Chapter Thirteen

An hour after Tess left, Lois’s car rolled up the driveway. I was sitting in the backyard sipping a cup of coffee when the goats took off for the front of the house.

I stood up and watched them careen around the side of the building. “So you will run and greet Lois, but not me. I see how you two are,” I muttered, setting my empty mug on the small table in the garden, and walking at a much slower pace around the side of the house.

Lois waved the goats away. “Calm down, you two. You saw me yesterday. No hoof marks on my sweater!”

The goats backed off, but jumped in place as if Lois was in on whatever game they were playing.

“Millie, I don’t agree with Ruth Yoder often, but those goats are too much to handle. I think they got it in their heads that they are puppies by the way they romp about,” Lois said.

“Puppies are more sedate than these two. Puppies sleep. These two go all day.”

“It’s a wonder you get any rest.”

“They don’t go in the house. Even if I wanted to let them inside, Peaches would chase them out. He’s a very territorial kitten.”

Lois laughed. “Oh, my word, I thought I was never going to escape the café. It seemed like every person who came in wanted to talk about the flea market fire. It’s a very hot topic all over the village. Are you ready to go to the orchard and get to the bottom of it?”

“I don’t think we should go to the orchard today. It would be better to wait for tomorrow.”

“Wait, why? You were all for it earlier.”

I told her about Tess’s visit. “I don’t want to make more trouble for Tess today. It’s likely that her father reprimanded her for coming home late from the market. I don’t want him to think that her detour was in any way related to me. That will only put her in more hot water.”

Lois frowned. “I was really looking forward to doing some sleuthing this afternoon.”

“We can still do that. It would be helpful to find out where Ben went after he left the flea market yesterday morning.”

“You said he went to work.”

“Ya, but at some point he stopped here to tuck that note in my door too. When was that?”

“How are we going to find out?” she asked. “I doubt his employers are going to be running forward about his comings and goings when there are so many rumors about him and the fire flying around.”

“Emily’s husband, Daniel Keim, is our best hope.” Briefly, I told her about my conversation with Emily. “Emily might not know the other places where Ben worked, but I think if Ben told anyone, it would be Daniel. They are about the same age.”

“Don’t you think Deputy Aiden has already checked that?” Lois asked.

“I’m sure he has, but he would have no reason to tell us what he learned. He doesn’t want us to have anything to do with the investigation.”

Lois shook her head in mock sadness. “He doesn’t know us very well, now, does he?”

“I think he’s starting to get an idea of who we are.” I smiled.

“Between us and Bailey poking our noses into his police investigations, he has his hands full.”

He did indeed.

“And we can pick apples tomorrow morning?” Lois asked hopefully.

I nodded. “You bet.”

She laughed. “You’re starting to talk like me, Millie!”

After telling the goats to behave themselves, Lois and I climbed into her car.

“You don’t have to tell me how to get to the Keim Christmas Tree Farm. I got my tree there last year and know exactly where to find it.”

I nodded and settled back in the seat.

Before I knew it, Lois turned down the bumpy driveway that led to the Keims’ farm. Thad Keim and his son Daniel ran the place, and Thad’s ailing grandmother lived in the daadihaus on the extensive property. The Keims had one of the biggest stretches of land in the county. They had to. Growing trees takes up a lot of space.

As we bumped down the driveway, the large house, daadihaus, and barn came into view. According to Emily, Ben’s room had been in the daadihaus, where Grandma Leah, Thad’s grandmother, lived. I had heard that she was feeling poorly of late. I hoped that we wouldn’t have to disturb her in order to see Ben’s living space.

Behind the buildings, there were fir and pine trees as far as the eye could see. Some were ready for Christmas decorations, and others were just saplings.

“Do you think that Daniel is out in the Christmas trees?” Lois asked. “There are so many rows. I don’t know how we would find him.”

I was about to answer when a tall young man came out from around the side of the house. He had an Amish beard that indicated he was married, but the beard wasn’t very long. He and Emily would have only been married for a year in January.

“I guess we don’t have to go looking,” I said.

Daniel walked up to our car, wiping his hands on an oily cloth. “Gude nammidaag, Ladies.” He looked at his hands. “I was just in the barn trying to fix an old tractor motor,” he said as if he needed to explain his dirty hands.

“I remember when Kip was running our farm,” I said. “It seems to me that he spent just as much time mowing as fixing the mower.”

Daniel nodded. “That sounds about right.” He paused. “We don’t get that many visitors out here before the holiday season. Are you trying to get a jump on your tree hunt?”

“Always,” Lois said. “It will be October next week. You can never stake out your tree too soon.”

Daniel nodded. “I believe the same.”

I glanced at my friend. “Lois might be in the market for a tree, but I would like to speak to you about Ben Baughman.”

The jovial expression fell from his face. “Ben. That’s a terrible shame. I never would have pegged him for someone one who’d cause so much commotion. If I had, we wouldn’t have let him live here.” He shook his head. “And to think he was renting the basement room under my great-grandmother’s house this whole time.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Lois said, holding up her hands in the universal stop sign. “Do you think that Ben started the flea market fire?”

Daniel’s face turned a deep red. “I . . . I . . . that’s what I was told.”

“Told by who?” I asked.

“Well, by Tobias Leib. He’s a tree man, too, and his orchard is just a little ways from here. He stopped to tell me that the flea market was closed and about the fire. He mentioned that Ben killed himself in the fire.”

“That’s a terrible lie,” Lois said. “Ben didn’t start that fire to kill himself.”

Daniel swallowed hard. “It’s just what I was told. Tobias usually knows what’s going on in the county, so I took his word for it. I was so very sorry to hear it. I liked Ben. He was always a gut tenant. He paid his rent on time and was willing to chip in around the farm when he could. To be honest, he wasn’t here all that often.”

I frowned as I listened to Daniel’s story. What could Tobias hope to gain by spreading such a horrible rumor? Even if the police denied Tobias’s words, I knew some Amish would continue to believe his account simply because they’d heard it from a reputable Amish man. Was his aim to upset his already grieving daughter? If that was it, I couldn’t imagine anything more cruel.

“It would be a great help, Daniel, if you would tell people that isn’t true, Ben didn’t set the fire,” I said.

“Oh,” Daniel said uncertainly. “I’ve never known Tobias to be misinformed.”

“This time he may be blinded by his family situation.”

Daniel pressed his lips together. “Because of Tess?”

I nodded.

“I see,” Daniel said. “I won’t repeat it again.”

I wasn’t surprised by Daniel’s change of heart. He knew what it was like to be a young couple in love and without approval. Emily’s family had not wanted them to marry. They had gone ahead anyway, but it had been at a cost. Emily’s brother and sister had cut her off and hardly spoke to her now. It was heartbreaking to see division in families like that. I wished I could say that the Amish were immune to such conflict, but we were not.

“Danki,” I said. “Lois and I are trying to find out where Ben went yesterday. We thought you might know the places where he worked.”

Ben rubbed the oily cloth over the back of his hand, but it had no effect. His hand was as black as ever. “Ben worked at several places. There was the flea market, of course. He also stocked shelves at the grocer in Harvest. And I think he worked a couple construction jobs, but I don’t know where or with whom. Like I said, I rarely saw him because he worked so much, and, when I did, I didn’t question him about his movements. As long as he was respectful of my family and farm and paid his rent, I wasn’t interested in much else from him.”

Lois and I shared a look.

“Have the police been here?” Lois asked.

“The police? Why would they come here?”

“They might want to see the place where Ben lived to look for clues, just like us,” she answered.

He wrinkled his nose. “Nee, and I hope they don’t come. My father would not like it.”

His comment reminded me that I had heard rumors that Daniel had run into some trouble with the law last year. It was before I moved to Harvest, so I didn’t know all the particulars.

“Can we have a look at Ben’s room?” I asked.

Daniel studied me. “Ya.” He paused. “I know it seems crass, but I don’t know what to do with his things. He doesn’t have any family in the area that I can call.”

“I’m the closest person to family he had nearby. I can take a look and make suggestions, but I would hold onto everything for a little while yet. Lois is right. I would not be surprised if the police come here and ask to look around.”

He scowled at this comment.

I didn’t mention that I was the one who’d told Deputy Aiden that Ben lived at the Christmas Tree Farm. Daniel didn’t need to know that tiny fact.

“I’ll show you where he was staying.” Daniel turned and walked toward the daadihaus.

Lois and I followed him. She leaned close to me. “What do you think Tobias’s game is, spreading a rumor like that?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. Now that Ben’s dead, there doesn’t seem much point in his continuing to punish Ben or trying to ruin his reputation.”

There was a white door on the side of the house. Daniel pointed at it. “This leads down to the room he was renting. The room has its own entrance, so the tenant doesn’t bother my great-grandmother with his comings and goings. It’s not locked. I don’t think Ben ever locked it,” Daniel said. “You are welcome to go down and look.”

Lois went first, and I followed behind her. When I reached the bottom floor, I could hardly see. The only light in the space was provided by two small basement windows, but they were half obscured by large bushes outside the house.

“Wait, I got it.” Lois rooted around in her massive purse and came up with a large flashlight. When she turned it on, it was almost like daylight in the basement.

“How on earth does that fit in there?”

“Oh, I can fit anything in my bag. It’s almost like a magician’s hat.”

I wrinkled my brow, not sure what she meant by that. Then I looked around the room. It was sparse, worse than sparse actually. The only furniture in the room was a single bed, which was neatly made. An upside-down milk crate served as a bedside table. There were pegs on the wall to hang clothes and other items to keep them off the concrete floor, but that was it.

“He didn’t have anything,” Lois said.

I glanced at her. I had been thinking the same thing. Ben had few possessions. Of course, in the pursuit of a simple life, the Amish didn’t have as many things as the Englisch, but I had expected to find a few books. Maybe even a trinket from his life back in Michigan. There was nothing. The only personal items in the room were a pair of boots and an extra set of clothes that hung from the pegs.

Daniel stepped into the room. “Ben was the first person to inquire about the room, and Emily wanted to do more to make it homey for him. She offered him a rug and a side table. He turned all of them down. He asked us not to go to any fuss since he would be working so much. He said this was just a place to sleep.”

I frowned.

“And I noticed, too, he didn’t have many things.” He paused as if considering what he was about to say next. “He was almost like an Amish runaway. You know, when they leave the faith with just the clothes on their back, but Ben was Amish, so it couldn’t be that.”

“Did Ben have so little when he lived with you, Millie?” Lois asked.

I frowned. “I suppose I didn’t pay attention to what he carried with him. He came late at night, and I showed him the guest room. He only stayed a few weeks, and I never went into his room during that time.”

Now, I wished I had paid better attention to Ben while he was in my house. Something strange must have been going on with him.

In the corner of the room, a door creaked open. I saw the cane first, and then Grandma Leah stepped through the door. I had been so overwhelmed by the sparseness of Ben’s room, I hadn’t noticed the tiny door that was an entrance to the basement bedroom from the house.

“Grandma Leah!” Daniel hurried over to his great-grandmother, who I guessed was over one hundred years old. “You shouldn’t be out of bed. You know Daed wanted you to rest today, since you are insisting on going to church on Sunday.”

Her white hair was in a loose bun at the nape of her neck, as if she’d twisted it into the knot as an afterthought. Her plain dress hung on her slight frame. I hadn’t seen her in many weeks, and it broke my heart to see how frail she had become. Even so, there was snap and sparkle in her eyes. She pointed her cane at her great-grandson. “I’m not dead yet. Don’t you try to rush me off to my grave.”

Daniel ducked his head.

“It’s nice to see you again, Millie Fisher,” Grandma Leah said. “And this must be Lois Henry. Ruth Yoder made sure to tell me that the two of you were getting in trouble again just like the old days. She’s concerned.”

“Ruth must have had a slow news week when she told you that,” Lois said.

“Maybe so,” Grandma Leah said with a nod. “Not like this week.” She shook her head. “I feel awful about Ben. He was a gut boy, but a troubled one. He told me so much about his life in Michigan. He had a hard go of it, and it just doesn’t seem right that this was how it ended for him. He had so much hope that things were about to turn around.”

Part of me felt envy well up. I knew Ben, and I’d known him in Michigan. Why did he go to Grandma Leah and not to me? I could have been a sympathetic ear.

“He was head over heels for the Lieb girl,” Grandma Leah said. “It was the real thing. Didn’t you see, Millie?” she asked as she pointed her cane at me.

I nodded. I had believed it was the real thing too—at least on Ben’s side. Now that I knew Tess had hoped to use marrying Ben to keep her father from forcing her to move to Wyoming, I was not as sure of her feelings for him. They might have been confused, at least partly, a means to an end.

“Did Ben tell you what happened in Michigan that made him come here?” I asked.

She looked at me. “I thought you knew.”

I shook my head.

“Ben was kicked out of his home. His father remarried, and the new wife chased him out.”

I stared at her. “What? How? I’ve never heard of something like that in the Amish community.”

Grandma Leah leaned on her cane. “You would have if you’d lived as long as I have. Ben said his new stepmother turned his father against him and chased him away. She said it was time he moved out on his own and they needed the space for her four small children. Ben came to Holmes County because he was too embarrassed to stay in his community in Michigan once that happened. He came here for one reason.”

Lois and I leaned forward. “What reason was that?” I asked.

Grandma Leah looked me straight in the eye. “You. He came here because of you.”