Hearse and Buggy by Laura Bradford Read Free Book Online Page A

brother is kind. I glimpse him out the window of my shop often throughout the day, and when I do, he is always helping your sister with various tasks. Sometimes he even stops in to see if I need anything. Though I suspect that’s as much about Esther as anything else.”
    A knowing smile crackled behind his blue eyes, making her catch her breath. “Ahhh, yes. Esther. Her name claims my brother’s tongue often.”
    She forced her gaze from his eyes and said the only thing she could think of at that moment. “W-would you like to see my shop?”
    He nodded. “I would like that.”
    Inhaling deeply, she turned and followed the sidewalk the remaining ten feet to the front porch of Heavenly Treasures, the sight of the white clapboard siding and newly hung shingled sign bringing an instant smile to her lips. It was as if the cares of the world stopped at the doorstep, chased from their foothold by the promise of dreams and their power to win in the end. “While I make the candles and a few other odds and ends, the majority of items I sell here are Amish made. Or, to be more specific, Esther-made.”
    Benjamin reached around her, pushing the door open andallowing her to enter first. “Martha has taught her daughter well,” he said above the jingling bells.
    Grateful for the common ground that was the Fisher family—or, at least the female arm of the Fisher family—she forged ahead. “She is dedicated and conscientious and everything a shopkeeper could want in an employee.” She set her handbag on the counter and looked around. “Speaking of Esther, she should be here by now.”
    Esther hurried into the room and stopped, her scared eyes widening still further at the sight of Benjamin Miller bent at the waist and studying one of her quilts. With quick fingers, the young girl tied the strings of her white head cap and neatened the apron of her simple dress. “I … I am sorry I did not hear you come in.”
    “Is everything okay?” Claire asked.
    Benjamin straightened and turned to face them both.
    Esther swallowed. “Did you not hear about Mr. Snow?”
    “I heard, or, rather,
saw
.”
    Nodding, Esther continued, her momentary apprehension regarding Benjamin’s presence dissipating in rapid fashion. “How could this happen? And so close to the store?”
    Claire crossed the room and rested a calming hand on the young girl’s arm. “That’s what the police will determine. But everything will be fine, I’m sure—”
    The front door of the shop opened, its telltale door-mounted bell announcing the presence of a shopper. Pulling her hand from Esther’s arm, Claire turned, her usual customer greeting dying on her lips at the sight of Jakob Fisher in what was obviously an official capacity, judging by the gun on his hip.
    “Claire?” The detective’s smile slipped from his mouth as his gaze traveled across her head and narrowedin on Benjamin before coming to rest on Esther. He reached out, grabbed hold of a nearby shelf for support. “Martha?”
    Esther’s gasp brought Benjamin to her side, the Amish man’s lean yet muscular stature creating a buffer of protection between Jakob and the niece he’d never met.
    “This is not Martha,” Benjamin said in a voice suddenly devoid of all warmth.
    “But it looks just like her,” Jakob whispered.
    “It is not.”
    Anxious to wipe the pain from the detective’s eyes, she rushed to fill in the gap Benjamin and Esther left open. “This is Esther … Martha’s daughter.”
    “Martha’s daughter,” he echoed. “My … my niece.”
    “Martha’s daughter,” Benjamin corrected.
    Jakob pulled his hand from the shelf and fisted it at his side. “Which makes her my niece, doesn’t it?”
    Feeling the tension magnifying tenfold, Claire stepped forward, positioning herself between the detective and his past. “I imagine you’re here about what happened …”
    When he didn’t respond, she tried again. “The crime scene out back has to do with Walter Snow, doesn’t