He shrugged. “No particular reason. I just thought you would like to know, seeing how nosy you can be.”
I did like to know.
Jethro and I left the church and I was even more confused than I had been. We walked toward the gazebo. It was close to six now, but because it was the middle of the summer, the sun hung high in the sky. Even so, Uriah and the other Amish men who were setting up the square for the Fourth of July celebration had gone. In their wake, tables, booths, and twinkle lights dotted the square. I knew when the booths were full and the visitors arrived, everything would go perfectly. Margot wouldn’t accept anything less.
As I drew closer to the gazebo, I noticed two people standing very close together in the middle of it. It was a man and a woman. The gazebo was a common spot in the county for proposal and wedding pictures. This was neither of those. It was Aiden and Kayla standing there. She held his hands in hers. “Do you remember when we stood here all those years ago and made our promise to marry each other?”
“Kayla . . .” Aiden said.
At the same time, I gasped. Aiden heard it, because his head swung in my direction, and I ducked below the bushes. Jethro stared at me with wide brown eyes, as if to ask what was going on.
I put a finger to my lips. This was not the time or the place for any piggy antics.
“Aiden, you need to pay attention. This is important.”
“I think you misunderstood . . .” Aiden said.
“I didn’t misunderstand anything.” Her tone became huffy. “You said if neither of us were married by age thirty-three, we’d marry each other.”
“You can’t hold me to a promise I made when I was eighteen.”
A sharp stick poked me in the back, and Jethro chewed on his leash. I wondered if I could slink away without being seen. I might have been able to do it if it had not been for the pig. Jethro didn’t slink anywhere. He barreled, marched, and pranced. As far as he was concerned, people should be happy to see him.
“It was your idea,” Kayla snapped in a nasal voice.
I made a face at the pig. It seemed to me Miss Perfect was a wee bit testy. I can’t say I felt bad for her; she was in the process of trying to steal my boyfriend.
“It was my idea when I was eighteen.” Aiden kept his voice level. It was the same tone I had heard him use many times with irate criminals. I thought that might be telling where this conversation was about to go.
“Now,” Aiden went on, “I agreed to come here and meet you because you implied you knew something about the murder.”
“That’s what you have driven me to, Aiden. I just want your attention, and I have to lie about the murder to get it.” She sounded as if she was about to cry.
“You shouldn’t waste a law enforcement officer’s time like this.” His voice was colder than before.
I shifted my crouched stance to move away from the pointy branch and nearly tipped over like the teapot in the children’s song. Jethro gave me a little bump with his snout to keep me upright. “Thanks,” I whispered. He wasn’t always a bad pig.
“You shouldn’t waste my time by making me believe that you are a man of your word,” she snapped.
Aiden said something I couldn’t hear.
I gave Jethro a look. I thought it was time to make our exit. It was clear to me that I didn’t need to worry about Aiden running away with his high school sweetheart, and I very much did not want to be caught spying. There was a good chance I might be if I crouched there like this any longer. My thighs were already cramping from the awkward position.
However, the question was how to make my escape. I couldn’t walk by the gazebo. They would surely see me. My best bet was staying in the bushes under their eye level. If I had been alone, I could have done it. Jethro, however, might blow my cover. As if to prove my point, he stuck his nose in the bushes and began to make a snuffling sound. I pulled him back from the branches, and he snorted. I covered his mouth to muffle the sound, and he licked my hand.
“Gross,” I hissed.
There was a scuffling sound above us in the gazebo.
“There’s still something between us and you have the nerve to deny it. I thought you were better than that, Aiden Brody. I’m sorry to see I was so very wrong,” Kayla cried.
Jethro snorted again. I clamped my hand down on his snout.
Stomp, stomp, stomp sounded over the gazebo floor, and a second later, Aiden marched across the green and jumped into his car. Kayla ran after him. “Aiden, wait!”
He turned around. “Please, Kayla. It’s over. Please leave me alone. I have to get back to work. This murder investigation might not be important to you, but it’s very important to me and those who knew the victim. Go back to wherever it was you ran to when we were young and leave me be.”
“This is about the candy maker, isn’t it?” She sniffled.
“Her name is Bailey,” he snapped.
Jethro and I shared a look. It was sort of like watching a soap opera in which you were a main character but not invited to the reading.
“Are you interested in her because she’s from New York?” Kayla flipped her long red hair over her shoulder. “I’ve heard of her television show. Her rising fame must be very enticing, not that I’ve ever taken you for a guy who was into that sort of thing.”
“It’s not just about Bailey, although she’s a big part of it. It’s about me not being eighteen any longer. I’ve changed. I want different things than I did before. Now, if you would let me get on with it, I have a murder to solve.”
“If you leave now, Aiden, you will never have another chance with me. This is it,” Kayla said.
“Good, because that’s what I want.” He climbed into his departmental SUV and drove away.
Around the corner of the gazebo, I watched Kayla, who stood on the side a long while with her head down. I bit my lip. I didn’t know why, but I felt bad for her. She must really have loved him, or thought she did. Either way, she was hurting.
After what seemed like forever, she walked to another car parked along the square, climbed in, and drove away. When her car was out of sight, I released the little pig and let myself fall on my backside. My legs were screaming from crouching so long. I lay on my back in the grass.
I let myself rest there for a bit. Jethro cocked his head.
“Hey, maybe I’m looking a little pathetic at the moment, but at least I don’t have to worry about my boyfriend leaving me for his childhood sweetheart.”
Jethro cocked his head in the other direction.
When I stood up, I picked up Jethro’s huge travel bag. “And okay, I need to tell Aiden what I overheard. I know that, but that conversation can wait until after the murder investigation is settled.”
“I’m really worried about going back home now that I know you lie in the middle of the village square and converse with a pig,” Cass said.
I jumped. “How long have you been standing there?”
“Just long enough to witness your heart-to-heart with this little oinker.”
I brushed grass off my backside. “You didn’t see Aiden, then?”
“Aiden?” She looked around. “Is Hot Cop here?”
“He was, but never mind.”
Cass looked as if she wasn’t going to let it go, so I interrupted her. Before she could say anything more, I told her about my conversation with Reverend Brook. I left out his confession about alcoholism—it didn’t feel right to tell her that when Aiden didn’t even know—but shared what he had told me about Leeza and the still.
“I think we should go to Harvest Woods and take a look,” I suggested.
“Haven’t the police already done that?” she asked.
“Probably,” I conceded.
“Wouldn’t Aiden have told you if they’d found the still?”
“I’m not sure,” I said.
She stared at me. “You mean go into the woods? There are bugs and it’s stinking hot, too.”
“We aren’t going into the woods. I just
want to see if there is any sign of what might be going on from the outside.”
“Sure,” Cass said and looked down at the pig. “That’s what she said.”
Her sarcasm wasn’t lost on me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
We crossed Main Street in front of the candy shop, and I was about to turn in the direction of my car when Cass placed a hand on my arm. “Wait. Before we leave, you have to talk to your grandmother.”
I shook my head. “You’re right. I don’t know where my head was at. Yes, we should tell her what we are up to and—”
Before I could finish speaking, she grabbed my arm and squeezed.
“Ouch. Why did—”
She pointed down the sidewalk. He was here. It was the man who’d ran away from Deputy Little. He had a heavy-looking knapsack slung over his left shoulder as he walked behind the far side of Esh Family Pretzels and disappeared.
I dropped Jethro’s overnight bag outside the candy shop, scooped up Jethro, and Cass and I went into the alley between the pretzel shop and Swissmen Sweets.
Jethro kicked at me a bit, but I whispered in his ear that if he was good, I’d give him three marshmallows as a treat when we got inside the candy shop. He stopped wiggling then. Cass stopped at the back edge of the pretzel shop and peered around the corner. She waved at me to do the same. Jethro and I peeked around the side.
Cass was right. The man with the knapsack was the Amish man who’d run away from Deputy Little, and he wasn’t alone. He stood across from Abel Esh. I stifled a gasp. Cass put a finger to her mouth.
I clamped my free hand over my mouth. I should have known Abel would somehow be involved with this. He’d hinted as much the last time I saw him.
“Do you have it?” Abel asked.
The other man patted his knapsack. “I have your order right here. Do you have the money?”
“I’ll give you the money when I see the ’shine.”
Cass tensed up when Abel said that. I was sure I did, too. We watched with fascination when the unknown Amish man set his knapsack on the dirty ground, opened it, and removed a liter glass bottle.
“There’s two of them?” Abel asked.
The man zipped up the knapsack and straightened. He slung it over his shoulder again. “That’s right. Do you have the money?”
Abel reached into his pocket and came out with a wad of bills.
Cass poked me in the ribs, as if to tell me to pay attention. I winced. I didn’t know how I could miss that money. Just then, the back door of Swissmen Sweets opened and Emily came out holding a bag of trash. She threw it in the dumpster and froze when she saw her brother standing there with the other man.
“Abel, what are you doing?” Emily asked.
He said something back to her in Pennsylvania Dutch. I didn’t know what it was, but it was clearly rude. Her face turned bright red and she took a step to go back in the shop. She froze a second time. “Bailey?”
“The jig is up!” Cass cried.
The Amish man took that as his cue to bolt. He didn’t give Abel the moonshine, nor did he take the money. He ran back around the side of the building and Cass dashed after him. What on earth did she think she was going to do if she caught him? I prayed she wouldn’t. I didn’t want her to get hurt.
Abel glowered at me. “What are you doing there?” He paused. “With a pig?”
“You were with the man who was looking for Leeza. That could very well be her killer and you were buying moonshine from him. That’s illegal!” I cried.
He laughed.
“I can call the sheriff’s department and report you for buying illegal moonshine.”
He laughed again and shook his head. “I’m not worried.”
Cass came back around the side of the building, panting. “That Amish dude, whoever he is, really should consider being an Olympic sprinter. He can move.” She looked at Abel, Emily, and me. “What’s going on?”
“I was telling Abel it’s illegal to buy moonshine and I’m going to report him.”
“I didn’t even get the ’shine,” Abel complained. “What good will it do you to report that I almost bought moonshine? It’s your word against mine.”
Cass glared at him. “It’s both of our words against you, and Emily’s, too.”
Emily turned pale when Cass said that.
Abel focused on his youngest sister. “Emily, you won’t do anything more to cause pain for our family, will you?” He cocked his head condescendingly. “Don’t you think you’ve done enough?”
“Leave her alone,” I snapped. Then I turned back to Emily. “Emily, you don’t have to be here for this. Go back into the candy shop.”
“That’s right, Emily,” Abel said. “You’re free to abandon your family at any time. It’s what you’re gut at.”
Emily wrung the end of her apron. “Bailey, are you really going to the police about this?”
“I think I have to,” I said. “Aiden is looking for a killer with ties to moonshine. It could be that very man who fled just a minute ago.”
“Ya, but Abel had nothing to do with it,” she replied. “Please, Bailey. My family has been through so much already. They don’t need any more trouble.”
Abel’s lips curved into a Grinch-worthy grin. “That’s right, Sister. Tell her everything we have been through.”
Tears gathered in Emily’s eyes.
The back door of Esh Family Pretzels slammed open. “What is going on out here?” Esther Esh wanted to know. Then she said to her sister, “Emily; I should have known. You have been the root of all the trouble in our family.”
Emily’s delicate face flushed.
“Fine!” I said. “I won’t say anything about you to the police, but it’s not for your sake. It’s for Emily’s.”
Abel nodded. “I’m fine with that.”
“But you have to tell me about the man who was just here.”
Abel shrugged, as if it was of no consequence to him, and maybe that was true, because I’d promised to keep him out of it, at least as far as the police were concerned.
“That’s Jonathan Troyer. He’s from a district close to Berlin, and he just happens to be a moonshiner. He makes the best ’shine in the county.”
“Amish moonshiners?” Cass asked. “Now I’ve heard everything.”
“What’s his connection to Leeza?” I asked Abel.
“They are from the same district,” he said.
“Where can I find him?” I asked.
Abel shrugged. “I don’t know that. When I want some ’shine, I leave a note in an old abandoned potting shed.”
“Where’s the shed?” I asked.
“It’s near Harvest Woods. It’s on the edge of the berry farm.”
Cass and I shared a look. Did that mean Leeza’s whole family was involved in the production of moonshine? I tried not to get ahead of myself with my questions. “Was he making moonshine in Harvest Woods?”
“That would be my guess.” Abel shrugged. “But unlike some people, I don’t ask a lot of questions.”
“That’s enough,” Esther said. “No more questions.”
“Esther—” Emily began.
Esther glared at her younger sister. “You made your choice about whose side you’re on long ago, little sister.” She added something in the Amish language that I didn’t understand. However, by the sharpness of her tone, I knew it was cruel. That was confirmed when Emily ran back inside the candy shop.
“Are you satisfied, Bailey King?” Esther asked. “What makes you think that you can come into our world and ask all these questions and disturb our simple lives? Life was so much better in this village before you came along.”
I jerked back at her words.
Cass took my hand in hers. “I do know one thing. I used to think all Amish people were sweet and kind. I’m sorry to say that you’ve proved me wrong.” She tugged on my hand. “Let’s go, Bai.”
I stumbled after her with Jethro still in the crook of my other arm.
; CHAPTER THIRTY
Cass and I hurried through the front door of Swissmen Sweets. It was evening, and the shop had closed over an hour before. Maami came through the kitchen door. “What has happened? Emily ran into the kitchen crying, and she won’t tell Charlotte or me what is wrong.”
“Esther and Abel happened,” I said.
Maami patted her white hair. “I was afraid it was something like that.” Her face fell. “No one can cut you to the quick quite as well as someone you love.”
“I don’t know why she would love them after the way they have treated her,” Cass said. “She should forget about them. She has Swissmen Sweets now, and her husband’s family.”
My grandmother shook her head. “It’s not that easy, and even if you do have to say goodbye to someone, you will continue to think of them.”
Cass pressed her lips together as if she wasn’t sure about that, and I wondered if my grandmother was speaking from experience. Was she referring to the time when my father left the Amish, or was it something else? I thought she and my father had come to terms with his choice.
Emily and Charlotte came out of the kitchen. Emily’s eyes were red, but she was no longer crying. “Clara, I’m sorry I came in like that.”
My grandmother wrapped her in a hug. “My girl, there is no need to apologize. We all have tears under the surface.”
Emily stepped back and swallowed hard. I thought that she might cry again, but she was able to keep it together.
A buggy pulled up in front of the candy shop, and Emily sighed with relief. “That is my husband. I will be here early tomorrow to help prepare for the Fourth of July celebration.” She gave my grandmother another hug and then turned to me. “Bailey, I hope you intend to keep your promise.”
I opened and closed my mouth. Whether I intended them or not, the words came out. “I will.”
She hugged me, too, then. “Danki.” She then scooped Nutmeg off the floor and kissed the cat’s cheek before she set him down again next to Jethro and Puff. I shook my head. Swissmen Sweets looked as much like a petting zoo as a candy shop with the menagerie we had in it.
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