When Martha went out to the barn to feed her dogs the following morning, she discovered Fritz, her male sheltie, lying in the corncrib on a pile of dried corn. Her heart gave a lurch. Had someone come into the barn and let the dog out? No, that was impossible; the barn door had been locked. She was just being paranoid.
“How did you get out of your kennel, boy?” Martha murmured, reaching out to pat Fritz’s head. “And what are you doing here in the corncrib?”
The dog lifted his head and responded with a lethargic grunt. He was obviously quite comfortable.
Martha was sure she had latched all the cage doors securely last night. She glanced around, wondering if any of the other dogs had gotten out. To her relief, there was no sign of them.
“Come on, Fritz. You can’t stay here all day.” Grasping the dog’s collar, Martha led him back to his kennel. The door to his cage was hanging open, although the latch didn’t appear to be broken. Could Fritz have figured out some way to open the gate? If that were the case, she would have to rig something up so he couldn’t get out. Martha put Fritz back in his cage and inspected the rest of the cages. Everything was just as it should be.
Smiling, she leaned against the wire fence that enclosed the dog run and watched Heidi’s growing puppies scamper around, yipping and nipping at one another in play. She glanced at her beagle Polly and was pleased to see that her pups were nursing. The little scamps were sure growing. Maybe she would run an ad in the Bargain Hunter and sell some of the puppies for Valentine’s Day.
I hope that article by Gary Walker won’t hurt my sales.
Pushing her disconcerting thoughts aside, Martha hurried to get the dogs fed and watered. She didn’t have to work for Irene today, so after breakfast, she planned to head to Berlin to do some shopping for Mom.
Should I lock the door? Martha wondered as she left the barn a few minutes later. No, everything will be fine. I’m just feeling anxious for nothing. Martha closed the barn door and headed for the house to help Mom with breakfast.
“I can’t get over that article Gary Walker wrote in yesterday’s newspaper,” Grace said.
Cleon nodded as he scooped his lunch pail off the counter. “The man ought to get his facts straight before he writes a story like that.”
“I think he wrote those things about Martha on purpose, just to make our family look bad.”
Cleon grunted. “You don’t still think he’s trying to get even with you for breaking up with him when you were a teenager, do you?”
“I don’t know. He’s denied it several times, but I don’t trust him.” Grace sighed. “After the way he treated me when we were dating and the upsetting things he’s said to me since he came to Holmes County, I wouldn’t put anything past him.”
Cleon glanced at the kitchen table where eight-year-old Anna sat eating her oatmeal. Daniel was seated in his high chair next to her. “We shouldn’t be talking about things like this in front of the kinner,” he said, lowering his voice. “I don’t want them to live in fear that something bad’s going to happen.”
“Daniel’s not old enough to know what’s going on,” Grace said. “Anna’s another story. She’s already been through a lot, so I’ll try to be more careful what I say in front of her.”
Cleon gave Grace a hug. “There haven’t been any more attacks for a while, so try not to worry.”
As Grace stood in the doorway, watching Cleon walk down the driveway toward her father’s barn, she whispered a prayer. “Dear Lord, please put an end to these attacks.”
As Martha left the hardware store, where she’d purchased some new feeding dishes for her dogs, she spotted Luke coming out of the market with a disposable camera in his hands.
Luke waved.
She waved back, wondering if he would make his way across the parking lot to say hello. To her delight, he did.
“What are you doing in town in the middle of the day?” she asked as he stepped up to her. “I figured you’d be working.”
He nodded. “I am. John sent me to town to pick up a few things he needed, so I decided to make a stop of my own.”
“For that?” she asked motioning to the camera in his hand.
“Jah.”
“Why do you need a camera?”
“To take pictures, of course.”
“Of what?”
Luke’s voice lowered to a whisper. “Since I’m trying to help you figure out who’s behind the attacks, I figured I might get some pictures.”
She tipped her head in question.
“If another attack occurs, I’ll come out with my camera and take pictures of the damage and any evidence that might be there.”
Martha lifted her gaze to the sky. “Like my daed’s going to let you do that.”
“He doesn’t have to know. I’ll do it when he’s not around.” Martha shook her head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Luke.”
“Why not?”
“Even if you did get some pictures without my daed seeing you, what good would the pictures do?”
“If the pictures show anything helpful, I guess I could take ‘em to the sheriff.” Luke shrugged. “’Course, I’m not sure how much good that would do, since he hasn’t done much to stop the attacks. Makes me wonder …”
“Did you see that article in yesterday’s paper written by Gary Walker?” Martha asked.
“Nope. I haven’t even read yesterday’s paper. What was it about?”
“It had to do with the rumors that some Amish in the area are running puppy mills.” Martha shook her head. “Gary insinuated that I might be running a puppy mill.”
Luke’s mouth dropped open. “You’re kidding.”
She shook her head. “He attended dinner at Irene’s a few weeks ago, and before he left, he cornered me, asking if he could come to our place and interview me about my dogs.”
“What’d you tell him?”
“I said I wasn’t interested in being interviewed for the newspaper.” Martha rubbed a sore spot on the side of her head, knowing she was on the verge of a full-blown headache. “I figure he probably wrote that article to get back at me for refusing to let him do a story about my kennel business.”
Luke grunted. “Gary Walker is not a nice man. In fact, he’s near the top of my list of suspects.”
Martha nodded. “Mine, too.”
“You know what I think we should do?”
“What’s that?”
“I think we should plan to meet somewhere again and go over our lists. I have a few ideas I’d like to talk to you about.”
“When did you want to meet, and where?”
“What are you doing this Saturday?”
“I’m not working that day, and I have no special plans.”
“How about we meet at Keim Lumber? It’s always crowded there on Saturdays, and we’ll probably go unnoticed.”
“You want to sit in the parking lot in our buggies and talk about the attacks?”
Luke shook his head. “I figured we could meet there and then drive somewhere out of the area in my pickup where we’re not likely to be seen by anyone we know.”
Martha’s heart began to race. She’d only seen Luke’s truck when it was parked in the woods, and she certainly never expected to take a ride in it. What if someone she knew saw her getting into his truck? Would they tell Dad? Would they think she and Luke were courting?
Before she could formulate a response, Luke snapped his fingers and said, “Rats! I almost forgot.”
“What?”
“I can’t go anywhere in my truck because my daed has the keys.”
“You gave him the keys to your truck?”
He nodded.
“I didn’t think your folks knew you had a truck.”
“Thanks to that blabbermouth Toby, my folks found out.” Luke grimaced. “Toby told Pop he saw a truck like mine cruising around the schoolhouse in Farmerstown the night it was egged. Pop thinks once the word gets out that I’ve got a truck and someone spotted a truck like mine near the schoolhouse, I’ll be blamed for the vandalism. He was so upset about all this that he demanded I get rid of the truck.”
“What’d you say?”
“I refused. Then he said I’d have to move out.” Luke tugged his earlobe. “When I said I would leave, Mom got real upset. The next thing I knew, I’d opened my mouth and suggested that I leave my truck keys with my daed for the next couple of weeks. Then I said if a truck was seen anywhere near a place that had been vandalized, Pop would know I hadn’t done the dirty deed.”
Martha stood, too dumfounded to speak. If Toby had been so brazen as to tell Luke’s folks about his truck and that he thought Luke might be involved in the schoolhouse vandalism, what else was Toby saying about Luke, and to whom was he saying it?
Luke touched Martha’s arm, and the strange tingle she felt made her wish even more that they were a courting couple.
“The uncertain expression on your face makes me wonder if you believe I’m responsible for those acts of vandalism.”
“No, I—”
“I didn’t do it, Martha. You’ve got to believe me.”
“I do believe you.”
“Then you’ll still meet me on Saturday?”
She nodded. “If the roads aren’t too bad, maybe we could take separate buggies and meet somewhere other than Keim Lumber. That way, if someone should see us, it won’t look like we’re together.”
Luke groaned. “I hate sneaking around all the time. I ought to have the right to see you without having to hide it.”
“Well, if you’d just—”
Luke snapped his fingers. “Why don’t we meet in Mt. Hope at Mrs. Yoder’s restaurant? It’s not likely we’ll see anyone we know up there.”
“That’s true, but even if we do see someone we know, they’ll probably think we came there separately and are sharing a table.”
“I’ll see you at Mrs. Yoder’s on Saturday then. In the meantime, I’d better get back to work before John comes looking for me.”
Martha smiled. “It was good seeing you, Luke.”
“Same here.”
As Luke sprinted toward his buggy, Martha smiled. She could hardly wait until Saturday.