by Amy Lillard
Edie turned to Kappy. “Can I talk to you for a moment, please?” she asked. “Over there.” She pointed to a spot about fifteen feet away. Close enough that they could watch John David, yet far enough away that he wouldn’t hear what they were saying.
He seemed to understand. “Go ahead. I’ll stay right here.”
Edie dragged Kappy over to the spot she had indicated. “Do you believe him?” She lowered her voice to a whisper.
Kappy looked back at John David. He had his hands parked on his hips, his gaze trained on some distant point across a nearby field. “We don’t have any reason not to.”
“But we don’t have any reason to believe what he says is true. There’s no proof. Just his word.”
“What about Jimmy?”
Edie shook her head. “I think he would’ve already said something if he had known about it. I think they kept it from him.”
“That makes sense, especially if Ruth was certain he would be confused by the relationship.”
“So do we believe him or not?” Edie asked.
“We believe him,” Kappy said. She recognized the look in his eyes when he said Ruth’s name. He got the same sorrowful look that Hiram got when he mentioned Laverna. It was obvious John David had loved Ruth just as Hiram had loved Laverna.
“Are you sure?”
“Pretty sure.”
“Only pretty sure?”
“Very sure.”
Edie nodded. “Okay. You want to go in and have a cup coffee?”
“Only if you want to,” Kappy said.
“Okay.” Edie started back to where John David waited. “Your offer for a cup of coffee sounds wonderful, but can we get a rain check?”
He smiled and Kappy couldn’t help but notice that the action was on the sad side. “Of course. You and Jimmy are welcome here anytime.”
“That’s very generous of you. Thank you. But first we have to get Jimmy out of jail.” Edie pressed her lips together. Kappy wasn’t sure if she was trying to keep herself from saying more or keep tears from falling.
* * *
“I don’t know,” Edie said as they drove up School Yard Road. “Something about it just doesn’t sit right with me.”
“Because you’re uncomfortable with the thought of your mamm having a boyfriend?” Kappy asked.
“No . . . Maybe . . . I don’t know.” Edie drove past both their driveways then back around to where the Glicks lived. She parked the car in their designated spot and they got out. “See?” Edie pointed to Jay and Jeremiah still out in the field working. “They’ll be out there all day. And they’ll be out there all day tomorrow. And the day after that, and the day after that, so forth and so on.”
“So farming isn’t for everyone. Where would we be without them?”
“True dat,” Edie said.
“Don’t say that,” Kappy replied as they started across the yard.
A flash of black and tan sped in front of them.
“Was that Elmer?” Edie asked.
“He should be in his kennel.” Her footsteps quickened.
Up ahead was another beagle. And another. And another.
“Oh my gosh,” Edie exclaimed. “The dogs are loose.”
They both took off running at the same time.
“I shut the gate this morning,” Edie said as she scrambled after one of the running dogs. They seemed to think it was a big game and dashed out of her reach as soon as she drew near. “I know I shut the gate this morning.”
“Then how did they get out?” Kappy asked.
“I don’t know,” Edie said. “But it wasn’t because I left the gate open.”
Kappy dashed after one of the puppies. She scooped it into her arms and it wriggled against her hold, trying its best to lick her face as she went after another. “This isn’t working.”
Edie stopped. Some of the dogs kept running, going in big circles around her. Others simply watched, ready to start the game the minute she moved. “What should we do?”
“Your mother has some leashes hanging up in her office. Remember? On the far wall.”
Edie nodded. “You think I should get those?”
“It is our only hope of catching them all.” And they needed to catch them fast. They were tearing through the fields, knocking down the stacks of hay that Jay and Jeremiah had worked so hard to create that very morning. As if they needed another reason for the Glicks to be angry with the Peacheys.
Edie sprinted to the house, a few of the dogs following behind thinking the game had changed. She returned a few moments later, out of breath and clutching a fistful of leashes. “I caught two on the way back.”
“Good,” Kappy said. “Only thirty more to go.”
* * *
It took the better part of the early evening to catch the dogs. Finally, Kappy lay down in the middle of the yard and let the dogs come to her. She might have been wearing one of her best dresses, but it was important to gather up the dogs as soon as possible. They were too vulnerable out in the world, and she was afraid one would wander into the road and get hit by a car. That was the last thing they needed, with the animal-rights activists protesting in front and murder charges still hovering over Jimmy’s head.
“Did we get them all?” Edie asked.
“We’re still missing two.” But they couldn’t continue to scour the valley. “That’ll have to do for now.”
Edie nodded. “Maybe they’ll turn up later.”
“Maybe,” Kappy murmured.
“Come on,” Edie said. “I’ll buy you some supper and we can talk about what we should do now.”
Kappy was almost too tired to walk back across the field separating Ruth’s house from the Glicks’. But the promise of food was enough to keep her moving. They hopped into the car and headed back toward Belleview.
The aroma inside Frank’s Original Italian Pizza was enough to make Kappy’s stomach growl and her mouth water. The smell was a tantalizing combination of yeast, oregano, and garlic. They slid into a booth and waited for someone to come take their order.
“Tantalizing,” she repeated softly to herself.
“Was that on your word-a-day calendar?” Edie asked.
Heat immediately rose into Kappy’s cheeks. “Jah, from a couple of months ago.”
Their conversation stalled as the young man approached the table. He handed them menus, took their drink orders, and disappeared back into the kitchen.
“What made you buy such a thing?” Edie asked.
Kappy gave a quick shrug. “I don’t know. It sounded like a lot of fun, you know. Learn a new word every day.”
“I hadn’t thought about it much, actually,” Edie said. “Do you use the words often?”
“Sometimes, I guess.”
The young man slid their iced teas in front of them and pulled out his order pad. “What’ll you have?”
Edie shook her head. “We haven’t had the chance to look at the menu.”
“Sorry,” he said. “Do you need a few more minutes?”
“We’re getting pizza, right?” Edie asked.
“Fine by me.”
“What do you want on it?” the young man asked, pencil poised above his order pad.
“Cheese only,” Edie said at the same time Kappy said, “Everything.”
They looked at each other and laughed.
The young man frowned. “Half cheese, half everything?”
“That would be good,” Kappy said.
“I’ll have it right out to you.” He disappeared back into the kitchen.
“Hey,” Edie said. “What did the Zen Buddhist say to the hot dog vendor?”
Kappy frowned. “I don’t know.”
“Make me one with everything.” She sat back in her chair laughing.
“I don’t get it,” Kappy said.
“Because you ordered your pizza with everything . . . Never mind.”
“Are you ready to talk about what happened today?”
Edie shook her head. “I’m
not sure I’ll ever be ready to talk about that.”
“Is it hard for you to believe that your mom would have a boyfriend?”
“No. I guess not. I mean, she was a good woman. People loved being around her.” She tore the end off the wrapping around her straw. She didn’t put the straw in her drink, just starting tearing the paper, leaving little bits of confetti all over the table. “I mean, he’s handsome and all.”
“Jah. I agree with that.”
Edie sat up a little straighter in the booth. “Speaking of handsome . . . You and Hiram?”
“I already told you: That’s over.”
“Somebody needs to tell him that.”
“Are you volunteering?”
“Not hardly.”
“What about Jack Jones?” If she could be put in the hot seat, so could Edie.
Edie shook her head. “I mean, he’s cute and all, but he’s just so . . . cop-ish.”
“He seems very caring to me. He reopened the investigation, and he’s making sure that Jimmy is taken care of in jail. That seems like a good thing to me.”
Edie propped her chin in her hand and stared out the window. “Maybe.” Then she seemed to snap out of her trance. “Let’s talk about your word-a-day calendar more.”
“Why, because you don’t want to talk about Jack Jones?”
Kappy pinned her with a look. “You want to talk about Hiram Lapp?”
“Today’s word was facetious,” Kappy said.
Edie laughed. “That about sums up this conversation.” And talking drew to an end as their waiter brought out their pizza.
* * *
“You know what this means, right?” Kappy asked as they drove home from supper.
“What?”
“We were with John David when the puppies were let loose.”
Edie pressed her lips together in a stern frown. “So you think he can’t be guilty?”
“I’m pretty sure that’s what I’m saying.” Aside from the fact that he had declared his love for Ruth Peachey, how could he be in two places at one time?
“What if he hired somebody to do it?”
Kappy shook her head, her prayer kapp strings brushing her shoulders with the motion. “He didn’t know we were coming today.”
“Maybe it was just a coincidence.”
“Why do you want him to be guilty so bad?” Kappy asked.
“Why do you want him to be innocent?”
Kappy sank a little deeper into the passenger seat of Edie’s car. “I like the idea of him being in love with your mother. I know it’s silly and romantic of me, but I think if they had been given a chance, they would’ve made a beautiful couple.”
Edie exhaled like a balloon losing all its air. “Maybe. Probably.”
They would never know now.
Edie pulled her car into the spot by Jay Glick’s farm.
“How long are you planning on parking there, Kappy?” Jay called from the porch. Had he been waiting for them to return home?
Kappy didn’t bother to correct him. She wasn’t parking anywhere.
“Just a couple of years,” Edie sassed.
He might not be acknowledging her words, but he could still hear them. He frowned.
“I wish I had an answer for that, Jay,” Kappy said. “Maybe in a couple more days all the drama will die down over the puppies, and things will go back to normal.”
Jay rocked back and forth in his rocking chair. “Bah,” he said, waving one hand as if swatting her words away.
“One of these days,” Edie said as they walked across the fields.
“You’ve just got to ignore him,” Kappy said.
“And I expect you to pay for all the damage your dogs did,” he called after them.
Neither one bothered to turn around.
“What in the world?” Edie’s words were barely more than a whisper.
Then Kappy saw it. Hundreds of birds littered the backyard. Live birds, thank heavens. But Kappy had never seen so many birds together in one place in all her life.
Edie stumbled. “It’s like that movie.”
“What movie?”
Edie shook her head. “You don’t want to know. But there were these birds . . .”
“What are they doing here?”
“I don’t know.”
But the closer they got to the barn, the clearer everything became. The five big tubs containing their animal food had been dumped in the backyard. The canisters had been tipped over and rolled around, spreading the food throughout the grass.
“All the dog food,” Edie said. “All the duck food, all the gerbil food, all the rabbit food. It’s all gone.”
“How much is it going to cost to replace all that?” Kappy asked.
Edie looked near tears. “A lot. Besides the expense of the food, there’s the delivery charge.” She looked around her at the many birds.
“Do you think we should chase the birds away?” But any birds they disturbed simply fluttered around to another spot before touching down to dine once more.
This time tears did fall. They rolled down her cheeks as Edie shook her head. “Who would do all this?”
Only one cop was stationed out front. Was it any wonder that someone had slipped past?
“I’m just saying our visitors out front.”
“But why? They wasted all their food. How do they expect me to feed all these animals?”
“I think the goal is to make this so hard on you that you give up breeding and find the puppies good homes.”
“I’m not even a dog breeder.”
It was true. She had inherited the situation and she was the one left to resolve it.
“What will we feed them in the morning?”
“Let’s head over to the Super Saver,” Kappy said. “Maybe the co-op can deliver food in the afternoon. But at least they’ll eat in the morning.”
* * *
It took another hour to get back to Edie’s car, drive to the store, and buy dog food, but Edie was determined not to walk across Jay Glick’s field anymore.
She pulled up the lane that led to Ruth’s house. “Look at them.” Only about twenty or thirty protesters remained on the sides of the lane. Even then, the zeal had gone out of their protest. Some still held their signs, while others had driven them into the ground and sat down next to them to rest.
“I think they’re about to give up,” Edie said.
“I hope so.”
There were so few left that the deputy had gone, leaving Kappy and Edie to fend for themselves.
But the protesters didn’t harass them as they parked the car and got out. Edie popped the trunk, and they removed two of the large bags of dog food and carried them toward the barn. They also bought a bag of dried corn. Surely they could make do with that until the proper food arrived.
“What’s that?” Edie pointed to the back of the house.
Someone had painted them a message in big red letters.
YOUR NOT WELKUMM H—
“Who would—” Kappy started.
“There!” Edie pointed. Across the field between Ruth’s and Martha’s houses was a man in a green shirt. And he was running as if the devil himself were chasing him.
Chapter 17
Without a word, Kappy and Edie took off across the yard toward the man. But he had too much of a head start on them. A hundred or so birds took to the air as the women ran across the field.
Kappy got no farther than the edge of the Peacheys’ cornfield before the stitch in her side took over. She pressed one hand to it, limping and out of breath.
Edie ran for a few more minutes, even in those flip-flops, but she still couldn’t catch him. Maybe she was the Workout Queen after all. And maybe if she had had on some decent shoes she would’ve caught him.
And then what?
And then nothing. They might have known who he was. They might not have. They might’ve been able to get Jack Jones out there. They might not have.
Edie was still out of breath
when she got back to Kappy. “Two things,” she said. She held up two fingers in illustration. “We know the man is Amish.” She sucked in a deep breath.
“What’s the second thing?”
Edie bent over at the waist, trying to catch her breath. “I forget.”
Together they limped back toward the barn. A few of the birds had settled back in the grass, looking for any remains of the pet food.
It was dark when they finally got the dogs fed, gave them fresh water, fed all the other animals, and managed to get back into the house.
“I’m going to call Jack Jones.” Edie pulled her cell phone from her purse.
“You what?” Jack’s words were so loud, Kappy could hear them across the room.
“We went over to talk to John David Peight,” Edie explained. They settled down in the living room as Edie related her story to Jack. Kappy just was happy to be able to sit down for a while. It seemed like they’d been running across these fields forever.
“He’s on his way.” Edie tapped her phone off and set it on the end table. She leaned her head back against the couch and closed her eyes. “What a day.”
Kappy would love nothing more than to crawl into the guest bed and sleep until lunchtime tomorrow. Yet she was certain they would be up for hours filling out police reports and giving statements.
In record time Jack Jones was pounding on the front door.
Edie pushed up from her seat and made her way stiffly to answer it. “Hang on. I’m coming.”
Elmer climbed into Kappy’s lap and promptly fell asleep, his long ears draped across Kappy’s leg.
“Was anyone hurt?” Jack asked as he rushed into the house.
Edie shut the door behind them. “Nice to see you, too, Jack.”
“I’m serious.” He whirled around to pin her with a stare.
“We’re all fine,” Edie said. “But sore and tired.”
“Why are you sore?”
“I unloaded a hundred pounds of pet food, then chased a man through three fields.”
“Wearing flip-flops,” Kappy added.
Jack shook his head. “You should have never chased him. You know how dangerous that was?”
“He was Amish,” Edie explained.
“And possibly the same man who killed your mother.” He shook his head in exasperation.