Shunned and Dangerous (An Amish Mystery) by Laura Bradford

blue scarf taking shape in her hands. “Is everything okay? You were unusually subdued with the guests this evening.”
    She bolted upright. “I’m so sorry. Did someone complain?”
    “No, of course not. I think everyone was so hungry after their day they didn’t even notice. But I did.” The needles stilled along with Diane’s hand. “You seemed a million miles away when you got home from work, but I let it go because of timing. However, dinner is over now and our guests have retired to their rooms. So tell me, what’s on your mind? Did something happen with Jakob this morning?”
    She couldn’t help but smile at the obvious hope in her aunt’s voice at the mere mention of Detective Fisher. In fact, if the sixty-something woman had her say, Claire would give in to the feelings Diane was convinced she had regarding Jakob, and another Heavenly wedding would soon be in the works.
    No. As tempting as it was to vent the disappointment she felt over her abbreviated morning with Jakob at Zook’s farm, to do so would only encourage the woman. Besides, Diane was sharp. She could spot a shift in Claire’s feelings a mile away. Especially if those feelings were starting to shift in a direction Diane had been championing for months.
    Instead, Claire let her head drift back against the cushioned chair while her mouth gave voice to one of the other topics derailing her pitiful attempt to read. “I know it was sixteen years ago, but do you remember much about John Zook’s murder?”
    “Of course I do,” Diane said as her hands returned to the scarf in her lap. “I remember all of it like it was yesterday.”
    Before Claire could formulate her next question, Diane continued. “There’d never been a murder in Heavenly before Harley’s brother. And, until two months ago, there hadn’t been one since. People only forget when something is commonplace.”
    “The forgetting would be nice, but I sure wouldn’t want something like that becoming commonplace around here.” And it was true. Heavenly was supposed to be about peace and serenity, not murder.
    “Amen.”
    She allowed the flicker of candlelight across bookshelves and framed photographs to guide her eyes around the room until they were, once again, trained on the woman she loved like a mother. “Tell me everything about his murder.”
    “It was a crime that never should have happened. And it wouldn’t have if it weren’t for pure, unadulterated ignorance.”
    “Ignorance?” she echoed.
    Diane nodded as the knitting needles in her hand continued to zip in and out of impossibly small loops. “The murder was classified as a hate crime.”
    “Go on . . .”
    “While one could argue that Harley Zook pushed the Amish envelope on occasion and let compassion rule when it came to things like shunnings, his brother towed the line perfectly. He followed the Ordnung to the letter, so to speak.”
    “But the Ordnung itself is really an unwritten code of order, isn’t it? Doesn’t that, by its very nature, leave a little wiggle room?”
    “If by wiggle room you mean smiling at someone like Jakob when no one else is looking, I suppose . . . but it’s rare.” Diane laid her needles down in her lap and stretched her arms over her head. “The Ordnung might be unwritten, but it’s been handed down over the generations. It’s those expectations for social and spiritual behavior that are ingrained in the Amish from birth. They really don’t know any other way. They’ve thrived under their beliefs. It’s why they don’t hide cars in their barn and take them out for a spin when no one is looking. They don’t want to do that. They embrace their world with both arms.”
    Claire processed her aunt’s comments then tucked them away in favor of the question she really wanted answered. “So how does all of this figure into John’s murder?”
    “The Amish, by their very nature, live a quiet life. Yes, they live among the rest of us, but they do it as quietly as