Assaulted Pretzel (6 page)

“I do not think the people of Heavenly will buy such toys.” Eli tucked his thumbs behind his suspenders and rocked back on his heels. “They will know what Mr. Karble does is not right.”

Swinging her gaze back to the men, it took every ounce of restraint she had not to dispute Eli’s claim, the young man’s innocence a blanket of protection she wasn’t willing to rip away at that moment. When people lived in such an insular world, they couldn’t truly comprehend the big picture. And in Eli’s world, greed was a foreign concept.

At least that’s what she tried to tell herself. But she knew better.

So, too, did Benjamin and Jakob, and the hatted men wearing an uncharacteristic worry on their faces. They knew the truth. They knew that having Amish-inspired toys mass-produced by a huge company with shelf space in every big-box toy store across the country would virtually annihilate any mail-order business Daniel Lapp currently enjoyed.

Did Eli truly not get that?

“We must go, Eli. It is time to check in on Ruth.” Benjamin clapped his hand atop his brother’s shoulder and gestured his chin toward their sister’s pie booth in the distance. Then, with a quick nod to Jakob, he smiled at Claire. “It is good to see you, Claire. Very good, indeed.”

She felt Jakob’s eyes studying her as the Miller men walked away, and she prayed her mixed-up feelings for the Amish man weren’t visible to the naked eye. If he detected anything, though, he didn’t let on, and for that she was grateful. If she didn’t understand what was going on inside her heart where Benjamin and Jakob were concerned, how could she expect anyone else to understand?

Eventually, Jakob spoke, his words bringing a welcome diversion from a topic she wanted to avoid at all costs. “In any other place and with any other person, Karble would be facing charges right now. But the Amish won’t do that even if they should.”

Her shoulders slumped under the weight of Jakob’s words and the memory of Eli’s face. “Do you really think Eli is oblivious to the damage mass production will wreak on Daniel’s business?”

Jakob shook his head. “No. Eli gets it. He’s just trying to keep his temper in check and that’s a good thing.”

Claire couldn’t help but agree, even smiling a little at the obvious pride in the detective’s face. For although he would probably never have a real relationship with his niece, Esther, his quiet words of encouragement toward the young man who would surely be Esther’s husband one day helped—even if neither man would ever admit to the other’s existence.

They fell into step once again, the pervasive mood around them taking the joy out of a festival Claire had been
anticipating for months. “I guess the decision to ship the jobs to Grand Rapids could have been worse,” she mumbled.

“How do you figure that?”

“If Karble had the Amish making the toys first and then took the work away, the disappointment would be even higher, don’t you think?”

“I guess. But even now, with this, Daniel and Isaac and all of the other men have to be upset. Work like that could have meant so much. But even if they are upset, they won’t show it for long. It’s not the Amish way.” Jakob stopped beside a booth devoted to bread and lowered his voice. “But it’ll be there. Trust me on that.”

She tried to nod, to acknowledge what he was saying, but it was hard. The smell of freshly made bread was a killer. “Mmmm…Do you smell that?”

He laughed. “I do. But you can’t have any bread or it’ll fill you up so much there’ll be no room for your Schnitz and Knepp.”

Jakob was right.

“So where is this must-try food booth I’ve heard so much about?” She looked to her left and then her right before turning a questioning eye in Jakob’s direction. “Do you know?”

He straightened up tall and looked over the heads of the people around them. Seconds later, the dimples she adored so much were in place beside his heart-stopping smile. “I see it. C’mon.” Tucking her hand inside his arm, they set out across the festival grounds to a series of booths that dotted the northernmost border, his running commentary about the Amish delicacy making her mouth water. When they were mere steps away, though, he stopped, turning to her, wide-eyed. “What happens if they’re all out?”

“All out?” she echoed. “Does that happen?”

“All the time.”

She looked back toward the booth they just left and sighed. “I suppose I could have some bread then…”

“Nah, I’m just kidding. The Amish don’t run out. Not at this festival, anyway.”

She pulled her hand from its spot inside the crook of his elbow and used it to swat at him. “Hey…now that’s not nice. Not nice at—”

A loud scream from somewhere behind the Schnitz and Knepp booth cut her off midsentence, its bloodcurdling pitch chasing all signs of mischievousness from Jakob’s demeanor.

“Jakob? What is that?”

He didn’t stick around to answer. Instead, he took off running in the direction of the sound, with Claire hot on his heels. Step by step they wove their way through the unending sea of wide-eyed festivalgoers, the sound of their feet on the hard-packed earth impossible to hear over the terror-filled shrieks.

Moments later, he stopped, his hand shooting out to his side in an effort to keep her from going any farther. Peeking around his solid frame, she sucked in her breath as Esther—who stood hunched over the fully supine and lifeless body of Rob Karble—finally burst into tears.

C
laire hated to see people cry. It didn’t matter who, when, or why. Simply seeing another person’s sorrow bothered her. It always had.

But sitting there, on the steps of Heavenly Treasures, as tears streamed down Esther’s cheeks and onto her pale blue dress and white apron, Claire knew she’d never felt more helpless. The every-few-breaths hitch to the young woman’s head only made it harder.

“Shhh, it’s okay.
You’re
okay.” Claire reached out and tugged the strings of her friend’s head cap until they dangled free, hoping against hope the move would unleash the fiery, determined side she knew was hiding just below the surface. “There’s nothing you could have done, Esther, to change what happened.”

Lifting her head ever so slightly, Esther turned her puffy and red-rimmed eyes on Claire. “B-but h-he w-was d-d…d-dead.”

There was nothing she could say to dispute Esther’s words.

Ron Karble was dead—the victim of what appeared to be a fatal blow to his right temple. A half-eaten pretzel found inches from a blood-soaked rock gave both a glimpse of the man’s final bite of food and the weapon that likely took his life.

The
who
behind the crime, though, was still a mystery.

She moved her hand still higher and tucked a wayward strand of Esther’s brown hair back under the simple cap, her heart twisting at the overwhelming sadness that had replaced shocked horror on her young friend’s face. “Jakob will figure out who did this, Esther. I know he will.”

“B-but who…who w-was that man?” Esther swiped the back of her hand across her damp cheeks and sniffed. “And why w-would some…someone h-hurt him like that?”

Claire looked out at the autumn sun as it began its slow descent over Heavenly, the calm and peaceful October in stark contrast to the scene she knew was playing out in the field behind the shops on the other side of Lighted Way. The discovery of the toy manufacturer’s body behind the Schnitz and Knepp booth had brought a quick and definitive end to the festival.

Within moments, the Heavenly PD swarmed the grounds and began dividing necessary tasks designed to clear the area around the victim’s body, interviewing any and all people who may have been in the vicinity of the crime, and assisting in the investigation, including directing the medical examiner’s van around the temporary booths that dotted the surrounding area and removing the camera the victim had worn around his neck.

When it became apparent that Esther knew nothing beyond the heart-stopping fear of having stumbled across a
dead body, Jakob had urged Claire to take his niece somewhere where she could cry it out.

And cry it out she had, twisting Claire’s heart more and more with each subsequent sob.

“His name was Rob Karble and he was the president of Karble Toys—a great big company that makes just about every kind of toy you can imagine and then sells them in stores from coast to coast.”

Esther sniffled again, her voice shaky between hitched breaths. “H-he was the man who stole Uncle Isaac and Mr. Lapp’s plans, wasn’t he? Th-the one who was going to have the Amish make his toys and then ch-changed his mind?”

“That’s the one.”

“B-but who would want to…to kill him?” Esther whispered.

Claire propped her elbows on the step behind them and stared up at the sky, the faces of potential suspects standing in for the stars that were still an hour or so away. “Who
wouldn’t
want to after he pulled the stunt he pulled?”

The second the words were out of her mouth, she wished she could recall them. Not because they weren’t true but because the vast majority of the men parading their way through her thoughts were Amish.

Pulling her upper body straight on the step beside Claire, Esther jutted her chin outward. “But killing is wrong! For any reason!”

Oh, how she hoped Esther’s fellow Amish had the same depth of conviction. But Amish or not, they were human. And humans could only endure so much before they snapped. The question was whether that snap would take the form of mental chastising, clenched fists, angry words muttered within the walls of an empty barn, or a moment of haste that would change a person’s life forever.

To Esther, she simply agreed. Any speculation to the contrary would only start the tears again.

The
clip-clop
of an approaching buggy made them both look to the right, the identity of the men behind the horse making Claire perform a quick check on the status of her ponytail while Esther hastily retied the strings of her head cap.

“Eli will see I have been crying,” Esther whispered. “I do not want him to know.”

Reaching to her left, she rested a calming hand on her friend’s arm. “Eli will understand. You’ve been through a terrible ordeal and you handled it as well as you, or anyone else, could. You’ve nothing to be ashamed of, Esther.”

Eli’s horse released a snorted exhale as the open-top wagon came to a stop in front of Heavenly Treasures. Holding his hat atop his blond hair, Eli jumped down from his seat beside his brother and ran over to Esther.

“Esther. You are okay.”

For the first time since finding Rob Karble’s body, Esther’s young face broke out into a smile, the woman’s eyes trained on nothing but those of the man she loved. “I am okay, Eli.” Then, pulling her right hand from his protective grasp, she wiped at each of her eyes before forcing her smile to go still wider. “I am sorry you have to see me this way. I…I must look silly.”

Eli looked from Esther to Claire and back again, his voice dipping to a whisper that stopped just short of being inaudible. “You look beautiful, Esther.”

Not wanting to infringe on the young couple’s private moment, Claire stood and made her way toward the wagon. As she approached, Benjamin jumped down from his seat and met her halfway, the worry in his eyes not much different than what she’d just witnessed in Eli’s.

“Claire? Are you okay?”

She managed a smile of sorts while simultaneously hooking a subtle thumb in Esther’s direction. “I’m fine. But Esther? She’s had a rough go of it.” Following the path of her own finger, she stole a glance at Eli and Esther, their heads bent close together while Eli provided the kind of comfort Esther desperately needed. “Though, now that Eli is here, I think she’s going to be okay.”

Her heart fluttered in her chest as she turned back to Benjamin and found his penetrating blue eyes studying no one but her. “Did you see his body, too?”

Slowly, she inhaled, the image of Rob Karble lying faceup on the ground with a still-bleeding head wound fresher in her mind than she realized. “I did.”

His strong hands, callused from his work in the fields yet surprisingly soft at the same time, reached for hers, the unexpected feel of his skin against hers leaving her momentarily breathless. “And you are sure you are alright?”

She shrugged. “I didn’t like seeing that, but I was more concerned for Esther and how quickly I could get her out of there. Fortunately, Jakob did everything he could to speed up that process.”

“That is good.”

“I’m sure he’ll need to question her further once the body has been removed and he gets into the nitty-gritty of his investigation, but for now she gets a much-needed break.” She stole yet another glance in Esther’s direction. “She was really upset.”

“Jakob will find who did this.”

Claire drew back, surprised by the conviction she heard in Benjamin’s voice. “You sound so sure.”

“Jakob is a good detective.”

For a moment, she wished she had some sort of recording device that would enable her to play Benjamin’s words back
for Jakob to hear. If she did, then maybe they’d go a long way toward erasing the hostility the detective still harbored for his childhood rival.

“But it will not be easy for him.”