Upon A Winter's Night (20 page)

“Well, maybe not the entire mood, as your people’s dedication to your faith means much more than festive decorations. I admire that—need that,” Bess added under her breath as they stopped in the back corner where the three styles of gun cabinets were displayed.

Before Lydia could talk about the cabinets, Bess said, “We always have to worry about our loved ones, don’t we?” Evidently not expecting an answer, she rushed on, “Poor Connor’s been so strung out with juggling the tree farm, mayoral duties and problems with his boys acting up because they’re used to his being home more. He’s not sleeping, worried about some of the trees dropping needles early.”

Oh,
ya,
Lydia thought, rolling her eyes. Bess obviously hadn’t walked out to look at those trees herself. Lydia figured he’d been spraying bad trees and was scared he’d get caught, by his mother or customers. Lydia could just see the headline in the papers, Son of Senator Stark Caught Covering up Sick Trees, or something shameful like that. Lydia was almost tempted to tell Bess about seeing Connor doing exactly that, but she didn’t want to be a telltale or to get Connor upset with her. He’d been touchy over the years, and she didn’t need that again with everything else going on.

“Well, maybe a nice gift like this will cheer him up,” Lydia said. “As you can see, two of these walnut pieces have glassed-in fronts which can be locked. We always like to stress safety, especially if
 
there are little ones in the house like your twin grandsons.”

“Believe me I appreciate that. Gun safety and gun control are big issues these days.”

“So, about how many hunting rifles will Connor want to store? These racks, as you see, have places for eight locked up.”

“That will surely do it. I’d shoot Connor myself if I didn’t know he kept his considerable arsenal unloaded and under lock and key.”

Under lock and key...
The words revolved in Lydia’s brain as she showed Bess the lower part of the cabinet, the fine workmanship, even the price, at which she didn’t blink an eye. Connor could be her family’s enemy—say he wanted to drive them off their adjoining property so he could expand his holding for trees more easily. He was now in partnership with Gid, at least on a small financial scale.

It was news to her that Connor had a gun collection. She’d known he’d loved to hunt, was good with a rifle, of course. Years ago she could recall him banging away at tin cans somewhere on the Stark acreage. Lately, he’d complained that deer were eating some of his seedlings, so he’d no doubt shoot them. But was he also good with locks and keys? Maybe she was wrong that Gid had to be the intruder.

“I said I’ll take the large one. Lydia, are you listening? Are you certain you’re all right?”

“Oh, sorry. Just exhausted. Thinking too much.”

“Thinking too much can be bad, and I know it. Would you believe I have pressure not only to run for governor, which I may do, but to consider a later run for a much higher office? Isn’t that all I need on top of all my other stress? Now, I’m trusting you not to tell anyone, especially your friend Ray-Lynn, I said that.”

“I won’t. But I think you’d be great at whatever you do, and I also think the cat’s out of the bag on that, too.”

“What do you mean?” she asked as they walked back toward the front desk and cash register.

“Just that two of your worldly funeral guests were whispering the same thing, two of the men.”

“Aha. Good ears and a retentive mind. I ought to hire you to keep me informed, my girl,” she said with a tight smile, and gave Lydia one of those one-armed hugs again. Lydia liked the nickname “my girl,” but then she’d heard Bess had called Naomi that, too. She silently scolded herself for selfishly wanting Bess to be her special friend. Bess might sometimes live next door, but surely they were really worlds apart.

20

“A
ll right now, Lydia,” Sheriff Freeman said, “you just take me and Ray-Lynn through the house the way you saw things. I’ve got a flashlight here in case something needs a good look, but you go ahead and lead the way with your single lantern.”

He had checked the basement and attic. On the first floor, he’d found no indication someone had broken in. Lydia first showed them the inside of the generator-operated refrigerator, though
Mamm
would have a tizzy if she knew she was letting strangers, especially worldly ones, peer inside. The Freemans both bent down to take a look.

“Things are just not the way my mother would leave them—kind of disturbed,” Lydia explained, pointing. “The honey jar, which she never would have put here, was out of its place in the cupboard and right there where the honey smears are. At first, I just figured she was in a rush.”

“You asked her about any of this yet?” the sheriff said.

“No. I thought she had enough to cope with since
Daad
was so ill. This will really worry him, too. And it will out-and-out panic her.”

“But, I’ll bet,” Ray-Lynn put in, “not as much as when you tell her about your search for information on your birth parents.”

“Every time I get close to telling both of them about that, something worse happens,” Lydia said. “And now with
Daad
’s
 
heart attack my mother would have a heart attack of a different kind.”

“Ray-Lynn and Lydia, let’s just stick to the here and now,” the sheriff said.

Lydia saw Ray-Lynn roll her eyes, but she didn’t say another word as Lydia showed them where she’d put the honey jar.

“No!” he said when she reached for it. “If worse comes to worst, I can get that fingerprinted, but I’d have to print you and your mother to eliminate yours. Just leave it there for now. It’s pretty sticky.”

“That’s because the intruder poured honey in my bed. The intruder went into the bathroom first, so I’ll show you that.”

She held the lantern high as they followed her upstairs. She just bet they were thinking the Amish were off their beans to live by lantern light. She showed them the shower—
Mamm
would have a tizzy over that, too—although the water splashes were now dried, so she had to describe the wet tub and tiles as well as the closed shower curtain. Then she took them into her bedroom. Ray-Lynn gasped when she saw the bed.

“Well, truth is,” Lydia told them, “I ripped the covers down to see if there was a note or something like that, but it was a mess before I touched it. Like someone rolled around in it. Water from someone’s body—or sweat—plus honey. Weird, isn’t it?”

“It’s got to be a man,” Ray-Lynn whispered.

Lydia thought the sheriff would scold her for talking, but he only nodded.

“All I know,” Lydia said, her voice shaky again, “is it’s someone who must have used a key to get in—and I think I have the extras now, the one hanging in the barn and the one from
Daad
’s
 
office at the store.”

“Which means it could be someone who had access to his office,” the sheriff said. “Gid Reich, your come-calling friend?”

“He really isn’t anymore.”

“And not too happy about that, I’ll bet.” The sheriff was silent a moment. “But that extra key hanging in a typically unlocked Amish barn... Who else might be sweet on you?”

“Sweet on me? You mean the honey connection? Isn’t this someone who hates me?”

“Maybe. The fact the person rolled around in your bed, took a shower—all that’s kind of sexual innuendo or threat.”

Lydia didn’t know what
innuendo
meant but she already saw this as a personal threat. She couldn’t wait for her parents to get back home so she wouldn’t be alone here. And the idea of sexual anything—that eliminated Connor, didn’t it? Leo Lowe—she wouldn’t put anything past him. But she sure hoped the honey, the shower, the bed didn’t make the sheriff think Josh could be a suspect, too!

* * *

Lydia made the three of them coffee and served thick slices of
Mamm
’s
 
bread with apple butter. She, too, felt she’d been hit on the head when the sheriff told her how Sandra’s skull was crushed in back—just as Victoria Keller’s had been.

“If the rung fits her head wound,” Lydia said, “her skull hitting the ladder must be what killed her. Then it was an accidental death for Sandra as well as Victoria. Sandra may have stirred up a beehive around here—well, I shouldn’t put it that way because of the honey—but I never believed someone would kill her for that.”

The sheriff asked, “You got any ideas on who the intruder over at Josh’s could have been?”

“Maybe the same one as here, you mean? Leo Lowe would be my first guess. And you said he wasn’t home when you went to question him, and that’s when someone was in this house.”

“Are you going to be all right staying here alone tonight?” Ray-Lynn asked. “You can come home with us and sleep in our guest bedroom, and then I can go to the hospital from there. You need a good night’s sleep.”

“I really feel I should stay here, Ray-Lynn. But I thank you both so much. I’m hoping my parents will get home soon, and we can all rest easy again. I’ll probably sleep downstairs on the sofa again and wedge chairs under all the outside doorknobs, too.”

She realized then she had not taken them into the side parlor where she’d found her father’s medications, but she’d seen nothing in there to link to an intruder. She’d already blurted out to Josh about
Daad
’s
 
quilting and didn’t need anyone else to know. Ray-Lynn would probably want to spread the word far and wide, and then Lydia would be in trouble, as if she wasn’t in deep enough already.

And two awful new thoughts hit her. If Sandra had been killed for getting involved in Lydia’s search for her birth parents, was Ray-Lynn, who was helping her, safe? And that strange, warped warning in her house and her bed—was she herself in physical danger, too?

* * *

Saturday morning as Lydia waited in Dr. Bryan’s hospital office, she was proud of herself for getting five hours of sleep, but then, she’d been exhausted. The furniture store would be open today, though she wasn’t going back in until Monday, depending on when
Daad
was released. She wanted to be sure she was home with
Mamm
to take care of him, at least a half day.

Her stomach had cramped when the nurse at the cardiac care desk had herded her into the doctor’s office instead of letting her go straight to
Daad
’s
 
room. Dr. Bryan wanted to speak with her privately first, the nurse had said. Had
Daad
suffered a setback, and the doctor wanted to break the news to her? Maybe he was going to release
Daad
and only wanted to give her some special instructions, especially since he’d said that
Mamm
might not be a good nurse for
Daad
at times
,
because she was taking those sleeping pills.

Lydia’s exhaustion made her understand better why
Mamm
took those pills, however scary the side effects were. Yet, even without any medication, Lydia now felt as if she was moving and talking but was not herself, like it was all a dream, a nightmare. All she’d wanted was to learn some things about her birth parents and it had led to so many problems.

Dr. Bryan came in and closed the door behind him. He was carrying his little laptop computer again, but he put it on the desk, then leaned over to shake her hand.

“Lydia, we’ll keep your father until Monday morning, but your mother has hired a local driver to take her home this evening and come back when he’s released. I think he may actually rest better if he’s alone tonight and tomorrow.”

Lydia nodded. Surely her parents hadn’t been arguing when
Daad
was ill. Maybe it was just having
Mamm
there that kept him talking and awake when he should sleep.

The doctor said, “By the way, I talked to your mother about her sleeping pills. I just said you’d scooped up pill containers and didn’t realize you had hers, too. I talked to her about the possible side effects. She said she was aware of them but didn’t think they were bothering her that way. Though they can be addictive for some people, I think I convinced her to go off them until your father completely recovers.”

“Oh, that’s good.”

“Of course, she’s been off them a couple of days already. But here’s the thing I really wanted to discuss with you. Your father’s blood pressure pills you brought me—they resemble Hytrin. Here,” he said, getting up and lifting a huge book from the shelf behind him, “let me show you the picture.”

He sat down in the chair beside her and flopped open the big book called
Physicians’ Desk Reference.
He pointed at a page with colored pictures of pills. “See the Hytrin capsules here? Bright red, slightly oval shaped?”

“
Ya—
yes. Did I bring the wrong container?”

“The right container, but the wrong pills. It’s obviously not your fault. Those pills—” he reached over to his desk and shook the container she’d brought him yesterday “—are not Hytrin.” He unscrewed the safety cap and spilled one out onto the page next to the photo in the book.

Daad
’s pills were red, they looked the same but— Lydia gasped. “Those aren’t oval but round. They look like red M&M candy or Red Hots!”

“Sharp girl. M&M’S are exactly what they are.”

“But don’t those have an
M
on each piece?”

“They do, but the
M
s have been carefully scraped off with a fingernail or sharp object, probably a knife. I experimented—easy to do.” He showed her the side that had been scraped. She could barely see where the
M
had been, and the chocolate was barely visible beneath the red color.

“Did you ask my father?”

“He insists he never noticed a problem. I suppose Amish homes are a bit darker with only lantern light. He said he took the pills into his furniture store once or twice. He does wear glasses for close work, and if you don’t pay real close attention, you could swallow these with water before the sugar or the chocolate inside melts. I believe your father. So the question is, who would do this? It’s not a joke or prank. It’s deadly, or could have been, at least. He needs to be on his medicine, not sugar and chocolate.”

“Did you ask my mother, too?”

“After I talked to him. She claims she has no idea—he got the pills, took the pills. She’s quite upset, especially because she thought I was implying that, when she didn’t realize what she was doing—you know, the side effects of her sleeping pills—she’d switched his. But I told her I was not implying anything of the kind.”

“No, of course not. They don’t get on sometimes, but nothing like that.”

“I’ve had my nurse phone your father’s prescribing physician and the pharmacy. They are both puzzled, and I believe them.”

“But that’s—terrible.” Her mind raced. Surely,
Mamm
was telling the truth about not tampering with
Daad
’s
 
pills. But he’d taken them to work. She should look into that, she should—

“Lydia, I’m advising you to let your local law enforcement know about this. I’m going to have to report it here in Wayne County.”

“I will. All right,” she agreed, but Sheriff Freeman was so busy with the investigation of Sandra’s death.

The doctor went on, “I’ve got him on good BP meds now, but your family must be wary, be careful. You need to ask yourself who had access to these pills after he brought them home and who would want to harm or kill your father.”

* * *

It was only noon with broad sunlight glaring off the snow, so Lydia asked Ray-Lynn to drop her off at Josh’s. Although she had shared so much with Ray-Lynn and the sheriff, she was not yet ready to accuse someone of trying to murder her father. She had to think it through, not jump to conclusions yet. And be careful who she told.

“I think
Daad
’s getting released Monday morning,” she told Ray-Lynn, half-afraid she would read her mind that something new was bothering her. “So I’ll help
Mamm
get him settled in. I’m pretty sure I can come with Josh for your Wednesday evening manger scene at the church.”

“That’ll be great. We can use any help you all can give with those animals since you said Hank can’t stay for the whole thing. Now, you just be careful walking home from Josh’s and going into that house alone, daytime or not—maybe ask Josh to go over with you and wait till you’ve looked around inside.”

“At least I’ve got all the extra keys now, because I’m sure
Mamm
has hers in her pocketbook. Oh, and
Mamm
should be home tonight anyway, so
Daad
can get more rest. And me, too, if
Mamm
and I don’t take to arguing.”

“Lydia, I’m glad you won’t be alone, but people can easily have extra keys made, you know. Right up at the hardware in town. Ding-dang, that might be an idea.”

“What?”

“If Clint Fencer comes in for his usual lunch today, I can ask him on the sly if anyone’s made extra keys lately. But then Jack would probably kill me for interfering in his work again,” she added with a sigh.

Ray-Lynn shook her head, and Lydia couldn’t help but wonder again: Had someone been in their house before recently? Someone who switched
Daad
’s
 
pills? Someone who wanted to kill him? And did that point to Gid, who was ready and able to take over the store, whether Lydia, who had cold-shouldered him, was available or not? Surely,
Mamm
’s side effects from her medicine would not cause her to dump his pills, then change them.
Mamm
liked M&Ms and usually had a sack of them in the pantry, but then there was often a dish of them at the store, and Lydia wasn’t sure who replenished that. No, that’s right—Gid had given Naomi petty change for that and asked her to get some just last week. Lydia should look at them, see if the red ones were missing. She’d check
Mamm
’s sack of them, too. Oh, how had it all come to this?