Murder, Handcrafted (Amish Quilt Shop Mystery) (22 page)

F
eeling like an escaped convict on the run, I darted behind an RV in the middle of the parking lot, still clutching Oliver to my chest. “Shhh,” I whispered to the Frenchie.

A moment later, I heard the Bigfooters’ thundering feet hit the pavement.

“Where did she go?” one cried.

“She couldn’t have disappeared into thin air!”

There was more grumbling, and then someone called over the others. “Let’s head back to the tea shop or we are going to miss Raymond’s presentation. We’ll find her later.”

The sound of their thundering feet receded. I slid to my knees behind the camper on the asphalt.

The camper door opened, and an overweight man stepped out. “You all right, miss?” He peered at me.

I straightened up in my kneeling position.

“Are you praying or something over that dog? Is he sick?”

I realized that it might appear that I was praying
from how I knelt with Oliver in my arms. My face flushed, and I scrambled to my feet. “No, I’m not, and the dog is fine.”

He rubbed the stubble on his chin. “Do I know you from somewhere?”

That’s when I saw the Bigfoot T-shirt stretched across his belly.

“Gotta go!” I cried, and hurried through the small parking lot and across the street to the mercantile.

The mercantile front door opened just as I was reaching out to open it, and Liam Coblentz stopped me from plowing into him by grabbing me by the shoulders. “Whoa, careful there.” He let me go.

Out of breath, I asked, “Where’s Cameron? Is he here?”

Liam stared at me as if I had asked him if aliens had touched down in the middle of the mercantile. Considering there were a good number of people wandering around Rolling Brook that morning who thought Bigfoot was real, I wouldn’t be surprised if my pursuers would accept an alien invasion too. “Why don’t you come inside?” he asked. “You look like you’re about to pass out.”

I stumbled after him into the store, feeling a tad shaky. I hadn’t run this much in, well, ever. Maybe I should take up exercise just like my father. I followed Liam to the back of the store. I glanced around. “Are you open?”

He shook his head. “Not yet.” He sighed. “Monday should be the day. I do have a sidewalk sale going on out front just to take advantage of Bigfoot Day.” His
eyes twinkled when he said Bigfoot Day. I was glad he found it amusing. After being chased up and down Sugartree Street, I could no longer see the humor in the situation.

A frown formed on his lips. “Angie, I’m glad you stopped by. I’ve been wanting to talk to you.” He paused. “About Mattie.”

I set Oliver on the floor. “What about Mattie?”

He swallowed. “I just want you to know that I care about her, and I will court her properly. I plan to talk to her brother later today and ask his permission. I know that she hasn’t had an easy time in the past with suitors. I need you to know that I won’t be like her last beau.”

“I’m glad to hear it.” I paused. “Because if you break her heart, you will have to deal with me.”

He grinned. “She already told me that I would.” He chuckled. “I think I’m more afraid of you than I am of her brother Aaron.”

“You should be.” My smile took the bite out of my words. “Mattie deserves a happily ever after.”

“I mean to give her that.”

“Now that that’s settled, is Cameron here?” I repeated my original question.

“Blane’s son? What do you want with him?”

“I discovered he’s the one behind the Bigfoot prank, and I have to talk to him. It might be the only way to put all of this Bigfoot hysteria to rest.”

“Who’s looking for my son?” Blane appeared in the middle of the aisle behind Liam, holding a pair of wire cutters.

“I am,” I said. “I’m sure you’ve seen all the excitement in Rolling Brook over Bigfoot, and I think the thing that eyewitnesses were actually seeing was part of a movie Cameron was making.”

Blane shook his head. “I knew he was working on a movie, but I didn’t know it was that.”

“Can I talk to him?”

“He’s not here,” Cameron’s father said.

“Do you know where I can find him?” I asked.

Blane considered my question. “He said that he had to film today to finish the project he’s working on for class. He and his friend Sam are working on the assignment together. Out in the backwoods near Yoder Road.”

“Yoder Road?” I asked. I swallowed. I didn’t want to alarm Blane, but that was the street closest to Nahum’s shack. This wasn’t good. I backed out of the store, picking Oliver up as I went. “Can you text or call him to see where he is?”

Blane scowled. “I’ve been trying all morning, and he doesn’t text me back. He’s either ignoring me or out of range. If you find him, you tell him he is grounded for the entire summer. I don’t care if he’s over eighteen.”

That was more confirmation to me that Cameron might be in Nahum’s woods. The cell reception there was terrible.

“One more question,” I said to Blane.

He lowered his wire cutters to his side as if in resignation. “What?”

“Was there a second electrical accident in Griffin’s past, other than the one that killed Kamon Graber?”

He glowered at me. “You are still on that.”

“Can you just answer the question?”

“There was. In the second accident, a barn burned down.”

My hands began to tingle when he said that. I knew it was important. I took a deep breath. Before I could track down the barn fire, I had to save Cameron from Nahum’s pitchfork. I put my hand on the doorknob. “I’ll track Cameron down. Don’t worry.”

Outside, I ran around the back side of the mercantile, all the while on the lookout for Bigfooters. I waited for a buggy to cross my path and dashed across the street. At least my car was parked in the community lot across from the mercantile. I wouldn’t have to go back to Running Stitch and risk being seen by the mob that thought I was an Internet celebrity.

“Angie!” Willow called. “I saw the video. I can’t believe that we have evidence that Bigfoot is real and you’re on the tape!” Her purple crystal twirled in the sun as she hurried toward me.

“It’s evidence, but not in the way you think.” I unlocked my car with the fob.

She frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Cameron, the teenager who posted that video, is a film student. He must be making a Bigfoot, or some type of creature, movie. I’m going to confront him now about it. Then, maybe these Bigfooters will leave the county.”

Willow’s face fell. “You mean the video’s not real.”

I put Oliver in my car. I hated to be the one to burst her bubble, but I had to be honest. “It’s not. It was a
teenage boy playing a joke. Now, I have to go find him.”
Before Nahum finds him first.

Behind Willow, someone shouted. “There she is!”

The next thing I knew, the mob was headed straight for us.

Willow jumped into my car. “I’m coming too.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the Bigfooters coming for me. I didn’t have time to argue with her. “Buckle up,” I ordered.

I
had been to Nahum’s shack one time before, over a year ago in the middle of winter. This time there weren’t feet of snow to contend with, but the woods were soggy from the frequent rains. I would have to take care where to step in order to protect my cowboy boots from permanent damage.

If I thought my footwear was impractical for a trek into the woods, Willow’s was downright ridiculous. She wore pointy-toed granny boots with a two-inch heel.

“You’re going to get stuck in the mud with those,” I warned.

She waved away my concern. “I’m a pro at walking in these. You’ll see.”

After his first step in the forest, Oliver held up his paw to me and whimpered. He might live in the country now, but Oliver was born in Dallas and was still very much a city pooch.

“We’ll wash your paws when we get back to Running Stitch,” I said.

He sighed and set his paw on the muddy ground.

I glanced back at Willow as I made my way through the woods. “Nahum’s cabin is about a quarter mile in. Keep an eye out for him, Cameron, or Bigfoot.”

“You got it,” she said cheerfully.

At least one of us was enjoying herself.

I heard Cameron long before I saw him.

“Help! Help!” the teenager’s voice broke through the trees.

I scooped Oliver up and took off at a run, following the sound. I broke through the trees into the clearing where Nahum’s shack stood. Nahum’s yard was like a minefield with pieces of twisted metal and wood sticking out all over the place. Some were alone and others were attached to cast-aside appliances. The first time I had seen it, it had been buried under snow. Now, I could see the metal objects and they made the yard look far worse. I wondered if Nahum decorated his yard with them to serve as a barrier around his property. The sparse tufts of grass completed the horrendous landscaping.

“It’s a project for school. I didn’t mean any harm!” Cameron cried.

I couldn’t see Cameron yet, so I followed the voice. As I came around the side of the shack, I found Nahum holding Cameron and Bigfoot at pitchfork point.

Bigfoot wore white sneakers just like Eban had described. He was clearly an impostor.

Cameron saw me. “Hey, we need help! This Amish dude is going to skewer us!”

“Yeah,” Bigfoot agreed. “I’m too young to die!”

“Nahum!” I shouted at the older man. “What are you doing?”

“I found these boys sneaking around my land, taking moving pictures of my property.” He jerked the pitchfork in their direction.

Bigfoot jerked back.

Cameron looked at me pleadingly. “I didn’t know anyone lived here, honest! I thought it was an old abandoned shack. We were only here to shoot a scene for my movie. I wouldn’t have come here if I knew
he
was living here. Honest!”

Nahum thrust the business end of the pitchfork forward, stopping just short of Cameron’s chest. “This is my home!”

Cameron’s hands went up. “I know that now, and I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. I was just making a movie for my class.”

“Bigfoot, remove your mask,” I said.

The creature didn’t move.

Nahum waved the pitchfork at him. “Do what the lady says or prepare to meet your Maker.”

Bigfoot removed his mask, and what appeared was the sweaty and pimply face of a teenage boy Cameron’s age.

“What your name?” I asked the teen.

“S-Sam Bauer,” he stammered, watching Nahum with wide eyes.

I folded my arms across my chest. “Well, Sam and Cameron, do you know the township of Rolling Brook has been overrun by people who believe that Bigfoot is here because of your little movie?”

Cameron, whose hands were still suspended in the air, said, “I was just doing a school project. I didn’t
mean anything by it. I never thought all these people would come.”

“When you saw the rumors about Bigfoot in the county growing larger and larger, why didn’t you come forward and tell someone what was really going on?” I asked.

He scowled. “I didn’t want anyone to steal my idea.”

“Yeah,” Sam agreed. “We wanted to win the film award at school, and the best way to do that would be to keep the content of our project secret. Last year, someone in the same class let his idea be known, and he was totally sabotaged by another kid in the class.”

“Are you going to tell him to let us go?” Cameron asked, sounding winded. “My arms are getting tired.”

I arched my brow at him. “I will after you answer my questions.”

The boys groaned.

“Why would you film where your uncle was working?” I asked.

“I didn’t know Uncle Griff was working there. Honest. I just wanted to film on a remote road that might have a house or two of added drama.” Beads of sweat gathered on Cameron’s forehead. “I would have never filmed there if I knew Uncle Griff was working there. My dad would kill me. He and Uncle Griff don’t get along.”

I rocked back on my heels. “You do know that you need the landowner’s permission to film on private property like that. My parents have a right to sue you if they wanted to.”

Cameron turned a light shade of green. “It was for school.”

Willow emerged out of the wood. “What did I miss?” She took in the scene. “Bigfoot is a pimply teenager?” she whispered to me. “My heart is broken.”

I ignored her and continued with my questioning. “What did you see the morning your uncle was killed?” I nodded to Sam. “I want to know what you saw too.”

“Nothing,” Sam said. “I can barely see where I’m going in this gorilla suit.”

Cameron’s answer didn’t come as quickly. It seemed that he was considering what to say.

I glared at him. “Cameron. Tell me or I will let Nahum at you.”

He opened his mouth as if he was about to tell, but suddenly Nahum dropped his pitchfork and stumbled toward the boys. With the pitchfork no longer holding them at bay, they both jumped away from the Amish man.

For a moment, Nahum regained control of himself.

“Let’s get out of here,” Sam said.

“Stay!” Willow ordered in such a commanding voice, I had to make sure it was coming from her.

Oliver must have thought she was talking to him because he plopped his back end in the mud. He was so going to need a bath later.

Nahum leaned his pitchfork against the shack and staggered.

I took a step forward. “Nahum, are you all right?”

He waved me away, opened his mouth as if to say something, but collapsed onto the muddy ground before he could utter a word.

I
knelt in the mud next to the prostrate man. “Nahum? Nahum?”

He groaned and squinted at me. He was conscious. That was something. I had to take him to a hospital. There was no telling how long he had been sick or what was wrong with him.

Willow stood over me. “What should we do?”

Nahum stared at me with glassy eyes.

“Can you stand up?” I asked.

He tried to sit up and cried out in pain.

I pushed him back down by the shoulder. “New plan. Don’t get up. We’ll carry you out.”

“Angie, he has to weigh a hundred and eighty pounds. How are we going to carry him?” Willow asked.

“The boys will do it as a favor in return for me not suing them for the video.” I never had any intention of suing Sam and Cameron for the Bigfoot video, but they didn’t know that.

They both swallowed and nodded. No one liked the threat of a lawsuit.

I jumped to my feet and ran into Nahum’s one-room shack that was surprisingly neat and tidy. I knew I was tracking mud on Nahum’s clean floors, but that couldn’t be helped.

I pulled the quilt from his bed and ran outside with it.

“Shouldn’t we call an ambulance and let the EMTs take him?” Sam asked.

“Shh,” I said. “He’ll refuse to go with the EMTs, and he needs to see a doctor.”

As much as it pained me to see the beautiful Log Cabin quilt get covered in dirt, I laid it in the mud and then waved the boys over to help me.

We rolled Nahum as carefully as possible onto the quilt and lifted him up. The quilt made a perfect cocoon for the ill man.

Sam, still wearing his gorilla suit with the mask tucked under his arm, Cameron, and I carried Nahum out of the woods in the quilt. Nahum groaned with every bump, but I was happy he didn’t fight us. Willow and Oliver led the way out of the woods.

We put Nahum in the backseat of my car. The boys said they would meet us at the hospital. I wasn’t sure if they were lying, but I didn’t care. Nahum was my primary concern at the moment.

There was a small private hospital on Route Eighty-three. They would be able to perform only some of the care but would know if Nahum would need to be transported to one of the larger hospitals in Canton or even farther away in Akron.

The ride to the hospital was tense. Nahum groaned
with every tiny bump in the road. As I drove, I asked Willow to call Mitchell and tell him what was going on.

I could hear him firing questions at her through her end of the conversation. I gripped the steering wheel, wondering if I should call the bakery and tell Rachel to meet us at the hospital. It would take her some time to reach the hospital by horse and buggy.

We arrived at the hospital before I made my decision. Willow hopped out of the car and ran inside to find help. Three people came out in scrubs and carefully placed Nahum, still wrapped in the mud-covered quilt, on a gurney.

After I parked the car and cracked the windows for Oliver, who I would have to leave inside while in the hospital, I walked into the lobby. Willow handed a pen and chart attached to a clipboard to me. “They want you to fill this out.”

The first question that popped out at me was “emergency contact.” That should be Rachel. Rachel should be filling out this form. But she wouldn’t know any of the answers any more than I did.

I was about to take the clipboard back to the woman at the desk and explain when the automatic hospital doors slid open again, and Mitchell strode inside followed by Rachel.

I jumped out of my seat.

Rachel ran into my arms. She pressed the side of her face into my shoulder. “Where is he?”

“They’re examining him right now.” I guided her to the desk. “The man I brought in a little while ago. This is his daughter,” I told the nurse at the desk.

“I want to see my fa . . . I want to see my father,” Rachel said, finally managing to say the words.

The nurse came around the side of the desk. “You can go back, dear, but no one else.” She wrapped her arm around Rachel and led her down the hallway.

I turned to Mitchell with tears in my eyes. “Thank you for bringing Rachel. I didn’t know what to do.”

He smiled. “I thought you might want her here.”

I threw my arms around his neck and kissed the Holmes County sheriff right on the mouth in the middle of the busy waiting room. When I pulled back, Mitchell was bright red, but he was grinning. “If I’d have known the reunion of Rachel and her father would give you that reaction, I would have done it a long time ago.” His tone turned serious, and he led me to a corner of the waiting room. “Tell me what happened.”

I recited my story, including being chased through Sugartree Street by the mob of Bigfooters. At the end of it, I looked around the waiting room. “Cameron and Sam said they would meet us at the hospital.”

Mitchell shook his head. “They probably ran off, but it sounds like it was a good thing that you were there when Nahum collapsed.”

“If he recovers, he’s going to be furious with me. He didn’t want to come to the hospital.” My forehead creased.

Mitchell nodded. “I know.” His cell phone rang and he held up his index finger to me. Stepping away, he answered the call, “Mitchell.” He turned his back to me so I couldn’t eavesdrop. He knew me well.

Less than a minute later, he spun around. “Angie, I
have to go. There’s been a serious semi versus Amish buggy accident on a county road.”

My stomach dropped. “Is everyone okay?” I asked.

He grimaced. “I don’t know yet.”

He brushed my lips with his. Was this a new thing that Mitchell would allow kissing in public? Because that was fine with me.

“I’ll call you later,” he said, and strode out through the automatic doors.

It wasn’t until he was gone that I realized that I’d forgotten to tell him what Blane had told me about the barn fire. It could wait, I thought.

Willow sidled up to me. “You know, I’ve been thinking.” Willow shook her head. “Just because that boy was dressed up in costume doesn’t mean there isn’t a Bigfoot in the county. He’s still out there.”

I sighed and went to the desk to ask after Nahum. The nurse told me that he was undergoing tests, so it might be another hour before I could see him. I relayed this information to Willow.

She sighed. “Do you want me to stay?”

I shook my head. “Go back to Sugartree Street. Bigfoot Day needs you.”

Willow called one of her Bigfoot friends and got a ride back to Rolling Brook. I asked her to take Oliver with her and drop him off at Running Stitch with Mattie. She agreed. I wanted to stay so I could be there when Rachel needed a ride home.

An hour later, I was considering leaving and coming back when a nurse came up to me with a room
number for Nahum. He was on the second floor, and I took the elevator up.

The door to Nahum’s room was ajar, and I peeked into the hospital room. Rachel sat at Nahum’s side and held his hand. She murmured to him in Pennsylvania Dutch. She was crying. He was crying too.

I backed out of the room and bumped into someone in the hallway. I was shocked to find Cameron Bright behind me. I’d never expected to see the teen again.

He nervously licked his lips. “Will he be all right?”

“I think so,” I said. “I thought you took off.”

He shoved his hands into his jeans pockets. “I did. I wasn’t going to come back. Sam told me not to but I had to know . . .” He trailed off.

“Know what?” I studied his face. Standing under the hospital’s fluorescent lights, he looked so much younger than nineteen.

“Did I make him have a heart attack or something by trespassing in his wood?” The teen’s brow crinkled in worry.

I patted his shoulder. “No. Nahum is sick. Very sick. There’s something wrong with his kidney. It’s not working right.”

He gave a sigh of relief. “Oh, but will he be okay? Don’t you need your kidneys?”

I patted the boy’s arm. “He will be all right if he concedes to the surgery to remove one of his kidneys. You only need one.”

“He won’t concede because he’s Amish?” Cameron asked.

I glanced through the open door at Rachel’s bent head. “I don’t know. He might now if he has something to live for.”

“I’d better head home then.”

I grabbed his wrist. “Not so fast.” I dragged him to a couple of chairs at the end of the hallway.

“What are you doing?” He tried to pull away, but I outweighed him by a good twenty pounds. He wasn’t leaving until I was ready to let him go.

I sat him in one of the two chairs. “All right. You are going to tell me what you saw outside my parents’ the morning your uncle died.”

He frowned.

“I know you saw something. I could see it on your face when we were in the woods. Who or what did you see?”

His frown deepened. “No one that wasn’t supposed to be there.”

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“The only person I saw there that early was an Amish guy, but I knew he was supposed to be there because I saw Amish working at the house the day before.”

“What Amish guy? Jonah Graber?”

“I don’t know. They all kind of look the same to me.”

I clenched my fists. “What color was his hair?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know that either. It was dark. I mean it was really early in the morning. The sun wasn’t up yet.”

“If you couldn’t see him, how do you know he was Amish?”

“He was walking around the trailer holding a lantern. Only an Amish person would use a lantern.”

I bit the inside of my lip. Could it have been Jonah? He didn’t have an alibi for that morning and refused to tell anyone where he had gone when he left his farm at four a.m. But then Rex gave him an alibi in a way, but was it a real alibi when Rex didn’t even know from where or at what time Jonah picked him up from the side of the road? If Jonah left his farm at four, he could have picked up Rex, dropped him somewhere, and still gotten to my parents’ house in time for the murder. I rejected the idea. Jonah would never hurt anyone. It was impossible. And Eban was Amish too. Could it have been Eban who Cameron saw? But Eban wasn’t there when I arrived at my parents’ house. He came later after the police were already on the scene.

I had to talk to Jonah. I jumped out of my chair as if I had been electrocuted. “The woman in the room with Nahum,” I said to Cameron, “is his daughter, Rachel. Can you tell her that I had to go?” I ran to the elevator before he could say another word.