The jukebox was suddenly shut off and Rick came out from behind the bar. “Hey, what’s going on here?” he demanded as he crossed the room. “I don’t take kindly to you harassing my customers, Sheriff. Everybody here’s minding their own business, as usual, so—”
“Including these two young ladies?” Sheriff Banks interrupted, nodding toward Alice and Adeline. “I’ve warned you before about serving minors, Mr. Welch, and I’ve nailed you square-on today because these girls are only sixteen. Shall I shut your place down right now, or will you allow me to proceed with arresting Mr. Hainey and Mr. Stockman for shooting eight cows at point-blank range?”
The place got so quiet that Jude could hear the hum of the refrigerators behind the bar. All eyes were on the sheriff. Jude stepped back to stand with Jeremiah, behind the twins. Alice and Adeline had stiffened in their chairs, looking very scared.
Phil glared at the girls. “Sixteen? They told us they were nineteen, so—”
“You’ve got nothing on me,” Dexter blurted out belligerently. “I was just along for the ride.”
“Which tells me that one of you was probably driving the truck while the other fired the gun out the window,” Sheriff Banks said in a voice edged with impatience. “That makes one of you the cold-blooded killer of those cows and the other one an accessory—and I’m betting you’d both flunk a Breathalyzer test, am I right? Before you answer that or say anything else, maybe you should come to my office and call your lawyer.”
Phil and Dexter exchanged an angry glance, but before they could say anything more, the sheriff unhooked a set of handcuffs from his belt.
“You know the drill, gentlemen. One arm apiece, and you’ll walk outside to my car together in an orderly fashion,” Banks said in a no-nonsense voice. “Resisting arrest would just be one more offense to pile onto the others I’m going to write you up for, understand me?”
After a moment Phil stuck out his arm. He glowered at the twins and then focused on Jude and Jeremiah. “This was a setup,” he muttered. “I want my money back from you—you con artists who came in here pretending to be Amish guys, playing us for suckers—”
Sheriff Banks shook his head as he fastened a metal cuff on each young man’s arm. “Nope, this is none other than Bishop Jeremiah Shetler and his brother—whose cattle you shot,” he added. “Ordinarily, Plain folks don’t ask me to intervene in their affairs, but you non-Amish gentlemen should be held accountable for the crimes you’ve committed—the loss of income you’ve caused the Shetler family.”
When Phil appeared ready to smart off again, stalwart Sheriff Banks stood within inches of the belligerent younger man. “I intend to see you punished to the full extent the law allows for this escapade, Hainey,” he muttered. “Whatever you lost to the Shetler brothers in your pool game is a down payment for the damage you’ve done, the way I see it. Shall we go?” he demanded. “Or do we discuss the fact that your underage girlfriends have beer mugs in front of them?”
Jude’s heart was hammering as he stepped toward the young men who were preceding Sheriff Banks toward the door. He pulled the cell phone from his pocket and thrust it toward them. “I believe this is yours,” he said tersely. “Don’t come around my daughters again, got it?”
Phil snatched the phone, glaring over at the twins. “Fat chance,” he muttered.
“More trouble than they’re worth, and liars, too,” Dexter groused.
The sheriff lowered his voice. “Do you want to press charges, Mr. Shetler? No doubt in my mind they started this whole ball rolling—contributing to the delinquency of minors might be just the tip of the iceberg.”
Sickening visions of Phil and Dexter with his daughters whirled in Jude’s mind. “What else did you do to them—besides defiling them with those tattoos?” he demanded. “If you—”
Phil’s face turned the color of raw steak. “Huh! You can’t nail us for getting any action, because—”
“We haven’t touched them!” Dexter cried out. “Have we, girls?”
Jeremiah grasped Jude’s shoulder before the fracas intensified—not that Jude had the heart to hear his daughters admit to intimate involvement with these louts. “We’ll be discussing this with Alice and Adeline at home,” the bishop insisted in a low voice. “Right now, we just want to get them out of here.”
Jude watched Sheriff Banks steer the two young men outside. He—along with Rick and several curious customers—watched through the windows until the young men were in the cruiser and the sheriff had closed its doors. At the far edge of the parking lot, a horse-drawn rig sat waiting.
Bless her, Leah came for us, Jude thought as he stepped away from the window.
“So you Shetlers have returned like a couple of bad Amish pennies, eh?” Rick asked tersely. “What am I supposed to do if Banks shuts me down because your daughters are underage—”
“That’s between you and the sheriff and those two guys he arrested,” Jeremiah replied quickly. “Had you asked for the girls’ driver’s licenses, you’d have realized they didn’t belong here. You won’t be seeing them again.”
“You didn’t ask to see our licenses back in the day, either,” Jude pointed out.
Rick frowned as he thought for a moment. “Amish girls wouldn’t have driver’s licenses—”
“Aha,” Jude put in with a purposeful smile. “Seems a spare lightbulb just came on, jah?” He looked over at the twins, gesturing toward the door. “Let’s go home. I’ve had all I can stand of this place.”
Chapter 23
After the short, strained buggy ride to the farm, punctuated by the twins’ sniffles and Stevie’s curious questions, Leah dreaded the conversation that was going to be held at the kitchen table. Jeremiah and Jude had stewed the whole way home,
