Kappy King and the Pickle Kaper

by Amy Lillard

  “In the shed.”

  “I’ll help,” Jimmy said proudly.

  “I’ll show you where it is.” Edie nudged her toward the outside storage shed where Kappy kept her yard-grooming tools.

  Edie all but shoved her inside.

  “How do you know where I keep my shovel?” Kappy asked, starting to resent being nudged and poked.

  “Not important. We need to get him to talk about the case.”

  “Who says he’s even investigating it?” Kappy asked.

  “Even if he’s not, he’ll have heard things around the station.”

  “True dat.” Kappy smiled a little with her payback.

  As if on cue, Edie frowned. “Ask him something when we get back out there.”

  “Me?” Kappy squeaked.

  “Yes, you. You’re better at this sort of thing than I am.”

  “I wouldn’t say that,” Kappy protested.

  “I would.”

  “Stop trying to flatter me. It’s not going to work.”

  Edie shot her a sly smile. “Of course not.”

  But before Kappy knew what was happening, she and Edie were back outside the shed, holding out a shovel toward Jack and a small pickaxe to Jimmy. He smiled with glee.

  “What’s the talk around town these days?” Jack asked after showing Jimmy where to start. Jack himself began to dig. The whole move was meant to look casual and effortless, but Kappy had a feeling there was much more to it than that.

  “Oh . . .” Edie shrugged and blew out pursed lips. “You know the Amish. Mary Beth has a new recipe for creamed celery. And Chris Schrock is talking about buying a new gelding for a buggy horse.”

  “Yeah?” Jack seemed interested, but Kappy had a feeling he was playing along with Edie. “Exciting times. Though I haven’t had creamed celery since my grandmother died.”

  “Sorry to hear that,” Kappy murmured.

  “I was ten.”

  Edie shot her a stern look and inclined her head toward Jack. Luckily, he didn’t notice.

  “What about you? What’s going on at the Sheriff’s Office?”

  “Crime and punishment.” Jack grunted as he pressed the shovel into the hard ground.

  “Any word on who ran over Sally June Esh?”

  Jack wiped the back of one arm across his forehead. “I was going to ask you the same thing.”

  “Why would we know anything about that?” Edie asked with a nervous laugh.

  Jack stopped digging and braced his arm on the handle of the shovel. “See, here’s the thing. I’ve been going around talking to members of the community and I can’t get a straight answer from any Amish.”

  Edie pressed her lips together in mock sorrow. “That’s too bad.”

  “I was hoping maybe you had heard something.”

  “Why would we have heard anything?” Kappy did her very best to keep her expression innocent, but she wasn’t sure she’d succeeded. Thankfully, Jack seemed not to notice.

  “The two of you appear to have a thumb on what happens around here.”

  Kappy scoffed. “I don’t know where you would get an idea like that.”

  “From the fact that the two of you practically solved Ruth Peachey’s murder.” He lowered his voice so as to not to draw Jimmy’s attention. Her respect for Jack Jones jumped another notch.

  Edie gave half a shrug. “She was my mother.”

  Jack nodded. “I know. I just thought . . .”

  “Surely you have some clues and such.”

  Jack went back to digging. “Of course.” He grunted between the words. “We know that the car involved was black or dark colored.”

  “You don’t have a make or a model?” Edie asked.

  “Just that it’s a four-door, medium-sized sedan.” He lost Kappy somewhere between four and sedan.

  “That’s all?” Edie asked. “Nothing else?”

  “Would I be here talking to you if I had more?”

  “True dat.” Kappy and Edie spoke at the same time, then frowned at each other.

  “I suppose not,” Kappy said.

  Jack lined up the fencing and instructed Jimmy on what to do next, how to place the pieces into the trench they’d dug, then pack the dirt in on top. He shifted his attention back to Kappy and Edie. “If you hear anything, be sure to let me know.”

  * * *

  Kappy and Edie waved as Jack drove away. Jimmy had already been given the important task of finding Elmer and bringing him home. He was most likely halfway to Nathaniel’s by then.

  “Do you think we should have told him about the texts?” Kappy asked.

  “Bite your tongue,” Edie exclaimed. “The last thing I want is for them to take my phone.”

  “But—”

  Edie shook her head. “I just got Jimmy that ‘ladybug’ phone. It can only call my number. What good will that be if my phone is in the evidence room at the Sheriff’s Office?”

  “Jah. Okay. Do you think I should have told him that the car was blue?”

  “You don’t have any proof of that. Just speculation.”

  “I saw it in the picture myself, and if they’re looking for the wrong car, they’ll never find the killer.”

  “Jack is a professional. I’m sure he’ll figure it out. He got this far, right?”

  Kappy nodded.

  They stood for a moment, each lost in her own thoughts. They had found out so much, but it seemed every shred of evidence or clue, no matter how small, seemed to throw their entire investigation off track. Yet there was one person they still needed to talk to.

  “What do we do now?” Edie asked.

  “I think it’s time to pay Ephraim a visit.”

  * * *

  “You come to bring me more chickens?” Ephraim called from his front porch. He had come outside when he heard Edie’s car. Kappy still wasn’t convinced that visiting with the good Amish people of Blue Sky while driving around in an Englisch car was such a smart idea. But it would shave some time off their trip. It was getting late and they needed to get back as soon as possible to help Jimmy with the chores.

  Kappy stopped halfway between the car and the house. “Do you need me to bring more chickens?”

  “Your devil pup was out here this morning. But I’m not missing any more hens.”

  “Good.” Kappy continued toward the house, Edie right behind her. They stopped just short of climbing the porch steps. “I repaired the fence this evening, so hopefully he won’t be a bother to you again.”

  Ephraim propped one forearm on the porch post and eyed them. “So why are you here?”

  She supposed that telling him she was visiting in the spirit of good-neighbor-ness would be pushing it a bit. “I heard you might have been in the cemetery last Tuesday morning.”

  “I might have been.” He took a swipe at the sweat beading on his forehead and tucked the rag into the back of his trousers. “Who wants to know?”

  Edie nudged Kappy a few inches forward.

  “I-I do.” Kappy managed.

  “Why would you care when I’m in the cemetery?”

  “Ephraim, a young girl was cut down in her prime. Before she even got to live half of her life.”

  “We never know how long God will put us here.”

  Kappy nodded. “True. But I feel that Sally June was destined for more than dying on the side of the road with no one around.”

  “There were plenty of folks around.”

  Her heart skipped a beat. “There were?”

  “Always is that time of day.”

  “When she di—was run off the road?”

  Ephraim looked from Kappy to Edie, then waved one hand as if to dismiss them. “Quit your hovering and come sit down.”

  Kappy took a hesitant step forward, casting a quick glance back to Edie.

  “You too, I reckon. I figure it won’t go against the Bann if you sit on my porch for a bit. Nothing in the Ordnung about not sharing shade or allowing a wayward soul to get sunstroke.”

  “Dank
i.” Kappy sat on the edge of the porch, turning so she could see Ephraim. He had taken a seat on the small wooden bench there next to the front door.

  Edie inched forward and sat on the far side of Kappy, a good distance from Ephraim. She only nodded at him, conveying her thanks without saying a word.

  “You saw Sally June that morning?” Kappy asked. “The morning she was killed?”

  “Well, I thought I saw Jonah, but it turns out it was Sally June.”

  “You thought you saw Jonah . . . her brother?” Kappy asked.

  “He usually drives by and waves. Every Tuesday just like clockwork.”

  “Because you go to the cemetery every Tuesday morning?” Kappy wanted to ask who he was visiting there, but as curious as she was, it had no bearing on the matter at hand.

  “Jah, and Jonah delivers the pickles every Tuesday.”

  “Did you . . . did you see the accident?”

  He shook his head, his mouth turning down at the corners. “No. I heard it, though. The most horrible sound.”

  “Did you happen to see the car?”

  Ephraim tilted his head to one side and studied her with wizened eyes. “Why are you so car crazy? You thinking about jumping the fence?”

  “No. No. Or course not. But the police have determined that an Englisch car hit Sally June’s buggy. I was wondering if perhaps you saw the car.”

  “I did. I did. But I already told the police that.”

  Kappy sat back in surprise. “You did?”

  “They came by here a couple of days ago.”

  Behind Kappy, Edie cleared her throat.

  “They did?”

  “What did you tell them?” Edie asked.

  “What I saw.”

  Getting information from him was like pulling teeth. “And that was?” Kappy prodded.

  “That a black car crashed into Sally June’s buggy and drove away like the devil was on his bumper.”

  * * *

  Kappy and Edie thanked Ephraim and said they had to get back to the house to help Jimmy. Well, Kappy told him that. Edie was reluctant to speak any more than necessary. He might have allowed her to rest for a bit on his porch, but that didn’t lift her Bann by any stretch.

  “What do you make of that?” Edie asked as she eased back up the lane toward home.

  “It explains why the police are looking for a black car, when there was a blue streak of paint on the back end of the carriage.”

  “Maybe it was a really dark blue and only looked black to Ephraim.”

  “Maybe.” But there was something about it that just wasn’t right.

  “Jack is smart. He’ll figure it out,” Edie said.

  Any other time Kappy would have teased her about her support of the handsome detective, but not today. They both had too much on their minds.

  “Jah, I suppose. But he’s taking the word of an eyewitness.”

  “An eighty-year-old eyewitness with a bad back, bad knees, and terrible vision.”

  That part was true, but the fact that Ephraim was there at the time of the accident would carry far more weight than their speculations.

  “There’s something about this that’s just not right.” Kappy propped her elbow in the space where the window was rolled down. She tapped a finger against her chin and did her best to pretend she was Sherlock Holmes. He wouldn’t miss any clues. He saw them all with an uncanny eye. It was almost as if he had God on his side.

  But they actually did. She would pray about it. That would help. She would ask God for His guidance. Surely then, she and Edie would have the edge over this killer.

  “We don’t have a motive, you know.”

  Kappy stirred out of her thoughts and turned her attention to her best friend. “What was that?”

  “We don’t have a motive. Someone wanted to kill Sally June. But why? Who were her enemies? Who would want her dead? Who would benefit?”

  “We’ve been over this. The best motive goes to Bettie Hershberger.”

  Edie shook her head. “I’m not sure pickles are a motive.”

  “You’ve been away from the Amish too long. Those pickle deliveries are important to the families. That’s their income, their livelihood. Farming land is getting scarce, so people are having to do more and more to make ends meet.”

  “Do they really make that much from the sales?”

  Kappy shrugged. “I don’t have a number, but it’s enough that Jonah delivers pickles to the supermarket once a week . . .” The wheels of her thoughts started turning once again. “On Tuesday . . . Edie! Do you know what this means?”

  Edie pulled into her drive and shook her head. She quickly put the car in park. “What does it mean?”

  “The killer wasn’t after Sally June! She was an innocent bystander. They were after Jonah!”

  Chapter 13

  “There’s one person who knows the color of that car for sure,” Kappy said later than evening.

  While they had been at Ephraim’s, Jimmy had found Elmer and placed him in his newly refenced backyard. Then the three of them somehow managed to feed all the animals and themselves before dark. Jimmy had gone up to take a bath and get ready for bed.

  Kappy needed to be getting home, so she could check on Elmer. But she had too many thoughts in her head to walk away now. They were onto something—big—and she wanted nothing more than to see it through.

  “Who is that?” Edie asked. “Who knows the true color?”

  “The texter.”

  “Mr. Text? Didn’t we decide it was Willie?”

  “It could be Willie. But it might not be. But whoever he is, he was there. He would know what color the car was.”

  “He never said he was there.”

  Kappy thought about it a second. “Hand me your phone. I want to re-read those messages.”

  Edie handed Kappy her cell phone. “I’m telling you he never says he was an eyewitness, just that he knows what happened.”

  “But that’s almost the same,” Kappy protested. They were so close. She couldn’t let such a small detail stand in their way.

  “Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.”

  Kappy stopped. “Grenades? Who said anything about grenades?”

  “Never mind.” Edie flicked one hand as if to dismiss her words. “It means that close isn’t going to cut it if we want to find out who really killed Sally June Esh.”

  Kappy held up Edie’s phone. “Let’s ask him.”

  “What?” Edie drew back in surprise.

  “Let’s outright ask him what he saw.”

  “Do you want to ask him who he is while we’re at it?”

  Kappy shrugged. “I guess. But at this point, who he is isn’t as important as what he saw.”

  “Not to him, I bet.”

  “Are you going to do it?” Kappy asked. She would do it herself, but she hadn’t figured out how to work the crazy device. Well, not that she had tried. But she might have to put some effort into it. That little phone was proving itself to be all kinds of useful.

  “I don’t know, Kappy.”

  “You’ve tried to text him and you’ve tried to call him. What’s making you hesitate now?”

  “What if he gets suspicious? I don’t want him to stop texting.”

  “That didn’t slow you down before.”

  “That was then. What if the text gets him caught by the very people he’s been hiding from?”

  Something that would never happen to Sherlock Holmes. Mainly because they didn’t have cell phones back then. But when the detective got a clue, he followed through with it. “You don’t really think that’s a problem. So why are you reluctant?”

  Edie shook her head. “I don’t know. The whole thing gives me a bad feeling.”

  “I don’t understand,” Kappy said. “You and I ran all over the valley trying to find out who killed your mother. And this is making you nervous?”

  “I can’t explain it,” she cried. “But what if we’re wrong? What if we text the person an
d they lie to us, tell us an innocent someone is guilty?”

  Kappy sat back in her seat, her excitement dampened by Edie’s sound reasoning. “But we could ask him if the car was blue or black. He might have been closer.”

  “That’s true, but . . .”

  “But what?”

  Edie shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  Kappy sighed. Aside from stealing Edie’s phone and trying to work it herself, Kappy had no choice but to honor Edie’s wishes. “Promise me one thing,” Kappy asked. “Promise me you’ll think about it.”

  “I promise,” Edie grumbled. She didn’t sound happy about it.

  * * *

  First thing the next morning, Kappy started for Edie and Jimmy’s. She had promised to help them feed the animals and she would honor that promise. Just as she hoped that Edie would honor her promise to think about texting Mr. Text, possibly Willie Lapp.

  After breakfast, Kappy made sure that Elmer was snug in the backyard with no new holes under the fence. She fed him, gave him fresh water, and tied a ball on a string and hung it from her clothesline. That would keep him busy for a while. In fact, he was chasing it back and forth as she started up the lane toward the Peacheys’.

  “You’re up and about early this morning,” Edie said when Kappy walked into the barn.

  She was usually up by this time, but not about, as Edie had put it. “I told you I would come help,” Kappy explained. “I promised.”

  Edie shot her a strained smile. “I appreciate that.”

  “What’s wrong?” She had expected Edie to be a little resistant today, but she didn’t expect her to be this upset.

  Edie shook her head. “I didn’t sleep well last night. I keep thinking about Willie and if he’ll be in danger if we start asking him questions.”

  Willie or whoever it was felt they were in danger or they wouldn’t be in hiding. But Kappy didn’t tell Edie that. She already had way too many worries on her mind. “Willie is smart. If this even is Willie. Whoever it is knows enough to stay out of sight until the killer is caught. We have to trust God to protect them until then.”

  Her words were meant to calm and reassure, but they only seemed to upset Edie further. “I trusted God to keep my mother safe while I was off in the big city. And you know how that turned out.”