by Amy Lillard
“An accident?” Kappy asked.
Delilah waved one hand about like a dizzy bumblebee. “Oh, nothing big. Just a little fender bender, but it did require a little bodywork. But that’s just between us girls, right?”
Edie returned her smile. “Right.” But her tone was anything but conspiring.
“What do you make of that?” Kappy asked once they had moved away.
“A fender bender? A young woman loses her life, and Beauty Pageant over there calls it a fender bender?”
“We still don’t know that it was her.” And they wouldn’t without seeing the car. But there was something strangely . . . flippant about the woman. Like everyone around had been placed there simply for her amusement.
“I’d bet good money that it is.”
Kappy looked at all the cars waiting to be washed. “This is a lot of cars, jah?”
Edie glanced around. “I suppose.”
“Maybe one we missed?”
Edie jerked to attention, her anger gone in a flash of new hope. “Maybe.” She pointed toward the washing section. “You look over there, and I’ll look over here. We’ll meet back up when my car is done, ’kay?”
Kappy nodded. “Sure.”
Edie headed off, and Kappy slowly wandered around the area where so many Englisch teens—plus one Amish young adult—washed the cars, then stood back as the driver maneuvered to the next station to be rinsed. There were so many helpers and so many suds that it was a little difficult to see what colors the cars really were until they moved under the hoses. Kappy moved a little farther down.
The girls waving the hoses didn’t appear to be the most trustworthy of the bunch, and Kappy backed up a bit to stay out of the spray of water.
“I heard her parents grounded her for a month!”
The young girl’s companion gasped, and Kappy hid her smile. Such drama at an early age. She wondered if it was just the Englisch kids or all of them. All of them, she decided. Teenagers were the same the world over. Only how they got into trouble was different.
“Are you kidding me?”
Kappy chanced a quick look at the girls. They were sitting on a concrete log-looking thing in the parking lot. Kappy knew they were used to keep people from driving straight through, but she had no idea what they were called. That surely wasn’t a word on her word-a-day calendar.
One girl had long blond hair and the other short dark hair, which meant neither could be their girl. Not that she thought they were looking for a teenage girl. These girls were more interested in who was grounded for what than the pickle problems among the Amish.
“I wonder if she’ll go out with him again. If she has the chance, I mean.”
“Of course she will. Have you seen that guy?”
“His hair is weird.”
“Who cares about his hair? It’s his eyes. All dreamy blue.”
“I guess so. I just can’t get past that haircut.”
Kappy looked back just as the blonde nudged the tiny brunette. “You went out with Dustin Moore and his hair was much worse than the chili-bowl cut.”
“A man bun is very popular these days.”
“Yeah, on a man.”
“Why you . . .” the girl started, but the words had no sooner left her mouth than both of them dissolved into giggles. “He’s okay. I guess. For an Amish boy.”
Kappy stopped in her tracks. They were talking about an Amish boy? Dating an Englisch girl? She was sure the Amish parents were even more upset than the Englisch ones. Chances were, those two were never going out again.
She set her feet into motion once more. It really wasn’t any of her concern. She was looking for cars that had possibly been in an accident, not picking up on teenage gossip.
“Kappy! Kappy! Did you see me?” Jimmy came bounding up, his grin as wide as she had ever seen it. “Those kids over there—” He turned halfway around as he pointed. “They let me help them. And they weren’t mean to me or anything. That’s good, jah?”
The thought of someone being mean to sweet Jimmy made her heart hurt. She swallowed back the feeling and returned his smile. “Did you do a good job for the customers?”
He puffed out his chest. “Jah. Of course I did. I even washed Edie’s car. Come see.” He motioned her to follow him as he half ran, half skipped to where Edie’s car sat gleaming in the sun. “Look at it!” he cried. “Look at how shiny it is.”
“It is shiny,” Kappy agreed.
Edie nodded but frowned. “It should be, for what I paid.”
Kappy glanced over to where a couple of girls stood by the road with poster signs declaring this to be a car wash for donations. “Doesn’t that mean you only pay what you can?”
“My brother came here and insisted on washing the cars. That I had to pay anything was too much.” She shook her head and got into her car. “Are you coming?”
Kappy went around to the passenger side, allowing Jimmy to climb in before she did so as well. “Do you really want to go home now?”
“We can’t sit out here all day waiting on the cars. Plus, that preacher’s wife is giving me the creeps.”
“What’s wrong with her?” Kappy could admit that she didn’t appear to be a holy woman, but that was between her and God. Kappy had no say in the matter.
“She keeps looking at me like she can see right through me.”
“Of course she can’t,” Kappy said.
“Maybe she likes you,” Jimmy added.
“It means that she looks like she knows all my secrets.”
Kappy frowned. “Why didn’t you just say that?”
Edie shrugged. “No idea. Let’s get out of here before—”
“There you are!”
Edie slapped one hand over her mouth to hold back her scream.
Kappy gasped, and Jimmy laughed. She could only assume that he had seen Delilah Swanson coming.
Edie sucked in a deep breath. “Here I am. But uh . . . we were just leaving.”
“Oh, heavens no!” Delilah exclaimed. In fact, everything the woman said seemed to be louder than necessary. It was like when Kappy was in school and they were practicing for the Christmas pageant. The teacher kept telling them to project their voices. That was how Delilah talked, like she was projecting to a room of admirers.
“No?” Edie asked.
“I mean you can’t go before I have a chance to talk to you.” The corners of Kappy’s mouth twitched, but she managed to keep them from rising . . . much.
“What—what would you like to talk about?”
Delilah didn’t notice, but Kappy could tell that it cost Edie a lot to ask that question.
“I came to invite you to church on Sunday. You and all your friends.” She gave them a guarded look. Kappy couldn’t figure out exactly what it meant. “Everyone is welcome in our church.”
“That’s nice. Thank you.” Edie reached for the keys to start the car.
“Please say you’ll come.”
Edie gave her a pained smile. “Sorry. I can’t make any promises.”
Delilah drew back a bit, obviously unaccustomed to not getting her way. “I thought . . . well, with your friends and all . . . See, I figured you must be ex-Amish and good for you, but I know that you can’t go to church with your . . . people. So please feel free to join us. Our congregation is big enough for everyone.”
Edie put the car in gear and let it roll a tad.
Delilah took a quick step back to keep it from running over her feet.
“Thank you, though,” Edie said.
Delilah beamed them all another smile. This one, Kappy noticed, didn’t reach her blue, blue eyes. “Come anytime.”
Without another word, Edie hit the gas. The car lurched forward. She had to slam on the brakes to keep from rear-ending the car in front of them, but Delilah Swanson took the hint and stalked away on her ridiculous shoes.
“What was that all about?”
Edie drummed her fingers against the steering wheel. “If I couldn’t stay in my
own church, what makes her think that I would want to join hers?”
Kappy shrugged. “I don’t know. Isn’t that what they do, try to get people to come to church?”
“I suppose. But if I wanted to go to church, wouldn’t I already be there?”
“Are you saying you don’t want to go to church?”
“Hardly.” But there was something she couldn’t identify in Edie’s tone. Regret? Remorse? Longing?
“Don’t you miss God?” Kappy asked.
Edie laughed. “How can I miss God? He’s all around. All the time.”
“Amen,” Jimmy said from the back seat.
She was right, of course, but there was something about the conversation that didn’t sit well with Kappy, though like Edie’s tone, she wasn’t sure what it was. She barely had time to contemplate it before Edie exclaimed, “There she goes!”
“Who?” Kappy and Jimmy both sat up straighter in their seats. “The woman in the blue car?” Kappy asked.
“Bettie Hershberger.”
It couldn’t be anybody else. Bettie Hershberger was the only one in Big Valley with a gray-topped buggy. Kappy knew it was only a matter of time—if it hadn’t happened already—before the deacon had a little talk with Bettie about conforming and community. She might be allowed to get away with bringing green pickles to church, but a Lancaster buggy was taking it too far.
“Should we follow her?” Edie asked.
“Yes,” Jimmy hollered from the back seat.
“Sit back,” Edie instructed.
“She’s going to the grocery store,” Kappy said.
“How do you know that?”
Kappy shrugged. “Just a hunch, I guess.”
“Follow her,” Jimmy chanted, but at least he had moved back in his seat.
“Should I?” Edie asked.
“Absolutely.”
Edie pulled out behind Bettie’s distinctive buggy. “You wouldn’t think so, but that buggy sticks out like a sore thumb.”
“It does.”
It also made it easier to follow.
“You think she’s going to ask Mr. Roberts about carrying her pickles in the store?”
“Maybe,” Kappy said. “But how is she going to make all of these pickles if she gets everyone to carry her product?”
“I don’t know much about business or supply and demand,” Edie said. “But if she can’t keep up, that will ruin her business before she even gets started.”
“Supply and demand? What does that mean?”
“It’s like your kapps. You’re the only maker in Blue Sky, so you have the only supply to meet the demand.”
“What does this have to do with Bettie Hershberger?”
“Not a lot,” Edie agreed. “Except . . . now that the Eshes aren’t making nearly as many pickles, then Bettie’s business should be taking off.”
It was the same reason she was at the top of their suspect list. Right above Delilah Swanson.
“I found out what happened to that preacher lady’s car,” Jimmy said.
Edie stomped on the brake, then realizing she was still in the middle of the road, started forward again. Thankfully, most everyone in Blue Sky was at the church car wash so there weren’t many other vehicles on the road.
“What do you mean you know what happened to her car?” Edie looked in the rearview mirror.
“You wanted to know, right?” Jimmy asked.
“Of course,” Edie and Kappy said at the same time.
“I asked someone.”
Edie shot a proud smile at Kappy, obviously tickled that Jimmy was helping in the investigation.
“So what happened?” Kappy asked.
“She hit a buggy.”
Chapter 16
“Coming.” Kappy wiped her hands on a dishtowel and hustled toward the front door. She sidestepped Elmer, who had abandoned his breakfast in order to rush to the door. He had to get his visitor-barking quota in. Or at least he thought he did. When he was barking at unknown visitors he wasn’t biting at her ankles. Kappy considered that a plus.
It was Sunday, but this was an “off” Sunday for her district. That meant no church as the members either visited with their loved ones or had church in another district. For Kappy it meant a quiet day at home. Except . . .
The knock sounded again.
“I said I was coming.” She wrenched open the door without even looking.
Edie marched in as Elmer retreated back to his food bowl, his job done. “You didn’t ask who it was,” Edie accused. “You didn’t even look through the peephole.”
Kappy shut the door and eyed her unlikely friend. “How do you know that? You were on the other side of it.”
“I was peeking.”
“Who else would knock on my door this early on a Sunday morning?”
“My point exactly. You don’t know,” Edie said. “I could be a killer or something.”
“Do killers usually knock on the door before they murder people?”
“Laugh all you want.” Edie propped her hands on hips swathed in cherry-red jeans. “But there’s a killer on the loose in Blue Sky, and we need to find her.”
She couldn’t argue with that fact. Except... “It’s Sunday. I’m fairly certain tracking down killers on Sunday is against the Ordnung.” Written or unwritten, she knew the bishop wouldn’t approve.
“What Bishop Sam doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”
Kappy had to think about that one for a moment. “I don’t know . . .”
“We can go for a drive. There’s nothing wrong with going for a drive on Sunday.”
“In my buggy?”
Edie sighed. “I suppose that’s the only way I’ll get you to go around with me.”
“That’s right.” Kappy gave a quick nod.
“Fine,” Edie grumbled.
“Do you want some coffee first?”
“That sounds great. And we can go over all the notes we’ve made so far. Did you get a chance to read over them last night?”
Kappy poured them both a cup of coffee and placed them on the table. “I looked over it right before bed.” And she had, but Edie’s handwriting was so bad she could barely make out letters much less words.
“Let’s see.” Edie picked up the notepad lying on the table and started to read. “Wait a minute. These aren’t my notes. These are your notes.” She looked at Kappy with a huge grin on her face.
Those were her notes about Hiram and Silas! Kappy lunged for the notebook, but Edie held it out of her grasp.
“What do we have here?” Edie stood, using her superior height to keep the notes from Kappy’s reach. “Hiram: kind, generous, upstanding in the community.” Edie made a face.
Kappy quit trying to grab the notebook and instead crossed her arms as if Edie reading what she had written for her eyes alone was no problem at all.
“Silas: kind, generous, upstanding in the community.” Edie dropped her arms, allowing Kappy to swoop in and take the notebook from her. She immediately slammed it shut. Like that mattered now.
“Why are their good qualities the same?”
Kappy ran one hand over her prayer kapp, her fingers automatically checking the hairpins to make sure everything was still in place. “They have similar good qualities.”
Edie shook her head. “It’s not the good qualities that you should be worried about. It’s figuring out if you can live with the bad ones.”
Kappy waved away Edie’s words. “I don’t know why I did that. It’s not like I’m getting married or anything.” Hadn’t she reconciled herself to being single her entire life? It wasn’t so bad. She was used to being alone most of the time. Though here lately . . .
“Thank heavens.” Edie flopped back into her chair and started spooning sugar into her coffee. “I mean, Silas isn’t bad, I suppose. And he drives a yellow-top. That’s a plus.”
“I guess I just got caught up in Jimmy saying that Silas liked me and all.” It was silly. More than silly. Ridiculous.
“
It’s only human, I suppose.”
“Jah. I suppose.” Kappy eased back into her seat and took a sip of her coffee.
“The notes on the case?” Edie asked.
“We don’t have a case.”
“Fine. No case. But we do have notes. Where are they?”
“In my room.” Kappy quickly made her way to her bedroom, then back to the kitchen. “I couldn’t decipher them.” She tossed the notebook onto the table.
Edie grinned. “That’s because they’re in code.”
“Seriously?”
“It’s very authentic, don’t you think?”
“I have no idea.”
Edie took up the notebook, her eyes scanning the page. Then again.
“Is something wrong?” Kappy asked.
“Yeah. I can’t remember how to translate it.”
“That’s great, Edie.”
“Sorry. I guess we’ll have to write them all again.”
Kappy sat back down, feeling as if the morning were going to go on forever. “Jah. I suppose.”
* * *
“Let’s see. Here’s what we know,” Edie said a half hour later. “Sally June was run off the road and killed. The car that hit her buggy was blue and was driven by an Englisch woman with long dark hair.”
“We don’t know that she was truly Englisch,” Kappy pointed out. “She could be Amish and learned how to drive during rumspringa.”
“True.” Edie made a few more notations on their new, not-coded list. “It’s a four-door sedan.”
“If you say so.” Kappy took another sip of her coffee. “This would have been so much easier if the preacher’s wife had been talking about an Amish buggy instead of a shopping cart.”
Edie nodded. “Who knew they called them buggies wherever it is she’s from.”
“Tennessee or Georgia, I heard someone say.”
“That doesn’t take her off my list of suspects. She could have been covering up a slip.”
“True. But I don’t know.” Sure, Delilah Swanson was about as different as any preacher’s wife she had ever seen, but that didn’t make her guilty.
“Neither do I and that’s why she’s still on my list.”
“What about the others?”
“That’s what we’re going to do today. Drive around and see if we can see anything funny going on with the rest of them. One thing is certain. One of them killed Sally June Esh, and we need to figure out which who.”