Read Online Assaulted Pretzel by Laura Bradford - Free Book Online Page A

with one another effortlessly.
    Claire swallowed and glanced at the ground, the momentary break from the screen affording an opportunity to rein in the emotions that were threatening to hinder her desire to remain upbeat. But it was hard.
    It was hard to look at such happy photographs from anevent that so many people—including herself—had looked forward to for months, knowing it had all come to an end in such a tragic way. Murder wasn’t supposed to happen in Heavenly at all. It most certainly wasn’t supposed to happen for the second time in as many months.
    It wasn’t right.
    It just wasn’t right.
    “Now this is where you might come in, Benjamin.” Jakob’s words pulled her focus back to the camera and the first image they’d seen so far that wasn’t taken at or around the festival. “Any idea what this building might be?”
    Sure enough, the camera lens had caught a side view of a small wooden structure that wasn’t much bigger than a large shed. Only this particular building was painted white and boasted a flower box outside its solitary yet decent-sized window.
    “That is Lapp’s Toy Shop.”
    “Are you sure?” Jakob asked.
    “Yah. I am sure.” Benjamin swept his hand toward the screen. “He built that window box at Sarah’s request. Sarah is very good with flowers.”
    Jakob nodded and then pushed the button that took them to the picture taken just prior to the exterior shot. “And this? What can you tell me about this, Ben?”
    She studied the image along with Benjamin, her focus on the elevated wooden track and its matching wooden car while Benjamin merely crossed his arms and rubbed a hand along his jawline. “That is easy. That is Isaac’s roller track. It has a double track so children can race their cars. It is one of the toys Mr. Karble was to have in the new toy line. One that was to be built here, in Heavenly, under Isaac’s supervision.”
    “Under Isaac’s supervision,” Jakob mumbled beneath his breath before shaking his head and bringing yet another image of a toy onto the screen in front of them. This time, he didn’t say anything—no question, no muttering, nothing. Instead, he merely waited for Benjamin to speak.
    “That is a wooden jigsaw puzzle that Daniel first made for his son Joshua. It is different than English puzzles because it is a puzzle, itself.”
    It took Claire a moment to understand what Benjamin meant. But upon closer scrutiny she got it. The entire giraffe was a puzzle—a puzzle that could stand up as a figure when the child was done, unlike the more traditional picture puzzles the English tended to have.
    Jakob pressed the button again and again, slowly cycling through toy picture after toy picture until they reached an outdoor shot. Leaning forward, Claire took in the rock wall with a tree-bordered clearing on one side and a gently rolling brook on the other. “Oooh, that’s pretty,” she said as she looked from the screen to Jakob and back again. “Where is that?”
    Without taking his attention off the screen, Jakob spoke, his words simple and succinct despite the emotion evident behind them. “That is Miller’s Creek where it begins high on the hill.”
    She turned to Benjamin, noting his nod. “
Miller’s
Creek? As in
your
Miller?”
    “It is said that my great-grandfather found that creek and that is why it is called Miller’s Creek. All I know is that it is not far from a place I like to go. A place I have shown you as well, Claire.”
    She felt Jakob stiffen at the implication and she rushed to explain, the memory she shared meaning far more to herthan she allowed her words to express. “Shortly after Walter Snow was found dead in the alley next to my shop a couple of months ago, I was out walking, needing a place to slip away and think. Benjamin rode up in his buggy and offered to show me his thinking place.” At the feel of Benjamin’s gaze on the side of her face, she continued, her own voice suddenly raspy at the memory of