Murder, Served Simply (17 page)

I frowned. “So you were willing to spend Christmas away from your family to work with Wade in Ohio, even though he is no longer respected by the Broadway community?”

“Of course. We all were. If this is the beginning of Wade's comeback, he'll take us with him. The man is a genius.”

“And Jasper? You said they know each other from way back. Did Wade hire him?”

Blake wrinkled his nose and nodded. “I know he is my supervisor, but I don't know why Wade chose him as the stage manager. He has such a sour disposition.” He lowered his voice. “Some of the other crew members say Wade hired him because Jasper knows whatever caused the director's ruin all those years ago. I can't help but think that must be true. No one likes Jasper.” He shrugged. “Maybe Wade's just giving someone from his past a chance.” He jumped onto the stage without using the stairs and walked to a broken chair. Frowning, he said, “I'm going to try to fix that.”

“What happened to it?” I asked, standing just below the stage.

“Wade threw it across the room.”

I made a face. “Yikes.”

Blake shrugged. “At least he didn't throw a person.”

“He throws people?”

“Not yet.”

I wanted to ask why Blake assumed Wade would
throw a person, but it might have seemed too inquisitive. So instead I asked, “Are the actors afraid of him?”

Blake spun the chair leg in his hands. “I don't think so. I mean everyone is used to a yelling director. You wouldn't make it very far in this business if you weren't.”

“Where do you think Wade went?”

Blake frowned. “To smoke. He does that when he's angry. He's been doing it a lot lately. You can probably find him just outside the backstage door.”

I thanked Blake and went in search of the play director.

T
he back door had been left open a crack, and I heard angry voices. I peeked out just long enough to see Wade and Jasper glaring at each other. Each man had a lit cigarette in his hand.

“Listen to me. You mess with me and I will expose your story. That wouldn't look too good to the police if they knew. They'd throw you into prison so fast, your head would spin.”

I took another look to catch Wade's reaction.

Wade blew smoke out of the side of his mouth. “Fine. But after this production, we're through. Do you hear me?”

Jasper's lips curled. “Loud and clear.”

My heart beat faster. I should call Mitchell right away. He needed to find out what the two men were talking about. Why would it land Wade in trouble with the police? Did it have something to do with the young actress twenty years ago? What I really wanted to know was whether it related to Eve's death.

A day ago, I didn't know who could possibly kill the rising star. Today, I had more suspects than I knew what to do with. There were Jasper, Wade, Lena, Ruben, and Nahum, to name a few. How many more suspects would surface before the investigation was over?

I waited a few more beats until I knew Jasper was gone and had stepped outside. I cleared my throat. “Hello, Wade.”

“What are you doing here?” he snapped.

“Representing the township; I was just checking to make sure everything is on track.” I gave him a bright pageant smile. “And to offer any assistance if you need it.”

He took a long drag from his cigarette. “Can you sing? Can you dance? Can you act?”

The wind whipped snow across the field that divided the barn from the main hotel. In the dark, yellow light from the barn's open back door reflected in the snow as it swirled in our faces.

I pulled my stocking cap down over my ears. “Um, no.”

“Then what use are you to me?” He waved me away. The wind caught ashes from his cigarette.

“Well,” I said, “the township is very sorry for your loss. I was here the night of her performance. Eve was very good.” I paused. “How did you discover her?”

He blew the smoke out through clenched teeth. “She found me. She came to my office in New York and auditioned. I knew she was destined to the part, and
not
just because she grew up Amish, although that certainly helped. I don't know how she knew about the production. Most of my advertising for roles had been well off
Broadway.” He grimaced as if he were reluctant to admit that.

“Her sister told her about the play. I gather she heard about it because she works here at the hotel.”

Wade dropped the still-burning cigarette onto the ground and stomped on it with his boot. “A sister. Eve never told me that she had a sister working in the hotel. Of course I knew she was from here, but I didn't know her family was that close to the production.” He shrugged. “In any case, she was destined to be a star. I can always tell which kids have it and which ones don't.”

I took a step backward, closer to the entrance to the backstage, before I asked my next question. “Is that what you thought about the actress twenty years ago?”

He stepped into my face. “Who told you about that? Was it Jasper?”

He leaned in so close, I could smell the tobacco on his breath. “I paid enough money never to answer that question. I advise you to never ask it again.”

My hip hit the side of the barn. The open door was just one step behind me. “I'm sure the sheriff will be curious to find out.”

“Listen to me, little girl. You don't want to get involved with this. If you poke your nose in where it doesn't belong, you might lose it altogether.”

I resisted the urge to touch the tip of my nose to make sure it was still intact. “I don't scare easy.”

He smiled and stepped back. “That's your first mistake.”

Instead of slipping into the barn, I stepped around
Wade and retreated to the safety of the hotel. I felt the director's eyes on my back throughout the long cold walk. I was so preoccupied with what I had witnessed in the barn and the conversation with Wade, I didn't see Junie materialize out of the snow until it was too late and I collided with her.

I was twice the girl's petite size, and she bounced off me and fell into a snowdrift.

“Junie, are you all right?” I gave her my hand. “I'm so sorry.”

Junie rolled back and forth in the drift for a moment, trying to find her footing, but finally, with my help, she stood up.

“I am sorry,” she murmured as she brushed snow off her sleeve. “I wasn't watching where I was going.”

“Where are you going?”

“The barn. Mimi asked me to tell the people working on the play that supper is ready for them, and then I'm headed home. It's been a very long day.”

I couldn't agree more about the length of the day. It felt like I had seen Junie at the hotel three weeks ago instead of just that morning. So much had happened between then and now.

I grimaced. “Right now might not be the best time to deliver the message, at least not to Wade or Jasper.”

She wrapped her arms around her waist. “Why not?”

“A small misunderstanding,” I said.

If you can call an open brawl in the middle of the stage a misunderstanding.

“I'll just tell Blake, then.”

“You know Blake?” I asked.

She blushed, or at least I thought she blushed. I wasn't certain because of the darkness. “I know all the people from the production. I have been tending to their needs for more than two weeks.”

“But Wade didn't know that you and Eve were sisters.”

She frowned. “If she never told him or any of them, that was her choice. I had no reason to tell them. I barely saw my sister while she was here at the hotel. That's why you are here at the hotel tonight, isn't it? It's about my sister again. I wish you would let it go.
Gott
will sort it out for us all.”

I didn't answer, but with Wade's threat ringing in my ears, I was more determined than ever to find out how Eve fell from that swing.

Junie continued on her way to the barn.

“How do you plan to get home?” I asked.

She glanced over her shoulder. “I will walk. It's less than two miles.”

The temperature hovered in the single digits. “It's too cold for you to walk home tonight. Let me give you a ride.”

She bit her lip. “I can walk home.”

“Don't be silly. I can drop you off on the way to my meeting.”

“All right. I will just tell Blake about dinner, and we can go.” Junie disappeared into the barn.

I marched in place to fight back the cold. I was just thinking about going into the barn to look for her when Junie reappeared. “Did you find Blake?” I asked.

“Ya,”
she said, but a strange pinched expression
washed over her face. The expression came and went so quickly that I didn't know if I imagined it or saw it at all. The only light on the snow-covered walkway between the hotel and barn came from the windows of both buildings.

I shook off the uneasy feeling creeping up my spine. “Let's go.”

Snow began to fall, and she opened the car door.
“Danki
.
”
She gave me directions to her home.

“Work must have been tough today without Eve around.”

Junie stared out the window at the snow-and-rain mix pelting the glass.

I bit the inside of my cheek, deciding whether I should press Junie about her sister's death. One question still bothered me: Why did Junie tell Eve about the play? It seemed even stranger, now that I knew that the sisters barely spoke to each other in the two weeks Eve lived in the hotel where Junie worked.

It was a large hotel by Rolling Brook standards, with more than sixty rooms, but it wasn't so big that the sisters wouldn't see each other, especially since Junie seemed to be a jane-of-all-trades in the building, doing everything from waiting tables in the breakfast room, to being a maid, to being a fill-in receptionist. But maybe I was pushing the girl too far when I asked her for information. Junie couldn't be more than nineteen.

“I'm sorry if I keep bringing up Eve.”

She continued to stare out the window. “I know you're trying to help.” She took a shuddered breath.
“But I still think it is best if you leave this alone.
Gott
will claim his justice. Of this I am sure.”

I turned off the main road onto a long country lane. The car bumped on the deep cuts made by buggy wheels in the snow. The back roads were always the last to get plowed. Living in Ohio during the winter has never made me so grateful for my little SUV. I never knew what it was capable of in Dallas.

Junie pointed to a black mailbox ahead, sitting under the soft glow of a lantern. “That's my home. You can stop at the end of the driveway to let me out.
Mamm
always leaves a lantern burning for me at the end of the driveway when the weather is poor. She says that it's to guide me on my way, but I know she watches it. I will blow it out to let her know that I have made it home.”

The car rolled to a stop at the end of the drive. I looked up the very long driveway. The house seemed so far away. “Jump out and blow it out, and I will drive you up to the door.”

“I can walk from here.” She opened her car door. Rain and snow blew into the car's interior.

“Don't be silly. Your driveway is a sheet of ice. I can't let you break your ankle. Plus it is sleeting. You will be frozen by the time you cross the threshold.”

“All right.” She hopped out of the car, blew out the lantern, and brought it back into the car with her. “
Mamm
will know I am home now.”

My car bumped the rest of the way up the uneven driveway. Junie's family must have been in and out of the house often through the winter. The buggy wheel ruts were much deeper here than they had been on the
road. “I'm sure your parents will be happy you made it home safe and sound. And your brothers and sisters too.”

“Eve was my only sister.”

“Oh, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have assumed you had other siblings.”

“Because I am Amish, you thought I came from a large family, but my family is very small.” She paused.

I watched the house grow bigger in my windshield as the wiper blades moved back and forth on the glass. The farmhouse's front door opened, and a petite Amish woman with a thick wool cape wrapped around her body stood in the doorway, holding a lantern identical to the one in Junie's lap.

I shifted the car into park.

“Thank you for the ride,” Junie called as she hopped out of the car before I could reply.

In the light of the lantern, the woman, who I could only assume was Junie's mother, stopped her daughter from dashing into the house by touching her arm. The pair spoke for a moment before Junie went into the house. Instead of following her daughter inside, Junie's mother held the lantern high as she approached my car.

I powered down the passenger side window.

“Guten Nacht,”
she said as she peered into my car. I was shocked by how much Esther looked like Eve. I could almost see the girl in her mother's face. There was no resemblance between her and Junie. I wondered if the younger Shetler sister took after her father. “I am Junie's mother. Please call me Esther.
Danki
for bringing Junie
home on such a terrible night. Please come in for a cup of
kaffe
.”

I hesitated. If I accepted her offer, I would certainly be late for the trustees' meeting, and I was already on thin ice with Head Trustee Caroline Cramer for tardiness in the past. Then again, this might be my only opportunity to speak with Eve's mother.

I unbuckled my seat belt. “I would love a cup of coffee, especially on such a frigid night like this.”

“
Gut
. You can leave your car right here. We don't expect any visitors tonight.” She turned and headed back to the house, fully expecting me to follow, which I did.

My ugly boots crunched in the snow as we crossed the yard.

Instead of going in through the front door where I saw her waiting with the lantern in vigil for her younger and only remaining daughter, she led me to a side door.