I opened the door to find a blond Amish woman standing outside. It took me a moment to realize who it was. “Esther, what are you doing here?”

  Under the glow of the porch light, her face looked yellowed and drawn. She whispered something I couldn’t hear.

  I leaned closer. “What did you say?”

  She grabbed my hand and pulled me out the door. I stumbled onto the sidewalk.

  “Esther, what’s going on?” I cried as I righted myself.

  “I need your help.” She held my hand so tightly, I thought she might break my bones.

  “Help with what?” I tried to pull my hand away, but she held it fast.

  “Please. In the pretzel shop. I don’t know what to do. You have to come now.” Her eyes darted in all directions.

  “Are you hurt?” Finally, I yanked my hand away from her grasp.

  “Please. Aren’t you listening to me? She’s in the pretzel shop!”

  I shook out my hand. “Who? Who is in the pretzel shop?”

  She wouldn’t answer me but just ran back toward her shop. I thought she would go in the front door, but instead she ducked down the alley between Swissmen Sweets and Esh Family Pretzels.

  After just a moment of hesitation, I followed her. There were no lights in the back alley between the two businesses. I had been meaning to have a light installed on our building, but hadn’t gotten around to it yet because I knew the Esh family wouldn’t be pleased.

  The back door to the pretzel shop stood wide open, and dim electric light came from inside. Having electricity in her shop was the only compromise Esther made to the Englisch world. She had to have it in order to acquire a license to sell fresh food. I stepped into the kitchen, which was a third the size of the Swissmen Sweets kitchen. The Esh family exclusively made pretzels and didn’t need as much workspace as we did. At Swissmen Sweets, we needed a large kitchen because of the vast variety of candies we made.

  The small kitchen felt even smaller when I saw an Amish woman slumped on the floor just by the open oven door; she was crumpled in front of the oven as if she had been a house of cards that had folded into itself.

  “Is she alive?” I crouched on the floor next to the woman. I grabbed her wrist, and when I didn’t find a pulse, I moved my hand to her neck. Her skin was clammy and cold to the touch. There was a red mark around her throat that was beginning to change to purple and blue. I was close enough to see her face and her blank dark green eyes. I gasped. It was the mystery woman from the baby shower. The one who knew about Emily’s first baby.

  When I was on the floor, the smell hit me. Like rotten eggs. I glanced at the open oven and jumped to my feet.

  “Can you see her? You need more light? Can you help her?”

  Behind me, I heard a clatter. I turned to see Esther holding a long lighter toward the lantern on the counter. “I need to see her better.”

  “No!” I knocked the lighter out of her hand and hit the lantern in the process. I caught the lantern before it could fall to the floor and shatter.

  Esther stared at me.

  “Gas,” I said. “Can’t you smell the gas? If you light anything, this whole place might go up.”

  She blinked a few times, and then realization dawned on her face. “I didn’t notice it before. I was so shocked by what I found, I didn’t notice anything else.”

  I pulled her by the arm to the open door. “We have to get out of here.”

  She didn’t move. “What about her?”

  “Esther, she’s gone.”

  I dragged Esther out the door into the dark alley. But even in the open air, I was too afraid of the gas to light a match. Thankfully, there was a full moon that provided some light.

  Esther wrung her hands. “What am I going to do? What am I going to do?”

  As much as I wanted to comfort her, I had to call the police. The gas line to the shop needed to be turned off. If there was a spark, it could set off an explosion that would damage an entire block of Harvest’s charming downtown, including Swissmen Sweets.

  The dispatcher picked up on the first ring.

  “There’s a gas leak at Esh Family Pretzels.” I swallowed. “And there’s a dead body in the building.”

  “Did you say that there’s a body in there?” the dispatcher asked.

  “Yes,” I squeaked.

  “Bailey King, is that you?” the dispatcher asked.

  “Yes,” I said with a sigh.

  “Oh, my word.” She clicked her tongue. “When Deputy Brody hears that you’ve found another dead body, he is going to flip his lid.”

  I didn’t doubt it for a moment.

  She then turned no-nonsense. “I have the gas company, EMTs, and officers on the way. You know the drill. Don’t touch anything.”

  Unfortunately, I did know the drill. All too well. That was Aiden’s main complaint.

  I ended the call and turned to Esther, who was folded at the waist, standing next to the dumpster. “Esther, are you all right?’

  “Are you sure she’s dead?” Esther whispered.

  I nodded. “She’s gone. Who was she?”

  “I just found her. I walked in the back door, and she was like that.”

  “On the floor?” I noted she hadn’t answered my question about the woman’s identity.

  “Nee, her head was in the oven. I pulled her out, but I wasn’t strong enough to pull her from the shop. That’s why I came to find help.” She closed her eyes. “But I was too late. She must have already been dead. This is all my fault.”

  I touched her arm. “Esther, why is it your fault? Who is that woman?”

  Once again, she ignored my questions, including the one about the woman’s identity.

  “I know that she was at the baby shower. She spoke to Emily. I was there when she did.”

  “She should not have spoken to Emily without me.” Esther knocked my hand away. It made me feel better to see some of Esther’s spunk back. A crying, insecure Esther was much more unnerving than an angry one.

  Whether she admitted it or not, I was positive that Esther knew who the woman was. But if Esther and Abel weren’t in the building, how had the woman gotten inside, and more importantly, why was she lying dead on the floor?

  “What was she doing here?” I wrapped my arms around my shoulders. Even though it was May, it was chilly so late at night.

  She still didn’t answer my question.

  “Esther, you’re in a lot of trouble. The police are on their way. They’re going to ask you all the questions that I’m asking you. You need to be prepared.”

  Her eyes met mine. “You mean that I need to have my story straight.”

  “I’m not telling you to make up a story, but you need to be prepared to answer questions.”

  She scowled at me and clamped her mouth shut. I wasn’t going to get anything out of her. I wished Aiden the very best of luck. Even under duress, Esther was harder than day-old caramel.

  CHAPTER SIX

  “Bailey!” Aiden called from the alley.

  “Behind the pretzel shop!” I shouted.

  Aiden and Deputy Little appeared around the side of the building. Both of them were in their Sheriff’s Department uniforms. After having the day off, Deputy Little had gone back on for the night shift.

  “What’s going on?” Aiden asked. He looked to me for answers. I wasn’t surprised. Unfortunately, I’d learned to be concise when summarizing a crime.

  “There’s a dead Amish woman in the pretzel shop kitchen,” I said.

  “Little,” Aiden said, “go to all the houses on this block and ask the residents to step out of their homes. Inform them there’s a gas leak.”

  “Yes, sir.” He looked at his phone. “The gas company just arrived on the scene. I’ll go out and meet them, and then knock on the doors.”

  Aiden nodded, and Deputy Little jogged back down the dark alleyway to meet with the gas company.

  “Maami and Charlotte are sleeping in Swissmen Sweets,” I said with anxiety in my voice.

  “Little will get them out. The two of you need to move away from the building, too. Go across the street to the square. That’s where we’ll send everyone.”

  “I can’t leave my shop,” Esther said, speaking up for the first time.

  Aiden looked at her. “I’m sorry, but you’ll have to. This is a dangerous scene.” He removed a compact flashlight from his belt. Although the flashlight was small, it had a strong beam that illuminated every pebble and stray leaf in the alley. “You can’t stay here. I’m going to check inside the building.”

  “Are you sure you should go in there?” I asked. “The gas—”

  He looked at me, meeting my gaze. “Bailey, I’ll be fine. Take Esther to the square.”

  I nodded and pulled Esther along toward the street. As we emerged from the alley, I saw Maami and Charlotte stumble out of Swissmen Sweets onto the sidewalk in their nightclothes and coats. Charlotte carried Puff, and my grandmother had Nutmeg in her arms. I was relieved to see that they’d remembered the animals.

  Deputy Little walked with them, murmuring to Charlotte as they went. She nodded at something he said. They crossed the street and stood by the gazebo until Esther and I joined them. Deputy Little ran to his squad car and came out with two blankets. He wrapped one around my grandmother’s shoulders and the other around Charlotte’s. She gazed up at him with so much adoration in her face, I had to look away.

  “Bailey, are you all right?” Maami asked as she tucked the blanket more closely around herself and Nutmeg. “When the deputy knocked on the door, I was so shaken I forgot to ask where you were. Had you already gone home? Did Aiden call you and tell you to come back?”

  “I was still down in the shop, and it was a good thing I was when Esther came running for help.”

  “I need to get back to Deputy Brody,” Deputy Little said somewhat reluctantly to Charlotte.

  “Go,” she said. “You have work to do. We’ll be fine here.”

  He nodded and darted back across the street.

  At the same time, Esther walked away from us back to the sidewalk. She stopped there and stared at her business as if keeping a vigil of some sort. I’d deal with her after I knew my family was okay.

  Charlotte adjusted the rabbit in her arms. “She is an armful. You would think an animal that just ate vegetables wouldn’t be this heavy.”

  “Keep hold of Nutmeg, Maami. He’s been known to run away, but you can set Puff down,” I said to Charlotte. “She never wants to go anywhere.”

  “Oh, thank goodness.” She bent and set the bunny on the plush lawn.

  Puff hopped one foot away and started eating the grass. My pet rabbit was very much an emotional eater. I suspected that she might have gotten that from me.

  “Where is everyone else? Aiden told Deputy Little to go door to door and make sure that no one was in any of the other buildings. But you two are the only ones here.”

  “He did that,” Charlotte said, coming to the defense of the young deputy.

  “We are the only family who still lives over their shop,” Maami said. “That’s a gut thing, because no one is here at this time of night, especially when tomorrow is Sunday. Everyone is resting before church.”

  That was a relief. I shivered to think what would have happened if Esther had lit the lantern or if I hadn’t been there to stop her.

  Esther stood about ten feet away from us on the curb at the edge of the square. She continued to stare at the pretzel shop. There was a light on inside the shop now. Aiden and the police had put up some kind of lighting so they could examine the scene. I wished I was in there right now. Not because I wanted to be anywhere near the dead woman, but because I wanted to know what was going on. The woman who’d died was the same one who’d come to Emily’s baby shower and knew about her first baby. Who was she? I had a feeling that Esther had the answer to that question, but good luck to me or anyone else who tried to get it out of her.

  I don’t know how long we had been standing by the gazebo when Aiden strode across the street. In the glow of the high moon and the streetlamps, the lines on his handsome face appeared more pronounced.

  He was tired, and I knew the weight of another murder pulled him down. All he wanted was a peaceful, calm county. With death after death targeting Harvest, he was far from that dream. I worried about how this would impact him. It was becoming more apparent that the sheriff—who rarely left the department to assist with any investigation—was beginning to blame the uptick in crime in the county on Aiden. Of course none of this was Aiden’s fault, but Sheriff Marshall was a man who liked to point fingers, and his favorite person to blame was always Aiden. He resented Aiden for being so popular with the public.

  Last year, the sheriff had been up for reelection, and no one, including Aiden, had the nerve to run against him. Aiden said he couldn’t run because it would show disloyalty, which was a big no-no in law enforcement, but I wished he had. I knew he could have won, and then he wouldn’t have had to deal with the disgruntled sheriff any longer. Aiden managed the department pretty much on his own already.

  Aiden ran a hand through his hair and down his face. “The good news is that there is no gas leak. Someone just turned on the oven and opened the door.”

  “But there was no heat coming from the oven. Was the pilot light out?”

  He nodded. “My guess is whoever turned on the oven blew it out. The rep from the gas company checked and double-checked for any other source of gas but found none. The fumes should be gone in a couple hours. There’s no real danger, but I’d feel a lot better if you all didn’t sleep in the candy shop tonight. Maybe I’m being overly protective, but I’m fine with that.”

  “I’d feel better if you didn’t, too,” I added to my grandmother and cousin. “You can spend the night at my house. I’m sure Puff would love to show Nutmeg around.”

  Maami nodded. “All right. Charlotte and I will drive over in my buggy so we’ll have it handy to go to church tomorrow.”

  Charlotte glanced at Esther, who continued to stare at her pretzel shop. Esther’s arms were wrapped around her body so tightly, her fingers almost touched at her back.

  “What about Esther?” Charlotte asked. “Where is she going to go? I doubt that Abel will come and take her home at this time of night.”

  I thought the same. Perhaps it was one of those nights when Esther worked late and slept on the cot in Esh Family Pretzels in order to finish all her work. That was often what Emily had done until she finally had had enough and left.

  “She can stay at my house, too,” I said. “If you don’t mind sleeping on the floor, Charlotte.” I wasn’t going to ask my grandmother to sleep on the floor.

  “That would be okay, but I can also grab the cot from the candy shop. It’s the one I used to sleep on until you moved into your house. It’s quite comfortable.” She smiled. “I sort of miss sleeping on it. The bed is just so big.”

  Leave it to Charlotte to find a silver lining.

  “I’ll go tell her,” Charlotte said and walked off in Esther’s direction.

  Maami, Aiden, and I watched as Charlotte hurried over to Esther. Esther shook her head. But Charlotte didn’t take no for an answer. She grabbed Esther’s arm and pulled her toward us.

  “Are you all right, kind?” Maami asked Esther. “That must have been a terrible discovery.”

  Esther looked as if she might cry. Or it could have just been a trick of the light. I’d never seen her cry before, but she had found a dead body tonight. That would shake even the most stoic soul.

  “I will be fine. Charlotte has told me that I have to leave.” Esther shuffled her feet. “I can’t leave. It’s my job to make sure that everything is put away and ready for Monday morning.”

  “I’m sorry, Esther, but you can’t go back into the pretzel shop tonight,” Aiden said. “Honestly, I don’t know if you’ll be able to enter the building on Monday. It’s a complicated scene.”

  “Is it because of the gas? Maybe we can put fans in there to blow it out. It can’t last that long. I can wait.” Esther grabbed the edge of her apron and twisted it in her hands.

  “It’s not just the gas that’s a factor,” Aiden said. “The kitchen is a crime scene. You can’t go back in there tonight or tomorrow.”

  “You can’t close my kitchen,” Esther said. “This is my business and my family’s livelihood. How do I know my shop will be safe with so many Englischers going in and out of it without me knowing?”

  Aiden frowned. “The people working the scene are all professionals. You have nothing to worry about. However, I’ll station a deputy outside of the building to be safe. You have my word that nothing will happen to the shop while we are investigating this crime.”

  Esther looked as if she wanted to argue some more.

  My grandmother touched her arm. “Come, dear. Charlotte and I are going to go to Bailey’s house for the night. You’re welcome to stay with us.”

  She jerked her arm away. “I’m not spending the night in an Englischer’s house. I want to go home. I will walk if I must.”

  I sighed. I should have expected a reaction like this from Esther. “You’re not walking to your farm in the middle of the night,” I said. “I’ll drive you.”

  “Fine,” she said without so much as a thank-you.

  Aiden glanced over his shoulder as the coroner’s car arrived on the scene. When he turned back, Aiden’s wry, almost-smile was just for me. He knew that Esther was no fan of mine. “That actually works better, Bailey. I have to check in with the coroner. Clara and Charlotte, you’re free to go. Esther and Bailey, can you hang around for a bit longer?”

  I nodded, knowing that Aiden needed to get our official statements while the events were still fresh in our heads. I imagined that Esther would not be happy with any of those questions.

  Aiden’s face softened as he looked at me, and my stomach did a little flip. I knew there was more he wanted to say to me, but he wasn’t going to do that in front of Esther.

  “Can we grab a few things from inside?” Maami asked.

  He nodded. “That would be all right. I’ll send over Deputy Little to help you carry what you might need to your buggy.”