Murder, Simply Stitched: An Amish Quilt Shop Mystery Read Online Free PDF

beside Wanda and checked her pulse. Finding none, he sighed. “It’s the most likely cause, but it could also be a stroke. The coroner will know for sure.”
    “Unless you think she was murdered,” the deputy said. “She did report just last week again that she was getting threatening calls to her home and office.”
    Mitchell jumped to his feet and glared at the young deputy.
    “What threatening calls?” I asked.
    Mitchell’s glare at Anderson grew darker. The deputy shuffled backward.
    The sheriff ignored my question and asked, “Did either of you touch anything?” He let Oliver sniff his hand. The gesture made me relax.
    “Well, yeah,” I said. “We both checked to see if she was alive and if we could help her just like you did.”
    The sheriff opened his mouth as if to ask another question when three paramedics ran around the building. They immediately slowed when they saw Wanda. There was nothing they could do here. The paramedics weren’t alone. Gideon Nissley was also with them. “What’s going on?” He looked down at Wanda, and placed a hand on his chest, saying something in Pennsylvania Dutch.
    “Gideon, please come over here and stand with Angie and Jonah.”
    Gideon stumbled in our direction. “Is she dead?”
    The sheriff nodded.
    “Did she have an accident?”
    “That we don’t know yet.”
    “What else could it be?” the auction owner asked.
    The sheriff did not answer.
    I swallowed.
    “Angie, you found the body first, correct?” His unique blue-green eyes watched me.
    With a dry mouth, I managed, “Yes.”
    “Let’s talk over here.”
    I followed the sheriff a few feet away into the open land between the Nissleys’ house and the canning shed. From that vantage point, I could see that the auction went on. Amish and English still moved from tent to tent, and faintly, I heard shouts coming from the auction barn as men shouted bids to Linus.
    “Are you all right?” he repeated the question he had asked me over the phone.
    I set Oliver on the ground keeping a tight grip on his leash and pushed my curls out of my eyes, wishing I had a hair tie to hold them at bay. “Yes. I’m fine.”
    He searched my face. “Tell me everything that happened. Start with how you found her. Why were you back here?”
    I bristled, taking offense at the fact he seemed to suggest I was somewhere I should not have been. “Oliver and I went for a walk. He was skittish after his encounter with Petunia the goat, so I thought it would be best to keep him away from the crowds, so he could settle down.”
    He sighed. “Petunia the goat? You had better start from the beginning.”
    After I had told him everything that had happened up until he arrived, I asked, “She was getting threatening calls?”
    He pursed his lips. “I was hoping you’d forgotten about that.”
    “Like I would forget something like that,” I muttered.
    “I know.” He folded his arms. “The last couple of months, Wanda reported to the department she was receiving threatening phone calls.”
    This put a whole new spin on Wanda’s death. Maybe it wasn’t a heart attack after all. “What does the caller say to her?”
    “That was part of the issue. He or she said nothing but stayed on the line with her until she finally hung up. She dropped by the department twice to file an official complaint.”
    “What did you do about it?”
    The sheriff bristled and stepped back. “We listened to her complaints, but we don’t have the resources to track what appears to be prank calls from middle schoolers for everyone in the county.”
    I twisted my mouth. “She’s dead now. Maybe it wasn’t a middle schooler making the call.”
    His face reddened. “Yes. And we should have done more. This wasn’t the first time that Wanda complained to the department about something. It seemed like every other week she wanted to file a report against people breaking township ordinances or to claim someone was out to get her. We investigated these to