A Plain Malice: An Appleseed Creek Mystery (Appleseed Creek Mystery Series Book 4) (9 page)

What the Dutch Inn lacked in amenities, it made up for in gardens. In
the grassy center of the circular driveway boasted a sea of daffodils, ranging from light lemon yellow to deep goldenrod. I smiled. Yellow was my favorite color and daffodils were my favorite flowers. I always wished they lasted a bit longer than a few short weeks of spring. Beyond the daffodil garden, there were flowerbeds of spring bulbs, tulips, hyacinths, and flowers I didn’t know by name on either side of the inn. “What a pretty spot,” I said.

Pearl said nothing. I parked the car in the small lot to the left of the building.
A patrol car was the only other vehicle in the parking lot. I should have known Chief Rose or one of her officers would check out the inn. Ruby’s roll bag, sitting in the backseat of Timothy’s truck, should go to Chief Rose. I hoped Pearl had forgotten I’d taken it from the bus. Outside of the pickup, she gripped the handles of her roll bag as if her life depended on it.

Pearl and I
entered the lobby that was also decked out in spring flowers. By the door, a bouquet of pink hyacinths sat in a bowl-shaped vase. A massive river stone fireplace was the focal piece and dominated one wall. The walls were butter yellow and the carpet was cream and charcoal. The carpet repeated the silhouette of an Amish buggy within a two by two diamond. I was afraid that if I stared at it for too long the buggies on the carpet would begin to spin and cause motion sickness.

A
plump Amish woman with strawberry blonde hair peeking out from under her bonnet and reading glasses hanging from her neck smiled at us from behind the curved wooden registration desk. Beside her was an Amish girl close to Ruth’s age. The girl held an enormous orange Persian cat in her arms. Chief Rose was on the other side of the counter and jabbed a fist into her left hip. “Are you a mind reader, Humphrey?”

“No,” I replied.

“I was just about to call you and ask you bring Mrs. Kennerwell to the inn.”

Pearl tightened her grip on her roll bag. “Do you need me for something, Officer?”

The chief’s face softened when she looked at Pearl. “I do. Officer Riley is upstairs searching Dudley’s room. We would like to go into your room and search Ruby’s things with your permission.”

Tears gathered in Pearl’s eyes. “Yes, I suppose that will be all right.”
She swallowed. “I am in number eight just down the hall.”

“Can we go there now?” the chief asked.

Pearl looked to me.

“Do you want me to come with you?”

She nodded.

I followed Chief Rose and Pearl down a short hall to the left of the lobby. The elevator binged and opened as we passed it. I blinked
, the teenaged Amish boy, whom I saw at the Troyer farm that morning stepped out of the elevator, carrying a basket of folded towels. I stopped, and the boy looked at me quizzically.

Chief Rose and Pearl were halfway down the hall.

“Didn’t I see you at the Troyer farm this morning?” I asked the boy.

He stared at me but said nothing.

“Humphrey, are you coming?” the chief asked.

I turned to look at the chief. By the time, I looked back at the teenager, he and his basket were gone.
I hurried to catch up with Pearl and the chief.

Officer Riley stood outside of Pearl’s door.

“Pearl,” the chief said. “Can you unlock the door for us?”

Pearl’s hands shook as she put the old fashioned key into the lock. The end the key slipped off the metal.

I took the key from her hand and unlocked the door. The door swung in. The room was a simple and clean space with white cotton curtains, two twin beds, and small attached bathroom. The highlight of the room was the tiny patio off the back that led to the garden. The patio faced west, so Pearl could watch the sunset over the Kokosing.

Chief Rose and Officer Riley entered the room first.

“Which bed and suitcase belonged to Ruby?” Chief Rose asked.

Pearl pointed to the far bed, closest to the French doors.

Officer Riley pulled latex gloves out of his back pocket and set Ruby’s suitcase on the bed. He unzipped the back and began to methodically rifle through the contents.

Pearl wrung her hands. “I
’ll wait in the lobby. This is more difficult for me than I thought it would be.”

“No problem,” the chief said and looked at me.

I curved an arm around Pearl’s shoulders and led her from the room.

Pearl sniffled. “Thank you, Chloe. You are very kind.”

When we reentered the lobby, the Amish woman, girl, and cat were still behind the registration desk. The teenaged boy was nowhere to be seen.

I parked Pearl on the sofa in front of the fireplace and approached the desk. “
Would it be possible to get Pearl a cup of tea?”

The woman with the strawberry blonde hair nodded. “Ivy,” she said to the girl, who I assumed was her daughter because she had the same color hair, “Go make Mrs.
Kennerwell a cup of tea.”

“
Ya, Mamm
,” the girl murmured and turned to go taking the cat with her.

“Leave Cheetos here.
She won’t want any cat hair in her tea, and he’s shedding his winter coat right now.”

Ivy frowned but then set the cat on the counter. The cat spread out on the smooth surface like a wooly blanket.

I let the feline sniff my hand. “Cheetos?” I asked.

The woman laughed. “He belonged to our
Englisch
neighbor who moved to England and couldn’t take her cat with her. We got the name as well as the spoiled cat. Ivy adores him.”

“I have a Siamese at home.”

She smiled. “You should tell Ivy that. She loves all cats. If she had her way the inn would be overrun with them.” She glanced at the large cat, who leisurely washed his face with his right paw. “Cheetos is more than enough I think.” She reached across the counter to shake my hand. “I’m Jane Shetler.”

“Chloe Humphrey.”

She slipped her glasses onto her eyes. “You’re that
Englischer
girl who solved Katie Lambright’s murder.”

Heat rushed to my face. “I—umm
…”

Jane reached across the counter and grabbed both of my hands.
“
Danki.
Thank you for what you did. It made our community a little bit safer.”

I blinked. This was not the reaction I was used to w
hen an Amish person learned I meddled in their district’s business. “You’re welcome. Katie’s sister is Ruth Troyer’s closest friend. I am friends with the Troyer family.”

Jane nodded. “Yes, I know this. Ivy is a classmate of Ruth and Anna.
Ruth’s older brother Timothy is courting you.”

I b
lushed but wasn’t surprised she knew. “Yes.”

“Are you working for this tour group now?”

“Well, I—I’m subbing until they can find a replacement tour guide.” I swallowed.

“
Ya,
the police chief told me what happened. It’s terrible.” Jane removed her glasses, and they hung from their chain again. “Sounds like being a tour guide to this group may be a dangerous job.”

I had
n’t thought about it that way. I hoped Jane was wrong.

Chapter Eight

I petted Cheetos back, and the cat purred. “When we were walking back to Pearl’s room, we passed a teenaged boy in the hallway.”

Jane nodded. “That must have been my son Ephraim. Both he and Ivy work here at the inn.”

“I saw him at the Troyer’s farm this morning.”

She played with the simple chain
holding her glasses. “I don’t see how you could have. Ephraim has been working at the inn all day.”

“That’s odd. The boy I saw looked just like him. He wouldn’t happen to have a brother, would he?”

Jane brow creased. “
Nee,
he does not.”

Ivy returned
Pearl’s tea.

“
I’ll take it to her,” I said.

Ivy nodded and picked up Cheetos again. The large ca
t purred.

I carried the tea to Pearl. “Here’s some tea.”

She clutched her roll bag in her lap. “Thank you. Can you set it on the table there?”

I placed the teacup and saucer o
n a woven coaster. “Is there anything else I can do?”

She shook her head.

“Mrs. Kennerwell?” Chief Rose entered the lobby.

“We’ve finished ou
r search. You’re welcome to go back to your room.” The chief removed a paper list. “We confiscated Ruby’s medications. This is a list of them here. The coroner needs to know what was in her system and what health problems she may have had.”

Pearl accepted the piece of paper without looking at it. “I understand. I think I would like to go lie down now.”

“Of course,” the police chief said.

I walked Pearl back to her room, holding her cup of tea and was relieved to see Officer Riley gone. Chief Rose and her officer had been neat. There was no indication they had searched the small room.

Pearl perched on the edge of one of the beds. “Thank you so much for your help. I could use the rest and the time to make some phone calls. If I feel up to it, I will come out for dinner. When is that?”

I
set the teacup on the nightstand between the two beds and slipped the tour itinerary out my back pocket. “It’s right here at the inn at six o’clock.”

She nodded. “I will see how I feel.”

I hesitated. “Do you want me to get you anything else?”

She shook her head. “No, I’m fine.”

I opened my mouth to say something else but changed my mind. It was too difficult for me to pry into this woman’s life so soon after the loss of her cousin.

I set her key on the dresser. “I will see you later then.”

Chief Rose waited for me in the lobby.

“I have another of Ruby’s bags in Timothy’s truck,” I said.

“You never disappoint,” she said. “Show me.”

As Chief Rose and I stepped out the front door of the inn, I felt three sets of eyes on my back, including Cheetos.

In the small parking lot, Officer Riley placed the medicine he had taken from Ruby’s luggage in the trunk of the patrol car. I unlocked Timothy’s pickup and retrieved the bag from the backseat. The chief placed it on top of the hood of the patrol car. “How did you get this?”

“I went into the bus to retrieve Pearl’s bag when she said she wanted to come back to the inn. I
spotted Ruby’s too, so I grabbed it.”

“You stole it.”

I blushed. “No. Pearl knows I have it.”

She arched an eyebrow
. “Let’s take a look.” She removed a pair of latex gloves from her shirt pocket.

Officer Riley
ambled over to us.

“Do you think there
’s something in there that will tell us what happened to Ruby and maybe even Dudley?” I asked.

“Patience
, Humphrey, I won’t know until I’ve opened it.”

Right
. Chief Rose was one of the least patient women I knew.

She unzipped the bag and removed a
beige cardigan, a water bottle, a pair of thin slippers, two paperback novels, a toiletry case, and a leather-bound notebook. Chief Rose flipped through the notebook. I held my tongue even though there were a thousand questions sitting on its time. She peered at me. “It’s a diary.”

“Really?”
I leaned forward.

“Don’t get too e
xcited. It’s more of a log than insight into her deepest thoughts.” She cleared her throat and began to read. “Today, we left the inn at Birds-in-a-Hand. Before we left we had breakfast in the breakfast room. It was a buffet. I had coffee, scrambled eggs, sausage, rye toast, and butter. Pearl ate pancakes and bacon.” She closed the leather volume. “The whole thing is like that. It’s a running menu through Amish Country. I wonder if they had flakey biscuits in Intercourse. I can hardly wait to find out.”

“There must be more to it than that
.”

“Doesn’t look like it, but I will give i
t a closer read-through to make sure. I can’t wait to read what they had to eat at McDonalds in Pittsburgh.” She unzipped the toiletry case. One by one, she set the items on the table. Nail clippers, a compact, Aspirin, hand cream, and prescription pill bottle. She held up the prescription pill bottle. “Heart medicine. We found another bottle of this in the room. We’ll take this, Doc. If she had a weak heart, that could explain why she reacted so quickly to whatever killed her.”

“Pearl
mentioned Ruby had a heart murmur,” I said.

The chief sighed. “Why didn’t she tell us that at the scene?”

I shrugged. “Shock? Do you know what caused them to collapse?”

She shook her head. “We won’t know anything for sure until the
autopsy on both of them and any tests Doc has to run on their stomach contents and samples from Troyers’ farm.”