Off the Grid (Amish Safe House, Book 1) by Ruth Hartzler Page B

has quite the temper.”
    The oldest lady, Naomi, leaned forward once
again. “If he found out that Joseph was selling out, maybe. That
would give him the motive. Plus he’s quite handy with firearms
since he’s gone hunting every hunting season right from the time he
was a boy.”
    “What does he hunt?” Kate asked, shooting a
look at the elderly lady. She had no idea that Esther’s mind was so
sharp. In fact, she had no idea that the Amish ladies would be so
analytical, let alone show the slightest interest in the
subject.
    “Enough now,” a frowning lady by the name of
Gloria said, her lips tightly pursed. “We are here to knit, not to
spread unfounded rumors about our neighbors. The Bible says,
‘ Whoever keeps his tongue and his mouth shut keeps himself out
of trouble .’ That kind of talk is what gets a woman stuck
without a husband.” She looked pointedly at Kate.
    Kate stared at her feet. She had just been
censured by one of the ladies, but she hadn’t blown her cover, not
even close. After all, several of the ladies were quite keen to
discuss the matter, and this came as quite the surprise to Kate.
The Amish were managing to surprise her each and every day. They
were nothing like she had imagined.
    “Oh, don’t be so Scripture smart ,
Gloria,” Lillian said with a wave of her hand, earning for herself
an angry glare from Gloria. “I’m sure Katie will find herself a gut mann in our community; isn’t that right, Katie?”
    Katie forced a smile onto her face. Not
if I can help it , she thought. I don’t want to be Amish any
longer than I can help it . Besides, the only man I have my
eye on, is Officer Ryan Weaver . She suppressed a smile at the
thought of him.
    At least Kate now figured that she had two
suspects, and each had a motive. The first suspect was the son who
had left the community after falling out with his parents. Was it
simply a case of an adopted child leaving to seek out his
biological parents? Beckie seemed to believe he wasn’t a bad
person, but Kate had to wonder whether the older woman was right or
whether she was simply blinded by the child she knew, instead of
the adult Moses had become. Kate was only too aware that such
things sometimes happened with civilians who were too close to the
suspect. Nevertheless, Moses was certainly a suspect, at least in
her eyes.
    The second suspect was the wealthy man from
the farm on the far side of the Byler farm. Money was one of the
main motives in murder cases. At the very least, the wealthy
landowner would have to have been upset by Joseph Byler’s intention
to sell the farm to a developer who was putting power lines right
through the middle of the property.
    If Joseph Byler had completed the sale, then
at some point, the wealthy landowner could be forced to allow the
power lines right through the middle of his land. Worse still,
there was even a chance that he could be forced to sell his land.
Kate doubted he would ever receive a price even close to what the
land was worth. All this added up to making the man the leading
suspect in Kate’s mind.
    By the time the knitting circle ended for
the night, Kate could not wait to get back to her cottage. She
planned to ask Beth for a herbal concoction which she could smear
all over her sore hands to relieve the aches from the torture she
had put them through. Knitting! Who would’ve thought it could be so
hard? The knitting circle was also a surprise; who would have
thought that Amish women would be so keen to look into the
intricacies of a case?
    Kate had made up her mind. Tomorrow she
would go and see Officer Ryan Weaver. She imagined the police
wouldn’t take her seriously, but she could not let that stop her.
If only she could flash her badge and tell them that she was a U.S.
Marshal, then they would sit up and listen. Instead, she had to
keep up her act and just do the best she could, while not revealing
her true identity.
    And, as much as Kate didn’t want to admit it
to herself, it