Murder, Simply Stitched: An Amish Quilt Shop Mystery by Isabella Alan

Author:Isabella Alan
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2014-06-03T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-four

I strode to my car. “Oliver, it’s time to go home!”

Oliver and Tux rolled in the grass. Reed sulked on the tree lawn, kicking leaves into the air and onto the sidewalk. The dogs barked while the leaves floated back to the ground. Surely, Mitchell had carefully raked them there for leaf pickup day.

Mitchell had forgotten Tux was still in the yard. I couldn’t leave him in the yard alone, but I didn’t want to knock on the door or feel Hillary’s wrath either. I peeked around the house. The backyard was fenced. That seems like the best option.

“Come one, Tux. We’re going to the backyard.”

The black-and-white tuxedo dog lowered his front legs as if I asked him to play a game of tag.

“Tux. Backyard.”

Reed kicked more leaves into the air. That only excited the two dogs more. Maybe I should wait until Hillary and Zander left to decide what to do about Tux. Or knock on the door and remind the sheriff he left his dog outside? I wavered.

“Who was that lady?” Reed asked.

“The sheriff’s ex-wife.”

He curled his lip. “She was a friend of my aunt’s. I saw her at the house a couple of times.”

“They must have been close friends then.”

He kicked more leaves. “I guess so. I can see why he divorced her.”

I came to Hillary’s defense. “She’s worried about her son.”

“She’s a rattlesnake. What did she think I was going to do with the kid?”

I shrugged. “Why did you agree to stay with the sheriff?”

“I didn’t have a choice. It was this or be put with a foster family. My mom is not coming to my rescue.” His face pinched as if holding back tears. “I don’t know if she even knows Aunt Wanda is dead. I tried to call her a couple of times, but she didn’t answer. That wasn’t a huge surprise.” His voice caught, and he kicked more leaves.

I threw a stick for the dogs to give him a minute to recover. “I met Gabe and Zeph on the auction grounds today. They’re your friends, right?”

“They are guys to talk to. I wouldn’t say they were BFFs or anything. If you haven’t noticed, they’re Amish. There aren’t that many good options for friends in this town. It’s either them or all the tools at school.”

“Every last student at the high school is a tool?”

“They’ve known each other since they were in pre-K. They don’t have any use for me, which is a mutual thing.”

“Is that why you’ve been skipping school to work at the auction house?”

“Who said I skipped school?” He shoved his hands into his pockets.

“Wednesday was a school day and you were at the auction.”

“Not that it’s any of your business, but I told my aunt I wasn’t going to set foot back in that high school. She said I could homeschool.” He looked down. “Sometimes she could be cool about stuff. Not most of the time, but sometimes.”

“Wanda was homeschooling you?” I couldn’t keep the disbelief from my voice.

“No. I enrolled in a special online school.

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