“They will,” Eric said confidently. “You outshone me on the spot we did at Swissmen Sweets, and you are a natural on camera. Plus, with the Amish angle, you can offer something different. Different is what the network is looking for right now.” He laughed. “You look like you don’t believe me, but trust me, this is one case where I am right. I’ve been wrong on so many other things, but I understand business and how to promote myself.”
I wasn’t going to argue with him about that.
“I’ve been wrong about you. When I came back here, I think part of me wanted to get your attention again. You may not believe me, but I didn’t like how we ended things. I didn’t feel we had closure.”
I held back the sarcastic retort on the tip of my tongue.
“But when I got here, I saw you had moved on. You have your grandmother, your shop, the support of this entire village. Maybe part of me was disappointed that you were so happy.”
I opened my mouth to say something.
But he went on, “For what it is worth and as much as it pains me to say it, you are making the right choice. I have seen you and Deputy Brody together. It’s clear that he is a better match for you than I could ever be or ever was.” He closed his eyes for a moment. “I didn’t appreciate you when I had the chance to, and now that chance has come and gone.”
“You have Josie.”
He shook his head. “Josie and I broke up earlier today. It was a mutual thing. She gave her resignation to Linc as well. She wants to move on too. It seems that everyone wants to move on without me.”
I wanted to ask him whose fault that was, but I stopped myself. Eric made his choices. He had fame and money, and he would find another short-term girlfriend soon enough. He was happy in his way, but it wasn’t the type of life I wanted for myself.
Eric kicked at the snow. “Anyway, you’ve been a good friend to me even when I didn’t deserve it.”
I smiled. “I would say keeping you from being charged with murder was the act of a good friend. But you’ve been good for me too. You taught me a lot about myself.”
“What you don’t want.”
I smiled. “Maybe, but it is a good lesson.”
“Eric!” Linc called from the square. “Get over here. We are doing stills for a promo.”
Linc and Pike stood just in front of the gazebo. I frowned. “You’re not taking pictures in the gazebo, are you?”
He shook his head. “I think that photo op is with the camel. Pike has a vision.”
“Pike?” I asked. “I thought Roden was the camera guy.”
“Roden is back at the guest house. He came down with some type of stomach bug, so Pike had to jump in and finish the shooting. The kid isn’t bad at it. I think he has a bright future in television if he’s tough enough to stick it out.”
“Oh,” I said. There was something about hearing that Roden was sick that didn’t sit well with me, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.
“I have to go,” Eric said. “I’d kiss you good-bye, but I think you would slap me.”
“You’d be right.”
Eric laughed and went over to join the two other men. He was three steps away from me when he turned. “You know how you were asking me about the production company Rocky wanted to set up?”
“Yes,” I said.
“I called one of my friends at the network back home who I figured would know about it. It turns out that Roden, of all people, was her partner in the new company. How funny is that? I’m surprised he’d still want to work with her after what she did. I heard he personally lost a bundle of money when she backed out. I know I would be angry.”
He walked away, but I stood there in shock.
I jogged across the street to Swissmen Sweets. I almost made it to the door when a voice stopped me. “You have been busy.”
I glance to my right and saw Abel leaning against the pretzel shop, smoking his pipe.
“Is there something I can help you with, Abel?”
He looked me up and down. “You can stay away from Emily. I have asked you to do this before, and you haven’t listened. Now Emily has paid the price.”
“Paid the price? What do you mean by that?”
He didn’t answer me.
“Is Emily here?” I asked.
Abel scowled at me. “My younger sister is not here. Esther and I have asked her to leave. We can’t accept her misbehavior any longer.”
“Misbehavior?”
“She was secretly courting. She cannot do that without our permission.”
“She is twenty years old. When are you going to stop treating her like a child?”
“She lost that privilege when she allowed herself to get pregnant.”
“That was five years ago.”
He shrugged.
“Where did Emily go?”
He shrugged again.
I walked away from him and went into my candy shop. I was more determined than ever to get Emily away from her judgmental siblings.
The shop was filled with customers who had ducked in to get a break from the cold at the Christmas Market. As a result, my grandmother was doing a brisk business. I knew Charlotte was at the market manning our table, but I half expected that Emily would be inside. She was nowhere to be seen.
My grandmother smiled at me and put a bag of licorice into a customer’s waiting hand.
“Maami, is Emily here?”
She shook her head. “She stopped by and told me what happened to Aiden. I was so sorry to hear it. Is he all right?”
“I just came from the hospital. He’s going to be fine.”
“Thank the Good Lord for that.”
“Did Emily say where she was going? Her brother and sister have turned her out.”
“Grandma Leah and Daniel came to pick her up in their buggy. He was released from the hospital once he sobered up and insisted on coming into town to get her.”
“I’m going out to the Keims’ farm then,” I said. “I need to be sure Emily’s OK, and I’m going to see if she wants to stay with us.”
Chapter 38
Something nagged at the back of my mind as I drove to Keim Christmas Tree Farm. I couldn’t sort it out, because the moment I left the village proper the snow started to come down hard.
The weather on the drive to the Christmas tree farm was some of the worst I had ever driven through, and I’d grown up in Connecticut, where the snow at times came in feet. However, I hadn’t done much driving in it. I went to New York City when I was eighteen and never moved back. Driving in New York was far too aggravating and expensive for me to own a car. It was on a night like tonight I missed the convenience of public transportation. There was nothing close to resembling a subway in Holmes County, or in Ohio for that matter. The only way to get from point A to point B was by car or buggy.
I patted the dashboard. “You got this, girl.” I thought giving the car a little pep talk couldn’t hurt, and I was well aware that I was trying to give myself a pep talk at the same time.
The car fishtailed as I turned onto Tree Road, and I prayed with all my might while turning into the slide. In the blink of an eye, the car came to a stop, and I found myself in the oncoming lane. I was just lucky no one besides myself was stupid enough to be out driving on the remote road on such an awful evening. After my heart rate dropped to semi-normal, I crawled the rest of the way to the tree farm. There was a break in the snowfall, and I saw the farm’s barn in my headlights.
The headlights also illuminated the Keims’ buggy. I parked by the barn. The horse was no long tethered to it. That was a relief. It was proof to me that Emily had made it there safely.
I jumped out of the car and made a dash for the house. There was a small overhang above the door, but it wasn’t enough to protect me from the driving snow. I banged on the door. “Grandma Leah! Emily! Daniel! Is anyone home?”
No one answered.
I tried again and called their names for a second time. Still no one replied. A shiver ran down my spin
e. I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I shook it away. Maybe they were in the barn getting the horse settled.
Snow slipped through the gaps in my scarf. I tightened it around my neck. I stepped out from the slight protection of the overhang back into the wind and snow. The storm was fierce, with whiteout conditions all around me. It was very possible if I ventured too far from the house, I might lose my way completely and then I wouldn’t be any help to Grandma Leah or anyone. But I had to check the barn, at least, before I gave up.
As I walked to the barn, I thought about Rocky. We still didn’t know who’d killed Rocky Rivers, aka Rachel Keim. I knew it had to be someone from the production team, but who was it? Would we know before it was too late? They were leaving tomorrow morning. I doubted the sheriff would allow Aiden to pursue the murder out of state.
I thought about each member of the crew. Eric wouldn’t have killed her, because it might ruin his television show. Pike was just a young kid breaking into the business with no motive at all, and both Linc and Josie seemed to be too self-absorbed to kill anyone. Just like Eric, they wouldn’t do anything that could potentially ruin their own career or send them to jail and end their futures completely. But Roden, he was most likely bitter over Rocky choosing the network instead of their partnership, and maybe he thought he had nothing to lose. Rocky had been his ticket to realizing his big dream, and she’d snatched that dream away from him when a better offer came along. It was the only solution that made sense. He had a motive, and he’d had the opportunity. It would have been easy for him to return to the gazebo in his rental car after Daniel and Thad had left. Had he planned to kill Rocky all along, or had an argument led to a crime of passion?
Rocky had looked out for herself, and it had cost her. Just as when she’d left the Amish, it had cost her her son. This time it had cost her her life. It didn’t make her a bad person, just a selfish one. Unfortunately, her selfishness just might have gotten her killed.
I tried to remember the last time I had seen Roden. It must have been at the live nativity. He had been there recording it, but with all the commotion over Melchior the camel and Jethro’s antics, I’d lost track of him. At the time, I hadn’t known it was important to keep track of the cameraman.
I removed my cell phone from my coat pocket. I had to call the police and tell them what I knew. I scrolled through my contacts, looking for Deputy Little’s number. I couldn’t call Aiden. He was still in the hospital. My fingers cramped from the cold. My thin cotton gloves were no match for this weather.
As I stepped into the barn, I finally found the number. The call went to voicemail. “Little, this is Bailey King. I think you should come out to the Keim Christmas Tree Farm. I know who killed Rocky. It was Roden. He’s the only one who makes sense. You need to come out here. I’m looking for Emily. She might be in trouble because she saw the murder.”
I ended the call. “Emily! Grandma Leah!”
I turned and saw the shepherd’s hook leaning against the barn wall. The one that Margot had said was missing and had been so upset about. How did it get here? Why was it here? Was it really the same hook? There was one way to find out. Margot had said her father’s initials had been carved into the wood near the bottom. If this was the missing shepherd’s hook, it would have the initials JR carved into the wood.
I picked up the hook and held it in my hands. It was much heavier than I’d expected it to be. If used as a weapon, it could do some damage, but it hadn’t been used as a weapon. Rocky had been strangled by another weapon of convenience, Christmas lights. I shivered as the image of her dead body came back to me. Then what was Margot’s father’s hook doing in the Keims’ barn? I set it back against the barn wall where I’d found it. I wished I could talk everything over with Aiden, but I couldn’t do that now. He was in the hospital. If I told him where I was or what I was doing, he would worry. Little would call when he could, or at least that’s what I told myself.
A cow mooed at me, and one of the Keims’ horses shook his bridle. “Grandma Leah?”
There was no answer. Why would the shepherd’s hook be there? I was racking my brain trying to think of a reason that made sense.
I remembered that Margot had said the hook had been left in the gazebo the night before the Christmas Market, the last night that Rocky had been alive. Had the hook somehow been involved in the murder?
I went back out of the barn. Emily and Grandma Leah weren’t there. It was snowing too hard for me to drive back to the village just then, but I would feel much safer in my car.
I forced my way through the snow and was almost at the car when there was a gunshot and a scream. The sounds had come from the trees.
As I ran to the trees, I called 911 and told the dispatcher where I was. For half a second, I hesitated at the edge of the trees. The spaces between them were narrow and dark, and I could easily become lost, but another shot rang out.
I ran through the trees in the direction of the shot, and I came upon the clearing where Cass had found her favorite tree. Much to my relief the snow was beginning to slow down. A moment ago it was near whiteout conditions, but as the snow waned, the moon appeared in the night sky, shining bright enough to illuminate the terrifying scene in front of me.
Daniel Keim stood in the middle of the clearing holding a rifle on Roden, who lay on the ground, and Emily stood beside Daniel in tears. Grandma Leah was kneeling a few feet away in the snow in prayer.
I wondered why Roden didn’t get up from the frozen ground and try to run away, but then I saw it. His foot was caught in a rabbit snare. The wire bit into his pant leg. Every time he moved, it got just a little tighter. He might have been able to release the snare with his hands, but he didn’t dare move as long as Daniel had his gun trained on him.
I stepped out of the trees. Daniel whipped the rifle around and pointed the barrel at me. Maybe making myself known hadn’t been the best idea I had ever had. I held up my hands to show him that I didn’t have a weapon. “Daniel, don’t do this. You could ruin your life.”
“My life is already ruined. My mother ruined it when she left.”
“I can’t know what it was like for you to grow up without a mother, but you had Grandma Leah, and she was like a mother to you, wasn’t she?”
He glanced at his great-grandmother. “It’s not the same as having your own mother.”
“It’s not. I’m sure it’s not, but how do you know that your mother ruined your life by leaving you with your father? Yes, she made a selfish choice, but I think she must have also felt that she was making the right decision for you. She wanted to live like the English, and if she had taken you with her, you would have grown up in the English world. You never would have known your father or your friends in the church district. You never would have known Grandma Leah or Emily.”
He lowered the gun a little. Now he was pointing at my belly button. I didn’t find that particularly comforting.
“Look at Emily; she cares for you,” I said. “Don’t do this and ruin her life as well as your own. She’s already been through too much.”
The gun came all the way down when I said that. “I know she has. I want to be a man worthy of her.”
I took a few steps forward and took the gun from his hand. The barrel was warm. He held on to it for a moment, but then let it go. “You are worthy of her. You deserve to be happy.” I made eye contact with Emily. “And she deserves to be happy too.”
I handed the gun to Grandma Leah and glared at Roden. “Did you shoot Deputy Brody?”
“I’m not saying anything,” Roden snapped.
I wasn’t going to let it go. Aiden was sitting in the hospital right now because of this man. I just knew it. I deserved the truth. “Where did you get the gun?” I asked.
Roden was stone-faced.
“My father’s rifle has been missing from the barn for the past day,” Daniel said.
I glared at Roden again. “Did you put the shepherd’s hook in the barn and steal Thad’s gun? We
re you trying to make Thad look like a better suspect to the police?”
“I don’t have to tell you anything.” He glowered at me.
“I know you shot at Aiden. The police will prove it. And they will link the bullet and Thad’s missing rifle to you.” I shook with anger.
He sneered. “I wasn’t aiming at the deputy. I was shooting at you. I knew you wouldn’t let this go even after I left town.”
I shivered. Somehow his confession was more chilling than my guesses.
“Now will someone let me out of this snare!” Roden bellowed. “It’s hurting me.”
“You can just sit tight until the police come,” I said, standing a foot away from him.
Roden kicked out his one good leg, knocking me to the ground. I fell on top of him. He grabbed me by the throat and held a knife under my chin. “This is what is going to happen. You are going to release my leg. When you do that, we are going to stand up together. If either of you”—he glared at Grandma Leah and Daniel—“make a move, I’ll kill her. I would suggest you not do anything with that rifle.”
With the knife still at my throat, I knelt and started to work on the snare. I couldn’t remove the wire. My cotton glove got caught on the barbs. They tore through my gloves and pricked my skin. It felt like a thousand little cuts. I could concentrate on that. I had to get the snare loose, but then what? Let him use me as a hostage?
A shiver racked my body. I prayed the deputies would show up soon.
“What’s taking so long?” Roden demanded.
“I have to remove my gloves or I’m not going to be able to do this.”
“Fine,” he snapped. “Just make it quick. I need to get out of here, and you are coming with me.”
Roden looked away as if he couldn’t watch as I removed the barbed snare from his ankle. It struck me that a murderer could be squeamish, though perhaps only when it came to his own pain. The sharp edges of the wire had torn through his gym sock and into his flesh. I knew it must have been painful, but I had little sympathy for him at the moment.
Premeditated Peppermint Page 24