.
I followed him as a feeling of dread came over me.
The coroner’s car—and, I assumed, Josephine’s body along with it—was long gone. It had been three hours since Aiden’s mother and I had entered the church in search of Jethro. It was maddening to know that the pig was still missing too. Poor Juliet. I was sure if she’d found him she would have told me.
“What happened to Charlotte?” I asked.
“We questioned her and told her to go home,” he said.
I grimaced, wondering what kind of reception she would receive when she got home. “Is she a suspect?”
He sighed. “You know I can’t tell you that.”
I folded my arms.
Aiden sighed and looked skyward. “Bailey, I didn’t pull you away from your table to talk about Charlotte.”
“Oh,” I said, playing dumb.
“We need to talk about this.” He held up the baggie with my piece of licorice in it. Now that I could see the candy clearly, there was no mistaking it was mine. The double S was stamped right in the middle.
I grimaced. I had been right that Aiden had noticed that my candies matched the one found in Josephine’s apron pocket. There was no point in playing dumb any longer. “That’s one of my licorice candies.”
“It is. Do you know where we found it?” he asked, sounding surprised that I came right out and admitted the piece of candy was mine.
“Deputy Little found it in Josephine’s apron pocket,” I said. I tucked a lock of hair behind my ear, and my feathered earring swayed back and forth.
The deputy seemed to be staring at the earring for a moment too long.
I cleared my throat.
He frowned. “Yes. Did you recognize it as one of your candies when Little came out of the church?” His voice was a tad too sharp for my taste.
“No,” I said. I didn’t consider it lying since I hadn’t gotten a good look at the piece of licorice. I had only thought it was mine. I hadn’t known it was until I saw Aiden’s face when he spotted the licorice on my table. “He was waving it around too much for me to get a good look at it, but I can see plainly now that is one of my pieces.”
“Any idea how your candy would have gotten inside Josephine’s apron pocket? Did you give Josephine any licorice this morning?”
I shook my head. “No, I didn’t give it to her, and I have no idea how it got there. She didn’t take any candy from my table, as far as I know, but then again, we had samples sitting out all morning. Maybe someone else took it and gave it to her or slipped it into her apron. There were so many people who stopped by the tables to taste the licorice that it’s really impossible to know.”
He pursed his lips together as he removed a small notebook and a pen from his uniform pocket and made a note. “Did you know about Josephine’s allergy to licorice?”
I scowled. “No. Not until after Charlotte found her in the organ and I overheard Deacon Clapp mention her allergy.”
He pressed his lips together. “It appears her allergy was very well known among the Amish and many of the English too.”
I shrugged. “I didn’t know. I can’t prove that I didn’t know about her allergy, but you must remember that I haven’t lived in Harvest very long, certainly not long enough to know what everyone is allergic to. I just met Josephine yesterday when we were setting up the tables.”
“When she said you shouldn’t be in the competition.”
I shook my head. “That was this morning. I think it didn’t occur to her yesterday that I was participating. She may have thought I was another volunteer helping to set up. A lot of the locals helped. As you know, the entire town has been involved in the ACC.”
He made another note. “Okay, so let’s go over the sequence of events. Tell me what happened from the moment Josephine approached you this morning.”
I sighed. “This morning Josephine expressed to me and to the judges her feeling that I shouldn’t be in the competition because I’m not Amish. You can ask Jeremiah or Margot about this. They were both there.”
“I already have. Go on.”
“And then I helped your mom look for Jethro, who is missing. We ended up in the church.”
He nodded. “Just as Charlotte found the dead body.”
I winced when he said “body.” I swallowed. “Yes.” I paused. “And I may not have known about Josephine’s allergy, but if most of the Amish did, you should take a hard look at Haddie Smucker.”
“Haddie? Why?” Aiden asked.
“She didn’t make it to the second round of competition, and as she was leaving, she told Lindy Beiler—that’s Josephine’s shop assistant—that she was glad Josephine was dead because Josephine stole one of her candy recipes.”
He frowned. “Lindy didn’t tell me that when I interviewed her.”
“She wouldn’t. She doesn’t know you, and she’s Amish.”
He nodded, accepting the realities of the county. “You overheard her say this?”
“I heard her say it, but it was in Pennsylvania Dutch. Emily heard too. She translated for me.”
“I’ll keep it in mind, but I will remind you, Bailey, that this is a Sheriff’s Department investigation.” He looked me straight in the eye. “I don’t want you involved. This isn’t like last time. You don’t have any personal connection to Josephine. Don’t get involved.”
“So it was okay that I was involved last time?” It was my turn to cock my head.
He groaned. “I didn’t say that. You just have less reason to meddle this time.”
“It seems Charlotte is my cousin, so that would be enough of a reason to worry about the case.”
“A cousin you didn’t know about until today.”
“She’s still family, and I could tell Maami cares about her, and I have to worry about myself too. You’re standing there in front of me holding evidence that implicates me in Josephine’s death. After what happened just last month, you’ll have to excuse me if I’m not one hundred percent confident in the Sheriff’s Department.”
Aiden scowled, and I realized a little too late how that must have sounded to him. I had practically said that I wasn’t confident in him. I swallowed.
He ran his hand through his dark hair. “I can understand that. I can.”
I raised my eyebrows. “You can?”
He nodded. “The sheriff didn’t give you an easy time when Tyson Colton was killed. For that I’m sorry, but you have to understand why you can’t get involved now.”
“Do you consider me a suspect?”
He sighed again.
“It’s a simple question with a yes or no answer.”
“Yes.”
I sucked in a breath. For some strange reason, I had expected him to say no, but I don’t know why, with all the evidence against me. Of course Aiden considered me a suspect in Josephine’s death. Any good cop would, and Aiden was a good cop. I could at least admit that, but I didn’t want him to think I was capable of such a crime.
The way I felt about his reply must have shown on my face because he said, “Not a serious one, no. As you said, anyone could have taken that licorice piece from your table, even Josephine herself. Had you killed her, it would have been stupid to leave such incriminating evidence behind. You’re smarter than that.”
“Thanks, I guess,” I said, no longer feeling as bad about what I had said.
He smiled.
“It seemed to me that the sheriff was giving you a hard time earlier when you were talking with Margot.”
He shook his head. “Bailey, let’s not make this conversation about me.”
I folded my arms. “There’s something going o
n there.”
“It’s not related to Josephine’s murder, so it doesn’t concern you.”
I rocked back on my heels. “You just admitted that I should be concerned about Josephine’s murder.”
He groaned. “Somehow you always twist my words into whatever shape you want.”
“It’s a talent of mine.”
“I noticed.” He smiled, and the dimple in his right cheek appeared.
I bit down on my lip to stop myself from smiling too. I needed to focus on the murder, not on his distracting dimple. “Was it my piece of licorice that killed her?” My voice quavered. I hadn’t known Josephine well at all and couldn’t say that I liked what I did know about her, but I didn’t want something that I’d made to be responsible for her death or anyone else’s.
He shook his head. “The coroner doesn’t think so. She died too quickly. He thinks the reaction happened in under five minutes. He will know for certain if she ate any licorice candy after he does the autopsy.”
I grimaced. “If she didn’t eat the licorice candy, how does the coroner think she got the licorice into her system that fast? What else could it be?”
“Licorice in liquid form. Margot informed me you can buy licorice extract. It might have been something like that. We’ll know more when the coroner runs his toxicology reports.”
I tried to keep my face calm and neutral. Aiden had just said I was off the hook for the murder. Well, that was basically what he’d said. If he knew I was missing a bottle of licorice extract, that might change.
“It’ll be difficult to pin down where the licorice extract came from. It seems that all the contestants in the candy-making competition had some with them today.”
I nodded. “Everyone in the competition would have used it in their licorice recipes.”
He folded the brim of his department hat and put it back on his head. “When I find the source of the extract, I’ll find my killer. I know that in my bones.”
Lethal Licorice Page 9
