by Amy Lillard
“That’s why we have to go now. He doesn’t know we’re coming. It’s the element of surprise. And it works every time.”
“Really?”
Edie tugged Kappy out of place and hustled her through the fields. “It’s on all the cop television shows.”
“And they’re real?”
“Well, no, but evidence is evidence.”
Kappy wasn’t sure what that meant, but Edie was determined to question Jay Glick. And dangerous or not, she couldn’t let her friend do that alone.
“I wonder where he is.”
Kappy gazed around them. “I don’t see him in the field.”
“It’s too early for supper.”
“Maybe he’s in the workshop.”
But the last thing she wanted to do was walk into the dim, converted barn and confront a man who might or might not be a killer. “Maybe we should wait on Jack.”
Edie shook her head. “Maybe Jack should hurry up.”
Anna Mae bustled out of the house. She held a laundry basket propped on one hip, and let the screen door slam behind her. Thwack.
Kappy nearly jumped out of her skin.
“Oh, it’s Kappy King and . . . the neighbor.”
“Oh pul-lease,” Edie said. “Where’s Jay? We need to talk to him.”
“What brings you out today, Kappy King?”
Anna Mae made her way casually over to the laundry line and hummed a little under her breath as she began to work.
“I was hoping I could ask Jay about something.”
“Oh, jah?” She pulled the hanging bag of clothespins closer and grabbed the first garment off the top of the basket.
“I want to know where he was when Ruth Peachey was murdered.”
The garment Anna Mae held fluttered to the ground. She snatched it up but didn’t try to hang it back on the line. “He’s . . . he’s not here.”
Kappy’s eyes narrowed. “Where is he?”
Anna Mae’s normally rosy cheeks turned beet-red. “Well, not here.”
“Maybe over at the County Assessor’s office paying someone to come over and tell Edie that her barn is in the wrong spot?”
“What does something like that cost anyway?” Edie asked.
Anna Mae’s hands trembled as she tried once more to get the garment to the line. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I think you do,” Kappy said.
“What is going on out here?” The screen door slammed again, this time behind Jay himself.
Edie rushed over to greet him at the bottom of the steps. “Where were you the day my mother was murdered?”
“I swear these mountains create such an echo, it’s almost impossible to hear a thing,” Jay groused.
It was a lie. The mountains didn’t create any kind of echo. He just wanted to pretend he didn’t hear Edie, and he was running out of excuses. Soon he would be down to simply ignoring her.
“Where were you the day Ruth Peachey was murdered?” Kappy asked.
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I was over at the co-op picking up a new blade for my mower. Hit a rock, I did.”
Edie propped her hands on her hips. “If you weren’t here, how could you have seen a man in a blue shirt running across the fields?”
“I never said I saw a man in a blue shirt.” He must have forgotten he wasn’t speaking to Edie the Shunned.
“Your wife said you did.”
“I don’t have to answer that.”
Anna Mae must have had enough. She abandoned her half-full laundry basket and pushed past Jay and into the house.
“When Detective Jones gets here, you’ll have to answer all that and more.”
“You told us last time that you were here all day when Mamm was killed. Your stories don’t match.”
He might have been trying to ignore Edie, but there was no escaping the truth. Caught in his own lie, he dashed down the steps and ran through the field.
The cornstalks were well over Kappy’s head, but she couldn’t let him get away. She plunged into the field behind him.
“Wait for me,” Edie yelled, her footsteps pounding behind them.
“Go get Jack,” Kappy called.
“I’m a better runner than you. You go get Jack.”
She couldn’t argue with that logic. She might have a head start on Edie, but with her longer stride, Edie would make up that time in just a few seconds.
“Okay. Fine.” Kappy stopped running and pressed a hand to her throbbing side.
“Now’s the moment to see if all that time on the treadmill will pay off.”
Kappy wasn’t sure what that meant, but didn’t ask as she turned and ran for the house. They needed Jack’s help and they needed it five minutes ago.
“Jack! Jack!” Kappy ran as fast as she could, which admittedly wasn’t nearly fast enough.
He met her halfway across the yard. “Backup’s on its way. Where’s Edie?”
Kappy sucked in a big gulp of air. “She’s chasing Jay Glick through a cornfield.”
“She what?” He didn’t even wait for her reply. He simply took off in the direction Kappy had pointed.
“It’s him,” Kappy called after Jack. “Jay killed Ruth.” She pressed a hand to the stitch at her side. She would have to get in better shape if she was going to run through cornfields after killers. Not that it was likely to ever happen again.
One last gulp of air and she jogged after Jack.
She could hear them all stomping around in the field, but the sound seemed to be coming from all around her. Maybe because four separate people were running through the field, or maybe it was just a weird echo caused by the tall stalks. Whatever it was, she couldn’t tell where anyone was. And she wanted so badly to help.
She eased into the field, once again listening to see if she could determine anyone’s real location. The sound could be coming from straight ahead. Or not. It could be Edie, Jay, or Jack. She had no way of knowing. It was beyond eerie being surrounded by corn on all sides, kind of like a corn maze except the stalks were green and there was no clear path. Oh, and there was a killer hiding somewhere inside.
She would have never imagined Jay Glick to have done something like that. She couldn’t wrap her mind around it. True, he was a bitter man, cranky, or as her Aunt Hettie would say, a curmudgeon. But she would have never suspected him a murderer.
She whirled around as a sound came from the right. It was closer than she had realized. “Edie?” She wanted to yell, but she kept her voice at a whispering level. If Edie was close, she didn’t want to alert anyone else to the fact.
Where was the backup? Then again, how would they know that everyone had run into a cornfield? They were on their own.
“Edie?” This time just a little bit louder.
She heard a yelp. Of surprise or pain, she wasn’t sure. Only that it was Edie’s voice.
“Edie?” She headed in that direction, uttering a small prayer that Jack had found Edie and not Jay.
There was a brief thrashing sound, then everything went still. Kappy could only hope that if she went straight ahead she would eventually find Edie. What condition she would be in was anybody’s guess. If Jay was brazen enough to kill Ruth for the land, what would stop him from harming Edie?
And there she was, her unlikely friend, slumped over in the middle of the cornfield.
“Edie?” But she didn’t move. “Please, Lord, let her be okay.”
She fought through stalks to get to Edie’s side. She had a big gash in her forehead, similar to the one Jimmy had inflicted upon himself.
“Great,” Kappy said, even as tears welled in her eyes. “You and Jimmy will have matching scars.” But that would be all right as long as she would be okay.
She held two fingers under Edie’s nose to make sure she was still breathing. She was! Good news. The bad news was there was no way Kappy could get her out of the cornfield by herself.
“You stay right here. I’m going to get Jack.” Hopef
ully, by the time she found the detective, backup would be there, Jay would be arrested, and everything would be over and done.
She stood next to Edie and stomped down the nearest cornstalks. Instead of avoiding them, she walked over them, pressing them down as she went, leaving a trail back to her friend. It was Jay Glick’s corn and the least he could sacrifice after everything he’d put their family through.
She had twisted and turned when she’d run into the cornfield, and now she had no idea how deep she was among the stalks. Surely, it wouldn’t be long before she came to the path that ran between the fields.
“What in the world are you doing?”
Kappy stomped one last cornstalk and came face-to-face with Jay Glick.
Chapter 19
“You!”
“Me,” he sneered. “Out of my way, girl.”
He tried to push past her, but Kappy was small and quick. She ran around in front of him, holding her hands out like she had seen the kids do in the martial arts studio in town.
“I know karate, Jay Glick. My hands are lethal weapons.” It was perhaps the biggest lie she had ever told. But somehow it came out without even the slightest tremble in her voice.
“I don’t believe you.” But he stopped in place.
“I suggest you don’t test me,” she said. “Are you really going to chance it?”
He gave her a once-over, then a small nod. “I think I will.” He started toward her, and Kappy was shocked by the meanness in his expression. It was do-or-die time. Time to back up her words, regardless of the fact that they were nothing but lies.
“Don’t make me hurt you.” She took two steps backward.
“You couldn’t hurt a flea.”
Really, if she was going to prove her claim, now was the time. She gathered her courage and said a quick prayer.
He took another step toward her.
Kappy closed her eyes and swung, a blind karate chop. There was a wheezing sound and then nothing.
She opened her eyes. The stunned expression on Jay’s face was near comical. He seemed frozen in place. He held both of his hands to his throat, and it didn’t look like he was breathing. The moment suspended between them. Should she hit him again? Could she hit him again? She had merely lucked out the first time.
He squeaked in another breath, then he went down like a sack of potatoes.
“I did it,” she whispered in awe. She had never hit another human being in her entire life, much less karate-chopped one. And yet whatever she had done had worked. Maybe her hands truly were lethal weapons.
She held them out in front of her, turning them this way and that as Jay lay on the ground in the path between the two fields.
No, her hands looked like they always had.
He must have managed to get some air into his lungs. He pushed himself to his hands and knees, then his air wheezed in and out like each breath was more painful than the last. “I’ll get you,” he rasped.
Kappy dropped her hands back to her sides. Could she do it again? Could she physically harm another human being? Then she remembered Jimmy in jail and Hiram’s words that people could do almost anything if pushed too far. The answer was yes. Yes, she could do it again if need be. But she wasn’t proud of the action at all.
“I suggest you stay right where you are, Jay Glick.”
He lifted his head to look at her. Tears ran down his cheeks, but she figured they were from pain and not any remorse that he had for his evil deeds.
“You don’t want me to have to hurt you again.”
Who said that? It surely wasn’t Kappy King, mild-mannered kapp maker in Blue Sky, Pennsylvania. Or maybe it was.
“Edie? Kappy?”
Jack.
“Over here,” she called over one shoulder. She never took her gaze off Jay. And he never took his eyes off her hands. She raised them back into her karate position, just to be on the safe side. That seemed to hold him in place.
Who knew?
“I fought Jay Glick.”
“You what?”
She didn’t have time to answer as Jack pushed through stalks of corn to stand at her side. His eyes widened as he took in her karate stance, then he turned to Jay. A large bruise had already started forming on his throat. His eyes were still watering.
“What did you do?”
Kappy smiled. “Only what I had to.”
* * *
From there everything happened so fast it seemed to occur in a blur of sound and color. Jay Glick was arrested for the murder of Ruth Peachey. One of the uniformed officers who came as backup took him away in one of the sheriff’s cars. Kappy led Jack back to where Edie was lying in the cornstalks. He lightly slapped each cheek just enough to stir her awake.
“Why didn’t I think of that?” she asked no one in particular.
Jack helped Edie to her feet and they got on each side of her and walked her from the cornfield.
“Tell me again what happened.” Edie held up a bag of frozen peas to her forehead. Thankfully, the bleeding had stopped, and though Jack insisted on taking her to the hospital, Edie dug in her heels and equally insisted that she wasn’t going anywhere.
“The best we can figure,” Jack started, “is Jay wanted to buy some land from your mother and she refused to sell. They got into an argument. He pushed her; she hit her head and died.”
“So it wasn’t really murder?” Edie asked.
“I’m sure the district attorney will take it down to manslaughter.”
“Was he the important person who was coming over?” Edie asked.
Jack shrugged. “Hard to say.”
“But he’ll still go to prison, right?” Kappy asked. “He hit Edie in the head with a rock. He could have killed her, too.”
“Not to mention all the trouble he caused.” After Jay had been handcuffed, he seemed to lose a great deal of his starch. He confessed to calling the animal welfare inspectors as well as HABID. Once the activist group thought the Peacheys were running a puppy mill, everything fell into place. But Edie was stubborn and wouldn’t take the not-so-subtle hint. That was when he resorted to out-and-out vandalism. He spray-painted the message on the house, let the puppies loose, and even scattered their animal feed as a way to hurt their business and their confidence.
Edie had settled on the couch, while Kappy had claimed her spot in the rocking chair. Elmer had curled up on her lap as he liked to do, and even with the crazy events of the day, a sense of contentment came across Kappy.
“And all this simply because he wanted his son to have his own farm.” Jack shook his head.
“It’s a big deal,” Kappy said. She had heard the Glicks talking about how Joshua was going to have to move if he wanted to get married and have a farm of his own. Englisch families might live spread out all over the place, but it was important for Amish families to remain close. They needed one another as much as they needed the community.
“I can hardly believe that happened here,” Edie said. “Blue Sky used to be such a peaceful place.”
“It still is,” Jack said. “For the most part. It’s certainly nothing like Philadelphia or Pittsburgh.”
It wasn’t like a murderer had been roaming the back roads of Blue Sky. Ruth had died, yes, but as the result of a terrible accident.
“True dat,” Kappy said.
Edie closed her eyes. “Don’t say that.”
“If Jay is arrested, then can’t Jimmy come home?”
Jack nodded.
“Don’t just stand there,” Edie said. “Go get my baby brother.”
“Sorry. Doesn’t quite work that way. But tomorrow we’ll have the judge sign the order and he’ll be released.”
“Tomorrow.”
One more night in jail, then Jimmy was coming home. After that, who knew? She certainly didn’t think Edie would stay in Blue Sky any longer than necessary.
* * *
The judge signed the order first thing the next day, and Jimmy was released. He came out wearing his regular
clothes, the clothes he’d had on at his mother’s funeral. On his feet he wore a pair of orange rubber slides. He held his black boots in his hand and smiled when he caught sight of Kappy and his sister waiting there for him. “Look,” he said. He pointed down at his shoes. “They said I could keep them.”
Kappy rolled her eyes, then gave a small chuckle. “Now he has worse shoes than you do.”
Edie nudged her in the ribs with her elbow, but didn’t take her eyes off her brother. “Are you ready to go home?”
Jimmy nodded.
Heather came around the tall desk. “Wait a second.” She disappeared into the break room and came out a few moments later, a whole box of grape ice pops in her hand. “You take these home.”
Jimmy’s eyes grew wide. “All of them?”
Heather smiled prettily. “All of them,” she said. “But you can’t eat them all at one time.”
“Right,” Jimmy said. “I’ll get a bellyache if I do that.”
Heather smiled. “That’s right. And you don’t want a bellyache.” She squeezed Edie’s hand and went back around the desk.
Together they walked out of the sheriff’s office. Jimmy stopped just outside the door and raised his face to the sun. He closed his eyes and let the warm rays wash over him. “It feels good to be outside,” he said. “That’s the worst part of jail. You can’t go outside.”
“I’m sorry you had to go through all this,” Kappy said.
“Me, too,” Edie added.
“It’s okay,” Jimmy said. “It’s not your fault.”
He set his feet in motion, and they walked to Edie’s car.
“And look.” He reached in under his shirt and fished out his alert necklace. “You were right. They gave me my call necklace back. That’s how I know I don’t have to worry.”
“If I have anything to say about it, you will never have to worry about anything again,” Edie promised.
* * *
“Can you just drop me off at my house?” Kappy asked when Edie turned onto School Yard Road.
“Why?” Edie caught Kappy’s gaze in the rearview mirror. Kappy had offered to ride in the back, allowing Jimmy to have the coveted place of honor in the passenger seat.
“I have a lot of sewing to catch up on. Those kapps aren’t going to make themselves, you know.”