“My wife knows nothing. I will answer your questions, and then I will ask you to leave. Your being here upsets the simple life we live. You are not welcome here.” He looked at me when he said that. I didn’t think I would be coming back to visit my new friend Layla any time soon, but truth be told, Jethro was more than enough pig for me.

  Samson answered the deputy’s questions, but he said over and over again that his wife didn’t know anything. I disagreed. I had a feeling Amelia Mast knew exactly who had taken the money, but as far as I could tell, there was no way to get her to talk.

  Chapter Nine

  Samson didn’t tell Deputy Little anything he hadn’t already told me, and the deputy and I walked back to our respective cars.

  He removed his ball cap. “I don’t know. I think the money might be gone by now. Anyone in the church could have taken it, and I don’t have enough information for a warrant to search the Mast home.”

  “I don’t think a warrant is a good idea anyway. It would just create more animosity between the Amish and law enforcement.” I didn’t add that I thought Sheriff Jackson would enjoy the idea of searching an Amish home. I wasn’t sure enough that the Mast family was behind the theft to put them through a stressful police search.

  Deputy Little scratched the top of his head. “I suppose you’re right.” He sighed. “Maybe it was too much to hope that I would be able to solve this case. The sheriff wants me to table it if I don’t have any good leads by Monday morning. Unfortunately, we have to do that sometimes when a case goes cold. There are other cases that the sheriff and Deputy Brody want me to pay attention to. I can’t spend time spinning my wheels trying to find this money, money that by now may already be spent.”

  I thought about Jenna and women like her who needed Abigail’s Farm to get back on their feet. “We will find a strong lead,” I said. “I’ll make sure of it.”

  He opened the door to his department SUV. “Deputy Brody said that you were stubborn. He told me that you wouldn’t give up. I guess he was right.”

  “I’m choosing to take that as a compliment.” I smiled.

  I was walking over to my own car when a just-washed pickup truck pulled into the Masts’ driveway. The driver of the pickup saw that I was about to leave, so he pulled his pickup into the front yard.

  Deputy Little nodded at me that it was time to leave, and I frowned.

  An English man got out of the car. He was large, well over six feet tall and broad through the shoulders, with steel gray hair and an impressive gray mustache. He wore jeans, a flannel shirt, and a giant silver belt buckle. He looked familiar, but I didn’t know from where. It was possible that I had seen him around the village, or that he’d come into Swissmen Sweets a time or two.

  Samson Mast came around the house and waved at the man. I noted that Layla the pig came around too. The English man glanced at me and then walked over to Samson. Without speaking, the two men went into the house together and the screen door slammed closed after them. I wished I were a fly on the wall in that house at the moment. Was I right in thinking that they were there to talk about the robbery?

  Layla didn’t go into the house. Instead she settled down behind the bed of daffodils like she was tucking herself in for a nice long nap. I smiled at the sight of her nose sticking out among the stalks.

  Deputy Little and I left in our separate cars. I didn’t feel up to giving Polly Anne a full report, so I texted her when I got back to Harvest that Samson said he wasn’t involved. I decided not to share my suspicions about Amelia. I told her that Deputy Little and I were doing our very best to find the money, but secretly I thought along the same lines as Deputy Little. It might just be too late for any hope of getting that money back.

  * * * *

  The next day was Mother’s Day, and I met my parents outside Juliet’s church. Since leaving the Amish faith, my father hadn’t been a regular churchgoer, but my mother went from time to time back in Connecticut. Juliet had invited her to the service, and knowing my mom, she felt it was impolite to refuse.

  After the services, Maami and Charlotte would join us at Juliet’s house for a Mother’s Day brunch.

  I beat my parents to the church, but instead of going inside I waited out in the church yard and watched the English population of Harvest walk into the large white building with the purple door.

  A minivan parked in the handicapped spot in front of the church, and the large man I had seen at the Mast farm the evening before got out. He hurried around the side of the van and opened the back door. He removed a walker, set it up on the pavement, and then opened the passenger door too. He carefully helped Linda Benson out of the van. I blinked. The man I had seen at the Mast farm had to be Linda’s husband, and then I remembered Amelia telling Samson that Rusty Benson had planned to stop by. I should have made the connection before.

  I was debating going over and talking to them when something hit me in my calves. I was wearing heels and stumbled forward. Happily, I didn’t fall completely to the ground. I spun around and found Jethro looking up at me. “You too, Jethro?” I asked. I really didn’t know what it was with pigs wanting to take me out recently. I’d stopped eating bacon and pork when I made Jethro’s acquaintance.

  “Bailey, dear,” Juliet called. “Jethro was so eager to greet you that I had to set him on the ground and let him run.” She rested a hand on her cheek. “I love to see how much he loves you. He already views you as his sister.”

  “Sister?” I squeaked.

  “Oh yes,” Juliet said. “I see Jethro as my piggy son, and when you marry Aiden, you will be his sister of sorts.”

  Jethro wiggled his curly tail. I frowned. I wasn’t sure whether it was love, or if he just liked to mess with me. And I didn’t know how I felt about the whole swine sibling situation either.

  “Bailey,” my mother said. She and my father walked across the lawn. My mother wore three-inch high heels and clung to my father’s arm to keep her footing.

  Juliet smiled at them. “I’m so very happy that you all were able to come to the service today. Mother’s Day is such a special day. Aiden should be here shortly. I’m just tickled to be here with my family and my family-to-be.”

  I suppressed a groan. I doubted Juliet was going to let up as long as my parents were in town.

  When I looked back at the minivan, the Bensons were gone. I frowned. I expected I would see them in church. There was something about seeing them that put me ill at ease. I didn’t know what it was. It was apparent that Rusty doted on his wife and took good care of her.

  “We should go in,” Juliet said. “The service starts in five minutes, and Reverend Brook does not approve when parishioners walk in late.”

  We went in and sat in what I had come to think of as Juliet’s pew. It was six pews from the front on the right side. It was in the middle of the sanctuary, and from that spot we could see most of the room. I wondered if that’s why she’d picked it. I sat on the end of the pew, expecting Aiden to come in any time.

  Juliet was on my right, and Jethro was on her lap. If anyone thought it was odd that there was a pig in the church, no one said anything. I suspected that, aside from my parents, the parishioners were all used to it. Jethro was a constant fixture around the church, and he would become even more so when Juliet and Reverend Brook got married. He would be the top pig in the church—if not in all of Harvest. I hoped the fame would not go to his head.

  Aiden didn’t show up at the beginning of the service and my phone vibrated in my hand. It was a text message from him. Got called into the station. Will try to get away by brunch. I sighed, and beside me, Juliet sighed too. I guessed she’d received the same text. I knew it was harder for her to deal with since it was Mother’s Day. I knew she wanted her son to be with her at church, but Aiden was the best deputy in the department, so he was the one who was called away most. He had to support other deputies, like Deputy Little, who might need help on a case.

  Linda and Rusty Benson sat on the other side of the aisle two rows in front of us. I knew that I was supposed to be listening to the service, but instead my eyes were boring into the back of Rusty Benson’s head. I knew I had seen him before, I was just trying to place him. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t remember. He was a big, imposing guy and would be difficult to forget.

  The organist began to play the second hymn, and the congregation stood up. I did too, holding my hymnal, but my mind was not anywhere near the words in front of me: it was on Rusty Benson. I knew the memory was there, I just had to worm it out. We were on the last verse of the song. Juliet, who was also in the church choir, was giving it her all, and then it hit me. I gasped as I realized where I had seen him before. He was the man I had bumped into when I’d entered the building on the way to set up tea. I recognized him from the back. That meant he could have been in or near the church around the time of the robbery.

  When the song was over and we sat back down, I fidgeted in my seat like I had when I was a child. I was dying to question Rusty about the tea. My mother reached across Juliet’s lap and placed a hand on my knee, just like she used to when I was young. I felt my face grow red.

  After the sermon, we stood again for the last hymn, and during the singing Rusty whispered something to his wife. She nodded, and then he walked out the side door of the sanctuary in the middle of the song. I knew this was my chance. I leaned over to Juliet and whispered, “Jethro looks like he needs to go out. I can take him.”

  She beamed at me. “That’s so very thoughtful of you, Bailey. You are going to make the most considerate wife.”

  It took all my power not to grimace at that statement. I scooped up the pig, tucked him under my arm, and hurried out of the church. When I went out the sanctuary doors, I found the church’s purple front door wide open. Through those doors, I spotted Rusty pacing on the front lawn. It looked to me like something was weighing on him pretty heavily.

  I nodded to the pig. “You’re my cover, okay, so try to keep it together.” I set Jethro on the ground.

  The little bacon bundle smiled up at me. It was almost as if we had done undercover work together before, which, come to think of it, we had. He started nosing around the bushes near the church’s foundation as if he were looking for a good spot. Jethro was a very clean pig. Somehow Juliet had been able to train him to go to the bathroom outside like a dog.

  Rusty frowned at us and kept pacing.

  I left Jethro to his own devices and walked over to Rusty Benson. “You must be Linda Benson’s husband. Rusty, is it?”

  He gave me the side eye. “It is. What’s it to you?”

  I felt my eyebrows go up. It seemed to me that Mr. Benson was as grumpy as his wife was kind and nurturing. “I met her yesterday at the tea.” I paused. “Didn’t I see you there?”

  He snorted. “I’m not going to any ladies’ tea.”

  “That’s odd, because I know I saw you there. You were leaving just as I was coming in, through the back door?”

  He frowned. “Maybe I was there at the beginning, to drop Linda off. She needs help getting into the building. It’s my job to take care of her.” He glared at me as if he were challenging me to dispute that.

  I wouldn’t even try. It was clear that Rusty loved his wife very deeply.

  He scowled at me. “What is it you want?”

  “I’m sure Linda told you about the missing money,” I said.

  “So what if she did?” His cheeks immediately turned red. People started coming out of the church and down the steps. “Now, if you will excuse me, I have to see to my wife,” Rusty said.

  As he turned away, another idea hit me. “You’ve been having trouble selling your farm, haven’t you, Rusty?”

  He turned to face me very slowly, like spooky-movie slow. I wouldn’t have been surprised to find him wearing a clown mask when he turned around. Thankfully, he wasn’t. “What did you say?”

  “You have been having trouble selling your farm. Linda told me. She said you were worried about money because of her medical expenses.”

  “That farm is worth a million dollars! I have three hundred acres, and it’s been well cared for. It’s some of the most fertile ground in the entire county. Ask anyone and they will tell you the same thing!”

  Polly Anne helped Linda around the side of the church. With her walker, she couldn’t come down the front steps like the other members of the congregation. Linda’s round face was red. “Rusty, dear, what has gotten into you? I could hear you yelling from the other side of the church. And where did you go? Polly Anne was kind enough to help me out, but I was worried about you. I thought something happened. You are always at my side.”

  Tears sprang to Rusty’s eyes. “I will always be at your side. I would do anything for you, Linda. Do you understand that? I would do anything.”

  And anything could include stealing money from a farm that was trying to help struggling women get back on their feet, I realized.

  “Rusty,” I asked quietly. “Did you steal the money so Abigail’s Farm would close?”

  Polly Anne and Linda gasped. “He would never!” Linda exclaimed, and then she studied her husband’s face. “Rusty, you didn’t, did you? You wouldn’t!”

  His face crumpled like a child’s.

  “I have the money. It’s right there in the minivan. I was planning to put it back. I was going to hide it in the church kitchen and be done with it. I knew it was wrong the moment I took it.” Tears were in his eyes. “All I could think about was what the Realtor said to me when I had the farm appraised last week. She said that it dropped in value by a third because of the proximity to Abigail’s Farm. Young farmers with families wouldn’t want their children close to a place like that.”

  Linda gasped. “But we believe in the mission of Abigail’s Farm. We’ve even donated to it, and I gave extra money at the tea.”

  “I know.” He hung his head. “But it’s one of those situations where I care about you more than those women. You are my wife. My duty is to you first, and I have to do everything within my power to make your life easy. I wish I could take away your pain and suffering. I swear I would take it upon myself if I could.” He looked up. “But I can’t. The only thing I can do is make sure you have the very best care and the very best life possible. That takes money. Money I have in the farm, but can’t use because it was devalued by those women.”

  Deputy Little walked over to us. Aiden was a few steps behind him, but I could see he was pulling back to let the younger deputy take the lead. Aiden locked eyes with me for just a second. “What’s happening here?” Deputy Little asked in his most official voice.

  No one answered.

  Deputy Little looked at me, and after a beat, I gave him a quick summary. He nodded at Rusty. “You did this?”

  Rusty nodded. “I snuck back into the church and grabbed the money while everyone was watching Polly Anne’s speech.”

  Deputy Little removed the handcuffs from his belt. “Sir, I’m going to have to take you in for robbery.” He took a step forward.

  Polly Anne jumped between him and Rusty. “No, don’t arrest him.” She held up her hands in the universal stop sign. “Please, don’t arrest him. If he gives the money back, we will say that’s the end of it.” She turned to Rusty. “I know what you’re going through. I know what it’s like to love someone so much that you would do anything to help them.” She choked on her words. “You would do anything to keep them alive. That’s what I would have done for Abigail if I could have. If money could have saved her, I would have stolen it too.”

  Deputy Little looked back at Aiden for permission. Aiden gave a slight nod, and Deputy Little put the handcuffs back on his belt. “Where’s the money?”

  “It’s in my minivan,” Rusty said. He hurried over to the van, opened the passenger side door and reached under the seat. He came up with a plastic storage bag filled with bills. He walked back to us and handed it to Polly Anne. “It’s all there. You can count it. I didn’t take one penny.”

  Polly Anne held the money to her chest. “Thank you, Rusty. Thank you for returning this. You don’t know what it means to the women at Abigail’s Farm, and to me.”

  Tears gathered in Rusty’s eyes. “I think I do.”

  Linda wiped away tears. “Polly Anne, I am so sorry. Rusty never should have done that.”

  Polly Anne put a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “Please don’t be. All is forgiven. You are a lucky woman to have a man love you so well.” She took a breath. “Now, I just have to go to the Mast family and apologize for accusing them. I feel awful about that.”

  “We will go with you,” Rusty said. “The Mast family needs to hear what happened from all of us.”

  “I think that’s a good idea,” Polly Anne said, and then she turned to me. “Thank you, Bailey.”

  I smiled. “Thank Deputy Little,” I said. “It was his case.”

  Deputy Little blinked, as if surprised I would say that.

  “Great job, Deputy Little.” I clapped him on the shoulder. He blushed, and Aiden winked at me. I think he knew how the case had really been solved.

  Epilogue

  “My goodness,” Juliet said while we sat around the table at Mother’s Day brunch in the little bungalow she rented just a few blocks from Swissmen Sweets. “That was quite a morning.”

  Everyone at the table, Maami, my parents, Charlotte, Reverend Brook, Juliet, Aiden, and I—and, oh, Jethro, who was on Juliet’s lap—agreed. It had been quite a morning, but the money from the tea fundraiser was back in Polly Anne’s hands where it belonged.

  “I don’t remember life in Holmes County being this dramatic,” my mother said. “When I arrived Friday morning, I thought nothing had changed. Clearly, I was wrong.”