A Plain Malice: An Appleseed Creek Mystery (Appleseed Creek Mystery Series Book 4) (12 page)

“This is an early to bed, early to
rise crowd. Always assume that they need less time than you give them. They want to go to the inn and take off their orthopedic shoes.”

“Thanks for the advice,” I muttered.

Hudson smiled. “You’re welcome.” He handed me the mic. “Now, hit it and entertain the masses.”

I took the microphone from his hand with a grunt.

At the inn, Gertie handed me her roll bag as she disembarked. “Careful with that. It has my jerky.”

Melinda shook her head as she took the bag from me.

I consulted the itinerary again while they made their way to the entrance. “You will have dinner here at the inn tonight at six in the dining room.”

Fred scowled. “
Why doesn’t this place have cable? I want to watch the game. We got in too late last night for me to complain.”

I wondered if there was a specific game Fred wanted to watch or any game would do. I couldn’t remember if I even saw a
television in Pearl’s room earlier in that day. “It’s an Amish inn.”

“It’s ridiculous.”

His wife Nadine trilled in laughter. “Oh, Fred, don’t be such a grumpypuss.”

To me, i
t looked like Fred was a professional grumpypuss.

Jane
answered questions at the desk, and Ephraim stood nearby, alert and ready to help the guests with their every need. When he saw me, he slipped away again. I frowned and debated too long about going after him.

I
slipped away to check on Pearl before I left. I knocked on the door. There was no answer. “Pearl? It’s Chloe. I just wanted to say good-bye. I’m leaving for the day.”

Still nothing.
Was she asleep?

I hurried down the stairwell to the first floor
to find Fred arguing with Jane about the lack of televisions in the inn. “Do you have cable in your part of the inn?”

Jane’s friendly smile waned.
“Cable?”

“Yes
, for a tele-a-vision.” He said the word extra slow as if he thought she didn’t know what he meant.

I balled my hands into fists.

Jane’s smile resurfaced, and her Pennsylvania Dutch accent became more pronounced. “What is this television you speak of? I don’t know what you mean?”

Fred’s mouth fell open. “
What kind of backwoods place is this?”

Jane
forced a smile. “You are staying at an Amish inn, and our life is plain.”

He pointed a finger at her. “Who are you kidding?
This place is lit up like a Christmas tree with electric lights. How Amish is that?”

“Would you like me to turn the light
s off, Sir?” Jane asked.

Gertie poked her head between Fred and Nadine at the counter. “
Make due, Fred. I don’t have Wi-Fi.”

Nadine place
d a hand on her husband’s arm. “Oh, Fred, she knows what a television is. She’s just teasing you. Aren’t you, Jane?”

Nadine and Jane shared a conspiratorial wink, and my fists unclenched at my sides. “I’ve seen the
m at Wal-Mart,” Jane said.

Fred picked up his roll bag and stomped away from the desk. Nadine shouted out apologies as she
hurried behind him.

I placed my hands on the counter.
“Do you know where Pearl is?”

She looked confused.

“The lady who I brought here earlier today. I went upstairs to check on her and she didn’t answer her door.”

Jane
stacked papers on the counter. “I know who you mean. You can’t find her because she’s checked out.”

I flattened my hands on the dark wood countertop.
“Checked out?”

The travelers
waiting for the elevator stared at me in concern.

I lowered my voice.
“How could you let her do that?”

Jane
blinked at me. “What do you mean I let her? She paid for her night here even though she didn’t stay. It wasn’t like I could tie her down and tell her not to leave. If a guest pays, I don’t ask questions.”

“Where did she go? She doesn’t know anyone here and could get lost?”

She slid the papers in a manila folder. “I don’t know. I didn’t ask.”

“How did she leave here?
On foot? She didn’t have a car. We are still a few miles from town.” Worry for Pearl’s safety grew in the pit of my stomach.

“I called her a cab.”

“A cab. Appleseed Creek has a cab?”

“The cab company was from Mount Vernon.”

“Can I see her room?” I asked.

Jane
frowned. “It’s already been cleaned for the next guest.”

“Humor me
, Jane. This elderly woman just lost her closest relative and doesn’t know a soul in Ohio. She’s traveling alone and scared.”

“Maybe I should have stopped her. She was determined to leave. I have to stay here while the other gue
sts have questions. Can you check the room yourself?” She went to the back wall and selected one of the keys. She dropped it in my hand.

“Did she take her luggage with her?”

“Yes.” She pointed at her feet. “She left her cousin’s though. She asked me to have it loaded on the bus. It’s down here.”

I leaned over the counter and saw Cheetos sleeping on top of Ruby’s suitcase.

I held up the key. “I’ll bring this back as soon as I check the room.” I spun around and dashed down the hallway.

At
Pearl’s room, I slid the key into the lock. The door swung open. The room was just as it appeared when Pearl and I arrived a few hours ago. Everything looked exactly the same as it had before with the exception of the absence of Pearl’s and Ruby’s luggage.

It should have occurred to me that this might happen. I kicked myself for leaving her on her own.
Where would the cabby take her? All the way to the Columbus airport?

I slipped my Smartphone out of my jacket pocket, knowing what I had to do next.
Chief Rose would not be pleased.

Chapter Eleven

“She left?” the police chief bellowed. “You shouldn’t have left her alone!”

I
stood in a small corner of the lobby and held my phone away from my ear to avoid bursting my eardrum. “You told me to return to the bus.”

There was a pause. “Oh, right
.” She ground her teeth. “She couldn’t have gone too far, and there are two taxis companies in Mount Vernon. I’ll have Nottingham track her down.”

“Do you think she ran out of guilt?” I hated that my voice sounded so hopeful, but someone to
divert the investigation’s focus from Mr. Troyer was welcome.

“Nice try. Troyer’s father is still a suspect.”

I sighed. It seemed the chief had me figured out. I said good-bye and slipped my phone into my pocket. Now, all I wanted to do was go home. My car was still at the Troyers’ farm where I left it that morning, which seemed so long ago. I called Timothy.

There was
a smile in his voice. “You need a lift?”

“Yes,” I said relieved.

“All right,” he said. “I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

I waited in
the flower garden to the right of the building, the early spring flowers: tulips, small Dutch irises, and more daffodils were in bloom. By June, the garden would be awash with colorful annuals and perennials. I touched the petal of a bright red tulip. It was hard to believe in August I would have lived in Appleseed Creek for one year. Originally I’d planned to be in and out of the rural town within that time. I took the job at Harshberger College because the position padded my résumé, which was heavy on degrees and low on work experience, and Harshberger was the only place that would hire me. Then, I met Becky and her brother Timothy, and my life changed. The thought of leaving made my heart ache.

A twig snapped to my left. I turne
d, grateful for the distraction from my black thoughts. A shadow moved near the corner of the inn.

Angry voices floated in my direction. “You’d better not be lying to me.” A male voice said.

I edged along the side of the building with only the tiniest needle of guilt tickling the back of my mind. I eavesdropped, yes, but I did it with the Appleseed Creek police chief’s blessing.

“There’s nothing to worry about. What happened won’
t mess anything up,” the same voice said.

“
You’d better be right, or I’m pulling out,” the second voice, which could be either male or female, rasped.

I inched around the side of the building
, hoping to see who they were. At least I knew one was a man, so that narrowed down my candidates from the bus tour—if it was a passenger from the bus—considerably. There were far fewer men than women on the trip.

“And,” the hissing voice said. “This had better not cost me any
more money.”

“It won’t. What y
ou have already paid is enough. More than enough.”

I accidently kic
ked a pebble with my toe, and it bounced off the stone side of the inn with a click. I froze.

“Did you hear something?”
Raspy asked.

“It was probably a
squirrel. Don’t be so paranoid,” the man said.

“I have a reason to be paranoid. If this doesn’t
go through, I’m ruined.”

Beep!
Timothy turned into the circular drive and beeped his horn. “Chloe! I’m over here!”

The whispers stopped.
I heard rustles as the pair moved away. I peeked around the side of the building. Whoever had been there talking was gone and knew I had been there. I leaned against the building’s stone face and closed my eyes for a brief second.

I waved at Timothy and then ran around the building, hoping to catch up with the pair. They were nowhere to be seen. They must have slipped inside of the one of the inn’s many doors. Going into the inn to search for them would be no use. By that time, they would have blended
with the other tour bus passengers.

Timothy met on of the other side of the building. “What are you doing? You just took off
.”

I caught
my breath. “I think I just overheard someone scheming on the other side of the building. I ran around to see if I could catch them.”

Timothy’s brow creased in concern. “What was
it about?”

“I don’t know
.” I kicked at the pebbles on the walk. “It sounded suspicious. One of them was threatening the other.” I bit my lip. “And I think they may have overheard when you called my name.”

Timothy took a step in the direction of building as if he were trying to decide if he should run after whoever
had been there. “You think that’s a problem.”

“I don’t know, but I think it would be
better if they didn’t know I had been listening to their conversation.”

Timothy frowned. “Maybe you shouldn’t do this, Chloe. This isn’t like the other
times you helped Greta. When you did this before, most of the people were Amish, and I knew them. We don’t know anything about these tourists.”

I
stopped kicking pebbles. “I promised the chief.”

He stepped into my person
al space. “I would never recover if something happened to you.”

“Nothing is going to happen.”
I swallowed hard.

“If it does, it will be my fault for announcing you were there.”

“For all they know I just came outside and didn’t hear a thing.”

Timothy appeared unconvinced. “It will be my fault just like this tragedy at the farm was mine.”

I pulled back. “How’s that?”

His hair fell into his eyes, and he raked it away with his fingers.
“It was my idea to let the tourists taste the fresh milk.”

“That doesn’t
mean the killer wouldn’t have tried to hurt both Dudley and Ruby some other way.”

“True, but my father wouldn’t be a murder suspect either.
” He clenched his teeth for a brief moment. “
Daed
knows who got him into this situation.”

“I’ve messed this up ten times worse than you have.” I went on to tell him about Pearl vanishing from the Dutch Inn.

“Nottingham will find her.” Timothy walked over to the truck. “Where to? Home?”

I shook my head. “We have to go back to the farm, so I can get my car.”

Timothy nodded. “I wanted to drop in on my parents too and make sure the hazmat suits have left.” He paused. “
Mamm
and
Daed
are both taking these accusations hard.”

We got in the truck and rode in silence to the farm. I
considered mentioning my run in with Curt Fanning to Timothy but decided to wait.

On the Troyer farm,
a police cruiser idled in the middle of the driveway.