Murder, Handcrafted (Amish Quilt Shop Mystery) Read Online Free Page B

tightness to it. “But Mrs. Braddock needed me to come in and take over this project.”
    Griffin glanced at the broken French door. “Did you do that?”
    “Nee
.
”
    Griffin frowned as if he didn’t believe Jonah. “I have another larger job tomorrow, so I’ll be here early around five to sketch out a rough plan for the kitchen. I have already informed Daphne, and she agreed.” He pointed to the blueprints in Jonah’s hand. “If you could leave those in the trailer, I’d appreciate it.”
    Jonah nodded. The two men were silent.
    I looked from one frowning man to the other and back again. As much as I wanted to stay and see how this played out, I knew I needed to return to the quilt shop and relieve my assistant, Mattie. It was already twelve thirty, and I promised her I would be back by one.
    “I’d better get going,” I said to no one in particular.
    Neither man even acknowledged that I’d said anything.
    I tried again. “It was nice to meet you, Griffin.”
    Slowly Griffin turned his head in my direction and nodded.
    “I’ll see you later, Jonah.”
    “Good-bye, Angie,” he said to me in such a formal way that it felt like a slight.
    “Come on, Oliver,” I said to the Frenchie and slapped my thigh.
    Reluctantly, he wriggled out from under the table and toddled over to my side. We stopped in the living room to say good-bye to my parents. My mother was in the middle of giving my father a lecture about his diet. He gave me a Help Me look. I promised to check on him the next day.
    A red pickup truck I didn’t recognize was parked in front of my parents’ house. I assumed that it was Griffin’s. A sullen-looking woman sat in the passenger seat fiddling with her phone. I smiled at her, but she never looked up from her phone to see me. I shrugged, and continued to my car.
    When I reached Running Stitch, Mattie was waiting for me outside the shop. She was sweeping, but I could tell she was mostly fretting over my being late . . . again. I had a reputation in that regard.
    She leaned her broom against the olive green brick building that was my beloved quilt shop. “There you are. I have to go straight to the factory.”
    “I know, and I’m sorry I’m late. The thing at my mother’s turned out to be more complicated than I expected it to be.”
    “How is your father?”
    I frowned. “He’s using a walker.”
    “Oh, Angie, I’m so sorry.” She clasped her hands in front of her apron. “Is there anything that I can do?”
    I shook my head. “But thank you.”
    “Then, I really must go.”
    I nodded. “Is everything at the pie factory all right?” I couldn’t keep the worry from my voice.
    The factory had been open for less than a year and had gotten off to a rocky start with a murder in the factory’s parking lot. It wasn’t how Aaron or Rachel had wanted to start their new business. Since then, things had been quiet on Sugartree Street, the main road in Rolling Brook and the location where all the local shopkeepers kept their businesses.
    “Everything is fine. One of Aaron’s workers went to visit family in Indiana. She should be back today, and Aaron will have a full staff again. Then, I’ll be here full time again.” She smiled at the idea. Before she started working for me Mattie had worked long days at her family’s bakery across the street from Running Stitch. She hadn’t cared for the job, but she did it because it was expected. When I offered her a job, she jumped at the chance.
    Her bonnet sat on the bench. It seemed to me that she had planned to run for the factory as soon as I arrived. She picked it up and put it on her head, tying the long wide black ribbon into a perfect bow. “Anna’s inside. She just arrived, and if you hadn’t been back in a few minutes, I was just going to leave the store with her.”
    I smiled. “You could have. Anna knows how to manage Running Stitch better than either one of us do.”
    She laughed and waved good-bye before heading up the