Safe Hearts (Amish Safe House, Book 3) Read Free Page A

a wink
since she found out about her cousin. There were even a few stray
hairs curling from under her bonnet that she normally would not
have allowed.
    “ Oh Beckie, you poor dear,”
Lillian gushed as she jumped up to hug Beckie around her neck. A
more prudent Nancy quickly took the heavy basket.
    “ How is your family holding
up?” Lillian fussed over Beckie as she nudged Lillian out of the
way and helped Beckie toward a chair. “We didn't think you would
come, with everything happening.”
    “ I needed to get away from
the house a while.” Beckie blinked her eyes rapidly as her eyes
glistened with still unshed tears. “It's really bad, ladies; I
don't know what we are going to do. My cousin. He-”
    She burst into tears as she covered
her face. The ladies went immediately to her aid with
encouragements and promises to help in any way they could. It never
ceased to amaze Kate how quickly the Amish rallied around each
other without question. It was something she was very much going to
miss when she returned to her own life.
    Kate felt guilty. She did not know
quite what to do in these situations. In a professional sense, yes,
but less so as an Amish woman. She didn't have their connections or
skills to help and console one of their own. Kate was a loss for
words, so she helped Nancy clear the room and got Beckie a cup of
water.
    “ They think Jeremiah
poisoned the man,” Beckie sniffled, as she dabbed her eyes with a
handkerchief.
    “ Where would they get a
fool idea like that?” Esther demanded, as she slid her chair out of
the corner to join the rest of the ladies, hobbling along until
Lillian rushed over to take her chair for her. “Jeremiah is
a gut mann . No one
has ever doubted him before.”
    “ Tell us everything that
happened, dear.” Nancy patted Beckie's hand in comfort. “From the
beginning.”
    Beckie took a deep breath and dabbed
at her nose. “Jeremiah went to the café early to get ready for some
sort of special they were going to have that day. A new coffee I
think. I don't usually pay attention to his work-talk; I just know
it was important to him.”
    “ Of course,” Lillian said
soothingly.
    “ He found the back door
unlocked,” Beckie continued. “He is sure it was locked the night
before. He suspected a burglar, so he went and checked it
out.”
    Kate wanted to jump in and demand why
he would do something so foolish. People are supposed to call the
cops in that situation, rather than run headlong into a situation.
She had seen all too many tragedies occur when people did not call
the authorities to handle possible danger.
    “ When he made it inside, he
found the man dead on the floor, and before he had a chance to call
the police they raced in and arrested him. They think he did
it.”
    “ Rubbish.” Esther sniffed
derisively. “That sort of ignorance seems to be getting more common
nowadays. Back in my day, no one would have dared accuse an
Amish mann of such
a thing.”
    Everyone nodded. Kate wondered if she
would have come to the same conclusion before being stuck here.
She'd had many myths and assumptions debunked in her time
here.
    “ What happened then?”
Lillian asked in a polite tone, although her voice was strained
with impatience.
    “ Well, he checked on the
man. Jeremiah thought he might be able to help him start
breathing.” Beckie paused as there were collective gasps of
sympathy. “But just as he leaned over the man, the police swarmed
in.”
    “ So he did call the
police?” Kate asked, surprised as the woman shook her head sadly.
Kate puzzled over that. It was a small town compared to what she
was used to. But even then, no cops should have responded that
quickly.
    Beckie looked around at them with
teary eyes. “They aimed guns at him. They made him get on the
ground and treated him like he killed the man. They said they got a
call about raised voices in the store at an odd hour.”
    “ Did anyone see Jeremiah
before he went to the store?” Kate asked,