“Danki, thank you,” Jeremiah said. “Now Margot will announce our peanut brittle, fudge, and overall winners.”
Margot took the bullhorn from Jeremiah’s hand. “Thank you, Jeremiah. Jeremiah, Beatrice, and I were commissioned to do the difficult job judging this competition over the last two days.” She went on to announce the winner of the peanut brittle round. Smiling brightly, she said, “Berlin Candies.”
Lindy stumbled to the stage with tears in her eyes.
If I won the fudge round, Swissmen Sweets and Berlin Candies would be tied. One of us had to be the overall winner, but I cared about the fudge more than the overall title.
“Of the four candy rounds we’ve judged,” Margot went on, “fudge was by far the most challenging. Everyone had excellent entries. However, as much as we would like to pick each of your selections for one reason or another, there can only be one winner.” She paused for maximum effect. “Congratulations to Bailey King from Swissmen Sweets! Please come up and accept your certificate.”
Emily cheered and clutched my arm. I smiled and waved at the visitors who turned to look at us. I pried myself away from Emily and wove my way up to the gazebo. As if against my will, my eyes traveled to where I had seen Aiden standing. He was there, clapping for me. He grinned, and the dimple in his right cheek appeared. I looked away.
“Congratulations, Bailey!” Jeremiah clapped me on the shoulder as I reached the top of the gazebo steps.
“Everyone in Harvest is so proud of you.” Margot held out a certificate to me.
I murmured my thanks, accepted my certificate, my second of the competition, and quickly returned to my spot next to Emily.
Emily gripped my arm. “Bailey, you’re going to win the entire thing,” she whispered. “You won two of the four rounds. They have to give it to you!”
I shook my head, unable to speak.
“Now,” Margot said. “The moment that you have been waiting for. The overall winner of this year’s Amish Confectionary Competition!”
The crowd clapped and cheered. I clutched my certificate in my hand.
Margot took in a big breath. “The grand prize winner is Berlin Candies.”
Lindy’s mouth fell open. Her husband gave her a little shove toward the gazebo. She stumbled forward.
“How is that possible?” Emily asked in a harsh whisper. “You should have won.”
I squeezed Emily’s hand. “Don’t be upset. I’m happy for Lindy. She deserves it.”
“But . . .”
“Emily, it’s fine.” I held up my certificate. “My chocolate-making street cred has been certified. That’s all I care about.”
“Street cred?” she asked in confusion.
I laughed. “I’m happy.”
“You should be. Winning two rounds of the competition is impressive,” a male voice said behind me.
I swallowed and turned to find Aiden standing just a foot away from me. “Do you have some kind of teleporting system that the rest of the world doesn’t know about?”
He raised his brows. “Come again?”
“You were over there just a second ago.” I pointed to the other side of the gazebo.
He smiled, and the dimple reappeared. “You noticed where I was?”
“Umm.” I thought it was wise to ignore that comment. “You should talk to Haddie Smucker. Another contestant, Susan Klink, was removed from the competition this morning after someone tampered with her stove. I think Haddie was behind it.”
Emily gasped.
“Can you prove that?” he asked.
“Well, no.” I held my certificate loosely in my hands.
Emily looked back and forth between us. “I’m going to start packing up the table, Bailey.”
I nodded, but most of my attention was focused on the deputy.
“Neither can I,” he said.
I blinked. “Wait, what? You knew about it?”
He nodded. “Beatrice told me about it this morning.”
“Beatrice?” She was the last of the three judges I would have guessed would go to Aiden with a problem. Perhaps I had misjudged the critical woman.
“She thinks it was Haddie too, but there is no proof.” He brushed his hair out of his eyes. “I spoke to Susan before she left Harvest, and she doesn’t want the Sheriff’s Department to pursue it.”
“So, you are just going to let it go?” The accusation was heavy in my voice.
“My hands are tied, but if the tampering is related to Josephine’s death, no, I won’t let it go.”
Behind Aiden, tourists both Amish and English were heading to their buggies and cars parked on the street and in the church parking lot. It was hard to believe that, after all the time that it took to prepare for it, the ACC was finally over. Emily might have been disappointed that Lindy had won, but I wasn’t.
A group of Amish and English children ran around the playground next to the church. An Amish boy leapt from one of the swings when it was at its highest point on the upswing, just as I had when I was a child. Soon there would be new equipment there thanks to the ACC and all the money it had raised for the village.
“I found Charlotte, by the way,” Aiden said. “You might have told me that she’s staying at Swissmen Sweets.”
“Yeah, sorry about that. Maami and I thought it would be best that we not make it public knowledge. Charlotte’s family is not particularly happy with her right now.”
“I know, and I know that being rejected by one’s family is a very hard thing. I do sympathize with her,” he said.
I knew he was thinking of his father, who had walked away from his mom and himself, but I couldn’t bring myself to say anything about it.
Aiden looked as if he wanted to say something more, but his cell phone rang.
He unclipped it from his duty belt and looked at the screen. “It’s the sheriff.”
I smiled, not sure whether I was relieved or disappointed by the interruption. “You’d better take it then.”
He nodded. “Sheriff?” Aiden held the phone to his ear.
I was dying to hear Aiden’s side of the conversation, but he must have seen the eagerness in my eyes, because after a small shake of the head, he turned and walked away, speaking softly into the phone so that I couldn’t hear what they discussed. I knew their conversation had to be about Josephine.
I returned to Swissmen Sweets’ table, where Emily was handing out pieces of our winning fudge to tourists. “You can buy more of this and lots of other flavors at Swissmen Sweets, just across the street there.”
I smiled. Maybe I should put Emily in charge of marketing for the shop.
“Are you happy that your fudge won?” Emily asked when the last piece of fudge was taken.
“Of course I am.” I set the dirty pans and dishes that we’d used to make our candies in a dishpan to wash when I got back to the shop. “It was the award that I wanted the most.”
“You’re not upset that Lindy won the contest?” She scraped chocolate off the silver platter.
I picked up and folded a tea towel that hung from the corner of the table. “I would have wanted to win, yes, but she deserved it. Her candies were great. Josephine taught her well.”
She set the scraped tray in our cart. “It’s a shame that Josephine couldn’t be part of her own shop’s success. She wasn’t the nicest person in the world, but everyone knew she loved that shop. She should have been here to see how well it did.”
I nodded. “Yes, she should have.” I looked down at the hand-lettered certificate. “I think I will have this framed and hang it in the front room of the shop. The taffy one too.”
“It’s not very Amish to boast and show off your accomplishments,” Emily observed.
“I’m not Amish.” I grinned.
“I noticed,” she said with a laugh. “No one will ever confuse you with an Amish person, Bailey King. I can promise you that.”
Chapter 29
I gave Emily a hug in front of Swissmen Sweets. “Thanks for
your help. You should get back to the pretzel shop before Esther sends out a search party.”
Emily sighed. “All right. Tell Nutmeg I’ll be over tomorrow with a treat.”
I smiled. “You spoil him.” I started to push open the door with one hand. The other was on the handle of my cart when she stopped me.
She blushed. “Bailey?”
I dropped my hand from the door and let it close. “Something wrong?”
She licked her lips. “I was wondering if you needed any help around Swissmen Sweets? I can pitch in whenever you like.”
“You’re asking for a job?”
She wrinkled her forehead. “I guess I am.”
“What about the pretzel shop?” I asked. Behind her, I thought I saw a curtain move in the window of Esh Family Pretzels.
“They don’t really need me.” She stared at the tops of her black sneakers. “In fact, there is very little that Esther will let me do. You’ve given me more to do in the last couple of days than Esther ever has. My sister doesn’t trust my judgment . . . ,” she trailed off.
I knew Emily was thinking of the mistakes she’d made when she was a teenager. I’d learned a few weeks ago that she’d had a baby out of wedlock and given it up for adoption. She had the baby in secret, but her siblings had never forgiven her for it. Even though she was now twenty, they still treated her like a child.
“I know you would have to talk it over with Clara,” she added quickly.
“I don’t know that we have enough to do at the shop to hire another person,” I said honestly. “Can I think about it? And I will talk it over with my grandmother. I promise.”
She smiled. “Ya, of course.”
“Emily!” Abel’s sharp voice came from the front of the pretzel shop.
The large Amish man glared at his sister and me in turn.
“I should go.” She bit her lower lip. “But you will think about it?”
I nodded. “I will.”
“Danki, Bailey.”
I smiled.
“Emily,” Abel repeated.
She ran over to her brother. He opened the door to pretzel shop for her. She ducked her head and ran inside. He gave me one final scowl before he disappeared inside the pretzel shop after her.
I shook my head and opened the door to Swissmen Sweets again. This time I opened it wide enough to push the cart inside. Nutmeg met me in the front of the shop, but there was no sign of my grandmother or Charlotte. The little orange cat wove around my ankles.
I tried my best not to trip over him as I made my way through the front room to the swinging kitchen door. Inside, Charlotte and my grandmother chatted while they cleaned the kitchen. They laughed together and spoke their language while they worked. A little green-eyed monster in the back of my mind whispered to me that Charlotte looked more like Maami’s granddaughter than I ever would. She naturally fit in an Amish candy shop. I was forcing myself to fit. That was the difference.
Maami beamed at me. “I knew your daadi’s fudge would win the day.” She dropped the rag she held into the dishwater and walked over to me with her arms open.
I accepted her hug. “But I didn’t win the whole thing.”
She stepped back and returned to the soapy water. “It’s no matter. It’s the fudge that’s important.”
I laughed, because she sounded so much like my grandfather when she said that.
“Your win is all Clara has been talking about since we heard the news,” Charlotte said, and the little bit of jealousy I felt flew away.
I grinned from ear to ear. “I wanted to win that round too. It really was the only one I cared about.”
“We are all sold out of every kind of fudge because of it,” Maami said. “We will be busy tonight making more.”
“You have Emily to thank for that,” I said. “She was directing everyone who would listen to come over here and buy fudge.” I didn’t add that Emily had asked me for a job. I would wait until my grandmother and I were alone to have that conversation. “Do you need any help cleaning up?” I asked.
Maami plunged her hands back into the soapy water. “Nee, Charlotte and I have it well in hand. You should rest after your long day.”
“Not just yet. I’m going to go back over to the square,” I said.
My grandmother looked up from the pot she was scrubbing. “Why?”
I sighed. “Jethro is still missing. I want to take another look around for him.”
Maami frowned. “That is gut of you. Juliet is so heartbroken over Jethro. She and Reverend Brook were in here just an hour ago looking for him. I haven’t seen her so upset since the first day she came to Harvest.”
I frowned. “He couldn’t have disappeared into thin air.”
Charlotte ran a towel over the white plate she was holding. “Do you think another animal got him?”
I couldn’t stand to even consider that. “One more walk around the square won’t hurt,” I said, thinking about what I’d learned from Ruby. I was reluctant to talk about that conversation, even to my grandmother and Charlotte, because I wasn’t sure how reliable Ruby was as a source of information.
I told my grandmother and Charlotte good-bye and headed back outside the shop. When I reached the square, Abel and a couple other Amish men were pulling down the tents and folding up the long tables from the competition. I noticed that Swissmen Sweets’ competition place had already been completely dismantled.
Next to the gazebo, I spotted Ruby. I studied the hunched-over woman and felt a rush of sympathy for her. Abruptly, she turned and walked toward me.
I smiled. “Hello.”
“You are looking for the little pig,” she said.
My eyes went wide. “I am.”
“You should look in the little house. That’s where she put him.”
“What little house?” I asked. “Josephine, you mean? She put Jethro in a little house?”
“She didn’t like him following her, so she put him in the little house. She said he needed to learn a lesson. She didn’t know she was the one who would learn a lesson.”
“What lesson?”
Ruby shuffled away without another word. I was fairly certain that she didn’t remember the conversation I’d had with her in her apartment just a few hours ago. So how could she possibly know where Jethro was?
I watched her walk back in the direction of Apple Street but decided against following her and asking her more questions. Whatever I learned from Ruby might be just the sad ramblings of a woman with dementia.
On the opposite side of the square from where my table had been, Lindy stood in front of her table, looking at all her boxed-up supplies waiting to be toted away.
I walked over to her, trying to shake off the odd feeling that Ruby gave me. “Everything okay?”
“I just realized that I have no way to get this all back to Berlin Candies. My husband took our children home in our buggy. We’d brought everything in Josephine’s buggy, but after she died, her family took the buggy and the horse back to their home.” She chewed on her lip.
“I have a car. I can give you a lift to Berlin Candies.”
She frowned. “I would hate to be a bother. I was going to find a phone and call my husband. He should be home in a half hour.”
I shook my head, “And then he will have to drive a half hour back. You won’t make it to Berlin Candies until after dark. After I take you to the candy shop, I can take you home. It’s not a problem.”
She stared at the stack of supplies. “That would be very helpful. It’s been a long couple of days. Are you sure?”
I waved my hand. “Yes, just let me pull my car around to the square, and we will pack up these supplies and be off.”
She knit her brow together. “All right.”
Chapter 30
Berlin Candies was on Main Street in Berlin, easily the busiest street in Holmes County. Even this late in the afternoon, the street was congested with buggies, cars, and buses. A long line of tourists walked along the street
perusing the small shops that sold everything from fabric for quilts to mystic stones. Berlin, unlike Harvest, was a true tourist town, and even though the businesses there were mostly related to Amish culture, other businesses had moved in too. The precious stone shop and a trendy clothing boutique were taking advantage of the tourists that came to Holmes County.
Berlin Candies was in a flat-faced storefront that had been painted dark blue with a large white awning running its length. Right next to it was the hardware store, Holmes County Tools. I assumed I was looking at Jeffrey Galwin’s store. It was a little after four, and all the shops in Berlin closed at five.
By some miracle, I got the parking space right in front of the candy shop. It was tight, but my compact fit in the spot with only a moderate amount of scraping along the curb.
As I shifted the car into park, I noticed a CLOSED sign on Berlin Candies’ door. “The shop is closed?” I asked.
Lindy opened the car door. “Josephine closed it for the ACC. It was just the two of us working there, and she thought it was more important that we were both at the competition.”
“It seems like a gamble to be closed on such a busy weekend. There was no one else who could watch the store? Perhaps a family member or a friend from the district?”
She frowned. “Josephine didn’t trust many people, especially with her shop.”
“But she trusted you?” I asked.
“As much as she trusted anyone.” She climbed out of the car.
I got out of the car too, grabbed one of her crates of supplies from the back seat of my car, and followed her to the glass front door of Berlin Candies. I balanced the heavy crate in my arms, waiting for Lindy to unlock the door. She was turning the key to the shop in the lock when a thin man with long arms stomped out of the hardware store next door. His glasses sat at the tip of his nose. “Finally, one of you is here!”
Lindy pushed open the door to the shop and turned to face the man. “I—”
Lethal Licorice Page 20
