Kappy King and the Pickle Kaper

by Amy Lillard

  Jimmy had gotten his fill of visiting his mother and was wandering through the graves reading names and dates.

  “Where are we going?” Edie asked, following behind her.

  “We’ve got to find out if anyone was here at the time of the crash.” From behind her the rustle-smack of Edie’s footsteps stopped.

  “Do you know how many people live in Kish Valley? Any of them could have been here.”

  Kappy tossed a quick smile over her shoulder and motioned for Jimmy to meet them at the buggy. “That’s just the thing. We don’t have to talk to everyone, just the Amish and Mennonites.”

  * * *

  “Is this, like, a real investigation? Really real? Like Jack Jones would investigate?” Jimmy’s grin had nowhere else to go. If it got any wider it would stretch itself clear off his face.

  “Sort of,” Kappy said, pulling her eyes back to the road.

  “You shouldn’t have told him,” Edie grumbled from beside her.

  “If you don’t want to leave him home alone, then he has to come with us. And if he’s with us, he’s going to have questions. Might as well get it all out now so we can get down to business.”

  Edie rolled her eyes and pulled on her ponytail to tighten it.

  “Can I have my very own notebook?” Jimmy scooted forward so his face was between their respective shoulders.

  “We’ll see,” Kappy said absently.

  “Jimmy, I don’t even have a notebook.”

  “I think we should all have notebooks.”

  “Is that why we’re headed to Sundries and Sweets?” Edie leaned in closer to Kappy, forcing Jimmy to sit back in his seat. “Or did you want to see Hiram again?” she asked quietly, so only Kappy could hear.

  “That’s over.” Kappy sniffed, but managed to keep her voice down. It wasn’t like she didn’t care for Hiram; she just couldn’t stand the thought of him never loving her as much as he loved Laverna, his first wife and Kappy’s best friend. She supposed that was what she got for falling in love with someone who was already in love.

  But Laverna is gone.

  She pushed the thought away. It was true Laverna was gone, and Kappy and Hiram deserved a chance at happiness, but it wasn’t Laverna standing in their way. Not really.

  “We’re going to talk to Hiram about Willie,” Kappy said as she turned the buggy into the parking lot next to the small country store.

  “Why are we doing this again?” Edie asked.

  “Because there’s no sense in us going around the whole valley asking questions if Willie has already returned home.” Kappy slid open the door and hopped to the ground.

  “Do you really think that’s going to happen?” Edie asked.

  Kappy shook her head. “But we have to make sure.” And they did.

  Jimmy followed his sister out of the carriage and rubbed his hands together in obvious glee. “This is going to be fun.”

  Edie blew her bangs out of her eyes. “Yeah. Tons.”

  The inside of the store was the same as always: dim, lit only by the natural light that made its way through the high windows, and smelling faintly of dust. Kappy knew that Hiram’s youngest sister, Emma, had recently begun working at the shop. It had to be a full-time chore, for every time Kappy went in Emma had a rag out wiping down the shelves. Today was no exception.

  “Hi, Kappy.” Emma smiled as she approached. It was good to see her come out of her shell, so to speak. She had always been a quiet girl, but until recently, Kappy had never realized the panicked look that went with that shyness. Only now that it was gone had Kappy even noticed that it had been there at all.

  “Hi, Emma.” Kappy came to a stop, only then realizing that just Jimmy had followed her inside. Edie must have thought she was better off outside. Jimmy stopped at the toys to pick up one of those paddleball games and started to play. Since there were no other customers in the store, Kappy had Emma all to herself. Should she ask if Hiram was available? “I just came to ask about Willie.”

  The young girl’s blue eyes clouded over and for a moment Kappy thought she might burst into tears. Instead she shook her head, her prayer kapp strings swaying with the motion. “Everyone’s so worried. He just disappeared one morning.” She gave a quick shrug. “No one has seen him since. It’s so odd.”

  “What’s so odd?”

  Behind her Kappy could hear Jimmy switching from the paddleball to some other toy, she wasn’t sure what, but it sounded wooden.

  Emma looked left and then right as if she were afraid that someone might be listening in. “All the times before,” she said, “at least all the ones I can remember, he left in the middle of the night. I mean, there’s one main road here. It’s a little hard to sneak out unnoticed.”

  Kappy wasn’t about to ask her how she knew that. Some questions were better left unanswered. “You’re saying he left during the day?”

  “He was heading over to the farmers’ market for Mamm, and he never came back.”

  “And everyone assumed that he jumped the fence?”

  “Of course he did.” Her eyes widened. “You don’t think something happened to him, do you? Mamm’s so upset, and Hiram just keeps stirring her up.” Emma clamped one hand over her mouth as if to stem the flow of words. “I didn’t mean to say that.”

  “It’s all right.” Kappy awkwardly patted her arm in the most supportive manner she could muster. Thankfully, it seemed to comfort. “He’s waiting for the candy delivery?”

  The sweets part of Sundries and Sweets was an array of handcrafted candies made by a Mennonite woman on the other side of the mountain. Joan, she believed her name was. “The candy delivery always comes on Monday.”

  “That’s right.” Emma nodded. “Do you want me to go get him for you?”

  “No, danki. I don’t want to disturb him. Or you.”

  “It’s no trouble, really. Hiram will be angry if he knows you came in and he didn’t get to see you.” She started toward the back door of the store, but Kappy clutched her arm to stop her progress.

  “Really,” she said, her tone stern but amicable. “I don’t need to see him today. Maybe next time.”

  Emma looked crushed, as if Kappy had just told her that Willie was never coming home. “Jah. Okay.” She bit her bottom lip and gave another quick nod.

  “Danki.” Kappy started for the door. “Come on, Jimmy. Time to go.”

  “Hey, Kappy. Wait a minute.”

  She stopped.

  “I want these bubbles.” He held up a small plastic bottle of bubble soap. “But I don’t have my money with me. I have it at home. Can you loan it to me, please?” He bounced on his toes in obvious excitement.

  “I’ll get them for you.”

  “You will?” He almost squealed in his joy.

  “But it’s not a loan. It’s a gift.”

  “Are you serious?”

  Kappy nodded, hating that he got so animated over a dollar gift. He needed more joy in his life. That much was obvious.

  She pulled the money from the secret pocket she sewed into her aprons and handed it to Jimmy. Then she gave Emma a quick wave and ducked out the door.

  “Where’s Jimmy?” Edie called when she spotted Kappy.

  “He’ll be here in a minute.”

  Sure enough, Jimmy rushed out the door, small paper sack clutched in his hands.

  “What the—”

  “Just go with it,” Kappy requested, then Jimmy climbed into the back of the buggy.

  “Thank you! Thank you, Kappy!”

  Edie tossed a suspicious look at Kappy as she hoisted herself into the carriage. “What did you do?”

  Kappy shrugged and picked up the reins, turning the buggy around and setting the horse to an easy pace. “I bought him some bubbles.”

  “Bubbles?” Edie frowned, then tossed a look back toward her brother’s ecstatic expression. “That’s all? Are you sure? Because he’s too excited for bubbles.”

  It was true. Jimmy was beyond excited. But Kappy chalked it up to
unexpected gifts and him getting to go somewhere besides work and church. Most likely it was a hefty combination of both.

  “That’s all.”

  Satisfied, or maybe she was just dropping the matter, Edie turned, staring out the front as Kappy took them back toward home. “So how did it go? What did Hiram say?”

  “Hiram wasn’t there.”

  “No?”

  “But I talked to Emma.”

  “His younger sister.”

  Kappy nodded. “That’s right.”

  “What did she say?”

  Kappy glanced back at Jimmy, but he wasn’t paying attention. He was staring out the back, watching the road as it ribboned behind them. “They’re all worried,” Kappy said. “It seems that Willie typically leaves in the middle of the night. But this time he was running an errand for his mamm and never came back.”

  “What about his buggy?” Edie asked.

  “I didn’t think to ask.”

  “You didn’t think that was important?”

  “Sure, it is. I just didn’t think about it at the time.” Edie’s frown deepened, then she faced the front once again. “Did you realize how close the accident was to the cemetery?”

  “I seem to remember parking there and walking across. Twice.”

  “No, I mean really thought about it.”

  “It’s not an omen,” Kappy said. “Hiram’s store is in the same direction. She was simply taking a load of pickles for him to sell.”

  “And you know this for a fact?”

  “Of course.”

  “What makes you so sure?”

  “The Daniel Eshes always take pickles to the Sundries every Tuesday.”

  “You mean to tell me that they make a delivery every week at the same time?”

  “Well, jah, as far as I know. The Daniel Eshes are organized businesspeople. They definitely have a schedule to follow.” And since she and Hiram had almost been a couple, she knew that Tuesday was when the Sundries and Sweets store received their pickles.

  They neared the scene of the accident, and Kappy slowed the carriage. She couldn’t help herself. There was something eerie about what they had figured out. Now they knew where Sally June was headed when she lost her life.

  They were barely moving when they went past the cemetery, but it wasn’t the people on the west side of the road who concerned her.

  “The Eshes live down that way,” Kappy said, hoping to bring something else into the conversation.

  “Wait.” Edie clasped her fingers around Kappy’s forearm. The motion held such force the horse shook her head and snorted at them. “If they get their pickles at the same time every week, then that proves it. This was no accident. Someone meant to harm Sally June.”

  Chapter 9

  Shock bolted through Kappy. “But . . . but . . . why would an Englischer want to harm a sweet Amish girl?” The thought was ludicrous—today’s word—and completely unbelievable. “Unless . . .”

  “Unless what?” Edie’s excitement was near palpable.

  “Unless he was hired.” Kappy grinned with satisfaction.

  But Edie shook her head. “We are in Blue Sky, Pennsylvania, not on some cop show on TV. And what do you know about cop shows anyway?”

  Kappy sniffed. “I know enough.” She hadn’t exactly seen a cop show. She had read more than her fair share of mysteries, and just to be clear, Edie made a terrible Dr. Watson. Watson was levelheaded and always cool, and Edie jumped to conclusions so often Kappy worried that she might hurt herself.

  “Kap-py, why are you driving so slow?” Jimmy’s whiny protest broke through their discussion.

  “Sorry, Jim.” She tossed the apology over her right shoulder, then set the horse at a faster pace.

  “We’ll finish this later,” Edie murmured from beside her.

  The thoughts and questions chased one another around her head as she drove them home.

  First stop was Kappy’s house. They piled down from the buggy, Kappy nearly unable to breathe with all the excitement coursing through her. Then she said a little prayer. She shouldn’t be thrilled about the harm of another.

  “Come up to the house when you’re finished putting the horse away. We’ll be able to talk more then,” Edie said so only Kappy could hear.

  Kappy nodded. “I’ll have to check on Elmer first.” She needed to make sure that he’d stayed put while they were gone and hadn’t found a way out of the yard and down to the neighbor’s.

  “Come on, Jimmy,” Edie called. “Let’s go to the house.”

  But Jimmy shook his head. While they had been talking, he’d plopped himself down on the porch steps and opened the little plastic jar of bubbles. The iridescent orbs floated around his grinning face. “Aren’t they beautiful?”

  “I never really thought about it before,” Edie grumbled. “We need to go,” she said louder and directly to him.

  “No, we don’t. It’s not feeding time, I changed out the water in the duck pool this morning, and Judith isn’t supposed to have her babies until next week.”

  “Judith,” Edie scoffed under her breath. “Who names a gerbil Judith?”

  Kappy released a small chuckle. “Jimmy, apparently. I think it’s cute.”

  “I guess.”

  “What’s wrong?” Kappy could tell something was bothering her and had been for a couple of days.

  “Nothing.”

  “It’s a sin to lie, Edith Peachey.”

  “It’s a sin to tell all your secrets, too.”

  “It is not.” Kappy led the mare into the barn and directed her into a stall. She grabbed a brush and began to work.

  “It should be,” Edie said as she followed behind her.

  Kappy didn’t press. Edie would tell her when the time came. If it ever did. “He’s happy right where he is,” she pointed out. “Let me finish with June Bug and I’ll find us something for lunch. We can talk, and he can blow bubbles until the hunger pains drive him inside.”

  Edie gave a quick nod and a small sigh. “Sounds like a plan.”

  Edie pitched in, getting June Bug a scoop of oats and refilling her water trough. Then together, Kappy and Edie started toward the house.

  “You’re good with him.” Edie’s comment sounded offhand, just an observation, and Kappy left it at that.

  “Jimmy? I like him.” And she did. Others might not see his intelligence and spirit, but Kappy did. And she knew how he felt. Her entire life she had been on the fringes, never quite one of the community but as close as she could be without it. They were outliers, she and Jimmy, cut from the same cloth, two of a kind.

  “Some days . . .” Edie started as they made their way into the kitchen.

  Thankfully, Elmer was in the backyard and considering that Kappy hadn’t been met at the door with a complaint from one of her neighbors, she had to consider it a good sign. “Some days what?”

  Edie shook her head and slid into a chair at the table. “I don’t know what to do with him.” She leaned back, allowing Kappy to see the tears in her eyes. “I love him so much, but I don’t know what to do with him.”

  Kappy sat down next to her and took her friend’s hands into her own. “All he needs is love.”

  Edie let out a humorless laugh and pulled from Kappy’s grasp to wipe her tears away with the backs of her hands. “He needs more than love. He needs his mamm.”

  “We all need our mamms, but some of us aren’t as fortunate as others.”

  “He’s just grown up so much and yet he’s not. He’s big, and I know his body has matured. I don’t know how to address that. What if he asks me if he can go out with a girl?”

  Kappy glanced toward the window even though she couldn’t see Jimmy from where she sat. “He’s outside playing with bubble soap.”

  Edie sniffed. “You’re right. He’s still my little brother, right?”

  “Right.” Kappy tilted her head to one side and studied her friend. “Is this why you made him get a part-time job?”

  “He needs
to get out of the house.” She paused. “Don’t you think?”

  “He got out of the house today.”

  “Not to go on an investigation.”

  “Was he or was he not out of the house?”

  “Yeah,” Edie grumbled.

  “Is this why you’re still thinking of leaving Blue Sky?”

  “No, no,” Edie said a little too quickly. “I don’t know if I still belong here.”

  Kappy flashed her a quick smile. “Of course you do, as much as any of the rest of us.”

  Kappy stood and went to the fridge to get them a drink, giving Edie time to grab a paper napkin from her purse along with a mirror to repair the black stuff she wore on her eyes. Kappy returned with a glass of water and one of the cookies she had made the day before for each of them.

  “Better?” she asked.

  Edie sniffed again but nodded. “I’m fine. It’s just hard, you know. I’ve never had another person to worry about and he’s . . . well, you know how he is. And then not too long ago he was arrested.” She was tearing up again.

  Kappy took her hands and wrapped them around the water glass. “Here. Drink.”

  Edie did as she was told, then dabbed at her eyes again. “I’ve been thinking,” she said.

  “Does your brain ever stop?” Kappy laughed.

  “It’s the lack of a television. Makes a person nutso.”

  “I’ll say.” Kappy took a drink of her water.

  “What if the person was Amish, but driving a car?”

  “Whose car?” Kappy asked. “The blue car?”

  “Yes. The one that killed Sally June.”

  Kappy mulled the idea over for a minute. It was as far-fetched as they came, but still the best idea they’d had to date. “Okay. I’ll bite,” Kappy said. “Why would someone Amish be driving around in a car?”

  “To throw us off the case.”

  Kappy shook her head. “They didn’t know we were going to be on the case.” She wasn’t one hundred percent certain there was a case. Englisch drivers were constantly getting frustrated and impatient when behind Amish buggies. It stood to reason that the car went around, spooked the horse, and the rest was history.

  Edie tapped her finger against her chin. “So why did they do it? Why did they run over Sally June, then drive away?”